🔴 The Trump Files 2022

🔴 Trump/Ukraine/Russia Files 2022

With Tweets, Retweets, links to articles and excerpts, I’ve tried to document this national soap opera/tragedy we’re living through. The resources at the beginning are a mixed bag of timelines and documents and I provide a clickable cast of characters (Russians, mostly).

What does this have to do with The Blacklist? A lot, actually. Russian mob figures, spies and apparatchiks. Semion Mogilevich, the Smart Don, reminds me of Red, though Red is a lot nicer and much better-looking.

Featured are drawings (she calls them “maps”) by @Jzikah, and “Mueller, She Wrote” is the best podcast I’ve ever come across. The three women who do it are comedians, though they’re all super smart and A.J. (the lead) has a PhD and is a Veteran.

Caution: You may enjoy this feature a bit more if you’re of the liberal persuasion. This is the single place on this blog where *there are politics* though I tend to stick with MSM, specialized sources (ex-Intel Community, altGov, and reputable sleuths) and other people I’ve learned to trust.

🇷🇺 Press Here For Recent (2023)

🇷🇺 Press Here For 2022 (below)

🇷🇺 Press Here For 7/26/2017 through 2018

📀 Press Here For Impeachment #1 Trial on Cspan (2020)

📀 Press Here For Impeachment #2 Trial on Cspan (2021)

📀 Press Here For January 6th Committee Hearings (2022)

✅ Press Here For Biden/Burisma/Ukraine Fact Checks

💽Recommended⋙ Mueller She Wrote Podcast ⋙ http://bit.ly/2PgTKWs or Press ⇊ ⇊

Other Podcasts:

All The President’s Lawyers (J Barro, R Lowry)
The Asset (Center for American Progress) 🌟
The Dworkin Report (Scott Dworkin)
Gaslit Nation (Sarah Kendzior, Andrea Chalupa)
The Lawfare Podcast (Benjamin Wittes, Brookings)
The Josh Marshall Podcast (TPM)
The Mother Jones Podcast (David Corn)
Mueller Time (Eric Leval, Chris Carey)
The Oath (Chuck Rosenberg, MSNBC)
The Report (Lawfare)
On Topic (Renato Mariotti)
Skullduggery (Michael Isikoff, Yahoo)
Trump Inc (q4- 8qProPublica)
Trumpcast (Slate)

🔊 PlayerFM: Best Trump Russia Investigation Podcasts (2019) http://bit.ly/2MKbtV8

Twitter List: INVESTIGATORS: https://twitter.com/Auriandra/lists/investigators
// Investigative reporters, Trump-Russia sleuths, Intelligence Community, Legislators, “alt-gov,” and Targets

Russian Intelligence Services:

Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) – The Foreign Intelligence Service reports directly to the President of Russia.
GRU – Main Intelligence Directorate of the Russian Armed Forces.
Federal Security Service (FSB) – The Federal Security Service is responsible for counter-intelligence, state security and anti-terrorist operations

🔄 ECFR , Mark Galeotti [EU] (2016): Introduction: Putin’s hydra: Inside Russia’s intelligence services http://bit.ly/2NZWN1h
// 5/11/2016, Intro
⋙ 📒 ECFR, Mark Galeotti [EU] (2016): Report: Putin’s Hydra: Inside Russia’s Intelligence Services [pdf] http://bit.ly/2NYjG5b 20p
// May 2016, Full report

Key People: Alexander Abramov, Roman Abramovich, Aras Agalarov, Emin Agalarov, Rinat Akhmetov, Rinat Akhmetshin, Yulya Alferova, Yuri Andropov, Anatoly Antonov, Anne Applebaum, Andrii Artemenko, Arron Banks, Andrey Baronov, Alexander Bastrykin, Sergey Beseda, Vitaly Bespalov, Leonid “Len” Blavatnik, Anna Bogacheva, David Bogatin, Alexander Bortnikov, Victor Boyarkin, Wm Browder, Mariia Butina, Carole Cadwalladr, Michael Caputo, Yuri Chaika, Igor Chekunov, Sergey Chemezov, Anatoly Chubais, Michael Cohen, George Cottrell, Igor Danchenko, Oleg Deripaska, Andrii Derkach, Igor Divyekin, Kirill Dmitriev, Aleksandr Dugin, Arkady Dvorkovich, Paul Erickson, Oleg Erovinkin, Nigel Farage, Dmitri Firtash, John Fotiadis, Gene (Evgeny) Friedman, Igor Fruman, Daniel Gelbinovich, Valery Gerasimov, Rob Goldstone, Sergei Gorkov, Henry Greenberg, Fiona Hill, Andrew Intrater, Ivan the Terrible, Bidzina Ivanishvili, Ramzan Kadyrov, Brittany Kaiser, Mikhail Kalugin, Vladimir Kara-Murza, Saak Karapetyan, Eugene Kaspersky (Kaspersky Lab), Denis Katsyv, Irakly (“Ike”) Kaveladze, Michael Khodarkovsky, Nikita Khrushchev, Konstantin Kilimnik, Sergey Kislyak, Artem Klyushin, Ihor Kolomoyskyi, Konstantin Kosachev, Mikhail Kovalchuk, Yury Kovalchuk, Aleksandra Krylova, Elena Khusyaynova, Simon Kukes, Sergey Lavrov, Alexander Litvinenko, Howard Lorber, Alexander Lukashenko, Yuriy Lutsenko, Simona Mangiante, Alexander Mashkevich, Michael McFaul, Viktor Medvedchek, Josef Mifsud, Alexey Miller, Sergei Millian, Semion Mogilevich (Don Semyon), Konstantin Molofeev, George Nader, Valentyn Nalyvaichenko, Lyudmila Narusova, Sergei Naryshkin, Alexei Navalny, Eduard Nektalov, Konstantin Nikolaev, Vyacheslav Nikonov, Yevgeniy Nikulin, Alexander Nix, Isabel Oakeshoff, George Papadopoulos, Lev Parnas, Sam Patten, Nikolai Patrushev, Alexander Perepilichnyy, Dmitry Peskov, Peter the Great, Igor Pisarsky, Petro Poroshenko, Yevgeny Prigozhin, Sergei Prikhodko, Vladimir Putin, George Ramishvili, Dmitry Rogozin, Alexander Rovt, Giorgi Rtskhiladze, Dmitry Rybolovlev, Konstantin Rykov, Mikheil Saakashvili, Felix Sater, Igor Sechin, Leonid Shebarshin, Anastasia Shevchenko, Sergey Shoigu, Viktor Shokin, Oleg Solodukhin, Christopher Steele, Ruslan Stoyanov, Oleg Solodukhin, Peter Strzok, Sergei Surovikin, Taiwanchik (aka Alimzhan Tokhtakhunov), Bill Taylor, Andriy Telizhenko, Gennady Timchenko, Oleg Tinkov, Alimzhan Tokhtakhunov (aka Taiwanchik), Aleksandr Torshin, Vyacheslav Trubnikov, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, Yulia Tymoshenko, Anastasia Vashukevich (aka Nastya Rybka), Viktor Vekselberg, Natalia Veselnitskaya, Alexander Vindman, Vyacheslav Volodin, Curt Weldon, Andy Wigmore, Alexander Yakovenko, Viktor Yanukovych, Boris Yeltsin, Ivan Yermakov, Marie Yovanovitch, Viktor Yushchenko, Aleksandr Zakharchenko, Maria Zakharova, Joel Zamel, Volodymyr Zelenskyy

Bios w links (Wikipedia unless otherwise noted): Alexander Abramov, Roman Abramovich, Aras Agalarov, Emin Agalarov, Rinat Akhmetov, Rinat Akhmetshin, Yulya Alferova (National Compass), Yuri Andropov, Anatoly Antonov, Anne Applebaum, Andrii Artemenko, Arron Banks, Andrey Baranov (Bloomberg), Alexander Bastrykin, Sergey Beseda, Vitaly Bespalov (NBC), Leonid “Len” Blavatnik, Anna Bogacheva (NYT), David Bogatin (NYT), Alexander Bortnikov, Victor Boyarkin (TrumpRussia), William Browder, Mariia Butina, Carole Cadwalladr, Michael Caputo, Yuri Chaika, Igor Chekunov, Sergey Chemezov, Anatoly Chubais, Michael Cohen, George Cottrell, Igor Danshenko, Oleg Deripaska, Andrii Derkach, Igor Divyekin, Kirill Dmitriev, Aleksandr Dugin, Arkady Dvorkovich, Paul Erickson, Oleg Erovinkin, Nigel Farage, Dmitri Firtash, John Fotiadis (Archinect), Gene (Evgeny) Friedman, Igor Fruman, Daniel Gelbinovich (Daily Beast), Valery Gerasimov, Rob Goldstone, Sergei Gorkov, Henry Greenberg (Miami Herald), Fiona Hill, Andrew Intrater, Ivan the Terrible, Bidzina Ivanishvili, Ramzan Kadyrov, Brittany Kaiser (Cambridge Analytica), Mikhail Kalugin, Vladimir Kara-Murza, Saak Karapetyan, Eugene Kaspersky (Kaspersky Lab), Denis Katsyv, Irakly Kaveladze, Michael Khodarkovsky, Elena Khusyaynova, Konstantin Kilimnik, Sergey Kislyak, Artem Klyushin (National Compass), Ihor Kolomoyskyi, Konstantin Kosachev, Mikhail Kovalchuk, Yury Kovalchuk, Nikita Khrushchev, Aleksandra Krylova (NYT), Simon Kukes, Sergey Lavrov, Alexander Litvinenko, Howard Lorber, Alexander Lukashenko, Yuriy Lutsenko, Konstantin Malofeev, Simona Mangiante (Papadopoulos), Alexander Mashkevich, Michael McFaul, Viktor Medvedchek, Josef Mifsud, Alexey Miller, Sergei Millian, Semion Mogilevich (Don Semyon) …

Cover: KyivPost (10/18/2019): Shady Cast of Characters: Engineers of Trump-Ukraine Scandal http://bit.ly/2MZCilW

Valentyn Nalyvaichenko, Lyudmila Narusova, Sergei Naryshkin, Alexei Navalny, Eduard Nektalov (NYMag), Konstantin Nikolaev, Yevgeniy Nikulin, Vyacheslav Nikonov, Alexander Nix, Isabel Oakeshoff, George Papadopoulos, Lev Parnas, Nikolai Patrushev, Sam Patten, Alexander Perepilichny, Dmitry Peskov, Peter the Great, Igor Pisarsky (RIM), Petro Poroshenko, Yevgeny Prigozhin, Sergei Prikhodko, Vladimir Putin, George Ramishvili (Bloomberg), Dmitry Rogozin, Alexander Rovt, Giorgi Rtskhiladze (CNBC), Nastya Rybka (aka Anastasia Vashukevich) (WaPo), Dmitry Rybolovlev, Konstantin Rykov, Mikheil Saakashvili, Felix Sater, Igor Sechin, Leonid Shebarshin, Anastasia Shevchenko (Amnesty Intl), Sergey Shoigu, Viktor Shokin, Oleg Solodukhin, Christopher Steele, Ruslan Stoyanov, Peter Strzok, Sergei Surovikin, Taiwanchik (aka Alimzhan Tokhtakhunov), Bill Taylor, Andriy Telizhenko (BuzzFeedNews), Gennady Timchenko, Oleg Tinkov, Alimzhan Tokhtakhunov (aka Taiwanchik), Aleksandr Torshin, Vyacheslav Trubnikov, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, Yulia Tymoshenko, Anastasia Vashukevich (aka Nastya Rybka) (WaPo), Viktor Vekselberg, Natalia Veselnitskaya, Alexander Vindman, Vyacheslav Volodin, Curt Weldon, Andy Wigmore, Alexander Yakovenko, Viktor Yanukovych, Boris Yeltsin, Ivan Yermakov (Moscow Proj), Marie Yovanovitch, Viktor Yushchenko, Aleksandr Zakharchenko, Maria Zakharova, Joel Zamel, Volodymyr Zelenskyy
,

By @WendySiegelman

Key Documents

🔆 This❗️⋙ 💙💙🔄 LawfareBlog: Litigation Documents Related to the Mueller Investigation http://bit.ly/2OVch6n
// new November 2018, to be continually updated

🔆 This❗️⋙ 💙💙🔄 House.gov: Select Committee to Investigate the JANUARY 6TH Attack on the United States Capitol https://january6th.house.gov

🔆 This❗️⋙ 💙💙🔄 JustSecurity: Public Document Clearinghouse: UKRAINE Impeachment Inquiry http://bit.ly/2CEsQ2F ‼️ Links to ALL documents ‼️

🔆 This❗️⋙ 💙💙🔄 AmericanOversight: Trump-Ukraine Key Figures and Documents http://bit.ly/2C24bES
AmericanOversight: The Trump Administration’s Contacts with Ukraine http://bit.ly/2BYSY89 from FOIA requests

🔆 This❗️⋙ 💙💙🔄 JustSecurity, Andy Wright: Just Security Launches the Russia Investigation Congressional Clearinghouse http://bit.ly/2L21uHz
// 8/22/2019

🔆 This❗️⋙ 💙💙🔄 Lawfare: Full Text of the Mueller Report’s Executive Summaries http://bit.ly/2IFLewq
// 4/18/2019

🔆 This❗️⋙ 💙💙🔄 Lawfare: Document: The Mueller Report http://bit.ly/2vcgNpN
// 4/18/2019

🔆 This❗️⋙ 💙💙🔄≣ NYT: The Whistle-Blower Complaint: Read the Document [Interactive] http://nyti.ms/2nq4FAD
// 9/26/2019

🔆 This❗️⋙ 💙💙🔄 WaPo: Trump impeachment inquiry: Latest news and updates http://wapo.st/2P09WuE [Continually updated]

🔆 This❗️⋙ 💙💙🔄 WaPo, Kate Rabinowitz and Kevin Schaul: Who’s involved in the Trump impeachment inquiry http://wapo.st/2W673dg
// orig published 10/21/2019

By @jzikah has a new book! Cartoon President http://amzn.to/2QUeZhk @Jzikah

⋙ 💙💙🔄 📔 Court Filing (1/17/2019): Civil Action No. 1:18-cv-03501 [pdf] http://cnn.it/2CBddZy (111p) Democratic National Committee v.: Russian Federation, DJ Trump For President, Inc (and others)
// 1/17/2019

⋙ 💙💙🔄 TheAtlantic, Yoni Appelbaum: Impeach Donald Trump http://bit.ly/2FykFIP
//March 2019 cover story

⋙ 💙💙🔄 Politico Mag, Darren Samuelsohn: The Only Impeachment Guide You’ll Ever Need http://politi.co/2QHcJGi
// 1/11/2019, As talk of the I-word heats up, here’s POLITICO Magazine’s soup-to-nuts answers to all your questions about the politics—and the practical realities—of removing a president.

⋙ 💙💙🔄 WaPo, Max Boot: Here are 18 reasons Trump could be a Russian asset http://wapo.st/2D7IJQ9
// 1/13/2019

By @Jzikah

⋙ 💙💙🔄 TheAtlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg (Editor): UNTHINKABLE: 50 Moments That Define an Improbable Presidency http://bit.ly/2RvDFOn
// Jan 2019; Donald Trump’s 50 Most Unthinkable Moments ~ 50 Articles

⋙ 💙💙🔄 Wikipedia: Timeline of investigations into Trump and Russia (2018) http://bit.ly/2Bh12jP

⋙ 💙💙🔄 Axios: Timeline: Every big move in the Mueller investigation http://bit.ly/2Euh3H9
// 12/12/2018

@Jzikah’s Amazon page: http://amzn.to/3tUTM6Y

⋙ 💙💙🔄 Moyers&Co: Interactive Timeline: Everything We Know About Russia and President Trump http://bit.ly/2uVHc9j
// continually updated

⋙ 💙💙🔄📒 DocumentCloud: Steele Dossier [pdf] http://bit.ly/2y5ZhnF 35p

⋙ 💙💙🔄📒 FBIRecordsVault: Records Between FBI and Christopher Steele http://bit.ly/2KqLoF1

⋙ 💙💙🔄≣ AP: Mueller Investigation documents http://bit.ly/2ihbK0l

⋙ 💙💙🔄≣ CitJourno: Trump/Russian Mob Connections http://www.citjourno.org

@Jzikah’s Amazon page: http://amzn.to/3tUTM6Y

⋙ 💙💙🔄≣ CNN, Marshall Cohen, Tal Yellen & Liz Stark: Tracking the Russia investigations (documents) http://cnn.it/2hVCpU5

⋙ 💙💙🔄≣ NYT: Russian Hacking and Influence in the U.S. Election http://nyti.ms/2NqFXeY

⋙ 💙💙🔄≣ BrennanCenter: Trump-Russia Investigations http://bit.ly/2yRKcu6

⋙ 💙💙🔄≣ Politico: The people connected to the Russia probes [ Interactive ] http://politi.co/2FUDhz2 //➔ Democrats, Prosecutors, Law Enforcement/Lobbyists/Media,Team Trump, Foreign Nationals

⋙ 💙💙🔄 TheMoscowProject: Trump’s Russia Cover-Up By the Numbers http://bit.ly/2ycY959
// Center for American Progress; 80+ contacts with Russia-linked operatives https://themoscowproject.org/about/ http://bit.ly/2ycY959

@Jzikah’s Amazon page: http://amzn.to/3tUTM6Y

⋙ 💙💙🔄≣ NBCNews: Russia timeline: Key players, meetings and investigation details http://nbcnews.to/2vtR3YW

⋙ 💙💙🔄≣ DailyBeast: Democrats Release the Fusion GPS Testimony on Trump and Russia http://thebea.st/2qMmH1d w attachment [pdf] ⋙ via Dianne Feinstein http://bit.ly/2FjtlPP

⋙ 💙💙🔄≣ NYT: Justice Department Gives Congress Comey’s Memos on Trump http://nyti.ms/2HdLe2Z
// 4/19/2018 ➔ DocumentCloud: http://bit.ly/2HOGC4z

⋙ 💙💙🔄≣ DOJ: Indictment of Internet Research Agency LLC et al … [PDF] http://bit.ly/2CqdHzD 37p //➔ Mueller Investigation
// 2/16/2018

@Jzikah’s Amazon page: http://amzn.to/3tUTM6Y

⋙ 💙💙🔄≣ Amy Siskind: The Weekly List ~ “This is How Democracy Ends” https://theweeklylist.org

⋙ 💙💙🔄≣ NYT: Mueller Has List of Questions for Trump http://nyti.ms/2rfDuqK + http://nyti.ms/2HExEKi
// 4/30/2018, Majority Relate to if Trump Obstructed Inquiry on Russia

⋙ 💙💙🔄≣ NYT: The Trump Lawyers’ Confidential Memo to Mueller, Explained [ Document ] http://nyti.ms/2kKPgq9
// 6/2/2018, NYT article about document: http://nyti.ms/2swIZSc

@Jzikah’s Amazon page: http://amzn.to/3tUTM6Y

⋙ 💙💙🔄≣ TIME: The Arguments President Trump Has Made Against the Mueller Investigation http://ti.me/2MdeARX
// 6/8/2018

⋙ 💙💙🔄≣ TIME: Wikipedia: Links between Trump associates and Russian officials http://bit.ly/2K42VDF

⋙ 💙💙🔄≣ WaPo: Who has been charged in the Russia probe and why http://wapo.st/2toNwH2
// continually updated; WaPo Russia page

⋙ 💙💙🔄≣ ForeignAffairs Anthology: A New Cold War? Russia and America, Then and Now 1947- http://fam.ag/2KEA4dF

@Jzikah’s Amazon page: http://amzn.to/3tUTM6Y

⋙ 💙💙🔄≣ Justice.gov: Mueller Indictment of 12 Russians in the GRU for Election Hacking [pdf] http://bit.ly/2NbphV6 29p
// 7/13/2018

⋙ 💙💙🔄≣ FactCheck.org: Timeline of Russia Investigation http://bit.ly/2KZ4qaQ
// posted 6/7/2018, updated 7/13/2018; Key moments in the FBI probe of Russia’s efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election; Readable

⋙ 💙💙🔄≣ Legal Process Server: DNC Lawsuit vs Russia, Wikileaks, et al http://bit.ly/2KIOhBq

⋙ 💙💙🔄≣ NYT, Linda Qiu: Truth-Testing Trump’s 250-Plus Attacks on the Russia Inquiry http://nyti.ms/2MY609E
// 8/18/2018

@Jzikah’s Amazon page: http://amzn.to/3tUTM6Y

⋙ 💙💙🔄≣ Justice.gov: Manafort Plea Agreement [pdf] http://bit.ly/2CZiVb7 17p
// 9/14/2018

⋙ 💙💙🔄💽 NYT: Opinion | Operation Infektion: A three-part video series on Russian disinformation http://nyti.ms/2OHqSSV
// 11/12/2018

⋙ 💙💙🔄≣ PasteMag, Jacob Weindling: A Year of Trump and Russia: The 75 Stories That Defined the Mueller Investigation in 2018 http://bit.ly/2QWN1SU
// 12/28/2018

⋙ 💙💙🔄≣ LawFareBlog: Document: Indictment of Roger Stone [pdf] http://bit.ly/2UdQgmj 24p
// 1/25/2019

@Jzikah’s Amazon page: http://amzn.to/3tUTM6Y

⋙ 💙💙🔄📋 NYT: Trump and His Associates Had More Than 100 Contacts With Russians Before the Inauguration [Interactive] http://nyti.ms/2MAZCps
// 1/26/2019

⋙ 💙💙🔄 BuzzFeedNews: These Secret Files Show How The Trump Moscow Talks Unfolded While Trump Heaped Praise On Putin http://bit.ly/2DWQ2ed
// 2/5/2019; ⏳TIMELINE ⌛️

⋙ 💙💙🔄 WaPo: What we learned about Trumpworld outreach to Russia since Mueller’s investigation began http://wapo.st/2twkXYE
// 2/19/2019, And what we still don’t know.

⋙ 💙💙🔄 ◕📋 NYT, Larry Buchanan and Karen Yourish: Trump Has Publicly Attacked the Russia Investigation More Than 1,100 Times http://nyti.ms/2T2HSsN
// 2/19/2019

@Jzikah’s Amazon page: http://amzn.to/3tUTM6Y
;
⋙ 💙💙🔄 ◕📋 WaPo, Philip Bump: The 81 people and organizations just looped into the Trump probe — and why they were included http://wapo.st/2SJrw41
// 3/4/2019

⋙ 💙💙🔄≣ NYT: Full Document: Trump’s Call With the Ukrainian President [Interactive] http://nyti.ms/2lfBkbC (Annotated)
// 9/25/2019″

⋙ 💙💙🔄≣ NYT: The Whistle-Blower Complaint: Read the Document [Interactive] http://nyti.ms/2nq4FAD
// 9/26/2019

@Jzikah’s Amazon page: http://amzn.to/3tUTM6Y

⋙ 💙💙🔄 📔 This❗️⋙ HPSCI: Trump-Ukraine impeachment inquiry report http://bit.ly/2LlnJsX
// 12/3/2019; House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence

⋙ 💙💙🔄 📔 This❗️⋙ Report: House Judiciary Committee report on their articles of impeachment against President Donald John Trump http://bit.ly/2Ek2rIa 658p
// 10/15/2019

⋙ 💙💙🔄 📔 This❗️⋙ Lawfare: House Releases Impeachment Trial Brief http://bit.ly/2ucCo3Y document 111p
// 1/18/2019

@Jzikah’s Amazon page: http://amzn.to/3tUTM6Y

@Jzikah’s Amazon page: http://amzn.to/3tUTM6Y

⋙ 💙💙🔄 📔 This❗️⋙ Trial Memorandum of the US House of Representatives in the Impeachment Trial of President Donald J Trump http://bit.ly/2uePNsc
// 1/18/2020

⋙ 💙💙🔄 📔 This❗️⋙ Trial Memorandum of President Donald J Trump http://bit.ly/2NGi2XK 171p
// 1/20/2020

@Jzikah’s Amazon page: http://amzn.to/3tUTM6Y

⋙ 💙💙🔄 📔 This❗️⋙ Vox, Matthew Yglesias and Andrew Prokop: The ultimate guide to the Donald Trump impeachment saga http://bit.ly/2SoXpkm
// Updated: Feb 5, 2020, 8:06pm EST, Published: Nov 5, 2019, 8:06am EST

⋙ 💙💙🔄 📔 This❗️⋙ 📀 Press Here For Impeachment Trial on Cspan
// 1/20/2020-2/5/2020

⋙ 💙💙🔄 📔 This❗️⋙ LawFare: Confronting the Capitol Insurrection [Index Page] http://bit.ly/3mfMDNc

⏳WaPo: The full Trump-Ukraine impeachment timeline http://wapo.st/35odsUl

@Jzikah’s Amazon page: http://amzn.to/3tUTM6Y

⭕ Feb 2021 Second Trump #Impeachment Trial

Day One: Rules etc

Day TWO: C-SPAN: U.S. Senate Impeachment Trial Day 2, Impeachment Managers’ Constitutionality Arguments http://bit.ly/3aa1CCQ
// 2/9/2021;

Day 2 of the impeachment trial of former President Trump for incitement of insurrection began with senators voting 89-11 in favor of the trial organizing resolution. Lead Impeachment Manager Representative Jamie Raskin (D-MD) then made opening remarks followed by a 13-minute video showing footage of former President Trump’s January 6, 2021, speech and of the actions of those who stormed the U.S. Capitol that day. Afterward, impeachment managers Representatives Raskin, Joe Neguse (D-CO), and David Cicilline (D-RI) presented their arguments for the constitutionality of impeaching a former president. Representative Raskin in his arguments talked about bringing his daughter and son-in-law with him to the Capitol on January 6.

@Jzikah’s Amazon page: http://amzn.to/3tUTM6Y

Day THREE: C-SPAN: Senate Impeachment Trial Day 3, Part 1 http://bit.ly/374q3zm
// 2/10/2021;

The first part of Day 3 of the impeachment trial of former President Trump for incitement of insurrection began with House impeachment manager Representative Jamie Raskin (D-MD) asserting that the former president had “surrendered his role as commander in chief” and become “the inciter in chief.” He played the January 6, 2021, video Mr. Trump posted on Twitter in which he told his supporters who attacked the U.S. Capitol to “go home.” Representative Joe Neguse (D-CO) then outlined impeachment managers’ plan for arguing their case. In the final segment of part 1, Representatives Joaquin Castro (D-TX) and Eric Swalwell (D-CA) described the former president’s actions leading up to and after the 2020 election

Day Three: C-SPAN: Senate Impeachment Trial Day 3, Part 2 http://bit.ly/3tYOS9Y
// The Senate impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump continued with House managers presenting video and tweets they say indicate that former President Trump incited the deadly January 6 riot.

Day Three: C-SPAN: Senate Impeachment Trial Day 3, Part 3 http://bit.ly/372bYSY
// Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) Entire remarked on the breach of the Capitol and attacks on police officers.

Day Three: C-SPAN: Senate Impeachment Trial Day 3, Part 4 http://bit.ly/3aZ82DV
// An effort by Sen. Mike Lee to remove remarks by the House impeachment managers from the official record sparked confusion on the Senate floor.

@Jzikah’s Amazon page: http://amzn.to/3tUTM6Y

Day FOUR: C-SPAN: Senate Impeachment Trial Day 4, Part 1 http://bit.ly/3rXW1pf
// 2/12/2021

Former President Donald Trump’s defense lawyers made their case that Mr. Trump was innocent of charges of inciting an insurrection. They compared speeches by Democrats and others to the former president’s remarks in their defense, and stated that “the article of impeachment now before the Senate is an unjust and blatantly unconstitutional act of political vengeance.”

Day Four: C-SPAN: Senate Impeachment Trial Day 4, Part 2 http://bit.ly/3ddmmeG
// After a recess, Former President Donald Trump’s defense continued to make their case that Mr. Trump was innocent of charges of inciting an insurrection. In this portion of the impeachment trial, attorney Bruce Castor spoke.
Day Four: C-SPAN: Senate Impeachment Trial Day 4, Q&A http://bit.ly/3jLkwD0
// In this portion of the second impeachment trial of former President Trump, senators asked questions of both the House managers and Mr. Trump’s defense lawyers. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) then announced that Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman would be receiving the Congressional Gold Medal, due to his actions during the January 6 riots.

Day FIVE: C-SPAN: Senate Impeachment Trial Day 5 http://bit.ly/3b2haHL
// 2/13/2021

The Senate acquits former President Trump of inciting an insurrection, 57-43. Earlier, the House managers and the defense made closing arguments. Also, House Manager Raskin (D-MD) read a written statement from Rep. Herrera Beutler (R-WA).

● Majority Leader Schumer on Impeachment Acquittal of Former President Trump http://bit.ly/2OFAT8V
// Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) delivered remarks after the Senate voted to acquit former President Trump, 57-43. Seven Republicans joined all Democrats in voting to convict Mr. Trump.
● Minority Leader McConnell on Impeachment Acquittal of Former President Trump http://bit.ly/3djH5NM
// Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered remarks after the Senate voted to acquit former President Trump, 57-43. Seven Republicans joined all Democrats in voting to convict Mr. Trump.

@Jzikah’s Amazon page: http://amzn.to/3tUTM6Y

Twitter Threads

⭕ 9 Feb 2021 Impeachment #2: Day 1
💙 🧵 RT @atrupar Rep. Raskin’s opening impeachment trial statement: “Their argument is that if you commit an impeachable offense in your last few weeks in office, you do it with constitutional impunity.” 📌 https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1359206921039974406?s=20
⋙ 🐣 RT @atrupar Here is the entire video timeline of the January 6 insurrection as presented by the House impeachment managers 💽 https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1359216739054190593?s=20/photo/1

⭕ 10 Feb 2021 Impeachment #2: Day 2
🔄 💙🐣🧵 RT @jentaub It’s on. Day 2 of the Trump Impeachment Trial 2.0. February 10, 2021. We will have a dinner break at 6 p.m. ¤ 1/ 📌 https://twitter.com/jentaub/status/1359548695038087169?s=20
🔄 💙🐣🧵 RT @atrupar Raskin: “This case is much worse than someone who falsely shouts fire in a crowded theater. It’s more like like a case where the town fire chief, who’s paid to put out fires, sends a mob not to yell fire in a crowded theater, but to actually set the theater on fire.”
🔄 💙 WaPo: See all the evidence presented in Trump’s impeachment trial http://wapo.st/3qeb1ii

@Jzikah’s Amazon page: http://amzn.to/3tUTM6Y

⭕ 11 Feb 2021 Impeachment #2: Day 3
🔄 💙🧵 RT @jentaub 🇺🇸 It’s on. Day 3. The Trial of Donald Trump 2.0 continues at 12:04 p.m. on February 11, 2021 📌 https://twitter.com/jentaub/status/1359911216588685317?s=20
// Defense
🔄 💙🧵 RT @atrupar The Thursday installment of Trump’s #ImpeachmentTrial begins with a Baked Alaska clip 📌 https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1359914413709492232?s=20

⭕ 12 Feb 2021 Impeachment #2: Day 4
🔄 💙 🧵 RT @jentaub We have begun. It’s Day 4 of the Trump Impeachment Trial 2.0. The defense is putting on their case. The first lawyer is Van Der Veen. 📌 https://twitter.com/jentaub/status/1360274181510807556?s=20

@Jzikah’s Amazon page: http://amzn.to/3tUTM6Y

🔄 💙 🧵 RT @atrupar “Lord, infuse them with the spirit of nonpartisan patriotism” — Senate Chaplain Barry Black’s prayer begins the Trump defense portion of the #ImpeachmentTrial 📌 https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1360275280775028740?s=20
⋙ 🔄 💙 🧵 RT @atrupar [Q&A] Lindsey Graham, Kevin Cramer, and Roger Marshall use an impeachment trial question to own the libs 📌 https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1360337066215804930?s=20

⭕ 13 Feb 2021 Impeachment #2: Day 5
🔄 💙 🧵 RT @jentaub Day 5 of the Donald Trump Impeachment Trial 2.0. February 13, 2021. Wonderful! They are going to debate whether to subpoena witnesses and documents ¤ 1/ 📌 https://twitter.com/jentaub/status/1360605971198967809?s=20
🔄 💙 🧵 RT @atrupar “Lord, touch and move them to believe that end does not justify the means” — Senate Chaplain Barry Black’s prayer begins the Saturday portion of the #ImpeachmentTrial 📌 https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1360607971055656962?s=20

@Jzikah’s Amazon page: http://amzn.to/3tUTM6Y

⚖️ House Committee Hearings on the Jan 6, 2021 Insurrection ⚖️

Day 1: June 9, 2022: Overview

💙 ⚖️ 🧵 Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol https://january6th.house.gov

💙 ⚖️ 🧵 RT @jentaub Here we go ¤ The first public hearing of the January 6th Committee. Chair Thompson begins with his personal history and says each committee member has one thing in common “we swore the same oath . . to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”
📌 💽 https://twitter.com/jentaub/status/1535050380429516801?s=20/photo/1

💙 ⚖️ 🧵 RT @atrupar Bennie Thompson begins January 6 hearing: “I’m from a part of the country where people justified the actions of slavery, the Ku Klux Klan, and lynching. I’m reminded of that dark history as I hear voices today try to justify the actions of the insurrectionists on January 6, 2021”
📌 https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1535050790720634891?s=20/photo/1

💙 ⚖️ 💽 CSPAN: First Open Testimony Before January 6 Committee http://bit.ly/3zynEvU
// After months of closed door investigations, the House January 6 Committee held its first hearing with public testimony about what transpired-and why-during the assault on the U.S. Capitol.

Day 2: June 13, 2022: “The Big Lie”

💙 ⚖️ 🧵 RT @jentaub Here we go. Day 2 of the January 6th Committee Hearings gaveled in late at 10:46 am EDT. /1
📌 https://twitter.com/jentaub/status/1536359652514213888?s=20

💙 ⚖️ 🧵 RT @atrupar The second January 6 hearing begins with Liz Cheney talking about how Trump listened to advice from “an apparently inebriated Rudy Giuliani”
📌 https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1536361664601374721?s=20

💙 ⚖️ 💽 CSPAN: Second Hearing on Investigation of Capitol Attack http://bit.ly/39jgMrH
// The “Big Lie”; The House committee looking into the Jan. 6 attack at the Capitol held its second hearing with witness testimony to make public the committee’s findings after a year of investigations.

Day 3: June 16, 2022: “Mike Pence”

💙 ⚖️ 🧵 RT @jentaub Here we go. Day 3 of the January 6 Committee hearing ¤ Focus today is on the pressure campaign on VP Pence to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. “We are fortunate for Mr. Pence’s courage” says Chair Bennie Thompson. ¤ “But the danger hasn’t receded.” ¤ 1/
📌 https://twitter.com/jentaub/status/1537481664821174278?s=20

💙 ⚖️ 🧵 RT @atrupar The third January 6 hearing gets underway with a clip of Greg Jacob, former counsel to Pence, telling the committee that John Eastman admitted in front of Trump on January 4, 2021, that the pressure campaign against Pence violated the law
📌 https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1537483292886601729?s=20

💙 ⚖️ 🧵 RT @MSNBC LIVE BLOG: The House Jan. 6 committee returns today for a third public hearing focused on VP Pence. Follow along as we break down key moments.
📌 https://twitter.com/MSNBC/status/1537449714676793345?s=20

💙 ⚖️ 💽 CSPAN: Third Hearing on Investigation of Capitol Attack http://bit.ly/3xx77WC President Trump’s Campaign to Influence Vice President Pence
// 6/16/2022; The January 6 Committee held its third public hearing focusing on former President Trump’s efforts to convince former Vice President Pence to not certify the 2020 election results.

Day 4: June 21, 2022: “Fake Electors”

💙 ⚖️ 🧵 RT @atrupar Bennie Thompson begins the fourth January 6 hearing by saying: “The lie hasn’t gone away. It’s corrupting our democratic institutions. People who believe that lie are now seeking positions of public trust.”
📌 https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1539295123107991554?s=20

💙 ⚖️ 🧵 RT @kyledcheney NEW: Trump’s plan to seize power on Jan. 6 depended on state legislatures adopting alternate electors. He leaned heavily on state and local officials to do that while his team of lawyers — Eastman et al — developed a fringe legal theory to back the push.
📌 https://twitter.com/kyledcheney/status/1539201863702261760?s=20

💙 ⚖️ 🧵 RT @jentaub Joining @MaryLTrump for today’s January 6 hearing, Live now
📌 https://twitter.com/jentaub/status/1539289189920948224?s=20

💙 ⚖️ 🧵 RT @MSNBC LIVE BLOG: Day 4 of the House Jan. 6 Committee’s public hearings begins at 1pm ET. Follow along for live updates as we break down key moments.
📌 https://twitter.com/MSNBC/status/1539262716677918721?s=20

💙 ⚖️ 💽 CSPAN: Fourth Hearing on Investigation of Capitol Attack http://bit.ly/3OhikBF President Trump’s Campaign to Influence Vice President Pence
// 6/21/2022; The January 6 Committee held its fourth public hearing to outline findings after a year of investigating the Capitol attack in 2021.

Day 5: June 23, 2022: “Department of Justice”

💙 ⚖️ 🧵 RT @atrupar Cheney begins the fifth January 6 committee hearing by saying a focus will be an unsigned draft letter Trump and Jeffrey Clark wanted the DOJ to send to Georgia officials citing known lies to urge them to convene a special session to approve a fake set of electors
📌 https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1540050703128862721?s=20

💙 ⚖️ 🧵 RT @MSNBC LIVE BLOG: The fifth public hearing of the House Jan. 6 committee begins at 3pm ET. Follow along as we break down key moments.
📌 https://twitter.com/MSNBC/status/1540018644121427968?s=20

💙 ⚖️ 🧵 😆 RT @emptywheel Spouse, listening to his first bit of the Jan6 hearings, of Liz Cheney’s promise we’ll hear about what Trump did on 1/6: Is that called foreshadowing? ¤ Me, lit PhD: She’s making herself the omniscient narrator.
📌 https://twitter.com/emptywheel/status/1540049823365218306?s=20

💙 ⚖️ 💽 CSPAN: Fifth Hearing on Investigation of Capitol Attack http://bit.ly/3tX3gkK
// 6/23/2022; The January 6 Committee holds a fifth public hearing on the alleged pressure campaign by Trump administration officials on the Justice Department to help overturn the 2020 election results.

Day 6: June 28, 2022: “Cassidy Hutchinson”

💙 ⚖️ 🧵 RT @atrupar we’re underway with the special June 28 hearing of the January 6 committee. Yes, Fox News is taking it live.
📌 https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1541829781385248771?s=20

💙 ⚖️ 🧵 RT @MSNBC LIVE BLOG: The Jan. 6 committee holds a last-minute public hearing at 1pm ET today, which will include testimony from a former top aide to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. Follow along as we break down key moments.
📌 https://twitter.com/MSNBC/status/1541789726960750593?s=20

💙 ⚖️ 🧵 RT @jentaub Wow! On January 2 Rudy told Cassidy Hutchinson Trump and team were going to the Capitol on the 6th. Cassidy asked her boss about it and he said “There’s a lot going on Cass. Things might get real real bad.” ¤ She said today, “That was the first moment I remember feeling scared.”
📌 https://twitter.com/jentaub/status/1541834209265963012?s=20

💙 ⚖️ 🧵 RT @emptywheel This woman is 26. She’s about to provide really damaging testimony about one of the most dangerous men in America.
📌 https://twitter.com/emptywheel/status/1541829534248566784?s=20

💙 ⚖️ 🧵 RT @lrozen J6 hearing starting, featuring Cassidy Hutchinson, former special assistant to Trump and aide to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows
📌 https://twitter.com/lrozen/status/1541829799169122308?s=20

💙 ⚖️ 💽 CSPAN: Sixth Hearing on Investigation of Capitol Attack http://bit.ly/3bp657u
// 6/28/2022; Cassidy Hutchinson, former senior aide to former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, testified that President Trump said, “You know, I don’t even care that they have weapons. They aren’t here to hurt me.” Her testimony came during the January 6 Committee hearing on the investigation of the attack on the U.S. Capitol. This is the sixth in a series of hearings – after months of closed-door investigations – detailing the committee findings on the January 6 attack. Ms. Hutchinson shared her experiences of the days leading up to and after the attack, including President Trump’s alleged altercation with Secret Service in the back of the presidential limo because the Secret Service refused the president’s demands to go to the Capitol after his rally speech.

Day 7: July 12, 2022: “Assembling the Mob”

💙 ⚖️ 🧵 RT @atrupar Liz Cheney begins the July 12 hearing of the January 6 committee with this: “President Trump is a 76 year old man. He is not an impressionable child. Just like everyone else in our country, he is responsible for his own actions and his own choices.”
📌 https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1546906042927353857?s=20

💙 ⚖️ 🧵 RT @MSNBC LIVE: Jan. 6 Committee holds seventh public hearing, focused on the role far-right extremist groups Proud Boys and Oath Keepers played in Capitol attack. Get expert analysis in real-time on our live blog http://msnbc.com/jan6hearings
📌 https://twitter.com/MSNBC/status/1546903393297465344?s=20

💙 ⚖️ 🧵 RT @emptywheel And we’re off! ¤ “We settle our differences at the ballot box.” ¤ [Note: I’m going to break off at 2 to cover some live hearings.]
📌 https://twitter.com/emptywheel/status/1546903190574071808?s=20

💙 ⚖️ 🧵 RT @jentaub Pat Cipollone agreed that Donald Trump should have conceded the election at some point and time (at least, apparently on December 14 when Electoral College met).b
📌 https://twitter.com/jentaub/status/1546909222935445509?s=20

💙 ⚖️ 🧵 RT @ECMcLaughlin Live tweet of today’s January 6th hearing is right here. ⬇️⬇️⬇️
📌 https://twitter.com/ECMcLaughlin/status/1546902951687467008?s=20

💙 ⚖️ 💽 CSPAN: Seventh Hearing on Investigation of Capitol Attack http://bit.ly/3P2quy5
// 7/12/2022; January 6 Committee Vice Chair Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) said that former President Trump “tried to call a witness in our investigation. A witness you have not yet seen in these hearings,” and that the matter has been reported to the Justice Department. The revelation came as Rep. Cheney delivered her closing statement during the January 6 Committee hearing on the investigation of the attack on the U.S. Capitol. This is the seventh in a series of hearings – after months of closed-door investigations – detailing the committee findings on the January 6 attack. Testifying before the committee was Jason Van Tatenhove, the former spokesperson for the extremist group the Oath Keepers, who said the group is a “violent militia” and “the best illustration for what the Oath Keepers are happened January 6th when we saw that stacked military formation going up the stairs of our Capitol.” Also testifying was Stephen Ayres, who pled guilty to breaching the U.S. Capitol.

Day 8: July 21, 2022: “Dereliction of Duty”

💙 ⚖️ 🧵 RT @atrupar Liz Cheney begins the January 6 committee’s primetime July 21 hearing by announcing more hearings are coming in September
📌 https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1550272235709296640?s=20

💙 ⚖️ 🧵 RT @ECMcLaughlin Livetweet of tonight’s 1/6 hearing will be right here.
⬇️⬇️⬇️
📌 https://twitter.com/ECMcLaughlin/status/1550260159783378944?s=20

💙 ⚖️ 🧵 RT @MollyJongFast Letsssssssss gooooo
📌 https://twitter.com/MollyJongFast/status/1550270058752102400?s=20

💙 ⚖️ 🔲 RT @MaryLTrump Join me and @JohnFugelsang @NormOrnstein @cmclymer @AdamParkhomenko @jentaub @georgehahn @BrianKarem @WajahatAli watching the hearings NOW
📌 https://twitter.com/MaryLTrump/status/1550272287772798976?s=20

💙 ⚖️ 💽 CSPAN: Eighth Hearing on Investigation of Capitol Attack https://tinyurl.com/36ea45sh
// 7/21/2022; “For the weeks between the November election and January 6, Donald Trump was a force to be reckoned with,” said January 6 Committee Chair Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), later adding, “and then he stopped. For 187 minutes on January 6th, this man of unbridled destructive energy could not be moved.” His remarks came as he delivered his opening statement during the January 6 Committee hearing on the investigation of the attack on the U.S. Capitol. This is the eighth in a series of public hearings – after months of closed-door investigations – detailing the committee findings on the January 6 attack. The chair went on to say if there is no accountability for January 6th, “I fear that we will not overcome the ongoing threat to our democracy.” During her closing testimony, Vice Chair Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) touched on the former president’s supporters, saying, “he is preying on their patriotism. He is preying on their sense of justice. And on January 6th, Donald Trump turned their love of country … ”

Day 9: October 13, 2022: “Summary and Subpoena”

💙 ⚖️ 🧵 RT @atrupar Follow this thread for video highlights from what is likely to be the final January 6 committee hearing
📌 https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1580603168404037635?s=20

💙 ⚖️ 🧵 RT @emptywheel Spouse, as Liz Cheney says they may make criminal referrals: Thank you Liz Cheney, you read my mind. [He had just asked if they could do that.]
📌 https://twitter.com/emptywheel/status/1580606914505080834?s=20

💙 ⚖️ 🧵 RT @ TomDreisbach [NPR] Here we go: The latest @January6thCmte hearing has started. ¤ NPR’s livestream is available here:
📌 💽 https://twitter.com/TomDreisbach/status/1580605465796304901?s=20/photo/1

💙 ⚖️ 🧵 RT @tomlobianco [YahooNews] “Good afternoon, and may god bless the United States of America,” House Jan 6 Chair Bennie Thompson says in opening statement of #January6thHearings
📌 https://twitter.com/tomlobianco/status/1580605071498174471?s=20

💙 ⚖️ 🧵 RT @scottwongDC DAY 9 of the Jan. 6 hearings about to get underway. Follow along on our @NBCNews live blog here for all the updates: https://tinyurl.com/2wf2eyt3
📌 https://twitter.com/scottwongDC/status/1580603641878425602?s=20

💙 ⚖️ 🧵 🐣 RT @SethAbramson (📢) LIVE THREAD: This thread is a live-tweet of today’s House January 6 Committee hearing. I’m an attorney, journalist, and historian who has been contacted by the Committee and whose January 6–focused substack, PROOF, the Committee has cited. I hope you will RETWEET and follow.
📌 https://twitter.com/SethAbramson/status/1580574750581018626?s=20

By @AshaRangappa_

Day 9: July 21, 2022: “Summary and Resolution”

💙 ⚖️ 💽 CSPAN: Ninth Hearing on Investigation of Capitol Attack https://tinyurl.com/3cb42ubb
// 10/13/2022; January 6 Committee Vice Chair Liz Cheney (R-WY) offered a resolution to issue a subpoena to hear from former President Trump regarding the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. She said, “We are obligated to seek answers directly from the man who set this all in motion, and every American is entitled to those answers so we can act now to protect our republic.” Her resolution came during the January 6 Committee hearing on the investigation of the attack on the U.S. Capitol after committee Chair Bennie Thompson (D-MS) said members wanted to hear from the former president because he “is required to answer for his actions.” The committee members recounted prior evidence in lockstep with newly-obtained evidence, such as the Secret Service’s knowledge of a planned attack on the U.S. Capitol prior to January 6. They also shared never-before-seen video of members of Congress seeking safety and asking for help during the attack. .

Day 10: Dec 19, 2022: “Indictment Referrals and Adjournment”

💙 ⚖️ 🧵 RT @atrupar The final January 6 committee hearing is about to begin. Follow along for a video thread.
📌 https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1604899834191876096?s=20

💙 ⚖️ 🧵 RT @axios The Jan. 6 select committee’s final public meeting is underway.
Follow this thread for updates. 👇
📌 https://twitter.com/axios/status/1604901456091484163?s=20

💙 ⚖️ 🧵 RT @MacFarlaneNews Standing by for our CBS News special report on the final public meeting of House Select Jan 6 Cmte. And votes on criminal referrals. Starts at 1pm eastern
📌 https://twitter.com/MacFarlaneNews/status/1604897048230187014?s=20

💙 ⚖️ 💽 CSPAN: Final Hearing on U.S. Capitol Attack https://tinyurl.com/2xt5j77b
// 12/19/2022; The January 6 Committee holds its final public hearing on the attack of the U.S. Capitol.

💙 ⚖️ 📔 This❗️⋙ 📔 Lawfare: Jan. 6 Select Committee Documents https://tinyurl.com/44fxvfjk
⋙ Lawfare: Jan. 6 Select Committee Document: Executive Summary [pdf] https://tinyurl.com/42p4bkx7 154p
⋙ Lawfare: Jan. 6 Committee Issues Final Report https://tinyurl.com/4867dtra 845p
⋙ Lawfare: Jan. 6 Committee Releases Witness Interview Transcripts https://tinyurl.com/43f5k7y6

༺ ✿⊰ ♤ ⊱✿༻

by @ErikAukan

💙 🔄 📔 MFA of Ukraine (Official): War in Ukraine: Russia Invaded Ukraine https://war.ukraine.ua
// Reports, statistics, articles

💙 Ukraine Twitter List: https://twitter.com/i/lists/157259218?s=20

💙 Ukraine War Twitter List: https://twitter.com/i/lists/1545071393397784576?s=20

💙 Tim White’s awesome log: Search @TWMCLtd ✛ “Day 999” or use dates: https://twitter.com/search-advanced
(The War started on 2/24/2022)

༺ ✿⊰ ♤ ⊱✿༻

⭕ 31 Dec 2022

🐣 RT @mfa_russia 🎙 President Putin: The West lied to us about peace while preparing for aggression.
💬Today, they cynically use Ukraine and its people as a means to weaken and divide Russia.
☝️ We have never allowed anyone to do this and we will not allow it now.
🔗 https://is.gd/E3S5LX
⋙ 🐣 The U.S. is always prepared to fight two major wars at the same time.
You invaded Ukraine, remember? NATO countries are providing weapons for Ukraine to defend itself.
Your AF are weak due to corruption & antiquated methods.
The West wants you to LET Ukraine BE. The rest is gravy
¤ https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1609454512439267330?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @mccaffreyr3 IMPORTANT. Bradley Fighting Vehicle is the kind of technology edge can can help Ukraine bring this war to a close. Also need to add M1 Abrams tank. ATACMS 300 km missiles. Armed Reaper drones. Backed up by contractor maintenance in Poland and Rumania.
⋙ 🐣 RT @SpencerGuard Just the mention of Ukraine getting Bradley IFVs excites me.
– Armed with a 25mm cannon, 7.62mm machine gun, and 2 TOW Anti-tank launchers
– Crew of 3. Can carry 7 infantry dismounts
– Spaced laminate armor. Can add reactive
– Advanced sighting/positioning software/capability

🐣 RT @AshaRangappa_ So if releasing Trump’s tax returns pursuant to a lawful statutory process is a major invasion of privacy, releasing the contents of someone’s entire hard drive that some rando computer guy copied to the entire world is even worse, right? I’m just trying to keep up

🐣 RT @USAmbKyiv Beyond belief. Russia coldly and cowardly attacked Ukraine in the early hours of the new year. But Putin still does not seem to understand that Ukrainians are made of iron. America is absolutely confident Ukraine will prevail in 2023. Slava Ukraini!
⋙ 🐣 RT @ZhiZhuWeb “This year can be called a year of losses for Ukraine, Europe, & the whole world. But that’s wrong. We shouldn’t say that.
We haven’t lost anything. It was taken from us. …
The world did not lose peace – #Russia destroyed it.” ~Zelensky
Video: https://youtu.be/ANaVkRxDPCI
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/ZhiZhuWeb/status/1609362520061476866?s=20/photo/1

[Text:] “This year can be called a year of losses for Ukraine, Europe, & the whole world. ¤ But that’s wrong. We shouldn’t say that.
We haven’t LOST anything. It was TAKEN from us.
Ukraine did not lose its sons & daughters
– they were taken away by murderers.
Ukrainians did not lose their homes
– they were destroyed by terrorists.
We did not lose our lands
– they were occupied by invaders.
The world did not lose peace
– RUSSIA DESTROYED IT”

🐣 RT @McFaul Putin failed to achieve any of his major objectives in Ukraine in 2022 — no “unity of Slavs”, no “denazification”, no “demilitarization”, no taking Kyiv, Kharkiv, or Kherson, no liberating Donbas & no stopping NATO expansion. His invasion of Ukraine has been a colossal failure.

🐣 RT @patriottakes Staying classy.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/patriottakes/status/1609361329864822785?s=20/photo/1

[Text:] @realDonald Trump [ts] HAPPY NEW YEAR to all of the Radical Left Democrats, Marxist Lunatics, China loving Coco Chow and her Obedient Husband, Mitch, and Clueless RINOS, who are working so hard to DESTROY our once great Country. More importantly, HAPPY NEW YEAR to the Incredible, Brave, andmStrong American Patriots who Built, Love, and Cherish America. The REAL leaders of our Country will always remain FAITHFUL and LOYAL to you. The USA will be back, Bigger & Better & Stronger than ever before. GOD BLESS YOU ALL!

WaPo: Missiles rain down on Ukraine as Putin gives combative New Year speech https://tinyurl.com/ban5vjtb “The attacks indicate that Putin has no intention of letting up his campaign to leave Ukrainians without light, heat and water this winter”

President[.]gov[.]ua: In year-end interview Olena Zelenska talks about her work during the war https://tinyurl.com/ycy4r36v

💙 🐣 RT @walter_report New Years Greeting of @ZelenskyyUa
💽 17m [tr] https://twitter.com/walter_report/status/1609325115585728513?s=20/photo/1
// video address with clips from year

≣ President[.]gov[.]ua: New Year greetings of President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy [transcript] https://tinyurl.com/ypudtdu7
↥ ↧
🐣 RT @nytimes President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine delivered a rousing New Year’s Eve address on Saturday night, recalling a year that he said truly “began on Feb. 24” with fear over Russia’s invasion but ended with his country hopeful for victory.
⋙ NYT: Zelensky recounts a year that ‘struck our hearts’ in his final address of 2022 https://tinyurl.com/4bu3hpxc “Zelensky recounted moments of despair and triumph alike, and heralded the resolve of his fellow Ukrainians”
// “This year has struck our hearts,” President Zelensky said, according to a translated transcript of his New Year’s Eve address that was posted on his official website. “We’ve cried out all the tears.”

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine delivered a rousing New Year’s Eve address on Saturday night, recalling a year that he said truly “began on Feb. 24” with fear over Russia’s invasion but ended with his country hopeful for victory.

“We have overcome the panic,” he said. “We did not run away but united. We have overcome doubts, despair and fear.”

Standing in darkness with a Ukrainian flag rippling gently in the breeze behind him, Mr. Zelensky recounted in a videotaped speech many notable moments from the war — including the attack on a maternity hospital, the intense fighting at the Azovstal steel plant, the destruction of a Russian bridge to Crimea, the retaking of Kherson, the sinking of a Russian flagship — as the video cut to footage that underscored his words.

“This year has struck our hearts,” he said, according to a translated transcript posted on his official website. “We’ve cried out all the tears. All the prayers have been yelled. 311 days. We have something to say about every minute.”

The speech was just one of the hundreds Mr. Zelensky has given this year in a relentless campaign not only to steel his country to fight Russia’s army but to galvanize support for Ukraine abroad.

While the history of most wars is written by the victor after the fact, Mr. Zelensky has created a story line of the war against Russia in real time, a running narrative telling Ukrainians in nightly video addresses how they should view the battles, justify their hardships and believe in the country’s ultimate success.

As the New Year approached, Mr. Zelensky recounted moments of despair and triumph alike, and heralded the resolve of his fellow Ukrainians. The first missiles in February, he said, “destroyed our labyrinth of illusions” but had also shown Ukrainians “what we are capable of.”

“This is the year when Ukraine changed the world, and the world discovered Ukraine,” he said. “We were told to surrender. We chose a counterattack! We were told to make concessions and compromises. We are joining the European Union and NATO.”

All Ukrainians — those working, attending schools or “just learning to walk” — are participating in Ukraine’s defense, Mr. Zelensky said. And although 2022 could be called a year of losses, he said that was not the right way to think of it.

“We haven’t lost anything,” Mr. Zelensky said. “It was taken from us. Ukraine did not lose its sons and daughters — they were taken away by murderers. Ukrainians did not lose their homes — they were destroyed by terrorists. We did not lose our lands — they were occupied by invaders. The world did not lose peace — Russia destroyed it.”

The world has rallied around Ukraine, Mr. Zelensky said, from the main squares of foreign cities and their halls of government to the top of Google’s search results.

“Ukrainians surprise,” he said. “Ukrainians are applauded. Ukrainians inspire. Is there anything that can scare us? No. Is there anyone who can stop us? No. Because we are all together. It is what we are fighting for. One for each other.”

As he closed his remarks, Mr. Zelensky offered his hope for the year ahead: victory. ¤ “One wish for all Ukrainians,” he said. “Let this year be the year of return. The return of our people. Soldiers — to their families. Prisoners — to their homes. Immigrants — to their Ukraine. Return of our lands. And the temporarily occupied will become forever free.”

That includes not just the territory Russia has captured since the invasion began more than 10 months ago, but also Crimea, the peninsula that Russia illegally annexed in 2014 — “the area of independent Ukraine, as it was since 1991,” he said. “As it will always be.”

He concluded, “May the New Year bring all this. We are ready to fight for it. That’s why each of us is here. I’m here. We are here. You are here. Everyone is here. We are all Ukraine.”

🐣 RT @ZelenskyyUa & @ZelenskaUA Wish for miracles? 🇺🇦 create them themselves.
Want faith, hope? Both have been in the army for a long time.
Want light? It’s in each of us.
Today it’s only one wish.
It’ll come true not by a miracle, but our work. Fight. Mutual aid. Humanity.
Happy New Year! Year of our victory
🖼 https://twitter.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1609268349447331840?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @igorsushko My hope for the New Year: ¤ That Ukrainians & the civilized world defeat the totalitarian regime of #Russia once and for all. ¤ That #WindofChange sweeps through all corners of Russia so that Russians find the courage take destiny into their own hands and ACT! ¤ Glory to #Ukraine!

🐣 RT @CanadianKobzar So who are Ukrainians? In my opinion Ukrainians are the embodiment of one word – Воля. Volyia translates to “free will”. This is a core trait that is deeply embedded in the DNA of every Ukrainian from Svyatoslav to Zelensky. 18/24
🖼 https://twitter.com/CanadianKobzar/status/1609251636400238595?s=20/photo/1 -2

🐣 RT @justartsndstuff “Predicting the events of the coming year, he said that Russia will not only withdraw from Ukraine, but also lose its own territories ¤ “Everything that will look “tasty” to respected Western and not only partners, everything will also be occupied,””
⋙ UAWire: Former DPR Defense minister Girkin predicts Russia’s collapse in 2023 https://tinyurl.com/34r2evz9

The former “Defense Minister” of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic Igor Girkin,who is wanted by the Netherlands and Ukraine, summed up the results of 2022 and gave a forecast for the next year 2023.

Among the main “achievements” of the outgoing year, he predicted a major geopolitical defeat for Russia and the failure of Russia’s “special operation”, which was planned “as an easy campaign for homespun coats” with a change of leadership in Kyiv. Girkin blamed the failures of the Russian army on the Russian president Vladimir Putin and the country’s military leadership. According to Girkin, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoygu and the head of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov are the ones who are the most responsible for the failures.

“Shoygu failed the special military operation, turned our army into a parade institution good only for fireworks and holiday events. If you do not replace this thief Shoygu and this cretin chief of the general staff, then the war will be lost,” Girkin said.

Predicting the events of the coming year, he said that Russia will not only withdraw from Ukraine, but also lose its own territories. “Kuban will be occupied, and Sochi will be occupied, and Crimea will be occupied. And not only that. Everything that will look “tasty” to respected Western and not only partners, everything will also be occupied,” Girkin said. ¤ He also noted that in general, 2023 will be a year of a significant deterioration in life and serious upheavals for both the people of Russia and Ukraine.

💙🐣 RT @SlavaUk30722777 🇺🇦Happy New Year everyone!🎉 I am so thankful of all the support we get from every corner of the world. You guys and girls are awesome. I will leave you with one of my favorite songs by Viktoria Leléka that i have posted once, because its just so lovely and cheerful. Much love🥰
🎹 💽 https://twitter.com/SlavaUk30722777/status/1609250596225421319?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT AXIS /1815 UTC 31 DEC / RU has resumed heavy attacks against the eastern and southern suburbs. UKR forces are in contact near Bakhmutse, Podhorodne, east of the O-0507 cut-off in the industrial area and west of Andriivka.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1609248021816180737?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer SVATOVE – KREMENNA / 1745 UTC 31 DEC/ On 31 DEC, UKR forces are reported to have perused [sic] retreating RU units as far as Zmiivka. RU losses in the last 48 hours included several infantry fighting vehicles, as well as two newly deployed T-90 main battle tanks.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1609241486272638978?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer KHERSON /1440 UTC 31 DEC/ The cross-river reconnaissance and targeting missions of UKR Partisans and Special Operations Forces bore fruit this week in a spectacular series of precision strike missions in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia Oblasts.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1609196744494964740?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @anders_aslund My 3 expectations for 2023:
1. Ukraine will decisively defeat Russia.
2. Putin will lose power & probably his life.
3. Putin’s authoritarian kleptocracy regime will collapse.
We should greatly welcome all three events.

NYT: The ‘Red Wave’ Washout: How Skewed Polls Fed a False Election Narrative https://tinyurl.com/5n6bahbu “[T]he averages were … affected by a widening imbalance between a dwindling number of reliable, reputable nonpartisan polls, and a proliferation of questionable surveys”
// The errant surveys spooked some candidates into spending more money than necessary, and diverted help from others who otherwise had a fighting chance of winning

⭕ 30 Dec 2022

🐣 RT @rgoodlaw The more people are familiar with the contents of #January6thReport, the better for the health and survival of American democracy. ¤ This audio recording of the Report is now out. By @CeladonBooks @MacmillanUSA and @NewYorker with epilogue from @RepRaskin 🔊https://tinyurl.com/7pkv55wu

🐣 RT @RepSpeier For someone who brags about his riches, his taxes show he is a loser —biz losses of $105m in 2015, $73m in 2016, $45m in 2017, and $23m in 2018. Now we understand why he didn’t want us to see his tax returns.
⋙ CNN: Key takeaways from six years of Donald Trump’s federal tax returns https://tinyurl.com/yeyu7rvh

WaPo, Jason Willick: How to shield Ukraine from America’s culture wars https://tinyurl.com/5n6km9rf “[T]he US is successfully weakening Russia’s military, thereby reducing its capacity to undertake future costly aggression. The US is also upholding the importance of national sovereignty”

🐣 RT @PowerUSAID For 308 days the Ukrainian people have lived with a constant threat of violence & danger, they’ve buried loved ones, watched their homes be demolished, & been separated from their families. Proud to partner w/ @ZelenskaUA to support much needed mental health services in Ukraine.
⋙ 🐣 RT @ZelenskaUA We are not fine because of the war. Therefore, the National Mental Health Program was actively developed this year. We attract foreign specialists and study international experience to create a truly comprehensive project. What we have already achieved: https://bit.ly/3FZvss7
🖼 https://twitter.com/PowerUSAID/status/1608577914081275904?s=20/photo/1

🐣 📊 RT @BrookingsGov 73% of Americans approve of the recent protests in Iran.
73% also feel that the U.S. should continue to support Ukraine despite threats from Russia.
And 78% say China-Taiwan tension is at least a somewhat serious problem for the U.S.
⋙ Brookings (12/16): Americans can still agree on some things https://tinyurl.com/2c2evh4j

🐣 RT @GlasnostGone Goodnight #Ukraine. I’ll leave you a picture by Kostyantyn Revutskyi. It shows Ukrainian military stretchers in the town of Bakhmut. It shows the bloody price paid for preserving democracy.
🖼 https://twitter.com/GlasnostGone/status/1608919144833122304?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @mhmck Ignoring their own casualties, the Russian fascist invaders are launching “meat waves” at the defenders of Bakhmut. ¤ Russian mobiks and prisoners come on like zombies – until Ukrainian soldiers run out of bullets killing them all. In this way, the enemy hopes to gain ground.
🌎 https://twitter.com/mhmck/status/1608889912358760450?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @petestrzok Trump “received more than $55 million in gross income from more than 12 countries, including Azerbaijan, Panama, Canada and Qatar” and his 2020 “returns showed that he filed foreign tax credits in more than 12 countries, including China, Qatar and Israel.”
⋙ WaPo: House panel releases Trump tax returns in another setback for former president https://tinyurl.com/r5m8xfym

UkrInform: Ukraine may[!] get ATACMS next year, depending on battlefield developments – Kuleba https://tinyurl.com/yca36bhm “According to Kuleba, there is a level of symbolic weapons, and there is a level of specific needs of the army as of today, tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow”
◕ https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1608925188036624385?s=20/photo/1

Minister for Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba is confident that next year Ukraine will receive ATACMS ballistic missiles with a range of up to 300 km, as well as modern drones, but this will also depend on the situation on the battlefield. ¤ The head of Ukrainian diplomacy stated this in an interview with RBC-Ukraine, Ukrinform reports. ¤ “Next year, yes. But it will also depend on the situation on the battlefield,” Kuleba said.

He noted that in the issue of obtaining weapons, there are loud stories that are circulating at the moment involving tanks, warplanes, or ATACMS. ¤ “The army has its specific needs. Relatively speaking, if I were offered a hundred tanks or a hundred howitzers now, I would not hesitate to say a hundred howitzers now, while tanks could come tomorrow – because I know the real demand at the front line and understand that it is now much more critical,” said the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

According to Kuleba, there is a level of symbolic weapons, and there is a level of specific needs of the army as of today, tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow. ¤ “And at every meeting of the Supreme CinC Staff, chaired by president, we look at it from this angle: what is needed here and now, and what will be needed tomorrow to defeat the enemy,” the minister explained.

At the same time, he noted that the military assistance that foreign partners provided for the past 10 months, including weapons and munitions, is unprecedented both in terms of volumes, range, and number of countries involved in the process. ¤ “Of course, we are at war and we never have enough, so we always ask for more, but we must remember a simple fact: we receive more support than any country has received, at least in the 21st century,” Kuleba emphasized.

As Ukrinform reported, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that Patriot systems are included in the new package of military aid to Ukraine in the amount of $1.85 billion. The Minister of Defense of Ukraine, Oleksii Reznikov, said that the Ukrainian military will master the Patriots quickly. ¤ The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden is considering the possibility of sending Bradley Fighting Vehicles to Ukraine as part of a further package of military support to defend against Russian aggression.

🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer KHERSON AXIS /1320 UTC 30 DEC/ As RU shelling of Kherson and N bank settlements continue, UKR Partisans and SOF carry out cross-river reconnaissance and targeting operations. On 30 DEC, explosions and large secondaries were reported in Henichesk at the JCT of the P-47 and M-18.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1608813963969716225?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT AXIS /1245 UTC 30 DEC/ RU units have crossed the rail right-of-way W. of Myika Pond & again at Andriivka and Kurdiumivka. These gains have proven costly: in the last 24 hours, RU has sustained 690 troops killed in action and at least 1800 wounded on all axes of contact.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1608805674586341378?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @EmbassyofRussia 🇷🇺FM #Lavrov on special military operation: We are in no hurry. We would like to finish, as soon as possible, war the West was preparing for & eventually unleashed against us through Ukraine. Our priority is the lives of soldiers & civilians that remain in the zone of hostilities
⋙ 🐣 It’s not the West which has been “preparing for & eventually unleashed” hostilities in Ukraine:
Reuters (March 2, 2018): Putin says he’d reverse Soviet collapse if he could: agencies https://tinyurl.com/2w8z237u … It’s Putin
// Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday he would reverse the collapse of the Soviet Union if he had a chance to alter modern Russian history
🖼 https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1608886930032455685?s=20/photo/1
// cover NYT 12/26/1991: “GORBACHEV, LAST SOVIET LEADER, RESIGNS: ¤ U.S. RECOGNIZES REPUBLICS’ INDEPENDENCE”

📔 Rand (2016): The Post–World War II, Rules-Based Liberal Order https://tinyurl.com/2p8e56vu

WaPo: Putin, unaccustomed to losing, is increasingly isolated as war falters https://tinyurl.com/5688snxy “More than 300 days of brutal war against Ukraine have blown up decades of Russia’s carefully cultivated economic relations with the West, turning the country into a pariah”
// A new gulf is emerging between the president and much of the country’s elite

As Putin approaches New Year’s Eve, the 23d anniversary of his appointment in 1999 as acting Russian president, he appears more isolated than ever.

More than 300 days of brutal war against Ukraine have blown up decades of Russia’s carefully cultivated economic relations with the West, turning the country into a pariah, while Kremlin efforts to replace those ties with closer cooperation with India and China appear to be foundering the longer the war grinds on.…

Even though Putin gathered leaders of former Soviet republics for an informal summit in St. Petersburg this week, across the region the Kremlin’s authority is weakening. Putin is due to discuss regional affairs with Chinese President Xi Jinping over video conference on Friday morning in Moscow, but Xi already made clear in September his “concerns” over the war.

India’s Narendra Modi this month wrote an article for Russia’s influential Kommersant daily calling for an end to “the epoch of war.” “We read all this and understand, and I think he [Putin] reads and understands too,” the state official said. …

Among Russia’s elite, questions are growing over Putin’s tactics heading into 2023 following the series of humiliating military retreats this autumn. A divide is emerging between those in the elite who want Putin to stop the military onslaught and those who believe he must escalate further …

“There is huge frustration among the people around him,” said one Russian billionaire who maintains contacts with top-ranking officials. “He clearly doesn’t know what to do.” … ¤ The billionaire, the state official and several analysts pointed to the postponement of Putin’s annual State of the Nation address, when the Russian president generally lays out plans for the year ahead, and the cancellation of his annual marathon news conference as signs of Putin’s isolation and an effort to shield him from direct questions since he has no map for the road ahead. … ¤ “In the address, there should be a plan. But there is no plan. I think they just don’t know what to say,” the billionaire said. “He is in isolation, of course. He doesn’t like speaking with people anyway. He has a very narrow circle, and now it has gotten narrower still.” …

Putin again sought to lay the blame on the U.S. and NATO for dragging out the war, in what seemed almost a tacit admission that he had lost control of the process. “How can he tell us everything is going to plan, when we are already in the 10th month of the war, and we were told it was only going to take a few days,” the state official said.

Putin appeared exhausted in his recent appearances, Stanovaya said. And even if he does have a secret plan of action, most of the Russian elite is losing faith in him, she said. ¤ “He is a figure who in the eyes of the elite appears to be incapable of giving answers to questions,” she said. “The elite does not know what to believe, and they fear to think about tomorrow.” ¤ “To a large degree, there is the feeling that there is no way out, that the situation is irreparable,” she continued, “that they are totally dependent on one person, and it is impossible to influence anything.”

Alexandra Prokopenko, a former adviser at Russia’s Central Bank who resigned and left Russia in the weeks after the start of the invasion, said in an interview that her former colleagues “try not see the war in terms of winners and losers. But they know there is no good exit for Russia right now.” ¤ “There is a feeling that we cannot attain the political aims that were originally forwarded,” the state official said. “This is clear to all.” But no one knows how large a loss Russia can sustain before its leaders believe its existence is in jeopardy, he said.

With such a huge question mark hanging over the year ahead, two camps have emerged within the elite: “The pragmatists who consider that Russia took on the burden of a war it can’t sustain and needs to stop,” and those who want to escalate, Stanovaya said. ¤ Those in favor of escalation include Yevgeniy Prigozhin, the Putin ally who leads the Wagner Group of mercenaries and continues to publicly berate Russia’s military leadership. …

There are also inescapable questions about glaring weaknesses in the Russian military that have become apparent in recent months, including its evident inability to properly train and equip the 300,000 called up during the autumn mobilization. ¤ “The fact is that these 300,000 mobilized do not have enough weapons,” Markov said. “When will they get the military technology? Putin also does not have the answer to this question.”

According to Markov, who supports escalation, India and China’s doubts have arisen because Putin did not win fast enough. “Privately they say, ‘Win quicker, but if you can’t win, we can’t build good relations with you,’ he said. “You should either win or admit your loss. We need most of all for the war to end as fast as possible.” ¤ Others said the reason for the tepid relations with India and China’s leaders was because they were clearly more worried about further escalation. “We hear there is a worry about the prospect of escalation to the nuclear level,” the longtime member of Russian diplomatic circles said. “And here, it seems to me everyone spoke very clearly that this is extremely undesirable and dangerous.”

Inside Russia, every now and then, members of the liberal-leaning elite are voicing their growing concern. ¤ In an interview last week with Russian daily RBK, Mikhail Zadornov, chairman of Otkritie, one of Russia’s biggest banks, who served as finance minister from 1997 to 1999, noted that Russia had lost markets in the West that it had been building since Soviet times. “For 50 years, a market, mutual economic connections, were being built. Now they are destroyed for decades to come,” Zadornov said.

On the whole, members of Russia’s economic elite “understand this isn’t going to end well,” the Russian billionaire said. Prokopenko, the former Central Bank official, said the Russian elite, including many under sanctions, are watching the situation in horror: “Everything they built collapsed for no reason.

⭕ 29 Dec 2022

WSJ, David Satter: Putin Wants Ukraine Back in the USSR https://tinyurl.com/37yu6zup “When the imaginary world of Soviet ideology collapsed, all that was left in Russia was rule by criminals & the drive to dominate [its] neighbors” “We need to…free Russia from the burden of its past”
// The Soviets reassembled the Russian Empire on the basis of ideology. He seeks to duplicate that feat.

Russia’s inability to rid itself of the Soviet legacy is the underlying cause of the war. If Ukraine cedes territory, the Soviet imperialist mentality will survive intact. Russia’s defeat in the Crimean War (1853-56) led to the emancipation of the serfs, and defeat in the Russo-Japanese war (1904-05) led to Russia’s first constitution. We need to support a decisive Ukrainian victory to punish aggression—and to free Russia from the burden of its past.

🐣 RT @apmassaro3 Proud to have played a small part in this 💙💛
⋙ 🐣 RT @MikeSallah7 Exclusive: Just after leaving the front lines, President Zelensky made a secret overseas call to Mitch McConnell: Turn over the billions seized from oligarchs to the devastated country. Days later, it worked: legislation passed to help Ukraine rebuild.
💙 ⋙ Pittsburgh PostGazette: Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s secret call to Mitch McConnell puts squeeze on oligarchs https://tinyurl.com/yc7zeukc
// His plea to the top Republican pushes law to crack down on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s closest allies

🐣 RT @ MaryLTrump “Biden has not only demonstrated the greatest foreign policy mastery since G.H.W. Bush, but has transcended his achievements by being the 1st president to create a post-Cold War foreign policy that meets the moment.” ¤ Great summary of an amazing 2 years.
⋙ DailyBeast, David Rothkopf: Biden’s Midterm Foreign Policy Report Card https://tinyurl.com/bp92xw2z
// There were surprising successes and dispiriting disappointments—but overall a transformative rejuvenation of America’s international standing.

MSN: Former NATO supreme commander calls on the West to «mobilize» its industry to provide more arms to Ukraine https://tinyurl.com/bmv6mz3v
// U.S. General (ret.) Wesley Clark “has called on the United States and other Western countries to “mobilize” part of their industry in order to provide Ukraine with as many weapons as it needs as long as the war with Russia continues”

NewYorker, Susan Glasser: 2022 Could Have Been Worse—Much, Much Worse https://tinyurl.com/yh5fpyjb ‘Russia could have won. A Republican red wave could have happened. Inflation might have kept going up. The economy could have entered a full-fledged recession’
// For Biden and a crisis-battered country, an oddly optimistic end to an objectively bad year.

The nation, understandably, remains in a sour mood. It’s hardly good news that seventy-six per cent of Americans in the most recent Gallup survey think the country is on the wrong track, down from a high of eighty-seven per cent last summer.

But expectations are everything in politics. And the one truly good thing you can say about 2022 is this: It could have been worse. Much, much worse. Russia could have won. A Republican red wave, predicted by history and the polls, might have swept radical Trumpist election deniers into control of both houses of Congress and key state-election offices. Inflation might have kept going up. The economy could have entered a full-fledged recession.

On the world stage, Biden has rallied the West to Ukraine’s defense, secured large bipartisan majorities in Congress to send billions in military assistance, impose sweeping sanctions on the Russian economy, and negotiate the accession of previously neutral Finland and Sweden into nato. With this unprecedented aid, Ukraine has managed to fight Russia to a standoff. Kyiv, predicted by experts in the Pentagon and elsewhere to fall within days, still stands. “Against all odds and doom-and-gloom scenarios,” Ukraine’s President, Volodymyr Zelensky, said in a buoyant thank-you speech to a joint session of Congress this month, “Ukraine didn’t fall. Ukraine is alive and kicking.” He called this “our first joint victory. …

🔄 💙 📔 MFA of Ukraine (Official): War in Ukraine: Russia Invaded Ukraine https://war.ukraine.ua
// Reports, statistics, articles

🐣 RT @RFERL Despite constant shelling by Russian forces, a New Year’s tree was put up in Bakhmut, a hotly contested area in Ukraine’s Donetsk region. ¤ Most of Bakhmut’s prewar population of 70,000 have fled. Volunteers hope the tree will be a sign of hope for those who remain.
💽 https://twitter.com/RFERL/status/1608543633535270912?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT AXIS /2050 UTC 29 DEC/ After a lull, RU has resumed piecemeal attacks against the eastern suburbs. UKR forces are in contact near Podhorodne, north of the M-03 / T-13-02 intersection, and east of the O-0507 cut-off in the industrial area.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1608562701973991425?s=20/photo/1

💙 🐣 RT @wartranslated Update from Bakhmut, 29 December 2022.
💽 https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1608553994657619968?s=20/photo/1
// graphic descriptions; chilling

🔄 💙 🧵 RT @CanadianKobzar This is the ongoing megathread containing all of my history pieces – the Kobzar Chronicles.
📌 https://twitter.com/CanadianKobzar/status/1586445851341520896?s=20
// tags: Ukrainian History of Ukraine
⋙ 🧵 RT @CanadianKobzar FELLAS! STAY AWHILE AND LISTEN! Today is part one of three of my 2022 Magnum Opus, a thread to answer a deceptively simple question – what is ‘Ukrainian’? This is going to be a LONG thread as condensing 2000 years of history is no small task. 1/19 […]
📌 https://twitter.com/CanadianKobzar/status/1607918704033148929?s=20
⋙ 🧵 RT @CanadianKobzar [12/28/2022) FELLAS! Stay awhile and listen! Here is Part 2 to my thread on what are Ukrainians! Today we discuss the Триединый русский народ or the Three Russian Peoples theory. Understanding this will help you understand Putin, Stalin and Russian imperialism since the 17th century. 1/15
📌 https://twitter.com/CanadianKobzar/status/1608158128700260352?s=20/photo/1
⋙ 🧵 RT @CanadianKobzar [12/30/2022) FELLAS! Stay awhile and listen! Part 3 of my threads is coming, but today I wanted to talk about an important issue that has come up. One that must be understood in order to combat current Russian propaganda – What is the origin and meaning of “Ukraine”. 1/23
📌 🌎 https://twitter.com/CanadianKobzar/status/1608854044394819585?s=20/photo/1
⋙ 🧵 RT @CanadianKobzar [12/31/2022] FELLAS! Stay awhile and listen! Today is Part 3 of 3 exploring the question of who are Ukrainians. This will also be my last post of 2022! At the end, I will be giving some final lighthearted thoughts on what it is to be Ukrainian. Enjoy! 1/24
📌 https://twitter.com/CanadianKobzar/status/1609251575737769987?s=20/photo/1
[…] ⋙ go to first link

WaPo: Inside the Ukrainian counteroffensive that shocked Putin and reshaped the war https://tinyurl.com/25sxuzw8 The Battles of Kharkiv/Izium and Kherson City
// By Isabelle Khurshudyan, Paul Sonne, Serhiy Morgunov and Kamila Hrabchuk

🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer IZIUM AXIS/ 1800 UTC 29 DEC/ RU is attempting to reduce pressure on Svatove with a series of attacks west of the urban area. Staging from the salient near the Andriivka reservoir, RU launched a number of company-sized attacks between Kryvoshyivka and Andriivka
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1608521698386808832?s=20/photo/1

⭕ 28 Dec 2022

NYT: Republicans Step Up Attacks on F.B.I. as It Investigates Trump https://tinyurl.com/997e926t “Trump’s supporters [have] stepped up their assaults on the F.B.I., seeking to undermine the bureau just as it has assumed the lead in an array of investigations of Mr. Trump”
// Historically, the F.B.I.’s critics have come from the left. But the bureau’s array of inquiries into former President Donald J. Trump has turned the tables.

🐣 RT @ChristopherJM Zelensky: “Last year, 70,000 people lived [in Bakhmut]. Now only a few civilians are left there. There is no place that is not covered with blood. There is no hour when the terrible roar of artillery does not sound. Still, Bakhmut stands.” 📸 @Liberov
¤ https://twitter.com/ChristopherJM/status/1608128164760363008?s=20/photo/1

🐣 📊 RT @YVindman 10 months into the war — 65 percent of Americans support continuing to arm Ukraine, 66 percent support continuing economic aid and 75 percent favor continuing sanctions on Russia. Ukraine is a bipartisan, unifying subject.

🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer KREMENNA AXIS /1800 UTC 28 DEC/ W of Kremenna, UKR forces are reported to be in contact with RU units at Dibrova & Kuzmyne. Elements of UKR’s 140th Marine Recon Battalion and the 111th Territorial Defense Brigade are reported to be closing on the villages from the south and west.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1608158490077306880?s=20/photo/1

Newsweek: Russia Running Out of Troops in Battle for Bakhmut, Battalions Split Up—ISW https://tinyurl.com/yjudhttc “Russian forces in the Bakhmut area are no longer operating as company and battalion tactical groups, but are instead operating in smaller groups of 10 to 15”
// “Russian losses, the ISW said, are likely forcing the Russian military in the Bakhmut area to use squad-sized assault groups … no longer operating as company and battalion tactical groups”

🐣 RT @milposp #Bakhmut is perfectly emblematic of #Russia’s abysmal and catastrophic failure in #Ukraine. #Bakhmut is the Stalingrad of my generation. It’s symbolism of #Ukrainian strength and resilience multiplies every day while the occupiers suffer incalculable losses.

🐣 RT @ @wartranslated Yo, the Russians made up a new reason why they can’t take Bakhmut. Now it’s because Ukraine has pulled up enormous manpower to it. One might think the ratio is 10x in favour of . But they’re still taking “enormous losses”. From prisoners. In defence. ¤ https://t.me/brussinf/5444

🐣 RT @Maks_NAFO_FELLA Russia will use nuclear weapons in case of defeat in the war, says Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto ¤ “The use of tactical nuclear weapons is planned by Russia. For us, this is unthinkable, but for Moscow, yes, if the point of no return is passed, if they risk defeat.
⋙ 🐣 the exact definition of “nuclear blackmail”
there’s no way to know if it’s another bluff, but one thing is sure:
if the world falls for it, it will change to entire nature of international relations
the world must not and will not fall for it

🐣 RT @JayinKyiv Gotta admire American ability to quickly ramp LNG exports to specific nations when needed. ¤ Putin really thought the rest of the world was as incompetent and technologically backwards as Russia.
◕ https://twitter.com/JayinKyiv/status/1608140708841689088?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @United24media Remember last week Zelenskyy passed on a 🏅 medal from a captain in Ukraine to Biden to give “to a very brave president”? ¤ Well, guess who got Biden’s insignia in return during Zelenskyy’s speech in Ukraine’s Parliament today…That same captain!!! What an exchange 🥺
🖼 https://twitter.com/United24media/status/1608155205614592005?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @JayinKyiv Whoa.. Larry Fink, CEO of Blackrock talking Ukraine reconstruction with Zelensky. ¤ BlackRock is the biggest of the big, bigger than most central banks. [link]

🐣 RT @robreiner All you need to know about Trump’s tax returns is he fucked a porn star and wrote it off as a business expense. What we’d really like to know is when he’ll be Indicted for stealing Top Secret Documents and Inciting an Armed Insurrection to Overthrow the US Government.

🐣 [To:] @stavridisj I hope you will talk to someone in the administration about Ukraine’s need for ATACMS. I am sure Ukraine would abide by US conditions for their use, even if it meant pre-approval of targets @NicolleDWallace @IgorNabokov

🐣 RT @NOELreports The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation evacuated their command from Kreminna, but it’s too early to talk about the de-occupation of the city, – Speaker of the Eastern Group of Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Cherevaty.

🐣 RT @Tendar It’s possible that the Russian defense at Kreminna has been compromised far worse than expected. Serhiy Hayday speaks of the possibility that AFU might enter the city soon. ¤ Take it with a grain of salt but it would be consistent with the recent events I have reported about.

🐣 RT @KyivPost ⚡️ Haidai: Fierce battles are taking place next to Kreminna, the Russians are engaging large reserves. ¤ If Ukraine returns Kreminna, he says, the Russian defense line in Luhansk Oblast will crumble.

🐣 RT @WarintheFuture “First, they throw in the mobilized soldiers for certain death, like meat…Then, if they break through, the more experienced fighters move in.” An account of fighting around #Kreminna in #Ukraine, from @RFERL
🐣 RT @RFERL “The Russians understand that if they lose Kreminna, their entire line of defense will fall,” one local official said.
⋙ RFE/RL: ‘We Fight With Our Brains. They Fight With Numbers’: Ukrainian Paratroopers On The Battle For The Donbas City of Kreminna https://tinyurl.com/2y6ubzs2
// Amid relentless fighting, one official claims that Ukrainian forces are closing in on recapturing Kreminna, which would disrupt Russian supply
⋙ 🐣 RT @vinm300 Michael Clarke (BBC) said exactly the same ¤ “Around Kreminna and Svatove they are very close to a big breakthrough that would throw Russian forces 40 miles back to the next natural defensive line, close to where their invasion effectively began in February”

🐣 RT @WSJ Ukrainian authorities said their army was closing in on the Russian-occupied city of Kreminna, control of which could allow Kyiv to significantly expand its efforts to retake Russian-held areas in Ukraine’s east
⋙ WSJ: Ukraine Sets Sights on Retaking Key Eastern City https://tinyurl.com/5n2p29sb “Kreminna would be a symbolic prize for Kyiv, giving Ukraine a solid foothold in Luhansk”
// Recapturing Kreminna could mark breakthrough for Ukraine’s efforts to dislodge Russian occupation of its east

The capture of Kreminna would give Ukraine access to major roads leading to the city of Rubizhne and the nearby industrial center of Severodonetsk, both heavily damaged in fighting over the summer, as well as to the town of Starobilsk.

Many of the Russian units attacking the city of Bakhmut to the south are advancing from Rubizhne and Severodonetsk, Mr. Haidai said, meaning that securing Kreminna and launching offensives on those cities could allow Ukraine to disrupt Russia’s onslaught against Bakhmut, aiding its embattled Ukrainian defenders. …

Starobilsk, on the other hand, overlooks key roads across the region, Mr. Haidai said. “Whoever controls Starobilsk can essentially control with firepower the entire logistics of Luhansk region,” he said. “There’ll be almost no road left along which the enemy can calmly transfer either equipment or manpower.” ¤ Kreminna would be a symbolic prize for Kyiv, giving Ukraine a solid foothold in Luhansk, a region which has been under near-total Russian control since the summer.

Ukraine’s Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar on Monday described Bakhmut as Ukraine’s “eastern fortress,” and said Russia had concentrated a huge amount of firepower there as it seeks to capture the Donetsk region by the end of this year. Ukraine’s defenders currently hold around 40% of the region. Taking Kreminna could help reverse the momentum in the east and put Russia on the defensive in Donetsk too.

🐣 RT @ Gerashchenko_en “Our soldiers are not just service people. They are the hope of millions for life. They are the hope of Europe for calm. They are the world’s hope that the time of empires has passed,” @ZelenskyyUa awarded Ukrainian Warriors in Parliament today.

🧵 RT @albir2024 Every day there are new videos on Telegram showing groups of Russian soldiers being killed by grenades dropped from drones, others killed in open fields trying to attack #Bakhmut, groups being captured and other surrendering. There are also videos of trenches full of dead Wagner
📌 https://twitter.com/albir2024/status/1608192743548788737?s=20

I wonder what is the total number of casualties in the Russian army in the last 2 months. There are reports of 1:1 ratio for KIA and WIA. Russians leave their dead comrades behind and run away. I estimate that there are around 200 KIAs per day and perhaps more WIA and captured.

That is probably a total of 500 casualties per day. Over 2 months that is 30.000 troops. Plus all the equipment, weapons, radios, boots, etc. I feel RuAF don’t have enough men to conduct effective offensive operations, and at the same time they are wasting men for nothing.

If there is any sense in the strategy of the RuAF and their political aims, I really fail to understand it. If they think that Ukraine is going to negotiate a settlement that will allow Russia to keep some Ukrainian territory, I think they are mistaken.

Ukraine can not allow Russia to control any part of its territory, that will mean that in 5-10-15 years time Russia will attack again. Ukraine ONLY chance is to expel all RuAF and then join EU and NATO, in that way its territorial integrity will be safeguarded for the long term

Russia can’t be trusted. It has violated every single bilateral agreement with Ukraine and will not respect Ukraine territorial integrity unless it is protected by NATO. Russia knows that it can’t fight NATO in conventional warfare.

RuAF are several decades behind NATO in training, equipment, leadership and technology. They are outgunned and outclassed at every level. Russia’s economic woes will ensure that gap widens in the medium term.

In summary, Russia can’t win this war. It only needs to decide how many men is going to lose, and how much of its economy is going to be destroyed before it completely pulls out of Ukraine

🐣 RT @AshaRangappa_ “There is a temptation to act as if something is not shocking if we have heard part of it before, as though this were a mark of political sophistication.” Read this 15-pt list from @TimothyDSnyder. It should still shock you.
⋙ Substack, Timothy Snyder: January 6: The Facts https://tinyurl.com/yc29p8pk
// A very concise summary of the Select Committee’s Final Report

What did Trump know, and when did he lie about it? How did his Big Lie lead to specific actions to overturn and election and bring down the American system? What did the coup attempt of 2020-2021 look like from within the Trump administration itself?

Thanks to the excellent “Final Report of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol,” we now know the answers to these and many other questions. I provide here just the briefest of summaries of the report’s recounting of the events of November 2020-January 2021. …

Here is my very brief summary of the factual part of the report, in fifteen quick points. I am deliberately understating here; the evidence, in the Final Report itself, permits much broader conclusions.

1. Trump knew that he was likely to lose the 3 November 2020 election, and planned in advance to declare victory (to tell a Big Lie) if he lost.

2. On 3 November 2020, Trump knew that he was very unlikely to have won the election of that day, and declared victory anyway. In the days following, aware that he had lost, he continued to declare victory.

3. Over and over again in November, December, and January, Trump publicized specific claims of electoral fraud shortly after being informed that they were false.

4. Aware that his advisors, campaign officials, and cabinet knew his claims of fraud to be false, Trump promoted people, such as Rudolph Giuliani, who would lie for him in public.

5. In the full knowledge that he had lost the election and that his claims of fraud were false, Trump made several deliberate efforts to overturn the election results and thus American democracy.

6. In states he had lost, Trump personally pressured state officials to fraudulently and illegally alter the electoral outcome.

7. Informed that the Department of Justice had investigated and found no evidence of fraud, Trump nevertheless sought to use its powers, via Jeffrey Clark, to intimidate state officials to change electoral outcomes.

8. Knowing that he had lost the electoral college vote, Trump oversaw an effort to create fake slates of electors. These entirely bogus documents were then sent to the vice-president (who refused them).

9. Though aware that it was the vice-president’s role only to count the electoral votes, Trump pressured the vice-president not to do so, on the theory that the vice-president could, in effect, choose the president.

10. Even the person who devised the plan regarding the vice-president, John Eastman, knew it to be illegal.

11. Knowing by January 6th that all that remained was the formality of certifying Biden’s victory, Trump encouraged supporters he knew to be armed and angry to halt this procedure and violently overthrow our form of government.

12. Trump’s call to violence was successful because enough of his supporters believed his lies and understood what he wanted them to do: prevent a peaceful transition of power.

13. At a time when the Capitol was under attack, the vice-president was in flight, and the members of the vice-president’s security detail feared for their lives, Trump urged his supporters on to further violence.

14. After the failed coup attempt, a number of Republican legislators sought presidential pardons, thereby acknowledging their fears that they had acted illegally.

15. Even had Trump believed that he had won the 2020 election, which he did not, his coup attempt would remain a coup attempt, and his crimes would remain crimes.

These are some of the simple facts, as we now know them, two years on.

Two years ago, I wrote a long essay about the January 6 insurrection, entitled “American Abyss.” It could be published right after Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol, because I had written it beforehand, as a study of the Big Lie and its consequences. Thanks to the work of some excellent reporters and editors, I could add details from the horrors of the day before the final text went to press in The New York Times Magazine.

Trump’s coup attempt itself was predictable, and I had been predicting it throughout the autumn of 2020. Indeed, since the publication of On Tyranny in early 2017, I had been trying to make the case that something like this could happen in the United States, and in late 2020 I spent a lot of time saying that it would happen. I like to think that this helped to prepare some of us for the coup attempt when it did come.

Trump is obviously personally responsible. But the techniques he used are not unique to him, and could be perfected by others. The weaknesses he exploited are structural. Now that a coup attempt has taken place, and we know a great deal about how it happened, it is important for us to ask some of the deeper questions about why it could have happened, not least to make sure that nothing similar takes place in the future. In posts to come, I will be interpreting the report, returning to some of the themes I established these last few years, such as the Big Lie.

🐣 📋 RT @RichardvReeves About 110,000 more men than women have died from Covid-19 in the U.S. (595k v 484k), according to data from @CDCgov https://tinyurl.com/28yrak6w
◕ https://twitter.com/RichardvReeves/status/1604952451312148480?s=20/photo/1
⋙ 🐣 in recent years, more women in general live past 85, resulting in higher numbers of women’s deaths in 85+ group ¤ were it not for that factor, the difference in death rates by sex would likely be even more pronounced

🐣 RT @NOELreports The USA will purchase IFATDS automated artillery fire control system kits for Ukraine’s HIMARS. The kits are intended for 18 future new HIMARS of Ukraine
🖼 https://twitter.com/NOELreports/status/1608165958874714113?s=20/photo/1
⋙ 🐣 RT @NOELreports It’s a network of computer workstations that process/exchange information. They transfer data from the front observer to the unit which provides fire support. It includes automatic processing of requests for fire with сonfigured management, creating several tactical decisions etc

🐣 RT @apmassaro3 “Because we didn’t want to, quote, provoke Vladimir Putin, by showing weakness, we provoked Vladimir Putin. We have to understand that Vladimir Putin’s ambitions are the restoration of the old Russian empire.” John McCain got it
💽 https://twitter.com/apmassaro3/status/1608075321076600833?s=20/photo/1

⭕ 27 Dec 2022

🐣 RT @glynmoody Ukraine says forces closer to recapturing key eastern city of #Kreminna: “The Russians understand that if they lose Kreminna, their entire line of defence will fall” #UkraineWillWin
⋙ TheGuardian: Ukraine says forces closer to recapturing key eastern city of Kreminna https://tinyurl.com/v34y9u9s
// Luhansk city could be step towards launching offensives on Russian-held Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk

🐣 RT @DonLawr86874954 […]
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/DonLawr86874954/status/1607704356299894786?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @jamie raskin The best predictor of a successful coup is a recently failed one where the plotters learn the weaknesses in the existing structure and then regroup to try again. There must be no second chances for coup plotters, which is what Section 3 of the 14th Amendment is all about.

🐣 RT @Gerashchenko_en Europe not only freezes, it is also living in poverty, according to Russian propagandists – people have no money to buy presents or Christmas trees.
💽 https://twitter.com/Gerashchenko_en/status/1607782175138803713?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer KHERSON AXIS / 1900 UTC 27 DEC/ UKR SOF / Partisans identified a RU barracks/HQ area in the occupied city of Novobilozerka. A precision strike by UKR artillery is reported to have killed 100 RU personnel, including 15 employees of the Russian FSB.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1607813260983533568?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @BadrobotLinda George Santos called Ukraine’s govt a totalitarian regime & other Kremlin talking points ¤ Now we find out he was director of an illegal Ponzi scheme, going by the name of George Devolder, & received over $60k from one of Russia’s notorious oligarchs ¤ Who is George? ¤ #DemVoice1

NYT: Man Sentenced to 16 Years in Prison for Plotting to Kidnap Michigan’s Governor https://tinyurl.com/v9yedasn “[T]he defendant, Adam Fox, called Gov. Gretchen Whitmer a ‘tyrant,’ railed against her Covid-19 restrictions and mused about a second American revolution”
// Jurors convicted Adam Fox of scheming to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2020 in what federal prosecutors described as a threat to American democracy.

🐣 RT @tribelaw “Cassidy Hutchinson’s courage reminds us never to underestimate each citizen’s power to effect positive change. We must follow her lead. Democracy depends upon it.”
⋙ Salon: Democracy depends on flawed whistleblowers like Cassidy Hutchinson https://tinyurl.com/4erxsva7
// Cassidy Hutchinson made an imperfect hero. But her kind of courage is crucial to protecting our fragile democracy

🧵 RT @ Flash_news_ua ⚡️ Volodymyr Zelenskyi: This week will be important for Ukraine from a political point of view. We enter the next year and must maintain a common understanding of our national goals.
📌 https://twitter.com/Flash_news_ua/status/1607836023131705346?s=20
⋙ 🐣 RT @ Of course, this is the liberation of our land from the enemy, as well as the restoration of Ukraine, the return of our people home, the further rapprochement of our state with key partners, the opening of new opportunities for Ukraine in the world […]

🧵 RT @Victorshi2020 BREAKING: the House Ways and Means committee will release six years of Trump’s tax returns in their entirety on Friday according to CNN. Accountability matters and we deserve to see them. What a great gift for us and democracy before the end of the year.
📌 https://twitter.com/Victorshi2020/status/1607833351452524544?s=20

💙 🐣 RT @saintjavelin These are the memes of the year.
💽 [YouTube] https://twitter.com/saintjavelin/status/1607845567228686336?s=20/photo/1
// #NAFO memes award show

🐣 RT @ ZaleskiLuke The eight stages of Trump’s guilt:
1. “I didn’t do it”
2️⃣ “I didn’t do anything wrong”
3. “I didn’t do anything illegal”
4️⃣ “The people accusing me are guilty”
5. “The law is illegal”
6. “Prove it!”
7. “What happened didn’t happen”
8️⃣ “It’s fine, I did it and I’ll do it again…”
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/ZaleskiLuke/status/1607804165652381697?s=20/photo/1

[Text:] 🐣 RT @ @realDonaldTrump Very interesting, because until recently the political Hacks and Thugs of the highly partisan January 6th Unselect Committee were seldom talking about your favorite President, me, as it related to the PROTEST on Election Fraud. NUMBER ONE, as President, I have total Immunity. Number two, I did nothing wrong. Then the Committee members, mostly the same sleaze that pushed the Russia, Russia, Russia HOAX, started saying that “Trump” did it. Even Shifty Schiff got into the act again. SAD!!!

🐣 RT @NOELreports “Neither total mobilization, nor a panicked search for shells, nor secret contracts with Iran, nor Lavrov threats will help. Russia should face reality. Ukraine will demilitarize Russia to the end, expel them from all occupied territories. Silently wait for the final,” Podolyak

⭕ 26 Dec 2022

🐣 RT @danielsgoldman Time to add a third potential federal crime: campaign finance fraud.
In 2021, Santos incorporated the Devolder Org in FL, which has no known assets.
In 2022, he reports income of $750k, all from Devolder. He then gives $700k to his campaign.
Where did that money come from?
⋙ 🐣 RT @danielsgoldman [Dec 20] If allegations are true (and Santos has not even denied them), there are at least two possible federal crimes at play:
1) conspiracy to defraud the US (same as Mueller with Russians in 16 and Trump in 20), and:
2) filing false statements to FEC.
@EDNYnews should investigate. …
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @nytimes Who is George Santos? The GOP representative-elect to Congress on Long Island says he’s the “embodiment of the American dream.” But his résumé appears to be mostly fiction.
⋙⋙⋙ NYT: Who Is Rep.-Elect George Santos? His Résumé May Be Largely Fiction. https://tinyurl.com/2ca2br82
// Mr. Santos, a Republican from New York, says he’s the “embodiment of the American dream.” But he seems to have misrepresented a number of his career highlights.

🐣 RT @KyivIndependent Air Force calls explosions on Russia’s Engels airbase ‘consequences of Moscow’s actions in Ukraine.’ ¤ Yurii Ihnat, Air Force spokesman, said that “if the Russians thought that the war would not affect them deep in the rear, they were wrong.”

🐣 RT @DougKlain “Every single hard-earned US dollar is a bullet aimed at autocracy. This is the arsenal of democracy at work. Americans know the true value of freedom and appreciate the price Ukrainians are paying,” writes @AndriyYermak for @AtlanticCouncil.
⋙ AtlanticCouncil, Andriy Yermak: Ukraine is the front line of the free world https://tinyurl.com/mptzb9ce
// Inside title: Bakhmut: Fortress of Freedom
// Western support for Ukraine must remain strong in 2023 to prevent a Russian victory that would fuel a global authoritarian revival, warns the
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @stephenalbert11 The bottom line:‘The democratic world cannot afford to lose this war. If Russian dictator Vladimir Putin succeeds in Ukraine, he will inevitably wage further wars of aggression. Crucially, other dictators will view Russia’s success as a green light for their own invasions.’

🐣 RT @adnashmyash Back in 2014, John McCain fully predicted Putin’s next moves.
“Not to provoke Putin is to show weakness, which will 100% provoke Putin”
“A developing and democratic Ukraine is a threat to Putin’s power”
“He will try to cut more Ukraine and then Baltics”
💽 https://twitter.com/adnashmyash/status/1607448947613736961?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @SquireDigital 31/ The Starobilsk rail link may soon be out of service. ¤ What is left? ¤ Donbas has three lines to supply that area, but is not connected to Mariupol. ¤ Also Kherson (ferry) is not directly connected with Melitopol. ¤ And ATACMS can disrupt even the long ways by hitting two bridges
🌎 https://twitter.com/SquireDigital/status/1607542762051600384?s=20/photo/1
// railway map

🐣 RT @DmytroKuleba 31 years ago Russia abused the UN Charter and usurped USSR’s seat at the UN Security Council — bypassing the only legitimate procedure set by the Charter. Russia’s presence at the UNSC and the UN as a whole is illegitimate. Ukraine’s official statement: https://bit.ly/3PV8qqQ

🐣 RT @Porter_Anderson Media [CNN:] @MarkHertling to @PamelaBrownCNN: “I’ve negotiated with some of [#Putin’s] military officers, his generals. First of all, they lie. Secondly, they will never negotiate evenly. And thirdly, if they do negotiate and you think you have a deal, they will renege on that deal.”

🐣 RT @SpiroAgnewGhost The mentally deranged former POTUS is now visciously attacking @Olivianuzzi—who he allowed to interview him—because she reported accurately & in great detail about how his life is falling apart more by the day in every way.
⋙ [TextLink:] https://twitter.com/SpiroAgnewGhost/status/1607551390012035073?s=20/photo/1

[Text:] 🐣 RT @realDonaldTrump [ts] The Fake & Corrupt News is only getting worse! As an example, I agreed to do a short telephone interview for a once very good, but now on its “last legs” and failing, New York Magazine. The reporter was a shaky & unattractive wack job, known as “tough” but dumb as a rock, who actually wrote a decent story about me a long time ago. Her name, Olivia Nuzzi. Anyway, the story was Fake News, her “anonymous sources” don’t exist (true with many writers), and I’m happily fighting hard for our GREAT USA!

🧵 RT @judgeluttig The New Yorker’s brilliant Editor and gifted writer, David Remnick, on January 6 and the January 6th Committee’s Final Report: ¤ “Part of Trump’s dark achievement has been to bludgeon the political attention of the country into submission.
📌 https://twitter.com/judgeluttig/status/1607395814858715137?s=20
⋙⋙ NewYorker, David Remnick: The Devastating New History of the January 6th Insurrection https://tinyurl.com/mr47seh9
// The Devastating New History of the January 6th Insurrection

When a nation has been subjected to that degree of cynicism—what is politely called “divisiveness”—it can lose its ability to experience outrage. A republic is predicated on faith—not religious faith but a faith in the fundamental legitimacy of its political institutions

and the decisions they issue. To concede the legitimacy of statutes, rulings, and election returns is not necessarily to favor them. It’s simply to participate in the basic system that gives them form and force; citizens can, through democratic machinery, seek to defeat

or contest candidates they deplore, initiatives that offend them, court opinions they consider misguided. In contrast, the campaign that culminated in the Capitol attack of January 6th was, fatefully, against democracy itself.

It sought to instill profound mistrust in the process of voting—the mechanism through which, even in highly imperfect democracies, accountability is ultimately secured.”

🧵 RT @Maks_NAFO_FELLA Medvedev’s forecast for 2023 🤡🤡🤡
📌 https://twitter.com/Maks_NAFO_FELLA/status/1607478723913056263?s=20
orig: https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1607455031816495105?s=20

1. Raising the price of oil to $150 and gas to $5,000.
2. The return of the UK to the EU.
3. The collapse of the EU and the euro after the return of the UK.
4. Capture by Poland and Hungary of the western regions of the former Ukraine.

5. Creation of the Fourth Reich on the basis of Germany, Poland, the Baltic countries, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania and the “Kyiv Republic”
6. War between France and the Fourth Reich. Partition of Europe and Poland.
7. Separation of Northern Ireland from Great Britain

8. American Civil War, independence of California and Texas. Creation of the union state of Texas and Mexico. Elon Musk’s victory in the US presidential election.
9. Transfer of all major stock markets and financial activity from the US and Europe to Asia.

10. The collapse of the Bretton Woods financial system, including the collapse of the IMF and the World Bank. Rejection of the euro and the dollar as world reserve currencies. The return of the gold standard.

NYT Mag, Jim Rutenberg. (11/2/2022): The Untold Story of ‘Russiagate’ and the Road to War in Ukraine https://tinyurl.com/bdhnyt3m
// 11/2/2022; Russia’s meddling in Trump-era politics was more directly connected to the current war than previously understood.
// segment replayed on @DeadlineWH

🐣 RT @michaelluo Speechless at this extraordinarily brave, visceral, and important story by Luke Mogelson, who spent two weeks embedded in the front lines, documenting the unimaginable. War reportage at its finest. Journalism in its most vital function: bearing witness.
⋙ NewYorker, Luke Mogelson: Trapped in the Trenches in Ukraine https://tinyurl.com/2s4hx78z
// Along the country’s seven-hundred-mile front line, constant artillery fire and drone surveillance have made it excruciatingly difficult to maneuver.

🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer IZIUM AXIS/1430 UTC 26 DEC/ North of Svatove, UKR forces have advanced across the H-26 HWY at Krokhmalne and then again from Kryvoshyivka to Kuzemivka. The interdiction of the H-26 and the rail from the north increases pressure on Svatove.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1607380442440953859?s=20/photo/1

⭕ 25 Dec 2022 🎅🏼

TheAtlantic, Franklin Foer: The Cynic’s Dilemma https://tinyurl.com/27hy26sd “Polities in Europe and the United States that not so long along seemed indifferent to autocracy and to be careening toward xenophobia are engaged in the most selfless act of solidarity in recent memory”
// As 2022 comes to a close, I feel something unfamiliar, something I can’t entirely trust: optimism.

🐣 RT @ybarrap “I think that the Electoral College now, which has given us five popular vote losers as president in our history — twice in this century alone — has become a danger.” ~ Rep. Raskin ¤ The Electoral College is hazardous to democracy, Raskin says
⋙ Politico: The Electoral College is hazardous to democracy, Raskin says https://tinyurl.com/2p87syk3
// “There are so many curving by-ways and nooks and crannies in the Electoral College that there are opportunities for a lot of strategic mischief,” he said.
⋙ 🐣 RT @ NotAFollower13 70% of this entire economy voted Biden in 2020 maybe we have more power than we realise & since the GQP is not interested in democracy or the Constitution we should harness that power b4 they steal 2024 & never leave

🐣 RT @broe_jake The cost of natural gas today in Europe is cheaper than it was a year ago (Dec 2021). Was this part of Russia’s master plan to freeze out Europe this winter? 😅
◕ https://twitter.com/broe_jake/status/1607212134240522240?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @patriottakes The change is in response to your coup attempt.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/patriottakes/status/1607194269194014720?s=20/photo/1

[Text:] 🐣 RT @realDonaldTrump [ts] The Vice President did indeed have the power to send Electoral Votes back to State Legislatures for reapproval despite the constant drum from Democrats and RINOS that he “ABSOLUTELY DID NOT.” BUT, they just put CLARIFYING language in the disgraceful “OMINOUS” BILL, making sure that A V.P. DOESN’T DO WHAT THEY ALL SAID COULD NOT BE DONE. So why the new language? Because it was iust another political Con Job!

⋙ 🐣 Question I have is: If SCOTUS decides that the independent state legislature theory is valid (in the case they just heard), do the revisions to the Electoral Count Act render their decision moot, or would their decision override the the revised ECA?

🎹 WSJ (12/9/2021): ‘The Nutcracker and the Mouse King’ Review: A New Take on a Christmas Classic https://tinyurl.com/3scmxks5 ⋙ I just watched this on pbs and loved it
// 12/9/2021; Composer and educator John Mauceri leads the Royal Scottish National Orchestra through his own reworking of both Hoffmann and Tchaikovsky in a performance narrated by Alan Cumming

🎹 RT @Gerashchenko_en “We are not waiting for a miracle because we are creating it ourselves” – Christmas greeting by @ZelenskyyUa
💽 [tr] https://twitter.com/Gerashchenko_en/status/1606934242935861249?s=20/photo/1
// full nessage; Carol of the Bells (piano) in background: “Christ is born. Let’s praise him”

⭕ 24 Dec 2022

💙 PresidentUa[.]gov: Christmas greetings of the President of Ukraine to Western Rite Orthodox Christians https://tinyurl.com/mryexapa

🐣 RT @Flash_news_ua ⚡️Volodymyr Zelenskyi congratulated Ukrainians on Christmas. ¤ “Today and all the coming winter holidays we meet in difficult circumstances. Someone will see the first star in the sky over Bakhmut, Rubizhne, and Kreminna today.
💽 https://twitter.com/Flash_news_ua/status/1606710725107453953?s=20/photo/1
⋙ 🐣 RT @Flash_news_ua Someone will celebrate the holiday in other people’s homes, but not in other people’s homes – Ukrainians who gave shelter to Ukrainians.”
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @BriteLu We should have a sense of gratitude towards President Zelenskyy! He could have escaped Ukraine just like what the President of Afghanistan had done! However, he chose to fight for the dignity of the free world. He is a hero of the free world today and deserves to be revered.

MoscowTimes: The Cost of War: Russia’s Economy Faces a Decade of Regress https://tinyurl.com/5t2dkk47 “Russia looks set to see yet another lost decade, with a decade of stagnation followed by a decade of regression”

🐣 RT @SpiroAgnewGhost Oh my god. This isn’t parody. ¤ I have said it before, if his family weren’t all despicable grifters like he is, they would involuntarily commit him to a psychiatric facility and try to work an insanity plea deal. This is maybe his most purely insane rant of all time.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/SpiroAgnewGhost/status/1606792327456260096?s=20/photo/1

[Text:] 🐣 RT @realDonaldTrump [ts] Merry Christmas to EVERYONE, including the Radical Left Marxists that are trying to destroy our Country, the Federal Bureau of Investigation that is illegally coercing & paying Social and LameStream Media to push for a mentally disabled Democrat over the Brilliant, Clairvoyant, and USA LOVING Donald J. Trump, and, of course, The Department of Injustice, which appointed anSpecial “Prosecutor” who, together with his wife and family, HATES “Trump” more than any other person on earth. LOVE TO ALL!

🎹 RT @OlenaStarynets Merry Christmas &Happy New Year!
https://youtu.be/a5ZSz7R_dKE via @YouTube
🇺🇦Glory to Ukraine!🌻❄️🎄❄️❤️😺
#UkraineWillWin,#UkraineWar,#UkraineRussiaWar,#UkrainianArmy,#Mariupol,#StandWithUkraine,
#Ukraine,#Україна,#UkraineWarNews,#ArmUkraineNow,#Crimea,#ЗСУ,#KhersonisUkraine,#Bakhmut
💽 https://twitter.com/OlenaStarynets/status/1606730847184617472?s=20/photo/1

🎹 RT @OlenaStarynets Ukrainian Christmas Carol ❄️❄️❄️
https://youtu.be/ZbeDMX5phOo via @YouTube
🇺🇦Glory to Ukraine!🌻❄️🎄❄️❤️😺
#UkraineWillWin,#UkraineWar,#UkraineRussiaWar,#UkrainianArmy,#Mariupol,#StandWithUkraine,
#Ukraine,#Україна,#UkraineWarNews,#ArmUkraineNow,#Crimea,#ЗСУ,#KhersonisUkraine,#Bakhmut
💽 https://twitter.com/OlenaStarynets/status/1606731743134117890?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @tribelaw Biggest infrastructure bill since Eisenhower, major China competitiveness law, most significant gun reform since 1994, Respect for Marriage Act, reauthorizing Violence Against Women Act, Burn Pits Act for vets, massive support for Ukraine, Electoral Count Act reform: Biden rules!

WaPo: Twitter brings Elon Musk’s genius reputation crashing down to earth https://tinyurl.com/44efzvcm
// Musk’s intense focus on his social media company purchase has devolved into the culture wars. Meanwhile, Tesla is tanking.

🐣 RT @LeaderMcConnell Continuing our support for Ukraine is morally right, but it is not only that. It is also a direct investment in cold, hard, American interests.
🖼 https://twitter.com/LeaderMcConnell/status/1606672668719288321?s=20/photo/1
// photo McConnell and Zelensky

⭕ 23 Dec 2022

WaPo, Ruth Marcus: For Cassidy Hutchinson, ‘I don’t remember’ wasn’t good enough https://tinyurl.com/262up3nh “If Hutchinson’s live testimony before the select committee was riveting, her deposition testimony, taken several months later and released Thursday, is a page-turner”

🐣 RT @SpiroAgnewGhost Unhinged Friday continues
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/SpiroAgnewGhost/status/1606497805941772288?s=20/photo/1

[Text:] 🐣 RT @ @realDonaldTrump [ts] The highly partisan Unselect Committee of political Hacks & Thugs should be ashamed of themselves. I fought terrible Liz Cheney and she lost her House Seat in RECORD fashion. I fought Cryin’ Adam K and he quit. The Committee Dems are the same Russia, Russia, Russia and Impeachment crowd. Of course they don’t want me to run because I beat them twice (they cheated, just look at the FBI Facebook & Twitter Scandals!) and am leading in the polls, by a lot. That’swhat this is all about. Scammers!!!

CNN: No directive: FBI agents, tech executives deny government ordered Twitter to suppress Hunter Biden story https://tinyurl.com/bdffhkuw After the 2020 Russian influence operation, “Twitter executives were hyper suspicious of anything that looked like foreign influence”
⋙ As for the $3.4M payment, “The FBI says the bureau is obligated under federal law to reimburse companies for the cost they incur to satisfy subpoenas and other legal requests as part of the FBI’s investigative work”

🐣 RT @ tomiahonen Tax… DEDUCTION ¤ Trump paid $130,000 hush money to Stormy Daniels. Then WROTE IT OFF AS A TAX DEDUCTION? ¤ Yes. Congratulations America. You just got grabbed by the pussy […]
⋙ 🐣 RT @abigaildisney The best part of the tax returns is that he WROTE OFF the payment to Stormy Daniel’s. Wow. The cojones.

🐣 RT @ neal_katyal Amazing how many Trump White House witnesses claim not to recall momentous things. Either a shockingly large % of Trump’s inner circle had sudden memory loss on Jan 6, or Cassidy Hutchinson wasn’t the only witness being told to protect Trump by claiming bad memory.

💙 WSJ: Putin, Isolated and Distrustful, Leans on Handful of Hard-Line Advisers https://tinyurl.com/mrxta7vn “Over time, Mr. Putin, who has never served in the military, has become so wary of his own command structure that he has issued orders directly to the front line”
// Russia’s president built a power structure designed to deliver him the information he wants to hear, feeding into his miscalculations on the Ukraine war

This article is based on months of interviews with current and former Russian officials and people close to the Kremlin who broadly described an isolated leader who was unable, or unwilling, to believe that Ukraine would successfully resist. The president, these people said, spent 22 years constructing a system to flatter him by withholding or sugarcoating discouraging data points.

U.S. officials said they have struggled to find a Kremlin insider who both has influence over Mr. Putin and also isn’t wrapped up in his narrative of Russian grievance. The president increasingly speaks of Russia in near-religious terms, as a 1,000-year-old civilization waging a holy struggle that will right historical wrongs and elevate him into a pantheon of conquering czarist leaders such as Peter the Great.

Though contact between the U.S. and Russia occurs almost every day, whether through their embassies, the Pentagon or the CIA, those conversations have become constrained, said U.S. officials, who have found some of Mr. Putin’s closest allies to be even more hard-line than the authoritarian leader himself.

Mr. Putin wakes daily around 7 a.m. to a written briefing on the war, with information carefully calibrated to emphasize successes and play down setbacks, according to the former Russian intelligence officer and current and former Russian officials. ¤ He has long refused to use the internet for fear of digital surveillance, Russian and U.S. officials have said, making him more dependent on briefing documents compiled by ideologically aligned advisers. … …

NYT, Brenda Wineapple: Donald Trump Is Now Forever Disgraced https://tinyurl.com/3uenrexu At the center of four criminal referrals was Donald Trump, “the man who hatched a scheme that would, if successful, defraud Americans of their sacred right to have their vote count”

🐣 RT @MeidasTouch Brutal cover of New York Magazine profiling Trump’s failure and isolation. ¤ Lead story by @Olivianuzzi: “Inside Donald Trump’s sad, lonely, thirsty, broken, basically pretend run for reelection.”
// NYMag cover: “Party of One”: caption: “At Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s reelection campaign is off to a lonely start.”
🖼 https://twitter.com/MeidasTouch/status/1606344803234766848?s=20/photo/1
⋙ NYMag, Olivia Nuzzi: The Final Campaign https://tinyurl.com/wca7pn9t
// Inside Donald Trump’s sad, lonely, thirsty, broken, basically pretend run for reelection. (Which isn’t to say he can’t win.)

🐣 RT @RonFilipkowski Trump denounces the J6 report, says the Committee is all “marxists” who covered up that FBI informants in the crowd instigated it and police opened the doors and let everyone in. Says the search at Mar-a-Lago was illegal, & Jack Smith, his family & friends are all Trump haters.
💽 https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1606419102557519873?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @BillKristol Kevin McCarthy voted to reject the electors and to acquit Trump, tried to sabotage the proposed bipartisan Commission and then the House Select Committee, and has embraced fervent January 6th defenders. ¤ This man should not hold the Constitutional office of Speaker of the House.
🖼 https://twitter.com/BillKristol/status/1606299554315440128?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @ZelenskyyUa Thank you 🇺🇸 Congress, @SpeakerPelosi, @GOPLeader, @LeaderMcConnell, @SenSchumer, @SenatorLeahy, @rosadelauro for additional $45 bln aid to 🇺🇦, & for unwavering bipartisan support 🇺🇦 in our fight for freedom. It’s crucial that 🇺🇸 people’re side by side w/ 🇺🇦 people in this struggle.

🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT /1940 UTC 23 DEC/ RU forces continue a well-established pattern of disjointed company and platoon sized assaults in the Bakhmut Area of Operations. UKR gov’t sources report more that 500 RU troops were killed in the last 24 hours; several hundred of them in Bakhmut.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1606371870688874504?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @Azovsouth Putin is calling for an immediate end for the war in Ukraine. This comes after the lost of support from his allies and internal pressure amongst his generals who have realized they can’t hold any grounds in & have lost more than 100,000 soldiers in a 3days military operations. [Source: https://tinyurl.com/5x5cy3cv%5D
⋙⋙ “Our goal is not to spin the flywheel of military conflict, but, on the contrary, to end this war,” Putin said. “We will strive for an end to this, and the sooner the better, of course.” ¤ Lukashenko is expected in Moscow tomorrow to meet Kadyrov and Prigozhin
⋙ 🐣 he needs to withdraw all troops from all territory of Ukraine, return citizens including children, pay for damages and submit to international justice; ¤ see Zelenskyy’s 10-point peace plan: https://tinyurl.com/4d8x9p5f

🐣 RT @ZelenskyyUa Thank you @POTUS. It’s an honor for me to visit 🇺🇸, to address the 🇺🇸 people and Congress, to meet with the leader of the country that helps us stand. And win! This visit showed our countries stand together on the side of good, democracy and justice. Creating the future together!
⋙ 🐣 RT @POTUS Ukraine and the Ukrainian people don’t just inspire us – they inspire the world. ¤ It was an honor to host President Zelenskyy at the White House.
💽 https://twitter.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1606392874094010368?s=20/photo/1

WaPo, Aaron Blake: Key findings from the Jan. 6 committee’s final report [Interactive] https://tinyurl.com/3s67596t

MSN/Forbes, David Axe: Bakhmut Is ‘Soaked In Blood’ As Eight Of Ukraine’s Best Brigades Battle 40,000 Former Russian Prisoners https://tinyurl.com/29wu89ns
// At least eight of the Ukrainian army’s heaviest brigades keep interrupting The Wagner Group’s plan—and making the battle for Bakhmut a statement about Wagner’s weakness rather than its strength.

🧵 RT @vorobyov Why do russians keep attacking #Bakhmut despite massive losses? ¤ I’ve not seen a reasonable enough explanation for this question. So I’ll offer my hypothesis in this thread. ¤ Their goal is purely psychological: to sow an impression of a massive loss in the minds of Ukr civilians
📌 https://twitter.com/vorobyov/status/1606318366897197056?s=20

Bakhmut has been so embedded in the news cycle over the past several months that many Ukrainians gauge the war by looking at Bakhmut. ¤ russians know that — and probably try to use that. Their thinking may well be: “if we occupy Bakhmut, 🇺🇦civilians will believe they are losing”.

Some folks (mostly in the West, not in Ukraine) offer a hypothesis that Bakhmut is a “strategic location”. ¤ I think this view is misplaced: there are other road connections both to the Kramatorsk/Sloviansk and Pokrovsk, and Ukr troops have other lines of defences to fall back on

The thesis that russians seek to signal that they are retaking the entire Donetsk region is also weak. ¤ Look at the map: there are so many other (larger) cities under 🇺🇦 control in Donetsk region that this attempt at symbolism would be laughable even for the russian propaganda.

That’s why I think that this goal of taking Bakhmut is not dictated by the russian military brass but rather the FSB, who believe (LOL) that they know how to manipulate the Ukr public opinion with military means. ¤ That also explains the large role of Wagnerites in that hotspot.

And the sunk cost fallacy is playing a major role in that push: having lost so many troops there, russians believe they have to double down. ¤ That’s it: there is no strategic design for Bakhmut,only a blind attempt at a massive psy-op.
russians did not learn their February lesson

🐣 RT @AndyKimNJ I just got to see up close the Ukrainian flag that President Zelenskyy presented in his address before Congress last night. Powerful to read all the words and see the signatures of the fighters at the frontlines. “With full respect and gratitude from the defenders of Bakhmut”
🖼 https://twitter.com/AndyKimNJ/status/1606011696643837952?s=20/photo/1 -2

🐣 RT @SpiroAgnewGhost Lunatic rant #2 of the morning. He’s doing great.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/SpiroAgnewGhost/status/1606299509155237888?s=20/photo/1

[Text:] 🐣 RT @realDonaldTrump [ts] The FBI used Twitter and Facebook to bludgeon the 2020 Election to Biden. Nothing Negative could be said about him, especially as it related to Hunter’s Laptop From Hell, and ONLY Negative could be said about me. They were illegally after “Trump” at a level of ferocity, hate and yes, desperation, that has never been seen in our Country before. Other Media companies were involved also. The change in the Election was Complete & Total, with Millions of votes switched, at least 17%. TRUMP WON BIG!

🐣 RT @SpiroAgnewGhost Grandpa needs a strait jacket. Yikes. A telltale sign of a Very Stable Genius is to spew out completely deranged nonsense in an all caps rant that sounds identical to an escaped mental patient yelling at a lamppost on a streetcorner.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/SpiroAgnewGhost/status/1606299093478756352?s=20/photo/1

[Text:] 🐣 RT @realDonaldTrump [ts] SO, WE CAUGHT THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED
STATES, THROUGH THE USE OF THE FBI & OTHER AGENCIES. CONCLUSIVELY & IRREFUTABLY CHEATING ON THE 2020 Presidential Election, AND COMPLETELY & ILLEGALLY CHANGING ITS RESULT. THIS WAS ONLY ONE OF MANY FORMS OF CHEATING, BUT FRANKLY, IT WAS A BEAUT! THE FBI HAS NO EXCUSE, THEY WERE CAUGHT COLD, BUT THIS MUST NOT BECOME A COLD CASE. NOW WHAT? HONEST & BRAVE PROSECUTORS & JUDGES MUST STEP UP & CLEAN OUT THIS CANCER WHICH IS DESTROYING OUR ONCE GREAT COUNTRY!

NBCNews: McConnell calls out ‘diminished’ Trump, vows not to bow to his candidates in 2024 https://tinyurl.com/39fdvy8w
// The Senate GOP leader says in an interview that Trump hurt the party in the 2022 elections by making swing voters see Republicans as “nasty” and attracted to “chaos.”

NYT, Vanessa Friedman (Mar 2022): The Man in the Olive Green Tee https://tinyurl.com/yj52dsf5
// 3/21/2022; How President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine transformed the meaning of a piece of cotton.

★ Omg: Medriva is reporting 3,011 COVID-19 deaths yesterday. Due to reporting patterns, Thursday numbers are usually high, but this number matches some of the worst days of Omicron a year ago https://medriva.com/charts/
◕ https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1606214980398981120?s=20/photo/1

⭕ 22 Dec 2022

💽 NYT: Caught on Camera, Traced by Phone: The Russian Military Unit That Killed Dozens in Bucha https://tinyurl.com/2mfpjjpw

🐣 RT @AWeissmann_ Adam Schiff: Don’t Forget That Many Republicans in Congress Enabled Trump’s Big Lie
⋙ NYT: Adam Schiff: My Fellow Members of the Jan. 6 Committee and I Don’t Want You to Forget About ‘the Republican Congressmen’ https://tinyurl.com/2s3t2xmb
// The Jan. 6 committee found that multiple laws were violated in an attempt to overturn the 2020 election, and not just by Donald Trump’s foot soldiers.

🐣 RT @7Veritas4 He didn’t wear a suit.
This is how he wanted to be seen.
Not as a President or a General.
But as a soldier.
Fighting for his people, his country.
Asking us to help him defeat tyranny. ¤
It was perfect.
🖼 https://twitter.com/7Veritas4/status/1606052189452976128?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @KleptoCaucus New statement from bipartisan, bicameral congressional leaders behind the provision to use forfeited assets of Putin-linked criminals & oligarchs to help rebuild Ukraine #omnibus
// Signatories: Sen Michael Bennett, Sen Richard Blumenthal, Rep Steve Cohen, Sen Lindsey Graham, Rep Tom Malinowski, Sen Sheldon Whitehouse, Rep Joe Wilson
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/KleptoCaucus/status/1606053916604616704?s=20/photo/1

[Text:] Joint Statement on Senate Passage of the Russian Oligarch Assets Transfer Provision
“This new law will enable proceeds from recovered Russian oligarch assets to be sent directly to Ukraine for defense, reconstruction, and reparation. It’s a matter of basic justice that Russian criminals linked to Putin should pay for this brutal, illegal, and unprovoked war against Ukraine. Today, Congress has ensured that they will. Potential assets total in the billions. We encourage our friends and allies in the G-7 and in the European Union to follow suit. This law is the product of bipartisan collaboration that started with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and that will continue. Today is a good day for the long- suffering people of Ukraine and the American taxpayer, and a bad day for Russian oligarchs and Putin’s thugs.”

WaPo: Live Updates: Jan. 6 report recommends Congress ban Trump from running again https://tinyurl.com/7app3cu2

📔 FINAL REPORT: Select Committee to investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol [pdf] https://tinyurl.com/2kvxfka3 845p
// 845p; December 00, 2022 ¤ 117th Congress Second Session ¤ House Report 117-000

🔆 This❗️⋙ NYT: January 6 Select Committee Final Report: Placing Blame for Capitol Riot on ‘One Man’ https://tinyurl.com/murfc8uf How former President Donald J. Trump carried out “a multipart plan to overturn the 2020 presidential election”
// The report expanded on this summer’s televised hearings, describing in detail what it called former President Donald J. Trump’s “multipart plan” to overturn the 2020 election.

🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer KREMENNA AXIS / 2130 UTC 22 DEC/ A RU assault centered on the O-130505 Road was repelled by UKR forces east of Ploschanka. Sources indicate that UKR troops are attempting to consolidate a lodgment on the east bank of the Krasna River near the P-66 HWY bridge at Pischane.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1606040682719608832?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT AXIS /2000 UTC 22 DEC/ RU forces have registered slight and costly gains in the vicinity of Ivangrad and Opytne. South of Klischiivka, reports indicate that UKR’s Chechen Dzhokhar Dudayev Battalion is in contact along the rail right-of-way south of the Myika Pond.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1606014955941007361?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer KHERSON AXIS /2100 UTC 22 DEC/ On 20 DEC, UKR carried out a precision strike on the RU airfield near Kakhovka, killing 150 RU troops and wounding 50; more than 20 RU vehicles and pieces of equipment were destroyed. RU positions at Mykolaivka were also hit.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1606030578813308928?s=20/photo/1

WaPo: Senate approves $1.7 trillion omnibus bill to fund government https://tinyurl.com/yeyu72e3 It includes $773B for domestic spending, $885B for defense, plus $44.9B for Ukraine. It clarifies the Electoral Count Act and finances Biden’s agenda. The vote was 68-29.
// The bill would avert a shutdown and increase spending on domestic programs and the military. The House is planning to vote on it Friday

The Senate on Thursday adopted a sprawling, roughly $1.7 trillion bill that would fund the government through most of 2023, as Democrats and Republicans resolved a last-minute standoff over immigration and voted to avert a shutdown in the final days of the year.

The bipartisan 68-29 vote teed up the measure for debate in the House, which plans to act before the deadline on Friday to approve a package that boosts domestic and defense spending, finances President Biden’s economic agenda and provisions a raft of new emergency aid, including to Ukraine.

The compilation of long-stalled appropriations bills, known as an omnibus, would provide nearly $773 billion for domestic programs and more than $850 billion for the military, covering expenses through the 2023 fiscal year, which concludes at the end of September. Republicans had insisted on robust Pentagon funding in months-long talks with Democrats, who secured some — but not all — of the health, education, labor and economic spending they wanted.

The must-pass nature of the bill — the final major piece of legislation before Congress resets in the new year — also offered a window for lawmakers to advance other long-stalled priorities. The sweeping omnibus is filled with provisions that would expand some Medicaid benefits, help Americans save for retirement, revise the presidential electoral vote-counting process and ban TikTok on government devices. …

Lawmakers also agreed to send $44.9 billion in emergency military, economic and humanitarian assistance to Ukraine. The amount exceeded Biden’s initial request, and lawmakers delivered it shortly after the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, spoke to a joint session of Congress. …

🐣 RT @Riten023 The moment when “Slava Ukraini” is being chanted in Congress and Zelensky responds with “Geroyam Slava” [“Glory to the Heroes”] holding back tears.
💽 https://twitter.com/Riten023/status/1605739980193533953?s=20/photo/1
⋙ 🐣 RT @mymysharona43 YOU KNOW his people suffering is killing him…children..he knows so much more of the atrocities than we do and being a father…he knows his countries loss of innocent children grandma and grandpa…so flipping sad..you can see the pain..

🐣 RT @ Flash_news_ua⚡️ Volodymyr Zelenskyi: On the longest night of 2022, more than 60 of the most famous locations in the world turned off the lights as a sign of solidarity with our state and called on their visitors to join the collection for generators for Ukrainian hospitals.
💽 https://twitter.com/Flash_news_ua/status/1605975934892249090?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @apmassaro3 HUGE: The US Senate just voted UNANIMOUSLY to send recovered oligarch assets to Ukraine! Russia will pay for the war!

🐣 RT @marceelias Apparently the rightwing is upset that the Senate made some changes to the Electoral Count Act based on my recommendations.
⋙⋙ ElectionTransparencyInitiative [rw]: Electoral Count Act, Re-Written by Democrat Campaign Lawyer Marc Elias, Imposes Judicial Supremacy to Override States https://tinyurl.com/3keen29n
// For the last two years, Republicans have rejected Democrat attempts to override and rig state election laws for partisan gain, but now Republicans …
⋙ 🐣 RT @marceelias This is what I wrote about the improvements to the ECRA and why I now support the bill.
⋙⋙ DemocracyDocket, Marc Elias: It Is Time to Reform the Electoral Count Act https://tinyurl.com/bdfaztbe

NYT Editorial: The Last Lesson of the Jan. 6 Committee https://tinyurl.com/2p9e8p7v “The lesson, in part, is that our democracy is inescapably fragile. … The dangers remain clear and present, so this work is not complete”
⋙ 🐣 Reminiscent of this chilling quote: “Civilization is hideously fragile…there’s not much between us & the Horrors underneath, just about a coat of varnish” – CP Snow

The lesson, in part, is that our democracy is inescapably fragile. It requires Americans and those who serve them as elected officials and in law enforcement to act in good faith. The committee rightly spent many hours of its work documenting the actions of all those local, state and federal officials who defied Mr. Trump’s demands and acted in many different ways to protect democracy.

The dangers remain clear and present, so this work is not complete. House Republicans will be in the majority come January, including many who sought to overturn President Biden’s victory and some who encouraged the rioters.

🐣 RT @Gerashchenko_en [Soloviev:] “The more we burn in Ukraine, the easier it will be for us to bomb Europe and United States”.
💽 [tr] https://twitter.com/Gerashchenko_en/status/1605895005041819654?s=20/photo/1

⭕ 21 Dec 2022

NYT: Their Final Moments: Victims of a Russian Atrocity in Bucha [Interactive] https://tinyurl.com/38vc7msb

WaPo Editorial: Zelensky’s visit highlights that freedom is winning in Ukraine — for now https://tinyurl.com/t9twus6t “Likening the war in Ukraine to the American Revolution, he declared that ‘the Russian tyranny has lost control over us’”

🐣 RT @Flash_news_ua ⚡️ Russia’s first official reaction to Volodymyr Zelenskyi’s visit to the US and meeting with Biden was expressed by Russian Ambassador to Washington Antonov. ¤ “Escalation, the consequences of which can not be imagined,” said the ambassador in response to the support of Ukraine.

HuffPo: Sean Hannity Testified He Didn’t Believe Trump’s Election Fraud Lies ‘For 1 Second’ https://tinyurl.com/mr2kjxnu
// That didn’t stop the Fox News host from featuring fraud proponents with wild, unproven allegations on his show.

🐣 RT @mayajonesmj It is simple: Far-left candidates DO NOT flip seats and moderates DO. We need to remember this in order to take back seats in tough swing districts next cycle! Read more:
⋙ NYT, Thomas Edsall: What Really Saved the Democrats This Year? https://tinyurl.com/48mknw5x

🐣 RT @SpencerGuard His speech was not Churchillian, it was Zelenskillian. It was excellent.
⋙ 🐣 RT @SpencerGuard “When I was in Bakhmut yesterday, our heroes gave me their battle flag…they asked me to bring it here…let this flag stay with you…this flag is a symbol of our victory…We will win because we stand and fight. Ukraine, America, and the entire free world.”
🖼 https://twitter.com/SpencerGuard/status/1605731238114783232?s=20/photo/1

≣ NYT: Full Transcript of Zelensky’s Speech Before Congress https://tinyurl.com/yfpkza6h
// The Ukrainian president delivered an emotional appeal for further American support, vowing that his country would prevail in its war with Russia.

💽 C-span: Ukrainian President Zelensky Address to Joint Meeting of Congress https://tinyurl.com/4su6c263 28mins
//. “Against all odds, and doom and gloom scenarios, Ukraine didn’t fall,” said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as he began his remarks to a joint meeting of Congress on U.S. support for Ukraine in its war against Russia’s invasion. He thanked Congress for the United States’ financial assistance, but said, “Your money is not charity. It’s an investment in the global security and democracy that we handle in the most responsible way.” As President Zelensky ended his remarks, he presented to Congress a “battle” flag from the front lines of Ukraine, calling it a “symbol of our victory in this war.” As the president concluded, outgoing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) in turn presented to him an American flag that was flown over the U.S. Capitol earlier in the day in honor of his visit.

🐣 RT @NewYorker Donald Trump’s tax returns illustrate that when dealing with rich and aggressive financial operators, the Internal Revenue Service often finds itself overmatched.
🖼 https://twitter.com/NewYorker/status/1605737157393629184?s=20/photo/1
⋙ NewYorker, John Cassidy: Trump’s Tax Returns Reflect a Broader American Problem https://tinyurl.com/4yzekx6s
// When dealing with rich and aggressive financial operators, the Internal Revenue Service often finds itself overmatched.

WaPo, Molly Roberts: What Elon Musk failed to understand about Twitter https://tinyurl.com/yz32vmp2 “Musk has made many mistakes running Twitter, but the biggest? Assuming his new toy was a technology company.”

NYT: Beside Zelensky, Biden Vows Support for ‘As Long as It Takes’ https://tinyurl.com/v8tt5s2p
// multiple commenters; The Ukrainian leader, on his first trip abroad since Russia’s invasion 10 months ago, appeared at a joint news conference with President Biden and will address a joint session of Congress later Wednesday.

🐣 RT @POTUS Join President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and me as we hold a joint press conference. [36:50]
💽 https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/1605680707740786689?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @Kasparov63 An alliance not of convenience, but of necessity, one that is creating a vital new world order based on moral values. The free world fell asleep after the Cold War and it has become Ukraine’s thankless, bloody task to wake them.
⋙ 🐣 RT @AndriyYermak The leaders of the free world. A historic meeting of the Presidents of 🇺🇦 and the 🇺🇸 – @ZelenskyyUa and @POTUS. ¤ A great victory is ahead. 💪
¤ https://twitter.com/AndriyYermak/status/1605680135398645761?s=20/photo/1 -4

🐣 RT @EP_President 300 days of standing with Ukraine. #SlavaUkraini
💽 https://twitter.com/EP_President/status/1605459843153805312?s=20/photo/1

🐣 ‘We were spending $10-$12B a MONTH on Iraq’ per Gen Barry McCaffrey, on @DeadlineWH on @MSNBC

🐣 RT @McFaul The fastest way to end Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is to stop Russia on the battlefield. That requires providing Ukraine with more and better weapons.

💙 🐣 5% of our defense budget (plus the bravery and ingenuity of the Ukr armed forces) exposed the Russian military as antiquated, corrupt and vulnerable ¤ imagine what 10% would do

😅 RT @DarthPutinKGB Zelensky is in DC to thank US for just 5% of its defense budget which has vaporized the Russian military & reduced it to a laughing stock. ¤ I remain a master strategist.

CSIS (12/16): Patriot to Ukraine: What Does It Mean? https://tinyurl.com/2s3d4njd “Patriot has become the U.S. Army’s air and missile defense workhorse, a key element of U.S. power projection, and a premier symbol of U.S. commitment to allies and partners”

🐣 RT @ John_Hudson this is what’s in Zelensky’s goodie bag today
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/Mark_some_one/status/1605616783230046210?s=20/photo/1
// Defense Budget

● One Patriot air defense battery and munitions;
● Additional ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS);
● 500 precision-guided 155mm artillery rounds;
● 10 120mm mortar systems and 10,000 120mm mortar rounds;
● 10 82mm mortar systems;
● 10 60mm mortar systems;
● 37 Cougar Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MAP) Vehicles;
● 120 High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles (HMMWVs);
● Six armored utility trucks;
● High-speed Anti-radiation missiles (HARMs);
● Precision acrial munitions;
● Over 2,700 grenade launchers and small arms;
● Claymore anti-personnel munitions;
● Demolition munitions and equipment;
● Night vision devices and optics;
● Tactical secure communications systems;
● Body armor and other field equipment.

Capabilities in DoD’s $850 Million USAI package are expected to include:
● 45,000 152mm artillery rounds;
● 20,000 122mm artillery rounds:
● 50.000 122mm GRAD rockets;
● 100.000 rounds of 125mm tank ammunition;
● SATCOM terminals and services;
● Funding for training, maintenance, and sustainment.

⋙ 🐣 RT @progrock6string One Patriot battery system? ONE?
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @StatisticalMind It only operates as a battery. One battery is 6 to 8 launchers each with up to 16 missiles. So “only one” system costs >$1B and has up to 128 missiles ready to fire. Most nations only have 4-10 batteries. Even the US only has 50 active batteries.

🐣 …
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1605616374302195713?s=20/photo/1

The Disqualification Clause

Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment provides:

“No Person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice- President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.”

🧵 RT @DavidCornDC I did a quick read of the just-released House Ways and Means Committee report on Donald Trump’s tax returns and shot out a few tweets. Here they are as a thread.
📌 https://twitter.com/DavidCornDC/status/1605407289975967744?s=20
⋙⋙ ≣ NYT: Document: Report on Trump’s Tax Returns [Interactive] https://tinyurl.com/b87cje2v
// This report summarizes the House Ways and Means Committee’s review of the I.R.S. examination of Trump’s tax returns from 2015 to 2020.
⋙ 🐣 RT @DavidCornDC The bottom line: There is much on Trump’s taxes—possibly improper declarations of expenses and losses, questionable loans to his kids, undocumented charitable donations, weird loan forgiveness & more—that warrant review. No wonder he wouldn’t release them.

🧵 RT @ryanjreilly SCOOP: One of the FBI’s own confidential informants warned the bureau, just hours after Donald Trump’s “will be wild” tweet, that the far-right saw it as a “call to arms,” and that Jan. 6 could get violent.
📌 https://twitter.com/ryanjreilly/status/1605573777403715585?s=20

💙 🐣 RT @stavridisj Big day for President Z. His message in 5 words: to Ukrainians: Reassurance, to Americans: Gratitude, to Europeans: Solidarity, To Russians: Defiance and To Putin: Scorn
🖼 https://twitter.com/stavridisj/status/1605554084328652800?s=20/photo/1 -2
// TIME Person of the Year covers: 1941 Churchill, 2022 Zelenskyy

🐣 The Russians are sending their worst (prisoners) to die in Ukraine. Ukraine is sending its best. The US should offer access to fertility services to Ukrainian service members, so if wives want to have their husband’s children post-mortem, they still can

🐣 RT @SpiroAgnewGhost Wowza. SO desperate AND dumb simultaneously.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/SpiroAgnewGhost/status/1605278297494953984?s=20/photo/1

[Text:] 🐣 RT @realDonaldTrump [ts] In other words, John Eastman and others were correct in stating that the Vice President of the United States had the right to do what should have been done. The only reason this change is being promulgated is to reform The Electoral Count Act so that the VP cannot do what they powerfully said he couldn’t do, but if it couldn’t be done, why are they making this law change? The whole thing is one big Scam! [link]

💙 🐣 RT @oleksiireznikov Eastern Ukraine is holding on & fighting. ¤ The heroic defense of Bakhmut continues for several months. This is a new legendary page in the history of our struggle & defense of Ukraine VS the rus killers and invaders. ¤ Today Bakhmut is a fortress. Strong & indomitable. We Will Win!

🐣 RT @ZelenskyyUa (Ukraine government official) On my way to the US to strengthen resilience and defense capabilities of 🇺🇦. In particular, @POTUS and I will discuss cooperation between 🇺🇦 and 🇺🇸. I will also have a speech at the Congress and a number of bilateral meetings.

≣ NYT: Document: Report on Trump’s Tax Returns https://tinyurl.com/b87cje2v
⋙ pdf: https://tinyurl.com/ycxxu23b 28p

WaPo: House committee votes to make public Trump’s tax returns https://tinyurl.com/4dfa5nd9
// Panel says IRS did not perform mandatory audits during Trump’s first two years in office despite signs there was much to investigate

After the vote, the committee revealed that the Internal Revenue Service did not audit Trump’s returns during his first two years in office, despite a rule mandating such reviews, and never completed any audits while he served. ¤ The IRS began its first audit of Trump’s returns on the same day that Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard E. Neal (D-Mass.) sent a written request in April 2019 for the information and then assigned the bulk of the work to just one agent, the panel said.

The Trumps reported losing $31.7 million in 2015, $32.2 million in 2016 and $12.8 million in 2019, according to information provided by the committee. But they reported $24.4 million in 2018 income and $4.4 million in 2019 income, before losing $4.7 million during his last full year in office, 2020, according to the tax committee’s report.

The amount of taxes they paid fluctuated, too, peaking at $2.1 million in 2018 but dropping to $271,973 in 2020, according to the report. The average federal taxes the pair paid over the six years examined by the committee was $739,327, according to a Post analysis of the figures. By claiming millions in deductions, the Trumps reduced the net federal income taxes they paid to $750 in 2016 and 2017 and $0 in 2020, according to the report.

Committee members raised concerns about a wide array of credits and deductions the Trumps claimed on their taxes, including those for charitable contributions, debts, business expenses and conservation easements on his golf courses and other properties, including the Seven Springs estate in New York. …

🐣 RT @DcWalaDesi .@PressSec issued the following statement on #Zelensky’s meeting with .@POTUS #Biden today. #Ukraine #UkraineRussianWar #Russia
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/DcWalaDesi/status/1605452890532990977?s=20/photo/1

[Text:] Statement by White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre
on the visit of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine

President Biden has invited President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine to visit Washington D.C. to underscore the United States’ enduring commitment to Ukraine. President Biden looks forward to welcoming President Zelenskyy today, December 21, at the White House, after which President Zelenskyy will address a joint session of Congress, demonstrating the strong,
bipartisan support for Ukraine. Three hundred days ago, Russia launched a brutal assault against Ukraine. In response, President Biden rallied the world to support the people of Ukraine as they defend their sovereignty and territorial integrity. During the visit, President Biden will announce a significant new package of security assistance to help Ukraine defend itself against Russian aggression. The visit will underscore the United States’ steadfast commitment to supporting Ukraine for as long as it takes, including through the provision of economic, humanitarian, and military assistance.

⭕ 20 Dec 2022

WaPo, Greg Sargent: The GOP is quietly ‘Trump-proofing’ our system behind his back https://tinyurl.com/47f6u5k2 “Trump’s effort to subvert his presidential reelection loss exploited many weaknesses in the [Electoral Count Act] that would be fixed if the omnibus passes, as expected”

🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer IZIUM AXIS /2245 UTC 20 DEC/ The line of contact conforms basically to the P-66 HWY between Svatove and Kremenna. On 19 DEC, UKR repulsed a RU probe down the O-130505 Road toward Makiivka. UKR ops east of Dibrova increase pressure on Kremenna.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1605331752251445248?s=20/photo/1

🐣 📋 RT @lisaabramowicz1 Roughly 5,000 of Twitter’s 7,500 employees have left the company since Musk assumed control.

🐣 📋 RT @ ChuckPfarrer PUTIN’S WAR ON PEOPLE: Russia’s news agency TASS boasts that more than 5 million UKR citizens have been deported from Ukraine to ‘relocation centers’ in Siberia and the RU arctic. Among those displaced are more than 721,000 UKR children: with thousands separated from the parents.

🐣 RT @ZaleskiLuke He wants people to be so inundated and confused they just accept these dumb poll things are real and representative cause folks no longer can tell the difference between reality and social media and truth and propaganda anymore—Then he’s king without having to be actually elected
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/ZaleskiLuke/status/1605416057316974593?s=20/photo/1

[Text:] 🐣 RT @realDonald Trump [ts] “The FBI and Twitter COLLUDED to elect Joe Biden.” Jesse Watters. In other words, the 2020 Presidential Election was RIGGED & STOLEN. It all began a long time ago, they SPIED on my campaign, and tried to “RIGG” the 2016 Election, but failed. Remember, our government is doing this, not a person or party. What should be done about such a terrible thing, or should we let someone who was elected by cheating and fraud stay in office and continue to destroy our Country?

🐣 RT @HalcombeL Lavrov – “We didn’t want to lose a friend, so we raped your wives, stole your kids, and froze your grandparents to death.”
⋙ 🐣 RT @yasminalombaert The reason of “The special military operation” has changed again. ¤ The special operation was absolutely necessary to thwart plans to turn Ukraine into an anti-Russian country,” Lavrov said during the talks. His words are quoted by TASS.
💽 [tr] https://twitter.com/yasminalombaert/status/1604959014122672136?s=20/photo/1

💽 C-span (video): Senator McConnell Touts Priorities in $1.7 Trillion Omnibus Spending Bill https://tinyurl.com/mwxrrfxt McConnell said “providing assistance for the Ukrainians to defeat the Russians” is the United States’ Number One Priority, “according to most Republicans”:
// Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell speaks about his party’s priorities included in the $1.7 trillion Omnibus Spending Bill unveiled today, including additional funding for Defense and Ukraine.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1605339157865574400?s=20/photo/1

“Let’s step back and say, what are the real needs of the country right now: Making sure the Defense Department can deal with the major threats coming from Russia and China, providing assistance for the Ukrainians to defeat the Russians. That’s the Number One priority for the United States right now, according to most Republicans. That’s how we see the challenges confronting the country at the moment.” (at 1:02 from start)

🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT /1520 UTC 20 DEC/ During the period 19-20 DEC, Ukrainian forces successfully engaged Wagner Group positions up and down the Forward Edge of the Battle Area (FEBA). It is assessed that RU forces, exhausted by a week of heavy combat, could not defend recent gains.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1605221487564447746?s=20/photo/1

🐣 📋 RT @ @lotsofuss So when we hear Republicans complain about the border, just remember they voted against border funding 191-2. ¤ Hypocrites.
◕ https://twitter.com/lotsofuss/status/1605006402723856384?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @SpiroAgnewGhost Ok, even for him, this is really, really insane. Anyone else spewing a rant this crazy would be chased down with a net and carted away in a strait jacket.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/SpiroAgnewGhost/status/1605220209144393729?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @ @realDonaldTrump The so-called Deep State, often referred to by many other names, including “Cheaters, “Insurrectionists,” “Communists,” and yes, even our good old “RINOS,” have been working on sinister and evil “plots” for a long time, even well before I came to office. They are long seated Swamp Creatures, and are bad news for the USA. Remember very early on when Obama, Biden, Holder, and Comey were SPYING ON MY CAMPAIGN? I wonder if their handpicked Special “Prosecutor” Jack Smith, knew what was going on?

🐣 The January 6th Committee will go down in history as the best, most effective House panel ever assembled. Chair Bennie Thompson exuded dignity, Liz Cheney’s voice was a clarion call, the voice of the True Patriot, and the overall quality of the membership was simply 🌟stellar🌟

CNN: Lawmakers unveil sweeping $1.7Tr government funding bill to avert shutdown https://tinyurl.com/yc37yw3w The bill provides $$772.5B for non-defense spending, $858B for defense, and $44.9B in emergency assistance to Ukraine and NATO allies

✅ PolitiFact (June 9, 2022): Hannity: “Donald Trump authorized up to 20,000 National Guard troops to protect the Capitol” before Jan. 6, 2021, but was “rejected” by Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer. https://tinyurl.com/bdh6fj7u Politifact rates this ‼️FALSE‼️
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1605208268728852480?s=20/photo/1

[Text:] Hannity said, “Donald Trump authorized up to 20,000 National Guard troops to protect the Capitol” before Jan. 6, 2021, but was “rejected” by Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer.

There is no record of Trump formally authorizing 20,000 National Guard troops prior to the Jan. 6 attack. There is also no record of Pelosi rejecting such an authorization — and experts said she would not have had the authority to do so as House speaker. ¤ We rate Hannity’s claim False.

🐣 RT @KyivIndependent President Volodymyr Zelensky greets Ukrainian fighters on the front line in Bakhmut in Donetsk Oblast during an unannounced visit on Dec. 20. ¤ Video by Ukrainian public broadcaster Freedom.
💽 https://twitter.com/KyivIndependent/status/1605160868261597184?s=20/photo/1
⋙ 🐣 RT @zachfulk1 this is very dangerous but necessary, he is looked at as a beacon of hope for his people and bakhmut has been hell on earth for months this is what the soldiers need when morale begins slipping.

🐣 RT @olliecarroll Zelensky has made an unannounced visit to Bakhmut, which is right on the front line. He’s been taking a lot of risks recently. As if he wants to do the reconnaissance himself.
⋙ 🐣 RT @ChrisPo70954821 His actions say that he’s willing to risk his life a little, in solidarity with the men and women fighting. He is also saying that his life is less important than that of Ukraine. ¤ Its selfless leadership, a lesson in leadership that people in power should pay attention to.

🐣 RT @DefenceU The President of Ukraine @ZelenskyyUa visited Bakhmut and presented awards to the defenders of the city. ¤ Courage. ¤ Leadership. ¤ Invincibility. ¤ #UAarmy
¤ https://twitter.com/DefenceU/status/1605181568342966272?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @Flash_news_ua ⚡️ The military in Bakhmut asked Volodymyr Zelenskyi to hand over the Ukrainian flag to the US Congress as a sign of gratitude for the supplied weapons.
💽 https://twitter.com/Flash_news_ua/status/1605174610617544704?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @NOELreports “NATO’s war against Russia will be like a real three-day operation,” American parliamentarian Adam Kinzinger wrote in response to a question from a social network user why NATO has not yet defeated Russia in an open confrontation.
⋙ Newsweek: NATO Could Take Out Russia in 3 Days: Congressman https://tinyurl.com/2s4dpvkv

WaPo: Congress unveils $1.7 trillion deal to fund government, avert shutdown https://tinyurl.com/566mtcyz The bill incorporates the Electoral Count Act, intended to prevent another Jan 6th, and includes an additional $44.9B in military and economic assistance for Ukraine
// Lawmakers must act swiftly to approve the so-called omnibus before a temporary spending agreement lapses at the end of this week

Democratic and Republican negotiators early Tuesday unveiled a roughly $1.7 trillion deal to fund the U.S. government through most of 2023, setting up a last-minute sprint on Capitol Hill to approve the sprawling package and avert a potential shutdown.

The 4,155-page measure, known in congressional parlance as an omnibus, included funding for key elements of President Biden’s economic agenda, new boosts to defense programs and an additional $44.9 billion in emergency military and economic assistance for Ukraine.

Democrats did not achieve all of the increases to domestic spending that they initially had sought, a concession in talks with Republicans, who are set to assume control of the House in January. But the two parties’ leaders did agree to stitch onto the measure a wide array of long-simmering and stalled bills, recognizing the omnibus marks their final major legislative opening before Congress resets in the new year.

Lawmakers appended proposals to improve pandemic readiness, extend some Medicaid benefits, help Americans save for retirement, ban TikTok on government devices and change the way the country counts presidential electoral votes. The bipartisan election bill — known as the Electoral Count Act — sought to respond to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. …

Lawmakers also provided new money for some of Biden’s top accomplishments, including bipartisan laws to boost U.S. infrastructure and to promote the domestic manufacturing of small computer chips, known as semiconductors. And the bill provisioned about $40 billion in emergency funds in response to recent natural disasters, including Hurricane Ian.

Republicans also refused to relent in their long-standing opposition to delivering new money to respond to the coronavirus pandemic. The White House had asked for $22.4 billion, largely to purchase and facilitate the next generation of vaccines, yet GOP lawmakers refused to budge even as top administration officials warned about the risks of poor preparation.

⭕ 19 Dec 2022 ⚖️ Final Day Jan6 Committee

NYT, Maggie Haberman: A Diminished Trump Meets a Damning Narrative https://tinyurl.com/mr696vs6 “For many members of a party that would like to recover from three bruising election cycles, Mr. Trump has never felt more like a product of the past”
// Former President Donald Trump’s current woes extend beyond the report by the House Jan. 6 committee, but the case the panel laid out against him further complicates his future.

WaPo Editorial: Why the Jan. 6 committee mattered https://tinyurl.com/5ydyt2zx They provided a “searing picture of what occurred on Jan. 6, 2021, … exhibiting the cowardice of those who, out of fear of Mr. Trump, refused to help it reckon with that dark day”

WaPo, Jennifer Rubin: The Jan. 6 committee just lowered the boom on Trump. Now the ball is in DOJ’s court https://tinyurl.com/y2e63z82

NYT: Jan. 6 Committee Refers Former President Trump for Criminal Prosecution https://tinyurl.com/2zftydh8 Trump is charged with: Insurrection; Obstruction of Official Proceeding; Conspiracy to Defraud the United States; and Conspiracy to Make False Statement
// The committee accused the former president of inciting insurrection and other federal crimes as it referred him to the Justice Department, which does not have to act on its recommendations.

🔄 💙 📔 Lawfare: Jan. 6 Select Committee Documents https://tinyurl.com/44fxvfjk
⋙ Lawfare: Jan. 6 Select Committee Document: Executive Summary [pdf] https://tinyurl.com/42p4bkx7 154p
⋙ Lawfare: Jan. 6 Committee Issues Final Report https://tinyurl.com/4867dtra 845p
⋙ Lawfare: Jan. 6 Committee Releases Witness Interview Transcripts https://tinyurl.com/43f5k7y6

🐣 RT @lukebroadwater [NYT]
Jan. 6 committee criminal referrals:
Insurrection:
-Trump
Obstruction of official proceeding:
-Trump
-Clark
-Eastman
-Chesebro
Conspiracy to defraud US:
-Trump
-Eastman
-Clark
-Chesebro
-Meadows
-Giuliani
Conspiracy to make false statement:
-Trump
-Eastman
-Chesebro

🐣 RT @cspan .@January6thCmte Criminal Referrals of President Trump to the Department of Justice:
I. Obstruction of an Official Proceeding
II. Conspiracy to Defraud the United States
III. Conspiracy to Make a False Statement
IV. “Incite,” “Assist” or “Aid or Comfort” an Insurrection
#Jan6
💽 https://twitter.com/cspan/status/1604922563880423424?s=20/photo/1
// Raskin lays out the charges
⋙ 🐣 RT @cspan .@RepRaskin:”We understand the gravity of each and every referral we are making today just as we understand the magnitude of the crime against democracy that we describe in our report. But we have gone where the facts and the law lead us, and inescapably they lead us here.”

~~~~~~~~~~

🐣 RT @TheEconomist Vladimir 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 [link]

WaPo Editorial: How Elon Musk destroyed Twitter… and how to save it https://tinyurl.com/muzmcerc “If there’s anything to learn from the Musk era at Twitter, it’s that the free-speech absolutism Mr. Musk claimed to espouse is untenable as a guiding principle”

🧵 RT @WarintheFuture Recently, there has been much commentary about whether #Ukraine can – or should – seek to take back its Crimean territory through the force of arms. #Crimea remains Ukrainian territory, occupied by Russia since 2014. A thread on how all roads may lead to Crimea in 2023. [Thread] 1/20
📌 https://twitter.com/WarintheFuture/status/1605079411048337408?s=20

🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT/1715 UTC 19 DEC/ Contract fighters from the Wagner Group, including convicts recruited from RU prisons, are being fed into the hellish fight for Bakhmut. Daily RU casualties have been estimated at 100 RU troops killed per day and upwards of 200 wounded.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1604887065862078465?s=20/photo/1

WaPo Editorial: 22 good things that happened in 2022 https://tinyurl.com/9wmspkjf
1. Ukraine still stands.
2. American voters rejected extreme candidates.
3. Gas prices are no longer at heart attack levels.
10. The world (mostly) averted a global food crisis.
14. More than 4 million people got jobs.
16. Schools reopened — and stayed open.
18. Bipartisanship on guns, same-sex marriage and chips.
19. Deficit reduction made a (very modest) comeback.

🐣 RT @ArnabNRoy Wtf is this?
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/ArnabNRoy/status/1604733439970013184?s=20/photo/1

[Text:] 🐣 RT @REVMAXXING NAFO was successful for a reason. We need to study their tactics.
⋙ 🐣 RT @ @LateToDinner00 They had money, media personalities, state and NGO support, as well as botnet resources and passes from social media companies to break TOS. The k-hive, but bigger. All of the points they relied on for success seem to be exclusive to state-backed orgs.
🐣 RT @REVMAXXING Dude, we literally have the same support. Such as Elon, and Andrew Tate.
⋙ 🐣 RT @LateToDinner00 Lmao. They have the social democratic establishment since the ww2. You cant challenge that.

🐣 RT @ FedorovMykhailo Cold, shelling 24/7 and endless heroism of 🇺🇦 defenders. This is briefly on what is happening near Bakhmut right now. The heart of Ukrainian invincibility is here — the future of the civilized world is at stake. By @United24media
💽 https://twitter.com/FedorovMykhailo/status/1604800611798507520?s=20/photo/1

🚫🐣 RT @iamraisini [Thread] Elon Musk is a pathological liar, a charlatan and a Super Villain. I have nothing against him but as an investor in Tesla & Twitter, i have serious concerns about his long track record of lies, his treatment of staff at Tesla, SpaceX & Twitter. This thread is about that
📌 https://twitter.com/iamraisini/status/1598006529814560769?s=20
// 12/2/2022; I don’t know if @iamraisini is a real angel investor and there are several individuals with the surname of Raisini assc’d with Raisini Records which IS a Qatari music company. The sources listed are real.
⋙ 🐣 Thanks for the list of articles. I hope whatever happens, that Twitter survives. It’s a nerve center for news and discussion. Musk clearly does not understand it’s not an engineering company. ¤ PS. I’ll never buy a Tesla, but StarLink is a great service

🐣 RT @iamraisini [(which?) Raisini, “angel investor”] [13 hrs ago] Just overheard Elon Musk discussing investment opportunities from the Amir of Qatar @TamimBinHamad & other Saudi Royals for his businesses, specifically Twitter, but from their body language & diplomatic response, it didn’t seem very positive. They asked him to find a suitable CEO
⋙ 🐣 RT @iamraisini Elon tweeted this after he was told by his Saudi & Qatari investors to get his shit together. They are not happy with the way he is proving to be an amateur CEO and asked him to step down.
⋙⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @elonmusk Going forward, there will be a vote for major policy changes. My apologies. Won’t happen again.
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @iamraisini That tweet followed by this ‘pretend’ poll asking if he should step down as CEO to save the embarrassment. Remember that Saudi Prince @Alwaleed_Talal invested $1.89 Billion and Qatar @QIA about $400 Million in Twitter. They are the real Power at Twitter. ¤ I have spoken.
⋙⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @elonmusk Should I step down as head of Twitter? I will abide by the results of this poll. […]

🐣 RT @KremlinTrolls Musk is in trouble.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/KremlinTrolls/status/1604789597887778818?s=20/photo/1

[Text:] There are three things he doesn’t seem to grasp:
• That it’s the community that matters, not the tech
• Where the value is in that community
– What the right-wing-nut-jobs want.

Musk is in trouble. Firstly, he seems to think he’s bought a tech company (‘not enough coders, too many managers) when what he’s really bought is a community of users. What makes Twitter work, what makes it potentially valuable, isn’t the tech (which isn’t that special) but the community that uses it – that, in particular, it’s become the medium of choice of journalists and politicians.

That’s the value, right there. Every journalist worth their salt uses Twitter – and most use it a lot. Ditto pretty much every politician. Making blue ticks pay? That’s part of the same problem: he doesn’t understand the blue ticks are what make the site valuable to others. They’re the user base he should care about, not the right-wing-nut-job community.

But he doesn’t even understand them. Right wing nut-jobs don’t just want a place where they can rant, abuse and say whatever words they want. If they did, they’d be quite content with Gab, Parler, Truth Social, some bits of 4Chan, Reddit etc. See? They’ve got plenty of spaces. No, what they want is a place where they can rant at the libs, at the MSM, at the people they hate. If those people aren’t there (and they aren’t on Gab, Parler, Truth Social etc), the ranting isn’t nearly as fun.

It’s a mess. So if Musk manages to drive the libs away, that’s ruined. If the libs are driven off, the right-wing will be jubilant for a while, but then bored. And then Twitter dies. So Musk has to keep the libs on board. And the advertisers too. because they’ll run like hell if Twitters just a hate-speech hell-site. And that means moderation. It means keeping the Nazis off the site. It means keeping control of abuse and hate speech. It means cutting down the misinformation. All things Musk doesn’t want to do. If he turns Twitter into a hell-site, he kills it.

So what can he do? It’s not easy. There’s no simple solution, no magic wand. Free speech is bloody difficult. I’d suggest he read Habermas, but of course he won’t. So it’ll be messy, and I suspect he’ll just get bored eventually, but who knows? That’s the thing. Handing over Twitter to a massive-ego, massive- wealth, unpredictable billionaire is kind of a metaphor for the whole way we’ve dealt with the internet. It’s mess. We just have to do what we can.

🐣 📊 RT @elonmusk Should I step down as head of Twitter? I will abide by the results of this poll.
Yes: 57.5, No 42.5
17.5M votes; 5:20am CT ⋙ final
¤ https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1604617643973124097?s=20
⋙ 🐣 RT @ZeleskiLuke The world’s richest man has taken possession of a global social media platform used by the world’s journalists, scientists, governments, private citizens, businesses, religions, militaries and health/emergency services to share all vital information—It’s going as you might expect
⋙ 😅 RT @hugolowell Remember Musk can still remain chief twit if Pence has the courage
⋙ 🐣 RT @ @EricG1247 People are voting in a different way.
◕ https://twitter.com/EricG1247/status/1604626795436724224?s=20/photo/1
// Tesla stock chart: down 50% in last year, ⅓ since assumed control of Twitter

⭕ 18 Dec 2022

WSJ: Battle for Bakhmut Is Critical Test of Russia’s Prospects in Ukraine https://tinyurl.com/3m7usrjs “Bakhmut has become the war’s main battlefield, with Ukraine and Russia alike pouring in troops, tanks and artillery”
// Russia’s new war commander promised advances in exchange for retreat in the south. Bakhmut in the east is where he is trying to show those gains.

(📊) DailyBeast, Anna Nemtsova: Russia Can Finally See That Putin’s ‘Days Are Numbered’ https://tinyurl.com/2s35kuvt “Both independent and Kremlin-controlled polls show that Putin has lost support for his war, with less than 30 percent of the country wanting it to continue”
// The war in Ukraine has destroyed Putin’s aura of infallibility back home, and even the Kremlin seems to have realized this is the beginning of the end.

🐣 RT @joshdr83 The head of lettuce wins again!
⋙ 🐣 RT @JuddLegum UPDATE: The tweets by @TwitterSupport this morning, announcing a new policy banning linking to competing websites, have been deleted. ¤ The policy itself was deleted from Twitter’s website.

🐣 RT @john_sipher “Vladimir Putin will go down in history not merely as the man who failed to restore the Russian empire, but as the destroyer of the Russian world.”
⋙ TheGuardian, Timothy Ash: In Ukraine, I saw the greatest threat to the Russian world isn’t the west – it’s Putin https://tinyurl.com/mr29ru9f
// The Kremlin’s imperial war has made its own culture and language a common enemy for people across its former empire

The time has come to ask whether, objectively speaking, Vladimir Putin is an agent of American imperialism. For no American has ever done half as much damage to what Putin calls the “Russian world” as the Russian leader himself has.

This thought came to me recently when I was in the Ukrainian city of Lviv, talking to Ukrainians made refugees in their own country by Putin’s war. “I was a Russian speaker until 24 February,” said Adeline, an art student from the now Russian-occupied town of Nova Kakhovka, referencing the date of Russia’s full-scale invasion earlier this year. Russia has failed to take over Ukrainian culture, she said, so now it has set out to kill it. Several other Ukrainian students told me they find “the spirit of freedom” in Ukrainian literature, but of subservience to power in Russian literature. …

Wherever I turned, in every conversation, there was a total rejection not just of the Russian dictator, not merely of the Russian Federation as a state, but of everything and almost everyone Russian. Polling by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology shows that some 80% of Ukrainians had a positive attitude to Russia in 2013; by May 2022, the figure was just 2%. A university lecturer told me that his students now write “russia” with a small initial letter. “I don’t correct them.”

This may be unsurprising in Ukraine, a country suffering from a Russian war that is now primarily directed against the civilian population. But the same thing is happening across much of the territory of the former Russian (and subsequently Soviet) empire – which, since the early 2000s, Moscow has tried to reimagine as the russkiy mir, or Russian world. …

Russian culture is thus a collateral victim of Putin’s self-devouring cannibalism. There was an alternative future in which Russian-speaking culture, like today’s English-speaking culture, may have become multiculturally enriched by authors and artists from all its former colonies. What would contemporary English-language literature be without authors from India, Africa and Oceania? And, after all, fine contemporary Ukrainian writers such as Andrey Kurkov write – or should I say wrote? – in Russian.

But we must keep our eyes on the main tragedy. Putin is trying to recover parts of the Russian empire by brute force and terror. He recently boasted that the Azov Sea has become an internal Russian sea, adding that even Peter the Great “had still to fight to gain access to [it]”. About 14 million Ukrainians, a staggering one-third of the country’s population, have been made homeless. Europe has seen nothing like this since 1945.

Even in Lviv, in the far west of Ukraine, I encountered frequent multi-hour power cuts, because Russia has destroyed about 50% of the country’s energy infrastructure. (You can donate to help Ukrainians get through the winter here.) What does Ukraine need most? Every single person I spoke to gave the same answer: weapons, weapons, weapons. Give us the tools, they say, and we will finish the job. And so we should. ¤ In the end, Vladimir Putin will go down in history not merely as the man who failed to restore the Russian empire, but as the destroyer of the Russian world.

WaPo: Musk blamed a Twitter account for an alleged stalker. Police see no link. https://tinyurl.com/y66kda8s The confrontation took place at a gas station 26 miles from Los Angeles International Airport and 23 hours after the @ElonJet account had last located the jet’s whereabouts
// Twitter owner Elon Musk threatened legal action, changed the platform’s rules and suspended journalists’ accounts after a confrontation involving his security team at a gas station. But the incident’s timing and location cast doubt on a link to the @ElonJet account.

WaPo: After backlash, Elon Musk is staking his leadership on a Twitter poll https://tinyurl.com/79z3c6hj “Musk’s ownership of Twitter — which he bought in October for $44 billion — has plunged the site into turmoil”
// After a new policy prompted backlash, Twitter CEO Elon Musk said future policies would be determined by polls

Musk’s ownership of Twitter — which he bought in October for $44 billion — has plunged the site into turmoil. He ousted the company’s executives and installed a team of loyalists, laid off more than half the staff and dialed back Twitter’s content moderation. He has engaged in misinformation as the site’s owner and hastily rolled out new and confusing changes, courting controversy and alarming advertisers, some of whom paused their spending on the site.

🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer KREMENNA/2345 UTC 18 DEC/ UKR forces repelled a RU assault on Chervonopopivka during 16-17 DEC. The Forward Edge of the Battle Area (FEBA) extends to the E side of the P-66 HWY, south from Pischane to Zhytiivika. On 18 DEC, UKR troops engaged RU units SE of Kuzmyne.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1604617793525227521?s=20/photo/1

Insider, Linette Lopez: Elon’s stale playbook https://tinyurl.com/3ebzt7v2
// At Tesla and SpaceX, Elon Musk was a jerk with a grand vision. At Twitter, he’s just a jerk.
🐣 RT @Victorshi2020 BREAKING: The January 6th Committee met today and finalized three criminal referrals that they’ll issue against Donald Trump to DOJ tomorrow. Those include obstruction, conspiracy to defraud the government, & incitement of insurrection according to MSNBC.

⭕ 17 Dec 2022

🧵 RT @NOELreports SitRep – 17/12 – Bakhmut fights back
An overview of the daily events in the war between Russia and Ukraine. Bakhmut fights back. Reinforcements have arrived and Russians are getting acquainted with ammunition unknown to them ;-) Thread 1/X
📌 https://twitter.com/NOELreports/status/1604239052286328839?s=20

🐣 I did set up an @Auriandra account on Post, but I will be heartbroken if Twitter implodes. I have been an avid user since 2009. I think of all the work I’ve put into creating topic-based Lists especially, but it’s the depth of expertise and friendships I value most. ♡

NYT: An Alternate Reality: How Russia’s State TV Spins the Ukraine War https://tinyurl.com/2s3wv23x “[P]roducers at the state media company cherry-picked from conservative Western media outlets like Fox News and the Daily Caller, as well as obscure social media accounts”
// Leaked emails detail how Russia’s biggest state broadcaster, working with the nation’s security services, mined right-wing American news and Chinese media to craft a narrative that Moscow was winning.

WaPo, Dan Balz: Biden vs. Trump? In 2022, there was a clear winner and a clearer loser https://tinyurl.com/3bxb3ze6 “Biden proved to be one of the most successful newly elected presidents, politically speaking, in generations”
// Biden and his party defied the history of midterm elections. Trump’s missteps helped make that possible. This pattern continues to play out ahead of 2024.

🐣 RT @dklaidman After a long, rough patch @POTUS is ending 2022 with big wins. From falling gas prices and declining inflation to passage of the Respect for Marriage Act and a deal that avoids a gov. shutdown, Biden has revitalized his hands presidency. @alexnazaryan reports
⋙ YahooNews: Biden began 2022 in rough shape. He’s ending it with a series of wins. https://tinyurl.com/5n8rbrfa
// President Biden started out the year in sorry shape. Since then, however, he appears to have revitalized his presidency through a series of lucky breaks and savvy moves

🐣 RT @SpiroAgnewGhost Holy shit. The level of fear, lying and misdirection, as well as the spelling skills of a 3rd grader (“PATRIOTICLY”) is quite impressive here.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/SpiroAgnewGhost/status/1604281133205581824?s=20/photo/1

[Text:] 🐣 RT @realDonaldTrump [ts] They say that the Unselect Committee of Democrats, Misfits, and Thugs, without any representation from Republicans in good standing, is getting ready to recommend Criminal Charges to the highly partisan, political, and Corrupt “Justice” Department for the “PEACEFULLY & PATRIOTICLY” speech I made on January 6th. This speech and my actions were mild & loving, especially when compared to Democrats wild spewing of HATE. Why didn’t they investigate massive Election Fraud or send in the Troops? SCAM!

🐣 RT @JayinKyiv Russia spent 70 years stockpiling missles (including thousands given to them by Ukraine), used two thirds of them in 9 months bombing Ukraine.. ¤ And we still have electricity, wifi, heat, water, traffic lights, restaurants, food delivery apps..
⋙ 🐣 RT Flash_news_ua⚡️ 75% of the capital’s residents already have heat supply, – Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klychko says. ¤ “Heat workers continue to work for the second day in order to stabilize the situation with heat supply in Kyiv”, – Klychko writes.

🐣 RT @RonFilipkowski It doesn’t bother me that he wakes up each morning and puts out different versions of this rant about 5 hours after his last rant before going to bed.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1604114297931829248?s=20/photo/1

[Text:] 🐣 RT @ @realDonald Trump Our Country is SICK inside, very much like a person dying of Cancer. The Crooked FBI, the so-called Department of “Justice,” and “Intelligence,” all parts of the Democrat Party and System, is the Cancer. These Weaponized Thugs and Tyrants must be dealt with, or our once great and beautiful Countrv will die!!!

🐣 RT @nexta_tv US President Joe #Biden’s administration has asked #Congress to provide #Ukraine with an additional $38bn. ¤ This was announced by White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan

NYT, Anton Troianovski: Eight Takeaways From The Times’s Investigation Into Putin’s War https://tinyurl.com/4cv49uud
// Secret Russian battle plans, intercepts, and interviews with Russian soldiers and Kremlin confidants revealed new details of how Vladimir Putin botched his invasion of Ukraine.

● Reached by phone inside Russian hospitals, wounded soldiers described being sent to war with little food, training, bullets or equipment — and watching about two-thirds of their platoon get killed.
● Many of the people closest to Mr. Putin fed his suspicions, magnifying his grievances against the West.
● The United States tried to stop Ukraine from killing a top Russian general.
● A senior Russian official told the C.I.A. director, William J. Burns, last month that Russia would not give up, no matter how many of its soldiers were killed or injured.
● Days into the invasion, Mr. Putin told Israel’s leader that the Ukrainians had turned out to be “tougher than I was told.”
● Invading Russian soldiers used their cellphones to call home, enabling the Ukrainian military to find and kill them.
● The day of the invasion, Mr. Putin set a trap for Russian business tycoons, putting them on television “to tar everyone there,” as one of them described it.
● Mr. Putin’s fractured armies have sometimes turned on each other; one soldier said a tank commander deliberately fired on a Russian checkpoint.

⭕ 16 Dec 2022

TheAtlantic, Tom Nichols: The Childish Drama of Elon Musk https://tinyurl.com/yckp7vdu “[W]e can at least shelve all of Musk’s blather about free speech. Twitter is an important part of how we disseminate and process news, and it’s now in the hands of an irritable and unpredictable child”
// Yet again, an important part of the public square is controlled by a narcissistic toddler.

For the past few days, Elon Musk has been throwing a gigantic temper tantrum on his platform, Twitter. It is not usually a matter of public interest when a narcissist like Musk goes haywire, but just as Donald Trump’s anger warped our public life, Musk’s conniptions could affect our culture and how we get information.

… Musk took ownership of Twitter in late October and, in a flurry of Calvinball rule changes, declared this week that revealing the whereabouts of his jet was the same as doxxing (that is, publishing personal data about private citizens), decreed this a violation of Twitter’s terms of service, and banned [Jack Sweeney‘s @ElonJet] account.

Musk claims that a stalker used the location of his jet to attack a car that his son was in. He has not presented any evidence that this event happened or, it seems, filed any police reports. And in a karmic plot twist, the founder of the investigative journalism site Bellingcat tweeted that his team ascertained that the event did not take place near an airport. But Musk used this story to go after yet more accounts. None were sharing the real-time location of his jet, but some were reporting on the ban of @ElonJet and the Musk Twitter tantrum that went with it.

Within hours, the account bans had piled up. Musk took out the independent journalist Aaron Rupar, a regular thorn in his paw. He banned Donie O’Sullivan of CNN. He scragged the accounts of Drew Harwell at The Washington Post, Micah Lee of The Intercept, and Ryan Mac of The New York Times. As the night wore on, he vanished Keith Olbermann—sure, he’s annoying, but still—and Matt Binder of Mashable. And just for good measure, when Steve Herman of that notoriously left-wing organization known as Voice of America merely affirmed the news that Musk was banning his critics, the Chief Twit zotzed that account too.

The usual Twitter tempête de merde ensued. Twitter’s liberals swore that this was the last straw and that they were all decamping to alternatives, usually the Mastodon social network. … and so Musk seemingly went through another round of sweaty, angry panic, in which Twitter declared references to Mastodon to be “unsafe,” eventually blocking links to Mastodon itself in the name of safety and virtue and all that is holy and good—which is also convenient, because Mastodon is one of Twitter’s few competitors. …

Now, unless you’re Very Online—and I am, for both personal and professional reasons—none of this matters very much at the moment. But Musk’s weird rampage does have an impact on the way the world around you exchanges information. Twitter has many levels; for some people, it’s a place to talk about oddball hobbies and exchange pet pictures. (Have you met my cat?) But it’s also an extremely valuable conduit for news, information, culture, and argument. Twitter doesn’t control the news, but it helps to shape public debate about many issues. Indeed, Musk’s entire public rationale for taking over Twitter was to preserve an important venue for free speech.

Musk’s defense of free speech is nonsense. One of the world’s richest men—who is not shy about his politics or his contempt for the free press—has reinstated Donald Trump, white supremacists, and any number of dangerous malefactors to Twitter, but he has made it clear that Donie O’Sullivan is beyond the pale. He has purchased an important and influential piece of the public square not to enhance public debate, but to punish people who annoy him. As if to underscore this point, Musk joined a Twitter Spaces live audio chat with journalists who asked him to explain what he was doing. He abruptly left the meeting—and then Twitter Spaces itself was shut down. (This was, he tweeted, to fix a “Legacy bug.” He announced on Friday evening that Spaces had been restored.)

… I think he lost his cool because for more than a month, he’s been in way over his head with an impulsive purchase, his fortunes are plunging, and he got booed by a crowd of thousands of people at a Dave Chappelle performance …

But we can at least shelve all of Musk’s blather about free speech. Twitter is an important part of how we disseminate and process news, and it’s now in the hands of an irritable and unpredictable child. This is one more step in the infantilization of American life, in which we must accommodate and work around the behavior of grown men and women who not so long ago would have been pushed out of public life either by our collective political disgust or by responsible shareholders who would insist that their corporate leaders get back to work instead of making a spectacle of themselves.

NYT: Putin’s War https://tinyurl.com/ymkjpmdh A Times investigation based on interviews, intercepts, documents and secret battle plans shows how a “walk in the park” became a catastrophe for Russia: This is the inside story of historic Russian failures [multimedia]
// Secret battle plans, intercepts and Russian soldiers’ accounts show how a “walk in the park” became a disaster for Moscow.

The Times investigation found a stunning cascade of mistakes that started with Mr. Putin — profoundly isolated in the pandemic, obsessed with his legacy, convinced of his own brilliance — and continued long after drafted soldiers like Mikhail were sent to the slaughter. ¤ At every turn, the failures ran deeper than previously known:

● In interviews, Putin associates said he spiraled into self-aggrandizement and anti-Western zeal, leading him to make the fateful decision to invade Ukraine in near total isolation, without consulting experts who saw the war as pure folly. Aides and hangers-on fueled his many grudges and suspicions, a feedback loop that one former confidant likened to the radicalizing effect of a social-media algorithm. Even some of the president’s closest advisers were left in the dark until the tanks began to move. As another longtime confidant put it, “Putin decided that his own thinking would be enough.”

● The Russian military, despite Western assumptions about its prowess, was severely compromised, gutted by years of theft. Hundreds of billions of dollars had been devoted to modernizing the armed forces under Mr. Putin, but corruption scandals ensnared thousands of officers. One military contractor described frantically hanging enormous patriotic banners to hide the decrepit conditions at a major Russian tank base, hoping to fool a delegation of top brass. The visitors were even prevented from going inside to use the bathroom, he said, lest they discover the ruse.

● Once the invasion began, Russia squandered its dominance over Ukraine through a parade of blunders. It relied on old maps and bad intelligence to fire its missiles, leaving Ukrainian air defenses surprisingly intact, ready to defend the country. Russia’s vaunted hacking squads tried, and failed, to win in what some officials call the first big test of cyberweapons in actual warfare. Russian soldiers, many shocked they were going to war, used their cellphones to call home, allowing the Ukrainians to track them and pick them off in large numbers. And Russia’s armed forces were so stodgy and sclerotic that they did not adapt, even after enduring huge losses on the battlefield. While their planes were being shot down, many Russian pilots flew as if they faced no danger, almost like they were at an air show.

● Stretched thin by its grand ambitions, Russia seized more territory than it could defend, leaving thousands of square miles in the hands of skeleton crews of underfed, undertrained and poorly equipped fighters. Many were conscripts or ragtag separatists from Ukraine’s divided east, with gear from the 1940s or little more than printouts from the internet describing how to use a sniper rifle, suggesting soldiers learned how to fight on the fly. With new weapons from the West in hand, the Ukrainians beat them back, yet Russian commanders kept sending waves of ground troops into pointless assaults, again and again. “Nobody is going to stay alive,” one Russian soldier said he realized after being ordered into a fifth march directly in the sights of Ukrainian artillery. Finally, he and his demoralized comrades refused to go.

● Mr. Putin divided his war into fiefs, leaving no one powerful enough to challenge him. Many of his fighters are commanded by people who are not even part of the military, like his former bodyguard, the leader of Chechnya and a mercenary boss who has provided catering for Kremlin events. As the initial invasion failed, the atomized approach only deepened, chipping away at an already disjointed war effort. Now, Mr. Putin’s fractured armies often function like rivals, competing for weapons and, at times, viciously turning on one another. One soldier recounted how the clashes became violent, with a Russian tank commander deliberately charging at his supposed allies and blowing up their checkpoint. …

The more setbacks Mr. Putin endures on the battlefield, the more fears grow over how far he is willing to go. He has killed tens of thousands in Ukraine, leveled cities and targeted civilians for maximum pain — obliterating hospitals, schools and apartment buildings, while cutting off power and water to millions before winter. Each time Ukrainian forces score a major blow against Russia, the bombing of their country intensifies. And Mr. Putin has repeatedly reminded the world that he can use anything at his disposal, including nuclear arms, to pursue his notion of victory.

As far back as January, with the United States warning that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was imminent, a retired Russian general named Leonid Ivashov saw disaster on the horizon. In a rare open letter, he warned that using force against Ukraine would threaten “the very existence of Russia as a state.”

In a recent phone interview, General Ivashov said that his warnings before the war echoed what he had been hearing from nervous Russian military officials at the time. Though the Kremlin insisted an invasion was not on the table, some could tell otherwise. Service members told him that “victory in such a situation is impossible,” he said, but their superiors told them not to worry. A war would be a “walk in the park,” they were told.

The last 10 months, he went on, have turned out to be “even more tragic” than predicted. Nimble Ukrainian generals and soldiers have outmaneuvered a much bigger, more lethal foe. The West, cheered by Ukraine’s successes, has provided ever more powerful weapons to drive the Russians back.

“Never in its history has Russia made such stupid decisions,” General Ivashov said. “Alas, today stupidity has triumphed — stupidity, greed, a kind of vengefulness and even a kind of malice.”… …

NYT: Jan. 6 Panel Plans Vote on Referring Trump for Insurrection and Other Charges https://tinyurl.com/2cvksszb The other charges are “for obstructing an official proceeding of Congress and conspiracy to defraud the United States”; the insurrection charge is new
// The committee also was expected to recommend charging the former president with obstructing an official proceeding of Congress and defrauding the American people.

NYT, Michelle Goldberg: The Left’s Fever Is Breaking https://tinyurl.com/39jr72ne Maurice Mitchell’s piece,“Building Resilient Organizations,” “systematically lays out some of the assertions and assumptions that have paralyzed progressive outfits” in a self-defeating “doom loop”
↥ ↧
💙 TheIntercept, Ryan Grim: How Meltdowns Brought Progressive Groups to a Standstill https://tinyurl.com/y4wee5j5
// 6/13/2022; stop hiring activists; Meltdowns Have Brought Progressive Advocacy Groups to a Standstill at a Critical Moment in World History

★ WaPo: Can politics kill you? Research says the answer increasingly is yes. https://tinyurl.com/5df9rkth “[P]eople living in more-conservative parts of the United States disproportionately bore the burden of illness and death linked to covid-19”
// tags: various measures various studies; In one study, researchers concluded that people living in more-conservative parts of the United States disproportionately bore the burden of illness and death linked to covid-19. The other, which looked at health outcomes more broadly, found that the more conservative a state’s policies, the shorter the lives of working-age people.

🐣 RT @RonFilipkowski Ben Shapiro slams Trump for his NFT grift: “Almost completely craters his presidential campaign .. it’s cringeworthy, it just is .. a money grab .. On every available front, it’s maybe the dumbest politics I’ve ever seen. It’s painful. It’s painful!”
💽 https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1603876635916189696?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @atrupar I want to thank everyone for all the support and kind words over the past day and some change. I was pretty bummed about getting suspended initially but quickly realized it’d be fine because I’m blessed to have an amazing online community. Seriously, I appreciate it a lot. Cheers
⋙ 🐣 wonderful to have you back!
🎄❣🎄❣🎄❣🎄❣🎄❣🎄❣🎄❣🎄
🎅🎄🎁🌟🐱Very Merry!🐱🎄🌟🎁✨🎅
🎅🎄🎁🌟🐱Very Merry!🐱🎄🌟🎁✨🎅
🎅🎄🎁🌟🐱Very Merry!🐱🎄🌟🎁✨🎅
🎄❣🎄❣🎄❣🎄❣🎄❣🎄❣🎄❣🎄
blessings to your family! 💫

TheGuardian: Twitter’s suspension of journalists sets ‘dangerous precedent’, UN warns https://tinyurl.com/23c74pdh First the EU, now the UK and the UN have expressed concerns. Germany said “press freedom must not be switched ‘on and off on a whim’”
//. Pressure grows on Elon Musk as EU says social media platform could face sanctions over suspensions

The United Nations is “very disturbed” by Twitter’s abrupt suspension of a group of US journalists, a spokesperson has said, warning that the move sets a “dangerous precedent” – as the EU said the social media platform could fall foul of forthcoming digital regulations.

Stéphane Dujarric said on Friday the UN was “very disturbed” by the barring of prominent tech reporters at news organisations including CNN, the Washington Post and the New York Times who have written about Musk and the tech company he owns.

Dujarric said media voices should not be silenced on a platform that professed to be a haven for freedom of speech. “The move sets a dangerous precedent at a time when journalists all over the world are facing censorship, physical threats and even worse,” he told reporters.

Germany’s government said press freedom must not be switched “on and off on a whim” and Downing Street also raised concernsover the suspensions. …

NBC: A Biden admin official recently told members of Congress that Ukraine has the military capability to take back Crimea https://tinyurl.com/3yfzszf7 “The Ukrainians ‘continue to shock the world with how well they’re performing on the battlefield,’ a U.S. official said”
// No offensive is imminent, but officials worry that a large-scale attack that threatens Russia’s hold on the peninsula could push Putin to use nuclear weapons.

🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer JDAMS FOR UKRAINE: Washington is considering providing Ukraine with JADAM kits that turn unguided aerial munitions into “smart bombs” capable of hitting RU military positions “with a high degree of accuracy.” https://tinyurl.com/tz337e2h
◕ https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1603500646107189248?s=20/photo/1

TheGuardian (Sep 7): Leonard Leo: the secretive rightwinger using billions to reshape America https://tinyurl.com/5n7wkzmj Leo is now pushing the legal theory st issue in Moore v Harper ~ that state legislatures have the power to run elections without intervention from the courts
// Marble Freedom Trust, advocacy group headed by Leo, has received vast $1.6bn donation to push conservative causes
⋙ ✛ Leonard Leo funneled millions through his dark money network to help seat Trump’s three SCOTUS picks (Gorsuch, Kavanaugh & Coney Barret)t; we’ll have to see how these three vote of Moore v Harper; Alito and Thomas will likely side with the “indecent state legislatures” theory

🐣 RT @DempseyTwo A $1.6 billion dollar gift. Imagine you’ve just delivered a Supreme Court opinion overturning Roe. You’ve achieved this because you were able to choose the very Justices who gave you that option. What could the next billion be for?
⋙ ProPublica: Conservative Activist Poured Millions Into Groups Seeking to Influence Supreme Court on Elections and Discrimination https://tinyurl.com/47bfpfvk
// Newly obtained records show how Leonard Leo, an architect of the right-wing takeover of the courts, has been funding groups pushing to change elections and anti-discrimination laws.

🐣 RT @JayinKyiv Yep, ¤ Putin invaded Ukraine to solidify his power, a legacy that protects him sufficient to be allowed to exit and KEEP what he’s looted from Russia. ¤ Now, it’s all backfired, assuring he leaves power only in a box.
⋙ 🧵 RT @mbk_center [Mikhail Kodhokosky] Putin cancelled his annual press conference for the first time in a decade as well as his address to the Federal Assembly. Although the Constitution mandates communications between the President and the Parliament. Here’s a thread on why this is a significant sign 1/11
📌 https://twitter.com/mbk_center/status/1603793252800512002?s=20
[ThreadReader:] https://tinyurl.com/5n7frc7h

Putin has nothing to say to ordinary Russians and the Russian elite. He can’t possibly avoid talking about the war, its goals, and its course in his statements. He also lacks solid justifications and forecasts in light of the Russian army’s failures 2/11

Putin’s forces failed to seize Kyiv as well as demoralise Ukrainian soldiers. Ukrainians managed to liberate several captured territories in late summer and early autumn and successfully launched symbolic retaliatory strikes upon Russian territory 3/11

Kherson – the only regional centre taken and even formally absorbed into Russia – was liberated. Ukraine was able to sink The Moskva, Russia’s flagship in the Black Sea fleet. Moreover, they caused devastating explosions which demolished the vital Crimean bridge 4/11

Kremlin had to abandon its rhetoric of rescuing Ukrainians from Nazis. Instead, Putin has made it blatantly obvious he is bent on destroying the peaceful civilian infrastructure as a form of warfare against the Ukrainian people and state, and that they are the ultimate goal 5/11

The current situation occurs in the context of the continuing deterioration of living standards and extensive mobilisation taking place in Russia. Meanwhile, the elite and business sector have largely lost foreign assets and access to the benefits of Western civilisation 6/11

Putin is losing this war, as the goals are no longer clear, and both the elite and the population are bearing the costs. He can’t explain the purpose of his invasion or when it will come to an end. He’s not able to meet public demand so he cancelled all public talks 7/11

The decision to cancel all events is also motivated by fear of potential successful sabotage by Ukrainians as they have demonstrated their ability to attack targets deep within Russian territory 8/11

Russia’s most strategic military airfields, located 650 km from the front line, were destroyed by a drone attack. Besides, Western Siberia has already been affected by several mystery fires at sensitive Russian facilities 9/11

No one can guarantee that Putin won’t have to address the media or the parliament while the Kremlin is on fire or a bridge over the Moskva River is in shambles. 10/11

No one can guarantee that Putin won’t have to address the media or the parliament while the Kremlin is on fire or a bridge over the Moskva River is in shambles 10/11

To conclude, Russia’s domestic politics are now largely shaped by Ukraine’s successful military campaign. Putin started the war to address his personal issues and remain in power. However, Ukraine already has power over his domestic agenda 11/11

🐣 RT @ianbremmer from the eu commission’s vp for values and transparency:
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/ianbremmer/status/1603760609324961792?s=20/photo/1

[Text:] RT @VeraJourova News about arbitrary suspension of journalists on Twitter is worrying. EU’s Digital Services Act requires respect of media freedom and fundamental rights. This is reinforced under our #MediaFreedomAct. @elonmusk should be aware of that. There are red lines. And sanctions, soon.

🐣 RT @frontlinepbs In an interview for FRONTLINE’s March 2022 doc “Putin’s Road to War,” journalist @juliaioffe discusses Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Watch and read: https://to.pbs.org/3MD9ldJ
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/frontlinepbs/status/1603760632414732288?s=20/photo/1

[Text:] “I think he’s more dangerous than he’s ever been at any point in the last 22 years. I think he did not expect to lose in Ukraine, and therefore he will not lose! ¤ “He will grind the country down to a fine, fine ash.” JULIA IOFFE, journalist and co-founder of the media company Puck

🐣 RT @ 🐣 RT @Angry_Staffer MAGA is SO mad about Trump’s trading cards. 🤣🤣🤣
MAGA: he’s going to announce that he’ll be speaker of the house!!
Also MAGA: he’s going to be reinstated!!
Trump: look, I’m an astronaut 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/Angry_Staffer/status/1603478277175365639?s=20/photo/1 -2

🐣 RT @angelaretail First Lie Of The Day:
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/angelaretail/status/1603733788881817600?s=20/photo/1

[Text:] 🐣 RT [ts] @realDonaldTrump The Eric Holder/Obama disciple, Special “Prosecutor” Jack Smith (he’s no Jack Smith), has found NOTHING that I have done wrong or differently than other Presidents on the “Boxes Hoax” (Raid of Mar-a-Lago), including the fact that Presidents are PROTECTED under the Presidential Records Act, the Clinton Socks Case, & more. Now “Smith” is snooping around the PERFECT PHONE CALL I made to the Georgia Sec. of State challenging the corrupt Presidential Election results, my absolute right to do!

🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer KREMENNA/1330 UTC 16 DEC/ UKR forces have infiltrated the heavily forested areas to the west and south of Kremenna. Combat in this terrain favors the coordinated use of small units of infantry. RU units are reported assaulting west of Lysychansk
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1603742271870042113?s=20/photo/1

🔆 This❗️⋙ EuropeanCommission (Nov 16): DIGITAL SERVICES ACT: EU’s landmark rules for online platforms enter into force https://tinyurl.com/mu37zbpc “Designed as a single, uniform set of rules for the EU, these rules will give users new protections and businesses legal certainty”
// The DSA applies to all digital services that connect consumers to goods, services, or content. It creates comprehensive new obligations for online platforms to reduce harms and counter risks online, introduces strong protections for users’ rights online, and places digital platforms under a unique new transparency and accountability framework. Designed as a single, uniform set of rules for the EU, these rules will give users new protections and businesses legal certainty across the whole single market.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1603737641534439425?s=20/photo/1

[Text:] Enhanced safeguards for fundamental rights online

The new rules protect users’ fundamental rights in the EU also in the online environment. New protections for the freedom of expression will limit arbitrary content moderation decisions by platforms, and offer new ways for users to take informed action against the platform when their content is moderated: for example, users of online platforms will now have multiple means of challenging content moderation decisions, including when these decisions are based on platforms’ terms and conditions. Users can complain directly to the platform, choose an out-of-court dispute settlement body or seek redress before Courts. ¤ New rules also require platforms’ terms to be presented in a clear and concise manner and to respect users’ fundamental rights. …

🐣 RT @GlasnostGone EU threatened #Twitter owner Elon Musk with sanctions after several journalists accounts were abruptly suspended. EU commissioner Vera Jourova warned the EU’s Digital Services Act requires respect of media freedom. There are red lines. And sanctions, soon”
⋙ BBC [UK]: Twitter threatened with EU sanctions over journalists’ ban https://tinyurl.com/5n725eck

The EU has threatened Twitter owner Elon Musk with sanctions after several journalists covering the company had their accounts abruptly suspended.

Reporters for the New York Times, CNN and the Washington Post were among those locked out of their accounts.

EU commissioner Vera Jourova warned that the EU’s Digital Services Act requires respect of media freedom. ¤ “Elon Musk should be aware of that. There are red lines. And sanctions, soon,” she tweeted. ¤ She said: “News about arbitrary suspension of journalists on Twitter is worrying. The] EU’s Digital Services Act requires respect of media freedom and fundamental rights. This is reinforced under our Media Freedom Act.”

The sanctions could be applied under a new Digital Services Act, which is currently going through the EU Parliament but could be in force by next year. ¤ Under the terms of the proposed new law, the EU Commission will be allowed to impose fines of up to 6% of the global turnover of a service provider that it finds breaks its rules. ¤ In extreme cases the EU could ask a court to suspend a rogue service, but only if it is “refusing to comply with important obligations and thereby endangering people’s life and safety”.

A Twitter spokeswoman earlier told tech website The Verge that the ban was related to the live sharing of location data. ¤ It comes after Mr Musk vowed to sue the owner of a profile that tracks his private jet. ¤ The list of banned journalists also includes The Intercept’s Micha Lee, Mashable’s Matt Binder, and independent reporters Aaron Rupar and Tony Webster.

A spokesman for the New York Times called the suspensions “questionable and unfortunate”, and said neither the paper nor reporter Ryan Mac received any explanation for the action.

CNN said the “impulsive and unjustified suspension of a number of reporters… is concerning but not surprising”. It has asked Twitter for an explanation and will “re-evaluate our relationship based on that response”. ¤ CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan, whose account was among those suspended, said the move was significant for “the potential chilling impact” it could have for journalists, particularly those who cover Mr Musk’s other companies.

When he completed his takeover of the social media site in October, Mr Musk addressed potential advertisers in a tweet in which he spoke of buying Twitter because he wanted to “try to help humanity”, and said he wanted “civilisation to have a digital town square”.

Mr Musk has not commented directly on the suspensions, but said in a tweet that “criticising me all day long is totally fine, but doxxing my real-time location and endangering my family is not”. ¤ He added that accounts engaged in doxxing, which refers to the release of private information about individuals online, receive a temporary seven-day suspension.

“Same doxxing rules apply to ‘journalists’ as to everyone else,” he tweeted. ¤ “They posted my exact real-time location, basically assassination coordinates, in (obvious) direct violation of Twitter terms of service.” ¤ He added: “If anyone posted real-time locations & addresses of NYT reporters, FBI would be investigating, there’d be hearings on Capitol Hill & Biden would give speeches about end of democracy!”

The technology tycoon has since set up a poll asking whether he should unsuspend the accounts “now” or “in seven days”, suggesting the decision could be reversed sooner rather than later.

Matt Binder, a journalist for Mashable and one of those suspended, said he didn’t know why he had been banned. ¤ “I’ve been very critical of Musk in my reporting,” he told the BBC. ¤ But he said that Mr Musk’s claim “that everyone that got suspended was doxxing him – due to the jet tracker”, was not true. ¤ He said he had never tweeted a hyperlink to the tracker, but had mentioned the account after it had been suspended. ¤ “Clearly the people who were suspended were handpicked, because there are literally hundreds of accounts per minute who tweeted the link.”

Mr Binder, who has been on Twitter since 2008 and has been reporting on the developments at the social media site, said he was surprised at the ban on journalists. ¤ “I knew it was a possibility but really thought he wouldn’t because it would entirely wreck the facade of being a free speech platform.”

Twitter’s head of trust and safety, Ella Irwin, told The Verge that bans are related to a new rule introduced on Wednesday that prohibits “live location information, including information shared on Twitter directly or links to 3rd-party URL(s) of travel routes.” ¤ “Without commenting on any specific accounts, I can confirm that we will suspend any accounts that violate our privacy policies and put other users at risk,” Mrs Irwin told the outlet. ¤ “We don’t make exceptions to this policy for journalists or any other accounts.”

At the heart of all this is a father raging about the sharing of location data of his private jet, which he claims led to a security incident involving his young son X. ¤ The Twitter feed that started it all was scraping publicly available flight data. Not very decent, perhaps, but not illegal. ¤ His fury has now extended to journalists who he claims also shared his location – which by the way Twitter itself uses to sell ads, although users can opt out of sharing it.

But this is a fundamentally flawed approach to moderation. I bet many of us wish we could suspend or ban social media accounts that post content we dislike.

It’s not the first time Elon Musk has taken a very personal approach to content moderation. He refused to allow Infowars conspiracy theorist Alex Jones back on Twitter because he had used the death of children to further his career – and mentioned the loss of his own child, 10-week-old Alexander. ¤ He has also suspended accounts which impersonated him. ¤ Fundamentally, Elon Musk has shot down in flames his much-trumpeted commitment to “free speech”. Free speech as long as it doesn’t upset him personally, appears to be the message.

Mr Musk later spoke to journalists on Twitter Spaces, part of the social media app that allows live audio conversations. ¤ His short appearance generated an audience of 30,000 but after answering a few questions about the ban he left and Twitter Spaces itself has since appeared to be suspended.

On Wednesday, Twitter suspended the account @ElonJet, as well as other accounts using publicly available information to track his private plane. ¤ The owner of @ElonJet, Jack Sweeney, 20, also had his personal account blocked. Mr Musk has since vowed to take legal action against him, as well as “organizations who supported harm to my family”. ¤ Mr Musk said a “crazy stalker” had used live location sharing to find and accost a vehicle carrying his children in Los Angeles.

Twitter also suspended the official account of Mastodon, which has emerged as an alternative to Twitter since Mr Musk bought it for $44bn in October. ¤ It came after Mastodon used Twitter to promote Mr Sweeney’s new account on Thursday, according to the New York Times. ¤ Links to individual Mastodon accounts also appeared to be banned. An error message notified users that links to Mastodon had been “identified” as “potentially harmful” by Twitter or its partners.

WaPo: ‘Wiped out’: War in Ukraine has decimated a once feared Russian brigade https://tinyurl.com/2swk98u4 “Because so many of its contract soldiers and senior members of its officer cadre were lost, ‘it will take years to rebuild … ,’ said a senior European intelligence official”
// The bloody fate of the 200th Separate Motor Rifle Brigade is emblematic of Vladimir Putin’s derailed invasion plans

🐣 RT @NBCPolitics Democratic lawmakers criticize Elon Musk after Twitter suddenly suspended a number of high-profile journalists who have been covering the company and its billionaire CEO.
⋙ NBCNews: Democrats criticize Elon Musk for suspending journalists covering Twitter https://tinyurl.com/yc2xc7kd
// Rep. Lori Trahan said the company’s move to suspend a number of high-profile journalists seemed to run counter to assurances she received from Twitter officials the same day.

⭕ 15 Dec 2022

🐣 RT @RpsAgainstTrump Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger in his farewell speech to Congress: “I know that standing up for truth would cost me my job, friendships, and even my personal security. I would, without hesitation, do it all over again.” H/t @PoliticusSarah
💽 https://twitter.com/RpsAgainstTrump/status/1603568455457935361?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @rhazibkhan i’ve written 9 pieces on the steppe (not counting the anatolia piece that talked about turks). all of them are linked in the piece below. probably next up will be the the turks before islam
¤ https://twitter.com/razibkhan/status/1603657007743275010?s=20
💙 ⋙ Substack, Rhazib Khan: Entering Steppelandia: pop. 7.7 billion https://tinyurl.com/ymap6sya
// 4/8/2021; Why the steppe matters to me, and why it should matter to you

CNN: Here’s what’s in the $858 billion defense bill https://tinyurl.com/mr2saavu “The NDAA would extend and modify the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, as well as authorize $800M in funding in fiscal year 2023, which is $500M more than was contained in last year’s defense bill”
// Defense Budget
⋙ 🐣 Background: CSIS (Nov 18, 2022): United States Aid to Ukraine Explained in Six Charts https://tinyurl.com/42ms5ycx “U.S. aid to Ukraine totals $68 billion, and the White House has just asked Congress for another $37.7 billion.”

🐣 RT @tedlieu No. @elonmusk way overpaid for Twitter and he can basically do whatever he wants with it. The First Amendment prevents Congress from regulating speech on Twitter, a private business. It is not Government’s role to tell Twitter who to ban, who to suspend or who to promote.
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @jason_kint I don’t know what happened here but if @elonmusk doesn’t fix this within the hour with an explanation by morning, I’ll be on Capitol Hill tomorrow demanding that he be hauled in front of Congress.
¤ https://twitter.com/tedlieu/status/1603635197559218176?s=20/photo/1 -4
// screenshots of suspended accounts
⋙ 🐣 a platform as key to national security, a forum for international diplomacy, exchange of ideas and conversation, should be run as a utility in the interest of the public good, like the mail service
⋙⋙ 🐣 for instance, during the early days of the pandemic, Twitter was a clearinghouse for “pre-prints” from various servers, allowing the very latest research to be rapidly shared ¤ more recently, it has been key to the sharing of OSINT (open source intel) about the war in Ukraine
⋙⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @ No one is suggesting the Bill DeJoy should be reading everyone’s mail and deciding what to deliver. But that illustrates the problem with their ask — the government can’t do moderation: it becomes censorship.
⋙⋙⋙⋙ 🐣I understand; but there are established relationships between countries already regarding what can be sent in the mail; the EU is talking to Musk currently about what changes are needed for Twitter to meet its guidelines

🧵 RT @oneunderscore__ Journalists who cover Elon Musk have been suspended on Twitter tonight: @donie O’Sullivan from CNN, Aaron Rupar and the Washington Post’s @drewharwell.
📌 https://twitter.com/oneunderscore__/status/1603551884748460034?s=20

🐣 RT @KyleKulinski Recent Elon bans:
Elonjet
Jack Sweeney (ran elonjet)
Mastodon
IGD News
Aaron Rupar
Donie O’Sullivan (CNN)
Drew Harwell (WaPo)
Matt Binder
Ryan Mac (NYT)
Micah Lee (Intercept)
Keith Olbermann
“Free speech absolutist” my asscheeks

🐣 RT @SkinnerPm Probably wasn’t a good idea to privatize national security stuff like, I don’t know, launching satellites into space cuz, I don’t know, (gestures over to the unstable child with money).

WaPo: Twitter abruptly suspends more than half a dozen journalists https://tinyurl.com/59xwk7we
// No reason for the suspensions was given, though many had written or tweeted about the dramas surrounding billionaire Elon Musk’s takeover of the social media platform

🐣 RT @SethAbramson POST NEWS (http://Post.News/sethabramson):
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/SethAbramson/status/1603448427022585856?s=20/photo/1

[Text:] NEWS SUMMARY: Fake “billionaire” Donald Trump is selling $100-apiece low-rent Photoshopped JPEGs. not NFTs, as he claims, as they’re not limited in number, will be sold forever, and come with fine print (aimed at limiting class-action civil liability down the line) explaining that they’re for “personal enjoyment,” not “investment”-to poor Americans at Christmastime. These poor Americans will now have $100 less (or even considerably less than that, given that Trump is advising people to buy up to hundred” of these worthless JPEGs at a time) for food, gas, and Christmas gifts for their kids. This tragicomic level of naked hucksterism has never before been associated with the Office of the Presidency-whether a current occupant or a former one-even taking into account the four years Trump

🐣 RT @EverydayWarren “Better than Lincoln, better than Washington.”
💽 https://twitter.com/EverydayWarren/status/1603429930380959745?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @atrupar Oh my goodness Trump’s “major announcement” is even more pathetic than I anticipated
[TextLink:] 🖼 https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1603419684329619458?s=20/photo/1

[Text:] 🐣 RT @realDonaldTrump MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT! My official Donald Trump Digital Trading Card collection is here! These limited edition cards feature amazing ART of my Life & Career! Collect all of your favorite Trump Digital Trading Cards, very much like a baseball card, but hopefully much more exciting. Go to collecttrumpcards.com/ & GET YOUR CARDS NOW! Onlv $99 each! Would + maTweetreat Christmas gift. Don’t Wait. They will be gone, I believe, very quickly!

🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer KREMENA/ 0320 UTC 15 DEC/ North of Kremenna, between Chervonopopivka and Zhytiivika, the Forward Edge of the Battle Area (FEBA) appears to be fluid. On 14 DEC, RU conducted fire missions on the village of Pischane, indicating the presence of UKR forces.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1603226847260590081?s=20/photo/1

⭕ 14 Dec 2022

💙 RT @Ayei_Eloheichem Finally finished @TimothyDSnyder’s brilliant Yale lecture series on Ukraine. ¤ I cannot recommend this highly enough, even for those with some grounding in Ukrainian history. ¤ It contextualizes events and even the foundational ideas of history itself.
💽 https://twitter.com/Ayei_Eloheichem/status/1603247075453415427?s=20/photo/1
// link to YouTube series

🐣 RT @general_ben Exceptional analysis and writing by @LukeDCoffey. We’re not prepared. Too many people still can’t believe Ukraine will actually defeat Russia on the battlefield, so they can’t imagine this collapse. ¤ Preparing for the Final Collapse of the Soviet Union
⋙ HudsonInstitute: Preparing for the Final Collapse of the Soviet Union https://tinyurl.com/2d4tkkkz

🐣 RT @JuliaDavisNews Meanwhile in Russia: top state TV propagandists can’t help but laugh out loud at Trump’s “Superman” announcement.
💽 https://twitter.com/JuliaDavisNews/status/1603266056167993344?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @thedailybeast New Yorkers on the jury that convicted the Trump Organization of tax fraud and other related crimes last week were deeply offended at the way those two Trump firms cheated everyday people, said a juror who exclusively spoke to The Daily Beast.
⋙ DailyBeast, Jose Pagliery: Inside the Jury Room for the Trump Org Criminal Trial https://tinyurl.com/3zrs583u
// Jurors thought a Trump Organization lawyer was insulting. They knew the employees were liars. And the defense team’s jingle fell flat.

NYT: Defenses Carved Into the Earth https://tinyurl.com/4avsncck Russia is building a vast network of trenches, traps and obstacles to slow Ukraine’s momentum. Will it work?
◕ https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1603328675012907009?s=20/photo/1

💙 NYT, Nicholas Kristof: Are We in the West Weaker Than Ukrainians? https://tinyurl.com/2fyrs7nz “Some of the most momentous decisions the United States will make in the coming months involve the level of support we will provide Ukraine”
// Thank God someone is standing up to Putin.

“We will beat the Ukrainian out of you so that you love Russia,” a Russian interrogator told one torture survivor I spoke to in Ukraine, before he whipped her and raped her. That seems a pretty good summation of Vladimir Putin’s strategy.

It isn’t working in Ukraine, where Putin’s atrocities seem to be bolstering the will to fight back. That brave woman triumphed over her interrogators, albeit at horrific personal cost.

But I worry that we in the West are made of weaker stuff. Some of the most momentous decisions the United States will make in the coming months involve the level of support we will provide Ukraine, and I’ve had pushback from some readers who think President Biden is making a terrible mistake by resolutely helping Ukraine repel Russia. …

Polls find American support for aid to Ukraine still robust but slipping, especially among Republicans. And almost half of Americans want the United States to push Ukraine “to settle for peace as soon as possible,” even if it loses territory — a finding that must gladden Vladimir Putin’s heart.

The exhaustion with Western support for Ukraine may continue to gain ground in the coming months as people grow weary of high energy prices and, in the case of some European countries, possible rolling power cuts. …

The fundamental misconception among many congressional Republicans (and some progressives on the left) is that we’re doing Ukraine a favor by sending it weapons. Not so. We are holding Ukraine’s coat as it is sacrificing lives and infrastructure in ways that benefit us, by degrading Russia’s military threat to NATO and Western Europe — and thus to us.

“They’re doing us a favor; they’re fighting our fight,” Wesley Clark, the retired American general and former supreme allied commander of NATO forces in Europe, told me. “The fight in Ukraine is a fight about the future of the international community.”

If the war ends in a way favorable to Russia, he argues, it will be a world less safe for Americans. One lesson the world would absorb would be the paramount importance of possessing nuclear weapons, for Ukraine was invaded after it gave up its nuclear arsenal in the 1990s — and Russia’s nuclear warheads today prevent a stronger Western military response. ¤ “If Ukraine falls, there will certainly be a wave of nuclear proliferation,” Clark warned.

For years, military strategists have feared a Russian incursion into Estonia that would challenge NATO and cost lives of American troops. Ukrainians are weakening Russia’s forces so as to reduce that risk.

More broadly, perhaps the single greatest threat to world peace in the coming decade is the risk of a conflict in the Taiwan Strait that escalates into a war between America and China. To reduce that danger, we should help Taiwan build up its deterrent capacity — but perhaps the simplest way to reduce the likelihood of Xi Jinping acting aggressively is to stand united against Russia’s invasion. If the West falters and allows Putin to win in Ukraine, Xi will feel greater confidence that he can win in Taiwan.

Putin has been a destabilizing and brutal bully for many years — from Chechnya to Syria, Georgia to Moldova — partly because the world has been unwilling to stand up to him and partly because he possesses a powerful military force that Ukraine is now dismantling. Aside from energy, Russia’s economy is not substantial.

“Putin and Russia are weak,” Viktor Yushchenko, a former Ukrainian president who challenged Russia and then was mysteriously poisoned and disfigured, told me. “Russia is a poor country, an oil appendage to the world, a gas station.”

The world owes Ukraine for its willingness to finally stand up to Putin. If anything, I’d like to see the Biden administration carefully ratchet up the capabilities of the weaponry it supplies Ukraine, for it may be that the best way to end the war is simply to ensure that Putin finds the cost of it no longer worth paying.

I don’t mean to suggest that everyone backing peace negotiations is craven, fatigued or myopic. Gen. Mark Milley and other Pentagon officials are understandably worried that the Ukraine conflict could spiral out of control into a nuclear war. That’s a legitimate concern, and it’s always good to peer through the fog of war for off-ramps. But bowing to nuclear blackmail and rewarding an invasion would create their own risks for many years to come, and on balance those dangers seem greater than those of maintaining the present course.

In arguing for the West to stand with Ukraine, I’ve emphasized our national interest in doing so. But we have values at stake as well as interests, for there is also a moral question to face.

When one nation invades a neighbor and commits murder, pillage and rape, when it traffics in thousands of children, when it pulverizes the electrical grid to make civilians freeze in winter — in such a blizzard of likely war crimes, neutrality is not the high ground.

Let’s not let Russia beat the Ukrainian out of us: The world could use a spinal transplant from brave Ukrainians.

🐣 RT @ukrainewar24 U.S. officials have devised plans to send #Ukraine JDAM kits, equipment that converts unguided munitions into smart bombs that can target #Russian military positions with a high degree of accuracy, U.S. officials familiar with the matter say. #UkraineRussiaWar

🐣 RT @NOELreports Yanukovych’s properties has been seized – BAKC (Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine) ¤ “BAKC confiscated all of Yanukovych’s property. A residence in Mezhyhirya, a hotel and restaurant complex in Sukholuchcha, an apartment, money and more than half a thousand cultural values.”

🐣 RT @NATO ❄️ Season’s greetings from all of us at NATO 🎵 #WeAreNATO
🎶 https://twitter.com/NATO/status/1603020985271169024?s=20/photo/1
// Ring Christmas Bells; Happy Holidays from all of us at NATO [2022] ¤ A multinational group of soldiers from NATO Allied countries sing ‘Carol of the Bells’, a holiday classic composed by Mykola Leontovych and lyrics by Peter J. Wilhousky, in a snowy forest in Latvia.

🐣 RT @RonFilipkowski I’m sure it will be either his Infrastructure Plan or Health Care Reform Plan.
⋙⋙ [TextLink:] https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1603071076006875140?s=20/photo/1

[Text:] 🖼 🐣 RT @realDonald Trump AMERICA NEEDS A SUPERHERO! I will be making
a MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT tomorrow. Thank you!

⋙ 🐣 maybe that he’s going to start a Trumpist party? What else could it be? he knows things are looking bad for his chances to clinch the GOP nod ¤ that way he’ll keep the money flowing to pat his legal bills

🐣 RT @tribelaw “Passage of these ECA fixes, especially along with this cycle’s defeat of numerous gubernatorial candidates who were essentially running on a vow to subvertfuture elections, would amount to major action in defense of democracy and self-rule.”
⋙ WaPo, Greg Sargent: The plan to stop a future Trumpist coup moves closer to reality https://tinyurl.com/mr439rc3

“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,” Schumer said, in a reference to an end-of-year spending bill the two parties are negotiating. ¤ Speaking about reform of the ECA, the 1887 law that governs how presidential electors are counted in Congress, Schumer added: “It will be great to get that done.”

This is welcome news. The Senate version of ECA reform would clarify the vice president’s role in counting electors as purely ceremonial, make it harder for Congress to invalidate legitimate electors and make corruption of the appointment of electors at the state level much harder.

All these points would make a rerun of Trump’s 2020 effort less likely, in part because they would patch up ECA vulnerabilities that invited him to attempt it. He pressured his vice president to halt the electoral count, got Republican members of Congress to vote to cast out Joe Biden’s electors and pressed state legislatures to appoint sham electors for him instead.

Because of this, ECA reform has long risked being seen as “anti-Trump.” That might have rendered it unlikely that 10 GOP senators would support it and make it possible to circumvent a filibuster. ¤ But Schumer’s announcement is cause for real optimism. That’s because it’s unlikely Schumer would have made it if Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) hadn’t quietly indicated support for attaching reform to the omnibus.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), a longtime proponent of ECA reform, says she’s optimistic that Republicans will remain behind this endgame. Klobuchar notes that McConnell voted for ECA reform in the Rules Committee, and it’s supported by well over a dozen other GOP senators.

New developments this week forcefully underscored the need for reform. In a widely noted speech, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) openly declared that had she been in charge of Trump’s insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, it would have been “armed.”

And text messages from House Republicans to Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, unearthed by Talking Points Memo, show members of Congress scheming in the run-up to Jan. 6 to overturn Trump’s loss in all kinds of ways, with one even calling for Trump to declare martial law.

What all this means is that the insurrectionist spirit will run strong in next year’s GOP-controlled House, which would be likely to try to help with any effort by Trump — or an imitator — to subvert the 2024 presidential election. Under current law, if a GOP-controlled state legislature appointed electors for the Republican nominee in defiance of the state’s popular vote, the GOP House could count those electors, leading to a stolen election or constitutional crisis.

Reform of the ECA would make that much harder to pull off. It would require governors to certify lawful electors, create new pathways for legal challenges to corruptly appointed electors and require Congress to count the electors validated by the courts.

“The clock is ticking towards midnight,” Matthew Seligman, a legal scholar and ECA expert, told me. “Congress seems poised to pull us back from the brink, at a moment when the extreme wing of the GOP House seems more eager than ever to trigger a crisis.”

Passage of these fixes, especially along with this cycle’s defeat of numerous gubernatorial candidates who were essentially running on a vow to subvert future elections, would amount to major action in defense of democracy and self-rule. As the unabashed and continuing insurrectionism of Greene and other House Republicans demonstrates, it’s poised to come not a moment too soon.

🐣 RT @therecount Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell says he would support a bipartisan full-year spending bill if it is ready for passage by late next week. ¤ “Otherwise, we’ll be passing a short-term continuing resolution into the new year.”
⋙ 🐣 RT @therecount “Hell no” was House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s reported message to House Republicans behind closed doors, when discussing his position on the spending package proposal.
⋙⋙ CNN: McCarthy and McConnell on collision course as Congress barrels toward messy finish https://tinyurl.com/73fwd627

🐣 RT @francis_scarr In a rare admission on state TV, Donetsk militia commander Alexander Khodakovsky suggests that Russia lacks the conventional means to win the war ¤ His conclusion? ¤ “But we have nuclear weapons for that. We created them for such situations. That is why there is only one option.”
💽 [tr] https://twitter.com/francis_scarr/status/1602743461270151169?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @Maks_NAFO_FELLA As a result of the HIMARS attack on Melitopol on December 11, the entire command of the 58th Russian Army was eliminated – General Staff

🐣 RT @NOELreports A message to my followers from the Netherlands. Be aware, Solovyov is not happy and will get you! You tulipsniffers!
⋙ 🐣 RT @Gerashchenko_en Attention, Netherlands! ¤ Solovyev is displeased with the idea of a tribunal in the Hague. ¤ Can’t wait to see him there, on trial.
💽 [tr] https://twitter.com/Gerashchenko_en/status/1603046290761424897?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @PaulaChertok A plot right out of “The Americans” ¤ New Hampshire couple living a quiet New England life—going to Celtics games, vacationing in Florida, selling nightlights on Etsy… And smuggling semiconductors & ammunition for Russia’s war machine.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/PaulaChertok/status/1603050873311367169?s=20/photo/1-4

🐣 📊 RT @NOELreports 74% of EU citizens approve of supporting Ukraine in the war against the Russian Federation – European Parliament.
The highest percentages are Sweden (97%), Finland (95%), the Netherlands (93%), Portugal and Denmark (92%). Bulgarians and Greeks (both 48%) have the least support.
◕ https://twitter.com/NOELreports/status/1603028064786841600?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @McFaul I wonder if Professor Sachs has ever watched any of Solovyov’s shows? Or had a Russian-speaking RA do so for him? If he did, he would be embarrassed to be on with him. Or … well … he should be embarrassed. Tragic to watch.
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @francis_scarr US economist Jeffrey Sachs was back on Solovyov Live this morning
⋙ 🐣 📋 RT @McFaul People seem to have forgotten that USSR/Russia has been offered many security guarantees in the past: Helsinki Final Act, Paris Charter, Budapest Memorandum, NATO-Russia Founding Act etc. US/Europe have never broken any of these security commitments to Russia. #FactsMatter.
⋙ 🐣 RT @aasmall3 I used to work directly with Sachs as an economist at Columbia Univ. My tl;dr: he misses his faded stardom desperately and he will do or say damn near anything to get “back in the game”. Content not important, as long as he’s the star of the show. ¤ An embarrassment.
⋙ 🐣 RT @capitolhunterss
Consider the possibilities
A. Sachs is guileless and clueless
B Sachs has let ego warp him
C Sach understands who Solovyov is, but has some motivation to support him ($, or kompromat)
You’re assuming A. But is that the most likely?
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @aasmall3 I know him personally. It’s B.
⋙ 🐣 RT @PostcardDepot What we have here is a desperate plea for celebrity. Going back to his work in the 1990s at least. There are more like him. Look around. It’s rooted in a sense of insecurity & the need to have the attention of others at whatever cost. Others live life without these impediments.
⋙ 🐣 RT @peterpalmer901 What a disgrace that a man of such stature as Jeffrey Sachs has stooped to hobnobbing with propagandists of genocide. What a fall.
⋙ 🐣 RT @jds9973 Sachs’ flawed advice back in the 90s is at least partially responsible for the current kleptocracy. He gave intellectual cover for the theft of state assets.
⋙ 🐣 RT @simsburymike He had conflict of interest issues back in the 1990s.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/simsburymike/status/1602874693488345091?s=20/photo/1

[Text:] U.S. CANCELS HARVARD CONTRACT, PROBES ADVISERS TO RUSSIA
June 7, 1997

The U.S. government yesterday canceled a $14 million contract with Harvard University after allegations that two senior American economie advisers to the Russian government had abused their positions in Russia for private financial gain.

The decision by the U.S. Agency for International Development effectively winds up a program that had been the centerpiece of U.S. assistance efforts to Russia since collapse of Communism in 1991. Over the past seven years, Harvard economists have been part of the team advising the Russian government on its transition from a socialist economy to the free market.

Harvard economists led by Professor Jeffrey Sachs played a key role in helping the Russian government draw up a sweeping privatization program and advise Russian leaders in establishing Western-style capital markets. AID already has spent some $43 million on the Harvard program and had a further $14 million earmarked.

🐣 RT @SquawkCNBC “What @elonmusk is doing on @Twitter is damaging the $TSLA brand,” says @munster_gene. “Elon is Tesla’s brand and he needs to pull it together…It’s going to cause some long term damage if he doesn’t right the ship.”
💽 https://twitter.com/SquawkCNBC/status/1603002991539281920?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @AllanMargolin How much net worth have these 3 lost since House GQP sent this Oct 7th Tweet?
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/AllanMargolin/status/1602984348520783874?s=20/photo/1

[Text:] 🐣 RT @JudiciaryGOP Kanye. Elon. Trump.

⭕ 13 Dec 2022

FoxNews (12/13/2022): Biden admin seeks $4 billion in additional border funding, predicts post-Title 42 border surge https://tinyurl.com/5b69tz7t
// border security

🔆 This❗️⋙ YahooNews: Exclusive: An intel analyst tried to prevent the Jan 6 attack — but DHS failed to act https://tinyurl.com/4r7dy2mt “[It was] not just an intelligence failure, but it also represented a failure to take intelligence and take steps operationally to protect against the threat”

WaPo: Congress reaches early deal to fund government, races to avert shutdown https://tinyurl.com/2s3jtdyy If the measure can’t pass by 12/22/2022, it could kick the deal into the new Congress, where a GOP majority in the House would seek more cuts to Biden’s programs
// Democrats and Republicans released no details of their ‘framework’ as work proceeds to pass a spending bill

Newsweek: Melitopol Bridge Strike Hints Where Ukraine Wants to Bring Winter Offensive https://tinyurl.com/ssw35jsh

🐣 RT @olex_scherba Amen to that!
⋙ 🐣 RT @IAPonomarenko America is right now getting back to where it was supposed to be, right from the beginning of its history.
To being a beacon of hope, democracy, and the pursuit of happiness.
Right now, America, when it comes to Ukraine, is doing the right thing.
⋙ 🐣it has a lot to do with Democrats being in charge
hopefully, the Republicans have learned some lessons and will return to being reasonably conservative without playing around with🔥authoritarianism🔥

🐣 RT @aravosis Top Zelensky advisers accuses Elon Musk of using Twitter to disadvantage Ukraine and help Russia in the war.
⋙ 🐣 RT @Podolyak_M “War in Ukraine” disappearance from Twitter trends. Radical curtailment of tweets mentioning ru-aggression coverage. Users aren’t allowed to register or log into accounts with Ukrainian phone number. @elonmusk, I wonder if will we ever see “Twitter Files” about Fall/Winter 2022

🐣 RT @tribelaw These insurrections in Congress should be nowhere near public office; they’re every bit as unsuited to hold power in the United States as are those who violently stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021
⋙ RollingStone: GOP Congressman Wanted Trump to Invoke ‘Marshall Law’ to Stay in Office: Leaked Texts https://tinyurl.com/4k5n2a6v
// Mark Meadows texts show Rep. Ralph Norman calling for Trump to declare “Marshall Law” to overturn the 2020 election.

DOJ: Five Russian Nationals and Two U.S. Nationals Charged with Conspiring to Obtain Military-Grade and Dual-Use Technologies from U.S. Companies for Russia’s Defense Sector https://tinyurl.com/4u946ehp
// “‘As alleged, the defendants perpetrated a sophisticated procurement network that illegally obtained sensitive U.S. technology to facilitate the Russian war machine,’ stated United States Attorney Peace.”

🐣 RT @Acyn McConnell on Candidate Quality issues: Anybody remember who mentioned that back in August? Look at Arizona, New Hampshire, and Georgia… Our ability to control the primary outcome was quite limited in 2022 because of the support of the former President…
💽 https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1602743437018603521?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @BillKristol “If there was ever a time for the last sensible Republicans to remember that they are the party of Lincoln, the man who saved the Union and its Constitution, and to declare a war against their seditionist wing, this is it.”
⋙ TheAtlantic, Tom Nichols: The Republicans Need a Reckoning https://tinyurl.com/35cwe88p
// The party of Lincoln must end its embrace of sedition.

🐣 RT @chuckPfarrer PATRIOTS FOR UKRAINE! The US is finalizing plans to send the Patriot missile defense system to Ukraine. The Patriot is considered to be one of the most advanced air defense systems in the world. It will defend UKR cities. https://tinyurl.com/5fc5s6ef
◕ https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1602764330998452224?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @apmassaro3 Patriots going to Ukraine. Finally!
⋙ CNN: Exclusive: US finalizing plans to send Patriot missile defense system to Ukraine https://tinyurl.com/n5dese6n

Ukraine has been calling for the US to send the advanced long-range air defense system that is highly effective at intercepting ballistic and cruise missiles as it comes under a barrage of Russian missile and drone attacks that have destroyed key infrastructure across the country. It would be the most effective long-range defensive weapons system sent to the country and officials say it will help secure airspace for NATO nations in eastern Europe.

🐣 RT @mfa_russia 🎙 FM Sergey #Lavrov: The West is striving to preserve the domination that it has enjoyed for almost half a millennium but it is impossible to stop history. ¤ ☝️ Economic figures convincingly show that the world is evolving towards multi-polarity.
⋙ 🐣 actually, the world appears to be evolving toward bi-polarity (freedom/repression), which is manic-depression, which seems fairly accurate ¤ the question is what to do about all the “depressed” young people in authoritarian states who see no future … ?

🐣 RT @TwitterSupport If you start seeing a checkmark that’s not blue, you’re doing it right. We’re adding more account distinctions. ¤ Gold checkmarks will appear on verified, official businesses on Twitter. ¤ And coming soon, grey checkmarks will appear on government and multilateral accounts.
⋙ 🐣 you should use red checkmarks for previously banned accounts or those spouting disinformation or promoting extremism or hatred ¤ that would make Twitter ♡ safe ♡ again

🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT /0015 UTC 13 DEC/ Following a heavy and destructive series of artillery barrages, RU forces were able to achieve a lodgment in a residential area south of the H-32 HWY. UKR artillery targets RU Lines of Communication & Supply (LOCS).
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1602456126922149894?s=20/photo/1

[Textbox:] ASSESSMENT: Following a heavy and destructive series of artillery barrages, RU forces were able to achieve a lodgment in a residential area south of the H-32 HWY. Consolidating this gain will prove difficult as the approaches to the Forward Edge of the Battle Area (FEBA) are exposed and offer limited cover for arriving RU reinforcements or logistical support. Near the Myika pond south of the city, a RU attempts to cross the rail right of way at Klischiivka have again been rebuffed. Platoon-sized assaults at Andriivka and Kurdiumivka have crossed the rail line but are vulnerable to UAV controlled artillery strikes targeting the RU axis of advance and its Lines of Communication & Supply (LOCS).

⭕ 12 Dec 2022

WaPo: How a Trump-allied group fighting ‘anti-white bigotry’ beats Biden in court https://tinyurl.com/45jtjyzk Through dozens of federal lawsuits, America First Legal, led by Stephen Miller, is challenging Biden Administration efforts to remedy racial and sex/gender disparities
// America First Legal was founded last year by Stephen Miller, the architect of Trump’s immigrant family separation policy

🐣 RT @BillKristol “The constitutional officer second in line to the presidency should not be someone who tried to overturn the last election for the presidency.”
⋙ TheBulwark, Bill Kristol and Jeffrey Tulis: Should an Election Denier Be Speaker of the House? https://tinyurl.com/6x5ap3zt “The new speaker should not be any of the 147 … who went along with the mob and voted to reject the electors from Arizona and Pennsylvania”

Forbes: Ukrainian Troops May Be Massing For Their Fourth Counteroffensive. Russian Artillery Is Already Trying To Stop Them https://tinyurl.com/5b96uftu The “Zaporizhzhia left hook” has been rumored for months ~ but is it real, or the fantasy of imaginative ret. milbloggers?

🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer NO PLACE TO HIDE: On 12 DEC, a demolition raid was conducted against the M-14 HWY bridge over the Molochna canal E of Melitopol. This UKR Partisan attack succeeded in buckling the road deck and rendering the bridge unsuitable for the transportation of tanks or artillery.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1602470742926426112?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @NOELreports Ukraine blew up a bridge at the eastern gate of Melitopol, located at the highway E58 towards Kostyantynivka. At first the claim was ‘HIMARS’ but quickly after the footage emerged, we couldn’t see impact holes. It’s more likely sabotage, not HIMARS. […]

TheWeek: Ukraine says it destroyed Russia’s Wagner militia Luhansk headquarters, army base in Melitopol https://tinyurl.com/449hdj3c

🐣 RT @NOELreports #Kreminna
➡️ AFU is gradually closing Kreminna from most sides. Russia can only escape east.
➡️ There was fighting reported near Ploshchanka (1)
➡️ AFU repelled an attack near the P66 at Chervonopopivka (2)
➡️ Russia counterattacked at Serebryanskyy forest, but retreated (3)
🌎 https://twitter.com/NOELreports/status/1602436810583736321?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @DefenceU @ZelenskyyUa: Ukraine needs modern tanks, constant artillery support with guns and shells. We need more rocket artillery and more long-range missiles. The more effective we are with such weapons, the shorter the Russian aggression will be.

🐣 RT @POTUS I joined G7 Leaders and President Zelenskyy to discuss the progress we’ve made under Germany’s presidency to address pressing challenges of our time – Russia’s brutal war against Ukraine, climate, food and energy security, infrastructure, and more. ¤ We’re more united than ever.

🐣 RT @thedailybeast Dr. Anthony Fauci told a science reporter for the journal Nature on Monday that he simply does not have time to “waste” on perennially online billionaires, especially the ones tweeting about him: “A lot of that stuff is just a cesspool of misinformation.”
⋙ DailyBeast: Fauci Brushes Off Twitter ‘Cesspool’ After Elon Musk’s ‘Prosecute’ Post https://tinyurl.com/yhvzteyb
// “A lot of that stuff is just a cesspool of misinformation,” the president’s chief medical adviser said.

🐣 When @RichardHaass talks about “the decisions we have to make” about Ukraine’s future, he clearly means “us” (the US and Europe), as if Ukraine itself has no say or agency: this is the exact opposite of the position @POTUS has articulated.
@Morning_Joe @JoeNBC
⋙ 🐣 “Nothing about them [Ukraine] without them”
”For as long as it takes”
~ @POTUS

🧵 RT @kyledcheney NEW: Jan. 6 committee members have been reviewing drafts of their final report for weeks. We have some of the first details of what the report will look like — including chapter topics.
📌 https://twitter.com/kyledcheney/status/1602264509711884289?s=20
⋙⋙ Politico: What the Jan. 6 select committee’s final report will look like https://tinyurl.com/3zwkpvxc
// A large executive summary describes former President Donald Trump’s culpability for his extensive and baseless effort to subvert the 2020 election, according to people briefed on its contents.
⋙ 🐣 RT @kyledcheney The report will begin with an extensive executive summary detailing Trump’s conduct from start to finish. It will track and supplement the story laid out in the public hearings.
⋙ 🐣 RT @kyledcheney The 8 chapters:
1) The Big Lie
2) State/local govt pressure
3) False electors
4) Effort to corrupt DOJ
5) Pence pressure campaign
6) Summoning the mob
7) 187 minutes of inaction
8) Analysis of the Capitol attack
⋙ 🐣 RT @kyledcheney The report is expected to include multiple appendices, and in totality it will include the work of each of the committee’s five investigative teams. ¤ It will also include long-awaited legislative recommendations.

🐣 RT @saintjavelin What do you guys think this means
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @AndriyYermak 🇺🇦🇺🇸📞=🚀🌎💪
⋙ 🐣 Well, I know @ZelenskyyUa talked to @POTUS @JoeBiden last night: hmmmm …

YahooNews: Marjorie Taylor Greene Says ‘We Would’ve Won’ If She Organized The Jan. 6 Attack https://tinyurl.com/3k86wjbk “If Steve Bannon and I had organized that, we would have won. Not to mention, we would’ve been armed,” she said to a group of pro-Trump Republicans

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) suggested the insurrection on the U.S. Capitol would have been successful if she’d been running the show.

“I want to tell you something. If Steve Bannon and I had organized that, we would have won. Not to mention, we would’ve been armed,” she said of the Jan. 6, 2021, attempt by supporters of then-President Donald Trump to overturn the 2020 election, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center and the New York Post.

Greene made the comment during a speech filled with “one-liners trolling the political left” at an annual gala hosted by the New York Young Republican Club in Manhattan, the Post reported.

The guest list included a range of high-profile right-wingers, including Rudy Giuliani and Bannon, both former Trump advisers, and Donald Trump Jr., who reportedly spoke after Greene. Members of the white nationalist website VDARE, right-wing propaganda group Project Veritas and far-right political operative Jack Posobeic were also at the event.

Republican speakers repeatedly voiced anti-democratic and authoritarian ideology, which received loud cheers from audience members, SPLC reported.

Several newly elected Republican lawmakers were reportedly present, including New York’s George Santos, Georgia’s Mike Collins and Florida’s Cory Mills.

Last year, Rolling Stone reported that Greene and other far-right members of Congress participated in planning both Trump’s efforts to overturn his election loss and the Jan. 6 events that turned violent, according to people who organized the pro-Trump rallies in Washington, D.C., that preceded the Capitol attack.

Greene has also been a loud advocate for people jailed over their roles in the deadly attack on the Capitol, referring to them as “political prisoners.” Nearly 900 individuals have been arrested in connection to the breach, including over 275 who were charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement.

KyivPost, Aaron Rhodes: Pressure Grows on Ukraine to Stop War https://tinyurl.com/3pranx98 Macron, Milley and Schroeder do not a “groundswell” make; theirs is a smattering of dissenting voices; most people understand the dangers Russian imperialism presents
// Amid a groundswell of voices calling for Ukraine to negotiate an end to the war on Russia’s terms – why on earth should Ukraine compromise its very right to exist as a sovereign state?
// “Any ceasefire brought about by negotiations on Russia’s terms would not end Russia’s war against Ukraine, and amount to appeasement that would only encourage further aggression.”

🔄 🐣 Because they’ll be coming for Fauci, too, not just Hunter Biden, here are a couple of good backgrounders:
★ ✅ FactCheck[.]org: The Facts – and Gaps – on the Origin of the Coronavirus https://tinyurl.com/b7acpwma
// 6/25/2021
★ ✅ FactCheck[.]org: The Wuhan Lab and the Gain-of-Function Disagreement https://tinyurl.com/mt7k47u7
// 5/21/2021; Posted on May 21, 2021 | Updated on July 1, 2021
¤ https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1602244597903753220?s=20

😅 RT @DefenceU HIMARS comes for every occupier.
They say that conscripts in russia are being told spooky stories: if you criticize putin and disobey your commanders, the evil HIMARS will come after you at night.
The truth is, HIMARS can’t tell whether an occupier is good or bad.
🖼 https://twitter.com/DefenceU/status/1600492575219240960?s=20/photo/1
// 12/7/2022

🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer KREMENNA AXIS /0245 UTC 12 DEC/ UKR task elements have crossed the Krasna River and engaged RU units at Pischane. These attacks have compelled RU to divert forces from defensive positions west and south of Kremenna to cover the important rail and road junction at Zhytlivka.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1602115953965563904?s=20/photo/1

⭕ 11 Dec 2022

🐣 RT @officejjsmart Did you know that Poland 🇵🇱 means “Land of Fields” (Pol = field), and Ukraine 🇺🇦 most like related to being the border (U = at; krai = the borderlands) of Byzantium/Russian Empire. ¤ This video is right now, about one hour into Western Ukraine 🇺🇦, from Poland 🇵🇱, on the bus. [vid]

WaPo: Putin is trying to silence those who tell of the war’s horrors https://tinyurl.com/yus7maev “‘We won this trial,’ [opposition politician] Yashin declared on his Telegram channel after the verdict. ‘We told the truth about the war crimes and called to stop the bloodshed’”

Russian President Vladimir Putin has imposed Stalin-like restrictions on speech about the military and its disastrous invasion of Ukraine. On Friday, opposition politician Ilya Yashin was sentenced to 8½ years in prison for calling attention to possible war crimes committed by Russian troops in the Ukrainian city of Bucha during the early days of the war. This marks another attempt to lock up the truth.

In a YouTube livestream in April, Mr. Yashin dissected evidence of potential war crimes documented by Western journalists and Ukrainian officials to debunk the official Kremlin line that the reports were staged or fabricated to smear Russia. Criticism of the military has been made criminal under Russian law. Mr. Yashin, who helped organize protests against Mr. Putin in 2011, was charged in July and tried recently for “spreading false information” about the military.

False information? A growing body of evidence suggests otherwise. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on Dec. 7 published the report of an investigation that found Russian forces had carried out at least 441 extrajudicial killings of civilians around Kyiv. The investigators documented 73 summary killings in Bucha, and they were working to corroborate 105 more. The report said that when Ukrainian security forces and journalists entered the town on April 2, they “saw dozens of dead bodies, first on the streets and then in many other locations: in yards, apartments, basements, vehicles, forested areas and improvised individual and collective graves.”

Mr. Putin may hope that by jailing Mr. Yashin, he will intimidate others into silence. But the truth won’t sit quietly behind bars. The barbarism that has taken place in Ukraine is being closely observed and should lead to war crimes trials. Recently, researchers at the Royal United Services Institute in London obtained copies of orders issued to a range of Russian units before and during the launch of the invasion on Feb. 24. Their plans included “the murder of Ukraine’s executive branch and the capture of parliament.” The Russian security services and military rehearsed “kill-or-capture” missions to find those behind Ukraine’s pro-democracy Maidan Revolution in 2014. They were to be put on trial and executed. The plans included seizing Ukraine’s national heating, electricity and financial operations to subjugate the population. Mr. Putin assumed Ukrainians would submit in a matter of days. Such was the depth of Mr. Putin’s delusion, which has now led to tens of thousands of deaths.

“We won this trial,” Mr. Yashin declared on his Telegram channel after the verdict. “We told the truth about the war crimes and called to stop the bloodshed. … With this hysterical verdict, the authorities want to frighten us all, but in fact they only show their weakness. … Only weak leaders seek to shut everyone up, to burn out any dissent.”

🐣 RT @anders_aslund On the war in Ukraine:
1. Ukraine is holding Bakhmut in Donbas in spite of furious attacks by Wagnerites.
2. Ukraine bombed Wangerite HQ in Luhansk oblast.
3. Ukraine bombed Kadryovtsy center in Melitopol.
4. Ukraine waits with offensive until Christmas freeze.

🐣 RT @ cepa “The death and destruction Ukrainians are experiencing now at Russian hands echoes what the Soviet Union inflicted on the Baltic states and other countries. The only choice is to stop it now, or suffer more later.” @edwardlucas
⋙ CEPA, Edward Lucas: The Only Path to Peace https://tinyurl.com/fz6s9yfv “[T]he real cause of the war and the only chance of lasting peace: the defeat of Russian imperialism”
// The way to stop the war is for Ukraine’s allies to do more.

As Christmas looms, behold a modern marvel. The festive scene is an advanced country being reduced to conditions that our grandparents would have found unbearably primitive. At best, the cuts in power, heat, water, and sewerage are exhausting and humiliating. At worst, they are lethal. The old, the ill, the disabled, and other vulnerable people die quietly from cold, stress, and disruption to healthcare. Yet so far, morale is — miraculously — undented. Ukraine fights on.

The wondering awe at Ukrainians’ resilience is sincere, if patronizingly distant. But it begets complacency. We could treat the results of Russia’s terror strikes as a colossal humanitarian emergency. Big rich countries could send thousands of power engineers to restore the grid. We could scour the world for spare parts. Even more usefully, we could provide more weapons: air defenses to prevent future attacks and tanks to press home the advantage.

But we don’t. Winter lasts only a few months. They’re tough. They will manage. Ukraine will continue to win the war, but slowly. As the military advantage consolidates, the door to a diplomatic solution opens. Expert Western deal-makers will win Nobel prizes for their efforts. Escalation avoided, Russia constrained, Ukraine survives, and maybe even our energy prices go down again: what’s not to like?

That, put crudely, is Western thinking about Europe’s worst war since 1945. It is both cruel and dangerous. Cruel, because the suffering of the Ukrainian population (and the tens of thousands of battlefield casualties) are just collateral damage: something we have to accept on the road to an eventual ceasefire. Dangerous, because it ignores the real cause of the war and the only chance of lasting peace: the defeat of Russian imperialism.

… Military victory may now be out of sight for Russia, but a path to success is still visible: the longer the war goes on, the greater the chance of war-weariness in Ukraine and — more likely — among the vital Western allies.

Some Western voices regard even this approach as too tough and too risky. The American economist Jeffrey Sachs, writing in the Financial Times, decries “maximalist demands” which, he argues, will leave Ukraine in ruins, consolidate rest-of-the-world opinion behind Russia, wreck the European economy and risk nuclear war. So start land-for-peace talks now. Yet, given Russia’s violation of previous deals it signed, why would any ceasefire carry credibility? The only way such an agreement could stick would be from NATO membership for Ukraine, or its equivalent, backed up by a hefty outside military presence — which is just what Sachs opposes.

In the “new West,” eyes are clearer and thinking crisper. In a blisteringly good article in the latest Foreign Affairs, the Estonian prime minister, Kaja Kallas, argues that the war is not an east-west tussle over squares on a chessboard. It is about real people and real countries, with real hopes — and real fears. The death and destruction Ukrainians are experiencing now at Russian hands echoes what the Soviet Union inflicted on the Baltic states and other countries. The only choice is to stop it now, or suffer more later.

🐣 RT @SpiroAgnewGhost He’s totally unhinged tonight. 🍿🍿🍿
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/SpiroAgnewGhost/status/1602119724933865472?s=20/photo/1

[Text:] 🐣RT @realDonald Trump. [ts] “This was ELECTION INTERFERENCE. THE DISINFORMATION WAS COMING FROM THE FBI AND FACEBOOK. IT WAS COMING FROM ADAM SCHIFF AND DEMOCRAT OPERATIVES. THIS WAS A VERY DAMAGING STORY TO BIDEN BEFORE THE ELECTION, AND THEY WERE GOING TO KILL IT.” BOTTOM LINE: THE ELECTION WAS RIGGED & STOLEN! MIRANDA DEVINE AS INTERVIEWED BY MARK LEVIN. AMAZING!!

🐣 RT @ SpiroAgnewGhost *VERY STABLE GENIUS ALERT* ¤ Impressive use of ALL CAPS, a sign of the stablest genius possible. ¤ #Unhinged
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/SpiroAgnewGhost/status/1602115542051352576?s=20/photo/1

[Text:] 🐣 RT @realDonaldTrump [ts] 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!!!

🐣 RT @AthenaMia2nd … According to reports, US forces of the Mozart PMC were rushed to Bakhmut town. For the first time in history we have a full-scale confrontation between the Russian Wagner PMC and the American Mozart PMC, two private military companies.
🐣 “According to reports … “ ¤ Do you have a link to source re: “American Mozart PMC” ¤ thank you ! ¤ ♡ ૂི•̮͡• ྀ ♡
🐣 RT @TheMozartGroup Absolutely not true. We do not carry weapons or engage in combat. We train Ukrainian military and evacuate civilians. We DO NOT engage in combat.
¤ https://twitter.com/TheMozartGroup/status/1602106433222369280?s=20

🐣 RT @tomricks1 “If Melitopol falls, the entire defence line all the way to Kherson collapses”
⋙ BBC: Ukraine war: Odesa and Melitopol under attack https://tinyurl.com/ykss5vux
// Russian drone attacks leave 1.5 million Ukrainians without power and Kyiv bombards occupied Melitopol.

🐣 RT @UkraineRussia2 It is reported that Ukraine received new GMRLS Himars missiles with a longer range of up to 150 kilometers from the USA. Today they were first used against the Russian military base in occupied Melitopol. Thank you to the friendly people of the USA for this help ¤ #HIMARS
x /photo/1
⋙ 🐣 “It is reported … “ Can you provide a link to the source? ¤ thank you ! ¤ ♡ ૂི•̮͡• ྀ ♡

🐣 RT @DefMon3 I think this is true, it will be very hard to capture Bakhmut without an encirclement. As long as RU does not have Soledar, i think Bakhmut is safe.
⋙ 🐣 RT @NOELreports Bakhmut under control of the AFU, still. Just like Girkin said, the defenses are almost unbreakable and the soldiers’ morale despite the conditions on the ground remains good. [vid]

🐣 RT @ Gerashchenko_en Terrorist and murderer Girkin: Russia has two powers [~Two forces are at play in Russia]: apathetic leadership of the country that already lost the war and liberals headed by Navalny that are going to enter the Kremlin to organize a bloody democracy. ¤ Girking [sic] himself wants the throne, it seems?
💽 [tr] https://twitter.com/Gerashchenko_en/status/1601864867845054465?s=20/photo/1

Reuters: Some Russian soldiers in Ukraine unhappy with top brass, Russian nationalist and Kremlin critic Igor Girkin says https://tinyurl.com/36x2zyda

Some Russian officers fighting in Ukraine are unhappy with the military top brass and President Vladimir Putin because of the poor execution of the war, an influential nationalist Russian blogger said after visiting the conflict zone. …

In modern Russia, direct public criticism of Putin is rare though nationalist bloggers have been outspoken about the conduct of the war, especially the costly Russian defeats in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region in September.

Igor Girkin, a nationalist and former Federal Security Service (FSB) officer who helped Russia annex Crimea in 2014 and then organise pro-Russian militias in eastern Ukraine, said there was some discontent with the top brass.

In a scathing 90-minute video analysing Russia’s execution of the war, Girkin said the “fish’s head is completely rotten” and that the Russian military needed reform and an intake of competent people who could lead a successful military campaign.

Some at the mid-levels of the military, Girkin said, were open about their dissatisfaction with Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and even Putin. ¤ “It is not just me… people are not blind and deaf at all: people at the mid-level there do not even hide their views which, how do I put it, are not fully complimentary about the president or the defence minister,” Girkin said. …

Putin casts what he calls Russia’s “special military operation” as a watershed moment when Russia finally stood up to the arrogant West, led by the United States, after decades of humiliation since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union. ¤ Russia, Putin says, is defending Russians in Ukraine against a decadent West that ultimately wants to carve up Russia’s vast resources and eradicate Russian civilisation.

The West denies such a plot. ¤ Ukraine and the West say Putin has no justification for what they cast as an imperial-style war of occupation. Ukraine says it will fight until the last Russian soldier is ejected from its territory.

The West, Girkin said, wanted to foment a revolutionary situation in Russia akin to the February Revolution in 1917 when Tsar Nicholas II abdicated amid popular and elite anger over Russian failures in World War One.

Russia, he said, had a lack of effective tactical missiles and it was unclear if it could produce enough while Russia had failed to establish air superiority due to Ukrainian air defences. ¤ “Our Ministry of Defence has simply slept through the fact that the whole world has moved to new tactical aviation,” he said.

Girkin was convicted in absentia by Dutch judges for murder over his role in the shooting down of Flight MH17 over Ukraine in 2014 with the loss of 298 passengers and crew. Russia, which has repeatedly denied downing the jet, rejected the verdict.

🐣 RT @ JayinKyiv To get through to the populist GOP types, the Fox news zombies, extrapolating on the following narrative is effective.
“No country loves America more than Ukraine. The US cannot allow our allies to be bullied by this little gargoyle in Moscow.”

🐣 RT @McFaul Medvedev may be the most pathetic senior official in Russia. There is no way he believes the BS he spouts. But he says it anyway. Дмитрий, как тебе не стыдно?

🐣 RT @JayinKyiv Former Russian “President”, Alcoholic Goblin, Dimitry Medvedev crawls out of the whisky bottle long enough to say that Russia will destroy everyone except China and South America with “the most powerful means of destruction”.

🐣 RT @mccaffreyr3 Correct change in US defense policy by the Pentagon. Ukraine must execute a violent counteroffensive against Russian military forces to include vital targets inside Russia and in the Black Sea. Next step is US providing 300 kilometer ATACMS missiles.
⋙ 🧵 RT @TheStudyofWar 2/ The source said the Pentagon has changed its perspective following the recent intensification of Russian missile strikes on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure and that the Pentagon has become less concerned regarding the risk of escalation.
📌 https://twitter.com/TheStudyofWar/status/1601771599707140098?s=20/photo/1
⋙⋙ SundayTimes [UK] (12/9): Pentagon gives Ukraine green light for drone strikes inside Russia https://tinyurl.com/45eh332u “The Pentagon has given a tacit endorsement of Ukraine’s long-range attacks on targets inside Russia after President Putin’s multiple missile strikes against Kyiv’s critical infrastructure”
// 12/9/2022

⭕ 10 Dec 2022

🧵 RT @TimothyDSnyder A thread bringing together some thoughts about #fascism from the last decade.
📌 https://twitter.com/TimothyDSnyder/status/1601594291725701121?s=20

💙 🧵 📋 RT @AmoneyResists McConnell: “We have a 50-50 senate, and America is a 50-50 nation.” ¤ Um, no you don’t, and no, it isn’t, ¤ @LeaderMcConnell. ¤ Sinema’s defection didn’t extend to her committees, so in every way that matters, it’s a 51-49 senate. And Those 51 Dems represent 43 MILLION more Americans.
📌 https://twitter.com/AmoneyResists/status/1601686232287023109?s=20
⋙ 🐣 📋 RT @AmoneyResists In addition, the 10 most populous states (CA, TX, FL, NY, IL, PA, MI, OH, GA, & NC) have more than half the U.S. population (179 million people) but only 20 senators [20% of the senate]; the same # as the 10 least populous states, which have a combined 7.9 million people.
⋙ 🐣 RT @ California, which has a population of 40 million, gets two senators.
Wyoming, which has 580,000, also gets 2 senators.
The Dakotas, which have a combined population of 1.6 million, get 4 senators.
Meanwhile, Washington D.C (750K) and Puerto Rico (3.3 million) get ZERO.

🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer KHERSON AXIS /0350 UTC 11 DEC/ UKR Partisan elements identified a Russian HQ/Barracks facility outside the urban area of Melitopol. The complex, formerly a luxury spa/hotel, was engaged by UKR long range precision strike artillery on 10 DEC.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1601769390986629120?s=20/photo/1

🧵 RT @2ug2ug A lot of westerners don’t know details about Russia. Like what the 21 republics are called. Where they’re located. How they came to be parts of the Russian Federation. We aren’t taught these things – we have to teach ourselves.
📌 🌎 https://twitter.com/2ug2ug/status/1601615677227692032?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @apmassaro3 The future of Ukraine is the future of the world

🐣 RT @SierraPoppies These airfields are said to have been attacked:
1️⃣ Belbek Airport Sevastopol
2️⃣ Simferopol
3️⃣ Yalta
4️⃣ Dzhankoy
Eight HIMARS rockets are said to have been launched at Melitopol. The city with its airfield is the central logistics hub for the southern Russian army group.

🐣 RT @tomaburque Reports of a strike on an enemy troop concentration in Melitopol tonight and that there were significant casualties. Let’s hope! 😀🇺🇦🚀💥🇷🇺🔥💀 #RussiaIsLosing

🐣 RT @trajaykay occupied Melitopol 🇺🇦 🚭🚭russian military base
Join us @MriyaReport 2 deep dive into all the details of all the explosions heard tonight
🇺🇦🐆🇺🇦🐆🇺🇦🐆🇺🇦🐆🇺🇦
We have many ex.N current Army, Navy, military 2 help us analyse it @and @DaftWhiskyPilot @B1on4de 🔊https://twitter.com/i/spaces/1BRJjZomRRRJw

😅 RT @JoaoPio3 The USS Enterprise, captained by @MattPPea has warped into Earth’s orbit above #Sevastopol. Major teleport mishaps did not prevent it from shattering all previous records by bringing 2450$ in donations, totaling 10890$ donated thus far! #nafofleet @U24_gov_ua @Official_NAFO
💽 https://twitter.com/JoaoPio3/status/1601151226338369537?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer TARGET CRIMEA: On the night of 10 December, explosions were reported at the Russian air force base north of Sevastopol in occupied Crimea. Explosions were also reported at the rail junction in Dzhankoya in N Crimea. Developing story. [link]
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1601696278874050561?s=20/photo/1

🐣 I always appreciated Twitter’s annotations about eg vaccine misinformation, fact-checks, and links to reputable sources.
I‘ve never been fond of unmoderated comment sections. I‘m careful about who I follow and use Lists, Block, Mute and Word Mute liberally.
I still ♡ Twitter

🐣 RT @ duty2warn Elon is trying to flip the script by creating the narrative that Twitter interfered with the election by suppressing right wing misinformation and hate speech ¤ Musk is an evil liar working in alliance with the domestic and foreign enemies of the Constitution. ¤ #TwitterFiles3

🐣 RT @wartranslated 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. https://t.me/strelkovii/3510
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1601522025872642048?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @brianklaas As someone who has studied coups—interviewed people tortured in their wake, gotten to know the generals, seen countries ruined by violent military takeovers—it’s grotesque to see absolute morons use the word to describe content moderation after a politician incited a violent mob.
⋙ 🐣 RT @RepMTG Breaking news ¤ This is evidence of a coup
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @mtaibbi THREAD: The Twitter Files THE REMOVAL OF DONALD TRUMP ¤ Part One: October 2020-January 6th

🐣 Just based on my experience, I’d say not all Ukr/Ru accounts are being “shadow banned,” but some I’m not seeing: eg @McFaul @JuliaDavisNews @AVindman

━━━━━━━▼ Election Stats
🔄 💙🐣 Many post-election analyses obscure the fact what White voters still comprise about 70% of voters. Consequently, Whites continue to have an outsize impact on elections. For instance, of Dems, White Women still outnumber Black Women by 3X (16.7% v 5.3% of all voters)
// tags: Swing Analysis (though it’s not); NBC Exit Poll: https://tinyurl.com/scmxy9hn
◕ https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1601529786496876546?s=20/photo/1
:—% of All—: :-% of Dems-:
All Dem GOP Dem GOP
WM 36% 35%/ 63% 12.6%/ 22.7% 26.3%
WW 37% 45%/ 53% 16.7%/ 19.6% 34.9% 61.2% Total White
BM 5% 82%/ 17% 4.1%/ 0.9%. 8.6%
BW 6% 88%/ 10% 5.3%/ 0.6% 11.1% 19.7% Total Black
LM 5% 53%/ 45% 2.7%/ 2.3%. 5.6%
LW 6% 66%/ 33% 4.0%/ 2.0%. 8.4% 14.0% Total Latin
AO 5% 49%/ 47% 2.5%/ 2.5%. 5.2% 5.2% All Other
47.9%/ 50.6%
WM=White Men (etc), AO=All Other (NBC Exit Poll)

🐣 NBC Exit Polls: In the Midterm Elections, of DEMOCRATIC Voters:
61.2% were White
19.7% were Black
14.0% were Latin/Hisp
5.2% were All Other
https://tinyurl.com/scmxy9hn
◕ https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1601713211476090882?s=20/photo/1
↧
:–– % of Dems ––:
WM 26.3%
WW 34.9% 61.2% Total White
BM 8.6%
BW 11.1% 19.7% Total Black
LM 5.6%
LW 8.4% 14.0% Total Latin
AO 5.2% 5.2% All Other
WM=White Men (etc), AO=All Other (NBC Exit Poll)
━━━━━━━▲

🐣 RT @McFaul The Russian army is losing on the battlefield against Ukraine soldiers, so Putin has ordered them to attack Ukrainian civilians instead. Any honorable soldier would be embarrassed to carry out such attacks against grandmothers and children.

🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT /0100 UTC 10 DEC/ RU losses are consistently estimated as 100 soldiers Killed in Action (KIA) per day, w/ scores more wounded daily. UKR officials describe the increasingly futile RU effort to take the city as ‘a meat grinder’.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1601379853705818112?s=20/photo/1

⭕ 9 Dec 2022

WaPo, David Stern: After missile strikes, Ukrainians persist without electricity, water, heat https://tinyurl.com/ycks84es “‘I had one child in the elevator, the other I’m baptizing, and tomorrow we have a heart operation,’ Tkachuk said. ‘This was a horrible time.’”

ForeignAffairs, Marlene Laruelle: Putin’s War and the Dangers of Russian Disintegration https://tinyurl.com/398njpuh “Russia’s breakup is unlikely. … The best outcome would be for local self-government—inscribed in the Russian constitution but scrapped by Putin”
// The Unraveling of a Fragile Multiethnic State Could Lead to More Violence

… Could Russia splinter? ¤ Russia’s geography makes cohesiveness elusive. Spanning 11 time zones, it is the largest nation in the world by landmass. Twenty percent of its population is not ethnically Russian but belongs to local indigenous nations. While Moscow was named the third most prosperous city in the world by the UN-Habitat’s City Prosperity Index a few weeks before the war began in February, a large part of the Siberian subcontinent is impoverished and sparsely populated. In the far north, declining extractive industrial cities predominate. In the Far East, residents are economically more connected to China, Japan, and South Korea than to Moscow and St. Petersburg. Under Putin’s leadership, power has been heavily centralized in Moscow and political and cultural autonomy in the provinces have been reduced. …

To be sure, Russia’s breakup is unlikely. In the aftermath of Putin’s disastrous war, however, the regime will nonetheless face growing pressures to decentralize. The best outcome would be for local self-government—inscribed in the Russian constitution but scrapped by Putin—to become a reality. This refederalization of Russia would be possible only if accompanied by a national reckoning on the legacy of Russia’s colonialism. This reappraisal would be important for ethnic Russians as well as for minorities. But as in the United States and Europe, that societal transformation will take decades. It is worth pursuing, however. Only a Russia that decentralizes politically and culturally can reform itself from the inside out.

🧵 RT @mtaibbi 1. THREAD: The Twitter Files ¤ THE REMOVAL OF DONALD TRUMP ¤ Part One: October 2020-January 6th
📌 https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1601352083617505281?s=20
[ThreadReader] https://tinyurl.com/37jsf823

ABCNews: Judge declines DOJ request to hold Trump team in contempt over classified documents https://tinyurl.com/2p8j53vm
// A federal judge has declined a DOJ request to hold Trump’s team in contempt over classified documents.

RT @CBSNews Incoming House Foreign Affairs Chairman Michael McCaul, Republican of Texas, enthusiastically supports continuing to aid Ukraine in its hard-fought war against Russia.
⋙ CBSNews: Incoming House Foreign Affairs chairman favors heavily arming Ukraine “100%” https://tinyurl.com/5xx9hz7d
// GOP Rep. Michael McCaul says U.S. military aid that’s “destroying the Russian military” has been a “pretty good investment.”

🐣 RT @nytimes NATO’s secretary general warned on Friday that Russia’s war in Ukraine could expand into a wider war with the Atlantic alliance.
⋙ NYT: NATO’s secretary general warns that a ‘full blown war’ with Russia is ‘a real possibility.’ https://tinyurl.com/mpa676cb
// “If things go wrong, they can go horribly wrong,” Jens Stoltenberg said in an interview published on Friday.

🐣 RT @marceelias There is no doubt that in 2022, democracy was on the docket and it won!

🐣 RT @k_sonin Cannot stop thinking about today’s fire in the former IKEA mall near Moscow. When it opened in 2000, it was a whole new world for us. The pucture is so symbolic of Putin’s destruction of Russia. Everything good has to go.

TheGuardian: Putin suggests possibility of settlement to end war in Ukraine https://tinyurl.com/yeebrn69 “Despite all evidence to the contrary, Putin claimed that his military operation was going to plan. ‘Everything is stable. There are no questions or problems there,’ he said”
// Russian president still claims ‘special military operation’ going to plan during Kyrgyzstan press conference

🐣 .[…] such an insightful song about love:
♫ It was almost love
It was almost always
It was like a fairytale we’d live out
You and I
And yes some dreams come true
And yes some dreams fall through
And yes the time has come for us to say goodbye

🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer CUT AND RUN? Abbas Gallyamov, a former aide to the Russian President, claims that Putin and his entourage are buying up property on Venezuela’s Margarita Island in the event they have to leave Russia. The Daily Beast reports.
⋙ DailyBeast, Allison Quinn: Putin Is Preparing to Flee When Russia Implodes, Ex-Aide Says https://tinyurl.com/39t5np75
// 12/7/2022; “The leader’s entourage has not ruled out that he will lose the war, be stripped of power, and have to urgently evacuate somewhere.”

🐣 RT @duty2warn The ALL CAPS nutcase is at it again. He is deranged, delusional, sociopathic, and increasingly maniacal. To treat him as a serious presidential candidate, is preposterous. MSM needs to stop normalizing him! He’s a blathering fool. A traitor. A criminal. A butt-naked ex-Emperor.

🐣 RT @justartsndstuff Girkin: “The whole world is laughing at Russia. For 9 months we managed to be defeated by Ukraine. ¤ In the heads of the president and the elites, the war is lost” ¤ @vidtranslator ¤ translate
⋙ 🐣 RT @olga_penina Openly calling for a military coup

🐣 RT @WarMonitor3 Bakhmut Holds! ¤ My recent communication with a unit on the ground confirmed the information about the difficult situation forming on the south eastern sector of the frontline. Russian forces are currently attacking from three directions the battles rage.

🐣 RT @rgoodlaw This would be more serious than DOJ just saying they believe documents are still missing: ¤ “Trump attorneys had received word in early November from Justice officials who said they believed the former president still had documents in his possession.”
⋙ CNN: Justice Department demanding Trump team attest all documents marked classified have been returned https://tinyurl.com/49pv4dk8

🐣 RT @kpolantz Happening now: Jay Bratt +DOJ prosecutors in a sealed hearing w Trump lawyers before Chief Judge Howell in DC. It’s about holding Donald Trump in contempt re: classified docs subpoena. ¤ 12+ reporters, our lawyer @CTobinJD waiting outside the courtroom, asking for public access
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/kpolantz/status/1601292825177784320?s=20/photo/1 -2

🐣 RT @ ChuckPfarrer IZIUM AXIS/ 2100 UTC 9 DEC/ UKR tactical elements have established positions across the P-66 HWY in the vicinity of Chervonopopivka. On the west bank of the Krasna River, RU forces have targeted artillery on UKR observation points (OPs) near the town of Ploshchanka.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1601317251545968641?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @SpiroAgnewGhost What the actual fuck? Deranged lunatic keeps responding to himself this morning on all his posts.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/SpiroAgnewGhost/status/1601252434516402176?s=20/photo/1

[Text:] 🐣 RT @realDonaldTrump Thank you!
⋙ 🐣 RT @realDonaldTrump ELON: The Twitter releases are a revelation in that they show, in a very powerful fashion, the FBI and “Justice” illegally colluding, proving conclusively, in one more very powerful way, that the 2020 Presidential Election was Rigged & Stolen. What everyone is REALLY waiting to see, however, is the Twitter information and thought process leading up to the time of the so-called “Election,” and ultimately the “Deplatforming” of the President of the United States. Big moment in history. Thank you!

🐣 RT @SpiroAgnewGhost What a lunatic.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/SpiroAgnewGhost/status/1601250254539497472?s=20/photo/1

[Text:] 🐣 RT @realDonaldTrump Police State!
⋙ 🐣 RT @realDonaldTrump [ts] WHAT IS GOING ON WITH THE FBI & “JUSTICE” DEPARTMENT? THEY SEEM TO BE TOTALLY OUT OF CONTROL! THERE IS, RIGHT NOW, A “WEAPONIZATION” OF JUSTICE THE LIKES OF WHICH OUR COUNTRY HAS NEVER SEEN BEFORE. THE TWITTER AND FACEBOOK SCANDAL HAS ALREADY PROVEN TO BE, WITH THE POSSIBLE EXCEPTION OF SPYING ON MY CAMPAIGN,THEIR MOST SINISTER ACT IN HISTORY. EVEN THE RINOS & THE WEAK ARE OPENLY ADMITTING THAT THE 2020 ELECTION WAS RIGGED, BUT IN A DARKER WAY THAN EVER THOUGHT POSSIBLE. SO MANY LIVES DESTROYED!

Reuters: U.S. House overwhelmingly approves bill backing record military spending https://tinyurl.com/2p9ycj8y The bill, which passed 350-80 “paves the way for the defense budget to hit a record $858 billion next year, $45 billion more than proposed by President Joe Biden”
⋙ 🐣 “The fiscal 2023 NDAA authorizes $858 billion in military spending and includes a 4.6% pay increase for the troops, funding for purchases of weapons, ships and aircraft; and support for Taiwan as it faces aggression from China and Ukraine as it fights an invasion by Russia.”
// tags: Defense Budget

NYT Editorial: This Case Should Never Have Made It to the Supreme Court https://tinyurl.com/2p8yvsb4 Moore v Harper argues that state legilstures are not subject to state judicial review or veto power in setting federal election rules: it is the (hopefully) last Jan 6 court case
// independent state legislature theory

Jacobin, Tony Wood: Since Boris Yeltsin, Russians Have Been Living in an Imitation Democracy https://tinyurl.com/2ewfnh29 “The 2000s were marked by … Russia’s growing resentment of its choice between subordination or exclusion from the post–Cold War order”

Imitation Democracy was written in the late 2000s, synthesizing the remarkable analysis of the post-Soviet political order that Dmitrii Furman had developed over the previous few years. It was first published in Russian in 2010, just after the high point of what Furman called the “imitation-democratic” system. By the time it came out, Vladimir Putin had served two terms as president (2000–2004 and 2004–8) and handed power to his appointed successor, Dmitry Medvedev — a seamless transition, validated by apparently democratic elections, that displayed the system’s confidence and solidity. But as Furman argued back in 2010, the very nature of the system meant that it was headed for a period of crisis sooner or later.

… Most coverage of the country had tended to set Russia alongside one or more Western states, with occasional provocative exceptions comparing it to other middle-income countries. Furman, by contrast, placed Russia in the company of the states that in fact most closely resembled it: the fourteen other republics that had emerged from the disintegration of the USSR.

The question was how and why the trajectories of these countries diverged after 1991. Here, Furman drew on his prior formation as a scholar of comparative religion, finding deep cultural roots for the different political systems that would emerge during the 1990s. But he also ascribed many of the gaps that began to open up between former Soviet states to their differing endowments: their degrees of regional and ethnolinguistic diversity, their confessional divisions, the extent to which their social structures tended toward hierarchy or rough egalitarianism. All of these were enabling, though not in themselves sufficient, conditions for a given country to break from the “imitation-democratic” pattern with which they had all begun.

… Furman highlights the degree to which countries such as Ukraine, Georgia, and Kyrgyzstan were able to establish more genuinely competitive political systems than that in Russia. (In this respect, too, he was engaging in a comparison many of his fellow Russian liberals would find uncomfortable: in the march toward democracy, had Russia fallen behind Kyrgyzstan?)

Yet the Colour Revolutions that took place in these countries — Rose in Georgia in 2003–4, Orange in Ukraine in 2004, Tulip in Kyrgyzstan in 2005 — were the exceptions: the imitation-democratic regime type remained dominant across most of the post-Soviet space through the 2000s. Within that species, Russia’s was the most stable and successful of all, reaching an undisturbed maturity — what Furman calls its “golden age” — in Putin’s second presidential term, from 2004–8.

… [Furman] argues … , a period of crisis awaited, in which the contradictions of the system would multiply. These included not only a widening gap between democratic “form” and authoritarian “content,” but also an atrophying of “feedback mechanisms” — a loss of contact between rulers and ruled, rendering it ever more difficult for the regime to get an accurate read on society.

At this point, the very impulses to control society and eliminate political challenges that had enabled its consolidation would turn from assets to liabilities. For Furman, this was not so much a matter of individual failings as of systemic evolution. In his biological metaphor, after reaching maturity imitation democracies inevitably enter a period of senescence and decline. Either their grip on power is loosened, or the very tightening of that grip produces crises of rule. The question then becomes one of whether the system is swept away by those crises, or whether it can survive them by adapting or renewing itself.

… Furman clearly did not imagine Putin would return to power in 2012, let alone that he would remain there a decade later, his grip on power extended indefinitely thanks to a 2020 constitutional amendment. But this in itself arguably confirms Furman’s diagnosis of senescence.

… Faced with multiplying dangers — the fallout from the global economic crisis after 2008, the sudden upsurge of popular protest at home in 2011 — Russia’s ruling system responded by returning Putin to power and heightening its use of repressive methods. An imitation democracy still in the process of growth would have been able to find another leader, would have imagined other options for its prolongation beyond simply insisting on more of the same.

… When Furman was writing, many of the events that would prepare the ground for the present disaster still lay in the future: the Maidan protests and fall of Viktor Yanukovych in 2013–14, Russia’s annexation of Crimea and its support for separatist militias in the Donbas over the following years, and the establishment of sanctions against the Russian regime by the United States and its allies.

Even in the wake of all this, the Kremlin’s decision to invade Ukraine in February 2022 [was] indicative of precisely the kinds of pathology Furman identified as likely in an imitation-democratic regime in its senescence: a narrowing of decision-making circles, a lack of feedback mechanisms, and above all a growing insulation of those at the top from reality.

… The 2000s were marked by the expansion of NATO into former Soviet republics, and by Russia’s growing resentment of its choice between subordination or exclusion from the post–Cold War order.

… Furman situated [CIS] in a longer historical arc, identifying it as the “final form of the Russian empire,” which was now reaching the end of a century-long process of dissolution. Made fifteen years ago, his arguments about Russian nationalism and imperialism seem especially worth returning to in the light of current events

Furman identified three distinct avatars of the Russian empire, each embodying a distinct stage of its entropic decline. The first, of course, was the vast domain of the Romanov dynasty, which was different from its European peers in lacking a distinction between metropole and colony. For much of the empire’s existence, Russian ethnicity also conferred little advantage on its citizens (indeed in many cases the reverse applied: Poles and Finns could exercise more liberties than Russian serfs). Yet in the second half of the nineteenth century, a combination of top-down Russification policies and an expansion of literacy fostered a growth of national consciousness across the empire, leading to mounting centrifugal tensions

In 1917, the empire fell apart under the pressure of world war and popular revolt. It could only be knitted back together by shifting its foundations: in the wake of the Civil War, the Bolsheviks created a nominally federal union that enshrined the rights of national minorities, while remaining strictly unitary and centralized in practice. This was a second incarnation of the empire, but a highly contradictory one. For Furman, while the USSR replicated the tsarist empire in territorial outline, it was distinct from it in its deliberate submergence of Russian nationalism. The price of continued de facto Russian dominance was its de jure denial. …

For Furman, the abruptness of the USSR’s collapse crucially conditioned the character of Russia’s “post-imperial syndrome.” In a March 1991 referendum held across most of the Union — the exceptions were the Baltic states, Armenia, Georgia, and Moldova — an overwhelming majority of voters, some 78 percent, supported the preservation of the USSR. Nine months later, however, the Union was dissolved by the presidents of only three of its constituent republics. (As Furman put it, “somewhere in the Belovezha forest [in Belarus], three men got together and overnight, ‘over a half-litre’ [bottle of vodka], decided everything.”)

The speed and furtiveness of this decision would have far-reaching consequences. Not only was Russian society “not prepared for non-imperial existence and non-imperial politics”; on a more basic level, “the collapse of the USSR was not understood as the emergence of fundamentally new relations between truly independent states.”

This was why, for Furman, the CIS that emerged from the USSR’s ruins was such an ambiguous construct: at once an association of free and sovereign states, and a fictive container for an imperial politics Russia had yet to relinquish — a privileged zone of influence that it termed its “near abroad.” Yet this third avatar of the Russian empire was an extremely weak, diluted one, offering only a “phantom unity” across what used to be the imperial space. The newly independent states would inevitably diverge.

… Furman argued, the fate of the Commonwealth of Independent States was ultimately tied to that of imitation-democratic regimes themselves — which in his view were slated for disappearance, sooner or later. In line with this, it is not coincidentally the countries that have diverged most from Russia in terms both of their internal politics and above all their geopolitical alignment that have peeled away from the CIS: Georgia withdrew in 2008 and Ukraine from 2014 onward.

… [I]t may make more sense to take Furman’s analysis of Russian imperial decline less as a prediction than as a diagnosis. ¤ … [I]f imperial politics and imitation democracy are functionally interlinked, then bringing about such a shift will also require a democratization from within that is accompanied by a rejection of the imperial worldview — a rethinking of Russia’s place in the world and of its purposes and possibilities at home.

🐣 RT @NOELreports The use of sports to whitewash war crimes is disgusting – Dmitry Kuleba reminded IOC President Thomas Bach about 184 Ukrainian athletes killed by the Russian Federation in response to a proposal not to politicize sports
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/NOELreports/status/1601131939406446594?s=20/photo/1

[Text:] 🐣 RT @DmytroKuleba Since February, Russia has killed 184 Ukrainian athletes. And now Mr. Bach is quoting Emmanuel Macron as allegedly saying “sports should not be politicized” and athletes from Ukraine, Russia and Belarus should be treated equally. Using sports to whitewash war crimes is sickening.

⭕ 8 Dec 2022

🐣 RT @Biz_Ukraine_Mag ✓ Remarkable video: an apparently intoxicated Putin admits to deliberately destroying Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure but claims Ukraine “started it”
💽 https://twitter.com/Biz_Ukraine_Mag/status/1601010612380672000?s=20/photo/1
⋙ 🐣 RT @Richard36791883 ”They started it”. Very mature. But on a serious note, if this video is out someone let it out. And in that case his days are numbered. He has become a liability for Russia. Good riddance.

🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT AXIS/1400 UTC 8 DEC/ Heavy fighting continues as RU presses platoon & company sized assaults on the line of contact. Reports indicate that a Russian assault south of the H-32 HWY has reached the embankment of a retention pond on the Bakhmutka River north-east of Ivangrad.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1600849805932392453?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer KREMENNA/0230 UTC 8 DEC/ UKR is exploiting the interdiction of the P-66 HWY between Ploschanka and Chervonopopivka. Tactical pressure is being exerted on Kremenna in the north, at Zhytiivika, and south of of the urban area at Shypylivka.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1600681677982142464?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @judgeluttig Let me correct the record below and say that I told @neal_katyal yesterday after we left the Court that his was the single best oral argument I have ever heard made before the Supreme Court of the United States. He was masterful!
⋙ 🐣 RT @neal_katyal Such a privilege to argue #MoorevHarper in the Supreme Court on behalf of Becky Harper, @CommonCause & other voter protection groups. Anything you liked in my argument was really the product of incredible work by so many, especially @judgeluttig, Abha Khanna, Elisabeth Theodore +
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @neal_katyal Stanton Jones, Allison Riggs, Katie Wellington, Will Havemann, Olivia Molodanof, Sam Hirsch, Jessie Amunson, Zach Shauf, Erik Zimmerman, and many many more. ¤ A decision is expected by June, 2023.
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @neal_katyal I can’t tell you how many sleepless nights these people put into this. If you know any of them, please thank them.

WaPo: War has tamed Ukraine’s oligarchs, creating space for democratic change https://tinyurl.com/4asd7apk “This is the end of an epoch, the end of a political culture,” said a former adviser to Andriy Yermak, President Zelensky’s top aide
// Ukraine may have the opportunity to rebuild a postwar society that is more democratic, less corrupt and more economically diversified

[Russia’s] attacks were designed to leave Ukraine cold and dark this winter. But they also deepened a financial crisis for the plant’s owner, Rinat Akhmetov, the country’s richest man. ¤ Akhmetov’s wealth has dived from $7.6 billion to $4.3 billion since Russia invaded Ukraine in February, according to Forbes. In 2012, before Russia annexed Crimea and backed separatists in Ukraine’s east, locations where Akhmetov also had numerous assets, the magazine estimated his wealth at $16 billion. …

One billionaire becoming less of a billionaire isn’t breaking hearts in a country fighting a war for its very existence. But it provides some insight into how the Russian invasion is affecting Ukraine’s oligarchs, a group of fewer than 20 fantastically wealthy people who have wielded outsize — and often, anti-corruption activists contend, malign — influence over Ukraine’s politics, economy and society since the country’s independence in 1991.

“This is the end of an epoch, the end of a political culture,” said Viktor Andrusiv, a former adviser to Andriy Yermak, President Volodymyr Zelensky’s top aide, who has written extensively about Ukraine’s oligarchs and is now fighting on the front lines in the Ukrainian army. …

Pressure on oligarchs had already been building before Russia’s invasion, with a “de-oligarchization” law promoted by Zelensky that took effect this year. The law places limits on the political activity of super-rich individuals who meet certain criteria, including those who have major holdings in television and other media to press their financial interests and political agenda. The Zelensky government is also crafting antitrust measures to crack down on monopolies controlled by oligarchs in areas from coal mining to electricity to railroads.

“The system was so strong and well institutionalized that it was quite difficult to break, but we will do everything we can to make sure it never recovers,” said Rostyslav Shurma, a close economic aide to Zelensky who previously worked for many years as a top executive in Akhmetov’s steel company, Metinvest. … …

WaPo: Walker’s loss in Ga. spurs new GOP hand-wringing, calls for new strategy https://tinyurl.com/yu8wt9yu “A longtime Republican operative associated with McConnell, summed it up in a tweet Wednesday morning: ‘Georgia may be remembered as the state that broke Trump once & for all’

⭕ 7 Dec 2022

🐣 RT @Gerashchenko_en [12/10/2022] Pentagon has given a tacit endorsement of Ukraine’s long-range attacks on targets inside Russia after multiple strikes against Ukraine’s critical infrastructure – @thetimes
⋙⋙ TheTimes [UK]: US gives Ukraine green light for drone warfare inside Russia https://tinyurl.com/ykbvp7p5
// The Pentagon has given a tacit endorsement of Ukraine’s long-range attacks on targets inside Russia after President Putin’s multiple missile
⋙ 🐣 [12/10/2022] … more like “turning a blind eye”:
YahooNews (12/7): U.S. has not encouraged Ukraine escalation in war with Russia – White House national security spokesman John Kirby https://tinyurl.com/3t6b293r “We have not encouraged them to do that”

WASHINGTON, Dec 7 (Reuters) – The United States has been very clear with Ukraine about accountability over weapons systems and its concerns over escalation of the war with Russia, White House national security spokesman John Kirby said on Wednesday.

“We have been consistent on our concerns over over escalation. We have not encouraged them to do that,” Kirby told reporters, after apparent Ukrainian drone strikes on two airbases deep inside Russia. (Reporting by Steve Holland and Doina Chiacu;Editing by Franklin Paul)

WSJ: Pope Francis Compares War in Ukraine to the Holocaust https://tinyurl.com/3z2a5w37 “Pope Francis on Wednesday compared the war in Ukraine to the Nazi genocide of the Jews, in his latest escalation of rhetoric on the war.”
// Pontiff intensifies his rhetoric on Russia’s invasion, which he recently likened to the Soviet genocide

Greeting Polish pilgrims at his weekly public audience at the Vatican, the pope noted a recent commemoration of Operation Reinhardt, the 1941 German effort to exterminate the Jews of Poland, which killed about two million people. ¤ “History repeats itself, repeats itself. Look at what is happening now in Ukraine,” the pope said, in an apparently off-the-cuff comment added to his prepared text. …

The pope last month compared the war in Ukraine to Stalin’s 1930s terror famine, which he called genocide. Though he followed his usual practice of not naming Russia as the aggressor on Wednesday, his latest comment seemed likely to irritate Moscow, which has presented its invasion as an effort to “denazify” Ukraine, falsely claiming that the government is controlled by a cabal of American-sponsored neo-Nazis.

SCOTUS Hearing Transcript: Moore v Harper (“Independent State Legislature”) https://tinyurl.com/2adp3yp7
// Timothy Moore vs David Thompson, Neal Katyal, Donald Verrelli, Elizabeth Prelogar
(adv:) Judge Luttig;; Katyal starts at p 70

TheGuardian: Reichsbürger: the German conspiracy theorists at heart of alleged coup plot https://tinyurl.com/bzatjzk3 The group’s members “believe the German state is an artificial construct that illegitimately replaced the ‘Deutsche Reich’ of the Nazi era”
// Despite description of alleged plotters by prosecutors as a ‘motley crew’, the threat was considered very real

At 6am on Wednesday, German special forces stormed a house in the Berlin lakeside villa quarter of Wannsee and arrested a former MP of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), Birgit Malsack-Winkemann. Three minutes later, they entered the Waidmannsheil hunting lodge in Bad Lobenstein in Thuringia. Simultaneous raids took place in 30 other locations, including a car repair shop and a carpenters’ studio, as well as in the Austrian ski resort of Kitzbühel and the Italian city of Perugia.

Twenty-five people were arrested, and by lunchtime eight of them were in police custody, among them a serving soldier of the elite KSK unit, a lawyer, a pilot, a gourmet chef and a prince, the alleged ringleader who had led the plans to overthrow the German state and replace it with a “monarchistic order”. …

The most dominant among the group of what the state prosecutors called a “conglomerate of conspiracy theorists” were the Reichsbürger, who believe the German state is an artificial construct that illegitimately replaced the “Deutsche Reich” of the Nazi era. …

🐣 RT @mccaffreyr3 Brave nation. Superb political and military leadership. They must fight or disappear as a people.
⋙ 🐣 RT @IanBremmer the only correct choice:
🖼 https://twitter.com/ianbremmer/status/1600499099383599107?s=20/photo/1
// TIME: 2022 Person of the Year: Volodymyr Zelenskyy

NYT: After Georgia Loss, G.O.P. Stares Down Its Trump Dilemma https://tinyurl.com/4znw7w8p “The midterm losses like Mr. Walker’s not only squashed the G.O.P.’s high hopes of retaking control of the Senate but also signaled the party’s steep climb ahead”
// Republicans from Georgia to Washington traded blame for their bruising defeats in the Senate races. Much of it landed on Donald Trump.

EDNY (DOJ): Russian Intelligence Agent Charged with Fraud and Money Laundering https://tinyurl.com/5a49wmz2 “Kremlin-backed Ukrainian politician and oligarch, Andrii Derkach, was sanctioned for his efforts to influence the 2020 U.S. Presidential election … ”
// Full title: Russian Intelligence Agent Charged with Fraud and Money Laundering in Connection with Purchase and Use of Luxury Beverly Hills Real Estate
// Defendant Was Sanctioned in 2020 for Attempting to Interfere in the U.S. Presidential Election

“Kremlin-backed Ukrainian politician and oligarch, Andrii Derkach, was sanctioned for his efforts to influence the 2020 U.S. Presidential election on behalf of the Russian Intelligence Services. While participating in a scripted Russian disinformation campaign seeking to undermine U.S. institutions, Derkach simultaneously conspired to fraudulently benefit from a Western lifestyle for himself and his family in the United States. The FBI will continue to use all the tools at its disposal to identify Russian intelligence operations, disrupt Russian information laundering networks, and bring to justice those who seek to engage in criminal conspiracies to undermine the integrity of U.S elections and evade U.S. sanctions,” stated Assistant Director-in-Charge Driscoll.

“Attempting to enjoy the safety, security, and freedoms of an open society, while secretly working to undermine that very society, is a hypocrisy that runs through every sanctions charge announced by the Task Force. It is a particularly egregious hypocrisy in the case of Andrii Derkach – sanctioned for attempts to undermine American democracy, while corruptly seeking to benefit from its protections,” said Task Force KleptoCapture Director Andrew C. Adams.

Since 1998, except for a hiatus from November 2006 to November 2007, Derkach was a member of the Verkhovna Rada (Rada), Ukraine’s Parliament. During his time in the Rada, Derkach was a member of the Party of Regions, a pro-Russia political party, which was the ruling party in Ukraine from 2010 until the 2014 Ukrainian Euromaidan Revolution. On September 10, 2020 the United States Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) sanctioned Derkach and several companies he controlled pursuant to Executive Order 13848, calling him “an active Russian agent for over a decade, maintaining close connections with the Russian Intelligence Services” who “waged a covert influence campaign” to undermine the 2020 U.S. presidential election. …

TheBulwark, Joe Perticone: House Republicans ‘May Dig Their Own Grave’ With Fringe Political Investigations https://tinyurl.com/4mff6tbt
// The contrast between the two chambers may become quite pronounced during the 118th Congress.

🐣 RT @RpsAgainstTrump BREAKING-Mitt Romney BLASTS Republicans over their plan to “investigate” Hunter Biden: “The American people want us to tackle some of the big challenges we have—immigration, inflation, and so forth—& the other things that divert from those priorities I think are a waste of time.”

🐣 RT @DavidCornDC Good timing…Derkach was IDed by the *Trump admin* of being a Russian agent working to spread to disinfo in 2020 to discredit Biden, & Giuliani, who gave the Hunter Biden laptop contents to the NY Post, was working w/ him in this effort. I explain here:
⋙⋙ MotherJones, David Corn: What Musk and Co. Want You to Forget About #TwitterFiles https://tinyurl.com/h2545vnj
// The billionaire, Trump, and the right are ignoring an inconvenient backstory.

… … After Musk acquired Twitter, he decided to revisit this episode. He turned over Twitter’s internal records to Matt Taibbi to report on what had occurred within Twitter regarding the Biden laptop. …

On Friday night, Taibbi, citing those internal documents, posted a long Twitter thread that reported on how Twitter had dealt with the Biden laptop story. But the thread did not reveal a massive conspiracy. It showed Twitter employees scrambling to manage a tough issue. As New York Times columnist Farhad Manjoo noted, the thread amounted to a “half dozen screenshots of content moderation policy executives earnestly debating content moderation policy.”

Musk, in a tweet, claimed Taibbi’s report showed “government involvement in censoring people on Twitter,” that was not the case. No one in the government had pushed Twitter to shut down the laptop story. The Biden campaign—which was not a government entity—did ask Twitter to block the sharing of dick pics from the laptop, a request in line with Twitter’s rules and reportedly honored. According to Taibbi’s thread, in 2020 the Trump White House also asked Twitter to repress material, and the company assented. Hardly evidence that Twitter was covertly plotting with the Biden camp to crush Trump.

Musk demonstrated tremendous ignorance and bad faith. In response to a Taibbi tweet citing a Twitter document saying that requests from the “Biden team” were “handled,” Musk tweeted, “If this isn’t a violation of the Constitution’s First Amendment, what is?” As conservative (non-Trumper) writer David French pointed out, “Biden was not president in 2020, and therefore there was no government involvement in his campaign’s requests. The First Amendment is not implicated when only private actors are involved.” Kevin Fox, a tech developer, put it this way: “A political campaign sends Twitter a list of tweets that refer to the campaign and violate Twitter’s terms of service and Twitter takes them down. This is what Elon Musk says tonight is a ‘blatant violation of the 1st Amendment’, as he willfully misrepresents the facts.”

The bottom-line: The Taibbi thread showed no conspiracy, just a hot mess. Twitter employees were in a difficult situation, striving to figure out what to do about the laptop article. …

Indeed, Twitter and others had good reason to be suspicious about the Hunter Biden story, given its origins. For over a year, Giuliani and other Trumpers had been trying to gin up a scandal about Biden and Ukraine. As part of this endeavor, Giuliani had been working with a Ukrainian parliamentarian named Andriy Derkach, who was promoting the unproven allegation Biden had improperly forced the firing of that Ukrainian prosecutor to help Hunter and Burisma. And Derkach was bad news.

Weeks before the laptop story, the US Treasury Department imposed financial sanctions on Derkach—the son of a former KGB official—and dubbed him “an active Russian agent for over a decade.” It was the Trump administration that declared Derkach was one of a group of “Russia-linked election interference actors.” The Treasury said he had maintained “close connections with the Russian Intelligence Services” and had “directly or indirectly engaged in, sponsored, concealed, or otherwise been complicit in foreign interference in an attempt to undermine the upcoming 2020 US presidential election.” Steve Mnuchin, Trump’s own Treasury secretary, proclaimed, “Derkach and other Russian agents employ manipulation and deceit to attempt to influence elections in the United States and elsewhere around the world.” Previously, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence had told Congress that Derkach was “spreading claims about corruption” as part of the Kremlin’s effort to undermine Biden’s campaign.

Here was yet another Russian attack on a US election, and Giuliani was in league with one of its perps. This was all public information when the laptop story broke. And, as the New York Post reported, Giuliani had a starring role in this caper, for he was the source who had shared the laptop with the New York Post. Of course, this rendered the whole thing suspect. Plus, the New York Post story presented as fact the debunked allegation that Biden had corruptly pushed to fire the prosecutor to aid his son and Burisma. (I went into all the details when the New York Post article first appeared.) So Murdoch’s propaganda outfit was citing the laptop to back up the Russia-pushed Ukrainian bunk. This story—through Giuliani—was directly connected to a Kremlin disinformation operation—which, I repeat, had been identified by the Trump administration.

Moscow was at it again, according to Trump’s own appointees. Thus, there was cause to wonder about this Giuliani-linked laptop story and to be cautious about spreading it. Perhaps Twitter made the wrong call. But it was not pressured by the Deep State or anyone else to do so. At the time, Russia was scheming to discredit Biden, and Giuliani was colluding with this endeavor. Whether the laptop was real or not—whether the data on it could be trusted or not—the New York Post was eagerly using it to bolster a false narrative being promoted by a Russian agent. That’s what made the story problematic. …

Had the nation fully accepted the reality of Russia’s attack on the 2016 election and had the Trump administration’s own conclusion that Putin in 2020 was once more trying to assist Trump via information warfare been widely recognized (and acknowledged by Trump and his loyalists), the New York Post story would have been clearly seen for what it mainly was: an amplification of Moscow’s anti-Biden skullduggery. Context matters. This story did not appear out of the blue. Yet the Trump-Russia denialism of 2016 had fostered an atmosphere in which talk of Russian interference was routinely dismissed by the right—and by such Russian hoax hoaxers as Taibbi and Greenwald. Giuliani was publicly working in the open with a Russian agent in this operation, and that didn’t spark a full-scale scandal.

What Twitter did at the time, right or wrong, was not as significant as the joint Russia-Giuliani operation. Yet Trump World denizens have focused on the handling of the New York Post story to concoct yet another deflective scandal. Musk and Taibbi have played right into their hands. …

Republicans, no surprise, leaped to embrace this new bogus scandal. GOP House leader Kevin McCarthy exclaimed, “We’re learning in real-time how Twitter colluded to silence the truth about Hunter Biden’s laptop just days before the 2020 presidential election.” He suggested House Republicans would launch an investigation once they take over in January. Expect it to get the full Benghazi treatment.

How did Trump respond to Taibbi’s nothingburger? In a social media post, The Former Guy insisted it revealed “MASSIVE & WIDESPREAD FRAUD AND DECEPTION.” He called for throwing out the 2020 election results and noted that “fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination” of the US Constitution. He essentially asserted he should now be installed as president. Or, perhaps more accurately, dictator.

This is what Musk and Taibbi—and their enablers—wreaked: a former president and current presidential candidate exploiting their alt-right kowtowing to call for the suspension of constitutional governance. What’s next? A call for armed resistance? Good work, fellas. This is exactly what the Russians want: division-driven politics in the United States that covers up their repeated efforts to boost a bigoted, narcissistic, and chaos-fomenting authoritarian. In his few short weeks as the uber-man of Twitter, red-pilled Musk has done much damage to the site and its brand. Advertisers are fleeing, trolls and bots are being empowered, and racists, antisemites, and Nazis have been welcomed back online. Moreover, Musk has now fueled the irrational paranoia of far-right extremists and bolstered support for Trump’s dangerous claims that he and his followers are victims of nefarious and evil schemers. Musk’s machinations may be doing more than breaking Twitter. They are contributing to the breaking of the nation.

🐣 RT @KlasfeldReports US indicts Andrii Derkach on sanctions busting charges. ¤ EDNY US Attorney: “The conduct of this Kremlin asset, who was sanctioned for trying to poison our democracy, has shown he is ready, willing, and capable of exploiting banking system in order to advance his illicit goals.”
⋙ 🐣 RT @KlasfeldReports If that name is familiar to you, you were paying attention before the 2020 election — and during its aftermath.
⋙⋙ Law&Crime (2020): U.S. Sanctions Three Russians and Rudy Giuliani Ally Known as ‘Ukrainian Putin’ for Election Meddling https://tinyurl.com/bde53fs4
// 9/10/2020

The U.S. Department of Treasury on Thursday sanctioned three Russian nationals and one Ukrainian politician with ties to the president’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani for attempting to influence the 2020 U.S. presidential election.

The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated Andrii Derkach, a pro-Russian member of the Ukrainian Parliament, saying that he’s been an active Russian agent with close ties to the Kremlin for over a decade.

“Derkach has directly or indirectly engaged in, sponsored, concealed, or otherwise been complicit in foreign interference in an attempt to undermine the upcoming 2020 U.S. presidential election,” read the statement from Treasury. “Today’s designation of Derkach is focused on exposing Russian malign influence campaigns and protecting our upcoming elections from foreign interference. This action is a clear signal to Moscow and its proxies that this activity will not be tolerated.”

Derkach, who was once dubbed the “Ukrainian Putin,” assisted Giuliani last year in drafting a counter-report aimed at discrediting the investigation of former special counsel Robert Mueller. Derkach provided Giuliani with “flagrantly inaccurate information” that reached the highest levels of the U.S. government.

The son of a KGB officer, Derkach released a series of edited audio recordings earlier this year that he claimed revealed corrupt conversations between Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and Ukraine’s former president Petro Poroshenko.

“Andrii Derkach and other Russian agents employ manipulation and deceit to attempt to influence elections in the United States and elsewhere around the world,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Thursday. “The United States will continue to use all the tools at its disposal to counter these Russian disinformation campaigns and uphold the integrity of our election system.”

Russian nationals Artem Lifshits, Anton Andreyev, and Darya Aslanova, all of whom were apparently employed by the Russian troll farm known as the Internet Research Agency (IRA), were also designated for supporting the organization’s cryptocurrency accounts. According to Treasury, the IRA uses a series of cryptocurrencies to fund its election meddling efforts “in furtherance of their ongoing malign influence operations around the world.”

Following the announcement of the sanctions, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) responded by maligning Senate Republicans’ ongoing investigation into Hunter Biden, saying it’s based in part on misinformation spread by Derkach.

“White Democrats are pushing for more aggressive action against Russian assets interfering in our elections, Republicans are using their conspiracy theories to advance bogus investigations,” Wyden said. “Senate investigations should not parrot conspiracy theories pushed by Russian agents under U.S. sanctions, and Senate Republicans should immediately abandon this blatantly political effort.”

🐣 RT @igorsushko DOJ has charged a Russian spy who fed Rudy Giuliani bogus dirt on the Biden family with money laundering over his alleged attempt to secretly buy two luxury Beverly Hills condos.
⋙ RollingStone: Rudy Giuliani’s Russian Spy Pal Charged With Money Laundering https://tinyurl.com/hu62pyxt “Giuliani publicly met with Derkach during a 2019 trip to Ukraine, where [Guiliani] was soliciting dirt about the Bidens in anticipation of the upcoming presidential election”
//. The Justice Department has charged Andrii Derkach, who fed Rudy Giuliani bogus dirt on the Biden family, with money laundering.

THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT has charged a Russian spy who fed Rudy Giuliani bogus dirt on the Biden family with money laundering over his alleged attempt to secretly buy two luxury Beverly Hills condos.

Andrii Derkach, a Ukrainian member of parliament who the Trump administration accused of being “an active Russian agent for over a decade,” allegedly used a shell corporation to hide his ownership of the condos and move the $4 million used to buy them, according to a criminal complaint.

“While participating in a scripted Russian disinformation campaign seeking to undermine U.S. institutions, Derkach simultaneously conspired to fraudulently benefit from a Western lifestyle for himself and his family in the United States,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael J. Driscoll said in a press release accompanying the charges.

The Trump administration sanctioned Derkach shortly before the 2020 election on the grounds that he was “an active Russian agent for over a decade” who had “waged a covert influence campaign centered on cultivating false and unsubstantiated narratives” to influence the presidential election.

Derkach featured prominently in efforts by Rudy Giuliani to spread bogus conspiracy theories that former Vice President Joe Biden pressuring Ukraine to commit to anti-corruption measures was a secret plot to quash a criminal investigation of Burisma, a Ukrainian company where Biden’s son, Hunter, served as a board member.

Giuliani publicly met with Derkach during a 2019 trip to Ukraine, where the then Trump lawyer was soliciting dirt about the Bidens in anticipation of the upcoming presidential election.

Derkach also cozied up to congressional Republicans by sending packages of alleged Biden dirt to Sens. Chuck Grassley, Ron Johnson, and then-Rep. Devin Nunes. U.S. intelligence and fellow lawmakers repeatedly warned lawmakers that Derkach had ties to Russian intelligence and was seeking to undermine the election, making some Republicans skittish about embracing the Ukrainian politician. But Giuliani was undeterred.

🐣 RT @anders_aslund I am sad to see that Jeffrey Sachs, my old friend & partner in advising the Russian reform government, 1991-94, now has gone all out in attacking democratic Ukraine & the West in favor of Putin’s authoritarian kleptocracy. I can no longer stand aside. ThreadReader: https://tinyurl.com/yy3rcabj
⋙ 🐣 RT @anders_aslund In the end, the interviewers ask: “To be clear, Professor Sachs, you’ve denounced Russia’s invasion as violent, of Ukraine?
Sachs: “I am sorry, Amy, I missed the opening.”
“You’ve denounced Russia’s invasion of Ukraine?”
[Not done before in the interview.]
⋙ 🐣 RT @anders_aslund This is a morally disastrous answer. Only when prompted by a sympathetic interviewer can Sachs say that the Russian invasion was cruel, but he does not blame Russia or Putin for their invasion of Ukraine. He justifies Russia’s war of aggression & genocide (not mentioned).
⋙ 🐣 RT @anders_aslund Sachs: “Of course. Absolutely, this was a collision that is disastrous, and the cruelty of the Russian invasion is enormous. But the foolishness, recklessness of the U.S. neoconservatives to push to this point is also something that needs accounting.” […]
⋙⋙ 🐣 The Republican Neocons are no longer a factor in US politics. The most pro-Ukraine forces in the US at this point are pro-democracy Democrats, many of whom opposed the Neocons in their heyday at the beginning of the (contrived) Iraq War. Sachs has become a pacifistic idealist

[ThreadReader Text]:
In the end, the interviewers ask: “To be clear, Professor Sachs, you’ve denounced Russia’s invasion as violent, of Ukraine?
Sachs: “I am sorry, Amy, I missed the opening.”
“You’ve denounced Russia’s invasion of Ukraine?”
[Not done before in the interview.]

Sachs: “Of course. Absolutely, this was a collision that is disastrous, and the cruelty of the Russian invasion is enormous. But the foolishness, recklessness of the U.S. neoconservatives to push to this point is also something that needs accounting.”

This is a morally disastrous answer. Only when prompted by a sympathetic interviewer can Sachs say that the Russian invasion was cruel, but he does not blame Russia or Putin for their invasion of Ukraine. He justifies Russia’s war of aggression & genocide (not mentioned).

Sachs has one aim: to blame the US, the West, NATO & in particular the neocons. But what are his specific arguments: “NATO as Ukraine’s security doesn’t work. It’s an explosive brew.” (=no argument, only emotions: Sachs does not like NATO).

An elementary observation is that the East European countries that managed to become members of NATO in time have been safe from Putin’s aggression, while Ukraine & Georgia who failed to flee into safety in time were attacked by Putin in 2008, 2014, and 2022.

Sachs makes a passionately pro-Russian statement about Crimea: “Crimea has been historically and will be in the future, effectively, at least de facto Russian.” This sounds like a justification of Stalin’s deportation of the Crimea Tartars in 1944. They were live there longer.

Is Sachs justifying the Soviet & Russian policy of offering retired military officers retirement in Crimea? Presumably he does know of such a policy.

Then he comes to the kleptocratic Ukrainian President Yanukovych, whom he incredibly defends. He “was negotiating with Russia to give, essentially, a long-term lease to satisfy Russia’s security desires and needs as a balancing…”
Sachs reveals his ignorance.

In 1997, Ukraine leased Sevastopol to Russia for 20 years through a bilateral agreement with Russia. In 2010, Putin’s underling Dmitri Medvedev pressurized pro-Russian Viktor Yanukovych to lease Sevastopol for another 25 years for dubious gas price discounts. He did so.

Russia could easily occupy Crimea in 2014.because Ukraine had allowed Russia to lease the Sevastopol naval base on Crimea. The lesson from Russia’s occupation of Crimea in 2014 is that Ukraine needs to seize full control also of Sevastopol.

But Sachs, who does not know much about Russia or Ukraine, claims: “But the United State, very unwisely and very provocatively, contributed to the overthrow of Mr. Yanukovych in early 2014,setting in motion the tragedy before our eyes.”
This is a truly outrageous statement.

First, on January 16, 2014, Yanukovych adopted the so-called “dictatorship laws” that just about passed through the Ukrainian parliament. They corresponded to Putin’s anti-democratic laws of 2005. The Ukrainian people & parliament rebelled & ousted Yanukovych the next month.

Second, this happened because of Ukraine’s strong civil society & democratic feelings, which Sachs could not care less about.
Third, the US did not play any role in Yanukovych’s ouster.

What I most of all cannot understand about Sachs is that he refuses to criticize Putin in any way.

Does Sachs prefer dictatorship (Russia) over democracy (Ukraine & the West)? He had better clarify his preferences after even Democracy Now! ask him so!
In no way does he criticize Putin’s, or even Yanukovych’s, kleptocracy. Is he now all anti-Western, anti-US and prefer any vile authoritarian kleptocrat over a Western-oriented democrat?

I could go on, but the case is so obvious.
Has Sachs stopped thinking and become a simplistic Putin propagandist?
Shape up, Jeff! Are you a serious intellectual any longer?
Are you for democracy?
Are you against kleptocracy?

🐣 RT @MuellerSheWrote Anyone saying Donald is being cooperative in this additional search is guessing, and they’re guessing wrong in my opinion. A judge ORDERED this. Kise wanted to but trump rebuffed him. This is NOT the DoJ teaming up with a cooperative Donald to avoid another FBI search. 1/
⋙ 🐣 RT @MuellerSheWrote If the FBI has credible evidence of probable cause, they would search. Devlin Barrett is acting like the DoJ has hard evidence and is simply being nice to Donald by not searching. I seriously doubt that’s the case, and it’s really irresponsible for him to posit it. END/
↥ ↧
WaPo: Items with classified markings found at Trump storage unit in Florida https://tinyurl.com/mpcap5jf
// The former president’s lawyers have told federal authorities no classified material was found in additional searches of Trump Tower in New York and his golf club in Bedminster, N.J.

🧵 RT @UNOFFICIAL_17 [Zelensky:] “I’ve held a meeting of the Staff today. Commanders’ reports, analysis of the situation in specific directions. ¤ First of all, regarding the Donetsk region, Bakhmut districts and other hottest spots. A very fierce confrontation is ongoing there, every meter counts. /1
📌 https://twitter.com/UNOFFICIAL_17/status/1600614255392333842?s=20

I thank all our guys who destroy the enemy right there – every day, every night, every hour. ¤. Of course, due attention was paid to the Luhansk region and Kharkiv region at the Staff’s meeting, there were reports on the situation in general and on the borders. /2

Energy sector is a permanent item on our agenda–at the Staff &government levels.I’ve held a meeting on the stabilization of the energy system&protection of power plants.We’re constantly increasing the generation&supply of electricity–we’re adding more volume almost every day./3

“I am grateful to all partners of our country! ¤ Glory to all who work for the victory! ¤ Glory to each of our warriors – to all those who obtain life for Ukraine! ¤. Glory to Ukraine!”/4
President Zelenskyy

🐣 RT @wartranslated Freshly de-mobilised Girkin takes sarcasm up a notch and promises to only comment on the special operation in the tone most favourable for Russian MoD. In line with the new approach, he lists the stages of the war as they would appear to genius strategists in Kremlin.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1600599629044846602?s=20/photo/1 -3
⋙ 🐣 RT @MariaJagcat Why is it even in Moscow he is not worried about being nullified by Putin?
⋙ 🐣 RT @Roland09191 Wow, that Falkenhayn reference is a masterful burn. Girkin hints at Falkenhayn’s “exhaustion strategy” which culminated in the 10-month battle of Verdun in WW1, which after massive losses on both sides did not prove decisive, without major gains for the Germans.
⋙ 🐣 RT @Megapaak If i would not know it any better, i would have guessed that he is on NATO payroll. I am really amazed that he can post such stuff without repercussions…
⋙ 🐣 RT @Rrrrolf He may be a real monster but he can throw shade with the best.

ABCNews: Trump hosts event featuring QAnon, ‘Pizzagate’ conspiracy theorist at Mar-a-Lago https://tinyurl.com/2cvnv9h8 “[T]he event was billed as a fundraiser in support of a ‘documentary’ on sex trafficking — one of the pillars of the QAnon conspiracy theory”
// tags: Liz Crokin: The event came two weeks after Trump had dinner with Ye and Nick Fuentes

🐣 RT @shustry My story for TIME’s 2022 Person of the Year is partly about my trip with President @ZelenskyyUa to Kherson last month. On his private train, we talked about empires, Hitler and Stalin, Charlie Chaplin and Lee Kuan Yew, and a lot besides. Have a read:
⋙ TIME, Simon Shuster: TIME 2022 Person on the Year: Volodymyr Zelensky https://tinyurl.com/57kypd3u

🐣 RT @NOELreports “Soon there will be no safe zones in Russia. We will be able to hit all targets in the territory, including in Siberia. We have no range limits,” an anonymous defense adviser to the Ukrainian government told the Financial Times.
🌎 https://twitter.com/NOELreports/status/1600464608539463681?s=20/photo/1

WaPo, Matt Bai: Kanye West, Elon Musk and the problem with public shaming https://tinyurl.com/26xethzp ‘1000s of slurs are 1000s too many, but Twitter has something like 41M daily active users in the US alone. We’re not talking about a remotely significant percentage of tweets’

WaPo: Drop in Republican turnout meant a bigger win for Warnock in Georgia runoff https://tinyurl.com/yckc36fk “Democrats padded their Senate majority on Tuesday night thanks in part to a rebuke of the Republican candidate in Georgia’s suburbs”
🌎 ◕ https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1600602549945569280?s=20/photo/1

WaPo: Supreme Court majority questions massive shift of election authority https://tinyurl.com/y3d5xxfb “A majority of Supreme Court justices … seemed reluctant to conclude that state legislators have the power to set federal voting rules without any oversight from state courts”

💙 🐣 RT @GlasnostGone Well deserved ten times over. TIME’s 2022 Person of the Year is President Volodymyr Zelensky and the spirit of #Ukraine. #TIMEPOY https://tinyurl.com/2xfz45uw
🖼 https://twitter.com/GlasnostGone/status/1600477386818158594?s=20/photo/1

NBCNews: Fauci criticizes ‘extreme’ ideological divide that has led to disproportionate Covid deaths https://tinyurl.com/3ewx5kxx “Differences in ideology are healthy. … But when they get so extreme that it prevents you from doing something that’s life saving, that is really awful” ~ Dr Fauci
// The president’s outgoing chief medical adviser told NBC News it was “unconscionable” that some people did not get the vaccine “based on political ideology.”

🐣 RT @mfa_russia Russian Permanent Representative to the UN Vassily Nebenzia: ¤ Obviously, uncontrolled supply of weapons to the Kiev regime is turning into a global problem, which however fails to be a game changer on the ground. ¤ https://is.gd/ToEFZa
⋙ 🐣 Your claim that you bomb Ukraine’s infrastructure in order to “break the militaristic backbone of the Kiev regime” is hogwash, Your own tv propagandists have made clear the purpose to deprive the population of light, heat and water and force millions to flee. But they are strong:
🖼 https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1600457094632681472?s=20/photo/1
// Zelensky: “Without You”

🐣 RT @JoeNBC Given the incoherence of his campaign speeches, I was struck by Hershel’s moving concession speech. It was beautiful in its simplicity. No excuses. Walker showed grace and reaffirmed basic American values our politicians need to show in victory and defeat
⋙ 🐣 RT @JoeNBC “I want you to believe in America, and continue to believe in the Constitution, and I especially want you to believe in our elected officials and pray for them.” ~Hershel Walker [link to speech]

WaPo: On east front with Ukrainian troops: Constant shelling, no heat or coffee https://tinyurl.com/24umyvtk “Ukrainians have refuted suggestions of an operational pause, saying that would just give Russia time to regenerate its forces at a moment they appear weakened”

⭕ 6 Dec 2022

🐣 RT @phildstewart @SecDef: U.S. is not preventing Ukraine from developing its own long-range strike capability
⋙ 🐣 Looks like a quote: Is there a source?

🧵 RT @wartranslated Summary of Arestovych and Feygin daily broadcast, Day 286, December 6, 2022. This update was provided by Stepan: https://twitter.com/childsacrifice1
https://tinyurl.com/yc2yzxp8
[ThreadReader:] https://tinyurl.com/2p8kjab2
📌 https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1600404830375116801?s=20

WaPo: Warnock beats Walker in Ga. runoff, growing Democrats’ Senate majority https://tinyurl.com/2h9rvajk
// 51.4%/48.6%; Warnock’s win gave Democrats their 51st Senate seat — handing them more leverage in a chamber that for two years has been evenly split

🐣 RT @RonFilipkowski Trump issues a statement reacting to the verdict, blaming everything on Allen Weisselberg
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1600273846543650816?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @NOELreports The United States of America has sufficient stockpiles of weapons to continue helping Ukraine, – US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman.

🐣 RT @EuromaidanPress Sanctioned Russian state-controlled VTB bank says it was hit by the largest cyberattack it has ever experienced, describing it in a statement as “unprecedented” [link] via CNBC

NYT: Trump Organization Found Guilty on All Counts in Tax Fraud Scheme https://tinyurl.com/4dzn5fbz
// The former president’s company had been accused of providing off-the-book benefits to executives. The testimony of its former chief financial officer proved crucial to the case.

🐣 RT @RiegerReport MCCONNELL: Anyone seeking the presidency who thinks that the Constitution could somehow be suspended or not followed, it seems to me would have a very hard time being sworn in as president of the United States.
💽 https://twitter.com/RiegerReport/status/1600217061640310802?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @BradMossEsq I have Rudy G’s disciplinary hearing still going in the background today and all I can tell so far is the man is completely indignant and lacking in remorse. He doesn’t see anything he did as being unethical or improper.

⁉️🐣 RT @NOELreports Russia is ready for a diplomatic settlement of the situation in Ukraine to eliminate the reasons that forced the start of the special operation, — Deputy Ambassador of the Russian Federation to the UN Vasyl Nebenzia ¤ Losers, literally.

WaPo: Attacks on Russian airfields carried out by Ukrainian drones, Kyiv official says https://tinyurl.com/yeu965hc ‘A senior Ukrainian official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said on Tuesday that all three attacks were carried out by Ukrainian drones’

🐣 RT @GlasnostGone Referring to a ceasefire, US Secretary of State @SecBlinken warned Russia could seek a phony off-ramp to the #Ukraine war that wouldn’t produce a durable peace & would only allow Russian troops to re-group and attack Ukraine again.
⋙⋙ CNN: Blinken warns against “phony off-ramp” for Russia https://tinyurl.com/4rnpvs4k
⋙ 🐣 it’s like, having failed to curb Macron in his views, the US (and much of Europe), has had to come out and clearly state the counter-narrative: ie that appeasement won’t work

🐣 RT @KyivPost President @ZelenskyyUa on Tuesday, Dec. 6, visited the frontline region of #Donetsk in east #Ukraine, describing fighting in the area as “difficult” with #RussianForces pushing to capture the industrial city of #Bakhmut.
⋙ KyivPost: Zelensky Visits Donbas Near ‘Difficult’ Ukraine Front https://tinyurl.com/4xaubvkb

🐣 RT @michaeldweiss War criminal Igor Girkin: Ukraine “will NOT freeze in winter, will NOT rebel and will NOT fight worse. Vice versa. Its soldiers…will only fight harder and harder against the ‘Muscovites,’ avenging the hardships that their relatives and friends in the rear are forced to bear.”
⋙ 🐣 RT @wartranslated Girkin is back, and in a long post describing his impressions slanders the Russian approach, saying the Russian forces are apathetic, the soldiers don’t know what they’re fighting for, and is not expecting any success in the near future. https://t.me/strelkovii/3495
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1600112329059958786?s=20/photo/1 -3

🐣 RT @anneapplebaum Everyone solemnly declaring that Ukraine must become “neutral” should remember that Ukraine was neutral, it did disarm, and the war is the result
⋙ 🐣 RT @McFaul As a Ukrainian friend reminded me today, Ukraine did not just give up nuclear weapons when signing the Budapest Memorandum, but also the strategic delivery vehicles – bombers and rockets – that would have been very useful to Ukraine in the fight to repel the Russain invaders now.
⋙⋙ 🧵 RT @oleksiireznikov Today marks the 28th anniversary of the Budapest Memorandum. ¤ Ukraine fulfilled its part of the agreement to voluntarily give up its nuclear weapons in exchange for security assurances from 🇺🇲🇷🇺🇬🇧. 1/3
📌 https://twitter.com/oleksiireznikov/status/1599798607669886977?s=20
⋙⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @oleksiireznikov 19 years later, russia waged war against us. To mark the anniversary of the agreement, today russia launched a new wave of missile attacks against Ukraine. ¤ The reaction of the world was insufficient. 2/3
⋙⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @oleksiireznikov This cannot happen again. Agreements must be honored. Evil must be punished. ¤ Ukraine’s victory = a new global security architecture = peace and stability in Europe. 3/3

🐣 RT @wartranslated The UAV attacks of today and yesterday are taken very seriously by Russian channels. For example, Zhivov shows that missile attacks against Ukraine cannot be considered an asymmetrical response and that soon Ukraine will be attacking targets even deeper in Russia.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1600086873711386624?s=20/photo/1

[Text:] Today, 2 more airfields in Russia were attacked. One of the targets is Kursk. There, according to the governor, an oil reservoir caught fire. Also, “Povyornutie na voyne” channel reports that there was an attempt to attack the airport “Belbek”. However, the air defense shot down all enemy drones.

After yesterday’s attack on the airport in the city of Engels, we got a precedent in which Russia, in accordance with the “doctrine of nuclear deterrence,” can launch a retaliatory nuclear strike.

The situation is more serious than it seems. ¤ American satellites filmed and published the location of our nuclear missile carriers, and a few days later an American proxy attacks this airfield. Unthinkable military arrogance, to which Russia has not yet responded.

Planned missile strikes cannot be considered a symmetrical response to this kind of aggression. Even more, attacking only Ukrainian targets is not a symmetrical response. ¤ It is necessary to attack American facilities and global communications. Naturally, not with own hands. But without creating counter-threats, next time they will fly to Moscow.

The United States and its allies each time increase the degree of confrontation, climbing more and more beyond the red lines that do not exist: an attack on the Moskva, an attack on the Crimean bridge, the destruction of the Nordstreams, shelling of Belgorod and Crimea, strikes on strategic objects in Russia. Here we do not even touch on sabotage activities on the territory of Russia, which we have taken out of the brackets.

Someone, I remember, wrote back in the summer that everything would end with Russia demonstrating its inability to respond even to strategic threats to its security.

Yesterday’s missile strike [against Ukraine], judging by the comments of experts, did not fully achieve its goals. A large number of missiles were shot down. Which is also predictable after the delivery of Western air defense. Each time mass missile strikes will have less and less effect.

The fork in which we are now looks like this: either Russia sharply increases the degree of escalation, or the Armed Forces of Ukraine and Western allies continue to hit targets in ever deeper Russian rear.

🐣 RT @McFaul Glory to the Armed Forces of Ukraine! Glory to Ukraine!

⭕ 5 Dec 2022

🐣 RT @mccaffreyr3 There should be no limitations on the right of Ukraine to defend their civilian population from criminal Russian attack. This was another brilliant tactical surprise against Russian assets firing from their own airspace and bases.
⋙ 🐣 RT @IAPonomarenko Today is the day the Ukrainian Air Force managed to strike two strategic airfields deep in the Russian rear and then repelled a major missile attack on the nation. ¤ Not a bad Monday, huh?

🐣 RT @Tendar If the new Ukrainian drones indeed have a range of 1000km then all Russian positions from the Finnish border down to Dagestan are in range. Even as deep as Kazan can be hit. ¤ That is definitely a game changer. #Ukraine #Russia
🌎 https://twitter.com/Tendar/status/1599674042058911745?s=20/photo/1
[Comments are great]
⋙ 🐣 RT @thebrexiteer Impressive how came up with Neptunes, sea drones and 1000km range air drones since 2/24 and all was able to do was buying crappy Iranian made plastic shaheed-136
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @TheM_Dawini That’s because a huge part of the Soviet military industrial complex was located in Ukraine. The skills are there, it’s the funding that’s the problem. Ironically a lot of the missiles that Russia has thrown at Ukraine belonged to Ukraine until the disarmament in the 90s.

🐣 RT @Tendar Good morning! An oil storage facility at the Kursk airport in Russia has been hit by a drone. #Kursk #Russia #Ukraine
¤ https://twitter.com/Tendar/status/1599997583434272769?s=20/photo/1
⋙ 🐣 the ingenious Ukrainians find a way: the US proscription on striking Ru only applies to US-made weapons; these drones appear to be Ukr modifications of “Soviet-era jet drones,” per @nytimes (unconfirmed)
⋙⋙ NYT: Ukraine Targets Bases Deep in Russia, Showing Expanded Reach https://tinyurl.com/yncj5fwm “Ukraine has already demonstrated its ability to use drones in new and unexpected ways, and to adapt old systems to perform new functions.”
// Launching drones at air bases 300 miles from its own territory, Ukraine changed the geography of the war. It said it had developed drones with a range of over 600 miles.

Ukraine executed its most brazen attack into Russian territory in the nine-month-old war on Monday, targeting two military bases hundreds of miles inside the country using drones, according to the Russian defense ministry and a senior Ukrainian official.

The drones were launched from Ukrainian territory, and at least one of the strikes was made with the help of special forces close to the base who helped guide the drones to the target, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity to convey sensitive information.

The strikes signaled a new willingness by Kyiv to take the fight to bases in the heart of Russia, raising the stakes in the war, and demonstrated an improved ability to attack at a distance. Shortly after the attacks on the bases, Russia sent a barrage of missiles streaking toward Ukrainian cities.

The Kremlin said that the weapons launched by Ukraine were Soviet-era jet drones and were aimed at bases in Ryazan and Engels, about 300 miles from the Ukrainian border. It said that its forces had intercepted the drones, and that “the fall and explosion of the wreckage” had “slightly damaged” two planes, killing three servicemen and wounding four others. …

Ukraine’s Western backers have refused to supply it with long-range weapons that could strike far into Russian territory, trying to avoid being drawn more deeply into the conflict. But Ukraine’s state-owned weapons maker, Ukroboronprom, said in October that it was “finalizing the development” of a drone with a 165-pound warhead and a range of more than 600 miles, and said on Sunday that it had completed tests of the weapon.

“We hope to be able to test it in combat use,” Natalia Sad, a spokeswoman for the arms maker, said on national television Sunday night.

It was not clear how Ukrainian special forces were able to infiltrate Russia, or how close to either base they got. But the car bomb assassination in August of the ultranationalist commentator Daria Dugina, believed to have been carried out by Ukrainians, showed similar capabilities.

“Ukraine’s ability to strike deep into Russian territory is not just militarily significant,” said Max Bergmann, a former American diplomat and expert on European and Russian security at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

“It also sends a message to Russia that continuing the war is not cost-free, that it is not just Ukraine which is vulnerable to long range drone and missile strikes; so is Russia,” Mr. Bergmann said. “This is useful for Kyiv, since when or if the two countries ever sit down, a commitment to stop attacks on Russian territory is now a valuable chip Ukraine has to offer.”

Ukraine has already demonstrated its ability to use drones in new and unexpected ways, and to adapt old systems to perform new functions.

The naval harbor of Sevastopol in occupied Crimea, home to Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, was rocked by a series of mysterious explosions on Oct. 29. Footage of sleek, black maritime drones maneuvering around the bay targeting Russian warships soon emerged. Ukraine has still not acknowledged being behind the attack, but President Volodymyr Zelensky, while still not claiming credit, announced a fund-raising campaign to secure “a fleet of marine drones.” …

Only a few hours after the explosions in Russia on Monday, Ukrainian officials said that more than a dozen Russian bombers had taken off from the Engels-2 air base. Air-raid alarms sounded in Kyiv, the capital, and other cities. Ukraine’s Air Force said more than 70 missiles were fired and more than 60 shot down.

“Unfortunately, we still cannot ensure complete security to our sky — there were several hits,” Mr. Zelensky said in his nightly video address. “Unfortunately, there are victims. As of this time, there are four people killed by Russian strikes today.” …

🐣 RT @INTobservers Today the Armed Forces of Ukraine went on a breakthrough along the Svatove-Kreminna line, while the stupid Russian terrorists launched their missiles against the infrastructure. Expecting good news from this direction soon. Glory to the heroes 🇺🇦

🐣 RT @mhmck When Ukraine’s peer democracies refuse to shelter the sky, or provide long-range weapons to the defenders, or embargo trade with the aggressors they are making a moral choice that Russia’s unjust war will go on longer and more innocent Ukrainians will die.

📊 ChicagoCouncil Poll: Solid majorities of Americans continue to support supplying Ukraine with arms (65%) and economic aid (66%) https://tinyurl.com/yu3zd9sf (n=1,030 adults, 11/18-20/2022) Support among Democrats and Independents is stronger
⋙ Full Report: https://tinyurl.com/bddktbuu
◕ https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1600005983757078528?s=20/photo/1
⇈ ⇈
🚫 WaPo: Support slipping for indefinite U.S. aid to Ukraine, poll finds https://tinyurl.com/vy3pjdcv

🖼 MSN: Can Russia break Bakhmut? Putin wasted 6000 lives in two weeks trying https://tinyurl.com/ydh6jutc
// slideshow

🐣 RT @Tendar An extensive video from @wartranslated showing the situation in Bakhmut from the side of Ukrainian soldiers. ¤ According to them the Russian plan is to encircle Bakhmut by the end of this year. But AFU is confident to thwart that plan. #Bakhmut #Ukraine
💽 7min [tr] https://twitter.com/Tendar/status/1599351395617951744?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @AndyOstroy This moron doesn’t even realize that when he puts “legitimately” in quotes he’s actually telegraphing the fact he knows he’s full of shit and lost… #Trump
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/AndyOstroy/status/1599956697417555968?s=20/photo/1

[Text:] WE WANT PEOPLE WHO “LEGITIMATELY” WON THE ELECTION TO LEAD OUR COUNTRY, NOT PEOPLE WHO HAD TO CHEAT IN ORDER TO WIN!!!

[Text:] 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!

🐣 RT @ResisterChic Trump Monday denied wanted to terminate the Constitution, two days after suggesting the termination of all rules … even those found in the Constitution. ¤ He can deny all he wants but we have receipts and they can be used against him in court of law. #OurBlueVoice #ProudBlue22
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/ResisterChic/status/1599968554694344704?s=20/photo/1

[Text:] 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!

🐣 RT @RadioFreeTom Among many reasons the rest of us have had a hard time comprehending the descent of so many Americans into mass psychosis is a belief that anyone who embraces such nuttery must have traumatic reasons for doing so. But it’s affluence and plenty, not trauma, that led us here. /1

This was a reason I was blocked for a time trying to write “Our Own Worst Enemy.” I wanted, very much, to take seriously the economic and social arguments about decline and hardship and all that made by both the right and left about why people were turning against democracy. /2

I read, with great care (as a working scholar), several works about liberal democracy and why it wasn’t working. It took a while before I just put them all down and realized most of them were basically hooey, especially the ones about “the elites” and yadda yadda yadda. /3

Because the problem staring right at us was that the threat was from people who were part of the dominant economic and political class. They were not part of the cultural “elite”, but never had been. And revisiting Hoffer and others, I realized we had our answer but hated it. /4

The danger was not some unemployed guy on opioids, it was from a bored woman named Marge who was tired of being married to a rich guy and having affairs at the crossfit gym. But to realize this is to realize that the problem is huge and perhaps impossible to solve. /5

Americans love problems we can fix. If only we cared more about the empty towns! If only we spent more on addiction! If only we could bring back good jobs!
But what if *none* of that will work? That’s the scary part. So we reject it. /6

There is no bill you can pass, no social program, that will solve the problem of a dentist or realtor who has decided that life is just too goddamn dull and that they’re gonna spice up their week by getting some tactical gear and cosplaying the Second Civil War. /7

This is why I switched gears early on when writing “Our Own Worst Enemy.” If we’ve learned anything since 2017, it’s that the initial arguments about “elitism” and economics were very wrong. This is a civic vacuity that comes from peace, affluence and high standards of living. /8

This doesn’t mean we are hopeless, but we have to stop thinking we can fix or legislate our way out of this by rebuilding the downtown of East Cupcake or by handing out free college. Those ships have sailed. The way out is harder, if simpler. /9

For example:
– Concentrate on local issues as a way to build civic resilience
– Speak forcefully for civic values instead of being intimidated by kooks (and do not argue with their nuttery)
– Outvote them (duh)
– Do all of this in concert with like-minded citizens. /10

⋙⋙ 🐣 I essentially agree with this. Perhaps we are so biologically attuned to survival in the face of external threats that we create threats from imagined enemies, often our neighbors, when none exist. ¤ Then we see Russia and Ukraine and remember what a real enemy is like.

🐣 RT @BillKristol “He has become a standard bearer for liberal democracy in the wider global contest with authoritarianism that could define the course of the 21st century. Zelenskyy has also come to embody the courage and resilience of the Ukrainian people in their fight.”
⋙ FinancialTimes: FT Person of the Year: Volodymyr Zelenskyy. ‘I am more responsible than brave’ https://tinyurl.com/7sf2b2as
// The president of Ukraine embodies the resilience of his people and has become a standard bearer for liberal democracy

🐣 RT @NOELreports Wonderful footage. Kadyrov’s henchmen film Russian anti-aircraft defenses unable to shoot down incoming GMLRS projectiles. They get audibly angry about it and are praying.
🔥 💽 https://twitter.com/NOELreports/status/1599880923138228224?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @GlasnostGone Goodnight #Ukraine. Today Ukraine successfully attacked 2 Russian military airfields deep inside Russia. Today Ukraine successfully downed 60 of around 70 Russian cruise missiles. Today Ukraine successfully made Russia look fucking stupid & it’s only Monday

DefenseNews: Army plans ‘dramatic’ ammo production boost as Ukraine drains stocks https://tinyurl.com/yhvm7w4s

🐣 RT @wartranslated Russian military researcher explains that such a tight arrangement of strategic bombers at airbases is due to a lack of expenditure in this type of weaponry, and only a few airbases are ready to take them.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1599874411431366656?s=20/photo/1

🧵 RT @wartranslated Reactions to the Engels airbase explosion: “Voennyi Obozrevatel” is not happy at all with the work of those protecting the airbases. https://t.me/milinfolive/94004
📌 [TextLink:] https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1599703352475934720?s=20/photo/1

[Text:] The sheep in the rear continue to demonstrate their absolute unsuitability. Neither Saki in the Crimea, nor Veretye in the Pskov region, nor even an attempt to strike drones on Shaikovka, where the Tu-22M3s are based, taught these people anything. That is, the trend of strikes against the airfields of the Aerospace Forces, and even more so, the aviation with long- range missiles, was obvious.

Sometimes it seems to us that these people can be put a bomb in their pocket – they still won’t notice anything, and if they notice, they will say that everything was planned. Even now, the airfields with strategic aviation cannot be covered by air defense systems with installed radars with AFAR (for example, Pantsir-SM) just to counter the small commercial drones that Ukrainian saboteurs use to attack objects on Russian territory almost from the very beginning of hostilities.

“Porvyornutie na voyne” write that there are no gabions or embankments on Engels. One can recall the drone attack on Khmeimim on New Year’s Eve from 2017 to 2018, where there were no means of protecting aviation at the front-line airfield either. Gabons began to be exhibited after the attack, which claimed the lives of several people and disabled equipment. And then, a few years later, hangars appeared, lo and behold. Same here, after the fact they will be showing off gabions and photographing their presence. When it’s no longer needed. And then everything is forgotten again.

🐣 RT @wartranslated Zhivov believes the attack gives Russia a legitimate reason for a nuclear strike

[Text:] The attack on Engels is a legitimate reason for a nuclear strike. Early this morning, an unknown UV attacked a completely defenseless airfield where our Tu-95 and Tu-160 nuclear missile carriers were stationed. Even the most loyal of bloggers are bursting at the seams with rage.

While you are raging with impotent rage, I decided to take another look at the document “On the Fundamentals of the State Policy of the Russian Federation in the Field of Nuclear Deterrence”, and found that we have a precedent for the use of a nuclear strike. Right now. Without additional conditions.

We read paragraph 19 “c”: the impact of the enemy on critical state or military facilities of the Russian Federation, the failure of which will lead to the disruption of retaliatory actions of nuclear forces.

The drone hit the airport where long-range strategic aviation is based. An important part of the nuclear triad. A blow to it clearly falls into the above paragraph.

“Dear Ukrainians”, I sincerely congratulate you, you and your crazy American comrades were still able to fully meet our nuclear doctrine. From now on, your complete nuclear annihilation will be the legitimate response of the Russian Federation to aggression

🐣 RT @wartranslated Good lord he angry

[Text:] I’m wondering, what kind of retards during the war ordered to collect almost all strategic
aviation and put it together, shoulder to shoulder, on one airfield in the open? At what level of the military hierarchy are such issues decided? Will someone be punished for this criminal negligence or sabotage? When will the retards and seniles in big uniforms stop making decisions in the conditions of modern warfare?

🐣 RT @paulmasonnews Highly significant: the USA signalling special tribunal for Putin, Shoigu etc & UN resolution – but prosecuting the leaders cannot exonerate the individual perpetrators of war crimes #StandWithUkraine
⋙ TheGuardian: Russian war crimes draft resolution being circulated at the UN https://tinyurl.com/2prb9ma5
// US opposition may be softening after lobbying by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy

🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT/0010 UTC 5 DEC/A Russian assault on the T-13-02 axis was stopped by UKR forces in the parkland NE of the H-32 HWY junction. Present RU losses in this AO are reported to be as high as 50 KIA daily– upwards of 350 dead and as many as 1000 wounded per week.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1599554315886428160?s=20/photo/1

⭕ 4 Dec 2022

🐣 RT @JuliaDavisNews Putin Cronies Resort to Begging on Live TV Over War Failures: ¤ “Everyone with no exception will be held accountable. All of us will be considered guilty.” ¤ “If we manage to lose, the Hague—whether real or hypothetical—will come even for a street cleaner.”
⋙ DailyBeast, Julia Davis: Putin Cronies Resort to Begging on Live TV Over War Failures https://tinyurl.com/45u4yhnn
// Russia’s mounting wartime disasters have forced Vladimir Putin’s top cheerleaders into desperate public pleas for help.

On Monday, head of RT Margarita Simonyan appeared on The Evening With Vladimir Solovyov and admitted that the Kremlin’s collaborationist elite has concerns about the possibility of being tried for war crimes. After disingenuously claiming that neither the Russian leadership nor her fellow propagandists in the studio ever wanted to conduct strikes against Ukraine’s critical infrastructure, Simonyan said, “I am amazed by our people—and I unfortunately know many of them—including those in very high circles, who are afraid of this and are scared to call things by their proper names because of what people over there may think.”

Simonyan defiantly asserted: “We could spit on what they think over there! People who are afraid of the Hague—listen, you should be afraid to lose, to be humiliated and be afraid to betray your people. Let me tell you that if we manage to lose, the Hague—whether real or hypothetical—will come even for a street cleaner who is sweeping the cobblestones behind the Kremlin.”

During Wednesday’s broadcast of 60 Minutes, host Olga Skabeeva carried on with the same theme. “God forbid, we can’t allow it and don’t even say it out loud but suppose that suddenly something happens and our country is unable to achieve victory: then we should proceed from the premise that everyone with no exception will be held accountable—whether they are located within the Russian Federation or abroad. Those abroad will most likely be immediately arrested. Whether he is a collaborator of Putin’s regime or was just passing by, it doesn’t matter. All of us will be considered guilty. What’s at stake is not only the existence of the country, but also the carefree existence of every citizen of the Russian Federation—our future is on the line.”

Skabeeva added: “In order to avoid the Hague tribunals, the initiation of criminal cases, compensation, reparations—in order to avoid all this, we need a total intensification of military actions, we have to squeeze and pressure them so much that they approach us about a truce or a peace process… Otherwise, they will insist on capitulation.”

During the most recent broadcast of Sunday Evening With Vladimir Solovyov, Margarita Simonyan put in another appearance and delivered the new directive: in order to protect Russia’s already tattered image as a military superpower, any supply problems concerning equipment, weapons and ammunition are to be discussed behind closed doors and not on-air. She unwittingly confirmed that the said issues were systematic and serious by urging the government to take extreme measures to secure the funds for the troops.

Simonyan described those who are not mobilized to serve on the frontlines as the people who aren’t fulfilling their duty to their country. “How can we sleep while knowing that we aren’t sharing and aren’t participating?,” she asked. “Rich people should get a hold of themselves and remember that we can’t continue living the way we’ve been living since the disintegration of the Soviet Union. We have to restore social equality.” RT’s head urged the rich to forego buying Chanel purses and “adopt” dozens or hundreds of needy families for whom they can provide. …

🐣 RT @ @RpsAgainstTrump BREAKING: LIZ Cheney SLAMS Donald Trump for calling for the “termination” of the Constitution- “No honest person can now deny that Trump is an enemy of the Constitution.” ¤ #TraitorTrump

🐣 RT @anneapplebaum It is amazing how many people can’t seem to understand this, even though there is no evidence whatsoever that Putin wants to end the war
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @McFaul No one I know is against diplomacy with Putin to end his invasion of Ukraine. And no one I know has a workable, realistic strategy for achieving or even starting that process. Shouting “more diplomacy” is not a strategy. It is not “realism.”
⋙ 🐣 RT @anneapplebaum Putin will stop fighting only when he has lost and when he understands that the war was a mistake ¤ This has been true since I wrote it more than six months ago
⋙⋙ TheAtlantic, Anne Applebaum (May): The War Won’t End Until Putin Loses https://tinyurl.com/4ybbvrek
// 5/23/2022; Offering the Russian president a face-saving compromise will only enable future aggression.

🐣 RT @Biz_Ukraine_Mag Wow. Hollywood legend Martin Scorsese describes Ukraine’s heroic defense against Russian aggression as an example of “humanity at its very best facing the very worst.”
⋙ 🐣 RT @UA_Institute Thank you Mr. Scorsese for this powerful speech and for standing with Ukraine. ¤ Notes from Ukraine. NYC. @UA_Institute @razomforukraine @ucmfnyc @MFA_Ukraine
💽 https://twitter.com/UA_Institute/status/1599510913232429056?s=20/photo/1

NYT at 4:39pm(!), Maggie Astor: Trump’s Call for ‘Termination’ of Constitution Draws Rebukes https://tinyurl.com/34ef3ree Trump’s call “to overturn the 2020 election drew a degree of bipartisan condemnation over the weekend, with a flood from Democrats and a trickle from Republicans”
// Republicans were still cautious — or silent entirely — about shunning the former president-turned-2024 candidate.

WaPo, Ruth Marcus: Trump’s call for suspending the Constitution is too dangerous to ignore https://tinyurl.com/4h9eh8en “Trump is laying the groundwork for a coup. … We do not want to give him oxygen, yet there are times we dare not ignore him. This is one.”

🐣 RT @McFaul Smart, effective diplomacy, especially with Russians, means never giving up any negotiating chit until the end game. Nothing is agreed until all is agreed. Those calling for Zelensky to give concessions before negotiations have started are violating this rule of Diplomacy 101.

🧵 RT @GLandsbergis Why aren’t we sending Ukraine all the tools needed to end the war? Why are we avoiding specifics during the debate on Ukraine‘s membership of NATO? Because the belief is still alive that after the war we can return to business as usual, as if February 24th was just a glitch.
📌 https://twitter.com/GLandsbergis/status/1599441986288656385?s=20

The tactic of leaving Russia undefeated and ready for future partnership is toxic. It leads to calls to end the war by negotiation instead of ending it with a Ukrainian victory. Some even suggest Ukrainian territorial concessions to the invaders as a gift.

That isn’t how the rules-based international order works. Russia shouldn’t get invited to ‘peace’ negotiations as a reward for brutally invading, occupying and murdering its neighbours again and again.

The creeping normalisation of Russia’s actions is fundamentally wrong. Also misguided is the belief that the current security architecture of multilateral regional and global organizations must be preserved as the ‘best we have’.

International organisations completely failed to prevent conflict of a magnitude unseen in Europe since WW2. At the very least there must be change within those organizations. But we should not rule out the possibility of some organisations disappearing and new ones forming.

With previous conflicts in Europe, the security architecture was rethought after the fighting ended, new structures appeared. For example, the United Nations appeared after mistakes made during the League of Nations era.

First Russia has to face defeat on the battlefield. For that Ukraine needs all our help. All the weapons, all the assistance we can give. Otherwise Russia will continue trying to reinvent the continent according to its own imperialist world vision.

It is in Europe’s interest to fight off and defeat the invader. After this defeat a new system needs to be created out of the lessons learnt from previous mistakes.

Reliance on economic exchange as a principle of mutual assurance, desecuritization, veto power on security issues given to the aggressors – these are some of the misconceptions which failed to ensure the safety of the continent.

Our strategy needs to be rethought and reflected in a new security architecture that will ensure the safety of the continent for decades to come. And we should start creating this new system with Ukraine, not with Putin’s Russia.

🧵 RT @anders_aslund Today, @washingtonpost has published an article by Robert Wright, “Biden can help Zelensky, and Ukraine, by pushing for peace,” which illustratively gets everything wrong. Let me point out what is wrong:
📌 https://twitter.com/anders_aslund/status/1599420038326661120?s=20

1. “Biden can help Zelensky, and Ukraine, by pushing for peace.” ¤ No, in surveys 90% of the Ukrainians regularly state that they expect Ukraine to win. Whoever stops short of victory will lose political power. ¤ Wright just ignores Ukraine’s democratic politics.

2. Putin has violated all relevant international agreements & bilateral agreements with Ukraine. Wright only states that “this war has been extremely costly for rusia and for Vladimir Putin.” That does not make Putin a reliable person. He must be defeated to be checked.

3. “If an enduring peace can be had through negotiation…then negotiations would be in America’s interest.” ¤ We know that is not true: Putin would not give up & Zelensky would be ousted by democratic politics. Remember that Ukraine is democratic while Russia is a dictatorship!

4. “The war is costing America lots of money.” ¤ No US government money is better spent. ¤ For 3% of the annual US defense budget, Ukraine has taken out half of the Russian military force, one of the US international adversaries.

5. “this spending is inflationary.” No, it is tiny: $40bn out of the US $23,000bn GDP = 0.17% of US GDP.

6. Wright contradicts himself: “some European officials are accusing the United States of profiteering,” that is, the US is benefiting economically. ¤ Obvious US economic benefits are more US LNG exports, more US arms exports & the arms not only of Russia but also China (largely Russian made) are being proven obsolete. The US military & arms producers learn in real time which arms that are good & which are not.

7. “every day the war continues, more Ukrainians die, and more of Ukraine gets wrecked.” ¤ If Wright had been democratically inclined, he would instead have asked what the Ukrainians want, which they have stated so clearly so many times: Kick out the Russians!

8. The only reference that Wright cites for his not very democratic defeatism for Ukraine is Samuel Charap, who has persistently advocated that Ukraine should give up territory to Russia.

9. Similarly, Wright does not even mention the EU or that Ukrainians with more than two-thirds majority want to join both the EU & NATO. ¤ For the Ukrainian nation this war is existential. ¤ Nor does he mention Russian war crimes or genocide.

10. Needless to say, Wright does not cite any Russian proposal for negotiated settlement, because they are all maximalist. He just mentions Putin once in passing, since the best way of defending Putin is to ignore him.

11. What nearly all Ukrainians understand is that there can be no lasting peace with Russia until it has been DEFEATED. ¤ A peaceful settlement with Russia requires that Ukraine regains its whole territory from February 2014, including Donbas & Crimea.

12. Wright mentions Russia’s “casual seizure of Crimea in 2014.” It went so easily because Russia had leased the Sevastopol naval base on Crimea from Ukraine. The lesson from Russia’s occupation of Crime is that Ukraine needs to seize control of Sevastopol also.

13. Ukraine leased Sevastopol to Russia for 20 years through a bilateral agreement of 1997 and for 25 years through another bilateral treaty of 2010. ¤ Since Putin has canceled both these treaties, no legal basis exists for Russia holding on to Sevastopol any longer.

14. Fortunately, I am convinced that well-informed @POTUS & @JakeSullivan46 are smart enough to recognize Ukraine’s democracy & not jeopardize the fate of Ukraine’s democratically-elected leader. ¤ They have told us so repeatedly: Ukraine decides.

🐣 RT @YuliaTymosha It’s 1 am and i’m lying in my bed contemplating life. And all I can think about how Feb 24 stole a part of me forever, a part full of youth, hope, dreams, the one that believed in a beautiful world, the one that didn’t feel this empty and desensitized.

🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT/1340 UTC 4 DEC/ Fighting heavy as RU forces attempt to improve their tactical positions. In the last 24 hours UKR and RU forces traded numerous airstrikes in the Bakhmut AO. UKR air defenses confirm downing a RU Orlan-10 recon UCAV, and an SU-24 ground attack aircraft.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1599395597479383040?s=20/photo/1

🐣 📊 RT @KyivIndependent UK Defense Ministry: Keeping tacit approval of war among population likely to be ‘increasingly difficult for Kremlin.’ ¤ The U.K. Defense Ministry cited the recent polling that shows that Russian public support for the war against Ukraine is “falling significantly.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/KyivIndependent/status/1599325292530905089?s=20/photo/1

[Text:] ● Recent polling suggests that Russian public support for the ‘special military operation’ is falling significantly.

● An independent Russian media outlet has claimed access to data collected by Russia’s Federal Protective Service for internal use. The data indicated 55% of Russians favour peace talks with Ukraine, with only 25% claiming to support continuing the conflict. These results are consistent with a separate October 2022 survey where 57% of respondents reported being in favour of talks. In April 2022, around 80% of Russians claimed to support the operation.

● Despite the Russian authorities’ efforts to enforce pervasive control of the information environment, the conflict has become increasinaly tangible for many Russians since the September 2022 ‘partial mobilisation’. With Russia unlikely to achieve maior 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.

⭕ 3 Dec 2022

MSNBC, Frank Figliuzzi: Donald Trump ought to face the same charges the Oath Keepers did https://tinyurl.com/mtdc45fr
// Bringing down the leaders of the Oath Keepers should not be the government’s end goal.

Tuesday’s convictions of five Oath Keepers — including founder Elmer Stewart Rhodes and top deputy Kelly Meggs who were found guilty of the gravely serious charge of seditious conspiracy — may seem like game-winning goals, but they’re just critical points the Justice Department put on the board right before halftime. The government’s successful prosecution sidelines some strong players, but the captains and coaches we have reason to suspect called the shots on Jan. 6, 2021 (former President Donald Trump and his minions) remain on the field.

To win the game, special counsel Jack Smith, who’s been appointed to investigate Trump’s role in the violence of Jan. 6, needs to use the same playbook that worked against the Oath Keepers. That is, he should be looking to see if seditious conspiracy and obstruction of Congress charges are warranted for Trump and those in his inner circle.

… Smith, and his boss, Attorney General Merrick Garland, may ultimately decide that there are more palatable alternatives to charging Trump and his advisers with crimes punishable with decades in prison, but I believe Smith has valid predication to explore using the same charges applied to the Oath Keepers.

The jury accepted the government’s argument that a defendant need not have entered the Capitol on Jan. 6 to be guilty of obstructing Congress or guilty of seditious conspiracy. The jury also accepted the government’s argument that the defendants’ failure to stop the confirmation of the Electoral College vote tally made them no less guilty. Rhodes, who was in Washington that day, never entered the Capitol. He denied ordering others to breach the Capitol and claimed they were “stupid” to have done so, but the jury didn’t buy his attempt to distance himself from that day’s violence.

The jury accepting those arguments ought to worry Trump, adviser Roger Stone, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, former national security adviser Michael Flynn and others in that orbit.

An FBI agent testified that just minutes after Joe Biden was declared the winner of the 2020 election, Rhodes communicated with Stone via a “Friends of Stone” encrypted chat group established to coordinate Trump’s post-loss tactics. “What’s the plan? We need to roll ASAP,” prosecutors say Rhodes asked Stone. Rhodes attached a proposal to occupy the streets of Washington and to enter the Capitol. The night before the attack on Congress, Stone was onstage in Freedom Plaza telling thousands of Trump supporters, “I will be with you tomorrow, shoulder to shoulder.”

At events just prior to the riot, Stone used Oath Keepers as his personal security guards. The day before the 2020 election, Roger Stone had been recorded by a documentary crew stating, “F— the voting, let’s get right to the violence.” The attempted use of force is a key element of the seditious conspiracy statute. And force isn’t even required for an obstruction of Congress charge. …

On Jan. 6, Trump — the Justice Department could argue — incited a crowd that he knew to be armed to go with him to the Capitol. He told those in attendance “if you don’t fight like hell you’re not going to have a country anymore.” We don’t know if the committee or the Justice Department has seen more evidence that could support a charge of sedition against the former president, but we know that Trump spread disinformation about a “stolen” and “rigged” election and that he tried pressuring Vice President Mike Pence, the president of the Senate, out of certifying election results. That sounds like the framework for charges of either obstructing Congress or obstructing an official act to me. …

🐣 RT @ igorsushko #France: Macron said West should address #Russia’s need for security guarantees if Putin agrees to negotiations about ending the war in #Ukraine… ¤ Russia was last invaded by Hitler in 1941, after Stalin & Hitler agreed to a conspiracy to murder & slice up Europe among themselves
🌎 https://twitter.com/igorsushko/status/1599185993130999808?s=20/photo/1
// Molotov Ribbentrop Pact

🐣 RT @atrupar What is a Nazi sympathizer, right-wing hack, and guy who wants to terminate the constitution
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1599169533368889347?s=20/photo/1

[Text:] 🐣 RT @JudiciaryGOP
Kanye. Elon. Trump.
8:05 PM • 10/6/22 • Twitter for iPhone
2,751 Retweets 11.2K Quote Tweets 15K Likes

🐣 RT @NOELreports This wonderful, smart woman is a gift from heaven. The new type of leaders we need in this world.
⋙ 🐣 RT @dwnews “We would be in trouble without the United States.”
Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin says Russia’s war in Ukraine shows that the European Union isn’t strong enough.
💽 [tr] https://twitter.com/dwnews/status/1599003729801396231?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @mccaffreyr3 I’ve had a lot of experience dealing directly with the Russians following the collapse of the USSR. Such promise to escape the madness of the Stalin era. These pundits have lost the moral horizon. Religious hysteria? Nuclear weapons? Mass flight of citizens?
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @JuliaDavisNews Head of RT Margarita Simonyan lies that Russia basically conquered Kyiv during the first week of the war, then simply gave it back. Simonyan explains why she doesn’t believe Russia would strike Kyiv with nuclear weapons—not because many people would die but because of holy sites.
💽 [tr] https://twitter.com/JuliaDavisNews/status/1599243012789264384?s=20/photo/1
⋙ 🐣 When journalistic and legal standards for truth disappear, this is what happens. We’re seeing something like this happen on the right as their trust in these institutions erodes ~ encouraged by people like Trump ¤ cc: @JuliaDavisNews

NBCNews: U.S. intel chief says Russia is using up ammunition in Ukraine faster than it can replace it https://tinyurl.com/2afmp35v
// Putin has been “surprised” at the lackluster performance of his military but his political objectives for the war have not changed, the intelligence director [Avril Haines] said

🧵 RT @TheStudyofWar Conditions in eastern #Ukraine are reportedly becoming more conducive for a higher pace of operations as winter sets in. http://isw.pub/UkrWar120322
📌 🌎 https://twitter.com/TheStudyofWar/status/1599227120005550080?s=20/photo/1

🧵 RT @ChrisO_wiki 1There’s been a lot of fuss about Elon Musk disclosing emails from previous Twitter management about how the company dealt with data from Hunter Biden’s laptop that was posted on Twitter. But it’s worth pointing out how this is disastrous for both Twitter and Musk himself. /1
📌 https://twitter.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1599147000469270528?s=20

🐣 RT @TimInHonolulu I would expect Pat Cipollone and Pat Philbin, or their lawyers, briefed FPOTUS’s attorneys. Very likely his meltdown was precipitated by the report he got of what they were asked and how they testified. Possible that the attorneys told him to expect to be charged. Perhaps soon.

🚫😅 TheBulwark, Tim Miller: No, You Do Not Have a Constitutional Right to Post Hunter Biden’s Dick Pic on Twitter https://tinyurl.com/3xtv5cy3
// Elon Musk and Matt Taibbi’s First Amendment follies.

🐣 RT @RANDCorporation”Musk’s rhetoric on the issue and even a lot of the tweets that he’s posted himself are clearly signaling either a disinterest or clearly a disengagement from counterterrorism,” said RAND political scientist Pauline Moore.
⋙ WaPo, Cristiano Lima: As Twitter defends its counterterror work, experts fear a spike under Musk https://tinyurl.com/4xjhssxs “Researchers said that gaps in Musk’s stated amnesty plans could leave room for accounts engaged in radicalization or recruitment efforts that might not be illegal to make a comeback”

🐣 RT @NormOrnstein It will be very interesting to view the front pages of the WashPost, NYT, WSJ, etc, tomorrow. A former president has called for shredding the Constitution to overturn an election. It should bring banner headlines above the fold.

🐣 🎹 RT @IrynaVoichuk This video tells about the history of the legendary song Shchedryk, one of the symbols of Christmas, through the prism of the history of Ukraine, after all, this music was created in Ukraine by the genius composer Mykola Leontovych.
Full video at the link: https://youtu.be/KKF9sGRV4Vg
// History of Carol of the Bells

WaPo: White House rebukes Trump’s suggestion to suspend Constitution over 2020 election https://tinyurl.com/3j7svst8 “Attacking the Constitution and all it stands for is anathema to the soul of our nation and should be universally condemned” ~ White House spokesman

The White House issued a stern rebuke on Saturday after former president Donald Trump suggested suspending the Constitution in his ongoing crusade to discredit the results of the 2020 election.

“Attacking the Constitution and all it stands for is anathema to the soul of our nation and should be universally condemned,” White House spokesman Andrew Bates said in a statement, calling the Constitution a “sacrosanct document.” ¤ “You cannot only love America when you win,” he added.

Trump’s message on the Truth Social platform reiterated the baseless claims he has made since 2020 that the election was stolen. But he went further by suggesting that the country abandon one of its founding documents.

“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 wrote.

The post came a day after Twitter’s new owner, Elon Musk, claimed he would expose how Twitter engaged in “free speech suppression” in the run-up to the 2020 election. But his “Twitter Files” did not show that the tech giant bent to the will of Democrats.

“UNPRECEDENTED FRAUD REQUIRES UNPRECEDENTED CURE!” Trump followed up in another post on Saturday afternoon on Truth Social.

Trump’s sustained and unfounded attacks on the 2020 election result culminated in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack by his supporters on the U.S. Capitol. Many GOP candidates also echoed his false claims ahead of this year’s midterms, but lost their efforts to win key state posts.

In the weeks since the election, Trump has continued to press the lie that the 2020 election was rigged as he has announced his next White House bid.

Trump, who last month announced he would run again for president, helped launch Truth Social after he was banned from Twitter following the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Musk has said he would allow Trump back on Twitter but the former president has not rejoined the platform.

The Democratic National Committee condemned his comments on Saturday, as did several other politicians. ¤ “Trump’s words and actions are unacceptable, they stoke hatred and political violence, and they are dangerous,” Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) wrote in a tweet. ¤ “Trump just called for the suspension of the Constitution and it is the final straw for zero republicans, especially the ones who call themselves ‘constitutional conservatives,’” Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) wrote on Twitter.

As he has done before, the former president also baited GOP leaders into weighing in on his claims. ¤ “I wonder what Mitch McConnell, the RINOS, and all of the weak Republicans who couldn’t get the Presidential Election of 2020 approved and out of the way fast enough, are thinking now?” he [Trump] wrote Saturday in a subsequent Truth Social post.

🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT/1530 UTC 3 DEC/ Reportage indicates that RU has registered incremental gains in the Bakhmut Area of Operations (AO). RU has continued indiscriminate barrages along the line of contact. UKR and RU conducted numerous aviation strike missions during the past 24 hours.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1599066360419856385?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer IZIUM AXIS/ 2330 UTC 3 DEC/ UKR forces are reported to be in contact on the outskirts of the city of Kremenna, the southern anchor of RU defenses along the important P-66 HWY. On 2 DEC, UKR tactical elements crossed the P-66 HWY in the vicinity of Chervonopopivka.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1599181531510996993?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @CinC_AFU Spoke with #GenMilley, Chairman of @thejointstaff. Thanked for the significant effort, that #GenMilley, @SecDef & @POTUS @JoeBiden are putting personally into meeting 🇺🇦Defence Forces needs in repelling 🇷🇺large-scale aggression. ¤ #ValeriiZaluzhnyi
⋙ 🐣 RT @CinC_AFU Shared assessments of the situation on the front line & security risks which are borne by 🇷🇺 missile strikes. Detailed our requests in weapons & equipment, air & missile defence systems. Ensured that despite the harsh warfighting conditions we continue the struggle for our Victory

Racial Composition of Voters in New Democratic Party Primary States:
PewResearch (Mar 2022): Racial and ethnic composition among democrats and Democratic leaners by state https://tinyurl.com/bdtdxtut
◕ https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1599130627546415104?s=20/photo/1
// 3/31/2022;
Also totals: PewResearch (Oct 2020): What the 2020 electorate looks like by party, race and ethnicity, age, education and religion https://tinyurl.com/bz8d9nv5
◕ https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1599130632562495488?s=20/photo/1
// 10/26/2020: Totals and Total Dems

White/Black/Hispanic/Other
69%/ 11%/ 11%/ 8% United States
59%/ 19%/ 13%/ 8% Democrats
41%/ 51%/ 6%/ 2% South Carolina Dems
44%/ 14%/ 29%/13% Nevada Dems
94%/ 1%/ 2%/ 3% New Hampshire Dems
25%/ 73%/ —%/ 2% Georgia Dems
67%/ 23%/ 4%/ 6% Michigan Dems

🐣 RT @wineaintsweeter Remember when trump paid the national enquirer almost $2000,000 to dump a story of his extra-marital affairs. The national enquirer then paid off the woman with Trump’s campaign money.
⋙ NBCNews: National Enquirer publisher fined $187,500 for Trump hush money payment https://tinyurl.com/4dz2fden
// 6/2/2021; The FEC found that the cash the tabloid paid to keep Karen McDougal quiet about her alleged affair with Donald Trump was an unlawful campaign contribution.
⋙⋙ 🐣 and the 💰he had Michael Cohen pay to Stormy Daniels

🐣 RT @RonFilipkowski Trump this morning calls to be reinstated as president and declared the winner of 2020, or to have a new election immediately.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1599023769019826176?s=20/photo/1

[Text:] 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!

WaPo: After Kherson, Ukraine’s military ponders new push south and east https://tinyurl.com/yc85d3f5 “Kyiv is … intent on liberating cities such as Melitopol and Enerhodar, where the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is located” ~ and on cutting Putin’s “land bridge” to Crimea

⭕ 2 Dec 2022

🔄 ❤️ ✅ FactCheck[.]org: U.S. Aid to Ukraine, Explained https://tinyurl.com/yp4m665n
// Defense Budget

NYT: Zelensky Proposes Barring Orthodox Church That Answers to Moscow https://tinyurl.com/mr2muw6k “[M]any Ukrainians now adhere to a newer Orthodox church, based in Kyiv, created specifically to be independent and not answer to Moscow”
// Ukraine’s president called for legislation to prevent an ancient branch of the Orthodox Church, led by a Putin ally, from operating in his country, but it remains unclear how that would work.

The leader of the Russian church, Patriarch Kirill, has strong ties to President Vladimir V. Putin, whose long tenure he has called “a miracle of God,” and has endorsed the invasion.

But that branch of Orthodoxy is rapidly losing support, while many Ukrainians now adhere to a newer Orthodox church, based in Kyiv, created specifically to be independent and not answer to Moscow. There is little difference between the two churches in terms of religious practice or doctrine, but the divide between them on Ukraine and its identity relative to Russia is wide — and widening.

Kyiv has long worried that Russia is using the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate to provide cover for a network of clandestine agents trying to undermine Ukraine from within. The Ukrainian authorities have said that as of October, 33 priests had been arrested for assisting Russia since the invasion began in February, mostly by funneling information to Moscow’s forces. …

Sounding much like Mr. Putin, Kirill has argued that Ukraine is not a truly separate nation, that Russia has a legitimate claim on lands beyond its borders, and that the invasion is a justified defense against Western liberalism. In Moscow on Friday, he spoke of Donbas, the partly Russian-occupied region of Ukraine where the war for control still rages.

Ukraine’s Constitution guarantees “the right to freedom of personal philosophy and religion,” including the right “to perform alone or collectively and without constraint religious rites and ceremonial rituals, and to conduct religious activity.” But it also allows for restrictions on that right “in the interest of protecting public order.”

In April, a survey found that 74 percent of Ukrainians wanted the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to cut its ties with Russia, and 51 percent wanted that church banned.

The Orthodox churches in both countries share the same religious rituals, abide by the same creed and trace their origins to the same event in 988, in Kyivan Rus, the east Slavic state that both Russia and Ukraine consider the root of their modern countries. In that year, Grand Prince Volodymyr — Vladimir to Russians — of Kyiv, a pagan, converted to Orthodox Christianity.

WaPo, David Von Drehle: The GOP is stuck in a doom loop begun 30 years ago https://tinyurl.com/mwcrtetn ‘In the last eight presidential elections, only once, in 2004, has the Republican won a majority of the popular vote’

🐣 RT @ SpiroAgnewGhost Trump found a new topic to spew out totally unhinged lunacy in a delusional rant about…the 2020 election. The man is conspicuously insane and yet he commands a cult of 50,000,000+ people—it will never stop being the most unexplainable thing of all time. ¤ 1st of 2 posts:
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/SpiroAgnewGhost/status/1598837956726632450?s=20/photo/1
[TextLink3:] https://twitter.com/SpiroAgnewGhost/status/1599152321140695041?s=20/photo/1

[Text:] What the FBI did with harassing, cajoling, and intimidating Big Tech companies into corrupting the 2020 Presidential Vote to the side of the Radical Left is no different in meaning than STUFFING THE BALLOT BOXES, only far more sophisticated and impactful. This is a major and very serious violation of the law, yet they come after me for what virtually every other President has done, and is allowed to do by law, probably as a means of complicating and covering up their massive Election Crime!!!
[Text2:] So now it is learned that the FBI, and others in conjunction with the “Justice” Department, met with Big Tech companies to bend them into saying bad things about “Trump” and Republicans in order to RIG & STEAL the 2020 Presidential Election, which was a Scam and a Fraud. Now additional evidence, different but just as illegal and sinister as the many other forms of cheating used, is flowing out of the crevices of this corrupt wound. This is big “stuff.” DO SOMETHING as our Country Melts!!!
[MoreText: I wonder what Mitch McConnell, the RINOS, and all of the weak Republicans who couldn’t get the Presidential Election of 2020 approved and out of the way fast enough, are thinking now? They are a disgrace to our great Party, and to our Nation, which has become a laughing stock all over the World!

🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer IZIUM AXIS/2015 UTC 2 DEC/ UKR has advanced the Forward Edge of the Battle Area (FEBA) to a line conforming with the N-S axis of the P-66 HWY. Ukrainian maneuver elements have severed the P-66 HWY north of Kremenna- severing RU’s Lines of Communication & Supply (LOCS).
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1598769574413234176?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @Robillard Democracy was a major issue for Rs who backed Dems in the midterms: 64% of GOPers who voted for Democrats said Trump’s election denial was the #1 reason they did so. ¤ Read @PaulBlu on some new polling from @StopBigMoney:
💙 ⋙ 📋 📊 HuffPo: New Polling Shows Democracy Mattered In The 2022 Midterms https://tinyurl.com/4bshakzn “64% of GOPers who voted for Democrats said Trump’s election denial was the #1 reason they did so”
// 12/1/2022; The findings indicate that concerns about protecting democracy helped Democrats beat expectations in November’s elections.

In his final speech before the Nov. 8 midterms — the first general election since the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol — President Joe Biden warned that “American democracy is under attack” from “extreme MAGA Republicans” who would seek to “suppress the right of voters and subvert the electoral system itself.”

“This is no ordinary year,” Biden said. “So I ask you to think long and hard about the moment we’re in. In a typical year, we’re often not faced with questions of whether the vote we cast will preserve democracy or put us at risk. But this year, we are.”

The press and some Democratic Party allies panned the president’s remarks. His speech was “head-scratching,” according to CNN’s Chris Cillizza. It was “important” but “puzzling,” said Politico’s Playbook newsletter. “[As] a matter of practical politics, I doubt many Ds in marginal races are eager for him to be on TV tonight,” tweeted David Axelrod, former President Barack Obama’s top political aide.

The results of the election, however, speak for themselves. The predicted Republican “red wave” disappeared before it reached shore, with the GOP only picking up 8 seats to narrowly take control of the House. It could still lose one seat in the Senate. Democrats flipped control of more governorships and state legislature chambers than Republicans. And, most importantly, nearly all high-profile election deniers lost their races, including competitive secretary of state competitions in Arizona, Michigan, Minnesota and Nevada and gubernatorial contests in swing states like Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Now, one poll of the 71 most competitive House districts backs up the importance of the democracy issue in Democrats’ midterm success. Concerns about threats to democracy motivated Democrats and independents to turn out while also helping independents decide to vote for Democrats, according to a voter survey from Nov. 11-16 by Impact Research, a Democratic polling firm.

“The biggest takeaway here is just how important protecting democracy was for voters in this House battlefield immediately coming out of the election,” said Molly Murphy, the president of Impact Research, which conducted the survey for Democratic Party-aligned political action committees End Citizens United and Let America Vote.

Six in 10 voters cited protecting democracy as an extremely important reason that they decided to vote in November. This put the issue ahead of inflation (53%), abortion (47%) and crime (45%). When asked to choose the top two issues that motivated them to vote, 50% chose protecting democracy, second only to inflation at 55%.

These findings are largely in line with preelection surveys from The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, CBS News, NBC News, Quinnipiac University Poll and the Grinnell College National Poll, as well as exit polling from The Associated Press, NBC News and CNN.

The issue of democracy “was really one of the most dominant factors” for Democrats and independents in determining whether they would turn out and “decisive in decision-making in terms of whether independent voters were going to vote for the Democratic candidate or the Republican candidate,” Murphy said.

Among Democrats, 73% cited protecting democracy as an extremely important reason that they decided to vote. Fifty-one percent of independents similarly cited it as extremely important, on par with the 53% who cited inflation.

Forty-one percent of voters who cast ballots for Democrats said protecting democracy was one of the top two reasons for voting as they did. It was the top reason among voters surveyed, listed only slightly above abortion (39%) and not liking the Republican candidate (38%).

The issue also likely moved some Republican voters to cross over and cast ballots for Democratic candidates. Sixty-four percent of Republicans who voted this way said their biggest concern was Republican candidates supporting former President Donald Trump and (incorrectly) believing that the 2020 election was stolen from him.

In the House battleground districts surveyed by Impact Research, the two top threats to democracy selected by voters were “government corruption and the influence of money on our politics” (53%) and “politicians refusing to accept the results of elections they disagree with” (41%).

“The threats to democracy don’t stop with election denials. Voters want the system to work for everyone, and they recognize that the deck is stacked against them because of all of the money in politics,” said Tiffany Muller, the president of End Citizens United. “They want candidates who will take on special interests and level the playing field.”

It was clear that Democratic candidates understood the connection between voters’ perceptions of government corruption and other issues of democracy erosion, as many ran ads focused on their rejection of corporate PAC donations and support for banning lawmakers from trading stocks.

A record 72 Democratic candidates, including [Rep. Pat Ryan (D-N.Y.), the only Democrat to win a competitive House race in New York this year], won their elections while refusing to accept corporate PAC donations, with one more race still to be decided in a Georgia Senate runoff this month. That’s up from 59 at the beginning of the previous Congress. Meanwhile, two high-profile lawmakers who reneged on their 2018 promise to reject corporate PAC money — Reps. Elaine Luria (D-Va.) and Cindy Axne (D-Iowa) — lost.

But the biggest penalty was paid by Republican candidates who sided with Trump’s lies, the kind that Biden pointed out in his Nov. 2 speech. ¤ “These core norms and values can really outpace things that are temporal economic issues if they [voters] feel that those things are being threatened,” Murphy said. “And they did.”

🐣 RT @Cirincione I recommend this story for an gripping portrayal of how awful the war in Ukraine is – for both sides. It also underscores why the Ukrainian Defense Minister said yesterday, “Signs are accumulating that Russia needs a pause at all costs.”
⋙ CBC[.]ca: Why the battle for the small city of Bakhmut is so important to both Russia and Ukraine https://tinyurl.com/5n7v89bt “The quagmire of carnage now consuming the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut has been mostly overlooked, given Ukraine’s battlefield successes”
// Conditions are terrible, casualties are enormous and significance of Bakhmut is debatable

🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT/1530 UTC 2 DEC/ Heavily outnumbered UKR forces continue to resist a RU offensive against the city. UKR recon UAVs direct precision artillery strikes against a RU salient south of Ivanhard.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1598701025715965952?s=20/photo/1

🐣 📋 RT @ EuromaidanPress The Ukrainian army has lost 13,000 soldiers killed in action, Ukraine’s Presidential advisor Mykhailo Podoliak said ¤ The number likely doesn’t include those servicemen who are missing. This could bring the number of KIA to 20,000. https://tinyurl.com/57ex965v

🐣 RT @EuromaidanPR Some reliable experts say there will be no missile strikes on Ukraine because the USA and the West have warned russia that there will be asymmetric strikes on bases and airports and military facilities, so russia is scared and will not dare to attack.1/
⋙ 🐣 RT @EuromaidanPR After Dec 15, the ground will freeze, the Armed Forces of Ukraine will go to South on an offensive on Crimea, so the end is near. 2/
⋙ 🐣 RT @EuromaidanPR The author assumes problem is that the West does not want a “Great, ultimate victory of Ukraine”, it wants a Western-controlled defeat of russia, so that the turmoil in russia does not affect the situation in the world, the USA & China are agreeing on a “russia’s gradual defeat.”

⭕ 1 Dec 2022

AtlanticCouncil, Peter Dickinson: Vladimir Putin’s Ukrainian Genocide: Nobody can claim they did not know https://tinyurl.com/yc7ptxx8 “Advocates of appeasement must recognize that there can be no middle ground between Russian genocide and Ukrainian national survival”

🧵 RT @wartranslated Summary of the daily livestream with Aleksey Arestovych, Day 280, November 30th, kindly brought to you by Atis: @savaadaak THREAD https://tinyurl.com/mr2udw3p ¤ 🔥 Battlefield update:
📌 https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1598236546104266753?s=20

NYT: Trump Embraces Extremism as He Seeks to Reclaim Office https://tinyurl.com/4y5fjnnn “Trump’s acceptance, if not outright courtship, of the militant right comes as the Republican establishment blames him for the party’s failure [in] the November midterm elections”
// As he gets his presidential campaign underway, Donald J. Trump has aligned himself with forces that used to be outside the mainstream of American politics.

Former President Donald J. Trump once again made clear on Thursday night exactly where he stands in the conflict between the American justice system and the mob that ransacked the Capitol to stop the peaceful transfer of power nearly two years ago. ¤ He stands with the mob.

Mr. Trump sent a video statement of support to a fund-raiser hosted by a group calling itself the Patriot Freedom Project on behalf of families of those charged with attacking the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. “People have been treated unconstitutionally, in my opinion, and very, very unfairly, and we’re going to get to the bottom of it,” he said. The country, he warned, “is going communist.”

The video underscored just how much the former president has aligned himself with forces that used to be outside the mainstream of American politics as he seeks to reclaim the White House through a rematch with President Biden in 2024. With the Justice Department targeting him as well as some of his violent allies, Mr. Trump’s antigovernment jeremiads lately sound like those once relegated to the outer edges of the political spectrum.

He has embraced extremist elements in American society even more unabashedly than in the past. The video comes as Mr. Trump has been using music sounding like a QAnon theme song at recent rallies and hosting for dinner Kanye West, a rap star under fire for antisemitic statements, and Nick Fuentes, a prominent white supremacist.

And it comes just two days after the conviction of Stewart Rhodes, the leader of the far-right Oath Keepers militia, placed Mr. Trump at the spiritual heart of a seditious conspiracy to illegitimately keep power in a way that is unparalleled in American history.

Mr. Trump’s acceptance, if not outright courtship, of the militant right comes as the Republican establishment blames him for the party’s failure to do better during the November midterm elections. Republican officeholders, led by Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the party leader in the upper chamber, argue that Mr. Trump’s promotion of candidates based on fidelity to his false claims about the 2020 election cost them seats.

“Trump is doubling down on his extremist and cult leader profile,” said Ruth Ben-Ghiat, author of “Strongmen: From Mussolini to the Present” and a history professor at New York University. “For someone of Trump’s temperament, being humiliated by people turning away from him will only make him more desperate and more inclined to support and associate with the most extremist elements of society. There is no other option for him.” …

“Trump’s inner orbit is keenly aware that he’s lost the excitement of 2016, and there’s a school of thought that ginning up the most die-hard part of his base is the key to bringing it back,” said Alyssa Farah Griffin, who served as White House strategic communications director for Mr. Trump before breaking with him after the 2020 election. “The reality is, however, that means reaching out to fringe, racist elements that have traditionally been sidelined by the mainstream of the party.” …

WaPo: Trump Mar-a-Lago special master struck down by appeals court https://tinyurl.com/32fvwf26 “The appeals court decision was an emphatic win for the Justice Department, and the latest legal loss for Trump”
// The three-judge panel said Judge Aileen Cannon erred in appointing a special master to review documents seized by the FBI

🐣 RT @duty2warn Trump now fears betrayal as he should. He fears negative comments from the Right will seep into his base, kill his leverage. He fears being charged with crimes; exposure of a lifetime of secrets and lies; loss of relevance; loss of grift; having a legacy as a loser. ¤ Humiliation.

🐣 RT @JoyceWhiteVance Trump is setting the stage for how he’ll handle his own eventual indictment
⋙ 🐣 RT @RonFilipkowski Trump issues a special address to J6 defendants: “Our country is going communist .. People are imprisoned right now. People are being tormented. Can’t let it happen. We’re going to stop it, and we’re going to win.”
💽 https://twitter.com/JoyceWhiteVance/status/1598524943205015552?s=20/photo/1
// Trump video to followers on Jan6 participants: “weaponization on Justice Department”

🐣 RT @JohnWDean Trump creates losers — and Judge Cannon has joined those ranks. She tried to disrupt the criminal investigation of Trump but (remarkably) Republican judges of the 11th Circuit stopped her political nonsense! Donald hasn’t yet corrupted the entire federal judiciary, thankfully.

🐣 RT @AWeissmann_BREAKING: 11th Circuit shoots Cannon down: finding no one is above the law and her decision violated bedrock principles of equal justice and separation of powers. Powerful decision (and rebuke).

🐣 RT @gtconway3d The Eleventh Circuit’s opinion makes brutally clear that they agree. To say that the court of appeals today completely eviscerated Judge Cannon’s ruling and Trump’s arguments is an understatement.
⋙ 🐣 RT @Acyn [9/15] Conway: This [Cannon’s] ruling is absolutely a disgrace. And I don’t think it’s going to take very much to overturn it. Barr told The New York Times that the original motion by Trump’s lawyers was a crock of ¤ shit, a crock of shit. This opinion is worse than that..
💽 https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1570570377486647296?s=20/photo/1
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @SnarkBolan It’s a cult. She’s in it.

🧵 RT @KlasfeldReports It’s hard to know where to begin with how lacerating the 11th Circuit’s slapdown of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago case is—whether it’s calling his arguments a “sideshow” or indirectly calling Cannon’s ruling “radical.” ¤ The article hashes it out. Some more thoughts:
⋙⋙ Law&Crime, Adam Klasfeld: ‘The Answer Is No’: Conservative 11th Circuit Panel, Including Two Judges Trump Appointed, Puts a Stop to Special Master’s Mar-a-Lago Review https://tinyurl.com/ydjt284t
[CourtDoc:] https://tinyurl.com/yc4dxab3 23p
📌 https://twitter.com/KlasfeldReports/status/1598457751188955136?s=20

🐣 RT @DeanObeidallah Trump’s unqualified “judge” Aileen Cannon in Florida just got OVERRULED by federal court of appeals in Mar a Lago documents case. No more Special master!
⋙ CNN: Appeals court halts special master review of documents seized at Mar-a-Lago in major defeat for Trump https://tinyurl.com/bdzbxb9a

In a major defeat for former President Donald Trump, a federal appeals court on Thursday halted a third-party review of documents seized from his Mar-a-Lago estate. ¤ The ruling removes a major obstacle to the Justice Department’s investigation into the mishandling of government records from Trump’s time in the White House.

In a ruling on Thursday, the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court’s order appointing a so-called special master to sort through thousands of documents found at Trump’s home to determine what should be off limits to investigators.

“The law is clear,” the appeals court wrote. “We cannot write a rule that allows any subject of a search warrant to block government investigations after the execution of the warrant. Nor can we write a rule that allows only former presidents to do so.”

The 11th Circuit said that either approach would be a “radical reordering of our caselaw limiting the federal courts’ involvement in criminal investigations” and that “both would violate bedrock separation-of-powers limitations.”

WaPo, Jennifer Rubin: The MAGA cult should face facts: America will never be theirs again https://tinyurl.com/bdfrf3a5 “Republicans have put their party at odds with the values of the overwhelming majority of the country. … [T]he ground is shifting under the MAGA cult’s feet”

🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT AXIS/2200 UTC 1 DEC/ RU forces occupy a W bank lodgment of the Bakhmutka River south of Ivanhard. RU attempts to supply materiel and reinforcements across the T-05-13 HWY are made costly by UKR artillery and aviation strike missions. RU piecemeal attacks continue.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1598435461307191296?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @KyivPost Russian Public Support for War Plummets – Leaked Poll ¤ A leaked #Kremlin poll has revealed that public support for #Russia’s invasion of #Ukraine has dropped significantly, with just one in four Russians now in favor. ¤ Read more on our website.
⋙ 📊 KyivPost: Russian Public Support for War Plummets – Leaked Poll https://tinyurl.com/4uzn2fuh
// Published by the Kremlin’s Federal Guard Service (FSO), the report was intended for the eyes of senior government officials, but was leaked to independent Russian news site Meduza.

🧵 RT @generalsvr_en Dear subscribers and guests of the channel! Yesterday, #Russian President Vladimir #Putin had a very difficult day, which ended quite dramatically. Wednesday morning began for Putin with a depressing report on the state of the Russian economy. 1/15
📌 https://twitter.com/generalsvr_en/status/1598268709465825280?s=20
⋙ 🐣 RT @generalsvr_en Moreover, yesterday, the leadership of the military bloc was not ready to guarantee the President a significant advance on any sector of the front before the New Year. #Putin was informed that the cold snap, predicted for early December in the #Luhansk region,…6/15
⋙ 🐣 RT @generalsvr_en Going down the stairs, #Putin stumbled and fell on his buttocks. After that, he fell on his side and slid down a couple of steps. The incident took place in front of the President’s bodyguards, who quickly reacted and rushed to help Putin.9/15
⋙ 🐣 RT @ Three security officers helped the President to get to the nearest sofa and called the doctors, who are on duty at the residence. Medics arrived within a few minutes but could not immediately examine the President. #Putin suffers from oncology of the gastrointestinal tract.10/15 […]

🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer KHERSON AXIS/ 0115 UTC 1 DEC/ RU forces continue daily ‘revenge shelling’ of the urban and suburban areas of Kherson. UKR recon UAVs indicate that RU units are constructing defensive positions along the south banks of the Dnipro River and along the M-14 HWY.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1598121554357145600?s=20/photo/1

⭕ 30 Nov 2022

🚫 Gingrich360: Quit Underestimating President Biden https://tinyurl.com/mwszsu79 “[C]onservatives’ hostility to the Biden administration on our terms tends to blind us to just how effective Biden has been on his terms”
// If Republicans are going to successfully work through the next two years in Congress – and win the presidency in 2024 – we need to look much more deeply at what worked and what did not work in 2020 and 2022.

Republicans must learn to quit underestimating President Joe Biden. … ¤ The clarity of winning and losing creates a clarity of analysis about who is doing well and who isn’t. ¤ If you apply that simple model to Biden, you realize how well he is doing by his own definition of success. …

Like most Americans, I do not approve of the job he is doing. … ¤ However, conservatives’ hostility to the Biden administration on our terms tends to blind us to just how effective Biden has been on his terms. He has only built upon and fortified the left-wing Big Government Socialist woke culture system. ¤ … Our aversion to him and his policies makes us underestimate him and the Democrats. ¤ But remember: Presidents Dwight Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan both preferred to be underestimated. Both wanted people to think of them as pleasant – but not dangerous. They found being underestimated was a major asset. While people laughed at them, they were busy achieving their goals and getting their programs implemented.

Biden has achieved something similar. ¤ He has spent 50 years in public life (elected to the U.S. Senate at 29 and only eligible to be sworn in after the election in 1972). Biden genially bumbled into becoming a major force in the Senate. While he failed miserably in attempting to run for president, he ended up as vice president for eight years. Then he stayed in the basement and won in 2020.

The Biden team took an amazingly narrow four-vote majority in the U.S. House and a 50-50 tie in the Senate and turned it into trillions of dollars in spending – and a series of radical bills. The latest bill on sexual rights overriding all other rights was bitterly opposed by virtually every conservative even as it passed with Republican support.

Biden has carefully and cautiously waged war in Ukraine with no American troops. Although poorly timed and slowly delivered, U.S. weapons and financial aid have helped cripple what most thought would be an easy victory for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Despite terrible problems with the economy, crime, and the border (which led many analysts, me included, to assume the GOP would make big gains in November) Biden and his team executed a strategy of polarizing Americans against Donald Trump supporters. They turned Jan. 6 into a crisis which eclipsed the Left’s previous summer of fire, chaos, and destruction. They also grossly exaggerated the threat to abortion rights. And it all worked. ¤ The Biden team had one of the best first term off-year elections in history. They were not repudiated. They did not have to pay for their terrible mismanagement of the economy.

If Republicans are going to successfully work through the next two years in the Congress – and win the presidency in 2024 – we need to look much more deeply at what worked and what did not work in 2020 and 2022. ¤ This is a much bigger challenge than I would have guessed before the election.

WaPo, George Will: How racial preferences feed grasping grievance groups and grow ever more absurd https://tinyurl.com/4up8hyj6 Yep. Too much Pluribus, not enough Unum.

🐣 RT @Flash_news_ua ⚡️The European Commission recommended suspending the allocation of 7.5 billion euros to Hungary due to problems with the rule of law, — Euronews.

NYT: President Zelensky of Ukraine rebukes Elon Musk’s peace proposal https://tinyurl.com/4htujet6 “Western democracies should be most concerned about Putin’s expansionist military ambitions, [Zelensky] said”
// Speaking at the DealBook summit, the Ukrainian leader said the billionaire would do well to fully understand the situation before making pronouncements about it.

🐣 RT @AzovMolozensky Russian propagandists machinery is claiming our retreat in #Bakhmut ¤ But the reality is opposite on the ground ¤ Our air force has just hit 2 Wagner command control centers today💪🏻🇺🇦 ¤ Yes! Difficulty situations but this is our land we understand it better than Putin does ☠💀

WaPo: Trump’s dinner with antisemites provides test of GOP response to extremism https://tinyurl.com/yrx57n3j Will this finally be the straw that broke the camel’s back? If it is, it may have more to do with the GOP’s poor showing in the midterms, for which many blame Trump
// Republicans are showing increasing willingness to criticize Trump over his meeting with white nationalist Nick Fuentes and Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West who has issued anti-Jewish diatribes

🐣 RT @Acyn Garland: Smith promised to the American people in his own statement that there would be no pause or hiccup in his work. I understand that is exactly what’s going on now.
💽 https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1598058398821613570?s=20/photo/1

GovExec: More Republicans Died Than Democrats after COVID-19 Vaccines Came Out https://tinyurl.com/34v68w6z “The [Yale] study finds that excess deaths during the pandemic were 76% higher among Republicans than Democrats in two states, Ohio and Florida.”
// The sharp divergence in excess death rates that emerged in the post-vaccine period “is pretty striking… and the magnitudes are quite large.”

CNN: Iranian protesters celebrate World Cup defeat, as fears surround players’ return https://tinyurl.com/yv34ve54
// Iranians celebrate US soccer win

Politico [EU]: Europe’s anti-American itch https://tinyurl.com/3ryr5pc4 “Despite America’s political divisions, the country has never been stronger in terms of its military might or its economic muscle” ~ “Europe’s blame game is really about something else — envy”
// Europeans have only themselves to blame for their industrial and strategic failings.

WSJ: EU Official Warns Elon Musk That Changes Are Needed at Twitter https://tinyurl.com/y5uakm97 “Twitter will have to ‘significantly reinforce content moderation and protect freedom of speech, tackle disinformation with resolve, and limit targeted advertising,’ Mr. Breton said”
// Thierry Breton, EU internal market commissioner, says changes are needed to comply with new EU law

🐣 RT @WarintheFuture “The war was lost long ago. The challenge remains one of getting Putin and his circle to accept this view. If this is to happen there is no alternative to keeping up the military pressure.” Another superb @LawDavF essay on the war in #Ukraine.
⋙ Substack, Lawrence Freedman: Is Russia losing? https://tinyurl.com/2xr64e68
// 11/23/2022; And if it is, when will it concede?

🐣 RT @ksadjadpour USA’s Antonee Robinson consoles Iran’s Ramin Rezaian after America’s victory. Iran’s regime has tried hard to brainwash its people against the US, but most Americans who’ve been to Iran will tell you it’s among the friendliest places they’ve ever visited.
💽 https://twitter.com/ksadjadpour/status/1597922491426799619?s=20/photo/1

🐣 📊 RT @IanSams46 New poll: ¤ By a 3-to-1 margin, Americans say House Republicans should focus on inflation (76%) vs. investigating President Biden (24%)
◕ [TextLink:] https://twitter.com/IanSams46/status/1597921686321782785?s=20/photo/1

[Text:] NavigatorPoll: Americans Want GOP to Focus on Costs, Crime, and the Border
Over Investigating Biden and Banning Abortion
// Just one in four or less would prefer the Republican Party focus on investigating President Biden and his administration or banning abortion nationwide when pitted against lowering costs, reducing violent crime, and dealing with the situation at the southern border.

🐣 RT @vonderleyen Russia must pay for its horrific crimes. ¤ We will work with the ICC and help set up a specialised court to try Russia’s crimes. ¤ With our partners, we will make sure that Russia pays for the devastation it caused, with the frozen funds of oligarchs and assets of its central bank

🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT/1500 UTC 30 NOV/ RU forces have taken the village of Andrivka and are attempting a lodgment on the a W bank of Bakhmutka River. RU conducted multiple close air support sorties in support of this assault. In the north, RU forces were held on the T-13-02 HWY.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1597968190403117056?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @POLITICOEurope When Vladimir Putin launched his all-out invasion of Ukraine in February, few people expected Kyiv’s forces would nine months later be threatening to reclaim Crimea. ¤ That no longer feels like a military impossibility.
⋙ Politico [Eu]: Target Crimea https://tinyurl.com/pj8969fy
// Partisans are mobilizing, and Russians are trying to sell their holiday homes — as fear grows that the war is closing in on the peninsula.

🐣 RT @apmassaro3 “German Justice Minister Marco Buschmann acknowledged that Germany bears responsibility for the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine because it backed the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.” Finally, the truth
⋙ Politico: Berlin’s push for Nord Stream 2 contributed to Ukraine war, German minister says https://tinyurl.com/mrxzwfuj
// Justice minister says it’s Germany’s duty to ‘confront this truth directly.’

🐣 RT @GlasnostGone Putin’s terrified of the Russian people. Tomorrow a new “foreign agents” law leading to arrest/fines etc. for effectively watching/reading something on social media – for “influence or pressure” of foreign actors. Putin will also publish your address etc. hoping someone attacks U
🐣 RT @DefenceHQ Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine – 30 November 2022
Find out more about the UK government’s response: http://ow.ly/Msfo50LQJUv
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/DefenceHQ/status/1597845621347700736?s=20/photo/1

[Text:] In July 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin approved amendments to the 2012 ‘Foreign Agents Law, which has been widely used to repress opponents of the regime. The new measures are scheduled to come into force on 01 December 2022.

The 2012 law defined ‘foreign agents’ as individuals or organisations who have received financial support from abroad. The amendments will extend the definition to those which are merely under undefined ‘influence or pressure’ of foreign actors. The Ministry of Justice will also have the power to publish the personal details and addresses of designated *foreign agents’, almost certainly placing them at risk of harassment.

The new laws will further extend the repressive powers available to the Russian state. This continues a trend since Putin returned to the presidency in 2012, but which has dramatically accelerated since the invasion of Ukraine. The Kremlin is likely acting preemptively to prevent greater domestic dissent as the conflict remains unresolved and increasingly impacts Russians’ everyday lives.

🐣 RT @tassagency_en The civilized world does not need NATO, a “criminal organization” whose member states account for just about 12% of the world’s population, Deputy Chairman of Russia’s Security Council Dmitry Medvedev said: http://go.tass.ru/jxmTw
🔄📋 ⋙ 🐣Wouldn’t you be better off investing in your people than invading your neighbors?

Basic Stats US vs Russia
USA Russia
$23Tr $1.7Tr GDP
$767B $61.7B Military
5550 5977 Nukes
333M 146M Pop.
99.4% 77% (indoor plumb)
– – – – – – – – – – –
3.8M 6.6M SqMi
152M 123M Arable Hectares
54.5° 33° Avg F° (20% Arctic)
// most recent: 2021 or 2022
92.9 23/SqMi Pop. density

⋙ 🐣 As long as Russia continues to invade its neighbors, the civilized world will need NATO. ¤ AS NATO, the EU and the US have all made clear, we will continue to support Ukraine “for as long as it takes“

🐣 RT @McFaul Absolutely inspired by brave protestors in Iran and China … and early voters in Georgia…. and warriors in Ukraine. Democracy is not dying; it’s on the move.

💙 🐣 RT @GEsfandiari A wonderful display of sportsmanship following U.S. victory over Iran in #WorldCup2022
💽 https://twitter.com/GEsfandiari/status/1597851221767131137?s=20/photo/1
// players hug and comfort
⋙ 🐣 RT @tafakor [tr from Persian] This shows that the people of Iran do not have any kind of enmity with the American people, and it is only the politicians who beat the drum of enmity.
⋙⋙ 🙏 peace and love to you

⭕ 29 Nov 2022

Pravda [UA]: Starlink to be imported to Ukraine free of duty and VAT https://tinyurl.com/5n8d7u9u The Cabinet of Ministers on Tuesday lifted the import duty and VAT on Starlink terminals, and energy and water purification equipment, “making these products approximately 25% cheaper”

🐣 RT @wartranslated Despite loud noises made by Russian media, Wagner admits they are far from taking Bakhmut. But they also seem oddly proud of essentially being on a suicide mission, “not taking losses into account”, except that it’s the lives of untrained convicts they really talk about.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1597571466127892482?s=20/photo/1

[Text:] “Three Prigozhin’s strikes”: why the PMC continues to move forward?
Yesterday there was information that PMC “Wagner” occupied three villages south of Bakhmut, namely Zelenopolye, Ozaryanovka and Andreevka. Some media began to claim that this success could soon be developed into the encirclement of the enemy’s Bakhmut grouping, but this is not so.

The occupation of the villages seriously fortified by the enemy is, of course, an achievement, but the encirclement of Bakhmut is still very far away – in the north of the city, the encirclement of the Ukrainian flank has not even really begun. It is important to note that now the section of the front near Bakhmut, held by the Wagners, is nearly the only one where the Russian army is slowly but successfully advancing.

The thing is that the Wagner is essentially a unit specially sharpened for assaults, an analogue of the assault groups of the First World War. In the area of the Donbass branch of Verdun, the PMC objectively have few opponents. After all, their storm troopers are still “daredevils” – they do not take losses into account, and often have good military training or experience with weapons, including melee. Which, by the way, is very important – in the cramped conditions of
mud-filled trenches, the formula “The bullet is a mad thing; only the bayonet knows what it is about.” is more relevant than ever.

🐣 RT @therecount 61-36: The U.S. Senate passes the Respect for Marriage Act, repealing the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act and codifying federal recognition of states’ same-sex and interracial marriages. ¤ 12 Republicans joined Democrats in voting “yes.” All the “no” votes were Republican senators.

🐣 RT @SykesCharlie “Trump exceeded our worst fears. We expected him to bring a claque of opportunists and various other mooks and goons with him to Washington, but we underestimated the ability of the GOP’s immune system to fight off a complete surrender” [sic]
⋙ TheAtlantic, Tom Nichols: Never Trump Means Never https://tinyurl.com/mr273p58
// Opposing Trumpism is about more than rejecting one man

… We expected him to bring a claque of opportunists and various other mooks and goons with him to Washington, but we underestimated the ability of the GOP’s immune system to fight off a complete surrender to Trump’s parasitical capture of the party. We appreciated the threat of Trump, but we were surprised by the spread of Trumpism—the political movement that arose as a malignant mass incarnation of Trump’s personality, based on racism, nativism, isolationism, the celebration of ignorance, and a will to power that was innately hostile to American institutions. Trumpism is now the only real animating force in Republican politics; indeed, DeSantis, the great GOP hope, is so much a Trump sycophant that he has even learned to stand and gesture like Trump.

… The immediate circumstance that precipitated all this online whining about the Never Trumpers and generated the sweaty attempts to seize their mantle was, of course, Trump’s dinner this weekend with an anti-Semite and a white supremacist. Top Republicans who should be desperate to scour the stink of Trumpism off the GOP but who fear Trump and his base once again went weak in the knees. Most stayed quiet; others employed careful circumlocutions. Mike Pence said Trump should “apologize” for the dinner, as if it were a faux pas. Senator John Thune blamed Trump’s staff—always a handy dodge in Washington. …

Only a very few were specific and unequivocal. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell finally weighed in today with a shot at Trump’s ambitions, saying that “there is no room in the Republican Party for anti-Semitism or white supremacy,” and that “anyone meeting with people advocating that point of view, in my judgment, are highly unlikely to ever be elected president of the United States.” But Senator Bill Cassidy was more direct: “President Trump hosting racist antisemites for dinner encourages other racist antisemites,” he tweeted. “These attitudes are immoral and should not be entertained. This is not the Republican Party.” Cassidy’s words are admirably clear, but while he argues that such attitudes are not the Republican Party, they are, in fact, espoused by people widely tolerated by the base of the Republican Party—starting right at the top with Donald Trump.

The Republicans know they have a problem. Many of them seem to believe their only recourse now is to say that they were all Never Trumpers in the hope that voters will somehow draw an unwarranted distinction between Trump and the party he has captured from top to bottom. But those of us who said “Never Trump” years ago—and meant it—know the difference.

🐣 RT @POTUS Today’s bipartisan Senate passage of the Respect for Marriage Act proves our nation is on the brink of reaffirming a fundamental truth: love is love. ¤ I look forward to the House passing this legislation and sending it to my desk, where I will proudly sign it into law.

🐣 RT @TheTweetOfJohn Musk’s dictatorial management style risks driving the company into unforced business blunders, content moderation disasters, and the degradation of core platform features that help keep vulnerable users safe, according to Yoel Roth.
⋙ CNN: Twitter is less safe due to Elon Musk’s management style, says former top official https://tinyurl.com/ycyzpa8u

🐣 RT @January6thCmte Today’s convictions are a victory for the rule of law and reinforce the fact that the violence of January 6th included a deliberate attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election and block the transfer of presidential power.

🐣 RT @POTUS Gas prices have fallen to levels they were at prior to Putin’s invasion – down $1.50 a gallon since their summer peak. ¤ This is important breathing room for American families and meets a key commitment I made. We’ll continue to do everything we can to bring prices down even more.
◕ https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/1597652006625329153?s=20/photo/1

NBC: The inside story of Trump’s explosive dinner with Ye and Nick Fuentes https://tinyurl.com/4yvnmsvv The dinner was a set-up to confront Trump about abandoning his extremist base. And to embarrass him. “The master troll got trolled,” an adviser said
// What was supposed to be a private dinner ended up being a political nightmare.

Just two days before Thanksgiving, Donald Trump was planning to have a private, uneventful dinner with an old friend: Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West. ¤ The two had arranged to break bread Tuesday night at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida after weeks of private phone conversations as Ye lost lucrative partnerships and became a mainstream cultural pariah for his antisemitic remarks, according to those familiar with the talks between the two men.

But Trump may have been walking into a trap in Mar-a-Lago’s gilded halls — one that leveraged his own penchant for spectacle and showmanship against him. Ye arrived with three guests, including white nationalist and antisemite Nick Fuentes.

Trump has since said he didn’t know Fuentes or his background when they dined together, a claim Fuentes confirmed in an interview, but others at the crowded members-only club figured out his identity. News of the meeting prompted an avalanche of criticism, from some Republican rivals and allies of Trump and his then-week-old presidential campaign. …

The headline-grabbing attention on his guests — and therefore the subsequent fallout — were all but ensured by Trump before the dinner when he made a grand entrance at about 8 p.m. on Nov. 22 to meet his guests.

“We saw everybody in the dining room get up and start applauding, and then the president entered,” Fuentes told NBC News. “He greeted us, and he invited Ye into dinner and Ye said that he wanted to bring us with him to the table. So we walked in and Ye took some pictures with some of the guests in the dining room and then we sat down at the table.”

Trump made sure they sat at his specially reserved table on the patio, for all to see, according to Fuentes.

But the dinner wasn’t the happy photo-op the president had planned. ¤ 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.

“Trump is really impressed with Nick Fuentes,” Ye said in the video. ¤ Fuentes said that he praised Trump as “my hero” and criticized Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for his potential GOP primary challenge to Trump, but he also told him to his face at the dinner that the onetime 2016 insurgent was in danger of becoming a scripted establishment bore who could lose in 2024.

Some Republicans, including former Vice President Mike Pence, have condemned the dinner, with Pence calling on Trump to apologize. ¤ One longtime Trump adviser, who didn’t want to go on the record criticizing his preferred candidate, said it was clear that Fuentes’ presence was part of a headline-grabbing setup. ¤ “The master troll got trolled,” the adviser said. “Kanye punked Trump.”

As advisers to Trump have attempted to quell the backlash, some have insisted that the former president was essentially tricked by the rapper and his guests — a suspicion backed up by Milo Yiannopoulos, the anti-Trump, far-right provocateur who is now acting as a political adviser to Ye.

Yiannopoulos, a former Breitbart editor who was banned from Twitter in 2016 for inciting a racist campaign against the comedian Leslie Jones, told NBC News that he was “the architect” of the plan to have Fuentes travel with Ye in the hopes of slipping him into the dinner with Trump. The intent, according to Yiannopoulos, was for Fuentes to give Trump an unvarnished view of how a portion of his base views his candidacy.

Yiannopoulos persuaded a former Trump 2016 campaign adviser from Florida, Karen Giorno, to give Ye a ride to Mar-a-Lago, which she said led her to become an accidental member of Ye’s dinner party. Yiannopoulos said he also wanted Giorno to brief Ye on Trump and politics and, if she went to the dinner, to lend a sense of political gravitas to the discussion. The fourth member of the party was a man Ye later identified as a parent of a student at his private school in California, Donda Academy. (Donda shut down for the year after Ye’s antisemitic remarks.) Yiannopoolos said he was unsure of why the man traveled with them.

Yiannopoulos said Fuentes is serving in an advisory capacity to Ye. Giorno is not an official member of the unofficial Ye campaign team but flew to Los Angeles to meet with them this week. ¤ “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,” Yiannopoulos told NBC News. ¤ “I 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,” he added.

And, Yiannopoulos said, he arranged the dinner “just to make Trump’s life miserable” because news of the dinner would leak and Trump would mishandle it. ¤ Fuentes echoed the sentiment: “I hate to say it, but the chickens are coming home to roost. You know, this is the frustration with his base and with his true loyalists.”

Trump fumed afterward that Ye had betrayed him by ambushing him. “He tried to f— me. He’s crazy. He can’t beat me,” Trump said, according to one confidant, who then relayed the conversation to NBC News on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. ¤ “Trump was totally blindsided,” the source said of Fuentes’ presence. “It was a setup.”

Some in Trump’s orbit had cautioned him not to have dinner with Ye, under fire for antisemitism, in the first place, according to two sources who had been briefed on an internal damage assessment the campaign performed after the controversy erupted. ¤ But Trump is known for refusing to heed cautious counsel, guardrails and gatekeepers. So he went ahead with the dinner alone, telling confidants that he thought Ye needed his counsel. One confidant told NBC that Trump acknowledged he wanted the rapper to be seen because “it would be fun for the members” of Mar-a-Lago.

Trump issued three successive statements in as many days on his Truth Social media platform admitting Fuentes was there while disavowing knowledge of his identity prior to and during the dinner.

🐣 RT @DeadlineWH “There is… an added benefit of the jury taking this thoughtful approach convicting on some counts and acquitting on others. What that says is these defendants got a fair trial… This actually will strengthen the case on appeal” – @glennkirschner2 w/ @NicolleDWallace

🐣 RT @CBSNews “USA! USA!” President Biden jumped back on staged in Bay City, Michigan to announce Team USA’s win against Iran at the World Cup. ¤ A brief USA chant erupted in the room. https://cbsn.ws/3idAuZS
💽 https://twitter.com/CBSNews/status/1597711026400681984?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @jensstoltenberg #NATO foreign ministers met FM @DmytroKuleba & pledged sustained support to #Ukraine as it fights #Russia’s aggression. Putin is trying to weaponise winter & force Ukrainians to freeze or flee. We will not back down or be divided.

🐣 RT @mhmck Hungary, a firm ally of the Russian terrorist state, blocked the full participation of Ukraine in a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Bucharest. ¤ The continued membership of Hungary in NATO destroys the possibility of collective security in Europe.

🐣 RT @Acyn McConnell: There is no room in the Republican Party for anti-Semitism or white supremacy. Anyone meeting with people advocating that point of view, in my judgement, are highly unlikely to ever be elected President

🐣 RT @TpyxaNews⚡️NATO is discussing the transfer of Patriot air defense systems to Ukraine, – Stoltenberg.

🔆 This❗️⋙ WaPo: Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes guilty of Jan. 6 seditious conspiracy https://tinyurl.com/4aypvzfc “Rhodes and followers, dressed in combat-style gear, converged on the Capitol after staging an ‘arsenal’ of weapons at nearby hotels, ready to take up arms”

🐣 RT @kenbensinger Stewart Rhodes and his 4 Oath Keepers co-defendants have been found guilty for 18 of the 28 charges. Only 2 were found guilty of seditious conspiracy. Scorecard (* denotes guilty of seditious conspiracy)
Rhodes: 3/5*
Meggs: 4/5*
Harrelson: 3/5
Watkins: 4/6
Caldwell: 2/5
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/kenbensinger/status/1597719890617851905?s=20/photo/1
// handwritten scoresheet

🐣 RT @nytimes Breaking News: A jury convicted the leader of the Oath Keepers and one of his subordinates of seditious conspiracy for plotting to keep Donald Trump in power.
🔆 This❗️⋙ NYT: Oath Keepers Leader Convicted of Sedition in Landmark Jan. 6 Case https://tinyurl.com/nhhzkuwr
// A jury in federal court in Washington convicted Stewart Rhodes, the leader of the far-right militia, and one of his subordinates for a plot to keep Donald Trump in power.

🐣 RT @nytimesworld In a speech to Britain’s lawmakers in Westminster on Tuesday, Ukraine’s first lady, Olena Zelenska, called for accountability for the terror Russia is inflicting on the Ukrainian people
⋙ NYT: Ukraine’s first lady addresses British lawmakers, calling for ‘justice’ https://tinyurl.com/bdh67jxs “Ms. Zelenska said that Ukrainians have documented thousands of war crimes committed by Russia, and called for the institution of an international tribunal to prosecute them”

NYT: NATO ‘will not back down’ in its support for Ukraine, its secretary general says https://tinyurl.com/mcmp6zx8 Antony Blinken and the top diplomats from more than 30 European nations are meeting today in Romania to plan NATO’s support for Ukraine over the winter

🐣 RT @NATO ❝We need to support Ukraine… what we see is that President Putin is trying to use winter as a weapon of war❞ ¤ @jensstoltenberg spoke to media in Bucharest, where #NATO foreign ministers are set to address more support for Ukraine ¤ #ForMin | #StandWithUkraine

🐣 RT @SpiroAgnewGhost Oh my god. This is so unhinged, crazed and destructive to the entire Republican Party for obvious reasons. He wants to take them down with him as he spirals into full lunacy.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/SpiroAgnewGhost/status/1597611306470674432?s=20/photo/1

[Text:] 🐣 RT @realDonaldTrump REMEMBER, YOU CAN NEVER HAVE FAIR & FREE ELECTIONS WITH MAIL-IN BALLOTS – NEVER, NEVER, NEVER. WON’T AND CAN’T HAPPEN!II

[Text:] 🐣 RT @realDonaldTrump This is a MUST WATCH. Our Elections are Rigged. Mail-In Ballots are a total SCAM. How about all of those “BROKEN” Republican Voting Machine? GET SMART REPUBLICANS, OR YOU WON’T HAVE A PARTY (OR A COUNTRY) LEFT

🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer HANGING BY 3 THREADS: The keys to the control of Crimea’s logistical, fuel and food supplies are the highly vulnerable Kerch Straits Bridge, and the occupied city of Melitopol. The liberation of Melitopol would cut off Crimea from reinforcement and supply from the UKR mainland.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1597615389231697920?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @SpiroAgnewGhost Illiterate Grandpa Ranty says Karl Rove is the “DINIER of DINIERS” 🤣🤤 ¤ My elementary school cousin spells better than this unhinged imbecile
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/SpiroAgnewGhost/status/1597606110529466371?s=20/photo/1

[Text:] 🐣 RT @realDonalTrump [ts] RINO Karl Rove, a man with a losing record the likes of which few political operatives would be able to get away with, including his loss to me in 2016, fights so hard and so stupidly, but is constantly on Fox News and the once great Wall Street Journal, explaining how things should be done – and he doesn’t have a clue. People can’t stand him, a clone of even more unpopular Paul Ryan, who sadly runs Fox News, now on a very bad path. Rove is a DINIER of DINIERS, which makes him a fool. WATCH!

DailyBeast: Kanye West Storms Out of Interview After Tim Pool Lightly Defends Jews https://tinyurl.com/yue3v4kd “Though Pool pushed back more on Monday than he normally does—and after Ye and his campaign staff walked out in a huff, Pool did forcefully denounce antisemitism on air”
// Ye and his entourage of far-right trolls bailed on a mostly friendly chat with Tim Pool when his antisemitic rants were given the mildest of pushback

⭕ 28 Nov 2022

🧵 RT @TheStudyofWar NEW: Recent claims of Russian gains around #Bakhmut do not portend an imminent Russian encirclement of the city. ¤ Read the latest on #Ukraine in tonight’s Russian offensive campaign assessment w/ @criticalthreats:http://isw.pub/UkrWar112822
📌 https://twitter.com/TheStudyofWar/status/1597417203837460480?s=20/photo/1 -4

⋙ 🐣 RT @TheStudyofWar 5/ Russian sources have notably propagated spurious claims regarding gains around #Bakhmut as part of a continued information operation since October, and recent unsubstantiated territorial claims may be part of this continued information operation.
⋙ 🐣 RT @TheStudyofWar 6/ Even if Russian forces have indeed succeeded in taking control of settlements south of #Bakhmut, these gains do not threaten the critical T0513 (Bakhmut-Siversk) & T0504 (Bakhmut-Kostyantynivka) routes that serve as major Ukrainian ground lines of communication into Bakhmut.
⋙ 🐣 RT @TheStudyofWar 8/ Russian forces in #Klishchiivka, in order to advance any further, would have to cross three kilometers of fields with little cover and concealment. Russian troops, in their current degraded state, are likely unable to be able to accomplish this task quickly.
⋙ 🐣 RT @TheStudyofWar 10/ Russian claimed advances around #Bakhmut over the course of November 27 and 28 are thus unlikely to generate operational-level effects and certainly not quickly. [link]

Newsweek: Leaked FSB Letters Reveal How Russian Officials Have Discussed Nuclear War https://tinyurl.com/ys6u579x ‘Igor Sushko, the executive director of the Wind of Change Research Group, … has translated the correspondence to English. He shared all the emails with Newsweek’

WaPo, Paul Waldman: Truth can defeat ‘gaslighting,’ the word of the year. But not always https://tinyurl.com/4zmp2w74 “[T]hat proposition relies on shame, and Trump taught his party that shamelessness is a kind of superpower”

🐣 RT @WarintheFuture The resilience of the Ukrainian people is awe inspiring. The flip side is that we cannot allow this barbaric, illegal conduct by the Russians to become normalized. And we must not, in western publics, become de-sensitized to brutal behaviour by authoritarians. @IAPonomarenko
⋙ 🐣 RT @IAPonomarenko I’m telling you, it’s a miracle how people adapt to things like massive blackouts, missile attacks, and the lack of heating and other basic necessities in wartime. ¤ Modern technology + solidarity and mutual supportiveness + a bit of imagination = life goes on as it should

🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT AXIS/ 0015 UTC 29 NOV/ RU consolidated advances across Bakhmutka River S of the urban area. The Forward Edge of the Battle Area (FEBA) now conforms to the rail line in the vicinity of the village of Andrivka. UKR artillery continues to exact a heavy toll on RU infantry.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1597410388840435718?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @SpiroAgnewGhost Minutes later after the one above, another totally deranged rant extremely similar to one he made last week. Does he not remember that? Is his brain THAT broken?
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/SpiroAgnewGhost/status/1597338284019318785?s=20/photo/1

[Text:] 🐣 RT @realDonaldTrump Many Republican Judges go out of their way to show they are beyond reproach, & will come down hard on people before them in order to prove they cannot be “bought” or in any way show favor to those who appointed them. People, including me, are oftentimes shocked by the lack of courage and wisdom shown. As soon as they get appointed, they go “ROGUE!” Democrat Judges are the exact opposite in attitude – Screw you, this guy appointed me, I’m a Democrat all they way, you don’t have a chance. So SAD!

🐣 RT @SpiroAgnewGhost My god. He can’t stop. Multiple times attacking Smith today so far. ¤ He has this unique knack of showing how terrified he is with these non-stop unhinged outbursts instead of just keeping his mouth shut which any lawyer would advise.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/SpiroAgnewGhost/status/1597337266191409152?s=20/photo/1

[Text:] 🐣 RT @realDonald Trump [ts] This fully weaponized monster, Jack Smith, shouldn’t be let anywhere near the political persecution of “President Donald J. Trump.” I did nothing wrong on January 6th, and nothing wrong with the Democrats’ fix on the Document Hoax, that is, unless the six previous Presidents did something wrong also …

WaPo, Jennifer Rubin: Democrats’ lame-duck priorities have shifted https://tinyurl.com/47f53ahs “Democrats should … protect Ukraine and Justice Department funding, eliminate debt ceiling blackmail, pass ECA reform, and protect same-sex marriage. … The rest can wait”

🖼 WhiteHouse: 2022 Holidays at the White House: “We The People” https://www.whitehouse.gov/holidays-2022/
WhiteHouse: Holiday Tour Brochure https://tinyurl.com/2unwnrs7 (printable)

NPR: White House unveils its holiday decor, including 77 trees and ‘We the People’ theme https://tinyurl.com/y27xz8xs

🐣 RT @hunterschwarz This year’s White House Christmas theme is “We The People.” @FLOTUS Jill Biden: “The soul of our nation is, and always has been, ‘We the People.’ … Room by room, we represent what brings us together during the holidays and throughout the year.”
🖼 https://twitter.com/hunterschwarz/status/1597271248073097218?s=20/photo/1 -4

NYT: Turning Point for Garland as Justice Dept. Grapples With Trump Inquiries https://tinyurl.com/ywhpdh9n
// After months of an already hyperpartisan political environment, the attorney general appears to be acknowledging that his approach has to be recalibrated.

⭕ 27 Nov 2022

🐣 RT @AVindman Hey @elonmusk this is where I work @votevets. If you want to help veterans donate to this group. [link]
⋙ 🐣 RT @VoteVets It’s simple: @AVindman is pulled by a sense of service and what’s right—no matter if it’s @realDonaldTrump attacking him or @elonmusk. We’re proud he’s a VoteVets’ advisor. The 2M Veterans, military families, and supporters who are part of our organization are with him. 100%.
🐣 RT @AVindman Thank you for the kind words. As you know I’m a great admirer of yours.
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @AnneApplebaum It’s incredible how Vindman’s bravery infuriates the powerful. You can be a billionaire or a president and still be conscious of your own amorality, your own cowardice, your own lack of principles.
⋙⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @davidfrum If Vindman had not spoken out at the risk of his career, Ukraine might have been cut off by a vengeful President Trump from the US aid it needed to prepare its defense against Putin’s impending invasion. ¤ Which is why enemies of Ukraine and democracy hate Vindman so much.
⋙⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @AdamParkhomenko They attack Alex Vindman and defend Stephen Miller. That’s the Republican Party & Elon Musk.
⋙⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @djrothkopf This is no contest. @AVindman is a man of irreproachable character and great courage who has dedicated his life to the service of his country. The other guy…is none of those things.
⋙⋙⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @AVindman I’ll put my reputation up against yours any day. I’ve spent my entire adult life in service to my country. Upheld my oath to protect & defend this nation at great personal cost. You’ve demonstrated yourself to be a purveyor of hate and division. Let history be the judge.
⋙⋙⋙⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @elonmusk Vindman is both puppet & puppeteer. Question is who pulls his strings … ?
⋙⋙⋙⋙⋙⋙ 🐣 $44B to be a troll. Wow. Biden is asking Congress for $39B to support Ukraine for all of next fiscal year. Think of all the good that $44B could have done
↥ ↧
🐣 RT @AVindman Tesla stock is plummeting, Twitter is on the verge of insolvency, SpaceX succeeded in spite of you. You have a chance to salvage your legacy. Try this as your touchstone. Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Selfless-Service, Honor, Integrity, and Personal Courage. LeaDeRSHIP. #Armyvalues
↥ ↧
🐣 RT @AVindman Kinda weird that @elonmusk gets to decide how like a half-billion people communicate. Way too much power for one erratic individual to wield, don’t you think?

🐣 RT @JuliaDavisNews Meanwhile in Russia: the host and his guest concur that Ukraine should be erased off the map and even the memory that it existed should be destroyed. The host says that Russia will always be an empire and being in a state of war is only natural for any empire of Russia’s size.
💽 https://twitter.com/JuliaDavisNews/status/1597089807171485696?s=20/photo/1

🧵 RT @WarintheFuture [Mick Ryan] In the wake of the Ukrainian victory in western #Kherson, and in the midst of Russia’s ongoing terror bombing campaign against Ukrainian civil infrastructure, we should look at the man in charge of Russia’s campaign. A thread on General #Surovikin. 1/25
📌 https://twitter.com/WarintheFuture/status/1597088884734955520?s=20

🐣 RT @wartranslated It is quite peculiar how last night, Russian channels began pushing a psyop about an ultimatum to Ukrainians at Bakhmut. They always do these when things aren’t going well. GREY ZONE laughed this claim off earlier today.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1596843925402431489?s=20/photo/1 -4 (2 in Ru)

[Text 1:] Regarding the ultimatum in Bakhmut.
– Bakhmut and Artemovsk are in the operational environment.
– Today, our gangsters came in and completely cleared Belogorovka.
– The offensive is in full swing, there is no talk of withdrawal.
– Regarding the ultimatum on the 27th – I confirm it.
– Today, the guys have also made moves in this direction.
– Surrender, do not die for the European standards imposed on you. They brainwashed you and made enemies out of us. Think!

[Text 3:] And now, the morning has come, which means that already more than three hours ago, a non-existent ultimatum has expired. Mr. Hohol lost two cities at once – Bakhmut and Artyomovsk (just in case, it’s teh same thing). And Mr. Vahnir (?), respectively, acquired these two cities.

But in reality, both sides of the front simply woke up, rubbed the dried Slavic soil off their faces with fresh wet Slavic soil, and, perhaps, laughed at the Internet news that they were told by the HQs, and went on slaughtering each with the backdrop of artillery explosions.

🐣 RT @RonFilipkowski For Trump’s entire life, he has feared that eventually he might have to deal with someone like Jack Smith.

🔆 This❗️⋙ MoscowTimes, Andrei Kolesnikov: Scientific Putinism: Shaping Official Ideology in Russia https://tinyurl.com/4zkfmdzd A new mandatory college curriculum, “Fundamentals of Russian Statehood,” marks the transition of Putin’s Russia from authoritarianism to totalitarianism

There is a belief that the Russian elite under President Vladimir Putin has only ever been interested in money. Yet Putin’s militant, anti-liberal, anti-Western, isolationist, paternalistic, and harshly authoritarian regime has always had an ideology. ¤ This ideology is not systematized, but it does exist, and snippets of it can be found throughout Putin’s speeches, articles, and interviews. Now the war in Ukraine has necessitated a more articulated ideology, however.

The initiative to systematize and codify Putinism has led to a presidential decree listing Russia’s “traditional spiritual and moral values,” as well as the development of a new ideological curriculum for colleges.

It is no longer enough to indoctrinate children in kindergartens and schools. It is now time to unify the worldviews of college students, and, by extension, those of their professors, whose ranks will inevitably be purged. A similar course taught during the Soviet era was known as “Scientific Communism.”

The name for this new curriculum is “Fundamentals of Russian Statehood,” though it might as well be called “Scientific Putinism.” It is composed of four units: “History” – historical policy as the imposition of a mythologized official version of history, which is one of the instruments for manipulating the mass consciousness of Russians; “Cultural Codes” or the “traditional spiritual and moral values,” around which Putin has ordered federal and regional governments to unify; “Russia and the World” — a justification of isolationism, anti-Westernism, and jingoism; and “Vision for the Future,” which sets out what the state hopes to achieve beyond victory in Ukraine and the destruction of the “fifth column.”

The curriculum justifies the cult of the eternal leader and doubles down on the idea that Russia is fighting the forces of evil in Ukraine in an effort to “de-satanize” the country. However, at the same time, Scientific Putinism lacks key components such as development goals or a vision for Russia’s future, focusing as it does almost exclusively on the past.

During Dmitry Medvedev’s presidency, there were teams working on a future-oriented ideology and making road maps based on the idea that Russia would fast-track the modernization of the state and society. Putin’s ideology, however, is one that fundamentally opposes modernization.

Putin has successfully convinced a significant portion of the population that Russia must regain its status as a great power, and that Russia is under attack by both the liberal West and traitors at home. As the regime has grown more authoritarian, its ideology has also become more archaic, its propaganda more obtrusive, and any hopes of modernization have dwindled.

An ideology that consists of historical, cultural, and religious myths, bogus traditions, and resentment seeks to legitimize an authoritarian regime and delegitimize those who oppose it.

Such an ideology makes it possible to label nonconformists as enemies, and to divide people into “us” and “them.” The division into “us” and “them” doesn’t just provide a marker for self-identification, it also serves to convince the public that there is a certain majority from which they should not stray.

In the past, the only requirement for being part of the “us” was passive, silent, conformist support. Today, however, this is not enough: Russians must surrender their very bodies to be cannon fodder in the supreme leader’s holy war against the “satanic” forces of the West. This is no longer authoritarianism; it is totalitarianism.

Imperialism and colonialism are key components of Putinism and key factors in the war. There is nothing new about this ideology; it comes almost verbatim from Stalinism and from earlier Eurasian and Slavophile narratives.

The war is being passed off as striving to restore historical fairness, as defensive and preventive, and as liberation. According to Putin, the land of the empire must be “returned and reinforced.”

In just a few years, the regime has evolved from a cult of the victory of 1945 to a cult of war itself, and Putin has managed to persuade a large segment of Russian society that the “special military operation” of 2022 is a natural continuation of World War II. In essence, it is an existential war between Russian and Western civilizations.

Putin has started to refer to Russia as an entire civilization. The state is not just sacred and worthy of the ultimate sacrifice; it is also a separate and superior civilization with a “thousand-year history” and its own special path.

Within this history, cultural codes are being passed down from generation to generation as part of the country’s political DNA. This state-civilization has its own pantheon of heroes unchanged from the Soviet era: Alexander Nevsky, Ivan the Terrible, Peter the Great, Joseph Stalin, and Yuri Gagarin.

This state-civilization has always been under attack by enviers and foes, making its state of permanent conflict critical, and not simply limited to the battlefield. The state must win in all aspects — in culture and in sports, in the construction of Olympic facilities, and in the war against Ukraine and the West.

To defend the sovereignty of this state-civilization, the Kremlin is counting on the security services, or siloviki, who have been given additional funding and are reinforced by spin doctors and so-called “journalists” in the Kremlin’s service.

The Culture Ministry, the communications watchdog Roskomnadzor, and the Russian Orthodox Church are becoming de facto siloviki themselves, enjoying as they do the right to block or ban media, restrict the sales of books by authors who oppose the war, and decide who can perform on theater stages.

The ideology has become corporeal, bolstered by political and military acts, such as the annexation of Crimea and the “special military operation.” In short, the special ideological operation is ongoing, and it seems to be faring rather better than the military one.

This article was originally published by the Carnegie Endowment For International Peace

🐣 RT @Jodarka I pray for the defenders holding the line to be protected tonight and this day from every bomb, may they be warm and dry, maybe they not lose hope or courage. May Bakhmut continue to hold. I pray for each prisoner who is writing a prayer on the wall write now, may God answer them
⋙ 🐣 🙏 Amen.

🐣 RT @7Veritas4 The beard tingles tonight…
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/7Veritas4/status/1596977212175310852?s=20/photo/1

[Text:] @realDonaldTrump [ts] Jack Smith (nice, soft name, isn’t it?), is a political hit man, who is totally compromised, and shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near our already highly WEAPONIZED & CORRUPT “Justice” Department and FBI, which are stuffed with, and listening to, Radical Left “MONSTERS,” who will cause difficulties for our Country the likes of which we have not seen before. By the way, OBAMA SPIED ON MY CAMPAIGN (and got caught!), & what about the MASSIVE Joe & Hunter BIDEN CORRUPTION (Evidence already in!)?

🐣 RT @tribelaw The reason I’m not leaving — yet, anyway — is that I dread “unwinding connections to sources, colleagues,” and over 1.35M followers. The alternatives don’t yet ”offer the same reach, or the rich vein of dissimilarity across social and geographic lines.”
⋙ 🐣 Twitter is not about the software or a celebrity’s feed, it’s about the breadth and depth of the community. Governments, scientists, experts use it to share important info and communicate with each other. It has tools to craft your experience. But the bottom line: it’s the users’

❤️ 🧵 RT @igorsushko 🚨[thread] My translation of the Nov 27 #FSBletters from the #WindofChange inside the FSB to Vladimir Osechkin. Subject: Games surrounding Belarus to force involvement in the war and FSB’s psychological profile on Prigozhin. Over 2,300 words. Please share far & wide.
📌 https://twitter.com/igorsushko/status/1596984008726175744?s=20

🐣 RT @JuliaDavisNews Russia’s strategy for decades to come is discussed on Russian state TV. Along with the claim that the Ukrainian language does not exist, pundit predicts Russia’s absorption of the neighboring countries into “one big Russian home,” with eventual expansion to the Balkans & Poland.
💽 https://twitter.com/JuliaDavisNews/status/1597005533760073729?s=20/photo/1

NYT: In Ukraine, Bakhmut Becomes a Bloody Vortex for 2 Militaries https://tinyurl.com/bdh76w7j “The front line, on the city’s outskirts, looks like a muddy moonscape, or a scene from World War I. At night, residents can hear the grumble of Russian jets prowling the skies”
// Even as they have celebrated successes elsewhere, Ukrainian forces in one small eastern city have endured relentless Russian attacks. And the struggle to hold it is only intensifying.

… The front line, on the city’s outskirts, looks like a muddy moonscape, or a scene from World War I. At night, residents can hear the grumble of Russian jets prowling the skies.

In recent days, Ukraine has sent floods of reinforcements into Bakhmut, including Special Forces and lesser trained territorial defense fighters, according to soldiers, local residents and a U.S. defense official.

The Russians have continued to throw formations from Wagner Group, an infamous paramilitary organization with direct ties to the Kremlin, at Ukrainian trenches. But they are now supported by a new tranche of Russian rank-and-file forces redeployed from the Kherson front, according to the U.S. defense official and Ukrainian soldiers.

The intensity of Russia’s attempts to seize the city has baffled military analysts. Elsewhere along their 600-mile front line, the Russians are mostly digging in for winter to entrench and conserve resources.

In summer, after Russian forces captured the neighboring province of Luhansk, seizing Bakhmut might have looked like a natural progression in Russia’s campaign to conquer the east — a step toward two more important cities, Sloviansk and Kramatorsk. But now, analysts said, given the degradation of Russian forces and their ammunition shortages after a series of setbacks, that goal seems improbable, especially after the loss of their foothold in the northeast.

“The Russian military is still dealing with unrealistic political demands to show progress,” said Michael Kofman, the director of Russian studies at C.N.A., a research institute in Arlington, Va. “But given poor quality of available forces and decreasing stocks of artillery ammunition, they are unlikely to be successful, because once again the Russian military appears to be feeding units piecemeal without adequate support.”

Russia’s strategy in Bakhmut is reminiscent of its seizure of the eastern cities of Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk in June. There, Russian troops relied on superior artillery fire to overpower Ukrainian forces and gain ground. But the Ukrainian forces they faced then were short of both shells and Western-supplied artillery — something that is no longer as pressing, especially in Bakhmut.

“In the six months that I’ve been in Bakhmut, I have never seen our artillery working like this,” said a Ukrainian soldier in the city, referring to the volume of Ukrainian shells fired. He spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. …

“Battles like Bakhmut consume forces that could be used elsewhere,” Mr. Kofman said, adding that Russian forces are using people they deem “expendable,” but even so, they cannot afford to waste that much artillery.

The Ukrainian forces holding Bakhmut are from a hodgepodge of units, including the 93rd Mechanized Brigade and the 58th Motorized Infantry Brigade, crack units that have been worn down by nonstop Russian assaults.

Troops from other brigades have arrived in recent weeks to plug holes in the lines and shore up formations floundering after heavy casualties. But even though the numbers of Ukrainian wounded and dead are steep, the attacking Russians are suffering far worse, Ukrainian soldiers say, as their exposed assaults are cut down by artillery and machine-gun fire.

U.S. defense officials estimate that Russia and Ukraine have each suffered around 100,000 wounded and dead over the course of the war, though those numbers are impossible to verify, the casualty numbers in Bakhmut even more so. …

Recent battlefield advances around Bakhmut have been measured in yards, not miles. Every day is a kaleidoscope of Russian and Ukrainian forces either pushing forward or retreating, often resulting in minimal gains at a bloody cost. …

🐣 RT @GlasnostGone The endless cold. ¤ The endless glutinous mud. ¤ The endless Russian shells. ¤ The endless death. ¤ The endless Russian attacks. ¤ These pics give a visual sense of what Ukrainian troops defending the town of Bakhmut are enduring.
🖼 https://twitter.com/GlasnostGone/status/1596890110703853568?s=20/photo/1 -4
// Getty Images

🧵 RT @DefMon3 A dive in to the importance of Luhansk as a logistics hub for the Russians. ¤ I will provide some though on why Luhansk city is a key location for the Russian logistics apparatus with the help of some very high resolution satellite images and a few maps.
📌 🌎 https://twitter.com/DefMon3/status/1596872759950594048?s=20/photo/1

⭕ 26 Nov 2022

🐣 RT @AVindman Bull@&$% I don’t believe a former marine general is involved with Vagner. This is a bunch of nonsense from Progozhin.
⋙ 🐣 RT @SpencerGuard WTH? “(as part of Wagner PMC), which is commanded by a US citizen, a former general of the Marine Corps,” Prigozhin said” I hope all the right organizations are looking into this. [link]
¤ https://twitter.com/SpencerGuard/status/1596718505272913920?s=20
⋙ Here’s the reporting in The DailyBeast: Former U.S. Marine General Working for Putin’s Private Army, Founder Claims https://tinyurl.com/2asc9v3f //➔ It was also reported in Barron’s; anyone know Finnish?
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1597211596371431424?s=20/photo/1

[Text:] The founder of the notorious Wagner Group of Russian mercenaries on Friday claimed a former U.S. Marine Corps general is in its ranks commanding a “British battalion.” Yevgeny Prigozhin, a close friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin, made the bold assertion in response to questions from the Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat about Finnish fighters working for Wagner. According to the press service for Prigozhin’s Concord company, he said there were around 20 Finns in the group. “As a rule, these are highly qualified specialists, very ideological and motivated,” Prigozhin was quoted as saying. “I have a very good opinion about the Finns on the battlefield. They are fighting in a British battalion (as part of Wagner PMC), whose commander is a US citizen, a former general of the Marine Corps.”

🐣 RT @StandByUkraine I believe either prigozhin or Putin will make a move on the other soon. Their relationship is unsustainable. Prigozhin won’t disarm and has little incentive to waste his army on bakhmut now. He needs to salvage it for what happens after putin. Putin knows this. He’ll replace him

🐣 RT @abstractedaway This was Ukraine in 1919. Notice the Kuban region, east of the sea? The Holodomor was, in part, targeted to wipe out the Ukrainian population there and forcibly russify that territory.
🌎 https://twitter.com/abstractedaway/status/1596606293128740865?s=20/photo/1 ⋙ HolodomorMuseum [US]: The curtailment of Ukrainization in the Kuban https://tinyurl.com/4xh2dky7
// 8/10/2022

🐣 RT @Johnyrocket69 There’s a videos of 45 Russian tanks headed to Bakhmut. Maybe that’s their threat to surrender. We’ll see if they do the usual retreat after a few tanks explode. #Ukraine

🐣 RT @NormOrnstein Washington post op Ed inadvertently tells the truth. DeSantis would mean “GOP return to normal.” So lying, thuggish, racist, authoritarian, Orbanism is normal for the Republican Party.
⋙ WaPo, Jim Geraghty: DeSantis would pave the way for a post-Trump GOP return to normal https://tinyurl.com/bdz59w83
// Plenty of Americans across the partisan divide would have good reason to root for the Florida governor to win the Republican nomination.
⋙ 🐣 DeSantis is in many ways WORSE than Trump. But, he’s so obvious in his cosplaying and so extreme and so humorless, I doubt he’ll fly as a candidate. But we’ve thought that before dot dot dot

🐣 RT @profgalloway You rise/fall to the level of your peer group. ¤ In other news, Trump is dining w/Nazis.

🐣 RT @RpsAgainstTrump Trump’s former ambassador to Israel. Narrator: he’s not “better than this.”
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/RpsAgainstTrump/status/1596631159487827968?s=20/photo/1

[Text:] To my friend Donald Trump, you are better than this. Even a social visit from an antisemite like Kanye West and human scum like Nick Fuentes is unacceptable. I urge you to throw those bums out, disavow them and relegate them to the dustbin of history where they belong. 1/

🐣 RT [Rabbi] @JonahPesner We forcefully condemn the meeting between Former President Trump, Ye & Fuentes who is a reprehensible antisemite and white supremacist. We call on people of all faiths & political affiliations to join in unequivocal condemnation. Hate can’t be normalized.

🐣 RT @danielsgoldman To all those who profess to condemn antisemitism among our leaders, but are quiet when Holocaust denier/white supremacist Nick Fuentes and avowed antisemite Kanye West are welcomed to dinner by Donald Trump: your silence is deafening. ¤ Speak out now by name or don’t speak at all.

🐣 RT @IAPonomarenko The Ukrainian military has achieved 100% of its realistic agenda for the autumn campaign.
The Kharkiv and the Kherson operations successfully completed before the raining season is a very, very good result.
Now the winter campaign coming our way.

🐣 RT @N525E931 Ukraine slowly loses some of their best people in Bakhmut. OTOH the Wagner burns through the stock of the worst people of Russia. ¤ Even if the casualty ratio is 1:100, it is, unfortunately, Ukraine who gets weakened this way
⋙ 🐣 RT @MaximusClaudius Even the “worst people in Russia” need ammo, small arms, heavy weaponry, supplies and logistic capacity. So they are consuming military ressources that could be used somewhere else. ¤ History has demonstrated impressivley that creating “Verduns” tends to be not that succesfull.

🐣 RT @RadfieldChris By the way, three or two hours ago, the Special Forces of the Russian Federation issued an ultimatum to the soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Bakhmut. In three hours something should start.

🐣 RT @WarMonitor3 Russian forces are regrouping significant among of units around Donetsk in order to send into Bakhmut direction.
⋙ 🐣 RT @StandardJohnnyB Why are they so obsessed with Bakhmut? Is there a huge washing machine factory there or something?
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @Geof17773624 They want the whole of the Donbass, and that means talking Kramatorsk and Slovyansk, and they can’t do that without first taking Bakhmut. The road to Kramatorsk runs up from Bakhmut.
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @ImHere4boobies Full control of Bakhmut gives Ukraine multiple avenues of penetration into an area that could bisect Russian forces and their supply lines. People get fixated on Russia wanting to take it for their own needs and forget that an objective can equally be denying it to your enemy.
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @EvaLeyst Lithium!
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @EvaLeyst One word might be the key to the whole war.
⋙⋙⋙ 🌎 renewablematter[.]eu: Ukraine: all lithium reserves and mineral resources in war zones https://tinyurl.com/33m5wu59
Geologists call it the Ukrainian shield. That land in the middle which starts from the northern border with Belarus up to the shores of the Azov Sea, in the south of Donbass. According to the studies of the Ukrainian geological service, in the ancient rocks of this shield are hidden lithium deposits with great potential. Findings that have been identified mainly around the area of Mariupol, the port city of Donbass torn apart by Russian bombing. …
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @Simon_P_Hannah It’s a key town for supply routes

🐣 RT @NOELreports Russian copium overload. ¤ “The Armed Forces of Ukraine in Bakhmut were given an ultimatum demanding to lay down their arms and surrender! They gave time until November 27 until 6:00”

🐣 RT @We_LoveRussia [5:45pm] The Bakhmut garrison demands permission from the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to retreat from the city, otherwise it will be forced to capitulate! ¤ Wagner was given an ultimatum to the Armed Forces of Ukraine until 6.00 am – to surrender!
// 2:50am local

🐣 RT @Gerashchenko_en While Ukrainian civilians experience problems with electricity, heat and network in most regions, our Defenders in Bakhmut are fighting for Ukrainian freedom in such conditions. ¤ Unbreakable! Glory to Heroes!
💽 https://twitter.com/Gerashchenko_en/status/1596534680383197185?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @PaulaChertok 🕯Each year on the last Sat. of November, #Ukraine commemorates the millions of #Holodomor victims Stalin starved to death in 1932-3. This 90th year the past is more than memory, as #Russia’s war is #genocide too. ¤ Read @EuromaidanPress’ extensive library:
⋙ .EuromaidanPress: What to read about the Holodomor at Euromaidan Press https://tinyurl.com/495yj89s

🐣 RT @wartranslated Russian volunteers are having another tragedy today: the Russian ministry of defence suddenly blocked the import of various military equipment and clothes into Russia with no explanation. Vatniks have no idea what’s going on.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1596596035551649793?s=20/photo/1

[Text:] We don’t know how to comment on this. The Ministry of Defense bent customs so that it would not let into Russia everything that we buy for our fighters: drones (China), thermal vision (iRay, China), sights (NightForce USA via Dubai), clothes, shoes and more. Someone really wants to stop the flow of good things to the troops. We don’t understand at all who needs to be asked for permission for import, this is some kind of nonsense elevated to an absolute.

🐣 RT @stavridisj Ukraine is a tale of 2 wars…1 on the ground ..1 in the air.The Ukrainians are winning on the ground, but Russians are winning in the air and destroying Ukraine’s electric grid.We need to increase air defense to help win the 2nd war – doing that will break the Russian war effort.

AP: New state voter fraud units finding few cases from midterms https://tinyurl.com/27bzb4az //➔ Ron DeSantis wastes more money on another political stunt. So far the biggest breach was by GOP activists who breached voting equipment in Georgia’s Coffee County in 2021

🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer IZIUM AXIS /1730 UTC 26 NOV/ UKR forces advance to within small arms range of P-66 HWY. This effectively interdicts a 15 km section of roadway, cutting RU Lines of Communication and Supply (LOCS) between Svatove and Kremenna.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1596554842360934401?s=20/photo/1

NYT: The U.S. and NATO Scramble to Arm Ukraine and Refill Their Own Arsenals https://tinyurl.com/4yy36ns2 “‘We are committed to providing Ukraine with what it needs on the battlefield,’ Sabrina Singh, the Pentagon’s deputy press secretary, said this month”
// tags: Defense budget; The West thought an artillery and tank war in Europe would never happen again and shrunk weapons stockpiles. It was wrong.

“A day in Ukraine is a month or more in Afghanistan,” said Camille Grand, a defense expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations. …

The West is also trying to come up with alternative systems, even if they are older, to substitute for shrinking stocks of expensive air-defense missiles and anti-tank Javelins. It is sending strong signals to Western defense industries that longer-term contracts are in the offing — and that more shifts of workers should be employed and older factory lines should be refurbished. It is trying to purchase ammunition from countries like South Korea to “backfill” stocks being sent to Ukraine.

There are even discussions about NATO investing in old factories in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Bulgaria to restart the manufacturing of Soviet-caliber 152-mm and 122-mm shells for Ukraine’s still largely Soviet-era artillery armory. …

The Ukrainians want at least four systems that the West has not provided and is unlikely to: long-range surface-to-surface missiles known as ATACMS that could hit Russia and Crimea; Western fighter jets; Western tanks; and a lot more advanced air defense, said Mark F. Cancian, a former White House weapons strategist who is now a senior adviser at Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies.

The ATACMS, with a range of some 190 kilometers, or about 118 miles, will not be given for fear they could hit Russia; the tanks and fighter jets are just too complicated, requiring a year or more to train in how to use and maintain. As for air defense, Mr. Cancian said, NATO and the United States deactivated most of their short-range air defense after the Cold War, and there is little to go around. Producing more can take up to two years.

Maintenance is key, but there are clever answers for relatively simpler equipment, like the M-777 howitzer given to Ukraine. With the right parts, a Ukrainian engineer can link up to an American artillery officer in Fort Sill, Okla., and get talked through maintenance over Zoom.

Ukraine has also proved adaptable. Its forces are known inside NATO as “the MacGyver Army,” a reference to an old television series in which the hero is inventive and improvisational with whatever comes to hand.

To shell Russian positions at Snake Island, for instance, the Ukrainians put Caesars, with a 40-kilometer range, on barges and towed them out 10 kilometers to hit the island, which was 50 kilometers away, astonishing the French. Ukraine also sank the Moskva, the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, with its own adapted missiles, and has built drones that can attack ships at sea.

American officials insist that the U.S. military still has enough matériel to continue supplying Ukraine and defend U.S. interests elsewhere. ¤ “We are committed to providing Ukraine with what it needs on the battlefield,” Sabrina Singh, the Pentagon’s deputy press secretary, said this month after announcing more Stinger missiles for Ukraine.

Washington is also looking at older, cheaper alternatives like giving Ukraine anti-tank TOW missiles, which are in plentiful supply, instead of Javelins, and Hawk surface-to-air missiles instead of newer versions. But officials are increasingly pushing Ukraine to be more efficient and not, for example, fire a missile that costs $150,000 at a drone that costs $20,000.

As of September, the U.S. military had a limited number of 155-mm artillery rounds in its stockpiles, and limited numbers of guided rockets, rocket launchers, howitzers, Javelins and Stingers, according to an analysis by Mr. Cancian.

The shortage in 155-mm artillery shells “is probably the big one that has the planners most concerned,” Mr. Cancian said. ¤ “If you want to increase production capability of 155 shells,” he said, “it’s going to be probably four to five years before you start seeing them come out the other end.”

🐣 RT @Gerashchenko_en Vladimir Makey, 64, head of Belarus Foreign Affairs Minister, is dead. There are rumors he might have been poisoned. ¤ Makey was named as a possible successor of Lukashenko. He was one of the few not under Russian influence. ¤ Rumors say this might be a hint to Lukashenko.

🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT /1430 UTC 26 NOV/ RU’s piecemeal offensive continues. RU units have made small gains in S and NE suburbs;RU troops occupying these areas suffer heavily as they are exposed to UAV directed Ukrainian artillery. RU continues artillery barrages of the Bakhmut urban area.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1596510085769232384?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @Maks_NAFO_FELLA Lavrov: “The people of Ukraine will be liberated from neo-Nazi rulers, they deserve to live in friendship next to their Slavic brothers.” 🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡

⭕ 25 Nov 2022

🐣 RT @marceelias They hate me because I fight, they fear me because I win.
⋙ 🐣 RT @honestelections We can’t continue to allow activist attorneys to rewrite election law in the middle of voting! ¤ That’s not how our system is supposed to work.
⋙⋙ 🐣 The courts found that the proscription on voting on the Saturday after a holiday did not apply to runoffs. Both GOP Raffensperger and Sperling announced on 11/9 that counties could hold early in-person voting on 11/26. ¤ This is not “rewriting” election law. It’s applying it.

🐣 RT @TheStudyofWar “According to @TheStudyofWar, the Wagner Group views the #Bakhmut battle as an opportunity to score public-relations points by proving the mercenaries can win … while the rest of the #Kremlin’s forces lose.” via @forbes
⋙ Forbes, David Axe: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s Personal Brigade Is Fighting One Of the Ukraine War’s Hardest Battles https://tinyurl.com/3f5z276n The battle ”might prove pivotal to the wider war—and Zelensky’s future—as Russia spends its last good forces for no real gain”
// In weeks of failed attacks on Bakhmut, the Russians have lost potentially hundreds of men killed and wounded—and the 1st Presidential Brigade and …

Officially, it’s the mission of the Ukrainian national guard’s 1st Presidential Brigade to defend the leader of Ukraine. In peacetime, that might mean manning guardposts in Kyiv and escorting the president on his travels. ¤ But Ukraine isn’t at peace—and hasn’t been since 2014, when Russian troops first seized Ukraine’s strategic Crimean Peninsula then invaded eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region. So the 1st Presidential Brigade’s remit has, uh, somewhat expanded.

Now in addition to protecting Pres. Volodymyr Zelensky and his family, the elite brigade, thousands strong and nicknamed for 17th-century Ukrainian military hero Bohdan Khmelnytsky, guards strategic facilities in Kyiv such as power plants. And it also fights on the front. ¤ And not just any sector of the front. Arguably the hardest sector: the fields and forests around Bakhmut, a town with a pre-war population of around 70,000, 30 miles north of Donetsk, the seat of the separatist “Donetsk People’s Republic” in Donbas.

As Ukrainian forces press their advantage, three months after launching twin counteroffensives in the east and south, Bakhmut is one of the few places where the Russians and their separatist and mercenary allies still are trying to attack.

The battle for Bakhmut, which pits Russian regulars, DPR separatists and mercenaries from The Wagner Group against the Ukrainian forces holding the town—including the 1st Presidential Brigade—might be the most absurd of these isolated Russian offensive operations. Which of course is little comfort to the 1st Presidential Brigade troopers hunkering in cold, muddy trenches around the town.

Bakhmut itself doesn’t have a lot of military value. Certainly not any value that’s worth the lives of the few good troops the Kremlin has left after nine months of grinding warfare and repeated botched efforts to raise new forces.

According to the Institute for the Study of War in Washington, D.C., The Wagner Group views the Bakhmut battle as an opportunity to score public-relations points by proving the mercenaries can win … while the rest of the Kremlin’s forces lose.

But the Ukrainian military is determined to deprive the Russians of any victory in Bakhmut, even a P.R. one. It’s not for no reason that the 1st Presidential Brigade has sent at least one of its battalions and the battalion’s BTR-4 wheeled armored vehicles to the town to fight alongside forces including the 93rd Mechanized Brigade—itself one of the Ukrainian army’s better brigades.

One video, recorded by a 1st Presidential Brigade trooper, speaks to the intensity of the fighting. He and some comrades man an M-2 heavy machine gun in a trench in a forest outside Bakhmut as Russian snipers take aim at them from three directions. “Get out of my forest!” one trooper shouts as he returns fire with his AK-style assault rifle.

Other videos that recently have circulated online depict Ukrainian drones dropping improvised bombs on Russian troops cowering in shallow dugouts outside Bakhmut—and killing seemingly scores of them.

In weeks of failed attacks on Bakhmut, the Russians have lost potentially hundreds of men killed and wounded—and the 1st Presidential Brigade and other Ukrainian units still control the town.

The Ukrainian president’s personal brigade might be a long way from Kyiv and the president. But it’s fighting, and so far winning, a battle that might prove pivotal to the wider war—and Zelensky’s future—as Russia spends its last good forces for no real gain.

🐣 RT @Euan_MacDonald Putin’s Potemkin regime. Everything, from votes, to referendums, to organizing mobilizations, is a sham – including a meeting with “soldiers’ mothers.”
⋙ 🧵 RT @irgarner Putin met soldiers’ mothers today. Here’s Vladimir, patiently listening. He wants to hear what ordinary people have to say. Except it turns out these mothers are not so ordinary…
📌 https://twitter.com/irgarner/status/1596157232017657856?s=20
// actresses and sympathizers
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @irgarner […] People have asked me since day one of the war: what happens when the bodies start coming back? When mothers start crying on TV? ¤ Here’s the answer: Nothing. Not for years. Not until the mass of corpses is so high that it’s unavoidable. The state will PR its way out of the crisis.
⋙⋙ 🐣 sort of like the “Brooks Brothers ‘riot’“ that halted vote counting in FL in 2000, engineered by none other than ‘dirty trickster’ Roger Stone, under the direction of James Baker: think how differently things might have been!

CSIS (Nov 18, 2022): United States Aid to Ukraine Explained in Six Charts https://tinyurl.com/42ms5ycx “U.S. aid to Ukraine totals $68 billion, and the White House has just asked Congress for another $37.7 billion.” ¤ This aid is paid for by US taxpayers.
Text Block: https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1596280166275506176?s=20/photo/1
// Defense budget

🐣 RT @ChrisEl26250812 So,…um, someone in Europe said that the USA was profiting from the war…?
⋙ 🐣 actually not true as far as I know; sometimes upgraded replacements are sold to NATO partners who then provide their earlier models to Ukr ¤ the US has budgeted $40B for this year, asking $39B for next year ~ budgeted by Congress, paid for by US taxpayers
⋙⋙ 🐣 budget includes humanitarian assistance and State Department expenses related to the war

🐣 RT @NATO #NATO stands with Ukraine in its brave fight against Russian aggression. We will continue to provide support for as long as it takes ¤ #ForMin | #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦

🐣 RT @vonderleyen During my phone call with @ZelenskyyUa today, I expressed EU solidarity with Ukraine in the face of Russia’s criminal attacks on civilian infrastructure. ¤ @EU_Commission is stepping up support, including with partners, to support the restoration of power and heat in Ukraine.

🐣 RT @Maks_NAFO_FELLA A secure Europe is a Europe in which Russia is defeated: politically, militarily, and economically. A defeated Russia means a safe Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Romania and the rest of Europe – Duda.

🐣 RT @Heroiam_Slava “At any cost, Germany will continue to support Ukraine… We will not allow Russia to blackmail us with hunger and cold!” – Head of the Foreign Ministry of the Federal Republic of Germany Berbok.

‼️ In this new era of Twitter, in addition to “Block” and “Mute,” which apply to entire accounts, you may want to use the “MUTE WORDS” function. ¤ It will remove tweets from your timeline if you want to bow out of a specific topic. ¤ The navigation is a bit tricky. Here’s how:
⋙ 🔆 To not see Tweets containing specific words:
Start at (…) just above the blue “Write Tweet” icon
➔ Settings and Support
➔ Settings and Privacy
➔ Privacy and Safety
➔ Mute and Block
➔ Muted Words
● Write the words you want to mute
● Set the duration

🧵 RT @wartranslated Sorry for the long post, but it’s quite telling that the rift within the Russian forces between the army and military reporters on one side, and Wagner+Kadyrov “realists” on the other persists. Here Prigozhyn’s GREY ZONE blasts those who blamed ill-fated Serpukhov mobiks… 1/3
📌 [TextLink:] https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1596175436811472897?s=20/photo/1
⋙ 🐣 RT @wartranslated Here GREY ZONE, and whoever is behind it, completely and individually disintegrates all the military reporters who referred to 2014 as a point where volunteers survived despite all the problems. They show the mobiks were completely unprepared and it was not their fault. [txt]
⋙ 🐣 RT @wartranslated GREY ZONE shows the mobiks do not owe anything as they are that, mobilised, not contract soldiers, so if they’re not trained or supplied, you cannot expect much of them. [txt] ¤ https://t.me/grey_zone/15929

⭕ 24 Nov 2022 🍁

🐣 RT @apmassaro3 [11/25] I just spent the week meeting with ~30 different EU officials and not a single one said anything like this. Literally the opposite – transatlantic cohesion is strong and we stand with Ukraine

🧵📌 RT @MollyMcKew This is a very strange story, so let’s me clear about some things:
1) there is remarkable unity among the allies on support for Ukraine, especially since Russia’s renewed missile strikes targeting civilian infrastructure
2) this is not just political—public opinion is high /1
⋙⋙ 🚫 PoliticoEU: Europe accuses US of profiting from war https://tinyurl.com/sphtmb2x
// Unnamed sourced but .Fr and Ger; EU officials attack Joe Biden over sky-high gas prices, weapons sales and trade as Vladimir Putin’s war threatens to destroy Western unity.
// blames high LNG prices, Inflation Reduction Act as protectionist

3) this story attempts to conflate discussions among the allies with weakening support for Ukraine — which simply is not true
4) Russia is working hard to create pressure on points that can cause stress/division — energy, power, food, etc /2

5) yes, america had more war materiel stockpiled and this has been vital in the context of Ukraine — and as everyone had been saying for years, many European allies were not spending enough on defense /3

6) same is true in energy. America focused on domestic production including methods like fracking Europeans oppose, so we are in different positions now. We can all help each other without knives in hands. PS Germany turn your nuclear power plants back on FFS

7) yes, everyone’s war stocks need to be replenished & this should be an intra-alliance plan. US was way slow ordering add’l munitions & signaling need for defense industry to step it up. We all are & must bridge gap together while continuing to arm 🇺🇦 Plenty for all natl indus /5

8) the allies+ — nato plus Sweden Finland and pacific treaty allies of US — have been using and need to keep using this context of support for Ukraine to strengthen all the fault lines Russia tries to pull all, and speak openly about unevenness and concerns /6

9) be extra cautious amplifying DIVISION narratives especially when they are relying on unnamed sources. Use the context. We must stay united. We know. Russia knows. /7 ¤ And from me, sorry for horrific typos lately, sheesh

🐣 RT @marceelias No Person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty Years, and been nine Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State for which he shall be chosen. U.S. Constitution, Article I, section 3, clause 3
⋙ 🐣 RT @EricKleefeld Here was Brad Raffensperger two years ago, warning people there would be legal consequences if they moved into Georgia just to vote in a Senate race: “Let me be clear, those who come to Georgia with the intention of voter fraud will be prosecuted. https://tinyurl.com/ycx6spew
⋙⋙ “If you illegally participate in our elections, you might be spending a lot more time in Georgia than you planned.”
↥ ↧
This casts some doubt on how problematic it is: CNN: Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker getting homestead tax break in 2022 on Texas home https://tinyurl.com/4barwbzv

NYT, Jesse Wegman: Is Donald Trump Ineligible to Be President? https://tinyurl.com/2m25m98u Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, bars from public office anyone who, “having previously taken an oath” to support the Constitution, “engages in insurrection or rebellion”

… [W]e shouldn’t be in this situation to begin with. The facts are well known but necessary to repeat, if only because we must never become inured to them: Abetted by a posse of low-rent lawyers, craven lawmakers and associated crackpots, Mr. Trump schemed to overturn the 2020 election by illegal and unconstitutional means. When those efforts failed, he incited a violent insurrection at the United States Capitol, causing widespread destruction, leading to multiple deaths and — for the first time in American history — interfering with the peaceful transfer of power. Almost two years later, he continues to claim, without any evidence, that he was cheated out of victory, and millions of Americans continue to believe him.

The best solution to behavior like this is the one that’s been available from the start: impeachment. … But nearly all Senate Republicans came to his defense, leaving him free to run another day.

There is another, less-known solution in our Constitution to protect the country from Mr. Trump: Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which bars from public office anyone who, “having previously taken an oath” to support the Constitution, “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” or gave “aid or comfort” to America’s enemies.

On its face, this seems like an eminently sensible rule to put in a nation’s governing document. That’s how Representative David Cicilline of Rhode Island, who has drafted a resolution in Congress enabling the use of Section 3 against Mr. Trump, framed it. “This is America. We basically allow anyone to be president,” Mr. Cicilline told me. “We set limited disqualifications. One is, you can’t incite an insurrection against the United States. You shouldn’t get to lead a government that you tried to destroy.”

This was also the reasoning of the 14th Amendment’s framers, who intended it to serve as an aggressive response to the existential threat to the Republic posed by the losing side of the Civil War. Section 3 was Congress’s way of ensuring that unrepentant former Confederate officials — “enemies to the Union” — were not allowed to hold federal or state office again. As Representative John Bingham, one of the amendment’s lead drafters, put it in 1866, rebel leaders “surely have no right to complain if this is all the punishment the American people shall see fit to impose upon them.”

And yet despite its clarity and good sense, the provision has rarely been invoked. The first time, in the aftermath of the Civil War, it was used to disqualify thousands of Southern rebels, but within four years, Congress voted to extend amnesty to most of them. It was used again in 1919 when the House refused to seat a socialist member accused of giving aid and comfort to Germany in World War. …

… As Jan. 6 showed the world, Mr. Trump poses a unique and profound threat to the Republic: He is an authoritarian who disregards the Constitution and the rule of law and who delights in abusing his power to harm his perceived opponents and benefit himself, his family and his friends. For that reason, I am open to using any constitutional means of preventing him from even attempting to return to the White House. …

So could Section 3 really be used to prevent Mr. Trump from running for or becoming president again? As a legal matter, it seems beyond doubt. The Capitol attack was an insurrection by any meaningful definition — a concerted, violent attempt to block Congress from performing its constitutionally mandated job of counting electoral votes. He engaged in that insurrection, even if he did not physically join the crowd as he promised he would. As top Democrats and Republicans in Congress said during and after his impeachment trial, the former president was practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of Jan. 6. The overwhelming evidence gathered and presented by the House’s Jan. 6 committee has only made clearer the extent of the plot by Mr. Trump and his associates to overturn the election — and how his actions and his failures to act led directly to the assault and allowed it to continue as long as it did. In the words of Representative Liz Cheney, the committee’s vice chair, Mr. Trump “summoned the mob, assembled the mob and lit the flame of this attack.” …

It’s not the legal questions that give me pause, though; it’s the political ones. ¤ First is the matter of how Republicans would react to Mr. Trump’s disqualification. An alarmingly large faction of the party is unwilling to accept the legitimacy of an election that its candidate didn’t win. Imagine the reaction if their standard-bearer were kept off the ballot altogether. They would thunder about a “rigged election” — and unlike all the times Mr. Trump has baselessly invoked that phrase, it would carry a measure of truth. Combine this with the increasingly violent rhetoric coming from right-wing media figures and politicians, including top Republicans, and you have the recipe for something far worse than Jan. 6. On the other hand, if partisan outrage were a barrier to invoking the law, many laws would be dead letters.

The more serious problem with Section 3 is that it is easy to see how it could morph into a caricature of what it is trying to prevent. Keeping specific candidates off the ballot is a classic move of autocrats, from Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela to Aleksandr Lukashenko in Belarus to Vladimir Putin. It sends the message that voters cannot be trusted to choose their leaders wisely — if at all. And didn’t we just witness Americans around the country using their voting power to repudiate Mr. Trump’s Big Lie and reject the most dangerous election deniers? Shouldn’t we let elections take their course and give the people the chance to (again) reject Mr. Trump at the ballot box? …

… [Rep Jamie] Raskin argued that this queasiness is built into the provision. “What was the constitutional bargain struck in Section 3?” he asked. “There would be a very minor incursion into the right of the people to elect exactly who they want, in order to obtain much greater security for the constitutional order against those who have demonstrated a propensity to want to overthrow it when it is to their advantage.”

The contours of the case for Mr. Trump’s disqualification might get stronger yet, as the Justice Department and state prosecutors continue to pursue multiple criminal investigations into him and his associates and as the Jan. 6 committee prepares to release its final report. While he would not be prohibited from running for office even if he was under criminal indictment, it would be more politically palatable to invoke Section 3 in that case and even more so if he was convicted. …

But it’s essential to remember that not all democracies have happy endings. Which brings us to the most unsettling answer to the question I began with: Sometimes a democracy doesn’t protect itself. There is no rule that says democracies will perpetuate themselves indefinitely. Many countries, notably Hungary and Turkey, have democratically undone themselves by electing leaders who then dismantled most of the rights and privileges people tend to expect from democratic government. Section 3 is in the Constitution precisely to help ensure that America does not fall into that trap.

Whether or not invoking Section 3 succeeds, the best argument for it is to take the Constitution at its word. “We undermine the importance of the Constitution if we pick and choose what rules apply,” Mr. Cicilline told me. “One of the ways we rebuild confidence in American democracy is to remind people we have a Constitution and that it has in it provisions that say who can run for public office. You don’t get to apply the Constitution sometimes or only if you feel like it. We take an oath. We swear to uphold it. We don’t swear to uphold most of it. If Donald Trump has taught us anything, it’s about protecting the Constitution of the United States.”

Surely the remedy of Section 3 is worth pursuing only in the most extraordinary circumstances. Just as surely, the events surrounding Jan. 6 clear that bar. If inciting a violent insurrection to keep oneself in office against the will of the voters isn’t such a circumstance, what is?

🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer IZIUM AXIS/ 1430 24 NOV/ RU forces were repulsed at Stelmakhivka. Heavy RU shelling along Forward Edge of Battle Area. 10 Russian Lancet UCAVS reported downed by UKR air defense units. RU constructing defenses.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1595777046177013760?s=20/photo/1

⭕ 23 Nov 2022

Substack, Lawrence Freedman: Is Russia losing? https://tinyurl.com/2xr64e68
// 11/23/2022; And if it is, when will it concede?

DailyBeast, Jose Paglieri: Trump’s Legal Problems All Converged Into One Day of Spectacular Failures https://tinyurl.com/2ptc74j5 Accused of 1) bank fraud, 2) rape, 3) retaining classified dicuments, 4) inciting an insurrection; ✛ must turn over tax records to Congress
// Democrats can get his taxes. The Trump Organization is careening toward a fraud trial. The FBI might get the upper hand. And Donald Trump could get taken down like Bill Cosby

In a matter of hours Tuesday, former President Donald Trump suffered humiliating defeats in courtrooms across the country that put him on track to have his personal taxes exposed, see his company dismantled, face a trial for an alleged rape, and confront the unencumbered power of the Department of Justice. …

In the midst of this maelstrom of legal trouble, the real estate mogul’s longtime personal accountant completely disavowed the company’s financial shenanigans, saying if he’d known the way executives were dodging taxes for years, he would have died of shock. “I probably would’ve had a heart attack,” Donald Bender testified in Manhattan criminal court, where the Trump Organization is defending itself at trial against the District Attorney’s Office.

Trump’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day started at 10 a.m. in Manhattan civil court, where his family company is fighting the New York Attorney General’s $250 million lawsuit that accuses the company of widespread bank fraud. Justice Arthur F. Engoron, who had to repeatedly step in during the AG’s three-year investigation to force the Trumps to testify and turn over documents, has finally lost his patience.s The judge … set the civil trial for Oct. 2, 2023, which means that Trump’s namesake company might be stripped of its ability to do business in New York in the midst of his next presidential run.

Then at 2 p.m., a panel of federal appellate judges in Atlanta indicated they are inclined to completely unravel Trump’s attempt to block the FBI, which is investigating the way he kept more than 100 classified records without permission at his oceanside Florida estate. …

Minutes later that afternoon, the Supreme Court denied Trump’s attempt to block Democrats on the House’s Ways and Means Committee from getting copies of his personal tax returns from 2013 to 2018. …

… [N]ow that New York’s new adult survivor’s law will soon allow victims [E Jean Carroll] to sue their abusers, Trump will face the same kind of legal action that ruined Bill Cosby. This lawsuit isn’t expected to raise any new issues, but it will target Trump directly—and his wallet. …

On top of it all, these cases are playing out as Trump faces a new and very real threat of criminal indictment from the DOJ’s special counsel, Jack Smith, who was appointed last Friday by Attorney General Merrick Garland to look into Trump’s mishandling of classified materials, his attempts to obstruct that investigation, and the former president’s attempts to remain in power after he lost the 2020 election.

WaPo, George Will: Be thankful for the pugnacious Zelensky’s magnificent resistance to suppression https://tinyurl.com/2x6wnhtc “Be thankful for the nobility the war has elicited from those attacked, and for the demonstration that individual leaders still matter”
🖼 https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1595782041731211265?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @MollyMcKew Ukrainians know the price they pay for having to chew thru the Russian army with only some of the necessary tools. ¤ When they don’t have the right tools, the gap is made up with lives. Ukrainian lives. ¤ And I think everyone of us should understand this [link]

🐣 RT @igorsushko In 2002, terrorist #Prigozhin “served” then-President #Bush and First Lady at their meeting with #Putin and his-then wife whom he discarded for young gymnast Alina Kabaeva.
🖼 https://twitter.com/igorsushko/status/1595575989261635584?s=20/photo/1
⋙ 🐣 RT @igorsushko Prigozhin at that time was already a known bandit, had previously served 9 years in prison, & has various venereal diseases. That our Intelligence Community and Secret Service allowed such a character in the same room with the President on hostile soil is insane.

🐣 RT @sentdefender Law Enforcement at the the Foxconn iPhone Plant in the Chinese City of Zhengzhou appear to have completely lost control of the situation.
💽 https://twitter.com/sentdefender/status/1595565694493638658?s=20/photo/1
// riot

🐣 RT @wartranslated Wagner’s Grey Zone publishes commentary alongside a photo of a sledgehammer put into a musician’s briefcase that will be allegedly sent to the European Parliament as an “information case”. This is a response to the EP calling to recognise Wagner as a terrorist organisation.
💽 🖼 https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1595525040740655118?s=20/photo/1 -4

[Text:] Evgeny Prigozhin, on behalf of the Wagner Group, submitted an information case to the European Parliament Earlier, Politico asked Yevgeny Prigozhin if he heard about the initiative of the European Parliament deputies to call on the European Union to recognize the Wagner Group as a terrorist organization, to which he replied as follows:

“Today I held a meeting with the commanders of the Wagner Group, where I told them this sad news … From today we decided to declare the European Parliament dissolved. But before this procedure enters into legal force, I have been instructed to submit an information case to the EuropeanParliament.”

Prigozhin fulfilled his desire and handed over to the representative of the European Parliament a kind of “information case”, which outwardly resembles a case for carrying a musical instrument, but it does not contain a violin at all … True, I can’t say what the contents could mean. This is the first time I see something like this.

🚫 🐣 RT @JayinKyiv Prigozhin sent the European Parliament a sledgehammer in a violin case with an engraved logo of”Wagner” and traces of “blood” on the handle. ¤ This is the Putin’s world, that Ukrainians are fighting alone, giving their lives to stop.
💽 🖼 https://twitter.com/JayinKyiv/status/1595503405208072192?s=20/photo/1 -3
⋙ 🐣 he must have gotten the blood from his soldiers who are being slaughtered by the 1000s in Bakhmut and whose corpses are left to rot in the trenches ¤ he’s a monster and a fool
// deleted when I read in the comments this was staged and filmed for EUP (see above)

🐣 RT @Gerashchenko_en Kyiv is one of the largest and oldest cities in Europe. It was founded in 482 AD. ¤ Kyiv has seen many wars and hardships. It also persevered and overcame all of them – and Ukraine, as well.

🐣 who controls the dam at Nova Kakhovka?
⋙ 🐣 RT @TimPotier1 Russia. The canal’s starting point is at Tavriysk, just a short distance [east] from Nova Kakhovka.

🐣 RT @SpiroAgnewGhost 🚨🚨🚨🚨BREAKING from NYT: The U.S. Department of Justice/Special Counsel is seeking to question Mike Pence as a witness in connection with its criminal investigation into Trump’s efforts to stay in power after he lost the 2020 election.

🐣 [Meme: Russia is a Terrorist State]
● European Parliament, Nov 23, 2022 (“State Sponsor of Terrorism”)
● NATO Parliamentary Assembly, Nov 21, 2022 (“Terrorist State”)
¤ https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1595494528118652930?s=20/photo/1
// tags: #RussiaIsTerroristState #TerroristState

🐣 RT @ColbyBadhwar BIG DEVELOPMENT: Per @IsmailDemirSSB, Pres of 🇹🇷 [Turkey] Defence Industry Agency, TRLG 230 can actually hit targets 150km away. Today @DefMon3 posted this map showing what the provision of GLSDBs (also with a 150km range) would look like. I think we now know what 🇺🇦 hit Dzhankoi with.
⋙ 🐣 RT @ @ColbyBadhwar [Nov 21] Per @oryxspioenkop, 🇹🇷 has provided 🇺🇦 w/ an unknown number of ROKETSAN MCL MLRS and TRLG 230 rockets. Broadly comparable to the GMLRS, but they have laser guidance and can hit targets painted by the TB-2. MCL is a modular system that will replace all other MLRS Turkey operates.
◕ https://twitter.com/ColbyBadhwar/status/1595130495012306944?s=20/photo/1 -2 +1

🐣 RT @ Gerashchenko_en CSTO summit started in Yerevan today. ¤ It looks like that they are trying to stay away from Putin ¤ Maybe he has blood dripping from his hands? ¤ Well, it’s brave to take half a step back…
💽 https://twitter.com/Gerashchenko_en/status/1595482528391086106?s=20/photo/1
// CSTO: “The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO)[3] is an intergovernmental military alliance in Eurasia consisting of six post-Soviet states: Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan. The Collective Security Treaty has its origins in the Soviet Armed Forces, which was replaced in 1992 by the United Armed Forces of the Commonwealth of Independent States, and was then itself replaced by the successor armed forces of the respective independent states.” Wikipedia

🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer KHERSON AXIS/ 1630 UTC 23 NOV/ UKR Suppression of Enemy Air Defense (SEAD) missions destroyed a Russian S-300 complex near Polohy. UKR recon UAVs indicate that RU units are constructing defensive positions along the M-14 HWY between Kakhovka and Melitopol.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1595450287392710661?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @djrothkopf Do not allow yourself to become numbed to the scale and depravity of Russia’s crimes against humanity in Ukraine. Every day they demonstrate why they must be defeated, why we must support Ukraine fully until they achieve that defeat. They are fighting for us all.
⋙ 🐣 RT @USAmbKyiv [Bridget Brink] More cruel missile strikes across the country as Russia tries to punish Ukraine for daring to be free. I have seen the strength of the people of Ukraine, and I know Russia’s attempt to dominate Ukraine by plunging it into the cold and dark will fail. We stand with Ukraine.

🐣 RT @dim0kq This man is Mykola Leontovych. He wrote probably the most famous Christmas carol in the world – « Shchedryk » or « Carol of the bells »
Do you know why he was not able to give the world another similar masterpiece?
🖼 https://twitter.com/dim0kq/status/1595192184747311106?s=20/photo/1
⋙ 🐣 RT @dim0kq He was killed and robed in his family house by a russian agent, who disguised himself as a traveler who has nowhere to stay. ¤ He woke up at night, shot Leontovych, robbed his family and left.

🐣 RT @wartranslated More crazy rhetoric from the Russian streets. Both young and old people support the continuation of the war. Source @Ioann199
💽 [tr] https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1595357987677290497?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @Gerashchenko_en Rockets hit Kyiv right after European Parliament recognized Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism. ¤ Confirmation received.

🐣 RT @bayraktar_1love European Parliament recognises Russia as a state sponsor of b and as a state which uses means of terrorism. ¤ Resolution was approved with 494 votes in favour, 58 against and 44 abstentions, during the monthly plenary session in Strasbourg. Link-
⋙ EuroNews: Ukraine war: European Parliament votes to declare Russia a ‘state sponsor of terrorism’ https://tinyurl.com/bdd8u77k “‘Russia poses a risk to the safety and security of the whole European continent and the rules-based international order,’ the resolution reads. ”

The European Parliament has declared Russia as a “state sponsor of terrorism” over the “brutal and inhumane” acts inflicted upon Ukraine and its citizens since the launch of the invasion.

“The deliberate attacks and atrocities carried out by the Russian Federation against the civilian population of Ukraine, the destruction of civilian infrastructure and other serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law amount to acts of terror against the Ukrainian population and constitute war crimes,” MEPs said in a non-binding but highly symbolic resolution.

The text merged three different resolutions filed by the European People’s Party (EPP), Renew Europe and the European Conservatives and Reformists group (ECR).

The EU’s terrorist list, which was set up in the aftermath of 9/11 and is reviewed every six months, only allows the bloc to blacklist specific individuals and organisations.

So far, only 13 persons and 21 entities have been added, such as Hamas, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party’ (PKK), Colombia’s National Liberation Army (ELN) and the military wing of Hezbollah.

🐣 RT @IuliiaMendel It’s still scary when the explosions are so loud. My friend with her new-born daughter is in the bomb shelter. My cousin is in the bomb shelter. My 82-year-old granny is in the corridor. If there was at least something to stop this I’d do it. Tell me what!

🐣 RT @ELINTNews Waves of Russian cruise missiles hitting Ukraine. Launched by Russian bombers near Caspian Sea. Explosion has hit Kyiv. Air defence active near Dnipro, Poltava and Lviv

🧵 RT @carlquintanilla A thread MORGAN STANLEY: “.. we see the situation at #Twitter potentially exposing $TSLA to risk along a number of areas including: (a) consumer sentiment/demand, (b) commercial partnerships, (c) government relations/support; and (d) capital markets support.” [Jonas]
📌 [TextLink:] https://twitter.com/carlquintanilla/status/1595382451853230082?s=20/photo/1
[Text:] … Tesla Sheds $0.5 Trillion of Cap in 2 Months …
⋙ 🐣 RT @carlquintanilla 2. ¤ “.. $RIVN could emerge as a short-term beneficiary of any potential commercial disruption/eroding customer loyalty at Tesla. .. Even if 10% of the unwinding of the ‘Tesla trade’ was re-allocated into other auto stocks… this could have material sector ‘flow’ implications.”
⋙ 🐣 RT @carlquintanilla 3.Tesla shares this year vs. #bitcoin
◕ https://twitter.com/carlquintanilla/status/1595383365678538752?s=20/photo/1
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @jhall Meanwhile Citi upgrades $TSLA from Sell to Neutral ¤ Raises price target.

🐣 RT @Gerashchenko_en Such an important decision to declare Russia a terrorist state! ¤ Very grateful to our Allies and friends for supporting Ukraine.
⋙ 🐣 RT @guyverhofstadt 🛑BREAKING: The European Parliament adopts a resolution declaring Russia a terrorist state. ¤ Putin’s regime is a state sponsor of terrorism, complicit in war crimes & must face the international consequences.

⭕ 22 Nov 2022

🧵 RT @Tendar The Russian defeats and withdrawals have considerably decreased the length of the front line and I’m only counting the one inside Ukraine. I made some statistics and have given my opinion and prognosis about the upcoming months. Thread 1/10
📌 🌎 https://twitter.com/Tendar/status/1595173156016295954?s=20/photo/1
ThreadReader: https://tinyurl.com/4b2nwa6h

The overall length of the remaining front line is around 880 km, but around 380 km are rivers, especially the Dnipro River, making up around 350 km the lion’s share. The remaining “water” front lines are the Oskil and Siversky Donets River as well as a few lakes and ravines. 2/10 🌎

The Zaporizhzhia front (land based) is currently the smallest, making up only 115 km. It is also currently the quietest front, but Ukraine has massed considerable forces in that sector which might soon commence a full scale offensive. 3/10 🌎

The Donetsk front is around 230 km long and currently the most active front. It is also the only sector where Russian conduct offensive operations but with devastating results for them. It is therefore the sector with highest Russian casualties. 4/10 🌎

The most Northern fronts are in the Luhansk/Kharkiv sector. It is around 187 km long with some intense battles primarily at the Svatove-Kreminna line. Currently, it is more a stalemate but Russian forces are getting ground down. 5/10 🌎

Especially Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia are weak spots of the Russian defense. Both have weakened Russian battle groups and reinforcements made up by conscripts. Kherson is relatively stable thanks to the Dnipro and Donetsk hosts the bulk of the surviving Russian special forces. 6/10

Overall I predict that Ukrainian forces will keep up the pressure on all sectors, including Kherson/Dnipro River and eventually will push at 1 or maybe even 2 front lines. Russia will try to slow down the Ukrainian progress but ultimately will fail to stop AFU. 7/10

The Russian offensives at Bakhmut, Avdiika and Pavlivka are tactical failures and strategically seen total blunders. It is obvious that Ukrainian forces in that sector are ordered just to decimate Russian troops while other AFU units keep pushing in remaining sectors. 8/10

My prognosis is that AFU will reach the Sea of Azov by March-May and little later in summer the administrative border of Crimea. This unfolding military disaster for Russia will likely end with political consequences in Moscow. By that time the Russian defeat is too apparent.9/10

I also do not exclude that the collapse of the Russian regime might happen far earlier. All what I’m certain of is that once triggered it will happen fast. It will be accompanied with a final military collapse of Russian forces in Ukraine, most notably in Donetsk and Crimea.10/10

WaPo, Henry Olsen: Election denial is reaching new levels of absurdity in Arizona https://tinyurl.com/mrjtfm4c “[T]he American Enterprise Institute estimates that Trump-backed candidates in competitive House races ran five points behind the level mere partisanship would predict”
// Full: 📋 “Philip Wallach of the American Enterprise Institute estimates that Trump-backed candidates in competitive House races ran five points behind the level mere partisanship would predict. All of the defeated Trumpy Arizonans lost by less than five points.”

Politico: Trump has (yet another) bad legal day https://tinyurl.com/2zre3h5p “‘It makes him look like a political fighter. He is the master of framing,’ said a Republican strategist close to Trump’s team. ‘And he wants to be a political martyr’”
// The former president is getting squeezed badly right now. But he’s been here before.

NYT: Court Appears Ready to End Special Master Review in Trump Files Inquiry https://tinyurl.com/39hzj9cc “[T]he panel expressed concern that Judge Aileen M. Cannon … had acted without precedent by ordering a review of the seized material”
// Two of the three judges had already expressed skepticism about a court’s intervention after the F.B.I. seized records from the ex-president’s home.

🧵 RT @ThePlumLineGS A big deal: If Raphael Warnock wins in Georgia, Dems will exert much more control over Senate investigations. They should use this to drown out bad faith House GOP nonsense. ¤ “We have an obligation to fully use our subpoena power,” @brianschatz tells me:
📌 https://twitter.com/ThePlumLineGS/status/1595072731023826950?s=20
⋙⋙ WaPo: Why Trump and Kevin McCarthy should fear a Warnock victory https://tinyurl.com/5em746r4
⋙ 🐣 RT @ThePlumLineGS […] If Warnock wins, a 51-seat Democratic majority could:
*Scrutinize the Supreme Court leaking scandal
*Examine Trump’s sleazy foreign payments while president
*Continue the 1/6 committee’s work
*Scrutinize law enforcement failures related to 1/6

🧵 RT @MuellerSheWrote 11th circuit opens saying they’ve read all the briefings and asks the parties to present their arguments quickly. The government is up first and gives background. No equitable jurisdiction, plaintiff hasn’t demonstrated likelihood of success, and can’t show irreparable harm.
// 11th Circuit Court of Appeals hears DOJ arguments to dismiss Special Master in Mar-a-Lago documents case
📌 https://twitter.com/MuellerSheWrote/status/1595131305859350528?s=20

🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT/ 1930 UTC 22 NOV/ Political pressure from Moscow has forced RU commanders into a series of costly attacks on Bakhmut. The latest RU thrusts appear to be an attempt to execute a pincer movement. It is assessed unlikely that RU will accomplish this goal in the near term.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1595134735990558720?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @Victorshi2020 BREAKING: NBC projects Doug La Follette wins re-election in Wisconsin’s Secretary of State race — beating Amy Loudenbeck who literally wanted to dismantle Wisconsin’s election commission. This is great news for democracy and free & fair elections.
⋙ 🐣 RT @Victorshi2020 Worth noting that he won by only .3%. Every. Vote. Matters.

🐣 RT @minna_alander An important thread for all of us who have been infused by the Russian narrative of events since 2014 in western media. ¤ It was never about NATO expansion. It was about Ukrainians wanting a (European) perspective for their country, separate from Russia.
⋙ 🧵 RT @TheStanislawski Exactly 9 years ago today, I was in a pub with my uni pals when we heard the news that then-president Yanukovych would not sign the association agreement with the EU, crushing Ukraine’s European hopes and locking us to Russia. ¤ We were not buying it. ¤ Here’s what happened next
📌 https://twitter.com/minna_alander/status/1594945445213704193?s=20
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @TheStanislawski […] In 2022, we have entered the final stage of the events triggered by Maidan. ¤ This war will decide who wins in the end – the people who have chosen a democratic European future for their country or a bunch of post-Soviet police states led by dictators with imperial issues. …
⋙⋙⋙ 🐣 there is a certain cynicism among progressives in the US since we have made many mistakes in the past, yet most see in Ukraine a re-assertion of our “better angels,” a vision of who we have been and are at our best: a reminder that freedom and human rights are worth fighting for

🧵 RT @P_Kallioniemi In today’s #vatnik soup I’ll introduce a KGB agent and a billionaire who disguises himself as a holy man.His name is Vladimir Mikhailovich Gundyayev,but he’s better known as Patriarch Kirill. Gundyayev is a close ally of Putin and he has called Putin’s rule a “miracle of god” 1/8
📌 https://twitter.com/P_Kallioniemi/status/1594965325828820992?s=20

🧵 RT @wartranslated Summary of the daily livestream with Aleksey Arestovych, kindly brought to you by Anastasiya: @Anastasiya1451A
📌 https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1595042087283499008?s=20
WarTranslated link: https://tinyurl.com/4jdtysh2
ThreadReader: https://tinyurl.com/562u4y4x

🐣 RT @GlasnostGone You’ve got to hand it to #Ukraine – they’re chasing Russia’s Black Sea fleet around the #BlackSea. With Russia having moved its submarines from #Crimea to Novorossiysk from #Crimea, Ukraine looks to have attacked the oil terminal at Novorossiysk. Squeaky bum time for orc sailors.
🌎 https://twitter.com/GlasnostGone/status/1594979842520391680?s=20/photo/1

⭕ 21 Nov 2022

🐣 RT @BillKristol Nothing in this interesting and well-reported piece on aspects and factions of the New Right makes me any less inclined unapologetically to defend the Old Liberalism against any version of New Right illiberalism.
⋙ Salon, Kathryn Joyce: The postliberal crackup: The GOP’s post-midterm civil war starts with the New Right https://tinyurl.com/bdfuv2tj
// “Integralists” battle “national conservatives” over religion, capitalism and the far-right conquest of America

TheAtlantic, George Packer: A New Theory of American Foreign Policy https://tinyurl.com/ynvp9jca “The institutions and rules of the postwar era … depended on not just US power but the American example. … Its decay in the US has coincided with the rise of authoritarianism globally”
// The United States can—and must—wield its power for good.

American exceptionalism has two faces, equally transfixed with a sense of specialness—one radiant with the nation’s unique beneficence, the other sunk in its unrivaled malignity. These extremes, confounding friends as well as enemies, are unrealistic and unsustainable.

… The Biden administration seemed to have picked up where the Trump administration left off, accepting the harsh diagnosis of critics: After 20 years of failed wars, the age of intervention was over. Any thought of using force to transform other countries met the definition of insanity. A wave of recent books … [list of books] … portrays a country so warped by endless war, white supremacy, and violence that its very nature now drives it to dominate and destroy. Ackerman concludes that it is “increasingly difficult to see America as anything more than its War on Terror.”

The best that such a country can do for the world is as little as possible. After the fall of Afghanistan, Moyn, a law and history professor at Yale, told Vox: “The most remarkable fact about liberals today is that, aside from a few, they’ve all learned their lesson.” What lesson? That “humanitarian intervention” is a contradiction, and war itself almost always wrong; that the U.S. cannot change other countries and does a lot of harm trying; that Americans are willing to accept far too much violence in the name of “security” and “democracy”; that the period of American global hegemony was a disaster best consigned to history. …

Beneath the restrainers’ views lies a shared hostility to what they often call “liberal elites”—the policy makers and plugged-in experts and pundits who never listened, and whom they despise for continuing to see America as a benevolent power. How could anyone still believe that fairy tale? For restrainers on the right, liberal zeal threatens national sovereignty and traditional values around the world and at home. For those on the left, democracy is the pretty lie that hides the brutality of capitalism and imperialism. These views are at bottom antithetical: The right wants more national power without international rules, and the left wants the nation-state to disappear. But the two sides have made a temporary marriage at what they see as liberalism’s sickbed.

With the withdrawal last year of the final troops from Kabul, restraint appeared to have won an uncontested victory. It lasted six months.

In february, as more than 130,000 Russian troops massed on the Ukrainian border, restrainers refused to believe the Biden administration’s warning that Vladimir Putin was about to invade. A war would upend their fixed views of international politics: that states pursue rational interests, not mad dreams of ancient glory; that U.S. leaders manufacture intelligence for their own ends; that imperialism is a uniquely American sin. Therefore, a war wasn’t possible. When it came anyway, restrainers found ways to place the blame on the U.S.:

“Emulation of the American way of being in the world is largely complete with Putin’s shock and awe assault.”
“The neocons on the right … they’re power drunk, they are bloodthirsty, and they cannot be trusted … Joe Biden is sleepwalking us towards war.”
“At first Putin’s invasion of Ukraine had at least the morally instructive quality of showing what a humanitarian intervention looks like from the other side.
“It’s very important to understand that we invented this story that Putin is highly aggressive and he’s principally responsible for this crisis in Ukraine.”

These statements … give neither Russia nor Ukraine any agency—only the U.S. drives history. The war is not about Putin’s fantasy of a restored empire, or Ukraine’s determination to remain an independent democracy. It’s simply one move of a long game in which America is the aggressive player, Russia a threatened opponent capable of being restored to reason, and Ukraine a hapless pawn. Putin was only reacting to NATO’s expansion to Russia’s borders.

None of this analysis held up. The NATO alliance has always remained a defensive one, posing no military threat to the Russian Federation, never seriously considering Ukrainian membership, and guilty of no historic betrayal, either, as the Johns Hopkins historian M. E. Sarotte shows in Not One Inch: America, Russia, and the Making of Post–Cold War Stalemate. The book argues that both superpowers squandered the chance for cooperation after the Cold War, but it refutes the Russian claim that expansion broke an explicit American promise to advance NATO “not one inch eastward.” In any case, Putin had offered an entirely different justification on the eve of the invasion: Ukraine was part of Russia. Ukraine didn’t exist. …

This restraint is not a hard-won prudence in the face of tragic facts. It’s a doctrinaire refusal, by people living in the safety and comfort of the West, to believe in liberal values that depend on American support. The restrainers can’t accept that politics leaves no one clean, and that the most probable alternative to U.S. hegemony is not international peace and justice but worse hegemons. They can’t face the reality that force never disappears from the world; it simply changes hands.

Meanwhile, the war has reduced their position to rubble. U.S. intelligence turned out to be accurate. Putin has rejected any serious negotiations, both before invading and since. His purpose is not to neutralize or “liberate” Ukraine, but to annihilate it for the dream of Greater Russia. Occupying troops have committed atrocities on an unimagined scale. NATO weapons have allowed Ukrainians to defend themselves and eventually regain lost territory in a conflict they understand to be a fight for survival. European support has not disintegrated under Russian blackmail. American leadership has proved decisive in holding the West together in defense of collective security and democratic values. The war is about freedom. Russia is likely to lose.

But we should pause before closing the book on the post-9/11 years and never listening to the restrainers again. The war has kindled hope, at times bordering on triumphalism, for a renewal of liberal democracy, not just as a guide to foreign policy but as a mission at home. In September, the political philosopher Francis Fukuyama told The Washington Post, “If Ukraine is able to defeat Russia, the demonstration effect is going to be really tremendous. It’s going to have domestic political consequences inside every democracy that’s threatened by one of these populist parties … I do think that we could recover a little bit of the spirit of 1989. Ukraine could trigger something like that in the United States and Europe.”

Imagining that a Ukrainian victory would have a decisive effect on the internal politics of Western democracies is unwarranted exuberance. Illiberal populism continues to thrive in countries whose governments support Ukraine—Poland, the U.K., France, Italy, Sweden. The major non-Western democracies—India, Indonesia, Brazil, and South Africa—have stayed more or less neutral on the war; India began to criticize only when Russia began to lose. In the U.S., arming Ukraine still has bipartisan backing in Congress and from the public, but a Republican win in the midterm elections could allow the party’s Trumpist wing to block military aid; and if Trump is reelected in 2024, the U.S. might well switch sides. In that case, American politics would transform Ukraine, not the other way around.

In 1989 it was possible to believe that Europe would lead the way toward a more integrated, cosmopolitan world under an American security umbrella; it was easy to discount the force of nationalism. That ceased to be true a long time ago, as Fukuyama knows: It’s the subject of his latest book, Liberalism and Its Discontents. He argues persuasively that liberalism—individual freedom, equal rights, rule of law, consent of the governed, open markets, scientific rationalism—is in retreat around the world, not because of “a fundamental weakness in the doctrine,” but because of “the way that liberalism has evolved over the last couple of generations.” The causes of its decline run deep: globalization, rapid technological change, inequality, mass migration, institutional sclerosis, failures of leadership. In the past few decades, an exaggerated emphasis on freedom has driven polarization in democracies, including ours: radical egalitarianism on the left, reactionary authoritarianism on the right. Both forms of illiberalism seek to forge group identities—exclusive, intolerant ones, steeped in resentment—to replace the national identities that have become corroded in an era of globalization.

The institutions and rules of the postwar era, which enabled a historic expansion of freedom and prosperity around the world, depended on not just U.S. power but the American example. It doesn’t seem possible for liberal democracy to remain healthy abroad but not at home, and vice versa. Its decay in the U.S. has coincided with the rise of authoritarianism globally. The likely successor is not, as the left wishes, world government and international law under the aegis of the United Nations, but rival nationalisms, including Trump’s “America First,” with “might makes right” in every neighborhood.

The Biden administration, while disavowing the term cold war, is already waging one—invoking a global contest between democracy and autocracy, using industrial policy to gain strategic advantage over China in areas such as microchip production. In The Twilight Struggle: What the Cold War Teaches Us About Great-Power Rivalry Today, Hal Brands, a historian at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, revisits the U.S.-Soviet contest for its now-forgotten lessons on how to conduct “high-stakes, long-term competitions.” But a new twilight struggle would be far murkier than the Cold War’s stark ideological contest between two systems across the globe. China, a totalitarian state that delivers the goods, is the obvious peer adversary today, but Brands also includes Russia, though he was writing before Putin and Xi Jinping announced a friendship with “no limits” between their two countries on February 4 at the Beijing Olympics. Their statement featured the terms multipolarity, polycentric world order, and civilizational diversity , but its real message for the U.S. and the West was blunt: You had your turn—now butt out. Three weeks later, Putin gave the world a look at the multipolar future.

American policy in the original Cold War was to contain Soviet communism until it finally altered its character or collapsed. This time around there’s no universal ideology to combat, only brutal, cynical dictatorships. Illiberalism today is entirely negative. In place of utopia, it offers resentment—of American power, Western elites, decadent globalists. Putin gives the Russian people nothing they’re willing to die for. When he declares a national emergency, they flock to the airports and borders rather than risk their skins in defense of the motherland.

Brands is concerned with “winning a long-term rivalry,” but what this would mean today isn’t clear. Maintaining military and technological supremacy? The fall of authoritarian regimes? Limitless expansion of the free world? Or something more modest, like improved behavior from Moscow and Beijing? Brands is well aware of flaws in the Cold War analogy, but he doesn’t reckon with the most important difference. When the last twilight struggle began, the U.S. had just emerged from the ruins of World War II energized and unified by victory, the world’s dominant country by far. Today we can’t hold an election without fear of civil war. Any thought of winning a new cold war has to start from this dismal fact.

Rather than relearning the lessons of the Cold War, or overlearning those of the post-9/11 years, we have to escape the old pattern of wild swings by facing what is new. We’re left to resolve two hard and conflicting truths: Autocratic regimes will exploit American restraint to enlarge their power at the expense of their own people, their neighbors, and the international order. But American action will stoke illiberal reactions when it brings domination, not freedom.

… The best thing we can do for the world’s disrepair is to fix our own collapsing house. That sentiment is becoming more and more common today, expressing a prudent sense of limits. Richard Haass, the president of the Council on Foreign Relations, recently wrote that “democracy promotion at home rather than abroad should be the focus of U.S. attention,” because there’s more at stake here and a better chance of success.

… The American-led order lasted three-quarters of a century, and people struggling for democracy in other countries are less eager to see it end than the Quincy Institute is. Even when they resent our interference, they also want our support. And in this country, invocations of “national interest” and strategies for “long-term rivalry” absorb experts more than they move ordinary people. As American history shows, we’re loath to sacrifice for an international cause that has nothing to do with freedom.

Russia’s war has demonstrated that a decent world isn’t possible without liberalism, and liberalism can’t thrive without U.S. engagement. Ukraine shows one way for America to use its power on behalf of freedom: Instead of sending troops to fight and die for democratic illusions in inhospitable countries, send arms to help an actual democracy repel a foreign invader. No U.S. troops, no meddling in civil wars, no nation building, no going it alone. Collaborate closely with allies and take measures to avoid catastrophe. Call it the Biden doctrine—it’s been remarkably successful.

… Where democracy exists, strengthen it and defend it against foreign subversion, if necessary with arms. Where it doesn’t, take care to understand particular movements for change, and offer only support that preserves their legitimacy. Align U.S. policy with the universal desire for freedom, but maintain a keen sense of unintended consequences and no illusions of easy success. … … Declining to affirm any transcendent moral order, liberalism loses its attractive power when it offers a flat world with a smartphone in every pocket and nothing meaningful to live for. And it triggers bitter reaction when it fails to grasp the abiding appeal of nationalism.

In the age of Putin, Xi, and Trump, liberalism and nationalism seem to be mortally opposed. The first is universal (“globalist,” in the derisive phrase of nationalists), the second particular; the first ennobles the individual, the second exalts the community. But in a healthy society, liberalism and nationalism coexist; in fact, they’re inextricable. Without shared identity and strong social bonds, liberty atomizes citizens into consumers, spectators, gamers—easy targets for a demagogue. But national solidarity can’t endure if it’s coerced. A people kept compliant with lies of national greatness, shopping, and police roundups will turn on one another in the face of crisis.

When I asked Ukrainians what the war was about, they inevitably gave two answers in a single phrase: survival and freedom. “Patriot war and democratic war—you cannot distinguish,” Denys Surkov, a crew-cut, scowling doctor, told me. “It’s the same war.” Ukraine is fighting for its existence as an independent nation, and for the right of Ukrainians to choose their own way of life, their own form of government—which is democracy. These two causes are inseparable and reinforce each other. Without a sense of nationhood, Ukrainians wouldn’t have the unity and collective will to resist at such a steep price. Without liberal values and a democratic government, Ukraine would likely divide into ethnic and regional factions.

Something similar is true here in the U.S. Our national identity has always been rooted in democracy. Nothing else, not blood and soil, shared ethnicity or faith, common memories or moneyed pursuits, has ever really held Americans together—only what Walt Whitman called “the fervid and tremendous idea.” It’s as fragile as it is compelling, and when it fails, we dissolve into hateful little tribes, and autocrats here and abroad smile and rub their hands. Don’t imagine that America can bring the light of freedom to the world, but don’t think the world will be better off if we just stop trying.

NYPost, William Barr: Trump threatens to burn down the GOP, it’s time to move on https://tinyurl.com/mskhcse9 “Trump’s willingness to destroy the party if he does not get his way is not based on principle, but on his own supreme narcissism”

… [I]t is now clear [Trump] lacks the qualities essential to achieving the kind of unity and broad election victory in 2024 so necessary if we are to right our listing republic. It is time for new leadership.

For many, supporting Trump was an act of defiance — a protest. The more over the top he was, the more they savored the horrified reaction of the elites, especially the media. Arguments that Trump wasn’t presidential missed the point. Trump’s supporters wanted a disrupter. His voters felt that the left was taking a wrecking ball to the country, and they wanted to strike back with their own.

I worried that no one could govern effectively in constant wrecking-ball mode. Still, I hoped that Trump would rise to the seriousness of the office and the moment. So once he became the GOP’s nominee, I supported him.

Unfortunately, after he was elected, Trump brought his wrecking-ball style to the task of governing the nation. He did not temper his disruptiveness and penchant for chaos. While his basic policy judgments were usually sound, his impulsiveness meant that things were almost always about to fly off the rails. When he became fixated on bad ideas or wanted to take things too far, it took his senior staff and cabinet secretaries an ungodly amount of maneuvering to keep him on track.

Take his handling of COVID. The pandemic was not necessarily fatal to Trump’s re-election chances. What hurt Trump was not the substance of his decisions, but his tonal response. His behavior reinforced what many people found repellant about his personality. He yielded to his impulse for pettiness and pointless nastiness; got drawn into infantile name-calling spats; and, in his press conferences, made everything about himself. …

Despite the persistent advice from his advisers that he address the loss of support in the suburbs, he focused almost exclusively on energizing his base, and he did this by putting out a steady diet of red meat designed to arouse the passions of those who already supported him. The theory was that this would lead to such a massive turnout of his supporters that it would swamp whatever his feeble opponent could generate.

There were two basic problems with this strategy. First, Trump’s base did not need to be whipped up, they were already galvanized. Second, Trump pandered to his base in a way that reinforced and intensified the alienation of many suburban voters in the battleground states.

As a result of this strategy, Trump succeeded in driving a record turnout of his own supporters. But he also generated a more massive turnout for Joe Biden. The millions of voters who flocked to the polls to pull the Democratic lever set historic records and swamped the Trump voters. They did not come to vote for Biden; they came to vote against Trump.

Fraud did not prevent Trump’s second term. Trump himself was the reason.

Looking ahead to the presidential election of 2024, I believe the defining feature of our political landscape continues to be the sharp leftward lurch of the Democratic Party. That opens up a historic opportunity for the GOP — the opportunity to revive something like the old Reagan coalition: a combination of Republican-leaning, college-educated suburbanites; culturally conservative working-class voters; and even some classical liberals who are repulsed by the left’s authoritarianism.

Forging this coalition requires more than bombastic rhetoric. It requires a substantive, strategic, and disciplined president capable of executing a plan to achieve the durable reforms needed to set the country back on a sane course. …

It is painfully clear from his track record in both the 2020 election and the 2022 midterms that Donald Trump is neither capable of forging this winning coalition nor delivering the decisive and durable victory required. Indeed, among the current crop of potential nominees, Trump is the person least able to unite the party and the one most likely to lose the general election.

Trump’s extraordinarily divisive actions since losing in 2020 are not those of someone capable of leading a party, much less a country. Right after his defeat, he treacherously sabotaged GOP efforts to hold the Georgia Senate seats.

The GOP’s poor performance in the recent midterms was due largely to Trump’s mischief. He fueled internal fights within state parties. He attacked popular Republican governors in Maryland, New Hampshire and Arizona to dissuade them from running for Senate seats they could have won. He supported weak candidates for key Senate and House seats based solely on their agreeing with his “stolen election” claims. And after foisting these candidates on the GOP, he failed to provide them adequate financial support, largely sitting on a massive war chest of cash raised from small dollar donors.

It seems to me that Trump isn’t really interested in broadening his appeal. Instead he is content to focus on intensifying his personal hold over a faction within the party — a group that is probably no larger than a quarter of the GOP, but which allows Trump to use it as leverage to extort and bully the rest of the party into submission.

The threat is simple: Unless the rest of the party goes along with him, he will burn the whole house down by leading “his people” out of the GOP.

Trump’s willingness to destroy the party if he does not get his way is not based on principle, but on his own supreme narcissism. His egoism makes him unable to think of a political party as anything but an extension of himself — a cult of personality.

Trump is due credit for stopping progressives’ momentum and achieving important policy successes during his administration. But he does not have the qualities required to win the kind of broad, durable victory I see as necessary to restore America. It is time for the 45th president to step aside.

🐣 RT @Kasparov63 As is so often the case with Putin, the cruelest answer is correct. When Russia retaliated against US sanctions in 2012 by blocking adoptions it was to show there was nothing he wouldn’t do, even harm Russian children. So why not Ukrainian ones?
⋙ 🐣 RT @anneapplebaum This is one of the most inexplicable aspects of the war: the Russian theft of Ukrainian children. ¤ Why would they do it, and so systematically? I understand they hate Ukrainians, they want to eradicate Ukraine, but why make small children suffer?
⋙⋙ WaPo: Near Kherson, orphanage staff hid Ukrainian children from Russian occupiers https://tinyurl.com/mtebmjjm

🐣 RT @JuliaDavisNews Russian propagandist Vladimir Solovyov had clearly given up on the idea of defeating Ukraine militarily. In his desperation to scare the West into stopping its support, he resorts to nuclear threats—but even fellow propagandists are sick of it & say he lost all sense of reality.
💽 https://twitter.com/JuliaDavisNews/status/1594915216026112000?s=20/photo/1

SciAm, Joe Bak-Coleman: Twitter Is Not Rocket Science—It’s Harder https://tinyurl.com/mutcjjyf “[D]ecisions about the design of digital social systems can affect millions of people, change global policy, and shake entire financial systems”
// Elon Musk wants to run Twitter like SpaceX. But human behavior will make it much more difficult

🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer KHERSON AXIS/ 2300 UTC 21 NOV / RU forces continue shelling of urban targets in Kherson and other north bank positions. UKR reports that Russian UAVs are conducting cross-river reconnaissance to assist in target selection for RU artillery and missile forces.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1594821233950031877?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @wartranslated I just love it when pro-Russians delve into doom philosophy, such as Dimitryiev (who, by the way, has links to Rybar) who describes how Russia has practically lost all of its imaginary greatness, meanwhile regular Russians are desperate to get more of it when things go sour
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1594779525791027220?s=20/photo/1

Many authors continue to be indignant at the inefficiency of domestic propaganda, the clumsiness of “soft power”, and continue searching for an ideology. It seems to me that this problem is somewhat outdated. After all, 2022 has clearly shown that the problem is not propaganda, ideological formulas and soft power. But the fact that there is actually nothing to promote. The structure and management that the Russian Federation can boast of is a dead end branch of social development that even the most thoughtless supporters demand to be radically reformed.

You can inflate the brilliant images of the Heavenly City as much as you like, but at the first collision with reality, they will crumble. And it turns out that Russia does not have an invincible army and all-powerful special services, does not offer rapid economic growth, does not promise security and stability, that it is not a stronghold of Christianity and traditional values. That its state apparatus is not able to insert windows, and the industry, having piled on with all its might and budget, is not able to produce a “drone out of shit and sticks.” This means that any successful propaganda project will be an imitation. As is actually happening now, when people are simply begging for a portion of convincing propaganda that will allow them to plunge into the world of intoxicating dreams for at least another day.

And no one, no one!, has ever asked himself the question: what are we talking about to people? And in order to understand this, you just need to dive into reality. You know where it is now. I recommend everyone to visit it.

⋙ 🐣 RT @Panopticon2022 I think this is probably the sharpest internal commentary that has come out of Russia. It talks about the internal, psychological, ideological and economic emptiness of the nation – the vast gulf between aspirational desire to greatness and the absolute sham of a reality.
⋙ 🐣 RT @StatisticalMind I mean he isn’t wrong. The Soviet Union at the height of the cold war also engaged heavily in propaganda but it also accomplished things and had a military which wasn’t a potato. Thirty years of graft and corruption have hollowed Russia out.

🐣 RT @carlbildt Seeing the increasing role of Wagner Group and Kadyrov, openly questing the performance of the armed forces, one wonder if might be moving to an age of “war lords” with competing forces and differing political ambitions – failure thus gradually fracturing the Putin regime.

🐣 RT @EuromaidanPress NATO Parliamentary Assembly unanimously recognizes Russia as terrorist state ¤ The resolution also calls for the establishment of a special tribunal to bring Russia’s regime to justice for its heinous war crimes
🔆 This❗️⋙ EuromaidanPress: NATO Parliamentary Assembly designates Russia as a terrorist state, calls for Tribunal to bring justice for Russia’s war crimes https://tinyurl.com/2p9f9fpz The current president of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly is US Rep Gerry Connolly (D-VA 11)
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1594752594341150729?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @ Maks_NAFO_FELLA The NATO Parliamentary Assembly recognized Russia as a terrorist state, Yehor Chernyov, head of the permanent delegation of Ukraine to the NATO PA. ¤ “All 30 NATO countries supported the proposals of our delegation. The Assembly called for the creation of a special Tribunal”

🐣 RT @EspresoTV [tr] Euromaidan became the first successful battle in the great war with Russia, – Director of the Museum of the Revolution of Dignity Poshivaylo https://tinyurl.com/46nxhv72
🖼 https://twitter.com/EspresoTV/status/1594707478536658947?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @ukraine_world
“You may have dignity without freedom.
You may have freedom, but you may not be worthy of it.
These are values that are best revealed together only.
That is why today has a double name.
Because Ukraine has both”.
Source: Volodymyr Zelenskyy
¤ https://twitter.com/ukraine_world/status/1594630760903876609?s=20/photo/1 -3
// Ukraine’s Freedom and Dignity Day

🐣 RT @ Gerashchenko_en I was so happy to see that a big friend of Ukraine @chefjoseandres of @WCKitchen received an award from @ZelenskyyUa today! ¤ Mr. Andres and World Central Kitchen do so much for the people of Ukraine. Proud to see such amazing humans helping us! ¤ Congratulations and thank you!
💽 https://twitter.com/Gerashchenko_en/status/1594699948612014081?s=20/photo/1
// Chef Jose Andres award

🐣 RT @TLDR
⚡️Kremlin has finished discussing a second wave of mobilization, date will be decided soon.
⚡️Kremlin confirms agreements with Tehran regarding the production of drones.
⚡️Kremlin aims to achieve its goals of SMO through negotiations because its army can do fuckall.
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @Maks_NAFO_FELLA Pescov,Briefly:
🔥The Kremlin is not discussing a second wave of mobilization;
🔥There are no agreements between Moscow and Tehran on the production of drones;
🔥Russia, through negotiations with Kyiv, wants to achieve the goals of its “special military operation” in Ukraine;
⋙ 🐣 RT @TLDR Dunno whether to tag this as sarcasm since it will most likely happen like this.

🐣 RT @GlasnostGone Zelensky: We must be worthy, we must not give up. Because Ukrainians aren’t used to giving up. Because they have dignity. And therefore freedom! We can be left without money. Without gasoline. Without hot water. Without light. But not without freedom. https://tinyurl.com/42v2bkv5

🐣 RT @NOELreports If Iran starts supplying ballistic missiles to Russia, then the Ukrainian army can receive high-precision ballistic missiles: the head of the National Security Council of Israel, Eyal Hulata, said this at a forum in Bahrain, the state media corporation “Kan” reports.

🐣 RT @wartranslated An insight from the Russian “Veteran’s Notes” channel saying say that in the Makiivka situation a week ago, it was not just 11 mobilised who tried to surrender, but the WHOLE battalion of mobiks ran off and left others to their own devices.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1594647380422496256?s=20/photo/1

⭕ 20 Nov 2022

Otter[.]ai, Razib Khan: Whiteness bonus https://tinyurl.com/syd7ztza
// 11/20/2022; podcast; paragraphs added; the genomic and cultural history of whiteness
⋙ See under Entire Articles: Whiteness RKahn Nov 2022

🐣 RT @anneapplebaum Russian propagandist explaining why negotiations, at this point, are nothing but a ruse that would allow Russia to prepare for the next invasion
⋙ 🐣 RT @JuliaDavisNews Meanwhile in Russia: accused war criminal Zakhar Prilepin—who spends a lot of time on the frontlines and previously boasted of “killing many” in Ukraine—admits that Russia wants to negotiate merely to regroup and finish fighting later, any potential peace accords notwithstanding.
💽 [tr] https://twitter.com/JuliaDavisNews/status/1594408064337301504?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @DenesTorteli ⚡️Patriarch Kirill wasn’t always the holiest man in Russia, billionaire, super yacht owner. ¤ Before he found the ultimate scam, he was a street gangster like everyone around Putin. 🔎@JayinKyiv #Hungary #DenesTorteli #Ukraine 🇭🇺❤️🇺🇦👇🏻
¤ https://twitter.com/DenesTorteli/status/1594335646239395845?s=20/photo/1 -4

WaPo, Jennifer Rubin: Democracy defenders have many reasons to be grateful this Thanksgiving https://tinyurl.com/4j2judjs “For those determined to protect democracy, the rule of law and a decent, kind America, there is so much to be grateful for”

🐣 RT @ukraine_world Dog of Goodwill: UNICEF officially awarded Patron the title and signed a Memorandum of Understanding. Within the framework, UNICEF and Patron will cooperate in the area of mine risk education and psychosocial support. ¤ Source: UNICEF Ukraine

🐣 RT @ BillKristol As Thanksgiving approaches in the U.S., we give thanks for many things. This year our thoughts turn especially to the brave people of Ukraine and Iran, whose courage reminds us of the worth, and cost, of freedom.
“Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the heroes!”
“Woman, Life, Freedom!”
🖼 https://twitter.com/BillKristol/status/1594343982322126849?s=20/photo/1 -2
⋙ 🐣 the freedom diaspora is real ¤ and I also give thanks for the midterm elections, which showed it’s too early to give up on freedom here at home as well

🐣 RT @TpyxaNews #MordorOnFire: There is a fire in the area of three railway stations in Moscow. The reasons are still unknown.
💽 https://twitter.com/TpyxaNews/status/1594308862156357634?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @general_ben Part of why I am confident Ukraine wins this war. The Kremlin will acknowledge soon what @TimothyDSnyder said…it’s bad to lose in Ukraine but worse to lose in Russia. Russian forces will have to shift focus and resources back to Russia. Prigozhin and Kadyrov see opportunity.
¤ https://twitter.com/general_ben/status/1594275891596640256?s=20
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @Flash_news_ua ⚡️ The popularity of businessman and founder of Wagner Group Yevgeny Prigozhin becomes dangerous for the head of the Kremlin, who will soon have to negotiate with Prigozhin not to create political competition — Newsweek.
⋙ 🐣 RT @PlanetarAnanda Igor Sushko claims here – I can’t say if thats true – that “Prigozhin and Kadyrov are building & save their best man” for such rogue action aiming for Ru throne. First deplet of Russian forces, then entering in and taking the throne.
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @igorsushko [11/17] TikTok #Kadyrov keeps pumping out promo reels. This force is probably a lot more likely to be used to try to take over the #Kremlin & attempt to depose Putin than be sent to #Ukraine. Both Kadyrov and Prigozhin are saving their real forces for that potential.
💽 https://twitter.com/igorsushko/status/1593321332506120193?s=20/photo/1
⋙ 🐣 well, at least Prigozhin is succeeding with creating tech illusions; his prisoner conscripts are just getting slaughtered in the meat grinder of Bakhmut with no progress to show for it ¤ but it’s all about illusions anyway: Russia had the world fooled about “2nd greatest military”

🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT/1315 UTC 20 NOV/ RU forces continue costly, unsuccessful assaults on Bakhmut. Overhead imagery confirms that RU fontal attacks in the vicinity of the NE suburbs of Bakhmutske & Pidhorodne have resulted in the deaths of 100s of RU mobniks.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1594314696420909056?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @EuromaidanPress Ukraine’s general’s command style “allows others to realise their capacities and talents”, whereas in Russia’s military, “only one to two people make decisions and the rest are told to shut up.” “No way the Ukrainians pause for the winter . . .”
⋙ FT: ‘We hit them with slingshots’: Ukraine’s ‘iron general’ shows his mettle https://tinyurl.com/c4raddt9
// General Valeriy Zaluzhnyi’s unorthodox tactics have helped to tip the balance in the war

🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer IZIUM AXIS/0300 UTC 20 NOV/ UKR forces have advanced to positions essentially cuting a 20Km stretch of the vital P-66 HWY. This is the principal and most direct Line of Communication and Supply (LOCS) linking Svatove and Kremenna, the southern anchor of of the RU defensive line.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1594169088313593861?s=20/photo/1

⭕ 19 Nov 2022

🐣 RT @EmmaDaly “Billionaires exist at our collective pleasure. If enough of us decided to, we could enact labor, tax, antitrust & regulatory policies to make it hard for anyone to amass that much wealth while so many beg for scraps.”
⋙ NYT, Anand Giridharadas: This Week, Billionaires Made a Strong Case for Abolishing Themselves https://tinyurl.com/4e88kee3 “In the extraordinary week gone by … four of our best-known billionaires laid waste to the image of benevolent saviors carefully cultivated by their class“
// Musk, Bezos, Bankman-Fried, Trump: some of our most prominent billionaires laid waste to their carefully cultivated image as …

As of this writing, Elon Musk is running Twitter into the ground, with much of the company’s staff fired or quitting, outages spiking and everyone on my timeline hurrying to tell the app the things they have been meaning to say before it departs for app heaven (or hell?).

In tweeting through one of the most extraordinary corporate meltdowns in history, Mr. Musk has been performing a vital public service: shredding the myth of the billionaire genius.

His particular pretension of benevolence is that his uncontainable genius can solve any challenge. Now he is lavishing his mind and time on electronic money, now on colonizing Mars, now on electric cars and solar panels, now on saving Thai soccer players trapped in a cave, now on liberating speech from its liberal oppressors.

Mr. Musk’s genius pose has long been undermined by his actual record, which is defined by claiming credit for what others have built and is shot through with complaints of discrimination, mismanagement and fraud.

But it wasn’t until Mr. Musk took over Twitter that his claim of infinitely transferable genius truly fell apart. That what Mr. Musk has called the global town square can be eviscerated in a time period somewhere between a Scaramucci and a Truss makes one wonder if we should be more skeptical of all the other billionaire geniuses with ideas for our schools, public health systems and politics. …

It’s too soon to tell if Mr. Bezos’s philanthropy will help others, but what’s certain is that it will help Mr. Bezos a lot. Mega-philanthropists of his ilk tend to give through foundations, which they establish in ways that save them an immense amount in taxes, sometimes merely by moving the money from one of their own accounts to another. Giving will also burnish Mr. Bezos’s reputation, in that way preserving and protecting his opportunity to earn yet more money — and to do more social damage. …

Then, of course, there was Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced crypto kingpin whose spectacular downfall, along with that of FTX, the company he founded, caused $32 billion to disappear, much of it belonging to hundreds of thousands of regular people. …

Finally, of course, this week there was Donald Trump (because let’s face it, there’s always Donald Trump), who has incarnated the most dangerous billionaire pretension of all: that of the hero who in all the world is the only one who can save us. He gamed the system so effectively that only he knows how to un-game it; he manipulated politicians so much that only he knows how to drain the swamp; he amassed so much money that only he is above corruption.

On Tuesday night he addressed a crowded room at Mar-a-Lago and, as expected, announced that he was going to run for president again. He said the usual things that politicians are supposed to say, about how he was doing it for America’s benefit. But this time it was no longer possible to imagine that even he believed it. After all, only a week had passed since America had voted in the midterm elections and rejected most of the high-profile candidates he endorsed — in the process, even Republican commentators agree, rejecting him. He dragged the party down so far that it did not regain the Senate and only barely regained the House.

Fearing even more disastrous outcomes, trusted advisers and allies encouraged him not to run again, or at least to delay his announcement. But they were wasting their time. Standing up there onstage, so low-energy that even Jeb Bush’s son felt compelled to comment, Mr. Trump took in the applause but offered no new ideas or directions. It was a variant of the performance that the others had been putting on, but with one crucial difference: Unlike Mr. Musk and Mr. Bezos and Mr. Bankman-Fried, who strain to show us how public-spirited they are, Mr. Trump could hardly be bothered to care.

It was a particularly unsubtle reminder that billionaires are not our saviors. They are our mistake.

🐣 RT @McFaul Stopping Putin’s invasion of Ukraine must be an immediate goal of U.S. national security leaders. Avoiding war with China over Taiwan is the most important goal. Strengthening deterrence in Asia now will prevent war in the future. We can walk & chew gum at the same time.

🐣 RT @SpiroAgnewGhost The fuckhead’s account is back alive.
⋙ 🐣 RT @realDonaldTrump (Jan 6, 2021) If Vice President @Mike_Pence comes through for us, we will win the Presidency. Many States want to decertify the mistake they made in certifying incorrect & even fraudulent numbers in a process NOT approved by their State Legislatures (which it must be). Mike can send it back!
[Twitter: ] Stay informed This claim about election fraud is disputed Find out more

🐣 RT @JuliaDavisNews Meanwhile in Russia: a lawmaker argues that the strikes against Ukraine’s critical infrastructure are meant to express Russia’s “holy hatred” towards Ukrainians and prompt them to overthrow Zelensky. Others pontificate that freezing Ukrainian civilians will prompt a capitulation.
💽 https://twitter.co/JuliaDavisNews/status/1594068262996045825?s=20/photo/1
⋙ 🐣 https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1594118635366354944?s=20/photo/1
// Zelensky: “Without you!”
⋙ 🐣 [link to:] 🐣 RT @Gerashchenko_en For centuries Ukraine fought for her freedom and independence – starting with the Cossacks. ¤ Today we are in battle again – and we have our brave 21st century Cossacks fighting for our future. ¤ We will triumph. ¤ Listen to this beautiful song by Jerry Heil!
⋙ https://twitter.com/Gerashchenko_en/status/1594060052641488897?s=20

🧵 RT @SenWhitehouse Start with the proposition that a purely voluntary “ethics code” with no means of inquiry or enforcement is just a wall decoration.
📌 https://twitter.com/SenWhitehouse/status/1593987580227264512?s=20
// SCOTUS ethics and recusal issues; Ginni Thomas, Alito leaks, Faith and Action

🐣 RT @KyivIndependent US defense secretary: ‘Russia’s invasion offers preview of a possible world of tyranny and turmoil.’ ¤ “Putin’s fellow autocrats are watching and they could conclude that getting nuclear weapons would give them a hunting license of their own,” U.S. Defense Secretary Austin said
⋙ 🐣 RT @KyivIndependent This could lead to a “dangerous spiral of nuclear proliferation,” Austin said on Nov. 19 at a security forum in Canada.

TheAtlantic, Kaitlyn Tiffany (4/28): Why Hunter Biden’s Laptop Will Never Go Away https://tinyurl.com/azs2ce4f How the story became less about the contents of the laptop than about the MSM’s and social media’s attempts to avoid a “Hillary’s emails 2.0”
// 4/28/2022; Could anything that happens with this laptop bring us closure?

🐣 RT @Gerashchenko_en
Instead of a thousand words.
A child of war. ¤ Kherson.
📷: András Hajdú D. / haidu_d Instagram
🖼 https://twitter.com/Gerashchenko_en/status/1594046049051557888?s=20/photo/1
// tags: moving photo of boy who’s suffered too much boy who’s seen too much

🐣 RT @rybar_en In the Zaporizhia direction, AFU command continue to concentrate forces at forward positions for a likely offensive on Melitopol. According to inhabitants of the region, the plan is to concentrate 25-40 thousand men along the entire length of the front.

🐣 RT @danielsgoldman As Republicans whine about the new Special Counsel appointed to ensure impartiality, let’s remember that Trump’s AG named John Durham special counsel weeks before the 2020 election to pursue a baseless investigation that turned out to be one of DOJ’s most wasteful failures ever.

🐣 RT @BradWilcoxIFS Family men enjoy a happiness premium. Looks like it is growing, doesn’t it?
◕ https://twitter.com/BradWilcoxIFS/status/1593954759098212353?s=20/photo/1
// Men’s Happiness by Family Status

🐣 RT @tribelaw Months ago, I urged appointment of a special counsel. More recently, I thought it was too late. Now that I see the details, I think Garland has done exactly the right thing and that Smith is exactly the right prosecutor to take it on. Full speed ahead!
⋙ WaPo, Jennifer Rubin: Merrick Garland was right to appoint a special counsel https://tinyurl.com/mrxkx88m

🐣 RT @ @AWeissmann_ For those concerned that the appointment of a Special Counsel will delay things: just the opposite. Jack is a super fast, no-nonsense, and let’s-cut-to-the-chase kind of guy. And now, with less DOJ bureaucracy in decision-making, the investigations can move faster.

⭕ 18 Nov 2022

🧵 RT @BasedWarszawa 1/14 Time for a thread [thread] A legendary thread. A based thread. A brief introduction to the great man himself. General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine 🇺🇦
📌 https://twitter.com/BasedWarszawa/status/1593986066347950080?s=20

CNN, Oliver Darcy: Twitter is the world’s digital public square. What happens if it dies? https://tinyurl.com/htwxddtx “[C]ommunications would become fractured across multiple social media websites, leading to a seismic disruption and slowdown in the flow of information”

… And if Twitter (TWTR) were to suddenly cease to exist, the consequences would be enormous, given how integral the platform is to global communications. ¤ The platform has often been compared to a digital town square — and for good reason. It is much more than simply a social media website.

World leaders use Twitter to communicate, journalists use Twitter to newsgather, dissidents in repressive countries use Twitter to organize, celebrities and major brands use Twitter to make important announcements, and the public uses Twitter to often monitor all of it in real-time.

If the platform were to die off, or to become unusable because of instability issues, no single space would likely replace it. ¤ “Twitter vs not Twitter isn’t a simple binary, particularly not for news journalism. The 24 hour global connectivity has changed almost everything about workflows in newsrooms and even for freelance journalists,” said Emily Bell, founding director of the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia Journalism School, a series of tweets Friday. “What replaces it, or what Twitter becomes now with an owner expressly hostile to and ignorant of the business of daily reporting, is really unsure.”

Instead, communications would become fractured across multiple social media websites, leading to a seismic disruption and slowdown in the flow of information. …

YahooNews: Key Evangelical Figures Turn On Trump: ‘He Used Us’ https://tinyurl.com/yckrv78h “If he‘s our nominee in 2024, we will get destroyed.” ~ Everett Piper (The Washington Times); Others deserting Trump: Mike Evans, Robert Jeffress, James Robison

CEPA, Timothy Ash: It’s Costing Peanuts for the US to Defeat Russia https://tinyurl.com/kxeehm5t “US spending of 5.6% of its defense budget to destroy nearly half of Russia’s conventional military capability seems like an absolutely incredible investment”
// The cost-benefit analysis of US support for Ukraine is incontrovertible. It’s producing wins at almost every level.

Altogether, the Biden administration received Congressional approval for $40bn in aid for Ukraine for 2022 and has requested an additional $37.7bn for 2022. More than half of this aid has been earmarked for defense. 

These sums pale into insignificance when set against a total US defense budget of $715bn for 2022. The assistance represents 5.6% of total US defense spending. But Russia is a primary adversary of the US, a top tier rival not too far behind China, its number one strategic challenger. In cold, geopolitical terms, this war provides a prime opportunity for the US to erode and degrade Russia’s conventional defense capability, with no boots on the ground and little risk to US lives.

TheAtlantic, Tom Nichols: Democracy’s Dunkirk https://tinyurl.com/y38mvhft ‘I have no faith in the regenerative power of a party that has devolved into an anti-constitutional, violent movement led by cowards and opportunists, likely only to replace one authoritarian with another’
// The fight to preserve American democracy continues.

November has been a good month for democracy. Brazil’s autocratic president, Jair Bolsonaro, authorized the transfer of power after losing in national elections to a left-wing challenger. Russia’s murderous army is literally on the run in Ukraine. And American voters went to the polls and defied both history and expectation: They left the Senate in the hands of Democrats, gave the House to the Republicans by only a tiny majority, and crushed the electoral aspirations of a ragtag coalition of election deniers, Christian nationalists, and general weirdos.

That’s the good news. But as relieved as I am that some of my darkest worries did not come to pass last week, democracy is still in danger. What happened last week was an important electoral victory that allows all of us to fight another day—specifically, two years from now. Without the defeat of the deniers in 2022, the 2024 elections would likely have fallen into chaos and perhaps even violence. Both are still possibilities. But voters rallied and turned back the worst and most immediate threats to the American system of government. …

Like Dunkirk, the midterms were a necessary, but not final, victory. The old saw about “the most important election in our lifetime” turned out to be true this time: Without multiple defeats of the worst state and federal candidates in recent history, the unraveling of American democracy would have accelerated and the security of future elections would be in doubt, at least in the states captured by the election deniers and their associated charlatans.

If you want a vision of what such a nightmare might look like, imagine a close election in 2024. Battleground states are counting ballots with armed people swarming around election sites and state offices. Arizona Governor Kari Lake, Pennsylvania Governor Doug Mastriano, and Wisconsin Governor Tim Michels are all frantically calling and texting one another on Election Night, and ordering their state institutions to hold off on finalizing the results. Meanwhile, Arizona Secretary of State Mark Finchem (a former member of the Oath Keepers) reaches out to his like-minded counterparts—Jim Marchant in Nevada, Kristina Karamo in Michigan—to ensure that none of them will certify Democratic wins, perhaps in hopes of flipping the decision to their legislatures or sympathetic judges. If Karamo misses the call, it’s because she’s busy strategizing with Michigan’s new Republican governor, Tudor Dixon, a conspiracy-theory-spouting flake who thinks that COVID restrictions and the George Floyd protests were an attempt to topple the U.S. government.

Fortunately, all of these people were soundly defeated—except for Lake, who lost in a squeaker and, true to form, still refuses to concede to Democrat Katie Hobbs. But among them, they garnered millions of votes. These 2022 losers and other, similar candidates are still out there, and they will all continue their best efforts (as Lake is demonstrating) to corrode the foundations of our constitutional order.

Which brings us to Donald Trump.

As I wrote a few days ago, Trump’s 2024 candidacy confronts us, once and for all, with a decision about what kind of country we are. I hope that the Republicans deny him their nomination: A spirited fight within the GOP that ends by flushing Trump out of the American political system would be good for the Republicans and for America. But I have no faith in the regenerative power of a party that has devolved into an anti-constitutional, violent movement led by cowards and opportunists. Especially because the current crop of possible GOP contenders is just another collection of poltroons and Trump imitators; the Republican primaries are likely only to replace one authoritarian cult leader with another.

American democracy’s Dunkirk means that the danger to the 2024 election from chicanery and outright attack, both political and physical, is much lower now than even a month ago. Turnout in 2022 was high, as midterms go, but not high enough, particularly—and as usual—among young voters, whose turnout, at just over 27 percent, was actually lower than in 2018 (when it hit its highest level ever). And we’re stuck for years to come with some truly odious candidates who managed to get past the voters. (I am, of course, speaking of J. D. Vance here, among others.) The Kari Lakes and the Tudor Dixons will resurface in two years. If we are going to turn them back once and for all, we must not underestimate their resentment and will to power. We know who they are; we must decide who we are.

🐣 RT @DucuGavril Russia has spent at least $300 million to sway both politics and policy in more than two dozen countries since 2014, according to a newly declassified review by U.S. intelligence agencies that warns the Kremlin is not done with plans to pay for influence.
⋙ VOA: Report: Democracies at Risk From Russian Money, Meddling https://tinyurl.com/44peyrym
// A newly declassified US intelligence assessment warns Moscow is covertly funding select political parties and candidates in more than a dozen countries

🐣 RT @SecBlinken Russia must halt detentions and disappearances, withdraw its forces from Ukraine, and end a war that it cannot and will not win – no matter how brutal its tactics. A new #ConflictObservatory report documents additional allegations of Russia’s abuses.
⋙ StateDept: Accountability for War Crimes and Other Atrocities in Ukraine: Recent Reporting on Unjust Detentions and Disappearances in Kherson Oblast https://tinyurl.com/34yxjxhh

The Conflict Observatory, a program supported by the U.S. Department of State, released an independent report today that details numerous instances of unjust detentions and disappearances in Kherson, Ukraine, as they relate to Russia’s ongoing filtration operations. Russia must halt these operations and withdraw its forces to end a needless war that it cannot and will not win – no matter how despicable and desperate its tactics.

Prepared by Conflict Observatory partner Yale Humanitarian Research Lab, the new report is available at ConflictObservatory.org. It presents publicly available information about the experiences of more than 220 individuals who are victims, survivors, or witnesses to torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment, including gender-based violence, at the hands of Russia and Russia-backed forces. Survivors and witnesses identified at least five individuals who died, as a result of their mistreatment in detention. The report also identifies 12 detention and checkpoint locations across Kherson oblast and Crimea, and notes a disproportionately high incidence of reported mistreatment of members of the Crimean Tatar community.

🐣 RT @ikhurshudyan People hid weapons. They reported the movements and locations of Russians troops. And many had handlers from Ukrainian security services. Our story on the resistance movement in Kherson, a subtle, sustained insurgency that helped force the Russian retreat:
⋙ WaPo: Stealthy Kherson resistance fighters undermined Russian occupying forces https://tinyurl.com/2p9yaa7p

🐣 RT @MuellerSheWrote Excellent article about the advantages Smith has over Mueller, including the point I brought up earlier about not having to work under the constant threat of being fired.
⋙ Politico: New Trump special counsel launches investigation in Mueller’s shadow https://tinyurl.com/3zncs4z8
// The Justice Department hopes to avoid pitfalls of the last special counsel investigation targeting Trump.

🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer IZIUM AXIS /0230 UTC 19 NOV/ UKR forces have consolidated incremental advances and have established positions within 200 meters of the important P-66 HWY. This effectively cuts the Line of Communication and Supply (LOCS) linking RU forces in the city of Svatove and Kremenna.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1593791833657704448?s=20/photo/1

🐣 Here is the document appointing John (“Jack”) Smith as Special Counsel, signed by Attorney General Merrick Garland
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1593703409210753024?s=20/photo/1 -2

🐣 RT @kyledcheney UPDATE: The special counsel appointed by Garland is JACK SMITH, DOJ’s former public integrity chief. ¤ He once secured the conviction of a CIA official charged with “illegally disclosing national defense information and obstructing justice.”
⋙ Politico: Garland names Jack Smith special counsel for Trump criminal probes https://tinyurl.com/3ns5c5nn
// Smith, a former chief of the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section, will oversee criminal matters related to former President Donald Trump.

🐣 RT @sgurman “Based on recent developments, including the former president’s announcement that he’s a candidate for president in the next election & the sitting president’s stated intention to be a candidate as well, I have concluded it is in the public interest to appoint a special counsel.”
⋙ 🐣 RT @sgurman NOW: Garland appoints John L. “Jack” Smith as special counsel overseeing investigations into Donald Trump. He is the third special counsel in five years to examine issues involving the former president.

🐣 RT @JoyceWhiteVance The key here, once Garland decides to appoint a special counsel, will be picking someone who will be able to hit the ground running and move the investigation forward without delay.
🔆 This❗️⋙ WSJ: Garland to Name Special Counsel to Determine Whether Trump Should Face Charges https://tinyurl.com/4f7emf3v “The exact scope of the special counsel’s remit and who it would be couldn’t be determined”
// A formal announcement would come days after Mr. Trump announced another bid for the presidency
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1593678830270562304?s=20/photo/1

The move reflects the sensitivity of Mr. Garland overseeing any investigation into Mr. Trump now that he is a declared presidential candidate. President Biden, who has said he intends to run for re-election in 2024, nominated Mr. Garland to head the Justice Department in part for the former judge’s promise to insulate the agency from political influence.

Some legal experts have anticipated such an appointment. Regulations governing special counsels provide for the attorney general to name an outsider if he determines that the investigation or prosecution presents a conflict of interest for the department and recusals of certain officials wouldn’t be enough to overcome the concerns.

🐣 RT @Flash_news_ua⚡️Ukraine will produce heavy weapons and military equipment with at least six NATO countries, — the website of the state concern.
⋙ 🐣 RT @Flash_news_ua “Yes, we are building closed-loop ammunition production lines, jointly producing armored vehicles and MLRS and developing new high-tech weapons”, – the message reads.

🐣 RT @ StratcomCentre The photo shows an elderly couple from Bakhmut after an enemy missile hit their home. ¤ You can take away people’s house, destroy what they have built for years. But love and loyalty cannot be taken away. This is the difference between us and Russians. ¤ Photo by Eddy van Wessel.
🖼 https://twitter.com/StratcomCentre/status/1593652745021673472?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @NOELreports More visual evidence that Makiivka, Luhansk oblast south west of Svatove is clearly under Ukrainian control. Not a single surviving house, ruins and death are the consequences of the “Russian peace” that reigned here for 8 months.

🐣 RT @duty2warn Stephen Colbert: “Yes we know it’s troubling…but still nice to see the Republicans take the House without Zip Ties.”

WaPo: GOP operative found guilty of funneling Russian money to Donald Trump https://tinyurl.com/2p8uskx4 “Jesse Benton, 44, was pardoned by Trump in 2020 for a different campaign finance crime, months before he was indicted again on six counts related to facilitating an illegal foreign campaign donation”
// A longtime Ron Paul aide helped a Russian businessman get into a Trump fundraiser; Trump later pardoned him for another campaign finance crime

💙 TheAtlantic, Michael Gerson (Apr 2018): The Last Temptation https://tinyurl.com/bpa3stv4 “It is the strangest story: how so many evangelicals lost their interest in decency, and how a religious tradition called by grace became defined by resentment” #LongRead
// How evangelicals, once culturally confident, became an anxious minority seeking political protection from the least traditionally religious president in living memory
Michael Gerson is a nationally syndicated columnist appearing twice weekly in The Washington Post. He served as a top aide and speechwriter for George W. Bush
RIP Michael Gerson🙏

🐣 RT @TWMCLtd One of Vladimir #Putin’s inner circle tells @meduza_en that they understand #Russia “already lost the war” ¤ Worth translating the original here – Meduza has consistently been one of the most reliable Russian news sources
[TweetLink:] https://twitter.com/TWMCLtd/status/1593560908298493953?s=20

🐣 Benghazi and Hillary’s emails led to nothing. The Durham investigation was a bust. Even the IRS “scandal” wasn’t (though few know this). But now, we are to entertained by Hunter Biden’s laptop for two years. ¤ When will people catch on? The GOP can’t do policy

😅 Secret Republican poll revealed!
◕ https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1593514887870914560?s=20/photo/1
// poll altered to show “Hunter Biden’s laptop” at 120%

🐣 RT @DefenceU New trend in Ukrainian fashion. In Kherson children are asking their liberators to sign their outerwear. Those unique pieces may one day be auctioned at @Sothebys 📷Daniyar Sarsenov
🖼 https://twitter.com/DefenceU/status/1593499249118945280?s=20/photo/1 -2

⭕ 17 Nov 2022

WaPo, Henry Olsen: Biden deserves props for his masterful Ukraine policy https://tinyurl.com/4rrw2eyh “Biden has reinvigorated NATO and brought the Europeans closer to our views on China. That’s cause for celebration across the partisan divide”

WaPo, Karen Tumulty: Michael Gerson followed his faith — and America was better for it https://tinyurl.com/5furzfbp A life of civility, salt, and grace. RIP Michael Gerson.

AtlanticCouncil: Kherson euphoria highlights the folly of a premature peace with Putin https://tinyurl.com/yh9s4k8v “[I]t is vital to keep in mind that any compromise would come with crippling costs. For Ukraine, it would mean betraying and abandoning millions of citizens”

🐣 As Twitter users scatter in a dozen directions, it should be clear that Twitter was never about the platform: it was about the forum. It has been a meeting place used by people and organizations around the world. It is irreplaceable, but apparently not indestructible.

🐣 RT @astroehlein “Truth and love will overcome lies and hatred.” – Václav Havel
(today marks the anniversary of the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia in 1989)
🖼 https://twitter.com/astroehlein/status/1593140002023952384?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @TheRickWilson Imagine all the GOP House craziness you can. ¤ Now, magnify that insanity and loonbucket fuckwittery by a billion. ¤ Then transport it to the pinnacle of Burning Tire Mountain as an endless cascade of clown cars plunge into the radioactive waste dump at the peak.

🐣 RT @POTUS When I think of Nancy Pelosi, I think of dignity. ¤ History will note her as the most consequential Speaker of the House of Representatives in history – she is first, last, and always for the people. America owes her a debt of gratitude for her service, patriotism, and dignity.

🐣 RT @gheliason (11/15) #Ukraine suffers catastrophic losses in Pavlovka last night. 1400 casualties, 10 tanks, and aircraft.
⋙ 🐣 RT @tweetsmachine3 (11/17) BREAKING NEWS: 600 dead russian soldiers in the last 6 hours due to their failed attacks in Bakhmut. Why is Putin sending all these people into death? Wow.

🐣 RT @ Pouletvolant3 Lignes de front au 16/11
Secteurs :
🌐 Svatove
🌐 Bakhmut
🌐 Donetsk Ouest
🌐 Hulyaypole (Sud-Est Zaporizhzhya)
Sources: @projectowlosint | @AndrewPerpetua
@Michel_Goya @egea_blog @jdomerchet @duprat_alain #UkraineRussianWar
🌎 https://twitter.com/Pouletvolant3/status/1593188690234597377?s=20/photo/1 -4

✅ WaPo FactChecker (10/19): The misleading claim that bank reports show Hunter Biden ‘committed serious crimes’ https://tinyurl.com/3wfwwsbw Filing of an SAR does not mean a bank believes a crime has been committed, as Rep James Comer (R-KY) claimed THREE PINOCCHIOS 🍄🍄🍄
// 10/19/2022

🐣 RT @TDF_UA “You are doomed, aggressor, ¤ As the Witch presaged you” ¤ Meet a junior sergeant callsign “Witch” from the 241 Kyiv TDF Brigade. During the defense of Bakhmut, the platoon under her leadership repulsed six enemy infantry attacks in just one night.
🖼 https://twitter.com/TDF_UA/status/1592876342940684288?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @Tendar Russians frantically defending Ploshchanka and at the moment they can hold the line, but they also know that if the front cracks there or nearby the entire Russian front West of the Krasna River has to fall back, eventually exposing Svatove. #Svatove #Luhansk #Ukraine
🌎 https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1593263520229072898?s=20/photo/1 -2

🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer KHERSON AXIS/1510 UTC 17 NOV/ With targeting data provided by UKR Partisans and deeply inserted SOF, UKR conducted a precision strike fire mission on HQ elements of the Russian 58th Combined Arms Army, located in the city of Melitopol. 100 RU casualties reported.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1593255834607230977?s=20/photo/1

CNN: Some US weapons and ammunition for Ukraine are low in supply https://tinyurl.com/yft9bkzv “Multiple officials underscored that the US would never put at risk its own readiness, and every shipment is measured against its impact on US strategic reserves and war plans”

🐣 RT @McFaul Great thread.
⋙ 💙 🧵 RT @AKamyshin [Trains] So. Another long story about our yesterday trip to #Mykolaiv and #Kherson. Danger: [thread]
📌 https://twitter.com/AKamyshin/status/1593015717963923456?s=20
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT […] @AKamyshin Meanwhile, @WCKitchen started doing what they do the best – distributing food right at the railway station. 3500 food packages done that day. That was the first large scale food distribution since liberation. It was incredible.
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT […] @ Another long but happy day where we’ve done our best to help people of #Kherson and #Mykolaiv get back to normalcy asap. Never possible without our friends from @WCKitchen and @MSF_Ukraine. Real #IronBrotherhood. Will remember what you do for my country forever in my life.

🐣 RT @DmytroKuleba I had a call with @SecBlinken right during another massive missile attack on Ukraine this morning. We share the view that Russia bears full responsibility for its missile terror and its consequences on the territory of Ukraine, Poland, and Moldova. 1/2
⋙ 🐣 RT @DmytroKuleba I thanked the U.S. for its crucial defense assistance and emphasized that deliveries of air defense systems to Ukraine need to be sped up. NASAMS have proved their efficiency already. I am also convinced that the time for “Patriots” has come. 2/2

🐣 RT @ KyivIndependent The ISW reported that Russia’s forced adoptions and deportations of Ukrainian children “under the guise of vacation and rehabilitation schemes” likely result in a deliberate ethnic cleansing campaign on top of apparent violations of the Genocide Convention.

🧵 RT @TheDeadDistrict Three months ago, as Ukrainian troops were struggling to advance against Russian forces in the south, the military’s headquarters in Kyiv quietly deployed a valuable new weapon to the battlefield.1/
📌 https://twitter.com/TheDeadDistrict/status/1593140728850681857?s=20

It was not a MLRS, cannon or other kind of heavy artillery from allies. Instead, it was a real-time information system known as Delta — an online network that military troops, civilian officials and even vetted bystanders could use to track and… 2/

… share desperately needed details about Russian forces. ¤ Ukraine unveiled the Delta situational awareness system in October of 2022 during the NATO TIDE Sprint closed event in Virginia Beach, Virginia, USA. 3/

The software, developed in coordination with NATO, had barely been tested in battle. 4/

But as they moved across the country’s Kherson region in a major counteroffensive, Ukraine’s forces employed Delta, as well as powerful weaponry supplied by the West, to push the Russians out of towns and villages they had occupied for months. 5/

The big payoff came Friday with the retreat of Russian forces from the city of Kherson — a major prize in the nearly nine-month war. 6/

⭕ 16 Nov 2022

Substack, Timothy Snyder: Help stop a genocide https://tinyurl.com/2p95rhsm It’s easy. Here’s how

MSNBC, James Downie: The most revealing part of Trump’s 2024 announcement https://tinyurl.com/5bfs6czw “It’s as if the cancer that you hoped was in remission announced on national television that it’s back”
// All the old hits were played, and most of the dog whistles were blown.
// Now we have to live at least a year with the specter of another Trump term, one that would likely make his first one look like a picnic. It’s as if the cancer that you hoped was in remission announced on national television that it’s back

MSNBC: DeSantis won, but DeSantis-ism lost https://tinyurl.com/4dcvzw5a “[T]he midterm was a defeat for DeSantis’ entire political persona — the angry, uncompromising, vindictive, anti-woke politician who will unceasingly attack Democrats and give liberals no quarter”
// His politics played well in Florida, but failed elsewhere.

🐣 RT @cbouzy Trump has doomed Republicans’ chances for 2024. If Trump isn’t the nominee, many of his supporters will sit out the election in protest, and if he is the nominee, he will galvanize Democrats and Independents against him. McConnell should’ve convicted him when he had the chance.

😅 RT @duty2warn For clarity: Donald Trump is a conman, fraud, and thief. Flynn’s a traitor. SCOTUS is corrupt. JFK Jr is dead. Fox News is NOT news. McConnell is an obstructionist. Bannon is a destructionist. Putin’s a war criminal. Ginni is nuts. DeSantis is a despot. And DeJoy deserves deJail.

Wonkette, Liz Dye: Batboy vs Turtle: Rick Scott Thinks He’s Going To Take Out Mitch McConnell https://tinyurl.com/3jf64n4a Scott “blithely predicti[ed] that his party would pick up six seats, even as it embraced a slate of crappy candidates it didn’t vet or choose”

🐣 RT @gdhint Adviser to the Head of the Office of President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, Podolyak: Only Russian is responsible for the war in Ukraine and massive missile strikes. Only Russia is behind the rapidly growing risks for the border countries.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/gdhint/status/1592830479308591104?s=20/photo/1

AP (10/28): Russia’s hope for Ukraine win revealed in battle for Bakhmut https://tinyurl.com/2p5v5kcf
// 10;28/2022

🧵 RT @TCG_CrisisRisks [Cavell] Ukraine SITREP 1. Russian air/missile strikes yesterday were significant and widespread, reportedly targeting energy infrastructure, military installations, weapons systems and civilian infrastructure. Kyiv, Lviv and other regions in the west were part of Russia’s strikes.
📌 https://twitter.com/TCG_CrisisRisks/status/1592761429882724355?s=20

🧵 RT @ChrisO_wiki 1/ Mobilised Russian soldiers were sent to the front line at gunpoint near Svatove before being defeated and fleeing. They have been told by their commanders, “You are decommissioned material, if you don’t go [back] there, we will shoot you,” according to relatives.
📌 🌎 https://twitter.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1591804632346808321?s=20
// 11/13/2022
↥ ↧
🐣 RT @tendar Russian sources say that the battle in Russian-occupied Luhansk has severely intensified today. Kreminna is directly attacked from the forest, artillery strikes on Svatove and a push from Makiivka. Together with the fighting in Kuzemivka yesterday this might be something bigger.
🌎 https://twitter.com/Tendar/status/1592175394677198849?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @JayinKyiv Updated total from Russia’s $700,000,000 attempt to destroy every power plant in Ukraine. ¤ Of 90 missles, Ukraine got 75.

🐣 RT @Gerashchenko_en Solovyev starts to realize that less and less countries are willing to support Russia or remain under its influence. ¤ (This is yesterday’s video)
💽 [tr] https://twitter.com/Gerashchenko_en/status/1592809327542562817?s=20/photo/1
// displayed: UN vote condemning “annexation,” including CSTO “partners” and India

🐣 RT @HenryJFoy NEW – Nato and G7 leaders discuss intelligence suggesting that missile which killed two in Poland may have been fired by Ukraine’s air defence systems https://tinyurl.com/3ftjxjpy via @financialtimes
⋙ 🐣 We shouldn’t lose perspective that the missile would not have been fired apart from Russia’s brutal missile attack on Ukrainian cities, one of the worst barrages yet, as Russia attempts to punish Ukraine for its the liberation of Kherson

🐣 🚀 RT @mmpadellan This is cool as hell. ¤ BACK TO THE MOON, BABY! ¤ #Artemis1
💽 https://twitter.com/mmpadellan/status/1592780735534239750?s=20/photo/1

⭕ 15 Nov 2022

🐣 RT @sahilkapur McConnell on 2022: “We under-performed among independents and moderates because their impression of many of the people in our party, in leadership roles, is that they’re causing chaos, negativity, excessive attacks. And it frightened independent and moderate Republican voters.”
⋙ 🐣 RT @sahilkapur McConnell: “I never predicted a red wave. We never saw that in any of our polling in the states that we were counting on to win.” He says Republican candidates in NH (Bolduc) and AZ (Masters) were “just crushed by independent voters.” He reiterates “candidate quality” matters.
⇈ ⇊
🐣 RT @Acyn McConnell: We underperformed among independents and moderates because their impression of many of the people in our party and leadership roles is that they are involved in chaos.. which is why I never predicted a red wave
💽 https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1592631794029170689?s=20/photo/1
↥ ↧
🐣 RT @ArgoJournal 2022 Senate Exit Polls: ¤ Among Moderate
📊 https://twitter.com/ArgoJournal/status/1592636799020859392?s=20
🐣 RT @ArgoJournal 2022 Senate Exit Polls: ¤ Among Independents
📊 https://twitter.com/ArgoJournal/status/1592640134889213952?s=20
// Dems did. well among moderates and independents

🐣 RT @alfranken Congrats to horrible lying scumbag Kevin McCarthy on winning the nomination to lead a terrible group comprised almost entirely of nut jobs and/or chickenshits.

WhiteHouse: Joint Statement of NATO and G7 Leaders on the Margins of the G20 Summit in Bali https://tinyurl.com/3whw2bn5

Today, the Leaders of Canada, the European Commission, the European Council, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States met on the margins of the G20 Summit in Bali and released the following statement:

We condemn the barbaric missile attacks that Russia perpetrated on Ukrainian cities and civilian infrastructure on Tuesday.

We discussed the explosion that took place in the eastern part of Poland near the border with Ukraine. We offer our full support for and assistance with Poland’s ongoing investigation. We agree to remain in close touch to determine appropriate next steps as the investigation proceeds.

We reaffirm our steadfast support for Ukraine and the Ukrainian people in the face of ongoing Russian aggression, as well as our continued readiness to hold Russia accountable for its brazen attacks on Ukrainian communities, even as the G20 meets to deal with the wider impacts of the war. We all express our condolences to the families of the victims in Poland and Ukraine.

🐣 RT @vonderleyen While G20 leaders were meeting and calling for the war to end, Russia conducted massive strikes against Ukraine. ¤ With G7 and NATO partners, we condemn these brutal acts. ¤ We also offer full support to Poland and assistance with the investigation on the explosion at the border.
💽 https://twitter.com/vonderleyen/status/1592757119400710145?s=20/photo/1

🐣 he just can’t quit us

NYT: Trump Announces 2024 Run, Repeating Lies and Exaggerating Record https://tinyurl.com/5n6p49as “Trump’s insistence on another campaign has set off a roiling debate … over whether the party can thrive with him as its leader — and, if not, how it can effectuate a divorce”
// In a rambling speech, former President Donald J. Trump said he would seek another term, ignoring Republicans’ concerns that he was to blame for the party’s weak midterm showing.

🧵 RT @atrupar “Please welcome, the next president … ”
📌 https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1592699865498144769?s=20/photo/1
// Trump announces he’s running at Mar-a-Lago

🐣 RT @Acyn McConnell: We underperformed among independents and moderates because their impression of many of the people in our party and leadership roles is that they are involved in chaos.. which is why I never predicted a red wave
💽 https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1592631794029170689?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @Heroiam_Slava Russian troops in the Kherson region are advancing 15-20 km deep from the established borders on the left bank of the Dnipro to protect themselves from the shelling of the AFU, -Natalya Humenyuk.
🌎 https://twitter.com/Heroiam_Slava/status/1592477332698464258?s=20/photo/1
// they are moving from the east bank of the Dnipro further east, out of MRLS/HIMARS range

🐣 RT @WarMonitor3 My best guess is KH-55/X-555 or 3M14 Kalibr. ¤ The crater looks to big for an AD missile impact.
🖼 https://twitter.com/WarMonitor3/status/1592594854600912896?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @wartranslated Russian Ministry of Defence publishes a message completely denying any involvement with the missile explosions in Poland. Moreover, they blame Poland for “deliberate escalation”.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1592610210061123584?s=20/photo/1 -2

⚡️ The statements of the Polish media and officials about the alleged fall of “Russian” missiles in the area of the settlement of Przewodów is a deliberate provocation in order to escalate the situation.
● No strikes on targets near the Ukrainian-Polish state border were made by Russian armaments.
● The wreckage published urgently by the Polish media from the scene in the village of Prewodów has nothing to do with Russian weapons.

🐣 RT @Phoenix4517 Thing is the logistics of it being a UA S300 are a bit complex. It would have to fail to hit a missle flying along a certain path, had its auto destruct fail, and then travel 6km into poland before either hitting the ground or running out of fuel

🐣 RT @EliotHiggins [Bellingcat] Worth noting the missile at the site in Poland looks like it could be an air defence missile, rather than a cruise missile. More images of the debris will help confirm that either way.
⋙ 🐣 RT @CalibreObscura A certain resemblance to a part of a motor section of 5V55-series missiles used with S-300 SAM systems here. In that case, this may be the remains of a Ukrainian AD missile, or perhaps that plus the cruise missile it intercepted. ¤ However this is NOT AN ID AT THIS TIME. Brb.
🖼 https://twitter.com/CalibreObscura/status/1592593028220620802?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @ W7VOA No confirmation that missiles from #Russia have landed in #Poland, says @PentagonPresSec. “We’re going to get the facts and when we have more to provide we will.”

🐣 RT @PhillipsPOBrien The Russian missile screw-up that ended up killing two Poles will result in NATO invoking article 4 not article 5 (see below). The consultation will probably result in more support for Ukraine, particularly air and anti-air power. Will give Poland some real influence.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/PhillipsPOBrien/status/1592598256512798720?s=20/photo/1

[Text:] Article 4: The Parties will consult together whenever, in the opinion of any of them, the territorial integrity, political independence or security ofany of the Parties is threatened.
Article 5: The Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all and consequently they agree that, if such an armed attack occurs, each of them, in exercise of the right of individual or collective self-defence recognised by Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, will assist the Party or Parties so attacked by taking forthwith, individually and in concert with the other Parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area.

‼️ 🐣 RT @kylegriffin1 WARSAW, Poland (AP) — A senior U.S. intelligence official says Russian missiles crossed into NATO member Poland, killing two people.

🐣 RT @ ChuckPfarrer KHERSON AXIS/ 1830 UTC 15 NOV/ Reliable sources report that UKR has conducted landings on the Kilburn Peninsula, west of Kherson. This strip of land controls access to the port cities of Kherson and Mykolaiv. UKR ops appear to have caught RU napping.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1592584393113362433?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @McFaul Ukrainian soldiers defeated Russian soldiers on the battlefield near Kherson, so Putin responds by launching a massive terrorist attack against Ukrainian civilians. Typical.

🐣 RT @ DavidMFriend1 Ron Klain: “President Biden is underestimated because his triumphs are the triumph of wisdom, decency & determination: values underappreciated in today’s media & political culture” @MollyJongFast @WHCOS @POTUS
⋙ VanityFair: “Voters Are Smarter Than the Media”: The Pundit Class Misjudged the American People https://tinyurl.com/mr2tbwtz
// The midterm results were a gut-punch to journalists predicting doom for Democrats. It again shows, says Ron Klain, how Joe Biden “has been underestimated as a candidate, as a president, and as a party leader.”

🐣 RT @MikeSington [NBC] Rupert Murdoch has told Trump his media empire will not support another Trump run for the presidency. News Corp source: “We have been clear with Donald. There have been conversations. Rupert made it clear to Donald we cannot back another run for the White House.”

🐣 RT @highbrow_nobrow The American Enterprise Institute has officially rejected Donald Trump.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/highbrow_nobrow/status/1592547161446965249?s=20/photo/1

[Text:] The Republican Party substantially underperformed in yesterday’s elections. Candidates backed by former president Trump had the worst results. Moving forward, the GOP should reject an economic policy agenda based on Trumpian populism and grievance. In its place, the GOP should develop an economic agenda that would foster macroeconomic stability and increase prosperity and opportunity.

≣ PresidentUA: Speech by the Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of Ukraine, at the G20 Summit (transcript) https://tinyurl.com/38dfbsvp “Ukraine has always been a leader in peacemaking efforts; if Russia wants to end this war, let it prove it with actions”
// transcript; video address

🐣 RT @BySteveReilly Here are your final results for the 17 candidates who were part of the election-denying America First Secretaries of State Coalition.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/BySteveReilly/status/1592510969233960960?s=20/photo/1
// 16 of 17 lost

🐣 RT @ChristopherJM Zelensky presents 10-step peace plan and tells G20: “If Russia says that it supposedly wants to end this war, let it prove it with actions. Obviously it’s impossible to trust Russia’s words, and there will be no Minsk-3, which Russia would violate immediately after signing.”
[Text💽Link:] https://twitter.com/ChristopherJM/status/1592427657601650689?s=20/photo/1 -2

[Text:] So, here are the proposals of Ukraine:
1. Radiation and nuclear safety.
2. Food security.
3. Energy security.
4. Release of all prisoners and deported persons.
5. Implementation of the UN Charter and restoration of Ukraine’s territorial integrity and the world order.
6. Withdrawal of Russian troops and cessation of hostilities.
7. Restoration of justice.
8. Countering ecocide.
9. Preventing escalation.
10. Confirmation of the end of the war.

🐣 RT @ kyledcheney JUST IN: Latest update in Jan. 6 cases:
-900 arrests
-447 guilty pleas (110 to felonies)
-316 sentences handed down
https://tinyurl.com/2p9376nk
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/kyledcheney/status/1592244026140286976?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @RonFilipkowski One of the centerpieces of Dem campaigns in 2024 will be the boorish obnoxiousness of the MAGA majority in the House, who will elevate the worst among them, shining a bright spotlight on their mania. They will launch investigations, fight with each other, and accomplish nothing.

🐣 The Line held …
The Circle was Unbroken …
The Best found their conviction
While the rantings of the Worst were quelled
🖼 https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1592458847222104064?s=20/photo/1

NYT: Western Allies Look to Ukraine as a Testing Ground for Weapons https://tinyurl.com/45an9h97 While Russia threatens use of brawny, over-powered weapons, NATO tests a new generation of agile, cyber-enhanced capabilities that “will be about maximum drones and minimal humans”
// Though the battle for Ukraine remains largely a grinding artillery war, new advances in technology and training there are being closely monitored for the ways they are starting to shape combat.

⭕ 14 Nov 2022

NPR: Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy makes surprise visit to liberated city of Kherson https://tinyurl.com/24xhe2r2

TheAtlantic, Anne Applebaum: The Russian Empire Must Die https://tinyurl.com/bcsv8avs “[D]efeat is the only path to modernity; … military failure is necessary for the creation of a more prosperous, open society”
// A better future requires Putin’s defeat—and the end to imperial aspirations.

During the quarter century of its formal existence, the Moscow School of Civic Education did not have a campus, a syllabus, or professors. The school instead ran seminars for politicians and journalists, led by other politicians and journalists, from Russia and around the world. It operated out of the Moscow apartment of its founders, Lena Nemirovskaya and Yuri Senokosov. They had met in the 1970s while working on a Soviet philosophy journal, and shared a hatred of the violent, arbitrary politics that had shaped most of their lives. Nemirovskaya’s father was a Gulag prisoner. Senokosov once told me he could not eat Russian black bread, because the taste reminded him of the poverty and tragedy of his Soviet childhood. …

At the time, this project did not feel naive, idealistic, or radical, let alone seditious. Even during the first decade of Vladimir Putin’s presidency, democratic politics were restricted but legal in Russia; opposition views were tolerated, as long as they didn’t attract too much popular support; and there were many endeavors to organize discussions, training sessions, and lectures on democracy and the rule of law. Nemirovskaya told me that it never occurred to her that she was creating a “dissident” organization. On the contrary, her efforts were meant to support exactly the kind of transformation that people in power in Russia in the ’90s said they wanted. But slowly, those people were pushed out, or changed their mind. Officers of the FSB, the Russian secret police, began showing up at the seminars and asking questions. Negative articles about the school appeared in the Russian press. Finally, the state designated the school as a “foreign agent” and decreed that it had to advertise itself as such.

In 2021, the school was closed. Nemirovskaya and Senokosov sold their apartment and moved to Riga, Latvia, where they still run seminars, only now for exiles. Many of their friends, colleagues, and former students trickled out of the country too. In the spring of 2022, following the invasion of Ukraine, that trickle became a wave. Tens of thousands of Russian journalists, activists, lawyers, and artists left the country, bringing with them whatever remained of independent media, publishing, culture, and the arts. Among them were many people who might have once attended a seminar on local government at the Moscow School of Civic Education. ¤ That moment felt, to many inside and outside Russia, like the end of the story. But it wasn’t—because stories like this one never end. …

Outside the country, hundreds of thousands of ordinary Russians are beginning to understand how closely the empire and the autocracy are linked. Some of the new exiles have given up on politics altogether, and many are just dodging the draft. But a large cohort oppose the war from abroad, through Russian-language websites that report on the war and try to get information to Russians in Russia. TV Rain, shut down by the government in March, is up and running again, online, based in Riga. Navalny’s team, the remnants of his large national organization, is making videos that have millions of viewers on YouTube, which can still be accessed in Russia. …

In at least one respect, all of these 21st-century exiles are unlike their 20th-century predecessors: They remain abroad, or in jail, because of a terrible war of imperial conquest. Many therefore oppose not just the regime, but the empire; for the first time, some argue that it is not just the regime that should change, but the definition of the nation. Kasparov is one of many who argue that only military defeat can bring political change. He now believes that democracy will be possible only “when Crimea is liberated and the Ukrainian flag is flying over Sevastopol.” …

The cultural weight of the past is heavy, and the habits of autocracy—especially the habit of living in fear—persist. The attraction of power is also strong. The people who have it will not want to lose it, and the next government of Russia might well be even more repressive than the one that runs Russia now. But accidents happen; unexpected events occur. Countries evolve, sometimes creating better governments and sometimes worse ones. Empires fall: The Russian empire fell, the Soviet empire fell, and sooner or later Putin’s new Russian empire will fall too. From his prison cell, Kara-Murza has pointed out that the more than 17,000 detained anti-war protesters far outnumber the seven people who were arrested in Moscow’s Red Square when the Soviet Union invaded Czechoslovakia in 1968 to stop that country from changing. Nemirovskaya, from her exile in Riga, recently told me that her efforts were not in vain. She still believes that the three post-Soviet decades left their mark: Whatever happens next, “we will never again live the way we did then.” Leonid Volkov, the leader of Navalny’s organization in exile, told me last year that he believes the most important thing he and his colleagues can do is simply be prepared for change, whenever it comes.

I have argued before that there is no guarantee that American democracy can survive, that what happens to America tomorrow depends on the actions of Americans today. But the same is true of Russia. The country’s future will be shaped not by mystical laws of history but by how its leaders and citizens absorb and interpret the tragedy of this shocking, brutal, unnecessary war. The best way that outsiders can help Russia change is to ensure that Ukraine takes back Ukrainian territory and defeats the empire. We can also keep supporting those Russians, however small their number, who understand why defeat is the only path to modernity; why military failure is necessary for the creation of a more prosperous, open society; and why, once again, the empire must die. We don’t need to search for idealized “good Russians”—no savior will emerge to fix the country, not now and not ever. But Russians who believe the future can be different will keep trying to change their country, and someday they will succeed. In the meantime, no one should ever concede to Putin the right to define what it means to be Russian. He doesn’t have that power.

TheAtlantic: Joe Biden Was Right https://tinyurl.com/3j938sbx “[T]he midterms showed that money and gerrymandering and voter suppression can be overcome when people actually show up and vote. Ballots are more powerful than Peter Thiel’s checkbook”
// The president said that this election was about democracy, and the voters agreed.

… Biden took heat from friends and foes alike for making closing arguments in favor of democracy instead of prosaic “kitchen-table” issues, but the president—a man with half a century of experience in elected politics—knew the voters better than his critics did.

Consider the magnitude of what happened last week. The Republicans went into the midterms as heavy favorites, with advantages that included the patterns of political history, some star power, money from churlish billionaires, and—in theory—Donald Trump. The Democrats had every headwind imaginable, including an unpopular president, a fractious coalition, and an economy beset with high inflation.

The misfit flotilla of Republican election deniers, conspiracy theorists, and other assorted flakes and phonies was poised, it seemed, to board the American ship of state without much resistance. Instead, much of the Republican fleet sank within sight of the shore. A few survivors (such as the reprehensible J. D. Vance) made it to the beach, and the GOP seems likely to control the House by the thinnest of margins. But the Republicans fell short when the voters noticed their extreme positions on almost everything, including January 6, elections, and abortion.

Jim Marchant of Nevada, for example, put together a slate of fellow election-denying secretary-of-state hopefuls under the banner of “America First.” This congerie of conspiracy theorists ran as a bloc that promised to make voting more difficult and hold up election results they didn’t like. … Marchant and the rest of the deniers lost, except for one candidate in Indiana (not exactly a battleground state). …

The challenge to American democracy is not over, but the 2022 results should give the prodemocracy coalition hope, for many reasons.

● American voters stepped back from the abyss. (Even if they cut it a little close for my comfort.) As my colleague Anne Applebaum tweeted, “the biggest story” of the midterms is that “the 2024 election is safe, or safer, from another, better organized, MAGA attempt to steal it.” …

● The midterm results suggest that Americans (and American women, especially) made a decision not to separate abortion rights from democracy; I suspect that they viewed the overturning of Roe v. Wade as part of the overall right-wing assault on their liberties. …

● Three cheers for the American system of government. Frustrated liberals have sometimes wished for a parliamentary system … Republicans could have used parliamentary supremacy to ram through changes in important laws and kept power for a long time. Instead, American federalism and the distinct mandates required for both the executive and legislative branch functioned as the Founders intended, ensuring that the GOP majority of 2016 could be broken in 2018 independent of the presidency, and that Democratic gains would have to be revalidated at the ballot box in 2020 and 2022

● Perhaps most heartening, the midterms showed that money and gerrymandering and voter suppression can be overcome when people actually show up and vote. Ballots are more powerful than Peter Thiel’s checkbook.

We should not lull ourselves into believing that the fight for democracy is over. The local governments, state houses, and the new Congress will still have plenty of odious characters in them. There’s still a lot of work to be done.

Nonetheless, the gloom and gathering darkness I felt last week has dissipated to a considerable degree. The president and the prodemocracy forces issued a call to the public to defend the American system, and the public responded in force. I regularly criticize the public for a lack of civic virtue; I even wrote a book about it. But I must give credit where it is due: The voters, this time, proved me wrong—and showed that Joe Biden was right

WaPo, Greg Sargent: The quiet vindication of Liz Cheney https://tinyurl.com/4m2n7shf “[D]efeated candidates include all the election-denying nominees for secretary of state in key presidential battlegrounds such as Arizona, Nevada and Michigan”

🐣 RT @AriBerman Election denier Republicans have lost governor’s races in AZ, CO, IL, KS, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, NY, PA, WI

NYT, Paul Krugman: Trump Is Weak, but the G.O.P. Is Weaker https://tinyurl.com/2xb7b3y8 “Fox News, the main source of political information for much of the G.O.P. base, gave Trump the kind of hagiographic coverage you’d expect from state media in a dictatorship”

🐣 RT @BillKristol Fun!
⋙ 🐣 RT @ scottwongDC SCOOP: @RepMTG’s worst fears could soon be coming true. ¤ DON BACON (R-Neb.) tells @NBCNews he’s willing to work with DEMS to elect a moderate Speaker if 218 Republicans can’t agree on a candidate. @RepDonBacon w/ @KyleAlexStewart @jonallendc
⋙⋙ NBCNews: Conservatives warn McCarthy: You don’t have the votes for speaker https://tinyurl.com/45hx2x74
// Rep. Kevin McCarthy is expected to secure the GOP nomination for speaker in Tuesday’s leadership elections, but conservatives say he can’t get the votes needed on the House floor without their help.

🐣 RT @Reuters Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy arrived in Kherson, greeted with cheers in the newly liberated city, as residents gathered to raise the Ukrainian flag https://reut.rs/3g47e78
💽 [En] https://twitter.com/Reuters/status/1592389431964696577?s=20/photo/1

WaPo: Investigators see ego, not money, as Trump’s motive on classified papers https://tinyurl.com/y3bawsct //➔ so, Trump’s belief he is above the law means he is above the law?
// A review by agents and prosecutors found no discernible business interest in the Mar-a-Lago documents, people familiar with the matter said

The people familiar with the matter cautioned that the investigation is ongoing, that no final determinations have been made, and that it is possible additional information could emerge that changes investigators’ understanding of Trump’s motivations. But they said the evidence collected over a period of months indicates the primary explanation for potentially criminal conduct was Trump’s ego and intransigence.

The analysis of Trump’s likely motive in allegedly keeping the documents is not, strictly speaking, an element of determining whether he or anyone around him committed a crime or should be charged with one. Justice Department policy dictates that prosecutors file criminal charges in cases in which they believe a crime was committed and the evidence is strong enough to lead to a conviction that will hold up on appeal. But as a practical matter, motive is an important part of how prosecutors assess cases and decide whether to file criminal charges.

Robert Mintz, a former federal prosecutor, said keeping hundreds of classified documents, many marked top secret, at a private home “is such a perplexing thing to do” that it makes sense for prosecutors to search for a motive.

“It makes perfect sense as to why prosecutors would be spending time scouring through the various records and documents to look for some kind of pattern or theme to explain why certain records were kept and why others were not,” Mintz said. “In presenting a case to a jury, prosecutors typically want to explain the motive for committing a crime. It’s not necessary to prove a crime, but it helps tell the story of exactly how a crime unfolded, according to the government.”

🐣 RT @Euan_MacDonald “People should get their heads around the idea that Ukraine is going to defeat Russia on the battlefield, the old fashioned way. They have irreversible momentum. Now is the time to put the pedal to the metal.” – US Lt. General (ret) Ben Hodges
⋙ Politico: U.S. scrambles to reassure Ukraine after Milley comments on negotiations https://tinyurl.com/4xzsrvjx
// The top general’s remarks about a “window” for talks angered Ukrainian officials, people familiar with the matter said.

🐣 RT @SpencerGuard I am still in awe. A President visiting his troops, his people, on the very front line, with the enemy less than 10km away. A man who rose to the occasion and became the leader his people needed. A historic hero for others to embody. Be more like @ZelenskyyUa
⋙ 🐣 RT @Reuters Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy visited Kherson, the biggest prize his troops have won so far, and vowed to press on recapturing all occupied lands https://reut.rs/3AdTmhu
💽 https://twitter.com/Reuters/status/1592274926970589185?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @GlastnostGone Commander of #Ukraine’s forces, General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, told General Milley, US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the “Ukrainian military will not accept any negotiations, agreements or compromise – Russia must leave all the occupied territories.”
⋙ CNN: Ukrainian commander tells US counterpart Russia must leave all occupied areas as condition for negotiations https://tinyurl.com/bdfuks8b

🐣 RT @nexta_tv Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valerii Zaluzhnyi: “The Ukrainian military will not accept any negotiations, agreements or compromise solutions. There is only one condition for negotiations – Russia must leave all the occupied territories.”

🧵 RT @CinC_AFU [Zaluzhnyi] In a conversation with #GenMilley, Chairman of @thejointstaff, thanked for everything done for us by the 🇺🇸people. Assured, we’ll fight until we have no strength. Our goal is to liberate the whole 🇺🇦land. 🇺🇦soldiers will accept no negotiations, agreements or compromise solutions.
📌 https://twitter.com/CinC_AFU/status/1592240402954072066?s=20

🐣 RT @IuliiaMendel US President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping agreed at talks in Bali on Monday that nuclear weapons should never be used, including in Ukraine.

🐣 RT @BillKristol
Democrats held the Senate, won key governorships, and outperformed in a mid-term. The most dangerous election deniers lost. ¤ I am heartened.
A Republican Party permeated and debased by Trumpism won the national House popular vote & could win WH & Senate in 2024. ¤ I am alarmed.

🐣 RT @New_Narrative The Republicans lost the election – and so did Putin, MBS and Netanyahu – By @MaxBoot
⋙ WaPo, Max Boot: The Republicans lost the election – and so did Putin, MBS and Netanyahu https://tinyurl.com/m5myhrv3

🐣 RT @HerrDr8 #7QuestionsUKRWar #1PageAssessUKRWar #Urkaine Looks like appeasers and useful chowderheads got a bug again to figure out how to make little mad tsar happy. That ain’t one of the questions at this point.
🌎 ◕ https://twitter.com/HerrDr8/status/1592030246488133632?s=20/photo/1

⭕ 13 Nov 2022

NYT: Trump Wanted I.R.S. Investigations of Foes, Top Aide Says https://tinyurl.com/yfnkksfx
// John F. Kelly, who was White House chief of staff, said that as president, Donald J. Trump wanted investigations into perceived enemies like James Comey, the former F.B.I. director.

Mr. Kelly, who was chief of staff from July 2017 through the end of 2018, said in response to questions from The New York Times that Mr. Trump’s demands were part of a broader pattern of him trying to use the Justice Department and his authority as president against people who had been critical of him, including seeking to revoke the security clearances of former top intelligence officials. …

Mr. Kelly said he made clear to Mr. Trump that there were serious legal and ethical issues with what he wanted. He said that despite the president’s expressed desires to have Mr. Comey and Mr. McCabe investigated by the I.R.S., he believes that he led Mr. Trump during his tenure as chief of staff to forgo trying to have such investigations conducted. …

Throughout Mr. Trump’s presidency he regularly, in both public and private, ranted about Mr. Comey, whom Mr. Trump had fired in May 2017, and Mr. McCabe, who played a leading role in the investigation into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia.

Mr. Kelly said that along with Mr. Comey and Mr. McCabe, Mr. Trump discussed using the I.R.S. and the Justice Department to investigate the former C.I.A. director John O. Brennan; Hillary Clinton; Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon and the owner of The Washington Post, whose coverage often angered Mr. Trump; Peter Strzok, the lead F.B.I. agent on the Russia investigation; and Lisa Page, an F.B.I. official who exchanged text messages with Mr. Strzok that were critical of Mr. Trump. …

WaPo: Election deniers lose races for key state offices in every 2020 battleground https://tinyurl.com/hamtfz44 “Election administrators and voting rights advocates said the rebuke of election deniers seeking state-level office was a refreshing course correction by U.S. voters”
// The candidates could have gained power over election administration. Voters rejected them in the six most pivotal states.

Voters in the six major battlegrounds where Donald Trump tried to reverse his defeat in 2020 rejected election-denying candidates seeking to control their states’ election systems this year, a resounding signal that Americans have grown weary of the former president’s unfounded claims of widespread fraud.

Candidates for secretary of state in Michigan, Arizona and Nevada who had echoed Trump’s false accusations lost their contests on Tuesday, with the latter race called Saturday night. A fourth candidate never made it out of his May primary in Georgia. In Pennsylvania, one of the nation’s most prominent election deniers lost his bid for governor, a job that would have given him the power to appoint the secretary of state. And in Wisconsin, an election-denying contender’s loss in the governor’s race effectively blocked a move to put election administration under partisan control.

Trump-allied Republicans mounted a concerted push this year to win a range of state and federal offices, including the once obscure office of secretary of state, which in many instances is a state’s top election official.

Some pledged to “decertify” the 2020 results, although election law experts said that is not possible. Others promised to decommission electronic voting machines, require hand-counting of ballots or block all mail voting. Their platforms were rooted in Trump’s disproven claims that the 2020 race was rigged, and their bids for public office raised grave concerns about whether the popular will could be subverted, and free and fair elections undermined, in 2024 and beyond.

Election administrators and voting rights advocates said the rebuke of election deniers seeking state-level office was a refreshing course correction by U.S. voters, whose choice of more seasoned and less extreme candidates reflected a desire for stability and a belief that the nation’s elections are in fact largely secure.

“This was a vote for normalcy,” said Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R), who prevailed against a Democratic opponent Tuesday after defeating U.S. Rep. Jody Hice in the spring primary. Hice, who was endorsed by Trump, spent the campaign attacking Raffensperger for refusing to block Joe Biden’s 2020 win in Georgia.

Voters “were looking for and rewarded character,” Raffensperger said. “They were looking for people who could get the job done. They rewarded competence.”

Elsewhere, the losers included Doug Mastriano for governor in Pennsylvania, as well as three candidates for secretary of state — Mark Finchem of Arizona, Jim Marchant in Nevada and Kristina Karamo of Michigan — all of whom sought to overturn the 2020 result. Losing gubernatorial contender Tim Michels in Wisconsin would have had the power to push a Republican plan to eliminate the bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission and transfer election administration to the secretary of state or another partisan office. …

“It’s positive for our country when losers of elections accept their defeat,” said Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold. “American democracy is predicated on that. It’s also good at this point that they’re not flagrantly denying the result.”

Although many candidates denying the outcome of the 2020 vote came up short in their bids for state office, the U.S. House was a different matter. At least 150 election deniers were projected to win their House races as of Saturday — an increase over the 139 Republicans who voted against the electoral college count following the assault on the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump mob on Jan. 6, 2021.

Overall, more than 170 election deniers on the ballot for the U.S. House, Senate and key statewide offices were projected to win their elections as of Sunday, according to a Washington Post analysis. The Post identified candidates as election deniers if they questioned Biden’s victory, opposed the counting of Biden’s electoral college votes, expressed support for a partisan post-election ballot review, signed onto a lawsuit seeking to overturn the 2020 result or attended or expressed support for the rally on the day of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

“Election denialism is not going away overnight,” Griswold said. “The attacks on voting rights and the attacks on American democracy will not stop.” ¤ Still, many voters said in interviews that defeating such candidates was a driving force in their votes on Tuesday. …

Democrats were also aggressive in defining their opponents as election deniers and spending money to emphasize the point. Aguilar spent $1 million airing an ad called “Dangerous,” featuring various election-denying statements from Marchant — and suggesting that the Republican would be willing to rig an election in the future.

Even as many election-denying candidates have accepted their defeats quietly, Trump has continued to try to stir up his supporters with unsubstantiated claims that fraud is occurring in Nevada and Arizona as ballot counting continues in both states. …

🐣 RT @nytimes Russia’s pro-war activists delivered over the weekend their most cutting criticism to date of the military’s performance in Ukraine. The drumbeat of denunciations broke the taboo against singling out Vladimir Putin and Russia’s very system of government.
⋙ NYT: Russia’s War Hawks Step Up Criticism of Military Over Kherson Withdrawal https://tinyurl.com/2p8asayu “People tied to the Kremlin are less likely to openly question Putin’s role in the course of a war that Russia started:’They built a big lie & they need to live this big lie’”
// Even Vladimir Putin and the Russian government were targets, but there was no evidence that the volume of blame would be a real liability.

🐣 RT @RadioFreeTom And just to be clear, I think that’s a *good* thing. We need to end this recent nonsense of taking trolls-as-candidates seriously, and simply ask the public: Is this really what you want?
⋙ 🐣 RT @RadioFreeTom If Katie Hobbs wins this, I and a lot of other people have a big plate of crow to eat about not debating Lake: Hobbs will have shown that some candidates are just beneath serious engagement and so obviously terrible that the voters don’t need a debate to make up their minds.
⋙⋙ 🧵 RT @Nate_Cohn No projections in AZGOV, but make no mistake: Lake didn’t get the tallies she wanted and probably needed out of Maricopa. ¤ It will presumably close further, but Lake doesn’t have many batches left. Each time she falls short, her target in the outstanding vote gets higher.
📌 https://twitter.com/Nate_Cohn/status/1591970723668660224?s=20

🧵 RT @MuellerSheWrote THREAD: I’ve long believed we would hold the house. And there’s still a chance. And you know I don’t like to entertain hypotheticals about what might happen IF we don’t hold the house. But I need to get this off my chest. 1/
📌 https://twitter.com/MuellerSheWrote/status/1591980118825906176?s=20A

First of all, regardless of what happens in the house, DEMOCRACY prevailed this election. We flipped governor seats, we flipped state legislatures, we held the senate, and the voters rebuked election deniers and trumpism. AMAZING. 2/

But let’s say the GOP takes the house, which I’m hoping they don’t do. First, they will TEAR THEMSELVES APART. Because of the narrow majority, the crazy sect will have leverage and the infighting will be the top story. 3/

With these slim majorities, and with ALL the things Biden got done in the first two years, I honestly wasn’t expecting much legislation in the next two years regardless of who controlled what. So IF they take the house, we get to sit back and watch the GOP implode. 4/

This midterm was lost by the GOP because of their insane conspiracy theories and denialism. And if they decide to put that on display for the next two years, we will ABSOLUTELY CRUSH them in 2024. Those kinds of shenanigans are what LOST them this election by and large. 5/

So anyhow, I think the dems could hold the house, but in the event they don’t, a GOP house will not wreck the democracy we just preserved thanks to Gen Z. Hope that doesn’t tarnish my optimistic reputation. ❤️ END/

🐣 RT @WCKitchen Today WCK teams reached Kherson & nearby communities with food kits for the first time since Ukraine took back control of the area. WCK’s Valery jumped in the car to help deliver—his mother lives in Snihurivka, so this was the first opportunity he had to see her in 7 months.
🖼 https://twitter.com/WCKitchen/status/1591939410333151232?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @katiehobbs A statement from our campaign manager on the #AZGov results
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/katiehobbs/status/1591974524110909442?s=20/photo/1

[Text:] STATEMENT FROM HOBBS’ CAMPAIGN MANAGER ON TODAY’S TABULATION RESULTS

With the latest tabulation results from Maricopa, Pinal, and Pima counties, Katie Hobbs is the unequivocal favorite to become the next Governor of Arizona.

Katie has led since the first round of ballots were counted, and after tonight’s results, it’s
clear that this won’t change.

As the county election officials finalize tabulating the results, I want to again thank every staffer, every volunteer, and every supporter on this campaign. Every door knock, every phone call, and every conversation made the difference in this close race.

🧵 RT @TheStudyofWar #Putin likely elevated Russian Army General Sergey #Surovikin and let him withdraw from western #Kherson on condition that he take the rest of #Donetsk Oblast using Russian forces recouped from western Kherson as well as newly-arriving mobilized servicemen. [thread]
📌 https://twitter.com/TheStudyofWar/status/1591976871322951682?s=20
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @TheStudyofWar 10/ The UAF attacked the barges and landing areas as well, but the ferry system was in any case insufficient to supply the 20,000-some Russian mechanized troops trying to hold their lodgment on the western bank of the river. http://isw.pub/UkrWar111322

🐣 RT @Gerashchenko_en Russian army left behind them the same atrocities in Kherson region as it did on other regions, – @ZelenskyyUa
Investigation has already documented about 400 war crimes, bodies of murdered civilians and soldiers are being found.
💽 [tr] https://twitter.com/Gerashchenko_en/status/1591902472586481664?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @SpiroAgnewGhost “The president’s words were reckless. It was clear he decided to be part of the problem.” {Trump’s} “words endangered me and my family and everyone at the Capitol building.” —Mike Pence comment from new ABC interview airing tomorrow night

🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT: 2330 UTC 13 NOC/ RU’s piecemeal assaults on Bakhmut have resulted in high casualties and limited gains. The terrain in the vicinity of the urban area greatly favors UKR defenders. UKR artillery, firing from covered positions, continues to break up RU attacks.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1591926057124626432?s=20/photo/1

🧵 RT @djrothkopf In ’20, @JoeBiden was second guessed by many (me included). He wasn’t exciting. Too old school. Talked about healing. Talked about a clear agenda when the other side had little to offer but hate & good TV ratings. And he won decisively despite the skepticism of the “smart money.”
📌 https://twitter.com/djrothkopf/status/1591820164940836866?s=20

For two years, he was derided for reaching out to the other side, for his compromises with the left or with the centrists in his own party, for not be exciting enough. He ignored the Beltway buzz. He did the dullest thing imaginable: he governed.

The American Rescue Plan lifted millions out of poverty and helped stimulate a job boom that now has produced 10 million jobs, a record, more than the last three GOP administrations added up. Record number of quality judges were appointed. Executive orders undid Trump’s damage.

He made the bold decision to end America’s longest war. He passed the largest piece of infrastructure legislation in half a century. He helped tame a pandemic. Critics, even within his own party said, “Don’t do too much, don’t spend too much, the bond markets won’t like it.”

But the jobs kept being created. When Putin challenged the decency and the West in Ukraine, Biden led and has been central to NATO and global support for Kyiv that has produced extraordinary results and made all safer. It was all part of restoring American standing worldwide.

He and a disciplined Democratic Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act that also was the biggest piece of environmental legislation in US history. He took steps to reduce healthcare costs for Americans even when zero Republicans supported it.

In fact, with few exceptions, the Democrats passed a rich agenda, that also included the important Chips and Science Act that will help the country compete and create more and better jobs in the future, in the face of constant GOP obstruction.

Still, the savants and pundits said, the Democrats would be crushed in the 2022 elections. The GOP had momentum. Inflation would do Dems in–even though it was a global phenomenon and the GOP was closely linked to its causes from Putin to corporate profiteering.

There would be a Red Wave. Biden was too busy focusing on democracy and protecting the fundamental rights of women and voters when, the GOP talking heads and the bogus polls said what was front and center was inflation and only that and the Dems were doomed.

But Biden stayed laser focused. He said his first act in the new Congress would be to guarantee a woman’s reproductive freedom. He made moving, heartfelt speeches about why it is essential to reject the lies, the election deniers, the coup plotters.

The result was the best result for a new president in a midterm election in sixty years, maybe longer. The Democrats held the Senate. It is still unclear how many seats they will lose in the House. But it won’t be what was predicted.

In fact, it is still possible that the Ds could hold the House, still possible the Dem margin in the Senate could be better than it was. Election deniers running for top posts were rejected. Legislatures were flipped. The Republican leadership is turning on itself.

And Biden’s first comments after the election were about the work to come, the governing ahead. Joe’s too old. Joe’s too boring. Joe’s too quick to compromise. Joe’s too stubborn. Joe’s out of touch. Joe’s…just off to the best start of any POTUS in more than half a century.

Left in his wake, defeated by his experience and his wisdom and his determination and his truly exceptional world class team, are the media favorites, the highly rated pundits, the best-selling columnists, the know-it-alls, the fancy insiders.

I could write the same thing about @SpeakerPelosi or @SenSchumer, co-authors of this remarkable record. You could say it about so many members of the united, mobilized Democratic team that this time around weathered the GOP efforts at suppression, ignored their lies & showed up.

You could sat it about the Gen Z voters and the women and people of color who saw the threat and made the effort to fight for democracy. You could say it about all of you who have participated in the wholesale rejection of the greatest threat to our system we’ve seen since WWII.

Common sense is not exciting. But what we just saw was a victory for common sense. Decency doesn’t drive clicks. But what you just saw was a victory for decency. Governing is tedious, incremental, arcane. But what you have seen for two years are the benefits of governing.

The conventional wisdom has been wrong about @POTUS @VP @SpeakerPelosi @SenSchumer @WHCOS, the president’s cabinet, @TheDemocrats and their team from day one. Maybe we will learn. Probably we won’t. But we can be grateful that they will ignore all that.

We can be grateful that at a perilous moment in US history, they will focus on the work that needs to be done, on the threats we face at home and abroad, and on what matters. And if the past is any indication, they will continue to succeed…against the odds, on behalf of us all.

🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer KHERSON AXIS/ 1530 UTC 13 NOV/ UKR working to reestablish vandalized utilities and communications in Kherson urban area. Arrests of RU soldiers in civilian clothes continues. UKR art’y hits troop concentration in cross-river strike on Dnipriany; RU casualties extensive.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1591816834239860737?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @ABC NEW: After Democrats defy expectations in congressional midterms, Speaker Pelosi tells @GStephanopoulos that Democrats never accepted “when pundits in Washington said we couldn’t win because history, history, history.” ¤ “Elections are about the future.” http://abcn.ws/3hBJk3l
💽 https://twitter.com/ABC/status/1591798884015083520?s=20/photo/1

😢 RT @aprilsparkles1 The dog Krym, who lost his entire family due to the attack of the Russian occupiers in the Dnipro on September 29th has died.
-Deputy Mayor of Dnipro, Mykhailo Lysenko.
His entire family died that day – grandmother, mother and two children. #RussiaIsATerroristState
🖼 https://twitter.com/aprilsparkles1/status/1591437902340399105?s=20/photo/1 -3
// RIP Krym

⭕ 12 Nov 2022

WaPo Editorial: Here’s how Congress can make the lame-duck session a mighty one https://tinyurl.com/49yjnvdc 1. Prevent the risk of a catastrophic default, 2. Fight Russian aggression, 3. Protect democracy at home, 4. Don’t let a wish list get in the way of realism

🧵 RT @PowerUSAID Amid much debate about where the U.S. stands on whether or not Ukraine should negotiate. In Air Force One press gaggle, National Security Advisor @JakeSullivan46 just gave detailed comments on @POTUS position. Highly recommend reading in full:
📌 https://twitter.com/PowerUSAID/status/1591393902820724736?s=20/photo/1

MR. SULLIVAN: So, I’ve obviously seen a number of press stories on this topic, and I thank you for the opportunity to lay down what I think are the four core elements of consensus in the U.S. government and, fundamentally, what President Biden believes about this question. The first is: He said in the press conference it’s up to Ukraine to decide when and how they want to negotiate. Nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine. We’re not going to pressure them; we’re not going to dictate to them.

The second is that we believe in a just peace based on the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity that are not things we made up but that are embedded in the U.N. Charter. The G7 leaders spoke to these principles of a just peace, including territorial integrity. President Zelenskyy has spoken to these.

The third point is that Russia is doubling down on its “annexation, quote, unquote annexation of Ukrainian territory. That’s not exactly a sign of seriousness about negotiating. As long as Russia holds the position that it simply gets to grab as much territory as it wants by force, it’s hard to see them as a good-faith counterparty in a negotiation.

And the fourth and final point is that the U.S. approach remains the same today as it was six months ago, which is we’re going to do everything we can, including our announcement, our military announcement our military security assistance announcement yesterday to put Ukraine in the best possible position on the battlefield so that when they make their determination to proceed, they’re in the best possible position at the negotiating table.

And one more big-ticket item. So there’s kind of this sense of when is Ukraine going to negotiate. Okay, ultimately, at a 30,000-foot level, Ukraine is the party of peace in this conflict, and Russia is the party of war. Russia invaded Ukraine. If Russia chose to stop fighting in Ukraine and left, it would be the end of the war. If Ukraine chose to stop fighting and give up, it would be the end of Ukraine. So this whole notion, I think, in the Western press of “When is Ukraine going to negotiate?” misses the underlying fundamentals, which is that Russia continues, even as recently as the last 24 hours, to make these outlandish claims about annexed Russian territory quote, unquote, “Russian territory” – including territory they just left.

🐣 RT @EricSchultz lot of egg on plenty of faces but it does seem like the Times was particularly strident predicting a Republican wave long before votes were counted.
¤ https://twitter.com/EricSchultz/status/1591450772881149955?s=20/photo/1 -4
// nytimes #FAIL headlines

WaPo, Dan Balz: In election 2022, the party of Trump pays for being the party of Trump https://tinyurl.com/z4yujzzb “In today’s divided country, all presidents are polarizing, but Biden may not be all that frightening to voters. He certainly doesn’t engender the reactions that Trump did”

Substack, Timothy Snyder: Of sanctions and silencings, https://tinyurl.com/2cfx3z39
// Russia’s war as cultural suicide

🐣 RT @SimonWDC Chief purveyors of Hopium this cycle were clearly @TomBevanRCP and @SeanTrende. ¤ Wasn’t the Democrats.
⋙ 🐣 RT @Politics_Polls [11/6/2022] RCP Senate Projection:
Republicans 54
Democrats 46
🌎 https://twitter.com/Politics_Polls/status/1589469463292047361?s=20/photo/1
⋙ 🐣 gotta wonder the extent to which this deliberate distortion (achieved by flooding the zone with biased R-leaning polls) was effective in dissuading Dem leaners from voting

🐣 RT @MichelleKinney “Just to be clear, at The Lincoln Project, we are not trying to save the Republican Party. We are trying to burn the Republican Party to the ground.” @stuartpstevens @AliVelshi 🔥✊🇺🇸
💽 https://twitter.com/MichelleKinney/status/1591633605591433216?s=20/photo/1

🧵 RT @tomiahonen This is a massive win for Democrats. We kept the Senate, in the first midterms after one party took the White House. This cycle should have been devastating against us ¤ Two big keys: Trump got involved, & reaction to Roe vs Wade. But also great politics by DEM ¤ I will do a Thread
📌 https://twitter.com/tomiahonen/status/1591643814522920960?s=20

🐣 RT @ThirdWayKessler Lake needs 56% of remaining votes to win according to this article. Not an easy task.
⋙ 🐣 RT @nytimes Every election denier who sought to become the top election official in a critical battleground state lost at the polls this year, as voters roundly rejected extreme partisans who promised to restrict voting and overhaul the electoral process.
⋙⋙ NYT: Voters Reject Election Deniers Running to Take Over Elections https://tinyurl.com/hnew4ezh
// With Jim Marchant’s defeat by Cisco Aguilar in Nevada’s secretary of state race, all but one of the “America First” slate of candidates who espoused conspiracy theories about the 2020 election were defeated.

🐣 RT @mikepompeo Conservatives need to make the case: helping Ukraine defeat Putin is in our interest. ¤ It will strengthen our national security, deter a foe, and lower costs for Americans.

🐣 RT @McFaul So what data and facts did you (and others) miss to be so wrong? Genuinely curious. Polling? Focus groups? Under-engagement with women and young people? Punditry Groupthink?
‼️ ⋙ 🐣 RT @FrankLuntz [11/7/2022] When the dust settles from the 2022 midterms, the GOP will have between 233-240 House seats – outdoing their total from 1994. ¤ Republicans also will take control of the Senate, but that won’t be clear until Friday. #ElectionDay
// prediction #FAIL

🐣 RT @MuellerSheWrote BREAKING: MSNBC has taken another seat away from the GOP in their house projection. 222, then 221, then 220, now 219. LFG!!!!
⋙ 🐣 RT @Acyn Revision on House projection
💽 https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1591572930575495169?s=20/photo/1
// Kornacki on @msnbc; 218 required to control House: whew!

🐣 RT @Acyn Jolly: This is not a split decision. This is a historic victory for Democrats, where the ground is shifting in American politics, and the voters for three elections in a row have now said, we want to go the direction of Democrats are taking us.
💽 https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1591575985581088769?s=20/photo/1
// also David Jolly (in same segment): if GOP wins, it’s because of aggressive gerrymandering

WaPo: Kherson residents celebrate liberation and describe trauma of occupation https://tinyurl.com/ycxhth5a “‘Life under occupation was horrible,’ said Tetiana Fomina, 58. ‘It was like living in a concentration camp. We were never free’”

🐣 RT @wartranslated Commander of the southern group, Major-General Kovalchuk is greeted by Ukrainians in Kherson. ¤ But check out the cope in Russian channels saying the crowd is tiny, the crowd is just local bums looking at the General with fear, and soldiers treating people with contempt 🤡
💽 https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1591531673824694273?s=20/photo/1 -3

🐣 RT @amanpour “Ukraine is maybe the most important place in the world right now, and the fate of freedom writ large really does hang on what happens in Ukraine,” says historian @TimothyDSnyder, who’s teaching an open class on the history of Ukraine at Yale.
💽 https://twitter.com/amanpour/status/1591136688860172288?s=20/photo/1

🧵 RT @TheRickWilson 1/ For once, the shoe is on the other foot. Today, it’s the GOP wailing and screeching about their failure of messaging. The GOP’s message discipline was central to its success for decades. ¤ You could wake candidates up out of a sound sleep and they’d rattle off the MOTD.
📌 https://twitter.com/TheRickWilson/status/1591483651442753536?s=20

2/ They tested and polished and tweaked and worked it on hitting the right tone and messages. It’s an art form. ¤ It’s also dead. ¤ Trump killed it. Now, the persuasion doesn’t matter, only the lib-pwning. They’re bound and locked into profoundly stupid ideas like…

3/ election denial, January 6th defenses, and shouting about the catalog of imaginary demons. (Caravans! Antifa! Chynese fentanyl! Drag queen story hour cannibalism!) ¤ They delivered those messages with volume and efficiency from a well-tuned machine.

4/ It’s just that…wait for it…voters didn’t like it. No matter where you stand on abortion, the audience for the state GOP’s legislatures setting up snitch bounties (eg Texas) and forcing pre-teen rape victims to carry and ectopic victims to die has a very small constituency.

5/ Telling them the exhausting horseshit that Trump secretly won and was cheated in 2020 also has zero appeal outside the My Pillow crowd. (A friend on an anti-anti-Trump listserve shared their beautiful misery over this weighing down 2022 candidates and I am HERE for it.){

6/ And NRSC and Slytherin Head Boy Rick Scott’s plan to kill social security went over like a chlamydia outbreak in the Villages. ¤ None of it worked because it was alien, discordant, and often just fucking weird. ¤ The bigger lesson is that the Trumpfunk was all over them.

7/ But by all means, boys, pretend it all went swimmingly and the only thing you need is another $100 billion from some credulous hedge fund bro.

🧵 RT @judgeluttig I don’t think of the mid-term elections in the partisan political terms of whether the Democrats or the Republicans “won” or “lost.” I think of these midterm elections only in the “constitutional” terms of whether American Democracy won or lost.
📌 https://twitter.com/judgeluttig/status/1591469218645655552?s=20

For America’s democracy, these midterms were the most important elections in our Nation’s history. And the elections were indisputably a resounding victory for American democracy.

On November 8, the American People did what I observed in a series of Constitution Day speeches this fall they had the power to do: dispossess those politicians who have betrayed them, of the power that they had vested in, and entrusted with, those politicians.

Then re-vest their power anew in political leaders who understand better than their predecessors today that they serve the American People and are obligated by the Constitution to represent the interests of the People and the Nation at the seats of government — federal and state.

I appreciate the observation might seem quaint. But it is, and was in this important election, anything but quaint. That all power resides in the American people, not in their government or political leaders, will always be the profound fact and truth of the American experiment.

“Our political leaders having failed us, to whom do we turn? The answer lies in the first seven words of the Constitution written by the prophets of our nation’s founding. We turn to ourselves, to “We the People of the United States.”

We ourselves must come to the aid of our struggling America. ¤ We are the ones constitutionally possessed of the power over our governance and thus over our destiny. “Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,” ¤ we wrote in our Declaration of Independence.

Just as the People vest and entrust their power in their political leaders, so also can they divest those political leaders of that entrusted power – divest the demagogues and charlatans among their leaders who have betrayed them. ¤ They can do this as soon as the next election, and that is exactly what they need to do.”

🐣 RT @RadioFreeTom
1. Democracy can be on the ballot, and citizens can, in fact, respond to that.
2. Parties need to suffer thorough defeats, over and over, before they will reform. The GOP – which turned into a loony seditionist movement – isn’t done learning this lesson, but we’re getting there.

🐣 RT @ DmytroKuleba Met with @SecBlinken. I emphasized that when we see Kherson residents greeting their liberators with tears of joy, we also feel grateful to the US and the American people for all the support. I thanked the US for upcoming decisions to send us more of advanced military equipment.

🧵 RT @DefenceHQ [UK] Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine
– 12 November 2022
Find out more about the UK government’s response: http://ow.ly/4su550LBtWS
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦
📌 https://twitter.com/DefenceHQ/status/1591314686120632320?s=20

⭕ 11 Nov 2022

🧵 RT @AVindman “Gen. Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, has made the case that the Ukrainians have achieved about as much as they could reasonably expect on the battlefield before winter sets in & so they should try to cement their gains at the bargaining table.”
⋙⋙ NYT: Top U.S. General Urges Diplomacy in Ukraine While Biden Advisers Resist https://tinyurl.com/3xpxdwpa
// Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has made the case that the Ukrainians should try to cement their gains at the bargaining table.
📌 https://twitter.com/AVindman/status/1591109814251360258?s=20

🐣 RT @rammstein_fella 👇
This is the guy that Trump tried to bribe into blackmailing Biden and Putin tried to bully into giving up his country. He was a comedian who became a leader in an age where leaders everywhere became clowns. What a fucking champion. #Zelenskiy
🖼 https://twitter.com/rammstein_fella/status/1591181499201486848?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @ ChuckPfarrer TOO LATE FOR TALK: The Kherson fiasco has sent a chill through the Kremlin. Putin sycophant Sergei Markov now suggests that a RU ‘return’ to pre-Feb 24 lines could be possible. It’s getting obvious that Putin has started a war that RU can no longer win.
⋙ WaPo: Loss of Kherson city shatters Putin’s war goals in Ukraine https://tinyurl.com/ye29ddus

🐣 RT @cbouzy Cortez Masto will take the lead after the next update.
◕ https://twitter.com/cbouzy/status/1591223149445926913?s=20/photo/1
// Laxalt leads by just 798

🐣 RT @ryanjreilly Trump claims he sent the FBI to Florida to stop voter fraud in 2018. Officials say no such thing happened.
⋙ NBC: Trump claims he sent the FBI to Florida to stop voter fraud in 2018. Officials say no such thing happened https://tinyurl.com/35px2wsa
// Sarah Isgur, who was a top Justice Department spokesperson at the time, said Friday that the series of events described by the former president “never happened.”

🐣 RT @BBCSteveR Moscow calls the Kherson retreat “a redeployment” or “a manoeuvre.” Whatever they choose to call it, this was a withdrawal from the only Ukrainian regional capital the Russians had managed to occupy since 24 February. My thoughts on Kherson.
⋙ BBC, Steve Rosenberg: Putin can’t escape fallout from Russian retreat in Ukraine https://tinyurl.com/bdedb2bd

🐣 RT @ZelenskyyUa For almost 250 years the men and women of the United States armed forces have prevailed against tyranny. Your example inspires Ukrainians today to fight back against Russian aggression. ¤ On behalf of all Ukrainians, Happy Veterans Day and thank you for your service.
💽 https://twitter.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1591049559504875520?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @yarotrof Liberated Kherson singing Chervona Kalyna, a song that was banned for nine months. No electricity — Russia destroyed the power lines before leaving.
💽 https://twitter.com/yarotrof/status/1591100046635929608?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @DefenceU OK, so some say we are made of steel… but somehow our eyes can still tear up.
💽 https://twitter.com/DefenceU/status/1591180213500641280?s=20/photo/1
// entering Kherson from pov of soldiers in vehicle being flooded with happy people

🐣 RT @McFaul Agreed. All of Putin’s propagandists on tv right now are in shock, depressed, angry, and not sure what the new talking points are supposed to be.
⋙ 🐣 RT @ Gerashchenko_en It’s interesting to just observe their faces as they discuss the news.
💽 https://twitter.com/Gerashchenko_en/status/1591197074862710785?s=20/photo/1
// copium on Ru tv

🐣 RT @costareports Dark time in Trump’s inner circle. Spoke to several longtime friends, donors, and aides in the past 24 hours. Many say he’s listening to very few people, isolated, and meanspirited about his potential rivals. Several of them say they’re tired of his rants and are avoiding him.
⋙ 🐣 RT @costareports “I have never seen him more irresponsible and chaotic then he is today. He seems to be in self-destruct mode. It is irresponsible to attack DeSantis and Youngkin, and it’s irresponsible to announce in any time in the near future” especially before GA runoff, per a Trump adviser.

🐣 RT @Gerashchenko_en Our anthem on Kherson’s central square 💛💙
💽 https://twitter.com/Gerashchenko_en/status/1591161658256523266?s=20/photo/1.

🐣 RT @wartranslated Some people spoke about Dugin’s letter from yesterday, here’s the full translation. He states that Russian authorities reached the limit of what they can surrender. He blames Putin directly for the failures and low-key threatens him with death. https://tinyurl.com/3dvjk2ww
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1591181876815106048?s=20/photo/1

[Text:] Kherson is surrendered. A Russian city was surrender, the capital of one of the regions of Russia – the same as Belgorod, Kursk, Donetsk or Simferopol. If you don’t care, then you are not Russian. Russians are now clenching their teeth in pain, weeping and suffering as if their hearts were torn out, their children, brothers, mothers and wives were killed in front of their eyes. If you aren’t hurting now, you’re nothing.

Authorities. They are responsible for this. What is the meaning of autocracy, which is what we have? We give the Ruler absolute fullness of power, and he saving us all, people, state, people, citizens, at a critical moment. If he surrounds himself with shit, or spits on social justice, this is unpleasant, but at least he is saving us. What if he isn’t? Then – the fate of the *king of the rains” (read Frazer). Autocracy also has a downside. Completeness of power in case of success, but also completeness of responsibility for failure. You thought otherwise?

How to get out of the situation? Immediately move from a sovereign to a commissar dictatorship, that is, introduce an ideology. The ruler almost did. But again, almost. And Kherson was surrendered not almost, it was completely surrendered. No issues with Surovikin. He is not a politician, he is responsible for the technical side of the front. The strike is not at him. You know whom. And no PR will save here anymore. In a critical situation, political technologies do not work at all. History speaks today. And it utters terrible – for us – words.

This is not a betrayal, this is a step towards Armageddon. The conditions of the winning West, this civilization of Satan, will never be acceptable for Moscow. This means that tactical nuclear weapons and strategic nuclear weapons will remain. That is the end. And here is the most important thing.

Under the pressure of circumstances and it is very bad that this is so, it is terrible that this is so) we made a number of military-political corrections in the management of the SMO (why it is so late is a separate question). But it hasn’t worked (so far). The last resource is ideology. The real one, not the fake that the presidential administration, scared to death by the uprising of reality, is trying to sell. Stop playing around: Russian Idea. Only that. It is foolish to go for the total destruction of mankind only because of the fear of the Russian Idea, of our ideology. There is no other way. The authorities in Russia can’t surrender anything else. The limit has been reached. But there are not enough purely technical means for Victory. The war must become a people’s war in full measure. But the state should become popular, Russion.too, Not like it is now.

🐣 RT @NOELreports Alexander Dugin directly blamed Putin for the retreat from Kherson. He stated that the power in Russia is almost autocratic, but if the tsar cannot save the people, then he will face the “king of the rains fate” (a man whose stomach was ritually torn open by his fellow tribesmen)

🧵 RT @wartranslated Day 260, November 10th. Summary of the daily livestream with Aleksey Arestovych, kindly brought to you by Atis: @savaadaak https://tinyurl.com/cvpxyvz3
🔥 Battlefield update:
🔥 Kherson:mSnihurivka is controlled by 🇺🇦. […]
📌 https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1590999011468742659?s=20

⋙ 🐣 RT @wartranslated 🔥 Goodwill gesture: ¤ Putin addressed “Ukrainian partners”, and mentioned goodwill gesture.
⋙ 🐣 RT @wartranslated 🐣 RT @ Previous goodwill gestures from Kyiv, Sumy did not had any impact.
🔥 U.S. position: 🇺🇸 State department encouraging 🇺🇦 to signal for negotations, waiting for 🇷🇺 to back up their regular announcements.
⋙ 🐣 RT @ wartranslated 🔥 Weapons: ¤ 🇺🇸 sending 4 Avenger SAM systems, 100 HMMWV , 400 grenade launchers. ¤ Biden mentioned two types of missiles, 🇺🇦 promised 160 miles range [257km], which would be a 3-fold increase to M142 HIMARS range. […]
⋙ 🐣 RT @ [🔥 NATO] 🇺🇦 won’t be accepted until end of war, but it’s de facto already a member, and getting assistance. will be one of most powerful members, with significant battle experience, that’s hard to obtain elsewhere. ¤ End of thread

🐣 RT @wartranslated Video showing damage to the Antonovsky Bridge after it was destroyed by Russian forces.
💽 https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1591003415651311616?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @mhmck Most of the Russian occupiers stationed on the right bank of the Dnipro are still there. This force was estimated to be about 20,000. The Russians are trapped on the wrong side of destroyed bridges and crossings they no longer control. ¤ The scale of Ukraine’s victory is massive.
⋙ 🐣 RT @mhmck Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine
«Більша половина окупаційних війсь ще знаходиться на правому березі Херсонщини»
(Most of the occupying forces are still on the right bank of the Kherson region) https://tinyurl.com/49z9fm4p

NYT: Two Weeks of Chaos: Inside Elon Musk’s Takeover of Twitter https://tinyurl.com/mm536bve An f*ing mess
// Mr. Musk ordered immediate layoffs, fired executives by email, laid down product deadlines and has transformed the company.

🐣 RT @nytimes Democrats grew increasingly optimistic on Thursday that they would hold the Senate as votes were counted in Arizona and Nevada. “I think we have a very legit chance of expanding our majority from 50 to 51,” said Senator Tim Kaine, Democrat of Virginia.
⋙ NYT: Democratic Hopes Rise on Senate Control as Two States Count Votes https://tinyurl.com/2ar5b4bn
// In Arizona and Nevada, Republicans’ path to victory appeared to narrow, though both races remain close. The G.O.P.’s odds of success are greater in the House.

🔆 This❗️⋙ NYT: Ukrainian Troops Enter Kherson as Russia Says Its Withdrawal There Is Complete https://tinyurl.com/kjm6v3bu “The move puts Kyiv on the cusp of achieving one of its most significant victories of the war and deals a bitter blow to President Vladimir V. Putin”

🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer KHERSON/11 NOV/ UKR forces will now begin the painstaking process of de-mining buildings and locating RU troops who have changed into civilian clothing.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1591086144640667649?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @Maks_NAFO_FELLA Dugin hints that it is time to kill Putin for surrendering Kherson. For understanding: according to Frazer, “if it doesn’t rain, the king is simply killed.”
[Orig ling] https://twitter.com/Maks_NAFO_FELLA/status/1591065531150643200?s=20
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1591088737894678528?s=20/photo/1

AGDchan
Kherson surrendered. A Russian city was commissioned, the capital of one of the regions of Russia – the same as Belgorod, Kursk, Donetsk or Simferopol. If you don’t care, then you are not Russian. Russians are now clenching their teeth in pain, weeping and suffering as if their hearts were torn out, their children, brothers, mothers and wives would be killed in front of
their eyes. If you don’t hurt now, Imyou’re nothing. Power. She bears for it a responsibility.

What’s the point autocracy, and we have it? We give the Ruler absolute fullness of power,
and he saves us all, people, state, people, citizens, at a critical moment. If for this he surrounds
himself with shit or spits on social justice, this is unpleasant, but if only he saved. What if it doesn’t save? Then – the fate of the “king of the rains (see Frazer*). At autocracy has a downside.

~ Aleksandr Dugin, (Putin’s Rasputin)

~~~~~~~~~~
* The fate of the king of the rains: “There is only one way of averting these dangers. The man-god must be killed as soon as he shows symptoms that his powers are beginning to fail” ~ James Frazer, The Golden Bough. Frazer was was an early comparative anthropologist. https://tinyurl.com/2p9m2ftr

⋙ 🐣 RT @Fireblade577 Putin is heading for a major conflict with the fanatical nationalists he has nurtured for the past 20 years ¤ We are likely to see a lot of car accidents in the near future when he sends the message to stand down

🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer KHERSON/1330 UTC 11 NOV/ RU forces on the N bank of the Dnipro collapsed on all axes of contact. Nearly all defensive positions were abandoned as RU units were routed. UKR troops are confirmed to be operating in the urban area of the city of Kherson.
◕ https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1591069200281661442?s=20/photo/1

🐣 Imagine what election turnout would have been had the inflation number (down) and the stock market surge (up), and the liberation of Kherson had happened a couple of days earlier. ¤ In fact, Russia postponed announcing its troop withdrawal so Biden wouldn’t get credit (per Ru tv)

🐣 RT @maria_drutska In case you want to see how “Second Army of the World” on foot runs from #Kherson, here is the video
💽 https://twitter.com/maria_drutska/status/1590997739378446337?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @NOELreports The moment we all have been waiting for. #Kherson city is liberated. The flag is hoisted over the regional administration building. The army is in the centre. No more Russian resistance. Now let’s clean up the region and move forward! ¤ THE MAP 👇¤ 🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦😎🥰
🌎 https://twitter.com/NOELreports/status/1591058799594721280?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @Gerashchenko_en Center of Kherson right now. Locals chant ZSU (Ukrainian Armed Forces) and cheer our Warriors. ¤ Imagine all the emotions on that square! ¤ Our soldiers report they had to slow down their advance because they are hugged and kissed so much.💛💙
💽 https://twitter.com/Gerashchenko_en/status/1591058623613976577?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @wartranslated Russian “Veteran’s notes” is unable to process the tragedy of the liberation of Kherson.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1591016324230414336?s=20/photo/1

[Text:] I couldn’t even imagine, it doesn’t fit in my head (the same as how understanding of the scale of the Universe doesn’t fit in my head), what Kherson could have been exchanged for. Such colossal image losses should be justified by something. If this justification does not appear in the coming days or at least weeks in the form of the successes of our army at the front, then this will result in a total demoralization of society and distrust of the authorities. People are not ready to endure humiliation all the time.

NYT, Nate Cohn: Why Some States Went in Different Directions in Midterms https://tinyurl.com/2p9cw23n
// Abortion rights and antidemocratic stances were more relevant or pressing in some places than others.

🐣 RT @AdamParkhomenko Breaking: Democrat Mark Kelly defeats Republican Blake Masters in Arizona Senate race

⭕ 10 Nov 2022

WaPo, Greg Sargent: 5 ways to ‘crazyproof’ the country against the chaos of a GOP House https://tinyurl.com/4vbkd34j 1. prevent debt ceiling extortion, 2. prevent stealing of elections, 3. immigration and dreamers, 4. secure funding for Ukraine, 5. protect DOJ investigations of Trump

1. Defuse future debt ceiling crises
2. Reduce the risk of a stolen presidential election
3. Avert chaotic gridlock on immigration
4. Prevent defunding of aid to Ukraine
5. Protect investigations of Trump

TheAtlantic, Peter Wehner: More MAGA Than Ever https://tinyurl.com/c8n58kzs “Donald Trump may have endorsed candidates such as Herschel Walker, Doug Mastriano, Kari Lake, and Mehmet Oz, but it was primary voters who chose them”
//; It’s hard to overstate how radicalized and anarchic the base of the Republican Party remains.

Heading into Tuesday, the conditions that traditionally shape midterm elections strongly favored Republicans. The party of the incumbent president usually does poorly, especially in the incumbent president’s first term. Republicans picked up 54 seats in the House of Representatives midway through Bill Clinton’s first term, and 63 seats two years into Barack Obama’s.

This year Republicans had the added advantage of President Biden’s 42 percent approval rating. Voters also expressed profound unhappiness with the direction of the country. Their views on the economy were overwhelmingly negative, reflecting inflation at the highest level in four decades and real wages declining. People were worried about crime and the failure to secure the southern border. As John McCormick of The Wall Street Journal put it, “Voters on Tuesday cast ballots with overwhelming angst about the economy and little faith in President Biden’s abilities to fix the nation’s ills.”

Yet Democrats did far better than many political experts predicted and than most Democrats expected. As of this writing, control of the Senate is undetermined but leaning Democratic. Republicans are likely to take control of the House by a razor-thin margin, the result of picking up a dozen or so seats. And Democrats appear to have made gains among governorships and in state legislatures.

“This may prove the best midterm performance by the sitting president’s party since 2002,” my colleague David A. Graham wrote. ¤ Part of the reason was the Dobbs decision, which elevated abortion as an issue and energized abortion-rights voters. The New York Times’ Ezra Klein speculated that “negative polarization” helped Democrats; the fear of Republicans prevented the governing party’s normal turnout decline from happening. Preliminary data indicate that he’s correct. The Democratic base showed up, and its coalition held together quite well. Democrats did better among independents than did Republicans. Because of gerrymandering, fewer seats were in play than in the past. And politically, America is fiercely divided. Neither party can dominate the other.

But the main reason Democrats did well is Donald Trump. ¤ Many of Trump’s handpicked choices—in New Hampshire, in Georgia, in Arizona, in Pennsylvania, in Maryland—were unimaginably bad candidates. Trump kept enough attention on himself to prevent the election from being a clear-cut referendum on the unpopular incumbent. (As unpopular as Biden is, Trump is even more unpopular.) And Trump’s main imprint on the GOP—crazed conspiracy theories, dehumanizing policies, lawlessness and chaos—freaked out a lot of Americans who would otherwise have voted Republican. …

[I]t’s hard to overstate how radicalized and anarchic the base of the Republican Party remains. Donald Trump may have endorsed candidates such as Herschel Walker, Doug Mastriano, Kari Lake, and Mehmet Oz, but it was primary voters who chose them. …

Trump is hardly invincible, nor does he have a lock on the 2024 nomination. Polls indicate that younger Republicans and those with college degrees are becoming disenchanted with him. Trump’s descent into an ever darker, ever more deranged world is creating unease even among some who voted for him. Events can intervene, including health and indictments. And DeSantis has, at this early stage, shown the ability to excite MAGA world. …

This also needs to be said: If the Republican Party does break with Trump now, it will be for only one reason, which is that he’s costing it power. Everything else he did—the relentless assault on truth, the unlimited corruption, the cruelty and incitements to violence, the lawlessness, his sheer depravity—was tolerable and even celebrated, so long as he was in power and viewed by Republicans as the path to more power.

The Republican Party remains diseased. There are a few exceptions, such as Senator Mitt Romney, but Americans should consider the GOP a threat to liberal democracy until we see evidence of dramatic changes. The most encouraging news from the midterms was that just enough Americans understood this; an election that should have been a Republican tsunami produced barely a trickle. As Lisa Lerer of The New York Times put it, voters “showed a limited appetite for the burn-down-the-house approach that Mr. Trump has spread throughout the Republican Party.”

The past half-dozen years have not been easy ones for American democracy. The stress test is hardly over, and the struggle will intensify. But Tuesday was a good day. Voters seemed to understand the nature of the threat; they stepped up rather than succumb to apathy or despair. Americans still have a republic, and most of them still want to keep it.

NYT: Democratic Hopes Rise on Senate Control as Two States Count Votes https://tinyurl.com/5f3xa5cr
// In Arizona and Nevada, Republicans’ path to victory appeared to narrow, though both races remain close. The G.O.P.’s odds of success are greater in the House. […]

😅 RT @RalstonReports “She does not have the amount of votes left to be able to catch us.” –Adam Laxalt to Tucker Carlson ¤ I guess it’s over, everyone.
⋙ 🐣 RT @ThePlumLineGS This is laying the groundwork to claim fraud if Catherine Cortez Masto does overtake Laxalt, as expected. And he’ll go right back on Tucker’s show when he does so.
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @RalstonReports Replying to @RalstonReports Under the usual withering questioning from Tucker, Laxalt all but says the election was secure: ¤ “In Clark County, we did so much to make sure this is a secure election. We have lawyers everywhere. We had election observers.” ¤ Maybe he didn’t see what Trump said about it…

🐣 RT @alexbward NEW: Biden tells reporters “I don’t think the conflict will be resolved until Putin gets out of Ukraine.” ¤ Sides with Zelenskyy’s condition for peace talks.

🐣 RT @nytimes “I’m prepared to work with Republicans, but the American people have made it clear — they expect Republicans to work with me as well,” President Biden said on Thursday, adding that he will block GOP efforts to reverse his agenda on issues like taxes. https://nyti.ms/3EmBUKb

🐣 RT @general_ben Great tweet, Mike. I predict President Putin will next lose the Battle of Crimea, the decisive phase of the Campaign, in the coming Summer. And then he loses the coming internal Battle of the Kremlin before the end of next year. @McFaul @WarintheFuture @MarkHertling
⋙ 🐣 RT @ @McFaul Putin lost the Battle of Kyiv. He lost the Battle of Kharkiv. He lost the Battle of Kherson. Where will he lose next?

🐣 RT @John_sipher “The West should show clearly and loudly that thuggery needs redress, and make an example of the goon running Russia.”
⋙ TheEconomist: Mikhail Khodorkovsky says now is no time to push for peace talks in Ukraine https://tinyurl.com/mr2pc5j6
// The former oil mogul explains that the war will not end while Vladimir Putin remains in power

🐣 RT @gtconway3d Narcissists will always tell you: You owe everything to them, and you’d be nothing without them. Textbook.
⋙ 🐣 RT @sahilkapur One of the more peculiar Trump statements. “Fox only made it because of me” …
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/sahilkapur/status/1590878941480644609?s=20/photo/1.

[Text:] Statement by Donald J. Trump, 45th President of the United States of America
If CNN were smart, they’d open up a Conservative network, only have me on, and it would be the most successful network in History. Fox only made it because of me, Twitter only made it because of me, and even Facebook is now in the tubes, having lost almost $90 billion in value since I was taken off, which was considered one of the biggest mistakes in business over the last two years, because with Trump go tens of millions of people who believe in MAGA, who want to Make America Great Again, and Put America First!

🐣 RT @Redistrict [Dave Wasserman, @CookPolitical] I’ve seen enough: Sen. Mark Kelly (D) wins reelection in #AZSEN, defeating Blake Masters (R).

🐣 RT @ TimothyDSnyder China has peaked, Russia is retreating, and Trump is done. There’s hope, people.

🐣 RT @SpencerGuard Russian withdraw in defeat from Kherson is very real.
⋙ 🐣 RT @ItsArtoir Confirmed territory changes in Kherson in the past 24 hours, visualised.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ItsArtoir/status/1590857998770896896?s=20/photo/1
// animated map

🐣 RT @wartranslated Pro-Russian Dimitriyev says that according to his sources, there’s an actual panic among Russian forces in Kherson.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1590835709610713088?s=20/photo/1.

[Text:] They write that panic has begun among the Russian military in Kherson. It is not possible to cross calmly, the Armed Forces of Ukraine continue to hit the crossings, there were no agreements. A military disaster is brewing. Therefore, the plans for the winter described above can be adjusted for the worse. It is quite possible that the Dnieper will not become a freeze line.

🐣 RT @AWeissmann_ And last I checked Trump’s sending in FBI and DOJ to interfere with election tabulation would be, well, fraud.
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @kyledcheney Trump unloading on DeSantis over on Truth Social.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/kyledcheney/status/1590844069118607364?s=20/photo/1 -3
// this is the full 3-page post from Truth Social

❤️ ‼️ 🐣 RT @joshtpm um… WHAT?
¤ https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/1590850314768375809?s=20/photo/1
⇈ ⇊
🐣 RT @ FrankFigliuzzi1 Trump says that when he was POTUS, he sent the FBI and federal prosecutors to Broward County to ensure a win for Ron DeSantis and Rick Scott. Do I have that right? [text ↥ ↧]
🐣 RT @RonFilipkowski This part seems interesting.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1590858919517118465?s=20/photo/1

[Text:] .. also fixed his campaign, which had completely fallen apart. I was all in for Ron, and he beat Gillum, but after the Race, when votes were being stolen by the corrupt Election process in Broward County, and Ron was going down ten thousand votes a day, along with now Senator Rick Scott, I sent in the FBI and the U.S. Attorneys, and the ballot theft immediately ended, just prior to them running out of the votes necessary to win. I stopped his Election from being stolen…

↥ ↧
TIME (2018): Florida’s Vote Counting Controversy Spells Trouble for 2020 https://tinyurl.com/4e3wymfw
// 11/10/2022

🐣 RT @wartranslated This is the angriest Solovyev I’ve ever seen.
💽 [tr] https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1590827196079550464?s=20/photo/1

WaPo: Ukrainian troops advance on Kherson with caution; U.S. to send more air defense https://tinyurl.com/bdz6wcm7 “The [US] pledged an additional $400 million in security assistance for Ukraine, including Avengers air defense systems that come equipped with Stinger missiles”
// Defense budget

🐣 Stunning‼️According to the NBC Exit Polls: 43% of voters had college degrees, including 19% who had advanced degrees(!) Others had some college or earned Associates degrees. Only 16% “Never attended college”(!) Did the nerds save democracy? https://tinyurl.com/scmxy9hn
◕ https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1590890803161092096?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer SLAUGHTER ON THE RIVER: Local sources have reported that RU troop concentrations on the banks of the Dnipro have come under sustained UKR artillery fire. Heavy casualties are reported, and said to be mounting.
⋙ 🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer KHERSON: Russia’s hopes of a successful withdrawal hang by the slender threads of an improvised series of ferry barges, shattered pontoon bridges and blasted road spans. The ferry landings will become prime targets for UKR precision artillery– and killing fields for RU soldiers.

🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer KHERSON/2350 UTC 10 NOV/ RU troops have fallen rapidly down the M-14 HWY axis. UKR troops have followed to the outskirts of Kherson. Local sources report massive RU casualties from continued UKR artillery strikes on Kherson crossing points.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1590853638628708353?s=20/photo/1

WaPo: Twitter’s content moderation head quits as departures alarm the FTC https://tinyurl.com/unjv3ptd “because [Twitter now] performs no identity verification, a stream of fake accounts has proliferated…, including for Biden, Pope Francis and former prime minister Tony Blair”
// Yoel Roth had become the public face of Twitter’s efforts to reassure users and advertisers the service would not become a ‘free-for-all’

🐣 RT @MondaireJones When you cancel student debt and deliver on climate action.
⋙ 🐣 RT @Victorshi2020 NEW: data confirms 18-29-year-olds voted for Democrats more than *any other* age group yesterday. Young people literally prevented a Red Wave & saved Democrats. Full stop. ¤ If you know a young voter, please thank them.

🐣 📋 RT @NoLieWithBTC Joe Biden just had the best first midterm election performance for any Democrat since John F. Kennedy.

WSJ Editorial: Trump Is the Republican Party’s Biggest Loser https://tinyurl.com/2p96uzky What will Democrats do when Donald Trump isn’t around to lose elections?
// He has now flopped in 2018, 2020, 2021 and 2022; race by race litany of how Trump sabotaged the election

🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer KHERSON AXIS/1245 UTC 10 NOV/ The important city of Snihurivka is confirmed liberated by UKR forces. The RU retreat has been methodical, and UKR continues a careful pursuit. For RU, the crossing of the Dnipro remains the most critical and dangerous evolution of the campaign.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1590686849395490816?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer KHERSON: Russia’s hopes of a successful withdrawal hang by the slender threads of an improvised series of ferry barges, shattered pontoon bridges and blasted road spans. The ferry landings will become prime targets for UKR precision artillery– and killing fields for RU soldiers.

🐣 RT @DefenceU Just get the hell out of our land! 🎶 Led Zeppelin @ledzeppelin
💽 https://twitter.com/DefenceU/status/1590650724831985664?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @RalstonReports Here’s what we know on the Nevada Senate race, if we assume the rurals are all but spent, will only add a couple thousand at most to Laxalt’s lead: ¤ If CCM continues to win urban mail at current clip, taking 65%, she will easily overtake Laxalt with 110,000 mail (at least) left.
🐣 RT @RalstonReports If her margin decreases from 65-30 to 60-30, for instance, she would still [w]in decisively.
If it is 60-35, same.
If it’s 55-30, same.
If it’s 55-35, same.
She wins in all those models. ¤ Buckle up. ¤ Good night to all. See you for more math tomorrow!

⭕ 9 Nov 2022

🐣 RT @abughazalehkat Here’s Fox News’ midterms meltdown, summed up in 40 seconds:
💽 https://twitter.com/abughazalehkat/status/1590542903755309056?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @JuliaDavisNews Top Russian propagandist says that Russia waited to announce the Kherson withdrawal until after Nov. 8, to make sure it does not help Joe Biden and the Democrats in the midterms. More in my recent article: ⤵️ [link]
💽 https://twitter.com/JuliaDavisNews/status/1590580794850185217?s=20/photo/1

WhiteHouse: Remarks by President Biden in Press Conference https://tinyurl.com/2xhuakrc

NYT: Trump Under Fire From Within G.O.P. After Midterms https://tinyurl.com/2yudxth5 “Conservative allies criticized Mr. Trump on social media and cable news, questioning whether he should continue as the party’s leader and pointing to his toxic political brand”
// “Republicans have followed Donald Trump off the side of a cliff,” a longtime adviser said.

🐣 RT @GlasnostGone For over 20 years, Putin’s lied and manipulated the often gullible & apathetic Russian people. But thanks to brave #Ukraine, not even Putin & the Kremlin’s formidable propaganda machine can hide Russian sons and husbands dying.
⋙ 🐣 RT @wartranslated Wives of mobilised soldiers from Kursk caught in an argument with the city administration. ¤ The men were sent to the frontline, their units were destroyed piece by piece, so some retreated to Starobils’k. Note the language used by the administration representative.
💽 [tr] https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1590450412762824704?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @RadioFreeTom Remember how I said that to get a party to start reforming itself, it’s not enough to vote against someone like Trump, you have to deprive it of electoral oxygen at every level in every election until the political pain gets high enough?
⋙ 🐣 RT @SykesCharlie “After 3 straight national tallies in which either he or his party or both were hammered by the national electorate, it’s time for even his stans to accept the truth: Toxic Trump is the political equivalent of a can of Raid.” — John Podhoretz in NY Post
⋙⋙ NYPost: Here’s how Donald Trump sabotaged the Republican midterms https://tinyurl.com/mrhtnftz
// What Tuesday night’s midterm election results suggest is that former President Donald Trump is perhaps the most profound vote repellant in modern American history.

🐣 RT @RalstonReports [Jon Ralston] New NV numbers, via @s_golonka: ¤ In Senate race, combined results from Lyon, Nye and Washoe have reduced Laxalt’s lead to under 16,000. ¤ Washoe mail was huge for CCM, as she turned a 5K deficit there to a 400-vote lead. The urban mail is coming in with large margins for Dems.

🐣 RT @AP: BREAKING: Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend the Group of 20 summit in Indonesia next week, avoiding a possible confrontation with the United States and its allies over his war in Ukraine.
⋙ APNews: Russia’s Putin won’t attend upcoming G-20 summit in Bali https://tinyurl.com/2s3euu8u

🐣 RT @Tendar BREAKING Russian High Command has issued a general retreat to all surviving Russian forces at the Western bank of the Dnipro River. Around 40,000 Russian troops are now officially running. #Kherson #Ukraine

🧵 RT @IrynaVoichuk Today, on the day of the Ukrainian language, I would like to tell you some of the historical facts about the linguocide that this melodic language has experienced for many years. 1/
📌 https://twitter.com/IrynaVoichuk/status/1590366164655697920?s=20
// supression of Ukrainian laguage and culture

🧵 RT @WarintheFuture More information is emerging about the Russian withdrawal from West Bank of the Dniepr River in #Ukraine. This will have a range of impacts on the war. 1/25
📌 https://twitter.com/WarintheFuture/status/1590524003994972160?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @Channel4News “Democracy is who we are.” ¤ President Biden celebrates a more successful than predicted mid term elections for his Democratic Party, and says he will continue to work with Republicans in “confronting Russia’s aggression in Ukraine”.
💽 https://twitter.com/Channel4News/status/1590482025110130688?s=20/photo/1
// more general comments about election

🐣 RT @TristanSnell Another loser from the midterms: Putin. ¤ Even if the Republicans win the House, it will be a narrow majority, not enough to defund US aid to Ukraine, which a broad majority of Americans support. Putin needed a true red wave, and he did not get one.

🐣 RT @Devilstower “On Wednesday, Gateway Pundit’s top pinned post announced: BLOOD MOON BLOODBATH… Democrats Steal Midterms, Communism Comes Home to America… Crime, Inflation, Record Gas Prices, War, Open Borders and Corruption WIN BIG”
⋙ Dkos: Right-wing pundits, poohbahs reach for the Copium after their ‘red tsunami’ fails to materialize https://tinyurl.com/bdewpt5k
// After everyone in the Republican Party’s elite political circles—from Tucker Carlson to Donald Trump to the New York Times editorial board—cement

🐣 RT @saintjavelin Another one bites the dust. ¤ Watching this surreal poetry performance by Russian-installed Kherson official Krill Stremousov to commemorate his loss.
💽 https://twitter.com/saintjavelin/status/1590442839871062016?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @Acyn Jeanine: so many people voted on issues that weren’t the issues we thought they were voting on. We thought it was about the economy, inflation crime..

🐣 RT @Acyn Question: Who do you think would be the tougher competitor? DeSantis or Trump ¤ Biden: it would be fun watching them take on each other

🐣 RT @POTUS We lost fewer seats in the House of Representatives than any Democratic president’s first midterm election in at least 40 years. ¤ And we had the best midterms for Governors since 1986. ¤ The American people spoke.

🧵 😅 RT @ tomiahonen My Dearest Vladimir How’s your war going in Ukraine? Why are you retreating out of Kherson? Only losers retreat. You should have built a wall ¤ I’m miserable. The election has been a disaster. These Republicans are all morons ¤ I miss hearing your voice. Couldn’t you just call me
📌 https://twitter.com/tomiahonen/status/1590438454265249792?s=20
// parody: Trump writes some letters letters

🐣 RT @Acyn Watters: There’s just not the hatred for Joe Biden the way there is for Obama and the Clintons. There’s not a hate Biden vote that’s out there
💽 https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1590470476257697795?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer CAR BOMB? @igorsushko has posted photographs of the single vehicle ‘road accident’ that took the life of Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the RU occupation government of Kherson. Noting the absence of tire marks, it appears that Stremousov outlived his usefulness to the FSB.
¤ https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1590462934240866304?s=20/photo/1

WaPo: Russia announces retreat from city of Kherson https://tinyurl.com/mr42xr2d “The move is a major setback for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who had declared the annexation of the Kherson region”

🐣 RT @POTUS Commander and I burnt the midnight oil last night calling some of our great election winners. ¤ I’m looking forward to the work we’ll do together.
💽 https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/1590435289910181889?s=20/photo/1

‼️ 🐣 RT @wartranslated Moment Surovikin and Shoygu admit defeat in the Kherson direction and announce the withdrawal of troops.
💽 https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1590368333727424512?s=20/photo/1
↥ ↧
🐣 RT @texerc Amazing being able to get access into the actual meeting where this was decided. Didn’t feel scripted at all. [not!]

🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer KHERSON AXIS/ FLASH TRAFFIC/ 1550 UTC 9 NOV/ RU forces are reported to be executing a withdrawal from all N bank positions around Kherson. UKR forces have been granted a golden opportunity to smash retreating RU units while motion. Mass RU casualties expected at river crossings.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1590368525084168193?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @tribelaw Biggest takeaway from tonight: ¤ It’s well worth the struggle. Democracy remains viable. ¤ “The work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die.”– Senator Edward M. Kennedy, 1980.

YahooNews: Putin’s ‘Fierce’ Navy Stranded in Hiding After Devastating Attack https://tinyurl.com/mr3m9sw9 “Russia has a large navy, but its losses in the Black Sea are difficult to replace. Moscow cannot simply send more ships to the Black Sea, since Turkey controls the straits”

🐣 RT @jason_kint Absolutely the most important two minutes I’ve heard from a candidate this evening. In this moment.
💽 https://twitter.com/jason_kint/status/1590203115478794240?s=20/photo/1
// Tim Ryan concession speech

🐣 RT @RonFilipkowski Fox post on Truth Social this morning
⋙ 🐣 RT @FoxNews Conservatives point finger at Trump after GOP’s underwhelming election results: ‘He’s never been weaker’
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1590321975276494849?s=20/photo/1

[Text:] Conservatives point finger at Trump after GOP’s underwhelming election. Some conservatives are saying it may be time for the GOP to ditch Donald Trump after election results in the Senate and elsewhere showed a lackluster push from his candidates.

🐣 Exit Polls: “Only 3 in 10 Americans want to back down on aid to #Ukraine” ~ David Ignatius on @Morning_Joe on @MSNBC

🐣 RT @Rohit_Ideas Russia’s hopes for a Republican landslide to hurt Ukraine are vanishing fast https://ift.tt/qd6FOe1 While the U.S. midterm election results roll in, the vote count is being closely watched half way across the world by Ukraine and Russia. #RohitKadimisetty #BusinessNews
⋙ CNBC: Russia’s hopes for a Republican landslide to hurt Ukraine are vanishing fast https://tinyurl.com/25teb56b
// While the U.S. midterm election results roll in, the vote count is being closely watched half way across the world by Ukraine and Russia.

🐣 RT @olex_scherba It’s almost 5am in Ukraine. Still watching #ElectionDay on CNN. There’s nothing more mesmerizing in the world of politics than American election nights.

🐣 RT @Schwarz Since Elon Musk took over Twitter on October 28, Tesla’s worth has gone down by about $120 billion, over 16%. Tesla’s shareholders presumably aren’t thrilled about that, or the fact that Musk’s borrowed 50 Tesla employees to work on Twitter.
◕ https://twitter.com/schwarz/status/1590071489285718017?s=20photo/1
// $TSLA stock chart

🐣 RT @maggieNYT Trump is indeed furious this morning, particularly about Mehmet Oz, and is blaming everyone who advised him to back Oz — including his wife, describing it as not her best decision, according to people close to him.

🐣 RT @ RonFilipkowski No matter how Trump or MAGA try to spin it, that was an epic disaster for them. They were certain of a 3-4 seat majority in Senate and 25-30 seat majority in House while picking up several governorships and Secs of State. None of that happened. What a historic day.

🐣 RT @RussianEmbassy FM #Lavrov: Selfish approach of US-led Western alliance clearly runs counter to aspirations of an overwhelming majority of countries, interested in shaping a #multipolar world order with more justice and injecting a bigger dose of genuine #democracy into international relations.
⋙ 🐣 Nations freely choose to join Western alliances like #NATO and the #EU. ”Genuine democracy” does not exist in #Russia and again and again former soviet countries have chosen the “genuine democracy” models of the West and turned their backs on Russian-style autocracy. #NAFO
⋙ 🐣 Prigozhin bragged about interfering in the US Midterm Elections. Guess what? It didn’t work. Democracy won. We aren’t going anywhere.

🐣 RT @GlasnostGone Problem Russia’s mobilised cannon fodder face in #Ukraine is, they have no military structure & supply/logistics. When they arrive, Russia’s simply throws them into the frontline without any adequate means of supplying & caring for them. Hence they feel abandoned. Hence they run.
⋙ 🐣 RT @wartranslated Mobilised from Ulyanovsk, Penza Oblasts and Bashkiriya retreated from “LPR” after getting shelled, some reached the Belgorod border in 5 days. One of them recorded a message for his wife, explaining they’re being beaten by military police and threatened to be sent back.
🔊 [tr] https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1590090794647449600?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @MeidasTouch Dear Republican Party: Drop Trump. Drop MAGA. Drop election denialism. Stop attacking our institutions. Stop spreading conspiracy theories. Stop the political violence. Stop taking away our rights. ¤ Let’s debate actual policy to solve our nation’s problems.

🐣 RT @AntonioArellano HUGE: Exit polls in key states including AZ, NH, PA and WI, show young voters supported Democrats by OVER 70%! ¤ The future is young and progressive.
◕ https://twitter.com/AntonioArellano/status/1590192564409602049?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @MuellerSheWrote Trump lost 40 house seats in his first midterm.
Obama lost 63
Clinton lost 52
Reagan lost 26
Carter lost 15
Biden’s house is a dead heat.
OUTSTANDING night for dems 💙💙

🐣 RT @dutytowarn This was an absolutely dreadful, atrocious, nightmarish day for Trump. He is going down. And while he might announce, he now has no shot at being the 2024 GOP nominee.

⭕ 8 Nov 2022

🧵RT @anders_aslund”Ukraine seizes control of five ‘strategic’ companies from oligarchs”
Ukrnafta and Ukrtatnafta (Igor Kolomoisky)
MotorSich (Vyacheslav Boguslaev)
AvtoKraz (Kostyantyn Zhevago)
Zaporizhtransformator (Kostyantyn Grigorishin)
This is important. [link]
📌 https://twitter.com/anders_aslund/status/1590009482574434304?s=20
ThreadReader: https://tinyurl.com/45sauh9j

🐣 RT @djrothkopf For a guy who has been a Senator, Vice President and President, you’ve got to admit, @JoeBiden is probably the most consistently, repeatedly and unfairly underestimated political leader of our time.
⋙ ⋙ 🐣 RT @djrothkopf Credit also must go to @SpeakerPelosi and @SenSchumer who have worked tirelessly and never gave up even when loud choruses of “very smart people” were telling them it would be a blow out.

🐣 RT @VaughnHillyard Tonight, the GOP GOVERNOR Candidates Who Refused To Say If They’d Have Certified Biden’s 2020 Win In Their States:
❓ Kari Lake, Arizona
❌ Tim Michels, Wisconsin
❌ Tudor Dixon, Michigan
❌ Doug Mastriano, PA
❌ Darren Bailey, Illinois
❌ Dan Cox, Maryland
❌ Lee Zeldin, NY

🐣 RT @ VaughnHillyard Tonight, the Election-Denying Secretary of State Candidates from States Biden Won:
❓ Mark Finchem, Arizona
❓ Jim Marchant, Nevada
❌ Kristina Karamo, Michigan
❌ Kim Crockett, Minnesota
❌ Audrey Mendonca-Trujillo, NM
❌ Pennsylvania/Picked by GOV:

🐣 RT @TheRickWilson Lauren Boebert going down harder than Donald Trump on the Mar a Lago waffle station.

🐣 RT @MeidasTouch Yikes
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/MeidasTouch/status/1590223660148994048?s=20/photo/1
[Text:] BenShapiro: From red wave to red wedding

🐣 A lot of pundits are re-writing their post-mortems right now.
¤ https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1590215686747750400?s=20/photo/1
// Dark Biden: “No More Malarkey!”

🐣 Reasons for Dems’ Good Showing (my take):
1. Democracy (anti-Trump)
2. Abortion

😜 RT @RonFilipkowski Mike Lindell says China has joined forces with the Democrats to steal elections tonight, but his cyber guys have caught them red-handed and he is gathering evidence.
💽 https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1590201813047078915?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @EmbassyofRussia 🇷🇺President Vladimir #Putin: For decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine experienced direct, overt interference from Western countries in its internal affairs. Actually, they tried to do the same in Russia.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/EmbassyofRussia/status/1589972454189199360?s=20/photo/1

[Text:] For decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine experienced direct, overt interference from Western countries in its internal affairs. Actually, they tried to do the same in Russia, but, unfortunately, in Ukraine they managed to instill in the minds of millions of people the pseudo-values that led to the fact that they created an anti-Russia on this territory, sowing hatred, raping people’s consciousness, depriving them of their true history – Vladimir Putin President of the Russian Federation

🐣 RT @ SimonWDC Happy Election Day, midday! No Election Day turnout numbers, but got more early vote fr TargetEarly:
– EV turnout 43m, 8% over 18
– Ds up 50-39 (+11), 5m natl vote lead
– In 18 at this point 47-44 (+3), 20 48-41 (+7)
– D state “firewalls” growing, electorate getting younger 👇

🐣 RT @WarMonitor3 More stories of Russian mobilised soldiers being sent to the frontlines around Svatove without ammunition, food or commanding officers. ¤ Reportedly some units attempted to abandon their positions but were turned around at Svatove and sent back to the frontline.

🐣 RT @DefenceU Major General Tetiana Ostashchenko, Commander of the 🇺🇦 Medical Forces, is the first woman to become a general in #UAarmy. ¤ She makes every effort to save the life of every wounded warrior. Because we value every single one of our people.
#UAGenerals
💽 https://twitter.com/DefenceU/status/1589962745222684672?s=20/photo/1
⋙ 🐣 Such a contrast with Russia, whose soldiers were told to buy their own medical supplies, including sanitary pads and tampons to stanch bleeding. Bulletproof vests were quickly sold at prices so high, few could even afford them.

🐣 RT @MSNBC More than 44M people have already cast their ballots in the 2022 midterm elections — and that’s before polls even opened this morning.
⋙ MSNBC: 44 million votes cast ahead of Election Day. That’s huge https://tinyurl.com/mrxrykcn

🐣 RT @RussianEmbassy [UK] President #Putin: Efforts to weaken, tear apart and destroy #Russia are ongoing. They underlie the developments in #Ukraine. We will never let this happen. We will defend our Fatherland the way our heroic ancestors did.
⋙ 🐣 You’ll defend your fatherland with THESE guys? They’re surrendering all over between Svatove and Bakhmut, complaining they weren’t trained, aren’t equipped properly, basically thrown to be slaughtered like dogs. Shame on your abusive, drunk, deadbeat “fatherland”
¤ https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1589948090630680576?s=20/photo/1
// Ru troops who surrendered near Svatove

⭕ 7 Nov 2022

😅 RT @RonFilipkowski Detective Lindell is ready: “We are tracking every race by cyber. I want all the bad guys out there to know, we are watching. I’m putting them all on notice!”
💽 https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1589965347607564288?s=20/photo/1
⋙ Gee, the DOJ could just outsource it’s monitoring operation to Mr. Pillow himself!
Re: DOJ: Justice Department to Monitor Polls in 24 States for Compliance with Federal Voting Rights Laws https://tinyurl.com/33n5vuw5
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1589973936179384320?s=20/photo/1

MSNBC, Ja’han Jones: Trump’s DHS treated George Floyd protesters like terrorists, report shows https://tinyurl.com/54n4d6su The newly unredacted report “gave the false impression Portland was facing a serious threat of terrorism & baselessly classified protesters as nefarious actors”
// A Department of Homeland Security report shows how the Trump administration falsely categorized people as threats during George Floyd protests in 2020.

🔆 This❗️⋙ RealContextNews, Brian Frydenborg: The Hard Voter Data Indicating Democrats Will Outperform the Polls and Hold Congress: In Data (and Women) We Trust https://tinyurl.com/8pbc63fy Wow! Great analysis. Hope you’re right! @SimonWDC @tbonier @bfry1981
// The details on some hard current voter data that reinforces itself and call into question current polling numbers that have so many key Senate and House races neck-and-neck
↥ ↧
🐣 @bfry1981 I read your new analysis on the “hard voter data” and as a systems analyst, I found it convincing though I want to read it carefully again. I will post a link in the morning. I left a donation. I’ve been obsessed with @SimonWDC’s data but was concerned the extra early votes …
⋙ 🐣 @bfry1981 might just be taken from Election Day votes, but you addressed that with the Pew data. I hope this will help esp Fetterman, Hassan, Kelly, and Warnock, which would be enough. I think Mandela Barnes and Tim Ryan (who I like a lot) are out; the polling gaps are too wide

🐣 The GOP won’t do anything about:
Crime (voted vs extra cops)
Immigration (torpedoed last attempt to fix it)
Inflation (voted vs windfall profits tax)
But they WILL:
Pare back Mcare & Soc Security, increase your taxes, ban abortion & gay rights, side w Russia, weaken democracy

🐣 RT @MorningConsult Our recent data shows that the potential for crossover support in the #midterms is largest in New Hampshire, with a quarter of voters approving of the job performance of both Sen. Maggie Hassan (D) and Gov. Chris Sununu (R). https://morningconsult.biz/3Vgl3iC
📊 https://twitter.com/MorningConsult/status/1589866561996984320?s=20/photo/1
// Also: Kemp plus Warnock

WaPo: Russia’s heavy casualties in Ukraine spark outcry and rare official response https://tinyurl.com/4ck4zchr ‘Steep Russian casualties in key battles in eastern Ukraine have prompted an unusual public outcry by surviving soldiers who say their units were led to slaughter’

🐣 RT @PhillipsPOBrien This seems like a particularly horrible phase of the war, Russia is rushing many of its draftees to the front lines and the Ukrainians are looking for groups of them to hit.
⋙ 🐣 RT @KyivIndependent Ukraine hits 17 concentrations of Russian troops in east ¤ Over the last day, Ukraine’s military struck 17 areas with Russian troops and military equipment, five command posts, and a Russian ammunition depot in Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts, Ukraine’s General Staff said.
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @KyivIndependent The Russian troops were based in Krasnohorivka, Bakhmut, Ivanhrad, Opytne, Klishchiivka, Maryinka, Pavlivka, Vodyane, and Mayorsk in the Donetsk Oblast and Belohorivka in Luhansk Oblast, the General Staff said.
◕ https://twitter.com/Zettelnotizen/status/1589623134495608832?s=20/photo/1
// separate chart show huge increase in Russians killed, heavy equipment lost

🐣 RT @WarMonitor3 In my view Ukrainian command did a perfect job this summer. ¤ Froze the frontline across most of the southern and eastern frontlines. ¤ Counterattacked around Kherson and Kharkiv changing the initiative. ¤ Made Russian forces get bogged down in brutal combat around Bakhmut.
⋙ 🐣 RT @WarMonitor3 Russian forces are now digging in heavily around Zaporizhzhia frontline and are throwing everything they have at Bakhmut. ¤ Since Russian forces don’t have another direction of attack on Kramatorsk the capture of Bakhmut is completely useless militarily.
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @andrenaleen I don’t believe there is going to be a pause this winter. Both sides are on the clock, and Ukraine is much better equipped for it, thanks to the Allies. ¤ Entrenched, rotation-free RU forces are going to be miserable.

🐣 📋 RT @general_ben Russia has a massive personnel problem…no Russian wants to be in the Russian Army now. 500K military age males fled the country to avoid mobilization. Different ethnic groups in Russia reconsidering their role. Meanwhile Ukraine has 700K in uniform. I like Ukraine’s chances! […]
⋙ 🐣 RT @gennchappell13 This gentleman also seems to hold an outdated view of war in which waves of infantry are dispositive. But times & the implements of battle have evolved, & even in the old days, vast numerical advantage could be and often was blunted by superior tactics, strategy, & intel.

🐣 RT @mattyglesias The GOP operative class is younger, better educated, and more urban than the national average which means their intuitions pull the party to the center. ¤ The Dem operative class is also younger, better educated, and more urban but that means their biases pull Dems off-center.
⋙ 🐣 ”Operative class” is an odd expression. I’m sure the crew of staffers are well-educated, a new generation of Rogers Stones, Paul Manaforts, Lee Atwoods and Steve Bannons. It takes cleverness to concoct the schemes and cosplays for the unwashed rubes they prey upon:
◕ https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1589864142751440897?s=20/photo/1
// education by political party
⋙⋙ 🐣 I wonder which operative came up with “Ron DeSanctimonious” because it sure as hell wasn’t Trump

🐣 RT @marceelias No need to clone, I have an excellent team. Thank you for your support and kind words.🙏
⋙. 🐣 RT @harrylitman Just wish we could clone @marceelias. He and his team beat back 6 or so challenges today alone—cynical lawless R maneuvers to selectively disenfranchise Ds.That’s the good news. The bad news is they have lots more plans for the coming days, inc giving a false impression of fraud.

🐣 RT @MSNBC Chris Hayes: “If Republicans retake the House, the entire conference, or at least the overwhelming majority of it, will take its marching orders from Trump.” https://on.msnbc.com/3TaBQ4B
💽 https://twitter.com/MSNBC/status/1589820143789494272?s=20p/photo/1
⋙ 🐣 welcome to the co-presidency🫣

🐣 RT @judgeluttig The National Constitution Center honored Ukraine President Zelenskyy with the Center’s Liberty Medal tonight. The ceremony in Philadelphia was magnificent. Senators Coons and Portman actually awarded the medal to Zelenskyy in Kiev, where Zelenskyy made extensive remarks
⋙ 🐣 RT @ConstitutionCtr .@ConstitutionCtr President and CEO @RosenJeffrey delivers remarks from columnist @GeorgeWill: “We are here today to salute [President Zelenskyy] for making vivid two essential virtues: stubborn bravery [and] unapologetic patriotism.” #LibertyMedal

TheAtlantic, Tom Nichols: Elon. Trump. (and Kanye and Putin): Resentment. https://tinyurl.com/2p8tddsk “Musk just lit $44 billion, with a B, on fire so that he could be a hero to an army of trolls that continues to goad him into doing even dumber things”
// A combination more powerful than one might think

🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer KHERSON CITY/ 7 NOV/ Dressed in civilian clothes, RU troops continue to construct urban strongpoints and fighting positions in the city. Mass searches and arrests continue as RU troops attempt to identify Partisans in the urban area.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1589606125074518022?s=20/photo/1

🧵 RT @TheRickWilson 1/ So here it is. He’s back, and people are finally realizing that no amount of “He’s the Former Guy” wishcasting was going to work. ¤ No amount of “He CAN’T run if he’s under indictment” copium is changing the grim reality of our world now. ¤ Will it be tonight at 8pm?
📌 https://twitter.com/TheRickWilson/status/1589766502529441794?s=20

2/ Lucy, football. Or maybe he’ll cry havoc and let slip to mooks of war. Nothing — save a shark attack, a meteor strike, or a medical crisis was ever going to stop his return. ¤ Already, the replay of 2016 is in full flood. The Good Republicans, that vanishing tribe…

3/ …are convinced the GOP is ready to move one [on?]. Ready to leave Trump behind. Ready for Ron or Glenn or someone, ANYONE else but the gibbering umber golem. ¤ It’s only demonstrates how profoundly they misread the MAGA takeover then, and now.

4/ There is no GOP primary. Stop imagining a white (very) knight riding to the rescue. You think a mumbling podge like Ron DeSantis wants to have Trump jape and caper while beating him to death in debate after debate after debate? ¤ If they talk him into running, it’s malpractice.

5/ The GOP primary is all humiliation kabuki, a searing exercise in masochism (which is why Cotton not running surprises me, iykwim) and fuckery. ¤ It won’t stop reporters from covering it as if its a real thing, but it’s performance art from people angling for 2028.

6/ Brief break while I take some lamb out of the oven.

7/ It’s Trump’s need for this moment and attention that makes him a stronger competitor than anyone else in the field. ¤ Do you still think there’s a person underneath there? There isn’t. It’s just an ebon maw, an endless void of narcissism and sociopathy.

8/ it will be worse this time. More cruel. More insane. More conspiratorial. His devoted followers and Trumphadi shock troops of the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers et al view this is an all or nothing battle for control. ¤ Watch for all the schemers like Bannon to return to the fold.

9/ he is most certainly beatable, but if Democrats, independents, NT, reporters, and activists go into 2023 thinking they have a year off, think again. ¤ The dumbest premise of 2016 was “my guy can wait until X takes out Trump” and by then they were all PTSDed.

10/ Already, you can sense the tidal gravity of media attention turning back to him. As @stuartpstevens ¤ is fond of saying, “The greatest danger is not realizing what’s the greatest danger. ¤ It’s Trump. ¤ And he’s back. ¤ Get ready, because this will be one hell of a fight.

🐣 RT @atrupar Trump lawyer Christina Bobb previews that MAGAs will try to declare victory as votes are being counted: “There should absolutely be a result no later than the middle of the night, early Wed. morning. I think those areas that don’t have a result, it’s gonna look very suspicious”
💽 https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1589772135815577600?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @ProjectLincoln A #RedMirage is on the horizon. ¤ Republicans will attempt to call the election before every mail-in ballot is counted. They’ll do everything in their power to stop the vote counting.
⋙ 🐣 … Trump just has to wave his ✨magic wand✨ over the vote totals at midnight and that’s who won!
easy-peasy ~ just like declassifying documents

TheGuardian: ‘We were completely exposed’: Russian conscripts say hundreds killed in attack https://tinyurl.com/yc6ps8ay Despite obscene losses among barely trained and ill-supplied men, Putin hails the success of his mobilization of 318,000 new troops for the war
// Survivor tells of being abandoned to attack near Makiivka, as anger grows in Russia over death toll from war

🐣 RT @JuliaDavisNews Meanwhile in Russia: Kremlin-funded state TV explains why they’re rooting for MAGA Republicans in the midterms and reveal the key talking points their trolls and useful idiots will be spreading to undermine Biden and the Democrats.
💽 https://twitter.com/JuliaDavisNews/status/1588218623868297217?s=20/photo/1

WaPo, Aaron Blake: Some Democrats see momentum in 2022 early vote. Here are the caveats https://tinyurl.com/yxrjze3e Early voting is up in many states and Democrats are doing well, but a lot has changed since 2018, and extrapolating from these numbers is difficult

WaPo, Max Boot: Putin just backtracked under pressure. That’s a hopeful sign for Ukraine https://tinyurl.com/2p84xxh4 “Instead of squeezing Kyiv, the Biden admin should be doing its utmost to persuade New Delhi, Ankara and Beijing to influence Putin to end his unprovoked invasion”

🐣 RT @ABlackPolitical On May 19th of this year every single Republican in the US House of Representatives voted no on a gas price gouging bill that would have reduced costs at the pump. ¤ Republicans continue to complain about this, even though they are the cause. See receipt below. #VoteBlueTomorrow
¤ https://twitter.com/ABlackPolitical/status/1589688423979560960?s=20/photo/1
// photo C-SPAN House vote totals

🐣 RT @DemocracyDocket ALERT: The U.S. Department of Justice announces it will send election monitors to ensure compliance with federal voting laws to polling locations in 67 jurisdictions in 24 states, including Maricopa County, AZ, Harris County, TX and Fulton County, GA.

🐣 RT @MuellerSheWrote Rumor has it Donald is going to announce today during the JD Vance rally. He probably thinks this will protect him from indictment. It won’t.

🐣 RT @ kylegriffin1 Yevgeny Prigozhin, the oligarch known as ‘Putin’s chef’, says he has interfered in U.S. elections and will continue doing so: ¤ “We have interfered [in U.S. elections], we are interfering and we will continue to interfere. Carefully, accurately, surgically and in our own way.”

🐣 RT @JuliaDavisNews Meanwhile in Russia: husband of the head of RT Margarita Simonyan, Tigran Keosayan (a propagandist in his own right, albeit not nearly as popular as his wife), argues that nuclear threats/strikes are the way to go. He compares Russia to Tatar Mongols, arguing that might is right.
💽 [tr] https://twitter.com/JuliaDavisNews/status/1589680357380861958?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @ thedailybeast “I think it was stupid to go into the Capitol. One, because it wasn’t our mission. And two, it opened the door for our political enemies to persecute us. And that’s what happened and here we are,” Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes said on the stand.
⋙ DailyBeast: Oath Keeper Boss Does His Best to Wipe Hands of Capitol Riot https://tinyurl.com/mr24znke
// Stewart Rhodes claimed Monday that he never intended for his militia members to get “wrapped up into all the nonsense with Trump supporters.”

🐣 RT @NOELreports Russian mobilized soldiers, captured by the 92nd brigade turned out to be Muscovites. They didn’t eat for three days and they were fired upon by their own artillery.
💽 https://twitter.com/NOELreports/status/1589699023950467072?s=20/photo/1

Fortune: U.S. companies post their biggest profit growth in decades by jacking up prices during the pandemic https://tinyurl.com/5n6dmw6d //➔ Every Republican voted AGAINST a tax on windfall profits intended to stifle price-gouging
◕ https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1589701326459441152?s=20/photo/1
// 3/31/2022; inflation profits

🐣 RT @NoLieWithBTC .@BernieSanders: “Why is it that in Europe, inflation is at 11%? You think that’s Joe Biden’s fault? In the UK, it’s at 10.1%. And it is higher in many parts of the world than it is in the US… The major reason for inflation today is the outrageous level of corporate greed.”
💽 https://twitter.com/NoLieWithBTC/status/1589677787644039168?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @AymanMSNBC “The GOP has become a fascist-style party,” @ruthbenghiat tells @AymanM in discussing the hallmarks of far-right authoritarian movements, namely hyper-nationalism, disdain for minority rights, an obsession with crime, and a reluctance to condemn political violence. WATCH:
💽 https://twitter.com/AymanMSNBC/status/1589424075931279360?s=20gphoto/1

TheGuardian: Putin ally Yevgeny Prigozhin admits interfering in US elections https://tinyurl.com/5n6kndv7 “‘Gentlemen, we interfered, we are interfering and we will interfere’ Prigozhin … has been accused of running a ‘troll factory’ to influence the outcome of votes”
// Russian businessman and founder of Wagner group says interfering will continue as midterms loom

🐣 RT @RussianEmbassy [UK] President #Putin: Much in the West today is determined by radical-liberal agenda. To suit it, key historical events are presented in completely distorted & inverted form, truth is cancelled. This distorts people’s consciousness, erodes values and undermines their footing in life.
⋙ 🐣 This is clearly part of the Russian campaign to influence the US Midterm elections. There are too many buzzwords specific to the US. This is illegal election interference.
¤ https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1589638928612855811?s=20/photo/1
// Statue of Liberty drawing sword
⋙ 🐣 Putin’s thinking cap #fail makes him think #TerroristState Russia can lecture the West about values (like genocide, torture and rape, apparently)
¤ https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1589642902694920192?s=20/photo/1
// Putin Rasputin (raspberry head)

WaPo: Republicans sue to disqualify thousands of mail ballots in swing states https://tinyurl.com/evrm3rds “The potential for chaos is especially high in Pennsylvania, where the legal fight is ongoing and could … determine control of the U.S. Senate”
// The lawsuits coincide with a systemic effort by GOP leaders to persuade voters to cast ballots in person, not absentee

🧵 RT @SimonWDC Happy Monday all!
Been a good few days, Ds closing strong:
– Ds big early vote lead keeps growing
– Ralston calls NV for Cortez Masto
– Last 6 non-partisan natl tracks have Ds up 1.5 pts
– Ds favored to keep Senate in non-partisan polls
– red wave may come, not here yet 1/
📌 https://twitter.com/SimonWDC/status/1589594489739321344?s=20

🐣 RT @ BradBeauregardJ On Last Week Tonight, John Oliver shows how the Republican Party had people at every level trying to overturn the 2020 election and they’re running for office at every level all over the country. ¤ This is the most important election of our lives and we must get out the vote huge!

🐣 RT @DefenceHQ [UK] Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine
– 07 November 2022
Find out more about the UK government’s response: http://ow.ly/lwOq50LvHl0 p
¤ 🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦
[TextLink:] /photo/1 https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1589506717326651392?s=20/photo/1

INTELLIGENCE UPDATE

On 03 November 2022, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, stated that Russia had lost over twice the number of aircraft in Ukraine than in the Soviet-Afghan War. This amounts to 278 aircraft lost in Ukraine compared to 119 in Afghanistan.

Whilst we cannot independently verify these figures, Russia’s continued lack of air superiority is likely exacerbated by poor training, loss of experienced crews, and heightened risks of conducting close air support in dense air defence zones.

This is unlikely to change in the next few months. Russia’s aircraft losses likely significantly outstrip their capacity to manufacture new airframes. The time required for the training of competent pilots further reduces Russia’s ability to regenerate combat air capability.

⭕ 6 Nov 2022

🧵 RT @ Trump is holding a rally in Miami, Florida. Follow along for a live thread.
📌 https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1589367862023819265?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @SpencerGuard “DNR military commander Aleksandr Khodakovsky claimed that Russian friendly fire may have caused up to 60% of total Russian losses since mid-May.” Highly unlikely to be true, but if so, whatever works @TheStudyofWar #UkraineRussiaWar
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/SpencerGuard/status/1589343126212481024?s=20/photo/1

[Text:] Key Takeaways
• Wagner Group financier Yevheniy Prigozhin seeks to obfuscate his efforts to strengthen his independent power base with an appeal to the concept of Russia’s historic unity.
• Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian confirmed that Iran began providing Russia drones before February 24, but strangely denied that Russian forces have used them in combat.
• DR military commander Aleksandr Khodakovsky claimed that Russian friendly fire may have caused up to 60% of total Russian losses since mid-May.
• Ukrainian troops reportedly continued counteroffensives along the Svatove-Kreminna line.
• Russian forces continued to set up defensive positions along the Dnipro River.
• Ukrainian forces continued to target Russian logistics and transportation in Kherson Oblast.
• Russian forces continued to attack around Bakhmut and claimed unspecified advances.
• Russian forces continued unsuccessful offensive operations in the Avdiivka-Donetsk City area and in western Donetsk.
• Continued poor conditions for mobilized soldiers catalyzed a large-scale protest in Kazan.
• Unknown actors reportedly attempted to assassinate high-profile Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR) Supreme Court Judge Aleksandr Nikulin.
• Russia continues to deploy personnel to staff administrative positions in occupied areas. Russian forces continued mass evacuations in
• Kherson Oblast. Over 80% of Kherson residents reportedly have been evacuated.

🐣 RT @Euan_MacDonald In Ukraine, we’re not afraid of cruise missiles. ¤ We’re not afraid of Iranian Shahed flying bombs. ¤ We’re not scared by Putin’s nuclear bomb threats.s The only thing we’re scared of, is that you, the civilized world, stops supporting us. ¤ Please, don’t make us scared.

🐣 RT @Kasparov63 If you ever doubt the importance of doing everything possible to support Ukraine, just look at the people against it. You immediately doubt their motives, their sanity, or, as in this case, both.
⋙ 🐣 RT @BillKristol [MTG:] “Under Republicans not another penny will go to Ukraine.”To @GOPLeader: Is this in fact the position of House Republicans? Is @RepMTG the de facto GOP Leader? ¤ h/t @Acyn
💽 https://twitter.com/BillKristol/status/1588300985482764288?s=20/photo/1
⋙⋙ 🐣 sickening: she is the worst of the worst and McCarthy will do anything for power ~ even elevating her

🧵 RT @ChrisO_wiki 1/ The Russian news outlet Verstka reported yesterday that hundreds of mobilised Russian soldiers have died on the front line. TV Rain has independently corroborated it, reporting that officers told the men “You are meat, that’s why you were brought here.” Translation follows.
📌 https://twitter.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1589355678770290688?s=20

🐣 RT @ criticalthreats #Russian sources claimed that Ukrainian forces continued counteroffensive operations in the direction of #Svatove and #Kreminna.
🌎 https://twitter.com/criticalthreats/status/1589440872265191424?s=20/photo/1
// ISW map

🐣 RT @nytimes Researchers have identified a new and more narrowly targeted Russian misinformation effort ahead of Tuesday’s midterms. It appears intended to not only undermine the U.S. electoral system, but also the Biden administration’s military assistance to Ukraine.
⋙ NYT: Russia Reactivates Its Trolls and Bots Ahead of Tuesday’s Midterms https://tinyurl.com/3p49w9rr Putin is betting big on #MAGA isolationism and Tucker Carlson’s overt pro-Russian propaganda
// Researchers have identified a series of Russian information operations to influence American elections and, perhaps, erode support for Ukraine.

The account was previously linked to the same secretive Russian agency that interfered in the 2016 presidential election and again in 2020, the Internet Research Agency in St. Petersburg, according to the cybersecurity group Recorded Future.

It is part of what the group and other researchers have identified as a new, though more narrowly targeted, Russian effort ahead of Tuesday’s midterm elections. The goal, as before, is to stoke anger among conservative voters and to undermine trust in the American electoral system. This time, it also appears intended to undermine the Biden administration’s extensive military assistance to Ukraine. ¤ “It’s clear they are trying to get them to cut off aid and money to Ukraine,” said Alex Plitsas [#Fella], a former Army soldier and Pentagon information operations official now with Providence Consulting Group, a business technology company. ¤ The campaign — using accounts that pose as enraged Americans like Nora Berka — have added fuel to the most divisive political and cultural issues in the country today. …

It has specifically targeted Democratic candidates in the most contested races, including the Senate seats up for grabs in Ohio, Arizona and Pennsylvania, calculating that a Republican majority in the Senate and the House of Representatives could help the Russian war effort. ¤ The campaigns show not only how vulnerable the American political system remains to foreign manipulation but also how purveyors of disinformation have evolved and adapted to efforts by the major social media platforms to remove or play down false or deceoptive content. …

⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @ZaleskyLuke it should trouble every american that the right wing and trump are in absolute sync (and have been) with putin. their talking points and anti-democratic actions and agendas are antagonistic to the rule of law and ongoing–and have led to two impeachments and an attack on congress

🐣 RT @MeidasTouch NEW VIDEO with @CAPAction Here are the facts: Republican-led states have much HIGHER crime rates than Democratic-led states. This is not a game. #MAGALiesCostLives
💽 https://twitter.com/MeidasTouch/status/1589407548817346561?s=20/photo/1
// game show format with Trump Cruz Rubio and fact-checks

🧵 RT @TimothyDSnyder I have been hearing the idea from some Republicans that Ukrainian resistance comes at a cost to Americans. Nothing could be more wrong. Ukrainian resistance provides extraordinary security benefits to Americans. 1/
📌 https://twitter.com/TimothyDSnyder/status/1589260108537610240?s=20

In fact, Ukraine’s resistance to Russia’s genocidal invasion does more for American security than any American policy does – or could do. It has changed the global balance in a way that makes peace more likely in decades to come. 2/

Republicans present China as America’s real, long-term rival. Democrats agree. The scenario for a U.S.-China war is a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. By resisting a Russian invasion, Ukrainians have shown the difficulty of such operations, making this scenario less likely. 3/

By fighting in self-defense, Ukrainians have thus reduced the risk of a major war and of a nuclear war. This extraordinary achievement is due to the courage and skill of Ukrainians. They do not get much credit for it. They should get more credit, and more support. 4/

For decades, Republican and Democratic administrations alike have failed to formulate a policy that could prevent Russia from weakening and undoing the international order. Russia serves as a cat’s paw, doing what China would not wish to be seen doing. 5/

In defeating Russia’s armed forces and exposing Russia’s weakness, the Ukrainians have both made a larger war in Europe far less likely, and gotten China’s cat’s paw under control. 6/

The Ukrainians have reduced the possibility of Chinese aggression through Russia, and made direct Chinese aggression less likely. They have done all of this just by defending themselves, without making any move against China. 7/

Without the Ukrainians, the United States would lack the policy instruments for this. By resisting, Ukrainians created an opportunity for U.S. policy that would not otherwise have existed. 8/

No American lives have been placed at risk. U.S. assistance to Ukraine amounts to a rounding error in the defense budget. 9/

The gains Ukrainian resistance brings to American security are so enormous that the US national security establishment is embarrassed to speak of them directly. 10/

It is awkward to say that another country is doing so much for us. It is awkward to say that Ukrainian resistance has done more for the safety of Americans than any U.S. policy since the end of the cold war. But it is true and must be said. 11/

Reversing the U.S. policy of aiding Ukraine will undo all of these gains. There is still time to revive Russia and reassure China, which is what ending support of Ukraine will mean. Such a policy reversal would make Americans far less safe and secure. 12/

My concerns about the Russian invasion of Ukraine are the prevention of genocide and the defense of democracy. But those who think first of U.S. interests should acknowledge what Ukrainians are doing for American security. The least we can do is be on our own side 13/13

💙🐣 RT @CBSSunday Historian Jon Meacham on how the 16th president faced an election during the Civil War, when the continuation of democracy was still an open question – and how it resonates with the first post-insurrection midterm election. https://cbsn.ws/3t0SUz4
💽 https://twitter.com/CBSSunday/status/1589278852337000448?s=20/photo/1

YahooNews/TheHill: RNC chair says committee can’t pay Trump’s legal bills if he announces 2024 run https://tinyurl.com/2p9absac Oh my ~ trouble in paradise?

🐣 RT @ RonFilipkowski At Michael Flynn and Eric Trump’s ‘Reawaken America’ event, they struck the ground with imaginary arrows 7 times to call upon God to bring victory to the Republican Party in the midterms.
📌 💽 https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1589232505584254977?s=20/photo/1
// comments on evangelical cults and mixing with MAGA movement

🐣 RT @ ChuckPfarrer BURN RATE: Ukraine has adapted NATO’s AGM-88 High Speed Anti-Radiation (HARM) missile to take out RU air defenses. UKR pilots flying Suppression of enemy Air Defense (SEAD) missions have taken out more than 200 RU surface air missile systems.
◕ https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1589316344897732608?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @SimonWDC The huge Dem performance in the early vote is the biggest and most important story in American politics right now.
⋙ 🐣 📊 RT @SimonWDC Got our late Sat TargetEarly update:
– Despite electorate being older and whiter than 18/20, Ds lead 50-39 in early vote. That’s 10 pts better than 18, 3 pts better than 20. We have a 4.2m vote lead
– D energy we saw in 5 House specials/Kansas is showing up in the election 1/
¤ https://twitter.com/SimonWDC/status/1589217947998093313?s=20

🐣 RT @BillKristol Hey, don’t want to interrupt my Democratic friends when they’re engaged in their favorite sports of The Gnashing of Teeth and The Tearing of Garments, but it looks as if the Democratic Party will have the best midterm performance by a party in the White House in two decades.

🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer KHERSON/1400 UTC 6 NOV/ Russian combat engineers are working to establish defensive positions & atrillery fire bases on the S. bank of the Dnipro River. Partisans and UKR SOF identify RU troop concentration in Chulanivka; UKR precision strike munitions score direct hits.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1589256103409614849?s=20A/photo/1

🐣 RT @DefenseU [Ua] The cemetery of russian missiles and ammunition. They used to shell Kharkiv with it. ¤ This is what thousands of rotten teeth of a dying empire, a terrorist state, look like.
💽 https://twitter.com/DefenceU/status/1585736594186698752?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @uasupport999 BREAKING: information confirmed by wives of Russian mobilised, who complain that a battalion of their men went without preparation & immediately into battle. Only 41 survived, 500 died. ¤ Recently mobilized in Voronezh & liquidated in the Luhansk region, reported by RosSMI.
💽 https://twitter.com/uasupport999/status/1589246157687226368?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @uasupport999 This is how the building of the regional administration of Kherson, looted by the orcs, looks like now – they took out absolutely everything, including toilet bowls. ¤ #UkraineRussianWar #Ukraine #Kherson #RussiaisATerroistState
💽 https://twitter.com/uasupport999/status/1589243245741379584?s=20/photo/1

🧵 PewRsrch (6/30/2020): Behind Biden’s 2020 Victory https://tinyurl.com/2p85vu3z Some interesting charts from the last three election, including the 2018 Midterm; a thread 1/8
// 6/30/2020; An examination of the 2020 electorate, based on validated voters
📌 https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1589236517578231809?s=20

PewRsrch (2020): Behind Biden’s 2020 Victory https://tinyurl.com/2p85vu3z Biden’s voters were more racially and ethnically diverse than Trump’s, but GOP voters slightly less likely to be White 2/8
◕ https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1589236522834071552?s=20/photo/1
PewRsrch (2020): Behind Biden’s 2020 Victory https://tinyurl.com/2p85vu3z A higher share of Biden’s voters were from suburban areas compared with Clinton; meanwhile, the GOP is losing suburban voters 3/8
◕ https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1589236527153889280?s=20/photo/1
PewRsrch (2020): Behind Biden’s 2020 Victory https://tinyurl.com/2p85vu3z Differences in educational attainment of Trump, Biden coalitions: Close to half of Democratic voters had college degrees 4/8
◕ https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1589236531751190532?s=20/photo/1
PewRsrch (2020): Behind Biden’s 2020 Victory https://tinyurl.com/2p85vu3z Whites college/no college: Democrats are losing the White working class to Republicans but do better with college-educated Whites 5/8
◕ https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1589236536561741824?s=20/photo/1
PewRsrch (2020): Behind Biden’s 2020 Victory https://tinyurl.com/2p85vu3z Nearly half of Biden’s voters were younger than 50 6/8
◕ https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1589236541796548608?s=20/photo/1
PewRsrch (2020): Behind Biden’s 2020 Victory https://tinyurl.com/2p85vu3z The gender gap narrowed among White voters ~ will the reversal of Roe change this? 7/8
◕ https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1589236547911847936?s=20/photo/1
PewRsrch (2021j: White evangelical Protestants constituted roughly a third of voters for Republican candidates in the past three elections https://tinyurl.com/3n8u2rv6 8/8
// 6/28/2022
◕ https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1589236553351852038?s=20/photo/1

KyivPost, Iuliia Mendel: Always Remember What Putin Represents and why his Russia has to be Defeated https://tinyurl.com/57s3e6j2 Iuliia Mendel, former press secy to Volodymyr Zelenskyy, recounts Trump’s attempt to blackmail Ukraine. She also gives her firsthand impression of Putin

🐣 RT @wartranslated Summary of the daily livestream with Aleksey Arestovych for 5 November, kindly brought to you by Janat: @Janat_H1 https://tinyurl.com/fb7b5au6
Battlefield Update: A series of unsuccessful RU attacks in various locations. The front line shows only small, tactical-level changes. …

🐣 RT @Flash_news_ua ⚡️ Reuters: The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, on Saturday issued an open letter to Elon Musk, the new owner of Twitter Inc, urging him to “ensure human rights are central to the management of Twitter

⭕ 5 Nov 2022

🐣 RT @RadioFreeTom OMG. I laughed. Hard. So did Lynn. Well played. :D
⋙ 🐣 RT @kcwilson781 RadioFreeTom Reacts to Twitter’s Plan to Charge for Verified Accounts @RadioFreeTom (you may have to hit the refresh for video to play) https://tinyurl.com/3zs6hkaz

🐣 RT @ CKlardek Russia is run by the Soviet-era KGB. All the rebranding, fake party politics, new nationalism, Russian Orthodox blessings of genocide, holy wars and tyranny – it’s all just part of the KGB-crafted deception. Just like the retreat from Kherson, nothing is real.

🐣 RT @Lorelei_0502 Perhaps next Ramstaine should be held somewhere in #Bakhmut, #Avdiivka, #Mariinka, or #Vugledar, on the line that Ukrainians call “0”. Receiving the first hand experience of what hell on earth really is, would surely speed up the delivery of ATACMS, Lepards, Abrams, F-15, etc.

🐣 RT @tupayaskotina The reason why 🇷🇺 wants Bakhmut is the city’s name. Between 1924-2015 it was called Artemivsk, a commie name. Feb,14 🇷🇺 captured it but July,14 🇺🇦 recaptured it. As a grand decommunization gesture & FU to putin 🇺🇦 renamed it Bakhmut. Prighozin to gift it to Putler for more power

🐣 RT @LvivJournal Bakhmut. The remains of the ruzZian army after their attempted breakthrough #lviv #kherson #Bakhmut
💽 https://twitter.com/LvivJournal/status/1588947949727645696?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @ benbvi3ws TRANSLATION : ⚠️If the Russian Federation succeeds in its plan to seize Bakhmut and Soledar, they will go on to Kramatorsk and Slavyansk‼️[links]
¤ https://twitter.com/benbvi3ws/status/1589075701000544256?s=20

🐣 RT @KSwaggest Kherson was always going to be a slog, all that open ground to take. Luckily Ukraine is making progress and Russias losses seem higher with 5000 dead in the last wk which is prob attributed to the mobiks. A whole Ru BTG got wiped out near Svatove Nov 2nd all mobiks from same town

🐣 RT @mhmck The Armed Forces of Ukraine have advanced to the village of Ploshchanka in Luhansk region and are 2 kilometres away from the Svatove-Kreminna highway in this sector of the battlefront. ¤ The Russian fascist invaders shelled Ukrainian positions near Ploshchanka today. 1/2
🌎 https://twitter.com/mhmck/status/1588953300841336833?s=20/photo/1
⋙ 🐣 RT @mhmck As well as Ploshchanka, the rashists shelled Makiyivka and Nevs’ke in Luhansk region, Kyslivka and Tabayivka in Kharkiv region, and Yampolivka and Tors’ke in Donetsk region. ¤ –General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine operational information at 18:00 on 5 November 2022 2/2
🌎 https://twitter.com/mhmck/status/1588954012908654593?s=20/photo/1

🐣 It’s well known that the GOP appeals to fear. Research has shown that conservatives have larger amygdalae, the “fear center” of the brain. How does this start? Possibly, it starts here ⬇️ (Wikipedia)
🌎 https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1589120668280717313?s=20/photo/1
// Corporal punishment US and Europe

🐣 RT @ @apmassaro3 Expressing a willingness to negotiate with Russia prolongs the war. Russia views it as weakness

🐣 RT @JuliaDavisNews Meanwhile on Russian state TV: Andrey Kartapolov, head of the State Duma Committee on Defense, claims that Russia “surprised” everyone with its invasion of Ukraine. He spews the usual nuclear threats, but host Vladimir Solovyov spoils them with concerns about Russia’s economy.
💽 [tr] https://twitter.com/JuliaDavisNews/status/1588989746520666112?s=20/photo/1
⋙ 🐣 RT @JuliaDavisNews [still: Solovyov: “We can’t win”]
¤ https://twitter.com/JuliaDavisNews/status/1588989746520666112?s=20/photo/1
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @WandererSmurf A really interesting clip Julia. ¤ Years of utterly corrupt practices & bad planning have left Russia unable to conduct a prolonged war. It is finally dawning on some of them that they are incapable of matching their opponents industrial & logistical armaments capacity to win.

🧵 RT @ulrichspeck The most dangerous wrong idea of our times? ¤ Ruling elites in Russia and China have convinced themselves that only America stands in the way of their dream: to run an empire and to rule the world.
📌 https://twitter.com/ulrichspeck/status/1588123148335329280?s=20
⋙ 🐣 RT @ulrichspeck The truth is that nobody wants to be ruled by Russia or China. That’s why they have to resort to aggression. ¤ Which has set in motion plenty of counter-moves by countries in their respective neighborhoods.
⋙ 🐣 RT @ulrichspeck It is not America that stands in their way, it is the people in the countries they want to dominate. ¤ Blaming America is an easy excuse for Russia’s and China’s failure to make the countries they want to see in their “sphere” an attractive offer. […]

🐣 RT @mccaffreyr3 These fellows are a recruiting nightmare. The 18 year old young men will be glad to learn they are expendable. It is quite true that Russia has a severe healthcare disaster…. in particular with men. Alcohol abuse is chronic to Russian culture.
⋙ 🐣 RT @JuliaDavisNews Meanwhile in Russia: a pundit argues that younger men should be trained and sent into combat, so there are no widows or children to pay when they get killed. Another argument is that Russians over 40 are too worn out by alcohol consumption to run, jump or be any good in combat.
💽 [tr] https://twitter.com/JuliaDavisNews/status/1589035403105173504?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer KHERSON/ OO30 UTC 6 NOV/ RU is planning the withdrawal to the S. bank of the Dnipro River. This long-delayed move will require retreating RU units to synchronize complex retrograde maneuvers. Any RU miscues in this intricate evolution will be quickly seized upon by UKR forces.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1589046216830382080?s=20&/photo/1
⋙ 🐣 RT @RealMaxNeville
⋙⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @MrKovalenko 1/ Russian forces in the #Kherson region are trying to fool #Ukrainians that they are retreating. In fact, they’re preparing strongholds/traps for urban fighting with artillery support from the eastern riverbank, said spox of the Ukr South Command Natalya Gumeniuk of Ukr TV.
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrerHi Max. I’ve often said on @MriyaReport that UKR is highly unlikely to enter Kherson city to engage in a costly urban fight. The ‘money’ is to be made harrying retreating RU forces, and shelling them as they pile up against the river. Best to you !

🐣 RT @IgnatiusPost Must read on Ukraine by @washingtonpost team — U.S. privately asks Ukraine to show it’s open to negotiate with Russia
⋙ WaPo: WaPo: U.S. privately asks Ukraine to show it’s open to negotiation with Russia https://tinyurl.com/5csujxt7
// The encouragement is aimed not at pushing Ukraine to the negotiating table but ensuring it maintains a moral high ground in the eyes of its backers.
⋙⋙ likely why @JakeSullivan46 was there; better idea: @POTUS should get an NSAdvisor who’s not afraid of his own shadow
#KhersonIsUkraine
#ZaporizhzhiaIsUkraine
#CrimeaIsUkraine
#DonetskIsUkraine
#LuhanskIsUkraine
#KharkivIsUkraine
#SlavaUkraïni

🐣 RT @SpencerGuard Wow. Russian “mobilization” is turning into Russian slaughter.
⋙ 🐣 RT @MrKovalenko A survived Russian mobilized soldier Alexei Agafonov told RU media Verstka how his entire battalion of more than 500 poorly equipped men died under Ukrainian artillery fire near Svatove, Luhansk region on Nov 1-2. They had only 3 shovels to dig trenches… [link Ru]

🐣 RT @Angry_Staffer Wow. One of Obama’s better endings, and THAT is saying something.
⋙ 🐣 RT @Acyn Strong finish
💽 https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1589030321424670724?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @CAPAction Dr. Oz said abortion should be up to “local political leaders.” ¤ “Are you going to petition the mayor? Are you calling the sheriff? City council member, school board?” – @BarackObama
💽 https://twitter.com/CAPAction/status/1589030918463066113?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @Acyn Obama: The presidency does not change who you are. You can tell by my successor. It didn’t change him.
💽 https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1589025496230133760?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @Acyn Obama: So that was their tactic in 2010. 2014, same playbook, tried to make you afraid of everything, you had a Ebola, ISIS, immigrants, and they were all coming to your neighborhood. It turned out that there was no ISIS fighters pouring across the border…
💽 https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1589024587102261249?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @atrupar Obama in Philadelphia on Republicans: “This is one of the only major parties worldwide that actively tries to discourage citizens from voting.”
💽 https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1589023406212644865?s=20/photo/1
⋙ 🐣 RT @atrupar Obama on GOP scare tactics: “10 years later, not a single person has faced a death panel from Obamacare. On the other hand, 35 million people now have health care coverage thanks to the Affordable Care Act.”
💽 https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1589024076634492929?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @amanpour Putin “has made it very clear that he sees this war [in Ukraine] as a war against democracy,” says historian @anneapplebaum – and other autocrats are on his side. “That’s why it’s so important that the democracies continue to fight back.”
💽 https://twitter.com/amanpour/status/1588603125073575939?s=20/photo/1

🐣 📋 RT @JayinKyiv So, at minimum 15,000,000 Russians have fled the country since February. ¤ That’s over 10% of the country.
⋙ 🐣 RT @christogrozev Interesting stats from Russia’s FSB; for once they might be believable: nearly 15 m (!) Russians left the country since the war began; this is more than 5 times more than same period last year. Primary (initial) destinations: Turkey, Georgia, Finland, Abkhazia and Kazakhstan.
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @christogrozev nearly 10 m left in Q3, double the number who left in Q2. The Q3 2021 number was 1.3 m

🐣 RT @TimothyDSnyder After dropping the previous propaganda about NATO and Nazis, Moscow now maintains that its war in Ukraine is justified by the presence of Satan.
⋙ Pravda[UA] (10/25): Russia’s Security Council claims there are “hundreds of sects” in Ukraine and demands “desatanisation” https://tinyurl.com/3h59342j

TheHill, Ariel Cohen and Vladislav Inozemtsev: How to expel Russia from the UN https://tinyurl.com/2p8dandu
// Ariel Cohen, Ph.D., is Senior Fellow, Non-Resident, at the Atlantic Council and Director, Energy, Growth, and Security Program, International Tax and Investment Center. Vladislav Inozemtsev, special adviser to the Middle East Media Research Institute’s (MEMRI) Russian Media Studies Project, is founder of Moscow-based Center for Post-Industrial Studies and a member of the Russian International Affairs Council

🧵 RT @LeeHudson_ Pentagon acquisition chief Bill LaPlante says Ukraine has helped him understand what really matters. “What really matters is production.” ¤ “We as a country did our best to not do production,” LaPlante said. […]
📌 https://twitter.com/LeeHudson_/status/1588614102586646528?s=20
⋙ 🐣 RT @LeeHudson_ Why can’t we produce Stingers faster? The line was shutdown in 2008. ¤ “We all did that,” LaPlante says meaning DoD and Capitol Hill. […]
⋙ 🐣 RT @LeeHudson_ “American equipment is the best in the world for this broken acquisition system, LaPlante says. ¤ “The tech bros aren’t helping us too much [in Ukraine],” LaPlante says
⋙ 🐣 RT @LeeHudson_ “The sausage making is still going on” but we need to do multiyear procurements for munitions, LaPlante says.

🐣 RT @mattyglesias About a third of Americans say it would be “very bad” to have a strong leader who doesn’t bother with elections. ¤ Slightly more people — including *most* with no post-secondary education — think this would be good.
◕ https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/1588881444231086081?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @ZelenskyyUa In 6 months, @u24_gov_ua united hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world in helping 🇺🇦. We are grateful to everyone for supporting our values, for believing in 🇺🇦 and our victory. We feel that the world is supporting 🇺🇦, and this gives us strength in our struggle.
💽 https://twitter.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1588865575282884608?s=20/photo/1
⋙ 🐣 RT @Allan_Straarup President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has shown himself to be a hero and a beacon of light in a time of darkness ¤ He has united the heroic Ukrainian people in their fight against the vicious and unprovoked Russian aggression
#SlavaUkraini
#StandWithUkraine
#UkraineUnderAttack

⭕ 4 Nov 2022

WaPo, Colbert King: Democrats learn the hard way: Internecine warfare is the deadliest https://tinyurl.com/mr34c6dj “[W]hat’s needed … is an agenda and leadership that unify and energize the Democratic spectrum, and which attract an American majority”
// We don’t know what will happen Tuesday. But we know how the Democrats got here.

🐣 RT @GlasnostGone Russia’s Ecocide in #Ukraine. The Oskil river reservoir is one huge ecosystem. Holding back the rivers water for around 85km, it’s home to countless wildlife, plants, trees etc. & it’s sandy beaches & water, is a huge tourist boom to the area. And Russia killed it.
🖼 https://twitter.com/GlasnostGone/status/1589173176625295360?s=20/photo/1 -4
⋙ 🐣 RT @DefenceU The russian occupiers staged a man-made natural disaster in the Kharkiv region. ¤ While retreating, they blew up the floodgates of the dam of the Oskil reservoir. The reservoir, which before the invasion was 85 km long and up to 4 km wide, is now completely shallow.
💽 https://twitter.com/DefenceU/status/1588649775393820672?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @ @bopanc China has warned Russia against threatening to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine, in a rare departure from its usual tacit support for Moscow. Via @WSJ
⋙ WSJ: China Rebukes Russia’s Nuclear Threats in Ukraine for First Time https://tinyurl.com/2p96jdjh
// Chinese leader Xi Jinping departed from his support for Moscow during talks with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz

🐣 RT @EndGameWW3 US nuclear forces chief says Ukraine ‘just the warmup’ for larger crisis ¤ “The big one is coming, and it isn’t going to be very long before we’re going to get tested in ways that we haven’t been tested a long time,” he said.
YahooNews: US nuclear forces chief says Ukraine ‘just the warmup’ for larger crisis https://tinyurl.com/49wfsahz
// The senior naval officer in charge of America’s nuclear triad says the current worldwide tensions sparked by Russia’s war against Ukraine could be the opening act for a larger conflict that the US must prepare for.
// US Strategic Command commander Admiral Charles Richard

🐣 RT @Kasparov63 I’ve been working for a Russia without Putin since 2001. My thoughts in this WSJ symposium on what may come after him, now that Putin’s end is in sharper focus than ever. The world, not just Russia, must be ready to act.
⋙⋙ WSJ, (Various): After Putin https://tinyurl.com/26yk2vbf
// Russia’s president could lose power in any number of ways. What will the end of his rule mean for his own country, Ukraine and the world?
⋙ 🐣 RT @Kasparov63 “Russia after Mr. Putin is as difficult to picture as he intended. Every dictator must appear irreplaceable, to be the lesser evil, the devil we know. But Mr. Putin’s end will come, as much a surprise to him as to anyone else. Let us learn from the past and be ready.”

🐣 RT @@AndriyYermak Had a meeting with the NSA to the US President @JakeSullivan46. Discussed topical issues of cooperation between 🇺🇦 and 🇺🇸 and continued aid for 🇺🇦 in its struggle for freedom and independence. @JakeSullivan46 visit is an extremely important signal of 🇺🇸 support for 🇺🇦.

🐣 🔆 How to not see Tweets containing words you specify:
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🐣 RT @marceelias We can’t let election vigilantes win, and we can’t ignore what they’re trying to do to our democracy. The entire GOP leadership is complicit in the vigilantism we are seeing around the country.
💽 https://twitter.com/marceelias/status/1588648470465986560?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @OPolianichev The Soviet visual propaganda widely reproduced this image. Posters touting the myth of the friendship of nations usually depicted Ukrainians as dark-haired and brown-eyed, in contrast to blue-eyed and blonde Russians. 13/
🖼 https://twitter.com/OPolianichev/status/1588223855646380032?s=20/photo/1 -4

🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer IZIUM AXIS /2045 UTC 4 NOV/ RU forces have attacked across the P-66 HWY and now occupy a salient from Novovodiane in the east to the vicinity of Makiivka in the west. The RU salient is dominated by high ground to the west, offers limited cover, and is smothered by UKR artillery.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1588630480676872192?s=20/photo/1
// “UKR reported that RU occupiers have suftered more than 840 troops killed in action, many by UKR artillerv.”

🐣 RT @duty2warn GOP congressman Dan Crenshaw says pro-Trump lawmakers privately admit they know accusations of a stolen 2020 presidential election aren’t true and it is a continuing political stunt, a lie to rile people up. ¤ “It’s a huge manipulation,” he added.

🐣 RT @NOELreports Today the US President’s National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan arrived in Kyiv. He met with high-ranking Ukrainian officials and discussed a number of important issues. The adviser to the President of the United States got acquainted with the operational situation at the front.

🐣 RT @ JoyceWhiteVance In our country, announcing you’re a candidate for the presidency is not & can never be a defense strategy in a criminal investigation.

🐣 RT @Angry_Staffer I can’t stop laughing. Imagine spending 44 billion dollars just to get fact checked by the thing you bought 🤣🤣🤣
⋙ 🐣 RT @elonmusk Twitter has had a massive drop in revenue, due to activist groups pressuring advertisers, even though nothing has changed with content moderation and we did everything we could to appease the Tweetctivists. Extremely messed up! They’re trying to destroy free speech in America.
⋙⋙ © Readers added context they thought people might want to know
Reporting shows advertisers suspending or canceling ad buys over concerns with Twitter platform direction, especially as related to content moderation.
[Links to WSJ, MSN, DailyMail]

🐣 RT @ShannonRSingh Yesterday was my last day at Twitter: the entire Human Rights team has been cut from the company. ¤ I am enormously proud of the work we did to implement the UN Guiding Principles on Business & Human Rights, to protect those at-risk in global conflicts & crises including Ethiopia,
🐣 RT @ShannonRSingh Afghanistan, and Ukraine, and to defend the needs of those particularly at risk of human rights abuse by virtue of their social media presence, such as journalists & human rights defenders.,
⋙ 🐣 RT @ShannonRSingh I will forever be grateful for the privilege of getting to work with @cynthiamw @heysarah & @EstherOhrt on the Human Rights team, along with so many other brilliant, mission-driven individuals across the company. […]
⋙⋙ 🐣 thank you for your efforts: I’ve seen so much improvement in Twitter over the years ~ it became a safe and open place for the free exchange of thoughtful views, a shining star among social media platforms ¤ I hope you and your colleagues find happiness and success

🐣 RT @duty2warn Trump can’t face losing. Yet he DID lose the House, Presidency AND Senate. His banks cut ties. His accountants quit. His brand is worthless. Company, CFO indicted. Thrown off Twitter, FB. His platform defaulting. Engineered a coup. Stole top secret documents. Wait, there’s more-
⋙ 🐣 RT @duty2warn Six bankruptcies. Charity shut down. University deemed bogus. Failed in casino business, as the House! Booed at World Series. Laughed at in the UN. Lost 63 post-election lawsuits. Even lost FAKE audits! Now losing his mind. Soon his freedom. ¤ If Trump’s NOT a loser, then WHO IS?

🐣 RT @ZelenskyyUa I am thankful to @POTUS and the people of for another $400 million military assistance package. For armored vehicles that will help us liberate Ukrainian land. We appreciate this continued support!

DeptDefense: $400 Million in Additional Security Assistance for Ukraine https://tinyurl.com/5n6hn3ks
↥ ↧
🐣 RT @Tendar US approve another military package for Ukraine worth 400 million USD. It includes:
– 250 units of M1117 [armored security vehicles]
– 1100 units of Phoenix Ghost drones
– MIM-23 Hawk air defense systems
– 40 armored boats
– 45 T-72 MBTs [main battle tanks]
#Ukraine
// defense budget

DailyBeast, David Rothkopf: Republicans Are Bad for the Economy. Here’s Why https://tinyurl.com/2679km9a Polls say voters trust the GOP more than Democrats on economic issues. That’s a huge mistake.
◕ https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1588589456051040257?s=20/photo/1 -2
// 1. Deficit down every year under Biden, 2. Deficit by president

🐣 RT @GlasnostGone Good news: #G7 countries have established a “coordination mechanism” to help #Ukraine “repair, restore & defend its critical energy & water infrastructure,” the group’s foreign ministers said in a joint statement on Friday following meetings in Münster.
⋙ CNN: G7 establishes “coordination mechanism” to help Ukraine restore energy and water infrastructure https://tinyurl.com/3648dpwh

⭕ 3 Nov 2022

WaPo: Judge rules in favor of assigning monitor to oversee Trump Organization https://tinyurl.com/yckxpbrh “Under Engoron’s ruling, the company and the Trump family are barred from transferring or selling assets without giving two weeks’ notice to the court”

🐣 RT @JoyceWhiteVance Actually, the judge’s ruling makes the business environment in NY safer and more secure for businesses, by rooting out wrongdoers who benefit from fraudulent behavior and skew the markets for insurance, among other things. New York enacted Blue Sky laws to protect its citizens.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/JoyceWhiteVance/status/1588313295051784193?s=20/photo/1

[Text:] Statement by Donald J. Trump, 45th President of the United States of America

A puppet judge of the New York Attorney General and other sworn enemies of President Trump and the Republican Party has just issued a ruling never before seen anywhere in America. It is Communism come to our shores.

Businesses will be fleeing New York, which they already are, for other states and other countries. Today’s ridiculous ruling by a politically- motivated, hand-picked judge makes it even more vital for courts in both New York and Florida to do the right thing and stop this
inquisition. We have to fight back against radical tyranny and save our Country!

🐣 RT @duty2warn “Liz Cheney and I are not courageous. … We’re just surrounded by cowards.” – Adam Kinzinger

🧵 RT @ OPolianichev The newly forged myth of Ukrainians as blonde and blue-eyed betrays a profound misconception of what Ukraine is, how Ukrainians view themselves, and how they historically have been viewed in the Tsarist and Soviet Empires. A debunking the fundamentally wrong idea. 1/
📌 https://twitter.com/OPolianichev/status/1588223801229287425?s=20/photo/1

AP: How Russian soldiers ran a ‘cleansing’ operation in Bucha https://tinyurl.com/3pnjeyzf “This was organized brutality that would be repeated at scale in Russian-occupied territories across Ukraine — a strategy to neutralize resistance and terrorize locals into submission”

🐣 RT @RussianEmbassy [UK] MFA: In the current complicated and turbulent situation, caused by irresponsible and impudent actions aimed at undermining #Russia’s national security, the most immediate task is to avoid any military clash of #nuclear powers. ¤ Read full statement:
⋙ MID[.]ru: Statement of the Russian Federation on preventing nuclear war https://tinyurl.com/2p9f47au Allows use “exclusively in response to an aggression involving the use of weapons of mass destruction or … when the very existence of the state is in jeopardy”

In implementing its policy on nuclear deterrence Russia is strictly and consistently guided by the tenet that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought. Russian doctrinal approaches in this sphere are defined with utmost accuracy, pursue solely defensive goals and do not admit of expansive interpretation. These approaches allow for Russia to hypothetically resort to nuclear weapons exclusively in response to an aggression involving the use of weapons of mass destruction or an aggression with the use of conventional weapons when the very existence of the state is in jeopardy.

⋙ 🐣 This is released at the same time as Russia claims to see such a threat to its existence: UkrainskaPravda: Russia’s Security Council claims “Anglo-Saxons are destroying the Russian ethnos” in Ukraine https://tinyurl.com/2mr2fyaw
⇈ ⇊
UkrainskaPravda: Russia’s Security Council claims “Anglo-Saxons are destroying the Russian ethnos” in Ukraine https://tinyurl.com/2mr2fyaw
⋙ 🐣 It’s not just “Anglo Saxons” which doesn’t even describe the UK. It’s all the countries of NATO! ¤ Oh, and there are many people living in “Russia” who are not ethnic Russians.
🌎 https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1588260824971296768?s=20/photo/1
// ethnic groups (languages) of Europe
⋙⋙ 🐣 Ethnic groups of Russia
🌎 https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1588261913754206208?s=20/photo/1
scdc🐣 RT @Heroiam_Slava “The United States has no doubts that the Ukrainian forces have enough forces and means to restore control over the territories on the right bank of the Dnipro River, directly in the city of Kherson”, – said the US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin

🐣 Although there are polls indicating an increasing number of GOP don’t want to ⬆️ $$ for Ukraine compared to several month¤ ago, bear in mind 🇺🇸 support has increased a LOT since then. ¤ Still the impact of Fox etc and politicization of the war by GOP remains greatly concerning

🧵 RT @Shashj* Western official, with an update on the war on November 3rd. Quite a few useful insights on Russia’s withdrawal of command elements from Kherson right bank, possibility of “operational level” developments in Svatove in east, and playing down of nuclear risk & Belarus front.
// *Defence Editor at @TheEconomist
📌 https://twitter.com/shashj/status/1588169627120590849?s=20
ThreadReader: https://tinyurl.com/5n877v8s

Western official: “We’re seeing a force gradually growing with the arrival of mobilised reservists—but a low quality one likely little suited to complex offensive operations. Above all, the Russians are critically short of munitions.”

Western official on Russian munitions: “somewhere between what they had at start of conflict and what they need to keep for [a] potential NATO conflict … is trade space. And…they have eaten dangerously into that, to a point where they cannot use them casually”

Western official: “they have lots of things in storage. The problem with that is … it has to be fit for purpose. Many of those munitions coming out of storage wouldn’t be passed for use in a Western military environment; they would fail the standards tests.”

Western official expresses confidence that Russian planning to withdraw from Kherson is “well advanced. A large portion of the civilian population has now moved east and Russia has highly likely prioritised a temporary bolstering of force in the area to cover the retreat.”

Western official: “it’s likely that most echelons of command have now withdrawn across the river, leaving demoralised and leaderless men to face Ukrainian assaults.” Calls it “terrible leadership”. Adds that Russian defensive lines on Dnieper right bank being built up.

Western official: “the [Kherson] retreat is going to be presented as an evacuation. So it won’t be presented as a military retreat in that sense. When it does go ahead, we expect another uptick in pointed domestic criticism of Russia’s national leadership.”

Western official: “Rates of losses of sudden [certain?] types of Russian helicopters remain extremely high. They are using an increasingly desperate collection of ageing long range munitions to strike targets at depth…at least some reservists are arriving in a theatre without weapons.”

Western official on Luhansk front. In Donbas, “we’ve seen a reduction in fighting but we haven’t seen a cessation in fighting”. Singles out importance of Svatove: “The developments in Svatove sector have the potential to soon assume operational level of significance.”
🌎 https://twitter.com/shashj/status/1588169645038649346?s=20/photo/1

Western official on Russia’s long-standing attack in the Bakhmut direction. Says Russians pushed back a week ago; “it’s in statelmate at the moment…it’s kind of totemic for them they don’t want to give up. And in particular I think for Wagner group, they feel it’s important.”

Official: “support for the war…remains fairly consistent in the Russian leadership group & debate is over the means…we do not see at this stage that debates within the top of the Russian system over the conduct of the war, reflect any serious threats to Putin’s position”

Western official: “in terms of nuclear activity, I’ve seen nothing which gives me cause for concern. In fact, [Russian] MFA has made another statement about the conditions under which nuclear weapons would be used, which … downplay the risks of them being used”

A different Western official: “what we see in their [Russian] public statements is apparently an attempt to de-escalate the nuclear rhetoric which they have previously generated. And that is something which we thoroughly support”. Ref. to this statement:
⋙ 🧵 https://twitter.com/shashj/status/1588169645038649346?s=20

Western official on risk of attack by/from Belarus: “I’m not currently worried about…Belarus. The Russian forces which are deployed in Belarus appear to be deployed in the centre of the country away from the borders and, in our judgement, are there to fix Ukrainian forces”

Western official on morale: “we see pockets of desperate morale issues, both command level and from the troops themselves. What is difficult to say, as you piece it all together is, is how how endemic that is to the whole Russian community.” Adds: no sign of mutiny

🧵 RT @mhmck The rashists shelled Ukrainian defenders at Ploshchanka in Luhansk region. This shows the Armed Forces of Ukraine have advanced to within 2 km of the Svatove-Kreminna highway. ¤ I cannot place Суходіл (Sukhodil) in Luhansk region which the GS AFU report said was shelled.
📌 🌎 https://twitter.com/mhmck/status/1588043038156550144?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @JayinKyiv Probably tied to the large explosions late this morning, Melitopol residents are saying that about 300 killed at Russian headquarters today. ¤ Ambulances and cargo 200 trucks have been working there for a few hours. ¤ They say 3 floors of building are destroyed.

🐣 RT @POTUS Let’s be clear about what “changes” Republicans in Congress want to make to Medicare and Social Security. ¤ They want to raise the retirement age, move towards privatization, and put these programs on the chopping block every five years.

🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer NUCLEAR ROULETTE: The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant is again disconnected from the national power grid. This dangerous condition requires that the plant’s diesel-powered emergency generators function 24/7 to provide necessary electricity to the plant’s reactor control systems.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1588167516861435905?s=20/photo/1 v

🐣 RT @WarMonitor3 Russian source on situation in Kherson “Troops are withdrawn from the right bank of the Dnieper, several formations remain, the bulk are already on the left”
⋙ 🐣 RT @WarMonitor3 Russian source “A zone has been created on the left bank 15 km from the Dnieper, from which people are forcibly evacuated”
⋙ 🐣 RT @WarMonitor3 I am still skeptical as of now. ¤ I will confirm this or deny it in the coming days.

🐣 RT @ @Gerashchenko_en Russian army is the angelic warriors, their war is against the Satanic West, this war is Holy, it is a jihad – Russian TV. ¤ Meanwhile, they kill thousands of people, leaving piles of corpses behind, like in Bucha, Mariupol, Izium. They are going to freeze millions of civilians.
💽 https://twitter.com/Gerashchenko_en/status/1588118711281541122?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer KHERSON AXIS /1220 UTC 3 NOV/ Local sources are reporting that RU occupation authorities are now forcing removal of UKR citizens from left (south) bank locations. RU looting of small businesses and solar power units continues. UKR precision strikes hit S-300 battery in stadium.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1588146085616394240?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @ukraine_world “During the full-scale aggression, defenders of Ukraine destroyed twice as many russian aircraft than the Soviet Union lost during the 10-year war in Afghanistan – 278 russian aircraft in Ukraine against 118 Soviet aircraft in Afghanistan,” CinC AF of 🇺🇦 Valery Zaluzhnyi reported

🐣 RT @bayraktar_1love Melitopil media and city mayor report night strikes: «at about 05:50, along Dmitry Dontsov Street, 15/7, three powerful explosions. The top three floors of the premises where the office of the leadership of Russian FSB was located were destroyed.»

⭕ 2 Nov 2022

WaPo, Max Boot: Russia is fighting by the book. The problem is, it’s the wrong book. https://tinyurl.com/yc628eau “Russia is hobbled in fighting this conflict because its generals did not prepare for a protracted war of attrition”

WaPo: Biden warns GOP could set nation on ‘path to chaos’ as democratic system faces strain https://tinyurl.com/aab93nkj
// The president delivered his warning in the shadow of the U.S. Capitol and just days after Paul Pelosi, husband of the speaker, was attacked

NYT Mag, Jim Rautenberg: The Untold Story of ‘Russiagate’ and the Road to War in Ukraine https://tinyurl.com/yh54ncdu “The second draft of history” #longread #highlyrec
// 🔊 11/2/2022; Russia’s meddling in Trump-era politics was more directly connected to the current war than previously understood
⋙ See under Entire Articles: NYT Untold Hx Ukr 11/2/2022

🐣 RT @EuromaidanPress Poll: Ukraine’s friendliest countries are Poland, UK, and US; Russia, Belarus, and Hungary perceived as hostile ¤ Infographic: https://tinyurl.com/2p8wcv7a
// Friendly: Poland 98%, UK 94% (70% definitely), US 95% (65% definitely), France 74%, Germany 69%, Turkey 62%, China 18% (2% def hostile), Hungary 33% (13% def hostile), Belarus 7%, Russia 2%
📊 https://zzxzz/EuromaidanPress/status/1587958485026840576?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @nytimes President Biden delivered remarks Wednesday on democracy, political violence and the midterm elections in a televised address. The following is a transcript of his remarks, as recorded by The New York Times.
≣ NYT: Full Transcript of President Biden’s Speech on Democracy https://tinyurl.com/thu78c3p Democracy is on the ballot
// The president warned of escalating threats of political violence after the assault of the husband of Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Mr. Biden asked Americans to vote in the midterms for representatives who would accept the results.

🐣 RT @ProjectLincoln As the country experiences wave after wave of political violence, and with our democratic institutions under threat, @POTUS delivered an urgent message: Our democracy is under threat and must be defended. ¤ Please watch, share, and most importantly, vote on November 8th.
💽 https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1587998647417020417?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @anders_aslund Putin has turned the Russians into a pathetic joke of cruelty. Arguably, he has caused even worse damage to the Russian nation than Stalin. If not as yet, soon he will have done so. Are only Ukrainians standing up for civilization?

🐣 RT @GoncharenkoUa [Ukr MP] The Zaporizhzhia NPP is completely de-energized due to 🇷🇺 shelling! ¤ The last two high-voltage communication lines of the Zaporizhzhya NPP with the 🇺🇦 power system were damaged. At 11:04 p.m., the station went into full blackout mode. All 20 diesel generators were switched on

🐣 RT @ukraine_map The Kherson Bridge was struck by Ukraine overnight🇺🇦
Nova Kakhovka HPP fires occurred near the small bridge crossing 200m from the dam, not at the main building of the power plant
Explosions may have been caused by Ukraine striking the small bridge crossing Dnipro with HIMARS

🧵 RT @Ukraine_map Nova Kakhovka HPP (Nov 2) Major Fires and Explosions Geolocation ¤ Big Fires🔥 at Nova Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant likely occurred (in yellow) near or on the small bridge 200m from the Dam
-Main HPP building in Green
-Fire Photo was taken at the top of the building in Pink
📌 🌎 https://twitter.com/ukraine_map/status/1587988170368589834?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @Kasparov63 Democracy matters and must be fought for. A bittersweet moment in American and world history. Good that Biden is saying it, tragic that it needs to be said, shameful that so many Americans won’t care.
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @JoeBiden Democracy is more than a form of government. It’s a way of being. A way of seeing the world. ¤ A way that defines who we are, what we believe, and why we do what we do. ¤ Democracy is simply that fundamental.
⋙ 🐣 RT @ Kasparov63 I founded @Renew_Democracy in NYC in 2017 when it was clear my new home of the USA was starting down a road similar to the one we had already traveled in Russia. But instead of democracy as weak and alien, here it was taken for granted, abused, even mocked.

🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer KHERSON CITY/2 NOV/ UKR Partisans & deeply inserted SOF identified an S-300 SAM complex at the Kherson football stadium. This battery had been modified to bombard civilian areas of Mykolaiv. Provided with targeting data UKR precision strike neutralized the S-300 and its crew.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1587957956431302656?s=20/photo/1

🧵 RT @ChrisO_wiki 1/ Another account of chaos among Russia’s mobilised men near Svatove in Luhansk oblast has been published by independent Russian channel TV Rain. A group of mobiks was abandoned by their commander as soon as fighting started and they were accused of desertion when they fled. ⬇️
📌 https://twitter.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1587921460617543680?s=20

🐣 RT @mmpadellan Murder rates are WAY higher in red states than blue states, but sure tell us how you’re going to fix crime.
📋 https://twitter.com/mmpadellan/status/1587877079894343680?s=20/photo/1
// 10 states with top murder rates: 9 are GOP

🐣 RT @nytimes President Biden will give a speech on Wednesday about protecting democracy and the threats election deniers pose to voting. It’ll be one of several recent speeches he has made on the issue, and comes at a time of heightened alarm about political violence.
⋙ NYT: Biden to Give Speech Wednesday Night About Threats to Democracy https://tinyurl.com/2f84wy64
// President Biden will talk about democracy and the threats election deniers pose to the voting process, one of several recent speeches about extreme far-right ideology.

🐣 RT @NikkiMcR when they tell me to pony up the $8 cash or lose the check
// “You don’t even know my real name. I’m the fucking lizard king” (from The Office, James Spader as Robert California); tag: #TheBlacklist

🐣 RT @ZelenskyyUa Leading historian, friend of 🇺🇦 @TimothyDSnyder became the ambassador of the fundraising platform @U24_gov_ua & started raising for The Shahed Catcher. ¤ Thank you for the fact that now more people will know not only about the reasons of our struggle, but also how they can help us.

StateDept, Sec of State Anthony Blinken (May): The Administration’s Approach to the People’s Republic of China https://tinyurl.com/yckexc5z
// 5/26/2022; Speech at George Washington University

That’s why we’ve put diplomacy back at the center of American foreign policy, to help us realize the future that Americans and people around the world seek – one where technology is used to lift people up, not suppress them; where trade and commerce support workers, raise incomes, create opportunity; where universal human rights are respected; countries are secure from coercion and aggression, and people, ideas, goods, and capital move freely; and where nations can both forge their own paths and work together effectively in common cause.

To build that future, we must defend and reform “The rules-based international order – the system of laws, agreements, principles, and institutions that the world came together to build after two world wars to manage relations between states, to prevent conflict, to uphold the rights of all people. ¤ Its founding documents include the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which enshrined concepts like self-determination, sovereignty, the peaceful settlement of disputes.” These are not Western constructs. They are reflections of the world’s shared aspirations.,

💙 🐣 RT @JuliaDavisNews Russian propagandist Vladimir Solovyov is angry and despondent because Russia is floundering in Ukraine. He lies that NATO started the war against Russia on Feb 17 and airs a multitude of grievances against Joe Biden, Volodymyr Zelensky, Jamie Raskin, Oleg Tinkov, Germany et al.
💽 https://twitter.com/JuliaDavisNews/status/1587649027205636096?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @ukraine_map Several dozen Ukrainian Troops are finishing training in Norway 🇳🇴 on NASAMS Air Defense Systems ¤ The training will end soon and two NASAMS systems will be delivered to Ukraine 🇺🇦 “in the coming days” and will start operating in Early November- US Officials say (NYT)
⋙ 🐣 Six more NASAMS have been ordered for Ukraine. This is the same missile defense system that protects the area around the White House and the Capitol in Washington D.C.
◕ [separate:] https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1587775412494471169?s=20/photo/1

🐣 RT @pravda_eng Occupiers build unknown construction near spent nuclear fuel storage facility at Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant https://tinyurl.com/3mb84szx

🐣 RT @FT Russia agrees to rejoin Ukraine grain export deal
⋙ FinancialTimes: Russia agrees to rejoin Ukraine grain export deal https://tinyurl.com/mr4ak2fd
// Erdoğan says Moscow is returning to agreement intended to forestall food crisis

🐣 RT @NOELreports The Ministry of Defense of Türkiye stated that, despite the threat of Russia, dry cargo under the Turkish flag will continue to export agricultural products from Ukraine through the grain corridor.
⋙ 🐣 RT @nothyphenated 🇹🇷 navy is at least 3-4 times stronger than 🇷🇺 Black Sea fleet (what remains of it) 🇷🇺 cannot afford to attack as a) they’ll be defeated in short time b) 🇹🇷 is one of the few EU countries doing business with 🇷🇺
⋙ 🐣 RT @GeorgeBarwood If Russia attacks a grain ship, they might well find themselves losing all access to the Black Sea, which Turkey controls ( as well as their navy ). Not going to happen, well played Turkey.

The Blacklist Declassified