🔴 Trump/Ukraine/Russia Files 2023
Permalink: https://wp.me/PDKwi-6Kc
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) Articles
🇷🇺 Press Here For 2022
🇷🇺 Press Here For 2021
🇷🇺 Press Here For 2020
🇷🇺 Press Here For 2019
🇷🇺 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)
💽Recommended⋙ Mueller She Wrote Podcast ⋙ http://bit.ly/2PgTKWs or Press ⇊ ⇊
Other Podcasts:
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
💙 Key War Accounts: @bayraktar_1love @ChuckPfarrer @DefenseU @DefMon3 @NOELReports @TheStudyOfWar @WarintheFuture @warmonitor3 @wartranslated
💙 Tim White’s awesome log: Search @TWMCLtd ✛ “Day 999” or use dates: https://twitter.com/search-advanced
(The War started on 2/24/2022)
⭕ 22 Mar 2023
⭕ 21 Mar 2023
🧵 RT @HeliosRunner 5/ Now as i talked about Ru army in first place, let’s talk about #Wagner in #Bakhmut (of course with all the arty support of Ru army but, diff approach there) ¤ So there is actually some very good news we have received 2 hours ago & needed some times to check all of it.. let’s go
📌 🌎 https://twitter.com/HeliosRunner/status/1638267364750794752?s=20/photo/1
// rest of thread
🐣 RT @svdate The coup-attempting former president appears to be calming down. Only about half the words in his latest screed are in all caps.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/svdate/status/1638317093710864386?s=20/photo/1
[Text:] 🐣 RT @realDonaldTrump Reports, and almost everybody, says, even after in-depth legal study and review, that there was NO CRIME, NO AFFAIR, NO BOOKKEEPING ERROR OR MISDEMEANOR, NO “NOTHING,” OTHER THAN NOW PROVEN LIES BY MICHAEL COHEN, A CONVICTED FELON AND PERJURER, AND THE STRONG LIKELIHOOD OF AN EXTORTION PLOT AGAINST ME. So, after getting CRUSHED yesterday by Cohen’s highly respected attorney, with the case against me FULLY DISPROVEN, why is the D.A. searching for yet another “witness?” TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME!
🐣 RT @ MeidasTouch 🚨MASSIVE BREAKING: Special counsel Jack Smith presented compelling evidence to a federal court that shows Trump knowingly and deliberately misled his attorneys about classified documents. The judge said there could be indications of criminal violations.
ABCNews: Special counsel claims Trump deliberately misled his attorneys about classified documents https://tinyurl.com/54b99bv4 U.S. Judge Beryl Howell wrote that “Jack Smith’s office had made a “prima facie showing that [Trump] had committed criminal violations”
// The judge said there could be indications of criminal violations, per sources
// Prosecutors have preliminary evidence that Donald Trump misled his own attorneys about his retention of classified materials
WaPo: U.S. will speed transfer of Abrams tanks to Ukraine, Pentagon says https://tinyurl.com/4kz76326 //➔ great to see this response to a strong bipartisan appeal
// The disclosure came as senators urged the Pentagon to review its assumptions about what it needs to counter Russia
NYT, Ryan Goodman and Andrew Weissmann: Make No Mistake, the Investigation of Donald Trump and the Stormy Daniels Scheme Is Serious https://tinyurl.com/mrxrfycu Michael Cohen did prison time for carrying out Trump’s orders; should Trump get off scot-free?
🐣 RT @BillKristol “Rupert Murdoch succeeded where Vladimir Putin failed. He turned Americans against each other, promoting anger, hatred and lies. Murdoch knew Trump’s claim the election was stolen was a lie but Fox News persuaded millions of Americans that it was true.”
⋙ SydneyMorningHerald: Murdoch succeeded where Putin failed. Time for a Fox hunt https://tinyurl.com/dwehy29v
// We believe a royal commission into media concentration is now needed to defend our democracy. For the Coalition parties, this is a crucial moment.
🐣 RT @PhillipsPOBrien A very interesting UkrainIan army update on Bakhmut tonight . Says openly that Russian offensive action in the area seems to be running out of steam because of the large losses they are suffering. Only a little while ago some were saying Ukraine should pull out.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/PhillipsPOBrien/status/1638266705548922893?s=20/photo/1
[Text:] Bakhmut axis: the enemy continues its offensive operations, but is losing its offensive potential. The adversary keeps trying to capture the city, suffering major casualties, losing significant amount of weapons and military equipment. Ukrainian defenders are repelling numerous round-the-clock attacks of the occupiers in the vicinities of settlements of Orikhovo-Vasylivka, Hryhorivka, and in the northern part of Bakhmut. Vasyukivka, Min’kivka, Bakhmut, Ivanivske, Stupochky, Predtechyne, Chasiv Yar, Kurdyumivka, Ozarianivka, and Pivnichne (Donetsk oblast), among others, came under enemy fire.
WaPo, David Ignatius: Here’s the real lesson from the showy Xi-Putin meeting https://tinyurl.com/yvnw4cdm “The paradox of the Ukraine war is that Putin’s bid for greater power in Europe has made him weaker. This diminished Russia will fall increasingly under China’s sway”
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer AVDIIVKA AXIS /1500 UTC 21 MAR/ RU forces unsuccessfully tried to advance in the vicinities of Berdchi, Avdiivka, Severna, Pervomaiske & Novomykhailivka. RU continues widespread shelling in the Avdiivka Area of Operations (AO).
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1638162509809999872?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT CITY: UKR reports heavy fighting in northern urban area. The 1800 (Kyiv) briefing of the UKR Gen’l Staff noted heavy RU losses and ‘diminished combat potential’ of RU units. UKR Lines of Communication and Supply (LOCS) into Bakhmut remain secure.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1638296408301207554?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @ SpokespersonCHN Did the US really mean it when it said “call for a ceasefire” on Ukraine is going to be “unacceptable”?! Obviously the US is the most reluctant one to see a ceasefire in Ukraine.
⋙ 🐣 Russia needs to abide by: ¤ Point #1 of CHINA’S proposed Peace Plan: “Respecting the sovereignty of all countries” ¤ … by removing all of its troops from inside Ukraine’s internationally recognized borders. ¤ That will make a ceasefire possible.
🐣 RT @general_ben I thought the Leader of the CCP wanted to play the role of peacemaker? Replacing Russian drones used to kill innocent Ukrainian civilians with Chinese drones…in support of the indicted war criminal, Vladimir Putin, won’t win a Nobel Prize for President Xi.
⋙ 🐣 RT @Telegraph 🇨🇳 China has sold more than $12 million in drones and drone parts to Russia since the invasion began, the New York Times has reported, citing official Russian customs data from a third-party data provider ¤ Read more here: https://tinyurl.com/bde6jr23
🐣 I’m on the side of people not paying a porn star hush money to cover up an affair in order to swing an election and then booking the payment as a “business expense.” If the person delivering the payment spends time in prison, seems the person paying should do the same.
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT AXIS /1430 UTC 21 MAR/ RU shelling accompanied failed attacks at Hyrhorivka, Bohdanivka & Ivanivske. A Russian VDV assault on Predtechyne was broken up by UKR forces and artillery. Wagner attacks along the North [M-03] axis thwarted.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1638154734598078464?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @MeidasTouch Trump’s latest video is just an exhaustive breakdown of all of his crimes
💽 https://twitter.com/MeidasTouch/status/1638049610395705345?s=20/photo/1
⭕ 20 Mar 2023
🐣 RT @SpiroAgnewGhost JUST IN: DJT is a fucking desperate lunatic.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/SpiroAgnewGhost/status/1637833938923327488?s=20/photo/1
[Text:] 🐣 RT @ @realDonald Trump Just Out: District Attorney Alvin Bragg received in EXCESS OF ONE MILLION DOLLARS from Radical Left Enemy of “TRUMP,” George Soros. Bragg is also very close to the Clinton Campaign. Republicans and Conservatives are more UNITED than they have been in many years. Even Democrats don’t like what’s going on with the Manhattan D.A. This is a continuation of the greatest Witch Hunt of all time!
💙 🐣 RT @AccountableGOP Donald Trump’s new attack ad against New York AG Alvin Bragg
💽 https://twitter.com/AccountableGOP/status/1637905682765692937?s=20/photo/1
// this is really sick
⋙ 🐣 RT @ Antidote4BS Weird that the data tell a different story than Fox and the Republican party are telling. It’s almost as if they’re, I dunno, intentionally deceiving Americans. https://tinyurl.com/396f432p
◕ https://twitter.com/Antidote4BS/status/1637910341530136576?s=20/photo/1
// New York crime statistics
⋙ 🐣 RT @joyhein8 He is playing a risky game here. That is 100% threatening and intimidating a prosecutor and it’s a crime.
🐣 RT @ RadioFreeTom Between the “Reagan tried to stop the hostage release” story and the Iraq retrospectives, I’m starting to see how easy it is to dupe a nation that can’t remember anything that happened more than a week ago. Take that any way you like.
🐣 RT @Laurieluvsmolly BREAKING-In 3rd Oath Keepers trial for J6, 4/6 are found GUILTY of all charges, including Connie Meggs from Florida who’s husband Kelly Meggs was found guilty of seditious conspiracy. Enjoy fed prison w/o each other. Proud Boys are next. #MAGACult #NeverForgetJanuary6th
🖼 https://twitter.com/Laurieluvsmolly/status/1637877604500865024?s=20/photo/1
WaPo, Molly Roberts: The right wing’s ‘woke’ obsession could come back to haunt it https://tinyurl.com/ye28h2h2
🐣 RT @StateDept .@SecBlinken on ending Russia’s unjust war on Ukraine: If China is committed to supporting an end to the war based on the principles of the @UN Charter as called for in Point One of its plan, it can engage with @ZelenskyyUa and Ukraine on this basis.
🐣 RT @wartranslated Girkin, in his typical manner, compares the battle of Bakhmut with the battle of Stalingrad, i.e. hopes by the Russians to “somehow” win over the city, meanwhile the defenders are preparing reserves for a powerful push. Girkin believes the Russian command is intending to surpass the Germans in recklessness.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1637903563136401412?s=20/photo/1
[Text:] What is the “battle for Bakhmut”? – In essence (although the scale is much smaller) it is the “battle of Stalingrad in reverse.” In the battle for Stalingrad, our command managed to impose on the Germans a long and hopeless battle of attrition, while preparing reserves for a decisive strategic offensive. Moreover, the German intelligence knew about this, but for a number of reasons (the main one is the contempt for the enemy on the part of Hitler and the Wehrmacht high command) – the OKW did not respond to this preparation properly, confident that “we will fight back anyway.” They didn’t fight back. Now we just have to wait to see whether our amazing (in all respects superior in their amazingness to the strategists of the 3rd Reich) politicians and military leaders will repeat the mistakes made by the Wehrmacht at the end of 1942. So far, I personally believe that (taking into account the smaller scale of the battle, which cannot be said about the possible geo-which cannot be said about the possible geo-political consequences), our command intends tosurpass their German counterparts.
⋙ 🐣 RT @wartranslated Funny enough, we’ve been hearing doom reports from Girkin for a year now. ¤ But I recently rewatched a few episodes from his livestreams about a year ago, and he was right about a lot of things. While the battle of the Donbas was only beginning, he was already predicting it may take a very long time to conclude, if it ever will. He predicted confidently mobilisation without a declaration of war. This was all before “successful regroupings” and other “gestures of goodwill”.
WaPo: DeSantis criticizes N.Y. prosecutor while invoking Trump’s alleged ‘porn star hush money payments’ https://tinyurl.com/4apd8wsx
💙 🐣 RT @wartranslated Here’s the longer bit of Girkin’s live stream today where he asks Putin to shut up, with more context. Girkin refers to Putin’s words about the lack of hypersonic missiles being the reason why Russia couldn’t invade Ukraine in 2014. And instead of properly taking command of the army, Putin is flying helicopter simulators.
🌎 https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1637950468952391681?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer KALIBR KNOCKOUT: A series of explosions have occurred at Dzhankoya in occupied Crimea. It ‘s reported that Ukrainian UAVs targeted a shipment of RU Kalibr cruise missiles– used by the Black Sea fleet to bombard Ukraine.
◕ https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1637930325514031104?s=20/photo/1
🐣 Trump’s ability to summon large crowds and rile them up is his superpower: if he fails now, it could signal (finally) the air starting to leak out of his balloon 🙏
🐣 RT @maggieNYT Trump’s push for protesters is not getting a lot of takers from some of his high-profile supporters
⋙ NYT: Trump’s Call for Protests of Pending Arrest Splits G.O.P. https://tinyurl.com/46r65thb “[S]ome fear mass gatherings could devolve into violence and lead to the prosecution of his supporters just as the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol did two years ago”
// After Donald Trump urged supporters to protest his looming indictment, some Republicans have heeded the call, while many others have publicly lobbied against it.
🐣 RT @SpiroAgnewGhost SAD! Weak!
⋙ 🐣 RT @oneunderscore__ I’m at the pro-Trump protest put on by the NY Young Republicans Club. Not a joke, there are more reporters here than Trump supporters. ¤ This was supposed to be the big one.
¤ https://twitter.com/SpiroAgnewGhost/status/1637938437214044160?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT AXIS/1430 UTC 20 MAR/ Gains by RU along the North [M-03] axis, with an uptick in urban fighting & contact near Ivanivske increases pressure on UKR forces. At present, UKR commanders must assess the security of Lines of Communication and Supply (LOCS) into the city.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1637823089152065539?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @SpiroAgnewGhost Oh my god.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/SpiroAgnewGhost/status/1637876725618208768?s=20/photo/1
[Text:] @realDonald Trump Ron DeSanctimonious will probably find out about FALSE ACCUSATIONS & FAKE STORIES sometime in the future, as he gets older, wiser, and better known, when he’s unfairly and illegally attacked by a woman, even classmates that are “underage” (or possibly a man!). I’m sure he will want to fight these misfits just like I do!
🐣 RT @Heroiam_Slava Russia and China are “undermining the international order based on the rules that the US and many of our allies and partners have built since the end of WWII. They would like to rewrite the rules of the game around the world.” -Pentagon spokesman John Kirby.
🧵 RT @JoyceWhiteVance 1/ In addition to possible criminal charges in Manhattan, Trump has a lot of other problems. In federal court, a special counsel is investigating his role in election interference, insurrection & obstruction of Congress’ certification of the Electoral College vote on 1-6.
📌 https://twitter.com/JoyceWhiteVance/status/1637767434378571778?s=20
⋙ 2/The special counsel is also investigating concealment of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago & Trump’s role in the false certification the items had been returned. A fed’l judge has ordered a lawyer to testify, using the crime fraud exception to the attorney client privilege.
⋙⋙ 🧵 https://twitter.com/JoyceWhiteVance/status/1637044295889833984?s=20⋙ 3/ In Georgia, Trump is under investigation for election fraud. There is new reporting the Fulton County DA is seriously considering a RICO charge. [CNN link] https://tinyurl.com/2aexkm3k
⋙ 4/ Some of the investigations could expand. Charges in NY are expected to involve false business records created to conceal Trump’s payment of hush money to Stormy Daniels but there are possible charges involving manipulating property values for tax, loan & insurance advantages.
⋙ 5/ Special Counsel Jack Smith seems to be investigating the 1-6 cmte’s “Big Ripoff,” investigating the Save America PAC Trump used to raise millions of dollars by pushing fake claims of election fraud. Smith’s investigation is getting bigger as he follows where the evidence leads.
⋙ 6/That’s just the criminal side of Trump’s problems. He faces multiple serious civil matters including an April trial in the E. Jean Carroll defamation case & an upcoming NY AG matter that may put him out of business in New York.
⋙ 7/ If you want to stay on top of everything, including indictments if they happen, sign up for my newsletter, Civil Discourse. It’s free & we’ll be watching as Trump’s chickens come home to roost.
⭕ 19 Mar 2023
🐣 RT @MaquisVive “As of Nov 2022, Trump has been credibly accused of committing at least 56 criminal offenses since he launched his campaign for president in 2015.” ¤ Either you support the law or not. And you DON’T! ¤ President Trump’s staggering record of uncharged crimes
⋙ CREW: President Trump’s staggering record of uncharged crimes https://tinyurl.com/5cpxn3c9
// 9/22/2022
🐣 RT @JacobRubashkin Trump just sent out a fundraising email saying that if he would only “sell his soul to the globalist power brokers who’ve made a fortune off of destroying our country” then George Soros would call off the prosecution. ¤ All that’s missing are the ((())).
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/JacobRubashkin/status/1637548085134913536?s=20/photo/1
[Text:] Jacob Rubashkin, ¤ There’s an easy way out of this mess.
I could renounce our America First agenda.
I could say that I’m ending my 2024 presidential campaign.
I could sell my soul to the globalist power brokers who’ve made a fortune off of destroying our country.
And within minutes, George Soros would call up his prosecutor and tell him to “leave Trump alone.”
🐣 RT @harrylitman A couple points about prospective testimony tomorrow from Robert Costello. 1) Team Trump has requested, as is their right under NY law; 2) whether he testifies is up to Grand Jury; 3) he’s the guy who emailed Cohen “sleep well tonight, you have friends in high places.”
🐣 RT @DefenseHQ [UK] In Bakhmut, there has been increasingly harsh criticism from Wagner directed at the government it fights for. ¤ Of the huge Russian casualties in this small sector, the vast majority are Wagner fighters. ¤ #WeStandWithUkraine
💽 https://twitter.com/DefenceHQ/status/1637524194316410881?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @SpiroAgnewGhost The EIGHTH demented rant of the day.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/SpiroAgnewGhost/status/1637654572234862593?s=20/photo/1
[Text:] 🐣 RT @realDonaldTrump China, Russia, Iran, North Korea and other Nations of a less than friendly nature, are busy “CARVING UP THE WORLD” as our once great United States of America sits back and watches. We are a Failing Nation, with Open Borders, Fake Elections, and a horrible Inflation Riddled Economy. We no longer set the standard, the standard sets us. Our so-called “Leader” does NOTHING except Eat, Sleep, and S..t! Where have you gone Joe DiMaggio?”
🐣 RT @SpiroAgnewGhost Oh my. Now 7 completely insane rants today. Also threatening Bragg—he clearly wants his cult members to attack him. ¤ Very Stable Genius indeed.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/SpiroAgnewGhost/status/1637646838093447168?s=20/photo/1 -2
[Text:] 🐣 RT @realDonaldTrump CAN YOU IMAGINE THE GREAT NEW YORK CITY POLICE DEPARTMENT, CORRECTLY REFERRED TO AS “NEW YORK CITY’S FINEST,” WHO, FOR THE FIRST AND ONLY TIME IN HISTORY, ENDORSED A PRESIDENT, ME, & HONORED ME AS “MAN OF THE YEAR,” HAVING TO DEFEND & PROTECT THE “DEFUNDERS” & “COP HATERS” OF THE RADICAL LEFT THAT WANT TO PUT THEIR GREATEST CHAMPION & FRIEND IN PRISON FOR A CRIME THAT DOESN’T EXIST..ALL THE WHILE THE SOROS BACKED D.A. ALLOWS MURDERERS & OTHER VIOLENT CRIMINALS TO FREELY ROAM THE SIDEWAKS OF N.Y.?
[Text:] 🐣 RT @realDonaldTrump IT IS THE DISTRICT ATTORNEY OF MANHATTAN WHO IS BREAKING THE LAW BY USING THE FAKE AND FULLY DISCREDITED TESTIMONY (EVEN BY THE SDNY!) OF A CONVICTED LIAR, FELON AND JAILBIRD, MICHAEL COHEN, TO INCREDIBLY PERSECUTE, PROSECUTE, AND INDICT A FORMER PRESIDENT, AND NOW LEADING (BY FAR!) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE, FOR A CRIME THAT DOESN’T EXIST. ALVIN BRAGG SHOULD BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR THE CRIME OF “INTERFERENCE IN A PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION.”
⋙ 🐣 RT @MuellerSheWrote Donald trump just called on the @NYPDnews to refuse to protect the people of New York from his potentially violent supporters.
WaPo: Biden warns Israeli leader on judicial changes https://tinyurl.com/yc2kwu7z Biden issued “a veiled warning to Netanyahu about his incendiary plan to overhaul the country’s judicial system”
// President tells Netanyahu democratic values “must remain a hallmark” of U.S.-Israel ties
🐣 RT @RonFilipkowski Whatever he has been taking before in pill form is now being used intravenously.
🐣 RT @SpiroAgnewGhost Get a strait jacket. 😬
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/SpiroAgnewGhost/status/1637615848528678913?s=20/photo/1
[Text:] 🐣 RT @realDonald Trump REMEMBER, THE SAME ANIMALS AND THUGS THAT WOULD DO THIS TO PERHAPS 200 MILLION PEOPLE, BUT ACTUALLY ALL AMERICANS, ARE THE COMMUNISTS, MARXISTS, RINOS, AND LOSERS THAT ARE PURPOSEFULLY DESTROYING OUR COUNTRY!
🐣 RT @Heroiam_Slava “It’s all a lie! It’s for show!” -someone can be heard shouting at the 19th second of the video of Putin’s conversation with the residents of Mariupol.
💽 https://twitter.com/Heroiam_Slava/status/1637574480619765761?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @RepSwalwell It was Donald Trump who broadcasted to the world the FBI raided his home to retrieve top secret documents. And it’s Donald Trump who has broadcasted to the world that he’ll soon be arrested. His goal is acts of violence in his name. And we must be prepared to protect against it.
🐣 RT @JoyceWhiteVance Does Trump ever stop to think he’s admitting he was happy to employ Michael Cohen, the “convicted felon, jailbird & serial fake storyteller & liar” as long as he stuck loyally by his side & operated on his behalf?
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/JoyceWhiteVance/status/1637588595300085762?s=20/photo/1
[Text:] 🐣 RT @realDonald Trump JUST REPORTED THAT THE MOST IMPORTANT WITNESS TO GO BEFORE THE NEW YORK CITY GRAND JURY, A HIGHLY RESPECTED LAWYER WHO ONCE REPRESENTED CONVICTED FELON, JAILBIRD, AND SERIAL FAKE STORY TELLER AND LIAR, MICHAEL COHEN, WILL BE DOING SO TOMORROW AFTERNOON. THE INFORMATION HE WILL PRESENT WILL SUPPOSEDLY BE CONCLUSIVE AND
IRREFUTABLE! WITCH HUNT!!!
🐣 RT @ AVDIIVKA AXIS/1515 UTC 19 MAR/ UKR smashed Russian offensive operations against Kamianka, Avdiivka, Vodiane, Pervomaiske. RU losses were considerable. Enemy casualties numbered in the hundreds, with the loss of numerous vehicles and equipment, including 15 tanks and 9 BMPs.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1637470822901096453?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT CITY /1600 UTC 19 MAR/ Positional fighting continues in urban area. RU forces have advanced NE from the Korsunskogo Street salient and are now in contact near the city center. UKR repelled RU attacks at Dubovo-Vasylivka, Hyrhorivka & Ivanivske.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1637483722181169154?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT AXIS /1545 UTC 19 MAR/ Heavy urban combat continues in Bakhmut. The 0600 (Kyiv) briefing of the UKR Gen’l Staff reports that RU forces staged attacks on UKR positions in the N sector of the city. UKR repelled RU attacks at Orikhovo-Vasylivka, Hyrhorivka & Ivanivske.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1637479039915925506?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @SpiroAgnewGhost After 24 hours of silence, we get a new totally deranged rant from Orange Mussolini. Now its all Biden’s fault.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/SpiroAgnewGhost/status/1637497294064074752?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @realDonaldTrump Biden wants to pretend he has nothing to do with the Manhattan D.A.’s Assault on Democracy when, in fact, he has “stuffed” the D.A.’s Office with Department of Injustice people, including one top DOJ operative from D.C. who is actually running the “Horseface” Witch Hunt. Bragg is a (Soros) Racist in Reverse, who is taking his orders from D.C. I beat them TWICE, doing much better the second time, and despite their DISINFORMATION campaign, they don’t want to run against “TRUMP” on my Great Record!
UAWire: Kyiv: Russian offensive on Bakhmut is failing https://tinyurl.com/2yt4cfa8
[E]xperts of the American Institute for the Study of War (ISW) argue that the statements of the Russian media that the Russian Armed Forces control most of Bakhmut are not true.
Russian bloggers claim that the sweep operation is currently underway in the territory of the AZOM metal processing plant. However, American military analysts have not found any evidence of this.
“ISW does not find visual evidence and Prigozhin’s words that the “Wagnerians” are allegedly already 600-700 meters away from the Bakhmut administrative center and on the West Bank of the Bakhmutka River. It is also not true that Russia allegedly occupied 70% of the city’s territory. According to ISW estimates, as of March 8, the Russian Federation occupied 50% of Bakhmut and since then the Russian forces have not advanced significantly, “American experts emphasized.
🧵 RT @P_Kallioniemi In today’s #vatniksoup I’ll be talking about genocide, children and national trauma. Throughout the 20th century, both in the Soviet Union and in Russia children have been suffering because of bad politics and structural negligence & now the kidnapped children face the same.1/17
📌 https://twitter.com/P_Kallioniemi/status/1637472561675096065?s=20/photo/1
💙🐣📋 RT @djrothkopf Since 1968, five GOPers have been elected president. Of those five, four were elected under suspicious circumstances, only three won the popular vote, two were impeached (a total of three times), one should’ve been (Reagan for Iran-Contra) & one launched a massive illegal war.
⋙ 🐣 and since 1992, only once (2004) did the GOP win the popular vote
🐣 RT @HarZizn Andriy #Yermak, head of #Zelenskyi’s Office. Defense forces continue to contain the enemy in the East, their (the enemy’s) plans to occupy #Bakhmut are now failing. #War_in_Ukraine
¤ https://twitter.com/HarZizn/status/1637448587222343680?s=20
🐣 RT @Azovsouth 🔥🔥 The russians have already failed the operation to capture #Bakhmut ¤ Yes, there are very active battles there, they still continue to carry out dozens of attacks on inertia, but they are suffering huge losses. Serhiy Cherevatyi, the spokesman of the Eastern Group of 🇺🇦Force
¤ https://twitter.com/Azovsouth/status/1637455516656869376?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @WarMonitor3 Ukrainian forces have conducted successful localised counterattacks in recent days south of Bakhmut around the T0504 road pushing Russian forces back and taking back captured positions. ¤ Heaviest fighting continues as Russian forces attempt to recapture the initiative in the area
🐣 RT @NewsHour Conservative activist Leonard Leo received the largest political donation of all time and now we’re learning how he is using the $1.6 billion.
⋙ PBS: What a conservative activist hopes to achieve with a billion-dollar donation https://tinyurl.com/55vbj26u
// Last August, conservative activist Leonard Leo received the largest political donation of all time, $1.6 billion. Before that, Leo was known for his role in reshaping the Supreme Court. Now, we are learning more about how he is using this massive pot of cash. Lisa Desjardins discussed the latest with Andrea Bernstein of ProPublica.
Andrea Bernstein, ProPublica: So, what is so fascinating about Leonard Leo is, he’s someone who sort of works behind the scenes, but was very much responsible, played a pivotal role in installing the 6-3 supermajority in the U.S. Supreme Court, the court that, of course, recently overturned Roe v. Wade, and made many other consequential decisions. ¤ And Leonard Leo was critical in creating the network that enabled that to happen. Now what he is looking to do is expand that outward, so it’s not just talking about law, but talking about law and politics and culture and media and bringing conservative values to all of those areas, and creating a pipeline of individuals who can go and work in organizations, in government advancing conservative causes.
WaPo: How Elon Musk knocked Tesla’s ‘Full Self-Driving’ off course https://tinyurl.com/2n48f5fr “Musk’s erratic leadership style … forc[ed] them to work at a breakneck pace to develop the technology and to push it out to the public before it was ready”
// Tesla’s campaign to deliver a fully autonomous vehicle has suffered amid mounting safety concerns — and the boss’s Twitter distraction
🐣 RT @NOELreports “I expect that the ICC will quickly approach Interpol and the contracting states and ask them for enforcement. Germany would then be obliged to arrest Putin and hand him over to the ICC if he entered Germany,” Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann said.
🐣 RT @EwangAlain Ukraine is using bakhmut to inflict heavy losses on the russians the ukrainians could still withdraw from bakhmut which is not even strategical but they have their plan which is to occupy Russians while they launch a counter offensive elsewhere
PravdaUA: Prigozhin creates pretexts to justify Wagner Group’s inability to encircle Bakhmut https://tinyurl.com/4davtee8
// Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner PMC, is trying to create pretexts to explain why his mercenaries cannot complete the encirclement
⭕ 18 Mar 2023
WaPo: The Jan. 6 investigation is the biggest in U.S. history. It’s only half done https://tinyurl.com/2p9cevpu
// Nearly 1,000 people have been charged to date, and a federal courthouse strains to handle what may be years more of trials
[Randall] Eliason, [a former federal prosecutor] said that while the riot cases may be about halfway over, there are indications some of the other branches of the investigation — like the false electors scheme or efforts to use Justice Department officials to undo the election results — appear to be further along, because the witnesses now being subpoenaed include some of the most thorny legal matters and the people closest to former president Donald Trump. Those are generally indicators that an investigation is nearing the end of the fact-gathering phase, he said. ¤ “There are a lot of court fights over privilege, and those take time, and you can’t just plow past them and not try to get critical evidence,” Eliason said. …
[P]rosecutors expect that the total number of people charged with crimes related to Jan. 6 may be somewhere between 1,600 and 2,100 people, according to people familiar with the letter. The letter was first reported by Bloomberg News.
That calculation does not include what, if any, charges result from the federal special counsel investigation into activities surrounding Trump allies’ efforts to use fake electors or other subterfuge to undo Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential victory.
As of Wednesday, judges had sentenced 408 Jan. 6 defendants, but only 88 of those were for felonies, mostly for one of two charges: obstruction of an official proceeding or assault on law enforcement. …
The five Jan. 6 defendants who have been convicted at trial of assaulting police have received an average sentence of more than four and a half years in prison. ¤ Defendants convicted at trial of obstructing an official proceeding have earned an average sentence nearly 19 months higher than those who pleaded guilty to the same charge. …
FBI officials have previously notified Congress that “approximately 2,000 individuals are believed to have been involved with the siege” of the U.S. Capitol, though it was unclear at the time from that statement whether that number of people would face criminal charges. …
🐣 RT @EricssonUlric Russia was believed to be a superpower until early 2022.
2021: second army in the world.
2022: second army in Ukraine.
2023: second army in Bakhmut.
🐣 RT @SqueeBib If one thing is clear is that ukraine had caused Russia massive loses and international ridicule at Bakhmut
🐣 RT @Heroiam_Slava This is the culmination of the “big” offensive on Bakhmut. The Russian enemy has exhausted its combat resources, both in terms of manpower and heavy weapons. All possible remnants of additional units are already being thrown in – desperate last-ditch attempts to take the fortress
⋙ 🐣 RT @BastyBoy975 There is lots of evidence to suggest Russia is beginning to run low on resources and morale. Bakhmut is taking its toll.
🐣 RT @TimothyDSnyder Russia never went through the procedure of joining the UN, and yet it is about to chair its Security Council, even as it fights a war of aggression and commits atrocities. This should be stopped.
⋙ TIME: The Danger of Russia Becoming President of the U.N. https://tinyurl.com/bdu23t2e
// The U.N. is about to allow the fox to guard the chicken coop. Russia must be stopped
TheAtlantic, Tom Nichols: Trump Did It Again https://tinyurl.com/5dkbr6ct “Trump’s message today to the American people has already come through loud and clear: I am too dangerous to arrest”
// If arrested, he’s called on “protesters” to come to his defense.
… This morning, Donald Trump threatened to summon a mob—for the second time in two years—to his defense. The former president of the United States and a leading candidate for the Republican nomination for the White House in 2024, facing a possible indictment in New York, claimed to know the exact day on which he would be arrested and then called on his supporters to “protest.” Trump and his cult know what a call for “protest” means: The last time he rallied his faithful supporters this way, they stormed the U.S. Capitol, which resulted in death and destruction and many, many prison sentences.
… Trump’s message today to the American people has already come through loud and clear: I am too dangerous to arrest.
… Trump himself today upped the ante by saying, in effect, that it doesn’t matter what’s in the indictment. Instead, he is warning all of us, point-blank, that he will violate the law if he wants to, and if you don’t like it, you can take it up with the mob that he can summon at will. This is pure authoritarianism, the flex of a would-be American caudillo who is betting that our fear of his goons is greater than our commitment to the rule of law. Once someone like Trump issues that kind of challenge, it doesn’t matter if the indictment is for murder, campaign-finance violations, or mopery with intent to gawk: The issue is whether our legal institutions can be bullied into paralysis.
… Trump, once again, is stress testing our institutions, and if he can scare off a state indictment by threatening a riot, he’ll do it again. After all, he thinks he got away with it on January 6, 2021—and so far, he has. …
Well, not exactly silence. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, whose entire career is bound up in a handful of extremist votes in his own caucus, has Trump’s back. “Here we go again,” he tweeted after Trump’s call to action. “An outrageous abuse of power by a radical DA who lets violent criminals walk as he pursues political vengeance against President Trump.” This is the same Kevin McCarthy who once, for a fraction of a second, held Trump responsible for nearly getting him killed. But the amalgam of ambition, fear, and opportunism that holds McCarthy’s skeleton together is, apparently, a powerful epoxy.
I am not so sure that this panicked, all-caps call from Trump will be to his benefit. It’s possible that Trump, finally, is approaching his Joe McCarthy moment, although many of his critics (including me) have seen such moments come and go. Nevertheless, one riot might be explained away. Two riots, with the promise of more to come, might be intolerable. ¤ But if this is what the Republicans want, so be it. If an indictment secures Trump the nomination, it will likely also cost him the election. … What happens next with his case is up to the legal system, but whether this lawless and deranged authoritarian returns to Washington is up to all of us.
🐣 RT @eorden Alvin Bragg: “Our law enforcement partners will ensure that any specific or credible threats against the office will be fully investigated and that the proper safeguards are in place so all 1,600 of us have a secure work environment.”
⋙ Politico: Manhattan DA Bragg privately warns of intimidation after Trump calls for protest https://tinyurl.com/5n7btde2
// Bragg’s office appears poised to bring criminal charges against Trump in connection with a hush-money payment made to a porn actress, Stormy Daniels.
🐣 RT @ highbrow_nobrow Nixon conspired with a foreign power in order to win the 1968 presidential election. @politico
⋙ Politico, John Farrell: It took decades to unravel Nixon’s sabotage of Vietnam peace talks. Now, the full story can be told. https://tinyurl.com/2p9e8u9e
⋙⋙ 🐣 When’s the last time a GOP president won power without cheating? Iran/Contra was swept under the rug. 2004 was marred by dirty trick placing of anti-gay referenda on ballots (by a gay operative, no less): the party plays dirty: it has since Ike ¤ & don’t get me started on pop vote
↥ ↧
🐣 RT @PaulaChertok …that time Republicans won an election by sabotaging a US President working to bring American hostages home from Iran. ¤ Now you know why Republicans didn’t fuss about Russia helping Trump. The GOP’s been lying & cheating so long, they’ve normalized screwing Americans to win.
⋙ 🐣 RT @peterbakernyt More than four decades later, a secret revealed: How a prominent Texas politician says he unwittingly joined a mission to sabotage Jimmy Carter’s 1980 campaign by urging the Iranians to hold 52 American hostages until after the election..
⋙⋙ NYT: A Four-Decade Secret: The Untold Story of Sabotaging Jimmy Carter’s Re-election https://tinyurl.com/4pfs9aem
// Nearly 43 years later, a prominent Texas politician said he unwittingly took part in a Middle East tour with a clandestine agenda.
↥ ↧
🐣 RT @OK_Dumbass It’s almost like Republicans have a long & illustrious history of incredibly dirty tricks that were meant to interfere with free & fair elections right here in the United States of America.
🖼 https://twitter.com/OK_Dumbass/status/1637190077418811397?s=20/photo/1
// Brooks Brothers riot
🐣 RT @Jetson77 Okay. This is today. He doesn’t know that @SpeakerMcCarthy has zero power over Alvin Bragg or Fani Willis or Jack Smith. ¤ Hey Kevin, likely time you get out in front of whatever twice impeached, one-term, criminal, traitor-wretch is threatening you with.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/Jetson77/status/1637190331686076416?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @realDonaldTrump IF KEVIN MCCARTHY DOESN’T END THESE INVESTIGATIONS IMMEDIATELY, I WILL DIRECT MY SUPPORTERS IN CONGRESS TO VOTE TO END HIS SPEAKERSHIP AND I WILL HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO LEAK SOME “INTERESTING VIDEOS” I TOOK OF HIM AT MAR-A-LAGO! END THE WITCH HUNT NOW!
🐣 RT @RachelBitecofer How many people show up to defend the criminal in chief?
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/RachelBitecofer/status/1637136209939136514?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @realDonaldTrump IT’S TIME!!! WE ARE A NATION IN STEEP DECLINE, BEING LED INTO WORLD WAR III BY A CROOKED POLITICIAN WHO DOESN’T EVEN KNOW HE’S ALIVE, BUT WHO IS SURROUNDED BY EVIL & SINISTER PEOPLE WHO, BASED ON THEIR ACTIONS ON DEFUNDING THE POLICE, DESTROYING OUR MILITARY, OPEN BORDERS, NO VOTER I.D., INFLATION, RAISING TAXES, & MUCH MORE, CAN ONLY HATE OUR NOW FAILING USA. WE JUST CAN’T ALLOW THIS ANYMORE. THEY’RE KILLING OUR NATION AS WE SIT BACK & WATCH. WE MUST SAVE AMERICA! PROTEST, PROTEST, PROTEST!!!
🧵 RT @Kasparov63 Successful crime unpunished leads to escalation. 1/5
📌 https://twitter.com/Kasparov63/status/1637128962596896768?s=20
🐣 RT @Flash_news_ua After the decision of the International Criminal Court to arrest putin, the Kremlin is looking for a successor to the President of the russian federation, — said Andrii Yusov, a representative of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.
⋙ 🐣 RT @Flash_news_ua Yusov noted that on March 17, russian propagandists did not air their shows discussing The Hague, because discussing it would be a “strange and too loud” for the population of the russian federation.
[ I doubt this ]
🐣 RT @gtconway3d Retweet if you don’t expect to be arrested this week for concealing and falsely documenting a $130K hush-money payment to a porn star you claim you didn’t have sex with.
🧵 RT @ anders_aslund The ICC indictment of Putin is likely to have far-reaching consequences.
📌 https://twitter.com/anders_aslund/status/1637085934603624450?s=20
1. 123 countries have a priori committed themselves to arrest him – sovereign immunity will not shield him.
2. Putin cannot be invited to any international forum, including the G20 & UN.
3. No decent political leader can have any contact with him. The leaders of Austria, France, Germany & Hungary can no longer even talk to Putin.
4. Scholz & Macron can no longer play mediators between Russia & Ukraine.
5. Orban can no longer thrive on giveaways from Putin.
6. Those who continue seeing Putin will fall into disrepute & lose international standing: ¤ Xi Jingping & Erdogan!
7. Russia can not be a serious international negotiator until Putin is gone.
8. Either Russian leaders may finally hesitate to engage in Putin’s crimes against humanity. Personal sanctions did not suffice with them, but the indictment against Putin shows that he is a deadender
⋙ Sam Greene: “Put bluntly, Putin has no face left to save.”
⋙⋙ CEPA, Sam Greene: Putin Becomes a Global Outlaw https://tinyurl.com/bp9ruxe5
Needless to say, paranoid Putin who almost only travels by armored train now (like Stalin and Kim Il-Sung) will stop traveling abroad altogether out of fear of being arrested.
🐣 RT @MSNBC Andrew Weissman explains why Trump’s rhetoric in his latest Truth Social post could be legally problematic. ¤ “It’s notable that he did not say you should protest ‘peacefully’. It was sort of conspicuous that he left that word out.”
💽 https://twitter.com/MSNBC/status/1637100464079552512?s=20/photo/1
🐣 📋 RT @front_ukrainian Russia is losing up to 1500 people a day during the current offensive, mostly in the town of Bakhmu[t] – The Guardian ¤ “Russia is losing 1200,1300 and even 1500 soldiers a day during the current offensive,mainly in Bakhmut the publication reported, citing a senior NATO official.
🐣 👉 to avoid amplifying tfg, I won’t be tweeting or RTing on that topic …
🧵 RT @U24_gov_ua U24 ambassador @TimothyDSnyder opposes russian propaganda on a regular basis. He recently spoke at a meeting of the @UN Security Council, convened by moscow to discuss “russophobia,” and explained how russia uses this term to justify its genocide against the Ukrainian people
// “The term russophobia” has been exploited during this war as a form of imperial propaganda. It has served this last year as a justification for russian war crimes in Ukraine.”
📌 https://twitter.com/U24_gov_ua/status/1637096429859553282?s=20
🐣 RT @SpeakerMcCarthy Here we go again — an outrageous abuse of power by a radical DA who lets violent criminals walk as he pursues political vengeance against President Trump. ¤ I’m directing relevant committees to immediately investigate if federal funds are being used to subvert our democracy by interfering in elections with politically motivated prosecutions.
⬇️ I’m not retweeting any of these incendiary Trump tweets to not contribute to hysteria ⬇️
🐣 RT @petestrzok This from the man who declared “I am your retribution.” ¤ “Be there. Will be wild!” 2.0
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/petestrzok/status/1637063597187538944?s=20/photo/1 -2
🐣 RT @realDonaldTrump OUR NATION IS NOW THIRD WORLD & DYING. THE AMERICAN DREAM IS DEAD! THE RADICAL LEFT ANARCHISTS HAVE STOLLEN OUR PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, AND WITH IT, THE HEART OF OUR OUR COUNTRY. AMERICAN PATRIOTS ARE BEING ARRESTED & HELD IN CAPTIVITY LIKE ANIMALS, WHILE CRIMINALS & LEFTIST THUGS ARE ALLOWED TO ROAM THE STREETS, KILLING & BURNING WITH NO RETRIBUTION. MILLIONS ARE FLOODING THROUGH OUR OPEN BOARDERS, MANY FROM PRISONS & MENTAL INSTITUTIONS. CRIME & INFLATION ARE DESTROYING OUR VERY WAY OF LIFE…
🐣 RT @realDonaldTrump Page 2: NOW ILLEGAL LEAKS FROM A CORRUPT & HIGHLY POLITICAL MANHATTAN DISTRICT ATTORNEYS OFFICE, WHICH HAS ALLOWED NEW RECORDS TO BE SET IN VIOLENT CRIME & WHOSE LEADER IS FUNDED BY GEORGE SOROS, INDICATE THAT, WITH NO CRIME BEING ABLE TO BE PROVEN, & BASED ON AN OLD & FULLY DEBUNKED (BY NUMEROUS OTHER PROSECUTORS!) FAIRYTALE, THE FAR & AWAY LEADING REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE & FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, WILL BE ARRESTED ON TUESDAY OF NEXT WEEK. PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK!
⋙ 🐣 RT @petestrzok So if indicted, law enforcement is worried about violence from the followers of the guy telling his followers two weeks ago, ¤ “This is the final battle, they know it…Either they win or we win. And if they win, we no longer have a country”? ¤ This is the stuff of failed states.
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @kylegriffin1 New on @MSNBC: Local, state, and federal law enforcement and security agencies are preparing for the possibility that Donald Trump could be indicted as early as next week, according to five senior officials familiar with the preparations. @NBCNews
WaPo, Chris Sununu: Some of my GOP colleagues have lost their moral compass on Ukraine https://tinyurl.com/4y9vdu3u “‘America First’ does not mean ‘America Only.’ It means putting our interests first — and that’s what opposing Russia in Ukraine does.”
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT AXIS /1020 UTC 18 MAR/ Positional combat continues in the urban areas of Bakhmut. S of the city, UKR repelled RU attacks at Ivanivske & Klischiivka; the latter engagement confirms UKR progress east of the canal network. Air defense downs a Russian Su-25 strike aircraft.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1637033985875361792?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @Feher_Junior Zaluzhnyi insisted on #Bakhmut’s protection. The greatest General ever, if he wants victory, he gets it. In this moment all roads lead to Bakhmut. The Rashists will be demilitarized #SlavaUkraïni
💽 https://twitter.com/Feher_Junior/status/1636845889426710532?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @NOELreports Bakhmut situation today. In the southern part, fighting continues around the Mig-17 monument. To the northeast, Russian forces failed to cross the river and retreated. Russian troops have approached the area near the O0506 at Khromove, heaviest fighting going on in that area.
🌎 https://twitter.com/NOELreports/status/1637012856737595393?s=20/photo/1
⭕ 17 Mar 2023
🐣 RT @highbrow_nobrow ⚖️ Members of the Federalist Society, a conservative legal organization, are attempting to manufacture legal justifications for cementing permanent minority rule in the United States.
⋙ Politico: The Federalist Society Isn’t Quite Sure About Democracy Anymore https://tinyurl.com/2rvc3xbt
// After recent Supreme Court wins, the society’s youth arm debates the next stage for the conservative legal movement.
🐣 RT @MikeSington “This is a huge development.” Final preparations being made to arrest Donald Trump next week. Trump will “be fingerprinted and processed like every other defendant”. The Secret Service will make the decision whether to handcuff the former president or not. (Video: Fox News)
💽 https://twitter.com/MikeSington/status/1636849571707092994?s=20/photo/1
🐣 📋 RT @TonyHussein4 Hunter Biden, as a private citizen, has every right to pursue his own business endeavors. Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump were part of the Trump administration when they made $640 million. After leaving the White House, Kushner received $2 billion from Saudi Crown Prince MBS.
NYT: Judge Rules Trump Lawyer Must Testify in Documents Inquiry https://tinyurl.com/3d9ytkpv Lawyer Corcoran had another lawyer draft a statement saying Trump has no more documents; a later search turned up many, including ones marked “classified”
// The ruling found that the government had met the threshold for the crime-fraud exception, which allows prosecutors to get around attorney-client privilege if they believe a crime has been committed.
🐣 RT @apmassaro3 “Historically, Ukraine was unfairly underappreciated and I regret it took bloodshed and a devastating war for the world to realize how cool we are. We were always cool, but it just took you too much time to realize that.” – Kuleba https://pic.twitter.com/7gN6vabyfo
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT CITY TACMAP /2240 UTC 17 MAR/ Urban fighting continues. The line of contact in the north sector of the city conforms with the rail right-of-way. In the south, RU forces are attempting to close the gap between the H-32 and T-05-13 HWYs. #BakhmutMap
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1636860067096952833?s=20/photo/1
MSNBC Maddowblog, Steve Benen: Trump sees American foes, not Russia, as ‘the greatest threat’ https://tinyurl.com/2bt4vkpm “As visions go, this is more a weird and paranoid rant than the basis for a major party presidential platform”
// Donald Trump sees the U.S. as a “third-world dictatorship” filled with nefarious villains who are far scarier than Russia. How many Republicans agree?
As Donald Trump’s latest presidential campaign moves forward, he’s taking a step that he didn’t bother with in 2016 or 2020: The Republican keeps releasing brief videos in which he addresses a specific controversy or policy issue. The New York Times reported a couple of months ago, “The videos, in which the former president speaks directly to the camera, are aimed at reassuring supporters that he’s focused on topics other than his 2020 defeat, an issue that flopped with midterm voters.”
As we discussed last month, these clips aren’t real policy proposals. It’s not as if the former president sat down with a bunch of wonks, explored the granular minutiae of governing solutions, and formulated a set of white papers which he’s unveiling episodically in video form. ¤ On the contrary, these videos have all the sophistication of bumper stickers written in crayon.
His newest installment, for example, features the Republican speaking for roughly three-and-a-half minutes about his geopolitical vision — which is ridiculous, but which is very much worth paying attention to.
Trump begins the video by claiming, “We have never been closer to World War III than we are today under Joe Biden,” which isn’t even close to being true. (Tensions were far higher, for example, during the Cuban Missile Crisis.) Moments later, he characterized Russia’s war in Ukraine as a “proxy battle” that needs to end “immediately.”
Closer to home, the former president believes there’s a “globalist neo-con establishment” that is “perpetually dragging us into endless wars,” “pretending” to fight for democracy, and turning the United States into a “third-world dictatorship.” Trump’s solution? “The State Department, the defense bureaucracy, the intelligence services, and all the rest need to be completely overhauled and reconstituted to fire the Deep Staters,” he added.
Evidently, once the United States’ military, intelligence agencies, and diplomatic corps have been remodeled to fit Trump’s wishes, he intends to “reevaluate” our NATO alliance, its purpose, and its mission. This would, of course, be entirely in line with the Kremlin’s dream scenario, though that’s apparently not a consideration the former president is worried about. From the video’s official transcript:
“[T]he greatest threat to Western Civilization today is not Russia. It’s probably, more than anything else, ourselves and some of the horrible, U.S.A.-hating people that represent us. It’s the abolition of our national borders. It’s the failure to police our own cities. It’s the destruction of the rule of law from within. It’s the collapse of the nuclear family and fertility rates, like nobody can believe is happening. It’s the Marxists who would have us become a Godless nation worshipping at the altar of race, and gender, and environment. And it’s the globalist class that has made us totally dependent on China and other foreign countries that basically hate us.”
After downplaying the threat Russia poses, Trump drives the point home once more, concluding that American “globalists” are “doing more damage to America than Russia and China could ever have dreamed,” as these Americans chase “monsters and phantoms overseas.”
As visions go, this is more a weird and paranoid rant than the basis for a major party presidential platform. In fact, if one were to read the transcript, strip it from context, and not realize that it came from Trump’s political operation, a typical person might think it was an unhinged tirade from some random person with a YouTube channel that has four followers.
Or possibly a social media message from someone who seems a little too eager to promote pro-Kremlin propaganda. ¤ After all, most mainstream Americans have no reason to believe the United States is a “third-world dictatorship” filled with nefarious, villainous officials who are far scarier than Russia and China. And yet, Trump not only believes this, he released a video bragging about it.
As a practical matter, it’s likely that Vladimir Putin will celebrate the clip and prepare new efforts to help return the former American president to the White House in order to advance the kind of agenda Moscow desperately wants to see. But as a political matter, I’d also love to know just how many congressional Republicans — and other GOP presidential aspirants — agree with the message Trump trumpeted in this video.
🚫🐣 RT @vinm300 17 March: Kuleba is in demand
Blinken is on the line
Then Qin Gang wants a word
Ukraine holds all the cards – full counter offensive
Xi knows the score on sovereignty
(Gradual disengagement, demilitarised zone, timeline-which is key. All likely discussed – Putin is pulling out)
🐣 RT @PaulaChertok Of course the criminals say the law doesn’t apply to them. But the ICC arrest warrants are a BFD. No more dreams of Davos or travel to Dubai. Putin—AND his war criminal co-conspirators (only one named so far)—have doomed themselves by their own catastrophic aggression in Ukraine.
⋙ 🐣 RT @nexta_tv Maria Zakharova commented on the issuance of an arrest warrant for Putin by the International Criminal Court in The Hague. ¤ “The decisions of the International Criminal Court have no significance for our country, including from the legal point of view. ¤ Russia is not a participant of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and has no obligations under it. Russia is not cooperating with this body, and possible arrest ‘prescriptions’ coming from the International Court of Justice will be legally null and void for us.”
ICC: Situation in Ukraine: ICC judges issue arrest warrants against Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin and Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova https://tinyurl.com/y78fnwe9 “… allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population (children) … ”
Today, 17 March 2023, Pre-Trial Chamber II of the International Criminal Court (“ICC” or “the Court”) issued warrants of arrest for two individuals in the context of the situation in Ukraine: Mr Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin and Ms Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova.
Mr Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, born on 7 October 1952, President of the Russian Federation, is allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population (children) and that of unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation (under articles 8(2)(a)(vii) and 8(2)(b)(viii) of the Rome Statute). The crimes were allegedly committed in Ukrainian occupied territory at least from 24 February 2022. There are reasonable grounds to believe that Mr Putin bears individual criminal responsibility for the aforementioned crimes, (i) for having committed the acts directly, jointly with others and/or through others (article 25(3)(a) of the Rome Statute), and (ii) for his failure to exercise control properly over civilian and military subordinates who committed the acts, or allowed for their commission, and who were under his effective authority and control, pursuant to superior responsibility (article 28(b) of the Rome Statute).
Ms Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, born on 25 October 1984, Commissioner for Children’s Rights in the Office of the President of the Russian Federation, is allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population (children) and that of unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation (under articles 8(2)(a)(vii) and 8(2)(b)(viii) of the Rome Statute). The crimes were allegedly committed in Ukrainian occupied territory at least from 24 February 2022. There are reasonable grounds to believe that Ms Lvova-Belova bears individual criminal responsibility for the aforementioned crimes, for having committed the acts directly, jointly with others and/or through others (article 25(3)(a) of the Rome Statute).
Pre-Trial Chamber II considered, based on the Prosecution’s applications of 22 February 2023, that there are reasonable grounds to believe that each suspect bears responsibility for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population and that of unlawful transfer of population from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation, in prejudice of Ukrainian children.
The Chamber considered that the warrants are secret in order to protect victims and witnesses and also to safeguard the investigation. Nevertheless, mindful that the conduct addressed in the present situation is allegedly ongoing, and that the public awareness of the warrants may contribute to the prevention of the further commission of crimes, the Chamber considered that it is in the interests of justice to authorise the Registry to publicly disclose the existence of the warrants, the name of the suspects, the crimes for which the warrants are issued, and the modes of liability as established by the Chamber.
The abovementioned warrants of arrests were issued pursuant to the applications submitted by the Prosecution on 22 February 2023.
🐣 RT @dansabbagh Russia is sustaining “1200, 1300 even 1500” casualties a day in its current offensive, mostly in Bakhmut. Killed to wounded ratio is one to three – senior Nato official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
🐣 RT @ReportWar1 🇺🇦🇧🇾The Ukrainian command is removing the 47th Brigade and part of the National Guard from the Belarusian borders. The soldiers who provoked the Belarusian border guards will be sent to Bakhmut, Kupyansk and Vuhledar. -by UkraineRuNews ¤ #UkraineRussianWar #Russia #Ukraine #Belarus
😅 RT @ heartagram83 “The Wanker group… excuse me. The Wagner group is wanking in Bakhmut for 9 months but can’t finish the job” 🤣🤣
⋙ 🐣 RT @saintjavelin Oh no! Putin’s video diary was LEAKED! 😳
💽 https://twitter.com/heartagram83/status/1636746367325605888?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @BHL From #Kharkiv to #Bakhmut and #Kherson, I traveled all over #Ukraine frontline. And I don’t believe, for 1 minute, the little chatter I feel rising about the exhaustion of the #Ukrainian defenders and the debates about #Zelensky’s strategy. We are the ones who are tired. Not them
WaPo Editorial: Ron DeSantis’s pandering on Ukraine is dangerously wrong https://tinyurl.com/mvsv6tsj “Mr. DeSantis betrays the hollowness of his rhetoric about fighting for ‘freedom’ by turning his back on the most inspiring freedom fighters in the world today”
🐣 RT @BillKristol Just saw Ron DeSantis’s book, “The Courage To Be Free,” at Hudson News. ¤ You know who’s providing THE example of the courage to be free in today’s world? The people of Ukraine. ¤ Whom DeSantis doesn’t support.
WaPo: Hunter Biden sues laptop repair shop owner, citing invasion of privacy https://tinyurl.com/3u27452s
// The lawsuit, a counter-move against John Paul Mac Isaac, escalates the legal battle surrounding the president’s son at a sensitive moment.
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKMUT AXIS/1320 UTC 17 MAR/RU maintains important lodgments in the SW urban area of Bakhmut. UKR troops hold defense positions along the rail right-of-way, the H-32 HWY and Korsunskogo Street southern urban area. //Urban TACMAP to follow.// #BakhmutMap
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1636717902136057856?s=20/photo/1
⭕ 16 Mar 2023
NewYorker, Susan Glasser: The G.O.P. and the Ghosts of Iraq https://tinyurl.com/y4x58pcn “[I]t’s fair to say that the invasion of Iraq led not so much to a flourishing democracy in that country as it did to a struggling one here at home”
// Ukraine shows that Republicans have moved a long way from the Party of George W. Bush
[…] Much as the Vietnam War did for a previous generation, the failures in Iraq shattered American confidence, shaped future debates over the use of military force, made the concept of democracy promotion itself suspect, distracted from rising threats posed by the revisionist great powers Russia and China, and splintered the previously unquestioned Republican commitment to a robustly internationalist American foreign policy.
Those rifts have been on full display this week, as leading lights of the party that brought us the Iraq War have publicly feuded over the enormous sums of American military assistance provided to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion. Trump, with his oft-stated public admiration for Vladimir Putin, is a longtime skeptic, and, on Monday, the other main contender for the Republican nomination in 2024, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, publicly joined him. In a remarkable statement dismissing the war as little more than a “territorial dispute,” DeSantis seemed to signal how much he thinks Republican sentiment has shifted since the Bush era. You don’t have to support the disastrous invasion of Iraq to acknowledge that Russia’s barbaric war of aggression against its neighbor Ukraine is wrong, and yet that is where both Trump and DeSantis have now landed. DeSantis’s comments to Fox News’ Tucker Carlson—who night after night preaches to his TV audience against foreign entanglements, including in Ukraine—drew strong pushback from the remaining Republican hawks in the old Bush mold. The Wall Street Journal editorial board called it his “first big mistake.” Lindsey Graham called it a “Neville Chamberlain approach” of appeasement. Nikki Haley pointedly observed that DeSantis was just “copying” Trump with his new position.
DeSantis, back in the pre-Trump era of 2015, publicly bashed Obama for not providing enough arms to Ukraine. His flip-flop is so telling. There may still be Bush-style internationalists left in Washington, but it says everything about the trajectory of the Party’s foreign-policy thinking that both of its 2024 front-runners think that’s not where the primary voters they seek stand. Between them, Trump and DeSantis have support from nearly eighty per cent of the Republican electorate, according to the latest Quinnipiac poll.
… In private … Bush has never wavered from his insistence that the Iraq War was the right call. During a February 23rd private reception hosted by the Business Roundtable, held in honor of the publication of “Hand-Off,” a new book edited by the Bush national-security adviser Stephen Hadley containing the declassified transition memos sent by his national-security team to the incoming Obama Administration, Bush made off-the-record remarks defending his decision to invade Iraq. The former President told the crowd that it was the right decision at the time and he has no regrets, one attendee, a veteran of the Bush Administration, told me. He added, “Bush is completely unrepentant. It’s pretty stunning.” Feaver, who also attended, acknowledged Bush’s unchanged views. “I have never heard President Bush say anything different on Iraq than he said in his memoirs,” in which, Feaver recalled, “he made the case for why he made the decisions he made and why he thought they were still the right decision.”
Many officials other than Bush himself, of course, have admitted the invasion was a mistake, “a grave and costly error,” as the former Bush speechwriter David Frum wrote in The Atlantic this week. I believe there is a straight line that leads from that debacle to the political mess we are in today. Twenty years ago this week, I recall sitting in a beachside restaurant at a hotel in Kuwait, waiting for the invasion to begin and wondering if my friend, a journalist who had been through the political battles of the Vietnam era, was right when he warned several young American soldiers sitting near us that another Vietnam-like “quagmire” might be in store.
He turned out to be prescient. But neither of us imagined the consequences here in the United States, where two decades later it’s fair to say that the invasion of Iraq led not so much to a flourishing democracy in that country as it did to a struggling one here at home.
WaPo Editorial: Ron DeSantis’s pandering on Ukraine is dangerously wrong https://tinyurl.com/mvsv6tsj “Mr. DeSantis betrays the hollowness of his rhetoric about fighting for ‘freedom’ by turning his back on the most inspiring freedom fighters in the world today”
🐣 RT @TWMCLtd On a similar point, last night #Ukraine confirmed that it had demoted a Commander who talked about horrific losses. ¤ “Kupol” said of 500 men, 100 died and the rest were wounded. ¤ The Army said his numbers were exaggerated and he wasn’t authorised to speak to the media.
ResoluteSquare, Rick Wilson: Those Are The Screams of Millions of GOP Normie Hearts Breaking https://tinyurl.com/wm7sw2ha
// Since 2015 the persistent magical thinking inside the Republican establishment of Washington operatives, elite donors, and legacy conservative media has failed them repeatedly. DeSantis just did it to them again.
How many times will it take before the gentry conservatives learn their lesson? No one is coming to save them. ¤ Since 2015 the persistent magical thinking inside the Republican establishment of Washington operatives, elite donors, and legacy conservative media has failed them repeatedly. Since the moment Trump slithered down the faux-gold escalator, they’ve consistently managed to set themselves up for disappointment and heartbreak in their awkwardly arranged marriage with the MAGA base.
This week’s lesson came from an unlikely source; Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, the rockstar dreamboat Fox favorite of the Please God Let Trump Die Soon faction of the Republican Party, blew it.
When Fox host Tucker Carlson asked for his position on Ukraine, DeSantis didn’t just lose his status as a savior of the pre-Trump foreign policy and national security GOP. He went all in with the overtly pro-Vladimir Putin Carlson faction of the MAGA base, adopting the position, framing, and rhetoric of the wee Russian warmonger.
For DeSantis, Ukraine is a mere “territorial dispute” between Ukraine and Russia, not a brutal war of aggression launched entirely on orders from the Kremlin. He played down the massive consequences to Europe, NATO, and the world of Putin’s murderous rampage by saying Ukraine was not in America’s vital national interests. He falsely portrayed America’s aid to Ukraine, making it seem unaccountable and unlimited.
Although DeSantis is known for obsessing over the smallest detail of a Disney movie’s content, obscure books in school libraries, or tweets from his critics, he somehow managed to find Russia’s war crimes, targeting of civilians, and overall brutality not worthy of comment.
From Truman to Obama, American Presidents stood against the Russian threat to peace and security in Europe and the world. DeSantis had an easy option and failed. DeSantis could have evoked Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush to claim his place in the long line of GOP stalwarts facing Russian aggression, showing he was more than a Trump clone.
He instead betrayed that long arc of Presidential leadership, currying favor with Putin and Tucker Carlson, today’s Lord Haw Haw. ¤ The shock and pain in Big Conservatism’s social media feeds and writings were glaringly evident. ¤ They had pinned so many hopes on the Governor of Florida. Their lovingly crafted paeans to DeSantis were as frequent as they were gushing, often bordering on restraining-order-I-won’t-be-ignored fanboying. They painted DeSantis as a singular political and legal genius, a rock-solid conservative, and, most importantly, their exit strategy from the hellscape of Trumplandia.
Never mind his manic culture warrior act, his wild government overreach, his embrace of bully-boy authoritarian capitalism, and his snippy, constipated affect. Anyone paying the slightest attention could see the red flags, but D.C. writers and consultants didn’t want to imagine their dream date for 2024 was imperfect.
The heartbreak among the dying faction of the old GOP is on painful display. How could he? He’s supposed to be the smart one. The good one. He’d unite the tribe and bring the populists and conservatives back into accord and harmony. He was going to be the one to end the Trump nightmare.
Even in Florida, a state DeSantis rules with an iron fist, a juvenile temper, and an instinct for instant revenge at the smallest slight, Senator Marco Rubio took aim squarely at DeSantis, saying, “Obviously, he doesn’t deal with foreign policy every day as governor.” Lindsay Graham, John Cornyn, and others expressed their shock and disappointment.
It begs a simple question; do they not know today’s MAGA GOP? ¤ From the moment Trump began his long, parasitic consumption of the Republican Party, conservatives have rationalized, justified, and day-drank away the realities of the moment. Conservatism as an ideology in America is a dead religion where the dying priests hope that someday they’ll return to the people’s hearts.
The grunting populism that replaced it caters to the worst instincts of mankind and rewards transgression, rage, revenge, and the raw exercise of power. National security conservatism in which America stood as a leader in the international order, maintained strong alliances, and engaged in leadership beyond the vulgar transactionalism of Trump’s America-as-a-protection-racket is now actively despised by the MAGA horde. The MAGA base sees Putin as their kind of leader, the tough guy owning the libs by invading a nation whose leader refused to help Trump win in 2020.
It took a near-fatal dose of hopium on the part of the major donors and operatives to stake their hopes on a governor of modest political and interpersonal skills like DeSantis. Their frenzied imagining of DeSantis winning over MAGA, soundly defeating Trump, somehow papering over his radical culture war in Florida, and returning the GOP to business as usual was as lurid as they were absurd.
DeSantis was never going to save the elite GOP from the unwashed masses who run the party now. Set aside the hollow signifiers of his elite Ivy education and stare into the populist void and it’s easy to see; DeSantis isn’t just a captive of the MAGA base; he’s one of its leaders. The National Review set thought DeSantis was fooling the rubes to win the primary when he was fooling them all along to win over the establishment.
Given his prior support for Ukraine while serving in Congress, it’s abundantly clear that DeSantis has adopted the most important ethos of the GOP today; obey the mob, keep Tucker on your side, and when in doubt, side with Putin. ¤ And that’s a party with no room for the conservatives of yesterday.
🐣 RT @ SpiroAgnewGhost Nearly two hours after he posted this on his Truth Social garbage site, it has less than 5000 likes. Even his cult members are getting tired of his endless malignant narcissism and rants.
⋙ 🐣 RT @ SpiroAgnewGhost This is not a parody.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/SpiroAgnewGhost/status/1636518612847726594?s=20/photo/1
[Text:] Statement from the Trump Campaign on the Manhattan DA’s Witch-Hunt
*President Donald J. Trump is completely innocent, he did nothing wrong, and even the biggest, most Radical Left Democrats are making that clear. From Russia, Russia, Russia, to the Mueller Hoax, to Impeachment Hoaxes I and 2, and even the Unlawful Mar-a-Lago Raid, Democrats have investigated and attacked President Trump since before he was elected – and they’ve failed every time. Now Democrats are at it again, pushing the “Nuclear Button” and attacking a President because of a disgraced extortionist. This is happening because President Trump is leading in the polls by a large margin against both Democrats and Republicans, and there’s never been anything so blatant in American political history. If the Democrats can do this to President Trump, they can do it to you.
‘The latest Witch-Hunt is being brought on by George Soros-backed Radical Left Democrat prosecutor Alvin Bragg. Bragg has made political donations to fellow Radical Democrats like Raphael Warnock, and now Bragg is making a political donation of a different kind to Joe Biden. Everyone knows it’s a sham. In fact, the Department of Justice stocked the DA’s office with top people from DC to help “Get Trump” at a local level.
“Americans will not tolerate Radical Left Democrats turning our justice system into an injustice system to influence a presidential election, which is all they want to do. Our Country is not going to let this happen. This will backfire massively for the Democrat Party, and end in disgrace for our Nation.” – Steve Cheung, spokesperson
‼️ 🐣 RT @RonFilipkowski Trump says Russia is not a threat, our greatest threat is our American representatives, we need to reevaluate the purpose of NATO, and most of the people in the State Dept, DOD and Intel Services need to be fired so he can put the right people in.
💽 https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1636446515471196167?s=20/photo/1
💽 https://twitter.com/CBKNEWS121/status/1636448055216971791?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @stuartpstevens .@TuckerCarlson, we met when you were rejected by CIA, writing for Talk Magazine. Desperate to be taken seriously. You were fired by CNN, then MSNBC. Bitter failues who feel rejected are classic targets for hostile foreign power recruitment. Easy to see why you were targeted
NYT, David French: Reagan Wouldn’t Recognize the G.O.P. Discord Over Ukraine https://tinyurl.com/yckmf9th “Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump … who’ve built their political brands around fighting their domestic political enemies now wilt in the face of inferior Russian arms”
🐣 RT @SpiroAgnewGhost What. A. Fucking. Lunatic.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/SpiroAgnewGhost/status/1636438917200367616?s=20/photo/1
[Text:] 🐣 RT @realDonaldTrump There MUST be a complete commitment to dismantling the entire globalist neo-con establishment that is perpetually dragging us into endless wars, pretending to fight for freedom and democracy abroad, while they turn us into a third-world country and a third-world dictatorship right here at home! #AGENDA47
AJConstitution: EXCLUSIVE: Behind the scenes of Trump grand jury; jurors hear 3rd leaked Trump call https://tinyurl.com/3fut8tws
🐣 RT @ Heroiam_Slava ❗️❗️❗️ This is how ruscist planes Su-27 shot down a US reconnaissance UAV MQ-9 Reaper.
🖼 💽 https://twitter.com/Heroiam_Slava/status/1636313137174462465?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT CITY /1745 UTC 16 MAR/ CRITICAL/ RU forces have made an important advance in the SW urban area. The line of contact now conforms to Korsunskogo Street. The development jeopardizes the S quadrant of the Bakhmut urban area. ¤ NOTE: New street projection of city.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1636424096320765953?s=20/photo/1
🐣 📋 RT @front_ukrainian The Armed Forces of Ukraine use more than 90000 155-mm ammunition per month,— WSJ ¤ Before the war, the US could produce approximately 13000 shells per month. This year, this monthly figure jumped to 20000 shells and the US plans to increase production to 50,000 next year.
🐣 RT @KaivanShroff Fox News has spent the week lying about SVB donating over $70 million to Black Lives Matter. ¤ SVB donated $0 to Black Lives Matter. ¤ More racist propaganda.
NBC: Grand jury heard phone call of Trump pressuring Georgia speaker to overturn Biden’s victory https://tinyurl.com/57b553mv “Trump asked Ralston who would stop him from holding a special session. According to Kohrs, Ralston responded, ‘A federal judge, that’s who’”
// The special grand jury’s foreperson told NBC News that Trump tried to pressure the then-speaker into calling a special legislative session to overturn the results in the battleground state.
The Fulton County special grand jury heard a phone call between former President Donald Trump and Georgia House Speaker David Ralston as part of its investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia, the jury’s foreperson, Emily Kohrs, told NBC News on Wednesday.
During the December call, Trump attempted to pressure the then-speaker into calling a special legislative session to overturn President Joe Biden’s victory in the battleground state, Kohrs said. ¤ The call recording, which was first reported by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, lasted about 10 minutes, Kohrs said. She recalled that Trump asked Ralston who would stop him from holding a special session. According to Kohrs, Ralston responded, “A federal judge, that’s who.”
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT AXIS /1410 UTC 16 MAR/CRITICAL/ Russian forces have registered important gains in the urban areas of Bakhmut. Critically, RU troops are in contact along the rail right-of-way, the H-32 HWY and the Korsunskogo / Ushinskogo Street cut-off in the southern urban area. … It is assessed that UKR will soon have to determine if a retrograde maneuver from the Bakhmut urban area is in order. A Bakhmut City map will be released later this evening (UTC).
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1636366921544368129?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @ TreasChest 😔A year ago, on March 16, the occupiers launched an airstrike on the Drama Theater in Mariupol ¤ At that time, more than a thousand residents of the city were in the premises. As a result of the impact, many people died, including children. ¤ In front of the theater was an inscription – “CHILDREN”. It was an attempt to show that peaceful residents of Mariupol were in the building. But this did not stop the bloodthirsty invaders…
It hurts💔 ¤ 📹: Mariupol City Council ¤ Channel 24
💽 https://twitter.com/TreasChest/status/1636127494377025537?s=20/photo/1
⭕ 15 Mar 2023
The Bulwark, Will Saletan: The Ukraine Untruths of Disingenuous DeSantis https://tinyurl.com/2t7tmbj9 “A Democratic president is standing up to Putin. And he’s facing a Republican who would rather attack Mickey Mouse”
// His recent remarks about the war have been cynical and deceptive.
🐣 RT @jrothkopf DeSantis’ comment that the future of Ukraine was not a vital national interest of the US was reckless and proves he’s unfit to be president. But it’s worse. It undermines US & Western goals, helps Russia & will likely cost thousands of lives.
⋙ DailyBeast, David Rothkopf: DeSantis’ Ukraine Comments Show He’s Playing for the Pro-Putin Wing of the GOP https://tinyurl.com/48v8ye2w
// The Florida governor told Tucker Carlson that defending Ukraine was not in the U.S.’ national interest. This is Trump-level toadyism.
🐣 RT @SpiroAgnewGhost Imagine trying to be a lawyer of this deranged lunatic.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/SpiroAgnewGhost/status/1636213755347636224?s=20/photo/1
[Text:] 🐣 RT @realDonaldTrump I did NOTHING wrong in the “Horseface” case. I see she showed up in New York today trying to drum up some publicity for herself. I haven’t seen or spoken to her since I took a picture with her on a golf course, in full golf gear including a hat, close to 18 years ago. She knows nothing about me other than her conman lawyer, Avanatti, and convicted liar and felon, jailbird Michael Cohen, may have schemed up. Never had an affair with her, just another false acquisition by a SleazeBag. Witch Hunt!
🧵 RT @AleksandrX13 WHY do russian conscripts allow themselves to be lϵd to the slaυցhtϵr in the hundreds of thοusands? ¤ Why do their parents/wives/girl friends allow this? ¤ WHY DON’T THEY REBEL? ¤ Here are the answers. Thread 😎 ¤ 1/21
📌 https://twitter.com/AleksandrX13/status/1636157695114739713?s=20/photo/1
// Russian education indoctrination propaganda
YahooNews/LATimes Editorial: DeSantis’ Ukraine comment is reckless. It’s an invasion, not a ‘territorial dispute’ https://tinyurl.com/29tee76k His arrogance and laziness on foreign policy are matched only by his arrogance and laziness on domestic policy: “Big hat, no cattle”
🐣 RT @SpencerGuard “Russia invaded the sovereign nation of Ukraine…no threat whatsoever to Russia…this is and remains a Russian frontal assault on the rules based international order that has been in place for 80 years” – General Milley today #RussiaUkraineWar
💽 https://twitter.com/SpencerGuard/status/1636159852807618560?s=20/photo/1
// Milley, Austin speak at Rammstein Group meeting today
⋙ 🐣 RT @SpencerGuard “Putin can end this war and he can end it today and he needs to do so. Free people are not easily conquered and the Ukrainian people are free and they will never give up in their fight to stay free.”
🐣 RT @TheTweetOfJohn Sen. Lindsey Graham told an Atlanta-area grand jury last year that following the 2020 election, “if somebody had told Trump that aliens came down and stole Trump ballots, that Trump would’ve believed it.” https://tinyurl.com/3mpnxy5p
🐣 RT @AWeissmann_ Trump NY defense: I was extorted. That is an admission he paid $ (which he had been denying) and the $ was not for legal fees (the cover story). Because the NY criminal case reportedly focuses on the crime of making false business records — his “defense” is an confession.
🐣 RT @ruthbenghiat Why should the PM of Estonia even have to waste her time considering what the Florida Fascist thinks? He’s gunning to be the face of American autocracy and aligning himself with Putin because that is how he can get ahead.
⋙ 🐣 RT @amanpour Ron DeSantis says getting “further entangled in a territorial dispute between Ukraine & Russia” isn’t in US “vital national interests,” but @kajakallas disagrees: “Would-be aggressors in the world are watching very carefully… If aggression pays off, then there are no limits.”
💽 https://twitter.com/ruthbenghiat/status/1636116001212313601?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @ randymot4 Republicans have fallen in large numbers for Russian disinformation and propaganda. The material focuses on our biases and many people jump right in. This is affecting the party far more than I thought possible. I am ashamed of so many “patriots” fooled by this.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/randymot4/status/1635933116995887104?s=20/photo/1
[Text:] It has cost the USA less than 5% of their annual Defense Budget to destroy 50% of the Combat Capability of the 2nd most powerful military on earth. …and not a single American serviceman has so much as broken a fingernail!
A BLOODY EXCELLENT RETURN ON INVESTMENT BY ANY MEASURE!
🐣 RT @SpencerGuard If you’re dumb enough to say/believe US support for Ukraine is not a vital national interest. If you are so ignorant to foreign policy, geopolitics, or the global international order that allows the US to thrive, then you are not deserving of public office, let alone Presidency.
⋙ 🐣 he’s trying to “own the libs,” which itself proves the GOP ~ or at least the MAGA base ~ is utterly unserious and unworthy of national office; most of the serious Republicans left because of Trump: in his cravenness and raw ambition, DeSantis may be worse; he sickens me
🐣 RT @tribelaw “The real story behind the collapse of SVB has much more to do with the political and economic environment of the previous decade than it does with wokeness, a word that signifies nothing other than conservative disdain for anything that seems liberal.”
TheGuardian: Federal investigators examined Trump Media for possible money laundering, sources say https://tinyurl.com/2zk6d5st The money, okayed by Don Jr, “centers on a part-owner of Paxum Bank … who appears to be a relation of Putin ally Aleksandr Smirnov”
// Exclusive: New York prosecutors expanded criminal inquiry of company last year and examined acceptance of $8m with suspected Russian ties
🐣 RT @RFERL Zelenskiy said in his evening video address on March 14 that Ukraine’s top military command unanimously favors defending the sector of eastern Ukraine that includes the besieged city of Bakhmut and inflicting maximum losses on the enemy.
⋙ RFE/RL: Ukraine Says Determined To Defend Bakhmut As Russia Keeps Up Pressure On The City https://tinyurl.com/32evnm4f
🐣 RT @NOELreports ”Heavy fighting awaits Ukraine in the spring and summer. The United States will help solve the problem of lack of ammunition in the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” says Pentagon Speaker Pat Ryder.
🐣 .@mccaffreyr3 @McFaul @AVindman @stavridisj @StateDept @SecDef @ABlinken
⋙ 🐣 RT @NOELreports Officer Leityokha from the 93rd brigade rings the alarm and talks about a ‘catastrophic shortage of shells’ in Bakhmut. He continues: ‘We know 75% of the firing positions, but can’t hit them. The command also forbids using specific weapons because its “unaffordable”.’
⭕ 14 Mar 2023
🐣 RT @mccaffreyr3 MSNBC. NICOLLE WALLACE. 14 March 23. Gov DeSantis statement that freedom of Ukraine not a U.S. vital national security interest has done immeasurable harm to NATO and the US. A gift to Putin and his criminal invasion of Ukraine.
💽 https://twitter.com/mccaffreyr3/status/1635865157548277760?s=20/photo/1
🐣 📊 RT @ McCormackJohn New Gallup poll:
62% of Republicans say Russia-Ukraine conflict is a critical threat to U.S. vital interests
29% say important but not critical
9% say not important threat at all
https://tinyurl.com/2x4sujdk
TheAtlantic, David Frum: Is Ron DeSantis Flaming Out Already? https://tinyurl.com/27kespxm “DeSantis’s statement on Ukraine was everything that Russian President Vladimir Putin and his admirers could have wished for from a presumptive candidate for president.”
// The Florida governor has a plan to win the Fox News primary—and lose everything else.
DeSantis’s statement on Ukraine was everything that Russian President Vladimir Putin and his admirers could have wished for from a presumptive candidate for president. The governor began by listing America’s “vital interests” in a way that explicitly excluded NATO and the defense of Europe. He accepted the present Russian line that Putin’s occupation of Ukraine is a mere “territorial dispute.” He endorsed “peace” as the objective without regard to the terms of that peace, another pro-Russian talking point. He conceded the Russian argument that American aid to Ukraine amounts to direct involvement in the conflict. He endorsed and propagated the fantasy—routinely advanced by pro-Putin guests on Fox talk shows—that the Biden administration is somehow plotting “regime change” in Moscow. He denounced as futile the economic embargo against Russia—and baselessly insinuated that Ukraine is squandering U.S. financial assistance. He ended by flirting with the idea of U.S. military operations against Mexico, an idea that originated on the extreme right but has migrated toward the Republican mainstream. …
Desantis is a machine engineered to win the Republican presidential nomination. The hardware is a lightly updated version of donor-pleasing mechanics from the Paul Ryan era. The software is newer. DeSantis operates on the latest culture-war code: against vaccinations, against the diversity industry, against gay-themed books in school libraries. The packaging is even more up-to-the-minute. Older models—Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush—made some effort to appeal to moderates and independents. None of that from DeSantis. He refuses to even speak to media platforms not owned by Rupert Murdoch. His message to the rest of America is more of the finger-pointing disdain he showed last year for high-school students who wore masks when he visited a college. …
Florida Republicans will soon pass—and DeSantis pledged he would sign—a law banning abortion after six weeks. That bill is opposed by 57 percent of those surveyed even inside Florida. Another poll found that 75 percent of Floridians oppose the ban. It also showed that 77 percent oppose permitless concealed carry, which DeSantis supports, and that 61 percent disapprove of his call to ban the teaching of critical race theory as well as diversity, equity, and inclusion policies on college campuses. As the political strategist Simon Rosenberg noted: “Imagine how these play outside FL.”
But even this understates the DeSantis design flaw. ¤ More dangerous than the unpopular positions DeSantis holds are the popular positions he does not hold. What is DeSantis’s view on health care? He doesn’t seem to have one. President Joe Biden has delivered cheap insulin to U.S. users. Good idea or not? Silence from DeSantis. There’s no DeSantis jobs policy; he hardly speaks about inflation. Homelessness? The environment? Nothing. Even on crime, DeSantis must avoid specifics, because specifics might remind his audience that Florida’s homicide numbers are worse than New York’s or California’s.
DeSantis just doesn’t seem to care much about what most voters care about. And voters in turn do not care much about what DeSantis cares most about. …
[…] His approach to winning the nomination will put the general election beyond his grasp. He must hope that some external catastrophe will defeat his Democratic opponent for him—a recession, maybe—because DeSantis is choosing a path that cannot get him to his goal.
NYT, Jamelle Bouie: The Boys Who Cried ‘Woke!’ https://tinyurl.com/bdzx93ph “[T]here is no evidence that any diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives were responsible for the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. It is nonsense”
WaPo: U.S. fires back at claim that Tucker Carlson footage was withheld https://tinyurl.com/3t8xzwtz Carlson showed several minutes of 41,000 HOURS of surveillance video in air to imply that the January 6 pro-Trump demonstrators at the Capitol had been peaceful
// Prosecutors say video of Jacob Chansley and other defendants was fully provided to defense in 2021
WaPo: The 72-hour scramble to save the United States from a banking crisis https://tinyurl.com/2uvb8nju It could have been Great Recession 2.0. But it wasn’t.
🐣 RT @WarintheFuture “Putin is motivated by a “fever dream of decline.” The depopulation of Russia, he said, “feeds Putin’s apocalyptic sense of his own grand responsibilities.” Another fine piece from @MaxBoot
⋙ 📋 WaPo, Max Boot: Russia’s population crisis is making Putin more dangerous https://tinyurl.com/4e68eutr
// Vladimir Putin may be seeking military solutions to his country’s demographic decline.
Russia’s population loss is expected to continue — down to 135 million people by 2050 and 126 million by 2100. Currently the world’s ninth-most populous country, it is projected to fall to number 22 by century’s end. Demographics is, to some extent, destiny. Russia’s days as a great power are numbered.
Putin is acutely conscious of the problem and talks about it all the time. In September 2021, he lamented that Russia now would have a population of 500 million were it not for the loss of the Russian empire after the 1917 revolution and the 1991 dissolution of the Soviet Union, which he has called “the largest geopolitical catastrophe of the century.”
🐣 RT @sentdefender U.S. Defense Officials do not believe that the Russian Su-27 running into the MQ-9 Reaper over the Black Sea was meant to happen or any way Intentional; Air Force Officers after seeing the Video from the Drone stated that, “ The Russian Pilots appeared to be Amateurs.”
🖼 https://twitter.com/sentdefender/status/1635772537194856450?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @ukraine_map A US 🇺🇸 MQ-9 Reaper Drone was hit by a Russian Fighter Jet over the Black Sea today, says the US Military ¤ The Su-27 acted recklessly by dumping fuel on the Drone, then hitting its propellor, causing it to crash ¤ This appears to be a purposeful attack by Russia on the US Military
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT CITY /2120 UTC 14 MAR/ RU forces have advanced across the T-05-13 HWY in the northern and southern urban areas of Bakhmut. UKR forces mounted a counterattack at Dubovo-Vasylivka; a RU thrust at Ivanivske was also broken up.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1635752631187521541?s=20/photo/1
⭕ 13 Mar 2023
📊 Gallup Poll: Americans’ Favorable Rating of Russia Sinks to New Low of 9% https://tinyurl.com/2x4sujdk from high of 65% in 2002
◕ https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1636296359438426113?s=20/photo/1
SciAm: There’s a Psychological ‘Vaccine’ against Misinformation https://tinyurl.com/5n7kvypm
// A social psychologist found that showing people how manipulative techniques work can create resilience against misinformation
🚫 WaPo: Ukraine short of skilled troops and munitions as losses, pessimism grow https://tinyurl.com/ys98fxeb
// sole identified source call sign Kupol; since demoted (3/16/2023)
WaPo: Trump claims violence he inspired on Jan. 6 was Pence’s fault https://tinyurl.com/54h7vuht T
// The former president suggested the riot could have been avoided if his vice president had cooperated in overturning the results
HuffPo: Trump Blames Mike Pence For Jan. 6 Violence For Not Going Along With His Coup Attempt https://tinyurl.com/bf43tsdr
// Trump was responding to his former vice president’s remarks, who said Saturday that Trump’s words and actions had endangered the lives of his family.
Donald Trump, whose coup attempt on Jan. 6, 2021, put his vice president’s life at risk as a mob of his supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol, on Monday blamed Mike Pence for the violence that day because he didn’t go along with the scheme.s “Had he sent the votes back to the legislators, they wouldn’t have had a problem with Jan. 6,” the former president told reporters on a flight to an Iowa campaign stop. “So in many ways, you can blame him for Jan. 6.” …
Trump’s new comments, reported by CBS Political Director Fin Gomez, who was among the reporters on Trump’s plane, came in response to Pence’s remarks on Saturday, when he said Trump’s words and deeds had nearly gotten his family killed.
🐣 RT @oneunderscore__ I’m telling you, they’re actually running with the “woke banks” thing. They’re already using scary placeholder acronyms ESG and DEI, which to them mean “diversity.” ¤ It serves to obfuscate the reality: there was a panicky bank run, frontrun by some of the GOP’s biggest donors.
// DEI: Diversity, equity, and inclusion; ESG: Environmental, social, and corporate governance
🐣 RT @atrupar Biden: “During the Obama administration, we put in place tough requirements on banks like SVB and Signature Bank, including the Dodd-Frank law to make sure that the crisis we saw in 2008 would not happen again. Unfortunately, the last admin rolled back some of these requirements”
💽 https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1635269021095297024?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT/ 2245 UTC 13 MAR/ N of Soledar, UKR forces repelled attacks at Vasiukivka. On the M-03 HWY axis, RU assaults were broken up at Minkivka, Orikhovo-Vasylivka and Hyrhorivka & Berkhivka. The 0600 Gen’l Staff brief provided no follow up regarding UKR contact at Krasna Hora.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1635407957218451457?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT AXIS /1145 UTC 13 MAR/ RU/Wagner troops have renewed offensive actions. N of Soledar, UKR forces repelled attacks at Vasiukivka. On the M-03 HWY axis, RU assaults were broken up at Minkivka, Orikhovo-Vasylivka, Hyrhorivka and Berkhivka. The 0600 UK Gen’l Staff brief provided no follow up reportage regarding yesterday’s UKR contact at Krasna Hora. Combat continues in the urban area of Bakhmut. RU is assessed to have achieved scattered lodgments along the west bank of the Bakhmutka River. In the past 24 hours UKR conducted 6 aviation strike missions and one Suppression of Enemy Air Defense sortie.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1635243882538766337?s=20/photo/1
KyivIndependent: Commander: Russia’s Wagner forces trying to break into central Bakhmut, but suffering ‘significant losses’ https://tinyurl.com/ph3z8wst
The battlefield situation around Donetsk Oblast’s Bakhmut remains “difficult” as the assault units of the Russian state-backed mercenary group Wagner continue trying to break through the Ukrainian defense and advance to the central areas of the city, Oleksandr Syrskyi, the commander of Ukraine’s Ground Forces, said on March 13.
“In fierce battles, our defenders inflict significant losses on the enemy. All enemy attempts to capture the city are repelled by artillery, tanks, and other firepower,” Syrskyi said, as quoted by the Ukrainian defense ministry’s media center.
He added that Ukraine’s Armed Forces continued the defense of the “fortress,” as the Ukrainian authorities often call the embattled eastern city of Bakhmut, which has been Russia’s main target for over seven months.
Russia’s assault on Bakhmut relies heavily on Wagner Group forces, which have taken control of most of the eastern part of Bakhmut, according to the U.K. Defense Ministry’s daily intelligence update published on March 11. ¤ Wagner troops, however, are facing a new challenge with the Bakhmutka River that divides the city in two and now marks the front line.
President Volodymyr Zelensky told CNN on March 7 that Russian forces would have an “open road” to seize other critical settlements in eastern Ukraine if they capture Bakhmut, defending Kyiv’s decision to continue the city’s defense despite Ukrainian troops also suffering heavy losses.
🐣 RT @Ayei_Eloheichem Austin: “If the Ukrainians decide to reposition in some of the terrain that’s west of Bakhmut, I would not view that as an operational or a strategic setback…It’s more of a symbolic value than it is a strategic and operational value.”
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/Ayei_Eloheichem/status/1635177613944823810?s=20/photo/1
↥ ↧
🐣 RT @Ayei_Eloheichem Strelkov steps in to stop me dooming over Bakhmut: “[The Ukrainians] already firmly hold half of Bakhmut, but even surrendering the remaining territory to [Wagner] will not change the final situation – during the winter…[Russia] failed to achieve any [strategic] success.”
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/Ayei_Eloheichem/status/1635167772983570433?s=20/photo/1
[Text:] In Bakhmut, the advancement of Wagner units and PMCs is insignificant. Regarding the widely announced “counteroffensive” of the Armed Forces of Ukraine near the city – I’m almost sure that this is a “misinformation” – otherwise the military leaders would not have voiced it to the whole world. As part of the generally successful (for the enemy) completion of the “battle of attrition and gain of time”, deliberately carried out during the winter campaign by the command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, no counteroffensives are needed. They already firmly hold half of Bakhmut, but even surrendering the remaining territory to the exhausted “orchestra” will not change the final situation – during the winter campaign, the RF Armed Forces failed to achieve any success went beyond purely tactical ones.
🐣 RT @ukraine_osint Ukrainian ground forces Colonel general Oleksandr Syrskyi: “The situation around Bakhmut remains difficult”. #WagnerPMC mercenaries are attacking from several directions trying to break through the defences of our troops and advance to the central districts of the town.
🐣 RT @AFP #BREAKING Ukraine says ‘fierce fighting’ raging for centre of Bakhmut
🐣 RT @DefenceHQ [UK] Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine
13 March 2023
Find out more about Defence Intelligence: http://ow.ly/kZLe50Ng7te 🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/DefenceHQ/status/1635161301247840256?s=20/photo/1
● In recent weeks, Wagner Group owner Yevgeny Prigozhin has likely lost access to recruiting in Russian prisons due to his ongoing disputes with the Russian MoD leadership. Prigozhin is highly likely pivoting recruitment efforts towards free Russian citizens.
● Since the start of March 2023, Wagner has set up outreach teams based in sports centres in at least 40 locations across Russia. In recent days, masked Wagner recruiters also gave career talks in Moscow high schools, distributing questionnaires entitled application of a young warrior’ to collect the contact details of interested pupils.
● About half of the prisoners Wagner has already deployed in Ukraine have likely become casualties and the new initiatives are unlikely to make up for the loss of the convict recruit pipeline. If the ban endures, Prigozhin will likely be forced to reduce the scale or intensity of Wagner operations in Ukraine
⭕ 12 Mar 2023
🐣 RT @BillKristol On the politics of the banking announcement: The Administration should go on the offensive. Don’t begin by explaining why it’s not really a bailout. Say: We acted decisively to protect all Americans’ savings, while our critics wanted to do nothing and endanger those savings.
🐣 RT @EricColumbus As Fox debated how to handle Trump’s election lies, Tucker’s then-producer described their audience as “dumb” “cousin-fucking” “terrorists.”
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/EricColumbus/status/1634928387142864896?s=20/photo/1 -2
⋙ WaPo: Ex-Trump aide at Fox wrestled with election lies, network’s interests https://tinyurl.com/22pykzw7
// Documents show Fox Vice President Raj Shah privately derided the White House’s narrative of a stolen election. But he also pushed back on efforts to dispute the claims.
🐣 RT @lnachman32 Only 1.2% of Taiwanese want unification with the PRC. Public opinion polls across the spectrum all show similarly low numbers. The idea of a “Chinese Commonwealth” is neither resurfacing, nor are any political or civil society leaders taking it seriously.
◕ https://twitter.com/lnachman32/status/1634937934381187073?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @MeidasTouch Whoa! Here it is. The moment in 2018 when Donald Trump removed the Dodd-Frank regulations that would have prevented the Silicon Valley Bank collapse. Don’t let anyone forget this.
💽 https://twitter.com/MeidasTouch/status/1634777100350783489?s=20/photo/1
// on 5/24/2018
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT AXIS /1515 UTC 12 MAR/ UKR forces are reported to be engaged at Berkhivka and Krasna Hora, indicating that RU units have been driven back in the vicinity of the T-05-14 and M-04 junction. Urban combat continues in the city of Bakhmut.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1634938724655173639?s=20/photo/1
⋙ 🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer EDITORIAL CORRECTION: RU units have been driven back in the vicinity of the T-05-14 and M-03 junction. A typographical error in the Key Developments report erroneously indicated the T-04 HWY.
🐣 RT @ZelenskyyUa I conferred the title of Hero of Ukraine upon Oleksandr Matsiyevsky. A Ukrainian warrior. A man who will be known and remembered forever. For his bravery, for his confidence in Ukraine and for his “Glory to Ukraine!”. Glory to the Hero! Glory to the Heroes! Glory to Ukraine!
WaPo: Biden makes moves foreshadowing campaign to come, angering some liberals https://tinyurl.com/2p998wf3 “He is positioning himself for the general election by taking positions that appeal to swing voters who may have concerns about crime and the border”
// The president is highlighting popular Democratic stances on social programs while also riling progressives on crime and immigration
🐣 RT @Gerashchenko_en How sadly they sigh and roll their eyes! Everything is obvious even with sound off. ¤ Terrorist Girkin-Strelkov says with suffering – we lost everything, we’ll lose Transnistria and won’t be able to take Odesa.
💽 https://twitter.com/Gerashchenko_en/status/1634835914731163651?s=20/photo/1
WaPo: Pence says ‘history will hold Donald Trump accountable’ for Jan. 6th https://tinyurl.com/mrjrahtu //➔ I have an idea! what if the Legal System holds him accountable first?
// ‘Make no mistake about it, what happened that day was a disgrace,’ the former vice president said at Washington’s annual Gridiron Dinner
In a speech Saturday night, former vice president Mike Pence delivered what amounted to his strongest rebuke of Donald Trump, criticizing the former president for his role in the lead-up to the Jan. 6 attack on the United States Capitol as well as attempts to rewrite the history of that day.
“President Trump was wrong,” Pence said. “I had no right to overturn the election. And his reckless words endangered my family and everyone at the Capitol that day. And I know that history will hold Donald Trump accountable.”
The former vice president was speaking at the Gridiron dinner, a white-tie event thrown by journalists in Washington, D.C. that this year featured speeches by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy in addition to Pence. The annual event tends to be a lighthearted affair, with skits and parody songs performed by members of the Washington press corps. …
“The American people have a right to know what took place at the Capitol on January 6th,” he said. “But make no mistake about it, what happened that day was a disgrace, and it mocks decency to portray it in any other way.”
🐣 RT @SarahAshtonLV A video tour of a mobile hospital prototype intended for use by the ZSU. ¤ An engineering marvel with a titanium exterior and full self contained. ¤ 80 KM/H. ¤ Mine proof. ¤ Chemical attack proof. ¤ Ukraine has already won.
💽 https://twitter.com/SarahAshtonLV/status/1634813568016064512?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @IuliiaMendel Yesterday, there were 90 russian attacks on different Ukrainian regions. It’s not the biggest number. Sometimes our army counts 170 shelling! But imagine living in the country at least quarter of each is being shelled every day for 90-170 times? #RussiaIsATerroristState
⋙ 🐣 RT @gpward72 1090 russians liquidated, 2nd highest daily number since daily numbers began to be published
⋙ 🐣 RT @flat300 During WWII London suffered horrific levels of bombing in a much smaller area than the size of Ukraine but remained resolute. Stay strong … “some 25,000 bombs were dropped on the Port of London alone.” https://www.britannica.com/event/the-Blitz
⭕ 11 Mar 2023
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer UKRAINIAN PATRIOTS: Russia’s Kinzhal hyper-sonic missiles are difficult to intercept- but the aircraft that launch them can be interdicted by Patriot missiles. Air defense systems are vital for protecting UKR cities. Patriot will be a major upgrade.
◕ https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1634597716822040581?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @DefenseHQ The illegal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine is continuing. ¤ The map below is the latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine – 11 March 2023. Find out more about Defence Intelligence’s use of language: http://ow.ly/QNCo50Ng5TC
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦
● As Russia continues to suffer extremely heavy casualties, the impact varies dramatically across Russia’s regions. In proportion to the size of their population, the richest cities of Moscow and St Petersburg have been left relatively unscathed. This is especially true for the families of the country’s elite.
● On 21 February 2023, Russian senior officials were photographed making up the front two rows of the audience of President Putin’s state of the nation speech. None of these are known to have children serving in the military.
● In many of the Eastern regions, deaths are likely running, as a percentage of population, at a rate of 30-40 times higher than in Moscow. In many places, ethnic minorities fake the biggest hit; in Astrakhan some 75% of casualties come from the minority Kazakh and Tartar populations. As the Russian MoD seeks to address its continued deficit of combat personnel, insulating the better-off and more influential elements of Russian society will highly likely remain a major consideration.
🐣 RT @svdate To recap the state of the GOP presidential campaign, Ron DeSantis is filling auditoriums in Iowa while the coup-attempting former president is sitting in his country club in Palm Beach whining about it.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/svdate/status/1634225946961035265?s=20/photo/1
[Text:] 🐣 RT @realDonaldTrump Why on earth (farmer’s love earth!) would the wonderful people of the GREAT State of lowa vote for Ron DeSanctimonious when he voted and fought to KILL Ethanol (and will definitely do so if given the chance), voted 4 times, as a disciple of Paul Ryan, to decimate Social Security and MediCare, and bring the minimum age on Social Security to at least 70 years old (he wanted higher!). He will be in lowa on Friday to beg for mercy. I supported Ethanol, FIRED NAFTA, & made USMCA & China Trade Deals!
🐣 RT @Bill43111 Trump is flailing. The Tucker Tapes were as big a bust as the Twitter Files. Trump’s army attacked our Capitol and he watched and cheered them on for over 3 hours and didn’t lift a finger to stop it.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/Bill43111/status/1634363618123980801?s=20/photo/1
[Text:] @realDonald Trump Congratulations to Tucker Carlson on one of the biggest “scoops” as a reporter in U.S. history. The New Surveillance Footage of the January 6th Events sheds an entirely different light on what actually happened. The Unselect Committee was a giant SCAM, and has now unequivocally been stamped as CRIMINAL FABRICATORS OF THIS MOST IMPORTANT DAY. Pelosi & McConnell failed on security. The Police story is sad and difficult to watch. “Trump” and most others are totally innocent, LET THEM GO FREE, NOW!
🐣 David Jolly just made an important point on @msnbc: Ron DeSantis’s “anti-woke” campaign “is, at its core, racist and homophobic” and it‘s important to call it out for that. He’s absolutely right!
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT AXIS /1550 UTC 11 MAR/ Wagner PMC claimed to have captured the village of Dubovo-Vasylivka; UKR reports that its units are still in contact at that place. Combat ongoing in Bakhmut. UKR engaged the enemy at Paraskoviivka, indicating a penetration of RU lines.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1634577511131512834?s=20/photo/1
🚫 EspresoTV: Bakhmut should have been surrendered three weeks ago – General Kryvonos https://tinyurl.com/2p9ss38v
// Serhiy Kryvonos, General of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, First Deputy Commander of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (2016-2019), former Deputy Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, believes that Ukrainian military should have abandoned Bakhmut and retreated to prepared lines outside the city.
“From my point of view, Bakhmut should have been surrendered three weeks ago, because we are also losing our strength. Fighting is already taking place on the outskirts of the city. Will there be any benefit in sending the Special Operations Forces there now? I understand that the situation is similar to what happened in Severodonetsk and Lysychansk. We are starting to hammer nails with a microscope. It is better to save the Special Operations Forces for future offensive operations, and it will be much more useful,” noted the Ukrainian Armed Forces General.
Serhiy Kryvonos noted that in this situation we need to draw the right conclusions and improve the training of our infantry. ¤ “Bakhmut should have been abandoned and we should have withdrawn to the prepared lines outside the city. Given the terrain that I know well from the previous years of the war, it was possible to set up an excellent defense line there and keep the enemy at bay to prevent their further offensive outside Bakhmut,” said Kryvonos.
🚫🐣 Just based on things I’ve picked from following this war closely, about Zelensky: He ‘doesn’t like to let people down.’ And, he’s “stubborn,” according to his wife. Good or bad, I can’t help but see these reflected in his aversion to restreating from Bakhmut
NYT: Front Line Shifts in Russia and Ukraine’s Battle for Bakhmut, Analysts Say https://tinyurl.com/7jun3fjx “Despite the Ukrainian military’s assertion that it was holding on in Bakhmut, it was becoming increasingly clear that its grip on the city was tenuous”
// Britain’s defense intelligence agency said that Russian forces had taken control of most of Bakhmut’s east, but advances farther west might be challenging.
YahooNews/Telegraph: Ukraine-Russia war latest: Bakhmut centre now a ‘killing zone’ https://tinyurl.com/bdez95pd “Ukraine’s general staff say Russia is trying to reach the administrative borders of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions” ~ give it control of the entire Donbas region
‼️🐣 RT @APonomarenko I hope the Ukrainian command really, really, really knows what it’s doing in Bakhmut.
¤ https://twitter.com/IAPonomarenko/status/1634472741326802944?s=20
// [Comments]
🐣 RT @EetuSeppnen1 These has been stories about Wagners now holding and waiting for RF forces to continue in Bakhmut. We will see if they sacrifice them now.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/EetuSeppnen1/status/1634476843595079680?s=20/photo/1
// DefenceU [UK]
● Over the last four days, Wagner Group forces have taken control of most of eastern part of the Donbas town of Bakhmut. In the town centre, the Bakhmutka River now marks the frontline.
● Ukrainian forces hold the west of the town and have demolished key bridges over the river, which runs through north-south through a strip of open ground 200m-800m wide, between built up areas. With Ukrainian units able to fire from fortified buildings to the west, this area has become a killing zone, likely making it highly challenging for Wagner forces attempting to continue their frontal assault westwards.
● However, the Ukrainian force and their supply lines to the west remain vulnerable to the continued Russian attempts to outflank the defenders from the north and south.
⭕ 10 Mar 2023
Pew: Texas Abortion Ruling Nears, But Blue States Aren’t Waiting to Protect Pill Access https://tinyurl.com/44u5ckw3 The Biden admin likely would appeal any decision against the FDA and it could use its enforcement discretion to allow manufacturers to keep producing the drug
🐣 RT @SenatorRomney In the face of unprovoked Russian aggression, the courage and passion of the Ukrainian people, under the leadership of President @ZelenskyyUa, has far surpassed anyone’s expectation. Their response has been nothing short of praiseworthy, and we will continue to support them.
Politico [EU]: Zelenskyy has no choice but to ask his fighters to hold Bakhmut — for now https://tinyurl.com/4xyhjwv7 The Ukrainians “claim Russia’s losing seven soldiers for each Ukrainian life lost — though NATO military officials put the ratio closer to 5-to-1“
// US generals say the Ukrainian president is right not to disengage from the meat-grinder of a battle.
🐣 RT @rohanpanchigar Wagner group to open recruiting centers across 42 Russian cities. ¤ Evgeny Prigozhin said that after the capture of Bakhmut, PMC Wagner will change and become some kind of “army with an ideology.”
🐣 RT @nytimes Individuals with ties to Russia are “aiming to foment a manufactured insurrection” against Moldova by staging protests against the former Soviet republic’s government, the Biden administration said on Friday.
⋙ NYT: A White House official says pro-Russia individuals are seeking to spark an insurrection in Moldova https://tinyurl.com/34dvyw3t
🐣 RT @BadBradRSR Being a racist POS like Trump is… It has to be driving him insane with three cases against him being conducted by African Americans & two being women, which he even respects less!
🖼 https://twitter.com/BadBradRSR/status/1634406990754594817?s=20/photo/1 -3
🧵 RT @BeschlossDC Congrats to all Americans on the just-released design of the new Air Force One, which fully honors the history of the plane since 1962:
📌 🖼 https://twitter.com/BeschlossDC/status/1634319193964249088?s=20/photo/1
🐣 📊 RT @KyivIndependent ⚡️Survey: Number of Ukrainian speakers increased to 71% amid full-scale war. ¤ The number of Ukrainians who speak Ukrainian in everyday life increased from 64% in 2021 to 71% in 2022, according to a survey conducted by the Democratic Initiatives Foundation.
🧵 RT @shashj Podcast with Michael Kofman reflecting on his recent trip to Bakhmut. Ukraine rationing artillery ammo tightly. Russia using air power more, testing whether has Ukraine has enough stocks of radar-guided air defence missiles.
📌 https://twitter.com/shashj/status/1634219699591323648?s=20
WSJ: Ukraine Commits More Resources to Bakhmut Defense as Russia Advances https://tinyurl.com/ynccrner “Col Gen Oleksandr Syrskiy, commander of Ukraine’s ground forces, said Thursday that holding Bakhmut was buying Ukraine time to prepare reserves and prepare for offensive operations”
// Battle for city has taken on added significance as fighting escalates ahead of spring offensives
🐣 RT @AndyKroll 🚨 I’ve got a juicy story to tell you about Leonard Leo. ¤ Last time we checked in with Leo, we revealed details about a $1.6 BILLION gift he’d received. ¤ That huge donation begged the question: ¤ What will Leo do next? ¤ Answer: “Crush liberal dominance.” ¤ How? ¤ It’s 🧵 time
📌 https://twitter.com/AndyKroll/status/1633865549301071873?s=20
🐣 RT @reshetz Zaluzhny, commander in chief or the Ukrainian armed forces, kneeling to a soldier’s [ Da Vinci’s ] family on his funeral today
🖼 https://twitter.com/reshetz/status/1634316740833210368?s=20/photo/1
WaPo, Dana Milbank: Kevin McCarthy joins the insurrection https://tinyurl.com/yckndtdn Kevin McCarthy’s know-nothingness; Jim Jordan’s shouting match weaponization committee; Republicans’ wars on books and trans kids; and the reason why the Founders separated Church and State
🐣 RT @JamesPorrazzo “We will take Bakhmut… then we will do a reboot. Wagner Group will transform from a PMC – the best army in the world, I emphasize, capable of defending the state – into an army with an ideology, and this ideology is a fight for justice!”- Yevgeny Prigozhin, Wagner Group
💽 https://twitter.com/JamesPorrazzo/status/1634295650694184961?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @igornovikov A field outside Bakhmut six months apart. That’s it. That’s the tweet
🖼 https://twitter.com/igornovikov/status/1634133691512365056?s=20/photo/1
NYT: Satellite images show widespread destruction after heavy fighting in Bakhmut https://tinyurl.com/4v49pt7k “Some of the most severe damage is seen in neighborhoods on the eastern side of the city, which Russia this week said it controlled”
// New satellite pictures of the eastern Ukrainian city, where a brutal battle has been raging for months, showed bridges over a strategically important river had been destroyed.
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT /1550 UTC 10 MAR/ After a sustained and costly series of attacks, Wagner PMC forces report attaining a lodgment in the village of Dubovo-Vasylivka. RU attacks on Orikhovo-Vasylivka were repelled. UKR units are reported to have advanced south-west of Bakhmut.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1634220575039135745?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @jacopo_iacoboni [tr] Perhaps Evgheny Prigozhin is beginning to clearly sense that the High Command of Russia is effectively dismantling his Wagner Group. n
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/jacopo_iacoboni/status/1634099384316047361?s=20/photo/1
[Text:] “Yes, the fighters and commanders who fight in the Wagner PMC are the most combat ready, but this does not mean that in other military units the commanders are dumber and the fighters are less brave. This is due to the fact that in PMC “Wagner” they do not kill the initiative of the commander, do not humiliate the bravery of the fighter. And in this case, they are able to crush the enemy and carry out the most outstanding victories. This is the difference between PMC “Wagner” and other military units. We treat every fighter and every commander as an individual, as a person who is of great value to the team. Of course, if such a structure ceases to exist, it is not just bad, it is a collapse, it is a catastrophe, it is a direct path to total shameful defeat. About the interview. Today I am thinking over the interview scheme and thinking over with whom (probably with several journalists or opinion leaders) it is necessary to talk in order to jointly understand the pile of existing problems, the series of mistakes and how they need to be corrected. And we have to fix them.
🐣 RT @Hannuska2109 Still massive numbers. Any wonder Rosgvardiya have been sent in to deal with russian discontent among the ranks, 870, another plane. 155th Marine Brigade has now been decimated & rebuilt 7 times since start of the SMO. Mutiny is coming & the end is nigh
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/Hannuska2109/status/1634083644779159553?s=20/photo/1
// Russian losses 3/10
🐣 RT @gtconway3d Who among us hasn’t secretly paid over $100K through an intermediary in the waning days of a campaign for the presidency to silence a pornographic actress we never had sex with? Let those who have never done this cast the first stone.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/gtconway3d/status/1634081031576776704?s=20/photo/1 -4
// checks to Michael Cohen
⭕ 9 Mar 2023
🧵 RT @ ukr_arthistory Today is the birthday of Taras Shevchenko (1814-1861), a great artist and poet, a symbol of the struggle for independence and against russian imperialism. You probably heard about him at least once. Big thread about his life and art. ¤ ‘Kateryna’ (1842)
📌 🖼 https://twitter.com/ukr_arthistory/status/1633778024565833730?s=20/photo/1
🧵 RT @JuddLegum 1. Let’s take a detailed look at @TuckerCarlson’s private text messages, revealed as part of Dominion’s lawsuit, and compare them to what he was telling millions of people on Fox News every night ¤ It’s not news. ¤ It’s not even opinion. ¤ It’s a con.
📌 https://twitter.com/JuddLegum/status/1633829483965984769?s=20
DailyBeast, Will Sommer: Meet the ‘Ghost’ Woman Fox Relied on for Voter Fraud Claims https://tinyurl.com/5n7e88f9 “[I]n Bourne’s telling, the CIA controls the Washington Post, the FBI runs the New York Times, and the State Department runs Politico and CNN”
// “Cactus artist” Marlene Bourne claims she might be a ghost and Antonin Scalia was hunted for sport. Her ideas got airtime on Fox News.
🧵 RT @ Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin is complaining that the Russian Ministry of Defence is ghosting him – it’s not picking up his phone calls and his representatives’ passes have been deactivated, to stop him nagging them for ammunition. ⬇️
📌 https://twitter.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1633942899179270144?s=20/photo/1
[ThreadReader:] https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1633942899179270144.html
2/ In response to a question from a Russian news outlet about whether Wagner’s ammunition shortages have been resolved, he has posted an audio reply on his official Telegram channel. Translation:
3/ “No, it didn’t get any better with ammunition. Basically, nothing has changed at all. But there are indeed changes.
4/ In order for me to stop asking for ammunition, all special telephones were turned off for me in all offices, in all departments, etc. Another important thing they have done is blocked all passes to all the agencies that have to make decisions.
5/ I will not name them, so as not to discredit them in any way. So now I can only ask through the media. In fact, that’s probably what I’ll be doing. But it’s not all bad. There are positive aspects, of course.
6/ Kudos to the industrialists, Denis Valentinovich Manturov and Igor Nosenko and all those who work with them and rivet these shells. Profuse thanks very much from everyone.” /end
🐣 RT @ anyonewantchips Michael Cohen was sentenced to 3 years in prison, fined $50K & disbarred for paying Stormy Daniels $130K in hush money as directed by & for the benefit of Trump. It’s long past time Trump face the music.
NYT, David French: What Tucker Carlson Really Thinks https://tinyurl.com/44wf9jmt “Trump’s opponents have a new and surprising ally …. His name is Tucker Carlson. Ask him. He’ll tell you. You just need to ask when the camera is off”
[…] Collectively, the text messages, emails and other documents exposed by the [Dominion Voting Systems’s defamation lawsuit] represent one of the great “I told you so” moments in recent American history. From the beginning of the Trump era, conservative Trump critics (notably including my friends and former Fox News contributors Jonah Goldberg and Stephen Hayes) have been telling anyone who will listen that Republican politicians and personalities say one thing about Trump in public and another thing about him in private. In private, they’re scathing. In public, they’re sycophants.
Now we know exactly how true that is, and the person who is revealing that truth more than anyone else also happens to be arguably Fox’s most notorious and dishonest demagogue, Tucker Carlson. Previous document dumps have demonstrated that Carlson, in addition to several other Fox hosts and key senior leaders, knew that the various election-fraud conspiracy theories weren’t just baseless, they were — in the words of Rupert Murdoch — “really crazy stuff.”
But the latest documents go farther. They show that Carlson is capable of telling the truth about more than just the election conspiracy. In private, Carlson will say what the Fox News audience truly doesn’t want to hear — not just that Donald Trump lost, but that he was also a bad president. He was bad for the country. On Jan. 4, 2021, Carlson texted this about Trump’s single term: “We’re all pretending we’ve got a lot to show for it, because admitting what a disaster it’s been is too tough to digest. But come on. There really isn’t an upside to Trump.”
Thank you, Tucker. As Trump runs again, this is the most important truth of all. ¤ To understand why this truth is so important, you have to understand the Trump voter’s case for another term. Yes, there are those who support him because “he fights.” They thrill to the angry and combative rhetoric in his weekend speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference. “I am your warrior,” he said. “I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution.” …
… Politically, Trump has hurt the G.O.P. He handed back control of every elected branch of the federal government to the Democratic Party in four short years. He was fiscally irresponsible. The budget deficit grew every year of his presidency. He passed only one truly meaningful piece of legislation in four years, a tax bill that was far more Paul Ryan’s than Donald Trump’s. He undermined America’s vital military alliances.
His corruption, his eagerness to put millions of dollars of taxpayer money into his resorts and properties and his willingness to let his family accept vast sums from foreign entities is profoundly troubling. We’ll likely be discovering further examples of his outright graft for years, if not decades. There’s considerable evidence that suggests he committed felonies in office.
And yet, that is still a somewhat superficial diagnosis. If you dig deeper, you’ll see that, for all the flaws just enumerated, the Trump years were most disastrous for the social and civic health of the United States of America. The increases in suffering and despair have been profound. Donald Trump’s presidency battered the American spirit. …
… Trump divided America. Partisan polarization hit its modern peak under Trump, and sheer partisan animosity increased as well. American mental health declined. The rate of depression increased even before Covid — it rose from 2015to 2019 — and the pandemic made the trend even worse.
This increase in negative statistics was accompanied by a decline in positive statistics. The marriage rate, for example, which had stabilized during the Obama years, plunged during the Trump years. The American birthrate continued its long decline.
American presidents are not so powerful that they can control all these social factors. Many of the negative trends (drug overdose deaths among the most notable) long predated Trump, but they continued under Trump. Presidents can’t control cultures, but they can help heal or they can further harm, and Trump committed grave harms. …
I’m most struck by the decline in the marriage rate and the increase in the abortion rate. Marriage and birth represent tangible expressions of optimism. Creating a family, welcoming new life into the world — it’s difficult to more concretely express one’s hope for the future. Yet chaos undermines hope, and Trump’s one term was chaotic. It was bitter. And it culminated in an attempted coup.
After almost eight long years writing about Donald Trump, I’m not nearly so naïve as to believe that any single new development will alienate his base. I understand that the right-wing media ecosystem is so protective of both Trump and Fox that millions of listeners and viewers won’t see even a single document from the Dominion case.
Arguments still matter, however — person by person and household by household. The argument that Trump was “bad but good” will be heard in many American homes. Those who held their noses to vote for him twice before will be tempted to do so once again. He is still the front-runner for the Republican nomination. But Trump’s opponents have a new and surprising ally, a person who agrees that the 45th president didn’t just lose the 2020 election, he was also a “disaster” in the White House. His name is Tucker Carlson. Ask him. He’ll tell you. You just need to ask when the camera is off.
🐣 RT @MuellerSheWrote NEW: CONFIRMED: Jack Smith is going after trump for obstruction of Justice in the documents case. 18 USC 1519. 20 year max sentence. That’s what the Corcoran Crime Fraud exception hearing today was about.
⋙ TheGuardian: Prosecutors seek to question Trump lawyer before grand jury in classified papers case https://tinyurl.com/2sb9fjdd “[T]he prosecutors have argued to the federal court that Trump may have used his attorney in furtherance of a crime or fraud”
// Investigators are looking at invoking an exception that can bypass attorney-client privilege if legal advice is used for furthering crime
🐣 RT @Podolyak_M RF is trying to attack Moldova. Methods are obvious.
Stage 1: announcing Ukraine’s “invasion” of Transnistria.
Stage 2: attempt to organize a coup in Chișinău.
Now stage 3: falsely accusing Ukraine of preparing a “terrorist attack” in Transnistria.
Predictable lies in everything.
💽 [tr] https://twitter.com/Podolyak_M/status/1633845017013002242?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @HowardA_AtLaw In honor of Donny’s panic, let’s sing Desperado (thread)!
♪ Desperate Donald
Why don’t you come to your senses?
You’re out of defenses, DA’s closing in
You’re a moron, we know you’re guilty of treason.
We all know the reason: you’re guilty as sin /1♪ I know you say you’re fine, boy.
You’re a genius and you’re stable.
But we all know you’re anything but bright.
Spending all your hours
Watching FOX&Friends on cable.
I doubt you ever learned to read or write /2
CEPA, Julia Davis: Gloom Envelops Putin’s TV Propagandists https://tinyurl.com/yc3e787t ‘The idea that Russia’s victory is far from inevitable and that Russian defeat is a possibility has finally entered the once-impenetrable studios of state media’
DefenseDept: Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III Holds a Joint Press Conference With Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant https://tinyurl.com/mvvv8f27
// topics: Iran nuclear program, new conservative Israeli govt (protests against changes to judiciary), Palestine, Ukraine
⋙ 🐣 my reading: both Israel and US declare they ‘will not allow’ Iran to have a nuclear weapon; Iran has enriched uranium to 84%; 90% is the line that can’t be crossed ¤ are there other factors involved? constructing an actual weapon; or is enrichment % all needed to trigger response?
🐣 RT @Flash_news_ua ⚡️Israel will launch military operation against Iran soon ¤ US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in Israel, after meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu, said that the United States would not allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons and confirmed that Israel’s military […] operation against Iran would begin in the very near future.
// say what?
TheAtlantic, Tom Nichols: The Ugly Elitism of the American Right https://tinyurl.com/36n93pe4 Truth, be told.
// No one hates ordinary people like the Republicans and their media enablers do.
It’s time to talk about elitism. ¤ Last month, I wrote that the revelations about Fox News in the Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit showed that Fox personalities, for all their populist bloviation, are actually titanic elitists. This is not the elitism of those who think they are smarter or more capable than others—I’ll get to that in a moment—but a new and gruesome elitism of the American right, a kind of hatred and disgust on the part of right-wing media and political leaders for the people they claim to love and defend. Greed and cynicism and moral poverty can explain only so much of what we’ve learned about Fox; what the Dominion filings show is a staggering, dehumanizing version of elitism among people who have made a living by presenting themselves as the only truth-tellers who can be trusted by ordinary Americans.
I am, to say the least, no stranger to the charge of elitism. When I wrote a book in 2018 titled The Death of Expertise, a study of how people have become so narcissistic and so addled by cable and the internet that they believe themselves to be smarter than doctors and diplomats, I was regularly tagged as an “elitist.” And the truth is: I am an elitist, insofar as I believe that some people are better at things than others. ¤ But even beyond talent and ability, I do in fact firmly believe that some opinions, political views, personal actions, and life choices are better than others. As I wrote in my book at the time:
“Americans now believe that having equal rights in a political system also means that each person’s opinion about anything must be accepted as equal to anyone else’s. This is the credo of a fair number of people despite being obvious nonsense. It is a flat assertion of actual equality that is always illogical, sometimes funny, and often dangerous.”
If that makes me an elitist, so be it. ¤ In this, elitism is the opposite of populism, whose adherents believe that virtue and competence reside in the common wisdom of a nebulous coalition called “the people.” This pernicious and romantic myth is often a danger to liberal democracies and constitutional orders that are founded, first and foremost, on the inherent rights of individuals rather than whatever raw majorities think is right at any given time.
The American right, however, now uses elitist to mean “people who think they’re better than me because they live and work and play differently than I do.” They rage that people—myself included—look down upon them. And again, truth be told, I do look down on Trump voters, not because I am an elitist but because I am an American citizen and I believe that they, as my fellow citizens, have made political choices that have inflicted the greatest harm on our system of government since the Civil War. I refuse to treat their views as just part of the normal left-right axis of American politics. … … I believe that today’s Trump supporters are people who are making a conscious, knowing, and morally flawed choice to continue supporting a sociopath and a party chock-full of seditionists. …
Unlike people such as Tucker Carlson or Sean Hannity or Laura Ingraham, I have never told anyone—including you, readers of The Atlantic—anything I don’t believe. What we’re seeing at Fox, however, is lying on a grand scale, done with a snide loathing for the audience and a cool indifference to the damage being done to the nation. …
Fox’s stars did all of this while privately communicating with one another and rolling their eyes with contempt, admitting without a shred of shame that they were lying through their teeth. From Rupert Murdoch on down, top Fox personalities have admitted that they fed the rubes all of this red, rotting meat to keep them out of the way of the Fox limos headed to Long Island and Connecticut.
You can see this same kind of contemptuous elitism in Republicans such as Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, and Elise Stefanik. They couldn’t care less about the voters—those hoopleheads back home who have to be placated with idiotic speeches against trans people and “critical race theory.” These politicians were bred to be leaders, you see, and having to gouge some votes out of the hayseeds back home requires a bit of performance art now and then, a small price to pay so that the sons and daughters of Harvard and Yale, Princeton and Stanford, can live in the imperial capital and rule as is their due and their right.
Some years ago, I was at a meeting of one of the committees of the National Academy of Sciences. The conferees asked me how scientists—there were Nobel Laureates in the room—could defend the cause of knowledge. Stand your ground, I told them. Never hesitate to tell people they’re wrong. One panel member shook his head: “Tom, people don’t like to be condescended to.” I said, “I agree, but what they hate even more is to be patronized.” ¤ I believed it then, but we’re now testing that hypothesis on a national scale. I hope I wasn’t wrong.
🐣 RT @usingeo U.S. Embassy Statement on the Ruling Party’s Decision to Withdraw Draft Laws on “Foreign Influence”
⋙ USEmbassyGeorgia: U.S. Embassy Statement on the Ruling Party’s Decision to Withdraw Draft Laws on “Foreign Influence” https://tinyurl.com/2p9c82a5
“The Georgian people have, once again, spoken clearly that the only choice for Georgia is a secure and prosperous European future. We welcome Georgian Dream’s decision to withdraw both draft laws on “foreign influence.” We urge the ruling party to officially retract these bills and not pursue further this type of legislation, which is incompatible with Georgian and European values and the protection of fundamental freedoms. We encourage Georgia’s political leaders to work together in earnest on the reforms urgently needed to obtain the EU candidate status that Georgia’s citizens overwhelmingly desire.”
🐣 RT @SpiroAgnewGhost And..here it is…Trump’s deranged, endless rant just put out on Un-Truth Social. Its just as deranged and epically unhinged as I hoped:
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/SpiroAgnewGhost/status/1634014619001065472?s=20/photo/1
[Text:] I did absolutely nothing wrong, I never had an affair with Stormy Daniels, nor would I have wanted to have an affair with Stormy Daniels.
This is a political witch-Hunt, trying to take down the leading candidate, by far, in the Republican Party while at the same time also leading all Democrats in the polls, including Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Congress and numerous Democrat District Attorneys, Attorneys General, and the Department of Injustice itself, which has unprecedentedly placed top DOJ prosecutors into the Manhattan District Attorney’s office in order to “get Trump*, have found,that I did nothing wrong. Now, they fall back on the old, and rebuked case which has been rejected by every prosecutor’s office that has looked at this Stormy “Horseface” Daniels matter, where I relied on counsel in order to resolve this Extortion of me, which took place a long time ago. Since then, I have won lawsuits for hundreds of thousands of dollars against Stormy Daniels, and every prosecutors’ office which has looked at it, which are numerous, including the FEC, have turned this fake case down. This is not a state case, it is a federal case, and they have all passed on it.
Even the previous Manhattan DA, Cyrus Vance, did not bring charges because I am guilty of nothing except for the fact that I am beating all Republicans and Democrats badly in the Presidential race. It is Russia, Russia, Russia, Ukraine, Ukraine, Ukraine, the no- collusion Mueller hoax, and other targeted, false attacks against me all over again. It is a weaponization of our judicial system, and I am shocked that this Soros backed radical left prosecutor, who has allowed violent crime to reach new heights in New York without any retribution, would consider bringing such a charge against the undisputed front runner of one of the two major political parties in our Nation.
Additionally, the statute of limitations has long since ended and, in fact, Radical Left media, one and a half years ago, did a “countdown” on the statute of limitations, which was allowed to expire. The countdown ended and until now nobody had any idea that it was allowed to continue in this one lowball office. It is appalling that the Democrats would play this card and only means that they are certain that they cannot win at the voter booth, so they have to go to a tool that has never been used in such a way in our country, weaponized law enforcement.
I, and hundreds of millions of the American People who are backing me, because they want to see our nation be great again, are the victims of this corrupt, depraved, and weaponized justice system where Hunter Biden and his father can commit horrendous crimes, all accurately documented on his laptop, and nothing happens, but with me, after looking at 11 million pages worth of documents, they go after a hoax that every other prosecutor’s office which reviewed it, and even the U.S. Congress, has long ago dropped. I will not be deterred, I will always continue to be your voice, and I will keep fighting for our great Country.
🐣 RT @ SpiroAgnewGhost Trump is the most dangerous man in America, and @TuckerCarlson is a soulless, sick man for enabling this madman further.
[Link:] https://twitter.com/SpiroAgnewGhost/status/1633137699518554112?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @realDonaldTrump LET THE JANUARY 6 PRISONERS GO. THEY WERE CONVICTED, OR ARE AWAITING TRIAL, BASED ON A GIANT LIE, A RADICAL LEFT CON JOB. THANK YOU TO TUCKER CARLSON AND SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE KEVIN McCARTHY FOR WHAT YOU BOTH HAVE DONE. NEW VIDEO FOOTAGE IS IRREFUTABLE!!!
🐣 RT @AVindman Trump says he would have let Russia ‘take over’ parts of Ukraine. ¤ Does this finally kill the joke that the Russia war wouldn’t happen with Trump 2.0 ¤ Trump thought he could gift Ukraine to Putin! ¤ Trump 2.0 & MAGA are a nightmare scenario for the world.
⋙ DailyBeast (3/7): https://tinyurl.com/3kyz7yyj
NYT: Trump Lawyer Admits to Falsehoods in 2020 Fraud Claims https://tinyurl.com/2p8a8fu3
// Jenna Ellis acknowledged that she knowingly misrepresented the facts about election fraud in a disciplinary procedure by Colorado state bar officials.
According to the sworn statement on Wednesday, some of Ms. Ellis’s lies about election fraud were made during appearances on Fox News, several of whose top hosts and executives were recently shown to have disparaged Mr. Trump’s fraud claims in private even though they supported them in public. The revelations about these discrepancies have emerged in a series of court filings by Dominion Voting Systems, a voting-machine company that filed a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox for promoting a conspiracy theory about its role in the election results.
Ms. Ellis, part of the so-called elite strike force of lawyers that took to the air and traveled across the country in support of Mr. Trump’s false claims of fraud, is also embroiled in the Justice Department’s investigation of the former president’s sprawling efforts to reverse his loss to Joseph R. Biden Jr. As part of the investigation — which was taken over in November by a special counsel, Jack Smith — dozens of grand jury subpoenas have been issued, many of which have requested information about Ms. Ellis.
In a message posted on Twitter Thursday morning, Ms. Ellis sought to split hairs concerning her agreement with officials in Colorado, saying that she never admitted to lying about election fraud, which she asserted “requires INTENTIONALLY making a false statement.”
But in her stipulation with bar officials, she agreed that censure was merited when lawyers “knowingly engage” in any “conduct that involves dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation.” ¤ “It appears that Ms. Ellis is continuing in her pattern of knowing misrepresentations and falsehoods,” Michael Teter, the managing director of the 65 Project, said on Thursday. “If she continues down this path, it will not be long before she is subject to further disciplinary action.”
🐣 RT @pravda_eng President’s Office on “terrorist act” in Transnistria: Kremlin creates fakes to attack Moldova
⋙ PravdaUA: President’s Office on “terrorist act” in Transnistria: Kremlin creates fakes to attack Moldova https://tinyurl.com/2te4t7xh
// Mykhailo Podoliak, advisor to the Head of the President’s Office, has said that Ukraine has no motives or intentions to commit a “terrorist attack” in Transnistria, and that the accusations of the occupiers are part of Russia’s plan to attack Moldova.
🐣 Trump says the 2020 election would have been affected if the (error-ridden) NYPost Hunter Biden laptop story hadn’t been shadow-banned for a few hours on Twitter ¤ I think it’s more likely that the 2016 election would have changed if the Stormy Daniels story hadn’t been ”hushed”
NYT: Prosecutors Signal Criminal Charges for Trump Are Likely https://tinyurl.com/mt9xbkuh //➔ For paying hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels to keep the story from the American people prior to the 2016 election
// The former president was told that he could appear before a Manhattan grand jury next week if he wishes to testify, a strong indication that an indictment could soon follow.
🐣 RT @FellaNafo 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.”
🐣 Public Health, as opposed to Epidemiology, is focused on promoting public policy to PROTECT the health of the public. It is at its heart interventionist, and an entirely legitimate role is to PROTECT the public from medical disinformation #weaponization
⋙ 🐣 Whether or not to accept that there is a role for experts in Public Health is, I suppose debatable, if you assume government should have no role in protecting the lives of its citizens. But ”to promote the general Welfare” is right there in the Constitution’s Preamble.
🐣 .@danielsgoldman is stellar! Biden was acting in accordance with US policy and the policy of our allies and the IMF in demanding firing the inspector general in Ukraine for NOT investigating corruption, including of companies like Burisma #weaponization
🧵 RT @atrupar I’ll be live-tweeting this morning’s portion of the House “weaponization” hearing featuring testimony from Matt Taibbi
📌 💽 https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1633846941040668674?s=20/photo/1
🧵 💽 RT @albafella1 Zelensky: « I want to thank everyone who has been holding Ukrainian flags in the squares & streets of Georgia these days. I want to express gratitude for our national anthem that was played in Tbilisi. This is respect for Ukraine & I want to express my sincere respect for Georgia
📌 https://twitter.com/albafella1/status/1633586470089900033?s=20/photo/1
⋙ 🐣 RT @albafella1 There is no Ukrainian who would not wish success to our friendly #Georgia. Democratic success. European success. ¤ We want to be in the European Union and we will be there. We want Georgia to be in the European Union, and I am sure it will be there.
⋙ 🐣 RT @albafella1 We want Moldova to be in the European Union, and I am sure it will be there. All free nations of Europe deserve this. ¤ Glory to all those who are now fighting for Ukraine! Glory to all those who are fighting for their brothers-in-arms! Glory to Ukraine! » — Zelensky
🐣 RT @ @ukraine_world The importance of keeping Bakhmut is only growing – Commander of Ukraine’s Ground Forces Syrskyi. ¤ “Each day allows us to gain time to prepare for future counteroffensive. Meanwhile, the enemy loses the most combat-ready part of their army – the Wagner assault units.”
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT AXIS /1140 UTC 9 MAR/ RU renewed futile attacks on the villages of Orikhovo-Vasylivka & Dubovo-Vasylivka. RU troops consolidated forces on the east bank of the river. UKR has engaged RU soldiers who crossed the Bakhmutka by a damaged footbridge S of the H-32 HWY.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1633794295827243010?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @maxseddon After two nights of major protests, Georgia’s ruling party has dropped its attempt to ram through a Russia-style “foreign agent” law that threatened to derail its EU and NATO hopes. by Salome Pkhaladze in Tbilisi and me
⋙ FT: Georgia withdraws Russia-inspired bill after violent protests https://tinyurl.com/5ty95ama
// US and Brussels say ‘foreign agent’ bill incompatible with country’s efforts to join EU and Nato
🐣 RT @euronewsnext All major social media platforms will have to comply with the EU’s Digital Services Act expected to come into full effect in 2024 — including Elon Musk’s Twitter.
⋙ EuroNews: Twitter told to hire more human content moderators instead of AI https://tinyurl.com/mrynvemx “The largest social media platforms will have until September 1, 2023, to comply with the EU’s Digital Services Act or face a penalty of up to 6 per cent of their yearly revenue”
// The European Commission is worried about Twitter’s goal to use volunteers and artificial intelligence to police content.
Like other critics, Melissa Ingle believes human moderators are essential to intercepting disinformation and hateful content. ¤ “You really need the data scientists because there’s 30 million tweets every hour or 500 million a day. You need humans because as good as I would love to say our algorithms are, there’s still a lot that gets through,” she explained.
Since the mass layoffs, many analysts have noticed a spike in hate speech and disinformation on the platform. ¤ “One of the biggest sources of misinformation were state governments trying to push through political propaganda. So we’re seeing more of that as well as all the hate speech,” she said.
“Number two: we’re seeing an increase in site outages. We’ve seen the site go down. So I’m very concerned with these rises in hate speech and these website problems”.
Other concerns have been raised that Twitter does not have enough volunteer moderators such as Wikipedia and has a poor record when it comes to policing content that’s not in English.
“The lack of human moderators, insufficient training in human rights, and also their content moderation systems that are being predominantly trained for English language or more Western speaking audience in contrast to minority languages or languages of the global South. That’s the prevalent issue that Twitter and other platforms face,” said Elishka Pirkova, a policy analyst at digital rights group Access Now.
What’s next? The largest social media platforms will have until September 1, 2023, to comply with the EU’s Digital Services Act or face a penalty of up to 6 per cent of their yearly revenue.
🧵 RT @MavkaSlavka Ukraine has a large collection of monuments and memorials. From the inception of Kyiv to the Holodomor and the Chornobyl nuclear tragedy, here is a selection of some of most noteworthy.
📌 https://twitter.com/MavkaSlavka/status/1633759144988803072?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @ danielrhamilton A quick information point for journalists that keep referring to #Georgia as an “ex-Soviet state”: sure, it was forced to be part of the Soviet Union for 70 years but, prior to that, was an independent democracy with minority rights & freedom of speech. Russia has never had that.
🐣 RT @Helenkhosh The protest is not just about the bill, but about the Russian nature of the Georgian Dream. There is no trust towards them or their word, and track record serves as the empirical proof. There is no legal mechanism to withdraw the draft. Protests resume at 7 PM. #Georgia 1/2.
⋙ 🐣 RT @Helenkhosh There is no full and clear picture on the demands or the nature of further protest yet, but the public is genuinely done with the Georgian Dream. Patience seems to have exploded big time. Only way to calm #Georgia is regime change, with unlikely odds of fair elections ever. 2/2.
🐣 RT @TheDeadDistrict And not everyone was there, I could not attend, because the road to my village was closed because of the snow on the pass. I’m sure that much more people will come for rally if they don’t withdrawal the Putin’s law.
⋙ 🐣 RT @Helenkhosh This is quite possibly the largest demonstration in the history of #Georgia. And the people coming are angry. Thousands are still marching towards the main crowd. #NoToRussianLaw. No to the government that serves Russia.
🐣 RT @KShoshiashvili #Tbilisi Now: People stand strong and together. The Constitution of Georgia is embodied in the Georgian people. Our national objective is Euro-Atlantic integration and we stand ready to defend it. Our message is clear: Georgia is Europe. Georgia will never be Russia.
🐣 RT @ESK001 Georgia doesn’t sleep. Tbilisi protest against the Russian law. 08/03/23. ¤ I edited this video for you to hear, see and feel the struggle of Georgian people for freedom, dignity and the European choice Georgian people and their allies stand for.
💽 https://twitter.com/ESK001/status/1633613408061857793?s=20/photo/1
🐣 “We in America have learned bitter lessons from two world wars: It is better to be here [in Europe] ready to protect the peace, than to take blind shelter across the sea, rushing to
respond only after freedom is lost. We’ve learned that isolationism never was and never will be an acceptable response to tyrannical governments
with an expansionist intent.” ~ Ronald Reagan
🐣 RT @DmytroKuleba Russia launched a massive missile and drone attack on Ukraine overnight, leading to loss of lives and damaging civilian infrastructure. No military objective, just Russian barbarism. The day will come when Putin and his associates are held accountable by a Special Tribunal.
🐣 RT @Osinttechnical Russian forces appear to be heavily invested in degrading Ukrainian power generation capabilities, expending valuable Kh-47M2 Kinzhal hypersonic missiles to do so.
⋙ 🐣 RT @JayinKyiv Kyiv authorities saying Russia used a hypersonic Kinzhal missle to strike a Kyiv power station. ¤ Assuring about 15% of the city doesnt have electricity for 12 hours must be important as they are considered to only have about 57 of these rare missles.
🐣 RT @NikaMelkozerova 81 missiles. Including 6 hypersonic Kalibr missiles. It is like $600 million on our sleeping heads. For what?? Just to make those ordinary Russians, who are screaming on social media of anger at the fact that we still have electricity and didn’t die of cold?
🐣 RT @ JimmySecUK Large missile strike on Ukraine carried out by Russia overnight consisting of:
– 28 Kh-101/Kh-555 cruise missiles
– 20 Kalibr cruise missiles
– 6 X-22 cruise missiles
– 6 Kh-47 “Kinzhal” cruise missiles
– 8 other guided air missiles
– 13 S-300 missiles
According to the UkAF.
🐣 RT @TWMCLtd #Ukraine’s nuclear energy regulator has issued an urgent warning about Europe’s largest nuclear plant. ¤ Energoatom says the #Zaporizhzhia plant in #Enerhodar has been completely de-energised after Russian shelling. ¤ Here’s the translation of their post: ¤ #RussiaIsATerroristState
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/TWMCLtd/status/1633741180440653825?s=20/photo/1 -2
[Text:] 🐣 RT @Energyatome !! Zaporizhzhya NPP completely de-energized due to racist shelling Today, March 9, 2023, at 03:53 a.m., as a result of racist missile attacks, the last communication line of the occupied Zaporizhia NPP with the Ukrainian power system was disconnected. Currently, the station is de-energized and has gone into blackout mode for the sixth time during the occupation, the 5th and 6th power units are put into a cold state, 18 diesel generators have been switched on to power the ZNPP’s own needs. Fuel for their work remains for 10 days. The countdown has begun. If it is impossible to renew the external power supply of the station during this time, an accident with radiation consequences for the whole world may occur.
[Text2:] In addition, all domestic nuclear power plants located on the territory controlled by Ukraine have unloaded their capacity due to the threat of missile attacks.
As of 06:30 a.m., all power units provide a total of 4.700 MW to the power system. Due to the occupation of the plant and the interference of Rosatom representatives in its work, the possibilities of the Ukrainian side to maintain the ZNPP in a safe mode are significantly limited.
Currently, the actions of the entire international community are urgently needed to remove racist terrorist groups from the territory of the Zaporizhzhia NPP, transfer it to the full control of a competent legitimate operator – Ukrainian Energoatom – and restore the conditions for maintaining the nuclear, radiation and physical safety of the nuclear facility.
🐣 RT @ Flash_news_ua ⚡️ For the first time, the russians shelled Ukraine with such different types of rockets. They fired six the Kh-47M2 Kinzhal, reports the Speaker of the Air Force Command Yurii Inat. ¤ “[The russians] used, in particular, MiG-31K aircraft. I don’t remember this happening before”.
🐣 RT @Flash_news_ua ⚡️ Volodymyr Zelenskyi reacted to the russian missile attack on Ukraine: “It’s been a difficult night. A massive rocket attack across the country. Kyiv, Kirovohrad, Dnipro, Odesa, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Zhytomyr, Vinnytsia regions.”
🖼 https://twitter.com/Flash_news_ua/status/1633741919485415426?s=20/photo/1
⭕ 8 Mar 2023
🐣 RT @brianstelter It’s an incredibly strange time to work at Fox News. People are gossiping about the Dominion filings and wondering which heads will roll. And “our bosses are acting like nothing is happening.” Here’s what I learned from half a dozen sources inside Fox
⋙ Vanity Fair, Brian Stelter: “We’re All Embarrassed”: Inside Fox News as Dominion Revelations Rattle the Network https://tinyurl.com/48ps3ezs
// Fox producers are getting libel law training, and staffers are (cautiously) gossiping about filings exposing the likes of Rupert Murdoch and Tucker Carlson. “We’re very careful when we’re miked up,” one on-air personality tells Vanity Fair. “And we’re not texting.”
🐣 RT @WorldWarNow_ “It is very difficult to kill 12-20 thousand Ukrainian soldiers by tomorrow morning….Ukrainians die en masse for Bakhmut & surrender only as a last resort. Stop calling them cowards. They are the same as we are & the same blood flows in them.” ¤ -Yevgeny Prigozhin, CEO of Wagner
🐣 RT @SpiroAgnewGhost More completely unhinged and demented every hour. This is strait jacket level
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/SpiroAgnewGhost/status/1633581883656396800?s=20/photo/1
[Text:] 🐣 RT @realDonaldTrump City, State, and Federal (DOJ) Prosecutors throughout the Country are practicing good ol’ ELECTION INTERFERENCE, at a level that our Country has never seen before. They want to take out the undisputed leader of the Republican Party. The bigger the lead I take, the more CRAZY they become. AT THE SAME TIME, THEY DO NOTHING ABOUT THE BIDEN CRIME FAMILY!
‼️🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT CITY/ 2300 UTC 8 MAR/ RU forces have consolidated forces on the E bank of the Bakhmutka. RU infantry effected a crossing of the river via a ruined footbridge in the vicinity of School No. 5. UKR troops are reported in urban combat west of the school. Fighting continues.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1633600912231919643?s=20/photo/1
⋙ 🐣 RT @SKmartinTO Attack from the east was intercepted in the early hours, the stabilization defensive perimeter is underway, the PMC threw the last 17000 homeless into the attack, according to the movement of the advanced lines, it will be a matter of 72 hours #GoHomeIVAN
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @PaulJawin The artillery of the 14th brigade Chervona Kalina, together with the AFU, destroyed the advancing Wagner group in the Bakhmut direction.
💽 https://twitter.com/PaulJawin/status/1633504175303667712?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @ProjectLincoln “We also agree with what Fox News’s own attorneys and executives have now repeatedly stressed in multiple courts of law: that Tucker Carlson is not credible.” – White House spokesperson. ¤ The MAGA base, with their collective memory being that of a goldfish, may not put 2 and 2 together as they continue to take as gospel everything @tuckercarlson says about the January 6th tapes.
⋙ Politico: White House goes after Tucker Carlson by name over Jan. 6 coverage https://tinyurl.com/ru9earf
// In a rare rebuke of the Fox News ratings leader, the White House said Carlson is “not credible.”
🐣 RT @PaulaChertok Your daily reminder: “Russian-speaking area” does NOT mean pro-Russia. Ukraine is a bilingual country. Many Ukrainians also speak Russian. That’s a relic of colonial history, not political identity. Russian-speaking Ukrainians are Ukrainian no matter what language they use.
⋙ 🐣 RT @Gerashchenko_en “I could’ve made a deal to take over something, there are certain areas that are Russian-speaking areas, frankly, but you could’ve worked a deal.” – Donald Trump. ¤ The perfect idea to inspire dictators all over the world to invade other countries and have never-ending wars.
💽 https://twitter.com/PaulaChertok/status/1633595180761886722?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @peterbakernyt Trump tells Hannity on his radio show that he would have been willing to let Russia “take over” parts of Ukraine while he was president (a comment edited out when later played on Fox News). @justinbaragona
⋙ DailyBeast, Justin Baragona: Fox News Edits Out Trump Saying He Might’ve Let Russia ‘Take Over’ Parts of Ukraine https://tinyurl.com/3kyz7yyj
// While Trump told Hannity on the radio he could’ve prevented war by negotiating a deal with Russia, that portion was curiously edited out when aired on Fox News.
🧵 RT @KlasfeldReports Dominion’s just-released reply brief in its $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit seeking summary judgment starts with a single-word sentence: ¤ “Finally.”
📌 [TextLink:] https://twitter.com/KlasfeldReports/status/1633592925815709698?s=20/photo/1
[Text:] INTRODUCTION
Finally. Fox has conceded what it knew all along. The charges Fox broadcast against Dominion are false. Fox does not spend a word of its brief arguing the truth of any accused statement. Fox has produced no evidence none, zero supporting those lies. This concession should come as no surprise. Discovery into Fox has proven that from the top of the organization to the bottom, Fox always knew the absurdity of the Dominion “stolen election” story. Now, having failed to put in any evidence to the contrary (because no such evidence exists), Fox has conceded the ALT of the Dominion allegations it broadcast.
⋙ 🐣 RT @KlasfeldReports “That concession is no small thing. Thirty percent or more of Americans still believe the lie that the 2020 election was stolen.” ¤ Dominion says their employees still get threats and harassment.
[Text:] That concession is no small thing. Thirty percent or more of Americans still believe the lie that the 2020 election was stolen. The heart of that lie remains the false conspiracy theory that Fox legitimized and mainstreamed starting on November & that Dominion stole the election, using secret algorithms in its software originally designed for a Venezuelan dictator. Because of these lies, Dominion now may be “one of the most demonized brands in the United States or the world.” Ex. 139, Richer 73:9-14. Dominion employees still endure threats and harassment. So it matters that Fox in private ridiculed and never believed the lie. And it matters that Fox has now in this litigation conceded these allegations were false.🐣 RT @KlasfeldReports Fox’s reply: “Dominion litters its opposition brief with cherry-picked statements from people who have nothing to do with the specific statements it challenges as defamatory,” which “might make for interesting headlines” but doesn’t create a “triable issue of fact.”
[Text:] PRELIMINARY STATEMENT
Much like it did in its opening summary judgment motion, Dominion litters its opposition brief with cherry-picked statements from people who have nothing to do with the specific statements it challenges as defamatory. While that might make for interesting headlines, it does not create a triable issue of fact. In reality, Dominion has not even identified any defamatory statement of fact as opposed to newsworthy allegations or opinions attributable to Fox News, let alone identified any such statement published with actual malice. At the very least, its kitchen-sink complaint is wildly overbroad, and it has not even identified sufficient evidence of economic damages, let alone met the very high bar for punitive damages.
🐣 RT @Tendar Prigozhin in eastern Bakhmut and you know what isn’t there? Right, the Russian flag. ¤ It is so revealing to see that those mercenaries are fighting for their oligarch, not for Russia or the Russian army. It is a socio-political mix of an oligarchy, warlordism and feudalism.
🖼 https://twitter.com/Tendar/status/1633563495953301507?s=20/photo/1
TheBulwark, Jonathan Last: Fox Is Worse Than You Thought https://tinyurl.com/2mwwfyaj
// Their business is being the Republican party’s Pravda. Plus: How the GOP hopefuls are being backed into a corner by January 6th.
WaPo: Four takeaways from the new Dominion-Fox lawsuit documents https://tinyurl.com/3u54ztrx
// Fox was a hotbed of backbiting, and its vaunted news division wasn’t as neutral as it claimed to be
Tuesday brought yet more documents in Dominion Voting Systems’ high-stakes lawsuit against Fox News over Fox’s handling of claims that Dominion’s voting machines helped rig the 2020 election.
The documents come after Dominion recently detailed how Fox executives and hosts privately derided the stolen-election claims even as the network chose to air them anyway — often credulously — in the name of appealing to its Trump-supporting viewers.
We’ve learned details from depositions in the case — including that of Fox Chairman Rupert Murdoch, who acknowledged that his hosts endorsed stolen-election claims and expressed regret for that — and additional details from exhibits attached to the filings.
🐣 RT @wartranslated Girkin states that both Prigozhin and Shoigu and anything but good commanders after failing to take Bakhmut, and that the advertised Russian winter offensive failed without bringing any meaningful results. https://t.me/strelkovii/4157
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1633410034951438339?s=20/photo/1
[Text:] By March 8, Prigozhin and Shoigu happily inform the population of the Russian Federation that they managed to take half of Artemivsk (both non-Russian noviops, of course, do not dare to pronounce the original name of the city, Bakhmut).
Without denying at all the courage and heroism of the Wagner fighters and commanders (as well as the adjacent units of the RF Armed Forces), I will only note that the results of more than 2 months of brutal meat grinder in the form of taking half of the city blocks of a small city testify to anything, but not to the military talents of both of these characters. And, unfortunately, I express confidence that after the final capture of the city, the offensive will “come to naught” in front of the next fortified areas of the enemy, erected during the time Bakhmut and Soledar were assaulted.
I have to state that the winter offensive of the RF Armed Forces was limited to frontal strikes against heavily fortified positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and, in general, ended in failure (which is in no way compensated by the insignificant tactical successes of our troops and the heavy losses of the enemy).
NYT: House G.O.P. Prepares to Slash Federal Programs in Coming Budget Showdown https://tinyurl.com/35232de5 “Woke” appears to mean anything that benefits the poor, as well as “America First” cuts to foreign aid and counter-intelligence
// With Social Security and Medicare off the table, conservatives are focusing on a wide range of smaller programs as a clash with President Biden and Democrats looms.
NYT: Biden Is Set to Detail at Least $2 Trillion in Measures to Reduce Deficits https://tinyurl.com/3w3thu8k Biden’s plan includes ‘a new tax on households worth more than $100M that would apply to earned income and the unrealized gains in the value of their liquid assets’
// The president’s proposals, included in the budget he will release on Thursday, are expected to heavily feature tax increases on corporations and high earners
🧵 RT @ @CanadianKobzar FELLAS! STAY AWHILE AND LISTEN! Today is international Women’s day – a very important day that deserves our respect and attention. In honour of this day, today’s thread is focused on one of the most famous Ukrainian women in history – St. Olha of Kyiv! 1/17
📌 https://twitter.com/CanadianKobzar/status/1633350884192133122?s=20/photo/1
⭕ 7 Mar 2023
🐣 RT @calxandr The main front in the war against Russian fascist aggression is in heroic Ukraine. But the fight for democracy in Georgia, Belarus, Moldova, Kazakhstan & elsewhere also gives the Kremlin nightmares they richly deserve.
🐣 RT @SenSchumer Tucker Carlson is siding with the enemies of democracy. Here’s what I just said on the Senate floor:
💽 https://twitter.com/SenSchumer/status/1633131186540118016?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @WarintheFuture “There is no part of Ukraine about which one can say that it can be abandoned. There is no Ukrainian trench in which the resilience and heroism of our warriors would be disregarded.” The defence of #Bakhmut continues.
⋙ PresUkraine: The occupier is killing for the very fact that we are Ukrainians, for the mere word about Ukraine – address by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy https://tinyurl.com/3wx5h9bz
ABCNews: Rupert Murdoch said Trump, Giuliani were ‘both increasingly mad’ in wake of 2020 election, new documents show https://tinyurl.com/2s3hwxjx
// The documents are part of Dominion Voting Systems’ lawsuit against Fox News.
Fox Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch privately bashed then-President Donald Trump and his attorney, Rudy Giuliani, following the 2020 election, according to court records made public on Tuesday as part of Dominion Voting Systems’ $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News.
Murdoch wrote that Trump and Giuliani were “both increasingly mad” — using the British expression for “crazy” — in an email whose contents were read during a deposition taken as part of the lawsuit.
The voting machine company has filed court documents containing private communications from Fox News personnel appearing to cast doubt on claims that Dominion’s voting machines had somehow rigged the presidential election in Joe Biden’s favor.
Tuesday’s newly unveiled records included additional correspondence between Fox network executives and on-air hosts regarding Trump’s claim that the 2020 presidential election was rigged against him. ¤ “The real danger is what he might do as president,” Murdoch wrote of Trump, according to a transcript of the deposition. “Apparently not sleeping and bouncing off walls!”
Murdoch also acknowledged in a Jan. 21, 2021, email to a Fox News executive that “maybe Sean and Laura went too far,” referring to Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham, two primetime hosts who echoed Trump’s claims of election fraud. The email was sent in the wake of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
“All very well for Sean to tell you he was in despair about Trump, but what did he tell his viewers?” Murdoch wrote.
The thousands of pages of new documents provide additional evidence that network leaders privately acknowledged that Joe Biden had won the election despite what Fox News’ on-air personalities told their viewers.
In response to the documents, Fox News officials said that Dominion was misleading the public by not providing the full context behind some of the quotes. In one example, Fox host Sean Hannity’s statement about election fraud that he “did not believe it for one second,” which was included in an early Dominion filing, was only a partial quote and did not include that he said that he “waited for the proof.”
“Thanks to today’s filings, Dominion has been caught red-handed using more distortions and misinformation in their PR campaign to smear FOX News and trample on free speech and freedom of the press,” Fox News officials said in a statement. “We already know they will say and do anything to try to win this case, but to twist and even misattribute quotes to the highest levels of our company is truly beyond the pale.”
Other documents released Tuesday show one of Fox’s biggest stars, Tucker Carlson, privately saying that he hated Trump “passionately.” ¤ “We are very, very close to being able to ignore Trump most nights,” Carlson privately wrote on Jan. 4, 2021, according to the documents. “I truly can’t wait.” ¤ “I hate him passionately,” he said.
Separately, in a group chat between Carlson, Hannity and Laura Ingraham, the Fox News hosts vented privately about the network, its declining ratings, and their fellow employees in mid-November, the records show. ¤ “We are all officially working for an organization that hates us,” Ingraham wrote on Nov. 16, 2020, according to the documents. “My anger at the news channel is pronounced,” she said later. ¤ “I’m disgusted at this point,” Hannity said later in the conversation, per the records.
The new material also documents backlash to Fox News’ decision to call Arizona for Biden before other networks had done so. After Fox News made the call, Bret Baier, the network’s chief political anchor, urged executives to “back off AZ” and retract the call. ¤ “The sooner we pull it — even if it gives us major egg … the better we are. In my opinion,” Baier wrote on Nov. 5.
Murdoch also said during his deposition as part of the lawsuit that he “never” believed the theory that the voting company was involved in an effort to “delegitimize and destroy votes for Donald Trump.” ¤ “I never believed it,” he said during his deposition on Jan. 19, 2023, according to a more complete transcript that was released as part of the newer documents.
But elsewhere in the deposition, Murdoch acknowledged Trump’s importance, saying “nobody wants Trump as an enemy. ¤ When asked why, Murdoch said “because he had a great following, big.” ¤ “Seventy-five million people voted for him,” Murdoch said.
🐣 RT @JStein_WaPo McCarthy’s chief of staff has told colleagues his office is now in a nearly impossible bind, having vowed to advance a budget that eradicates the deficit in a decade without touching Medicare & Social Security or increasing taxes
⋙ WaPo: The Kevin McCarthy aide tasked with defusing the GOP’s debt limit bomb https://tinyurl.com/8jax6xcp “The following months will put Meyer’s aptitude managing lawmakers to the test. The Minnesotan is a constant but understated presence in the Capitol”
// Dan Meyer, the speaker’s chief of staff, has seen tense budget standoffs before. But the Republican Party has changed since then.
🐣 RT @wartranslated As if we are now getting used to almost daily videos from Russian mobilised soldiers, this one is different. The commander of this platoon is not appealing to Putin, but directly stating he is refusing to obey orders. These men were transferred to “DPR” for “meat assaults” and lost a major part of their personnel due to a “complete lack of training and reconnaissance”.
💽 https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1633212458662764556?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer DELIVERED TO UKRAINE: The JADM-ER has arrived in Ukraine. The Australian-US designed kit can be fitted to 500 lb. bombs. The JADAM-ER’s integrated inertial guidance/GPS receivers will permit UKR aircraft to deliver precision strikes at ranges better than 40 mi (64.7 Km).
◕ https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1633293233382981634?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @MartyLenz_KOA The January 6 Whitewash Will Backfire @RadioFreeTom @TheAtlantic on Carlson, McCarthy and the J6 tapes. ¤ The only other plausible possibility: ¤ Tuck is auditioning for Newsmax or OANN.
⋙ TheAtlantic, Tom Nichols: The January 6 Whitewash Will Backfire https://tinyurl.com/zx79ahh4
// Tucker Carlson and the GOP are trying to erase a dark day. Their public-relations gamble is already failing.
[…] To recap the events of the past few weeks: McCarthy apparently decided that Carlson was the person who could remove the stain of January 6 from the Republican Party. Remember, once Trump was elected in 2016, the GOP was a national majority, holding the House, the Senate, the White House, most governor’s mansions, and most state legislatures across the country. Trump destroyed much of that, and his decision to run again meant that January 6 could not somehow be memory-holed. So the speaker gave the ever-perplexed Carlson access to thousands of hours of video from the attack.
The objective here was clear from the start. If the GOP is going to make a run at national power again, it must find a way to deny the reality of January 6 and neutralize the cloud of seditious stink that still clings to every Republican because of Trump and the insurrectionists. Who better than Carlson to sneer his way through a dismissal of one of the worst days in the history of the United States?
Unfortunately, the attempt to gaslight millions of people isn’t going very well. Carlson, as my colleague David Graham points out, is engaging in a “long-standing Donald Trump approach of demanding that his supporters believe him rather than their lying eyes.” But there are likely limits to that gambit even for Carlson, who is presenting as bombshells things we already knew. It is not a revelation, for example, that the “QAnon Shaman,” Jacob Chansley, walked along with Capitol cops who were trying to keep the fur-hatted weirdo calm even while he was howling in the Senate chamber. Carlson’s attempt to deny the danger of that moment is not only silly but also a gobsmackingly incompetent attempt to use footage depicting a rioter whose bizarre behavior was already well-known to the public.
It’s one thing to assume that the Fox audience isn’t very bright and will believe almost anything—I will gladly stipulate to that—but it’s another to ask them to leap across a chasm of credulity. Sedition-friendly Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, for example, tried to capitalize on Carlson’s after-school-video special by immediately calling for a new trial for Chansley. But even Fox viewers probably know that Chansley wasn’t convicted in a trial: He loquaciously pleaded guilty and got a stiff sentence of 41 months in prison.
… You might have expected someone like Senator Mitt Romney of Utah to zing Carlson, and he did, saying the Fox host had gone “off the rails” and describing him as a radio “shock jock.” But conservative Senators Kevin Cramer of North Dakota and Mike Rounds of South Dakota both criticized Carlson. (Even Senate Minority Leader and ongoing profile in courage Mitch McConnell carefully opined that Fox “made a mistake” in depicting January 6 in a way that was “completely at variance” with how the head of the Capitol Police “correctly” described the day.) Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina said Carlson’s presentation was “inexcusable” and, for good measure, “bullshit.”
Trump, of course, thanked both Carlson and McCarthy. Because, really, if the point was to reassure the American public about whether the GOP is still in the grip of violent seditionists, what better way to do it than to clumsily cherry-pick some video and then elicit an all-caps tirade from the leader of the Republican Party?
LET THE JANUARY 6 PRISONERS GO. THEY WERE CONVICTED, OR ARE AWAITING TRIAL, BASED ON A GIANT LIE, A RADICAL LEFT CON JOB. THANK YOU TO TUCKER CARLSON AND SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE KEVIN McCARTHY FOR WHAT YOU BOTH HAVE DONE. NEW VIDEO FOOTAGE IS IRREFUTABLE!!!
Well then. As Sonny Bunch from The Bulwark wryly observed this morning: “Going to be kind of funny to watch GOP candidates dance around acknowledging that the presidential frontrunner and the party’s semi-official media organ are more or less pro-storming-the-Capitol at this point.”
As counterintuitive as it might be, perhaps the best thing for American democracy would be for Carlson to keep bumbling his way through more January 6 footage and to keep images of the insurrection in front of millions of viewers for as long as possible. If that’s how McCarthy and Carlson intend to restore the image of the GOP as a normal political party, who are any of us to argue with such public-relations geniuses?
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BURN RATE: Putin has lost more than 3423 tanks in his ‘Special Military Operation’. To replace them, Moscow is refurbishing T-62 tanks. Though some will have upgraded optics, most will lack modern reactive armor. These 60-year-old antiques will be easy meat for UKR’s Leopards.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1632770280795021314?s=20/photo/1
// UK Defense Intelligence Summary 3/6/2023
WaPo: Capitol Police chief blasts Tucker Carlson over ‘misleading’ Jan. 6 footage https://tinyurl.com/4erjb5vj Includes statement by Brian Sicknick’s family, video of McConnell stating support for Capitol Police letter
// Carlson showed segments, including ‘QAnon shaman’ Jacob Chansley, which didn’t show violence on the day rioters stormed the Capitol
CNN: Exclusive: Zelensky warns of ‘open road’ through Ukraine’s east if Russia captures Bakhmut, as he resists calls to retreat https://tinyurl.com/4najj2cz
Russian troops will have “open road” to capture key cities in eastern Ukraine if they seize control of Bakhmut, President Volodymyr Zelensky warned in an interview with CNN, as he defended his decision to keep Ukrainian forces in the besieged city.
“This is tactical for us,” Zelensky said, insisting that Kyiv’s military brass is united in prolonging its defense of the city after weeks of Russian attacks left it on the cusp of falling to Moscow’s troops. ¤ “We understand that after Bakhmut they could go further. They could go to Kramatorsk, they could go to Sloviansk, it would be open road for the Russians after Bakhmut to other towns in Ukraine, in the Donetsk direction,” he told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer in an exclusive interview from Kyiv. “That’s why our guys are standing there.”
He said that if Russia is able to “put their little flag” on top of Bakhmut, it would help “mobilize their society in order to create this idea they’re such a powerful army.” ¤ Though Bakhmut does not hold significant strategic value in itself, its road connections to Kramatorsk and Sloviansk – two densely populated, industrial urban hubs to the northwest – mean those cities be next in Russia’s crosshairs if they are able to take control. …
NATO intelligence meanwhile estimates that for every Ukrainian soldier killed defending Bakhmut, Russian forces have lost at least five, a military official with the alliance told CNN on Monday. The official cautioned the 5-to-1 ratio was an informed estimate based on intelligence.
Wagner troops have been descending on the city since capturing the town of Soledar in January. Should they gain control of Bakhmut, it would mark a rare case of a town changing hands in what has become a sluggish and slow-moving war in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region.
An adviser within the Ukrainian Presidency, Mykhailo Podolyak, told CNN on Monday that in defending Bakhmut, Ukraine had two main goals: buying time to replenish its forces and inflicting heavy losses on Russian armies. ¤ “It achieved its goals by 1,000%,” he said. “Even if the military leadership at some point decides to retreat to more favorable positions, the case of defending Bakhmut will be a great strategic success for the Ukrainian Armed Forces as a foundation for future victory.”
Ukraine is meanwhile racing to integrate Western weapons systems and dozens of tanks into its operations, after Zelensky successfully persuaded the US, the UK, Germany and a bloc of other European nations to step up its military aid. ¤ It comes ahead of an anticipated Russian spring offensive that may encompass territory in central and northern Ukraine which Russia was unsuccessful in capturing in its initial invasion last year.
🐣 RT @mhmck The General Staff reports units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine repelled attacks by the Russian fascist invaders in the areas of Ivanivs’ke, Klishchiyivka and Bakhmut. ¤ That Ukrainian defenders hold positions near Klishchiyivka is good news. The enemy isn’t surrounding Bakhmut.
🌎 https://twitter.com/mhmck/status/1633159127982637056?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @therecount Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell says Tucker Carlson’s whitewashing of the Capitol insurrection was a “mistake.” ¤ “My concern is how it was a depicted … Clearly, the chief of the Capitol Police … correctly describes what most of us witnessed firsthand on January 6th.”
💽 https://twitter.com/therecount/status/1633191586254274563?s=20/photo/1
CNN: US Capitol Police chief rips into Tucker Carlson over ‘offensive’ use of January 6 footage https://tinyurl.com/yc5fu5hu “Several congressional Republicans, most notably Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, have expressed concern with Carlson’s portrayal of the attack”
Several congressional Republicans, most notably Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, have expressed concern with Carlson’s portrayal of the attack. ¤ “With regard to the presentation on Fox News last night, I want to associate myself entirely with the opinion of the Chief of the Capitol Police about what happened on January 6,” McConnell told reporters at the Capitol Tuesday.
According to the Justice Department, 140 officers were assaulted at the Capitol that day, including 60 Metropolitan Police officers and 80 USCP officers.”
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT /1400 UTC 7 MAR/ On 6 MAR, a major Russian offensive was crushed by UKR at the village of Dubovo-Vasylivka. UKR ground forces, artillery & missile forces defeated thirty-seven (37) RU attacks in heavy fighting. Wagner troop & materiel losses are assessed as heavy.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1633105588862197761?s=20/photo/1
⋙ 🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer CULMINATION? RU’s failed attack at Dubovo-Vasylivka marks one of the most severe Russian defeats in the long campaign to take the city of Bakhmut. UKR reinforcements are now assessed to be deployed in strong defensive lines in the city and surrounding areas.
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @SKmartinTO Omega Special Unit of the National Guard of Ukraine is on the front line of contact, decimating demoralized armed criminals from the PMC in the Battles on Bakhmut Fortress. #BakhmutFortressHOLD
💽 https://twitter.com/SKmartinTO/status/1633114304076476418?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @kyledcheney JUST IN: DOJ says it has crossed 1,000 Jan. 6 defendants, with more than half pleading guilty and another 53 found guilty in trials.
⋙ DOJ: 26 Months Since the Jan. 6 Attack on the Capitol https://tinyurl.com/m7bhn7cd
Arrests made: More than 999 defendants have been arrested in nearly all 50 states and the District of Columbia. (This includes those charged in both District and Superior Court).
Criminal charges:
● Approximately 326 defendants have been charged with assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers or employees, including approximately 106 individuals who have been charged with using a deadly or dangerous weapon or causing serious bodily injury to an officer.● Approximately 140 police officers were assaulted Jan. 6 at the Capitol, including about 80 from the U.S. Capitol Police and about 60 from the Metropolitan Police Department.
● Approximately 11 individuals have been arrested on a series of charges that relate to assaulting a member of the media, or destroying their equipment, on Jan. 6.
● Approximately 919 defendants have been charged with entering or remaining in a restricted federal building or grounds. Of those, 101 defendants have been charged with entering a restricted area with a dangerous or deadly weapon.
● Approximately 61 defendants have been charged with destruction of government property, and approximately 46 defendants have been charged with theft of government property.
● More than 306 defendants have been charged with corruptly obstructing, influencing, or impeding an official proceeding, or attempting to do so.
Approximately 55 defendants have been charged with conspiracy, either: (a) conspiracy to obstruct a congressional proceeding, (b) conspiracy to obstruct law enforcement during a civil disorder, (c) conspiracy to injure an officer, or (d) some combination of the three.
Pleas:
● Approximately 518 individuals have pleaded guilty to a variety of federal charges, many of whom faced or will face incarceration at sentencing.Trials:
● 53 individuals have been found guilty at contested trials, including 3 who were found guilty in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. Another 16 individuals have been convicted following an agreed-upon set of facts. 19 of these 72 defendants were found guilty of assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers, a felony, including one who has been sentenced to 10 years in prison.Sentencings:
● Approximately 420 federal defendants have had their cases adjudicated and received sentences for their criminal activity on Jan. 6. Approximately 220 have been sentenced to periods of incarceration. Approximately 100 defendants have been sentenced to a period of home detention, including approximately 15 who also were sentenced to a period of incarceration.
🐣 RT @SenRonJohnson Truth is beginning to be revealed. ¤ Thank you @SpeakerMcCarthy,
@TuckerCarlson & company for showing America the rest of the Jan. 6 story. ¤ When will judges begin applying justice equally? ¤ Doesn’t look like “thousands of armed insurrectionists” to me. https://tinyurl.com/3un7anvp
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/SenRonJohnson/status/1632924556116541441?s=20/photo/1 -3
⋙ 🐣 Please make these materials available to all news outlets, to allow for the widest possible context and analysis. ¤ That said, keep in mind that the “trophy” videos made by participants and bodycam videos of police officers provide additional points of view of what took place
🐣 Richard Haass declares Biden’s “Nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine” policy as Biden allowing Ukraine to set US national security policy. @Morning_Joe can do better and needs to host alternative views that don’t favor the US bullying its partners. @JoeNBC
⭕ 6 Mar 2023
NatRev, Charles Cooke: Donald Trump’s Recipe for Electoral Failure https://tinyurl.com/5n8fs648 “[W]hy, on each of the last three times [Trump] has attempted to compete in American elections, he has proven himself to be such a bewildering loser”
// The former president portrays any attempt to appeal to voters beyond his core base as a sign of weakness
Despite his preferred approach to politics having been responsible for grievous Republican losses in the last three national elections, Donald Trump is once again seeking to cast himself as the savior of the American Right. During his chaotic speech at CPAC on Saturday, Trump boasted to the crowd that, until he came along, “the Republican Party was ruled by freaks, neocons, open-border zealots, and fools,” before reassuring attendees that, under his continued leadership, the GOP is not at risk of “going back to the party of Paul Ryan, Karl Rove, and Jeb Bush.”
This was not an offhand comment. Increasingly, Trump likes to point to Paul Ryan, Karl Rove, Jeb Bush, and even Ronald Reagan as examples of what has historically been wrong with the GOP — as well as a warning of what the party will become again if any of the other candidates for the Republican nomination prevail in 2024. In recent months, Trump has begun to fuse these critiques with his attacks on Ron DeSantis, having complained variously that DeSantis is being pushed by “Jeb Bush, Karl Rove, Paul Ryan,” that Fox News’s coverage of DeSantis “reminds me of 2016 when they were pushing ‘JEB!’,” and that DeSantis is suspect because “he used to be a Reagan Republican.”
WaPo: Russia advances in Bakhmut by sending waves of mercenaries to certain death https://tinyurl.com/52u3x7ue “Wagner leader Yevgeniy Prigozhin has tried to use the Bakhmut battle to bolster his position in Russia and to attack Russia’s military leadership”
🐣 RT @ olgatokariuk Russians cowardly and dishonorably executed this unarmed Ukrainian POW. His last words were ‘Glory to Ukraine’. He was shot repeatedly after saying it. If Russians did it with a goal of intimidating Ukrainians, they achieved the opposite effect: he will be forever seen as a hero
🖼 https://twitter.com/olgatokariuk/status/1632815330790719488?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @SpiroAgnewGhost The deranged rantings of a madman, 2:26 a.m.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/SpiroAgnewGhost/status/1632651954001432576?s=20/photo/1
[Text:] 🐣 RT @realDonaldTrump How does Rupert Murdoch say there was no election fraud when 2000 Mules shows, on government tape, that there were millions of “stuffed ballots,” & Elon Musk released the FBl/Twitter Files, where pollsters say that the silencing of information made a 17% difference in the Vote. Then there was, of course, FBI/Facebook, another big election integrity fraud costing millions of Votes-& this doesn’t even count all of the many other ways they cheated, or the fact that they avoided State Legislatures?
⭕ 5 Mar 2023
NBCNews: Biden bucks liberals and tells Democrats to get tough on crime https://tinyurl.com/435wmyzk //➔ this is why Dems need Biden: he knows how to “read the room” ~~ when “the room” has do with winning elections
// It shows how powerful the issue has become, says James Carville, who helped Bill Clinton counter soft-on-crime attacks during the 1990s crime wave.
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT CITY /1510 UTC 5 MAR/ Simplified TACMAP of lines of contact in Bakhmut urban area. Based on 0600 (Local) briefing of UKR Gen’l Staff. #Bakhmut #BakhmutHolds #BakhmutDefenders
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1632395700557463552?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @wartranslated I mean, he’s [Girkin is] an internationally convicted war criminal, so… Besides, he was the one who entered Sloviansk in 2014, and the war started with him. As we say here in Essex, The Only Way is Hague.
🐣 RT @wartranslated Girkin claims the video with Prigozhin that surfaced yesterday was actually made at the peak of the shell conflict two weeks ago. Despite that, Girkin suggests Prigozhin must be immediately removed from Wagner’s leadership due to his psychopathy, self-promotion and criminal links. ¤ Girkin does not believe removing Wagner will lead to the same consequences as what Prigozhin claims. https://t.me/strelkovii/4130
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1632328568398139395?s=20/photo/1 -2
[Text:] 1/2 Briefly, regarding Prigozhin’s statements on social media that “without Wagner, the front would collapse”: – the statements were made at the height of the “shell conflict” with the MoD about two weeks ago; – statements are an example of shameless “criminal” self-promotion; – despite Wagner’s capabilities to “break with its forehead” (“washing in blood” at the same time) through the enemy’s positions at the strategic dead-end section of the front through the reckless expenditure of human resources, and the inability of the active formations of the RF Ministry of Defense to demonstrate something similar in other places (perhaps due to reluctance), Wagner has a very minor effect on the overall strategic situation on the front. Both due to the incorrect and wasteful use of its forces, and due to considerations of the scale of the war, in which a fierce battle (not yet finished) for a small town in the Donbas is neither general nor decisive, is of an operational-tactical nature and leads only to mutual huge loss of combatants. At the same time, the command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is completely transparent in “exchanging territory and human resources for gaining time.” Just as it did in the situation with Popasna, Lisichansk, Severodonetsk in the summer of last year; – in the event of the disbandment or removal of “Wagner’ from the front, the situation for the RF Armed Forces will undoubtedly become worse, but – against the general background – insignificantly.
2/2 And, yes, a little more about Wagner. In my opinion, “Wagner”, after the completion of the assault on Bakhmut, cannot be withdrawn from the front, nor (all the more so) disbanded. The formation must be withdrawn to the rear for replenishment and reorganisation, in order to subsequently be used in a more promising strategic direction to break through the front.
But to withdraw Prigozhin himself from the front and COMPLETELY remove him from the leadership of Wagner is urgently necessary. Since his political ambitions (multiplied by psychopathy, the organisation of demonstrative war crimes, a tendency to shameless and in many respects false self-promotion and the spread of rotten “criminal concepts” to the armed forces) only harm both Wagner and the common cause of victory over Ukraine However, all of the above (except for “war crimes”) also applies to the non-plywood Marshal Shoigu. In short, it is necessary to kick out both and it is better to kick them both at once, since “two boots are a pair.”
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT AXIS /1215 UTC 5 MAR/ RU renewed unsuccessful attacks across the M-04 HWY. UKR carried out 18 aviation strike missions, targeting RU troop concentrations, air defense sites and a bridge. Missile/ artillery units hit RU troops, EW stations and air defense complexes.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1632356690896072705?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @TWMCLtd #Russia’s cattle fodder being made to fight not only with outdated tactics, but also 150-year-old weapons (kind of). ¤ Here’s the daily update from the #UK ¤ #RussiansGoHome
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/TWMCLtd/status/1632274009810255873?s=20/photo/1
● In late February 2023, Russian mobilised reservists described being ordered to assault a Ukrainian concrete strong point armed with only ‘firearms and shovels’. The ‘shovels’ are
likely entrenching tools being employed for hand-to-hand combat.● The lethality of the standard-issue MPL-50 entrenching tool is particularly mythologised in Russia. Little changed since it was designed in 1869, its continued use as a weapon
highlights the brutal and low-tech fighting which has come to characterise much of the war. One of the reservists described being ‘neither physically nor psychologically’ prepared for
the action.● Recent evidence suggests an increase in close combat in Ukraine. This is probably a result of the Russian command continuing to insist on offensive action largely consisting of
dismounted infantry, with less support from artillery fire because Russia is short of munitions.
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKMUT AXIS /0010 UTC 5 MAR/ Street-fighting continues within Bakhmut: the situation remains fluid and serious. UKR forces repelled RU attacks N and S of the city and counter-attacks SW of Ivanivske have driven RU units back to Klischiivka.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1632169880194625539?s=20/photo/1
⭕ 4 Mar 2023
NYT, Peter Baker: Inside the Panic at Fox News After the 2020 Election https://tinyurl.com/5ykxxpr9
// “If we hadn’t called Arizona,” said Suzanne Scott, the network’s chief executive, according to a recording reviewed by The New York Times, “our ratings would have been bigger.”
🐣 RT @RonFilipkowski This is a montage of 55 clips over 6 minutes of the “highlights” from CPAC 2023. ¤ THE 2023 REPUBLICAN PARTY
💽 https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1632450572396658688?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @KyivIndependent ⚡ISW: Russian forces unlikely to encircle Bakhmut soon. ¤ Russian advances “do not suggest Russian forces will be able to encircle Bakhmut soon, must less that they will be able to take the city by frontal assaults,” the Institute for the Study of War said. ¤ 📷 John Moore/Getty
🐣 RT @wartranslated Prigozhin today is once again seen explaining how invaluable Wagner is for Russia, and how retreating from Bakhmut will lead to the collapse of the whole Russian front. ¤ Also appears to be hinting at the fact that his mercenaries might find it rather unpleasant if they suspect that Russian authorities set them up by not providing ammo and reinforcements. ¤ Besides. Why is he talking about retreating from Bakhmut at all, if just yesterday he was claiming to have “nearly surrounded” it?
💽 https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1632148708748935168?s=20/photo/1
[See Comments]
🐣 RT @christogrozev Russian telegram channels connect this with Rozdulgin’s health emergency. Rozdulgin is allegedly one of Putin’s largest asset proxies.
⋙ 🐣 RT @JanR210 A strange flight to/from #Russia. ¤ Apparently a #VIP medical issue. ¤ It was a medical emergency airplane Bombardier Challenger 604. ¤ Flight path: Frankfurt-Moscow-Nurnberg ¤ All concerned European states agreed for overflight. ¤ cc @STRATPOINTS_EU
⋙ 🐣 RT @ ICIJorg Four bankers have been charged for allegedly failing to figure out the true owner behind Russian cellist Sergei Roldugin’s Swiss bank accounts. A longtime friend of Putin, Roldugin’s web of offshore companies was first revealed in the #PanamaPapers https://bit.ly/3SJYBgX
PravdaUA: 171 cases of sexual violence by Russian military recorded – Zelenska https://tinyurl.com/5n78ur73
// The prosecutor’s office is investigating 171 cases of sexual violence against Ukrainians by the Russian military, with 39 men among the victims.
🐣 RT @McFaul The country invaded for no reason is the one that “needs to find peace not war.” Incredible. ¤ This blame-the-victim argument is disgusting. ¤ Imagine saying this about victims of other crimes? Or civilians killed in other wars? Or those killed by other terrorists?
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @atrupar Big CPAC applause for this from Marjorie Taylor Greene: “No money to Ukraine, and that country needs to find peace not war. And while I will look at a camera and directly tell Zelenskyy you better leave your hands off our sons and daughters, because they’re not dying over there”
💽 https://twitter.com/McFaul/status/1632202244035858432?s=20/photo/1
⋙ 🐣 the chair of every House Committee directly involved with Ukraine is firmly pro-Ukraine, some blaming Biden for not acting more decisively; all have been on recent CODELs. ¤ MTG is an outrage machine, part of the 🤡caucus ~ ignore her
🐣 RT @RadioFreeTom I think there’s a huge difference between a child tax credit (which I think it is necessary as long as it’s means-tested) and paying people to be Hero Mothers of the State
⋙ 🐣 it’s so grey-sounding to talk about the child tax credit (the pandemic era expansion of which Dems failed to get extended); evidence Trump continues to be good at branding
🐣 The report below is FAKE! Here is the DefenseHQ report from 3/4/2023:
https://twitter.com/DefenceHQ/status/1631917276126380033?s=20 ¤
⇈ ⇊
🐣 RT @yasminalombaert (Unverified) British military experts believe that the Russian dictator Putin will try to exchange the occupied parts of the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions for the Crimea, with the subsequent withdrawal of the Russian Armed Forces troops from these territories.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/yasminalombaert/status/1632036393655435264?s=20/photo/1
[Text:] [Unverified] Withdrawal of troops from Zaporozhye and Kherson regions in exchange for Crimea: Putin is trying to bargain to end the war as soon aspossible – British intelligence The latest report says that Putin went to extreme measures to end the war as soon as possible, as the Russian economy, hard hit by sanctions, simply needs to lift the sanctions. Donbass, he hopes to seize by military means. Putin’s main goal is to save his face in front of the Russian population and not lose power.
🐣 RT @RonFilipkowski I have tried very hard for a long time not to have a visceral contempt for people who believe this should be president. Especially since some of them are my family: [Trump at CPAC:] “I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution.”
💽 https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1632226509405450240?s=20/photo/1
🧵 RT @atrupar Trump is about to speak at CPAC 2023 in DC. My video thread starts here.
📌 💽 https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1632143206392516609?s=20/photo/1
🧵 RT @wartranslated Summary of the livestream with Oleksiy Arestovych, former Ukraine’s Presidential Head of Office advisor, Day 374, March 4th. Kindly brought to you by Anastasiya: @Anastasiya1451A Read thread or visit: https://tinyurl.com/ys3km95b
📌 https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1632167506449166336?s=20
[ThreadReader:] https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1632167506449166336.html
⚡️Russian resistance in Bryansk & FSB’s lie: Feygin had an interview with the Russian volunteer who fights on the side of Ukraine and who crossed into the Bryansk region, declaring that they will fight the Kremlin’s criminal regime that is destroying the Russian people’s… ¤ …prospects.
FSB has tried to spread disinformation about Russian resistance fighters to portray them as “terrorists”, claiming that they wounded two people, then correcting their story and saying that it was just one man, a school bus driver.
The “bus driver” story is designed for the American audience. While a yellow school bus is emblematic in the US, it isn’t actually used in Russia to collect and transport school students.
Arestovych thinks that the war started by the Russian regime will spread to Russia. ¤ More Russian partisans may start active resistance against the Kremlin’s regime and may use more drones in Russian territory.
Many people are discontent with the Kremlin’s regime and people wronged by them, including Russians, Tatars, Chechens, Dagestani, etc. The Kremlin knows about the potential for separatist movements and riots in Russia and, therefore, Putin and Medvedev are complaining about… ¤ …separatism and division of Russia among Muscovites, Siberians, etc.
⚡️Bakhmut
Russia keeps trying to encircle Bakhmut from the North and South, with the situation remaining very difficult with Ukrainian troops defending against more numerous Russian forces. ¤ Russian sources also report losing ground south of Bakhmut to the Ukrainian troops.While Russian propaganda inflates the significance of Bakhmut and there is political & media importance to Bakhmut, all decisions regarding the defence or retreat from Bakhmut are made by the Ukrainian General Staff and military commands.
Even if Ukraine decides to leave Bakhmut, the Ukrainian troops will retreat to the next defensive line and will retake the town as it has liberated Lyman and Kherson before.
⚡️Mariinka & Avdiivka
Russians attempted to advance in Mariinka, with the town being completely destroyed by Russian artillery.⚡️Vuhledar & Orehiv
Tactical battlers near Vuhledar. Minor battles near Orehiv. After already losing 150 tanks and APCs, Russians seem to be planning another attack on Vuhledar.⚡️Kreminna
Russians are attempting to advance near Kreminna, with mixed results, no major gains, and high Russian human cost.⚡️Kherson
Artillery duels continue in Kherson.⚡️Crimea
Explosions were reported near several Russian military air bases in Crimea, potentially from drone attacks.⚡️Zaporizhzhja
The Russian missile strike on a residential building in Zaporizhzhja left 11 dead, including one child, and more were wounded. ¤ Russia is murdering Ukrainian civilians, families in their homes, and children sleeping in their beds. Isn’t that the definition of terrorism? ¤ This strikingly contrasts with Ukraine which is just defending itself and attacks Russian military units, not civilians or Russian cities.⚡️Mobilization & fate of Russian soldiers
More videos from the Russian mobilized and their families are surfacing – mobilized and their wives complain about being sent to the frontline without training, equipment, ammunition, and artillery support.While Ukrainians are volunteering to fight and defend their land and to prevent another massacre like Bucha’s, with only the elite units used to assault Russian positions, the Russian mobilized are being thrown as cannon fodder to assault the Ukrainian defences.
⚡️Argentina, China & the Big Picture
Argentina has stated that it’s willing to renegotiate with the UK over the Falkland/Mal Islands, which may be an attempt to destabilize the West.The US has sanctioned 28 Chinese companies over sanction violations and trade with Iran. ¤ This is a sign to everyone to avoid violating sanctions, including by trading with Russia. The collective West is showing China that there will be a harsh response and grave consequences for any country that aids Russia. ¤ At the same time, the Chinese drone company, DJI, has halted its contracts to export drones to Russia.
[The Economist reports China being furious at the Russian Government for not keeping the potential military cooperation secret, especially when China’s economy is dependent on trade with the US and the EU.]
⚡️Russian diplomatic circus
When giving a speech at a press conference in India, the audience laughed at Lavrov’s declarations of “Ukraine has attacked Russia”. Lavrov managed to keep poker face thanks to his long experience in this position.⚡️Russian oil & gas
Russian oil and gas extraction fell by half and profit from the export fell by 46% in February.
In June, the Russian government may not only lose its remaining army to the Ukrainian counteroffensive but also be unable to pay pensions and salaries to the Russian public workers.⚡️Sanctions
The US and the collective West have called on Turkey and the UAE to end trade with Russia. Moreover, the American Government has warned about the criminal responsibility for any company that intentionally does business with Russia, even though a third party.The Russian oligarchs who directly fund Kremlin’s regime are facing confiscation of property (luxury villas) in France. At the same time, Swiss bankers trying to hide Putin’s financial assets are facing criminal charges.
The EU’s Ursula von der Leyen has stated that there will be a special tribunal for Russian war criminals. The West has taken a strategic decision, aiming to hold the Russian regime and Russian regime collaborators accountable for their crimes.
⚡️Putin’s response to sanctions
In response to Western sanctions and the struggling Russian economy, Putin has signed a law allowing the confiscation and nationalization of Russian businesses that cannot fulfil their contractual obligations to the Russian military.The association with Putin brings only misery to those who do it. The Russian oligarchs, elite, and populace should ask themselves why they chose to continue to suffer because of one man.
⚡️Tanks for Ukraine
The German Rheinmetall is planning the construction of a factory and production of up to 400 tanks a year German tanks in Ukraine.While this provoked another hysteric outburst from Medvedev, who threatened the German company with an Kalibr missiles, it’s entirely possible that by the time of construction Ukraine may not only have an air defence to protect the military-industrial complex but may become…
…part of NATO.Rheinmetall is also discussing the buyback of Leopard 1 from Switzerland to upgrade them and send them to Ukraine. ¤ At the same time, the UK will send more Challenger tanks and other APCs than previously discussed.
⚡️The Western values
Scholz has met Biden in Washington DC, praising Germany’s help to Ukraine. While China may quietly try to negotiate with Germany and Belarus, both countries’ future development and civilizational prospects are aligned with the collective West. ¤ Next stream is on Monday, 6th of March.
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKMUT AXIS /0010 UTC 5 MAR/ Street-fighting continues within Bakhmut: the situation remains fluid and serious. UKR forces repelled RU attacks N and S of the city and counter-attacks SW of Ivanivske have driven RU units back to Klischiivka.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1632169880194625539?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @SpiroAgnewGhost As an expert on Trump’s thousands of demented & unhinged rants, this may be the craziest & most desperately deranged one of all time. He’s like a stream of consciousness Grandpa Simpson who can’t help but show his immense fear & lunacy at levels umimaginable for any other person.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/SpiroAgnewGhost/status/1632070787468509185?s=20/photo/1
[Text:] 🐣 RT @realDonaldTrump This Animal Prosecutor that they stuck on me over the Boxes Hoax is trying to TORTURE my people into telling lies. It’s all for political reasons, and the fact that l’m leading, big, in all of the polls. He’s flying people from all over and throwing them in front of a D.C. Grand Jury. They are confused and scared – they’ve never done this before. These Democrat Marxist pigs should be the ones that are investigated. The nice guy prosecutor in the Biden documents case hasn’t even started yet!
🐣 RT @AndrewC66721154 When others would have fled, he stayed. When the Russian hit squads were in Kyiv, he stayed. He has led his country with dignity, bravery and pride.
🐣 RT @Flash_news_ua China is angry with the russian federation because their arms sales discussions were made public, – The Economist.
[TextLink:] 🖼 https://twitter.com/Flash_news_ua/status/1632004204549091328?s=20/photo/1
[Text:] [Cover of Economist:] Chinese arms could revive Russia’s failing war
// But China’s leaders are treading carefully for now
🐣 RT @MeidasTouch CPAC lost their major sponsors. Many of their usual high profile speakers refused to show. There’s barely anyone in attendance. ¤ This is a dying movement.
🐣 RT @ZaleskiLuke Trump’s willing to treat his fellow citizens like mortal enemies. He is the most divisive character in American history. He’s an effective vehicle for Putin’s aim of destroying the nation. He is dividing and conquering us and his followers have no idea they’re at war with America
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/ZaleskiLuke/status/1632035351253463041?s=20/photo/1
[Text:] 🐣 RT @realDonaldTrump The U.S. Injustice Department, which has dangerously become the Radical Left Democrats WEAPONIZED SYSTEM OF LAW, is threatening and harassing many people that work for me, wanting them to say anything bad in order to be left alone or even, set free. They are being carted off to Washington, D.C., and put before a Grand Jury, where the modern day Gestapo does everything in its power to make them look and sound as bad as possible. This Soviet style of “Justice” is going to take down the U.S.A. Bad!
🐣 RT @Tendar Russia committed crimes unseen since the WW2. A Nuremberg tribunal 2.0 is needed. ¤ President of the EU commission, Ursula von der Leyen, announced the agreement to set up the International Centre for Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression in The Hague.
💽 https://twitter.com/Tendar/status/1631953225870979073?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @SpiroAgnewGhost The illiterate, utterly deranged lunatic & imbecile has now put “STOLLEN” in all CAPS—even funnier since he is talking about money this time when he says it. Nearly every single word in here is a delusionally insane lie.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/SpiroAgnewGhost/status/1632051664025952261?s=20/photo/1
[Text:] 🐣 RT @realDonald Trump But the Radical Left Democrat Prosecutors go after Trump over the Boxes Hoax, Horseface, and all other trivia. They’ve STOLLEN millions of dollars, caught on tape in the Laptop from Hell, and nothing happens. Likewise, the Election fraud, to put these people in office, was massive. Millions of votes, on tape, in “ballot stuffing” alone. Little Legislative approval, FBI/Twitter, FBI/Facebook-All a big disgrace! We are a Third World Nation, with mostly FAKE NEWS. MAGA!
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT AXIS /1310 UTC 4 MAR/ On 3 MAR, UKR forces destroyed bridges at Khromove & across the Bakhmutka River to slow RU advances. UKR counter-attacks SW of Ivanivske have put UKR troops in contact at Klischiivka. UKR air defense destroyed eight RU recon UAVs of various types.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1632002660718071808?s=20/photo/1
// ✛ “It is assessed as likely that UKR will begin to disengage in areas east of the Bakhmutka River. The arrival of UKR reinforcements are considered sufficient to support retrograde operations to series of previously prepared defensive positions.”
🐣 RT @wartranslated Update on Bakhmut, 4 March – Kyianyn.
💽 https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1631991835764707334?s=20/photo/1
// as rumors swirl about fall of Bakhmut, Kyianyn pushes back against believing them and says any order to leave Bakhmut will be directed from above; chastises over attributing battle more significance than to other battles, some wins/some losses: ‘Bakhmut will be Ukraine,’ regardless of the outcome of this battle
🐣 RT @KyivIndependent NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander in Europe said Russia has lost more than 200,000 troops since the start of its invasion in Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, describing the extent of the war as “unbelievable.”
⋙ KyivIndependent: NATO commander in Europe: Russia’s losses in Ukraine amount to over 200,000 troops https://tinyurl.com/27wpxfp8
NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, U.S. Army General Christopher Cavoli, said that Russia has lost more than 200,000 troops since the start of its invasion in Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, describing the extent of the war as “unbelievable.” ¤ He added that over 1,800 Russian officers were killed or wounded, German magazine Der Spiegel reported.
Cavoli also said that Russia has lost “far more” than 2,000 large battle tanks and that its army fires an average of 23,000 artillery shells per day.
The U.K. Defense Ministry previously estimated that Russia’s army and private mercenary groups have likely lost 175,000-200,000 people in Ukraine, with up to 60,000 killed. According to a report, prisoners recruited by the Kremlin-backed private mercenary Wagner Group have suffered a casualty rate of up to 50%. ¤ “The Russian casualty rate has significantly increased since September 2022 when ‘partial mobilization’ was imposed,” reads the report.
The General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces reported on March 4 that Russia had lost 152,190 troops in Ukraine since the beginning of its full-scale invasion on Feb. 24 last year. ¤ This number includes 820 casualties Russian forces suffered just over the past day.
🐣 RT @EuromaidanPress The number of Russian invaders killed by the Ukrainian Army exceeds the size of many European militaries 📷 UA War Infographics
◕ https://twitter.com/EuromaidanPress/status/1631840665926508544?s=20/photo/1
// 150.6K Ru killed
🐣 RT @PhillipsPOBrien First time I’ve seen a clear Ukrainian claim on this. Oleksii Danilov says Ukrainians believe the Russians are losing 7 soldiers for each Ukrainian lost in the Bakhmut fighting. That would be extreme, and explains why the Ukr have drawn things out—if true https://tinyurl.com/yk2mz2d2
🐣 RT @JimmySecUK Situation around Bakhmut is increasingly confused. Bridges out of the city have been blown, units have been pulled out, but official Ukrainian sources denying any withdrawal.
⋙ 🐣 RT @ @HickPhilistine I think this exactly what I would expect if they are withdrawing. During the Lysyschansk/Hirske/Zolote withdrawal it was similar until they were out, just don’t want to give away exactly what/when it is happening.
⋙ 🐣 RT @TStanfield1789 They should withdraw. It has zero strategic value. It has served its purpose of delaying and attriting the Russian army.
⭕ 3 Mar 2023
TheBulwark, William Kristol and Jeffrey Gedmin: The Ukraine War Has Transformed Europe—for Good https://tinyurl.com/y4574uan “[The] European future can and must be in the spirit of what Zelensky says and stands for.”
// The notion of a Zeitenwende—a major turning point—is not just German anymore. Putin’s war has become a Zeitenwende for all Europe.
[ … ] What is now widely understood is that the Europe of the last three decades ended on February 24, 2022, with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The full-scale character of the war, and its brutality in every respect, has proved more bracing than those countless transatlantic seminars on how much of a nation’s GDP should be spent on defense. The largest land war in Europe since 1945 has been more than a wakeup call. It has been an alarm bell that that continues to ring every day with a loudness and persistence that may be difficult for Americans to appreciate.
Putin’s war has become Europe’s Zeitenwende. The extraordinary leadership of Ukraine’s President Zelensky has been absolutely crucial. The United States has stepped up in a very important way. But what’s been also striking is Europe’s reaction, and the way Europeans are emerging from their cocoon.
Germany, a country of few flags, feels suddenly comfortable with Ukrainian flags pretty much anywhere. They were certainly in plentiful view in the neighboring Czech Republic, at the train station in Prague and in the old city square. … It’s also where we listened to Czech President-elect Petr Pavel, a retired army general and former NATO military committee chief, denounce appeasement, past and present.
By the way, Czechs have taken in about half a million Ukrainian refugees—more per capita than any other EU nation. But many other nations, including Poland and Germany, have been very generous, and they seem not be seeing much in the way of a public backlash.
In Berlin, there’s a lot of discussion of various aspects of the German Zeitenwende. We have ourselves written about its bumpy, although in our view singularly promising, path. But the larger story is one of generational change and ideological transformation.
In Germany, the Greens—with politicians in their thirties, forties, and early fifties—are leading the way. They don’t mind talking straightforwardly about the struggle for freedom and the responsibility to defeat tyranny. Younger Social Democrats have turned their back on the legacy of former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, late of Rosneft and Gazprom. In less than a year, cautious Germans have moved from providing helmets to Leopard tanks. Their liberation from dependence on Russian energy has been pretty spectacular.
For Czechs, the war feels close. You could fly from Prague to Kyiv in two hours—faster than flying from New York to Chicago. (Well, you could do that before Ukrainian airspace was closed by Russian fighter jets.) It was striking in our discussions how much the 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic is back in Czech consciousness.
For Nordics and Balts, the threat is even closer. The Swedes and Finns are racing to join NATO, with broad public support. There’s a vision emerging among the Czechs, Poles, and Northern Europeans of a Europe with serious military capacity. There’s a new focus on geopolitical strategy with defense and deterrence at its core. And Europe’s strategic center of gravity is shifting to a broader constellation of nations, away from the almost complete dominance of France and Germany.
Which brings us back to Ukraine. There’s a clear sense in Europe that a clock is now ticking. There’s a feeling of urgency, an understanding that we must finally give the Ukrainians the weapons they need for victory this year. As one European told us, both Europe and the United States need “less incrementalism, more decisiveness.”
This broad European Zeitenwende won’t be easy. But the new frontline European nations are looking ahead. They see a need and opportunity for new structures that can protect European democracies for years to come. And there’s a growing conviction that victory in Ukraine can and should lead to meaningful political change in Russia itself.
For Americans, this is an opportunity to join our frontline European friends not only in a commitment to Ukrainian victory but also in thinking more clearly of what Europe can look like when Ukraine wins.
That European future can and must be in the spirit of what Zelensky says and stands for. Europe’s future is not in the spirit of Orbán. Nor of Schröder. And certainly not of Putin.
🐣 RT @warmonitor3 The defence of Bakhmut goes down in history. ¤ An embarrassment for the Russian military whatever way they spin it.
// No “Bakhmut Holds” banner tonight
🐣 RT @anders_aslund This is also indicative of the intellectual level of the Putinistas.
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @pete_moss44 If this is the level of Russian callousness to their own men, one realises just how callous the Russian administration is with Ukrainians – given that they brand Ukrainians, including children, as “Nazi’s”.
[Text:] “Today’s Ukrainians are a race of degenerates that crawled up from the sewage. Genocide is in order.” ¤ Aleksandr Dugin, ¤ Professor of Moscow State University ¤ Ideologue of “Novorossya
⋙ 🐣 Dostoyevsky to Dugin: quite a devolution
TIME, Igor Novikov: How Giuliani and Trump Destabilized Ukraine https://tinyurl.com/2s48mtff Even during the (first) impeachment, Rudy and Trump were still blackmailing Zelensky, though by then, Trump “much preferred back channels”
🐣 RT @SpiroAgnewGhost This is not a remotely sane person. It never ceases to be astonishing.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/SpiroAgnewGhost/status/1631820743175729152?s=20/photo/1
[Text:] 🐣 RT @realDonaldTrump The Racist Manhattan District Attorney, Alvin Bragg, who is presiding over one of the most dangerous and violent cities in the U.S., and doing NOTHING about it, is being pushed relentlessly by the Radical Left Democrats, the Fake News Media, and the Department of “Injustice,” to bring charges against me for the now ancient “no affair” story of Stormy “Horseface” Danials, where there is no crime and charges have NEVER been brought on such a case before. In the meantime, Hunter & Joe Biden skate!
🐣 RT @Tomthescribe Donbas is full of small towns like this one near Lyman, just wiped off the map and abandoned. There are dozens of mini-Bakhmut’s or Mariupols scattered around these lands.
💽 https://twitter.com/Tomthescribe/status/1631599530813603840?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @thehill Garland reaffirms US commitment to holding Russia accountable in surprise Ukraine visit https://trib.al/G9JDsh8
🐣 RT @NOELreports Zelenskyi’s daily video. ¤ “Every day, Ukrainian heroes give their lives to stop Russian aggression. And that is why the world has a clear moral obligation to our soldiers, to each and every one who is currently in battle and who defends freedom.”
💽 https://twitter.com/NOELreports/status/1631770707557269504?s=20/photo/1
🧵 RT @D4nciingQueen Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska warns: “Russia could run out of money next year”. According to The Guardian, the oligarch said this Thursday, at an investment conference in Siberia, that “there will be no money next year” and the help of “foreign investors” will be needed. 1/4
📌 https://twitter.com/D4nciingQueen/status/1631637748170760193?s=20
🐣 RT @ChristopherJM Ukrainian Commander of Eastern Forces Col. Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi visited troops in Bakhmut today, proving there’s still a road into the city. He said Russians increasing forces, including units of Wagner & regular army. “Intense fighting in and around the city.” via Land Forces
¤ https://twitter.com/ChristopherJM/status/1631671464037429248?s=20/photo/1 -4
🐣 RT @NATO Putin’s intentions are clear for the world to see. No one should be fooled by Russia’s litany of lies
💽 https://twitter.com/NATO/status/1631645471704842240?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @wartranslated Incredible footage of combat in the residential area of Bakhmut. The enemy is on the same street as the Ukrainians, 15 meters away. The task, at a minimum, is to create a flurry of fire to prevent enemy assault. Source: MotoLife.
💽 https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1631757166217424900?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @k_sonin This is hilarious. And embarrassing. Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Lavrov says “the war we are trying to stop was launched against us” and the Indian audience – supposedly sympathetic – audibly laughs. Russian “diplomats” think that the lies they use to feed Putin’s fantasies [to get promoted] could be taken as anything but lies by anyone else.
💽 https://twitter.com/k_sonin/status/1631681166808940544?s=20/photo/1
WaPo: As 2024 race begins, special counsel advances with focus on Trump lawyers https://tinyurl.com/bdaznsdk
// Prosecutors have sought information from multiple attorneys and senior aides to the former president, triggering new legal battles
Federal prosecutors investigating efforts to overturn the 2020 election have asked witnesses extensive questions about the actions of Rudy Giuliani, a lawyer for former president Donald Trump — including where he got his information about alleged fraud, what he did in the days around Jan. 6, 2021, and what he knew about the actions coming that day, people who have appeared in front of the grand jury say.
Investigators looking into classified documents taken to Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s Florida home and private club, have sought to force testimony from another Trump lawyer, Evan Corcoran, by saying there is evidence that the former president used the attorney’s legal services in furtherance of a crime.
And prosecutors have repeatedly sought information on the actions of yet another Trump lawyer, Boris Epshteyn, in connection with both classified documents and Trump’s false electors scheme, three people said. They have quizzed multiple Trump attorneys involved with the documents case, including Christina Bobb, Alina Habba and Jesse Binnall, according to the people familiar with the investigation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss it.
The investigative activity highlights one of the ways in which the Trump probes are unusual and complex — turning some of his many current or former attorneys into witnesses or potential investigative targets. A Trump spokesman said the legal strategy was a sign of weakness in the case against the former president.
The probes are led by special counsel Jack Smith, who was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland to insulate the work from political influence. Smith’s pace appears to be quickening as the 2024 presidential election starts to take shape, with Trump once again a candidate and President Biden — Garland’s boss — poised to seek a second term. Trump so far has two declared Republican opponents. Legal experts say that if Smith brings criminal charges against Trump, those charges would likely be pending when the GOP primary debates begin in August. …
🐣 RT @KyivPost 🇺🇸🇩🇪US President Joe #Biden and German Chancellor Olaf #Scholz met at the White House. ¤ Both leaders promised to continue supporting #Ukraine as long as necessary.
⋙ 🐣 RT @Bundeskanzler Thank you for your leadership and friendship, Joe! It’s good to be back here in Washington. Transatlantic coordination is indispensable and has never been stronger. We are steadfast in our support for #Ukraine. Freedom and peace for Ukraine is our common goal. @Potus
🐣 RT @NOELreports “The decisive battle between Russia and Ukraine will take place this spring and it will be the last before the end of the war,” says Kirill Budanov, head of the GUR.
⋙ 🐣 wish EU would hurry with the MBTs or the battle will be fought with IVFs, possible but still …
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer POSSIBLE RU OFFENSIVE? Ukraine has begun evacuation of elderly and vulnerable civilians from Kupiansk. Intel reports the shifting of RU armor and motor rifle units north of Svatove. MAP CREDIT: LiveUMap.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1631725962118443009?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @wartranslated Aleksandr Khodakovsky is worried that while Russia is busy with Bakhmut, Ukraine might strike soon and deal a defeat that will eclipse Bakhmut and much more. [Telegram link]
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1631711474241482753?s=20/photo/1
[Text:] Ukraine is obviously preserving the personnel resource, realiing that if there are bones, the meat will grow. Western sources talk about the formation of new Ukrainian units and filling the existing ones with blood, and a situation is being created when we, distracted by Bakhmut or Vuhledar, may face another attack, which, if we do not repel it, will eclipse Bakhmut, washing away the joy of a difficult and expensive local victory with the bitterness of a possible non-local defeat. 1 sincerely wish the men to put an end to the difficult story with Bakhmut – they deserve a sense of satisfaction with what they have achieved – but all thoughts are now about something else. About where and when the enemy will begin the attack, how we will meet him and how we will respond later. The examples before our eyes testify that anything can happen. I hope that the decrease in the daily consumption of ammo is dictated by the desire to accumulate a reserve just in case
🐣 RT @EuromaidanPress German ex-Chancellor Angela Merkel partially responsible for Russia’s war, Bundestag MP Strack-Zimmermann says ¤ “In 2008, Germany & France blocked Ukraine’s accession to NATO because of Russia, which was a strategic mistake,” Strack-Zimmermann told @ntvde. https://tinyurl.com/y4e2d5rh
🐣 RT @UKRWarSitRep The new package of US military assistance includes missiles for the HIMARS MLRS, Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, howitzers and tank bridge layers #Ukraine #UkraineWar #Russia #UkraineInvasion
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/UKRWarSitRep/status/1631710322342993921?s=20/photo/1
// Defense budget
[Text:] [Blinken:] … Pursuant to a delegation of authority from President Biden, I am authorizing our 33rd drawdown of U.S. arms and equipment for Ukraine since August 2021, valued at $400 million. This military assistance package includes ‘more
● ammunition for U.S.-provided HIMARS and howitzers,
● ammunition for Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles,
● Armored Vehicle Launched Bridges,
● demolitions munitions and equipment, and
● other maintenance, training, and support. …’
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT / 1550 UTC 3 MAR/ UKR forces destroyed bridges at Khromove & across the Bakhmutka River in Bakhmut. RU increased aviation strikes in support of infantry ops against UKR Lines of Communication & Supply (LOCS). UKR air defense downed a RU Mi-24 attack helicopter & an Su-25.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1631681374846328833?s=20/photo/1
Reuters: Germany trains Ukrainians on advanced IRIS-T SLM air defence weapon https://tinyurl.com/yckx4nwy Berlin has promised to send four of the coveted systems, with the second due to arrive within weeks – two years before Germany’s own air force can expect its first
⭕ 2 Mar 2023
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer KREMINNA /2340 UTC 2 MAR/ In the past 48 hours, a number of RU attacks across the P-66 HWY were broken up by UKR forces. Probes S of Kreminna were also repelled. As a result, RU offensive operations were paused today. RU may be expected to resume offensive operations shortly.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1631434077977866241?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @sentdefender The Pentagon stated today that it is “Nonsense” that the U.S. would ever Support or provide Intelligence for Ukrainian Strikes on Russian Territory, they further stated that, “We are not at War with Russia nor do we seek a War with Russia.”
🐣 RT @SpiroAgnewGhost There needs to be a new category of insanity invented for this maniac. At least a lawyer helped him write it this time.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/SpiroAgnewGhost/status/1631429182730436608?s=20/photo/1
[Text:] Statement from Trump Spokesperson on the Department of Justice’s Amicus Brief on Presidential Immunity
President Trump’s speech and statements on January 6, 2021, repeatedly called for peace, patriotism, and respect for our men and women of law enforcement. President Trump authorized up to 20,000 National Guard troops to ensure peace and safety on January 6, 2021, only to have that offer rejected by Democrats Nancy Pelosi and Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser. The D.C. Courts should rule in favor of President Trump in short order and dismiss these frivolous lawsuits. The Department of Justice has rightfully agreed that presidential immunity is broad and absolute. If it were not, Joe Biden would be personally liable for the disasters in Afghanistan, our Southern Border, record drug use causing massive destruction of families and lives, and many other terrible crises that he has caused. Additionally, other Presidents throughout history would be held responsible for catastrophes they potentially may not be responsible for. All witch hunts and hoaxes have to end!
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer FALSE FLAG FLOP: Russia claims “Ukrainian forces” have stormed into the Russian city of Bryansk. Moscow claims “hostages are being held”, by a group of up to 50 Ukrainian fighters. Kyiv denies any involvement in Putin’s latest ‘action movie’.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1631422550428270595?s=20/photo/1
⋙ NewcomAU: False flag fears as Vladimir Putin makes wild claim about Ukraine troops https://tinyurl.com/2p97ja9m
// Russia has claimed Ukrainian forces are storming across the border amid fears Moscow is staging a false flag attack
WaPo, Jennifer Rubin: Christopher Wray is getting away with doing a lousy job https://tinyurl.com/n7x5e99n “The problem is not that Wray … is showing favoritism to a Democratic administration. It’s that he is not doing his job when it comes to threats from rightwing authoritarianism”
🐣 RT @francis_scarr I haven’t seen anything like this on Russian state TV since Ukraine’s counter-offensives last year ¤ Karen [m.] Shakhnazarov says Russia needs to recognise the fact that it might lose and that anyone who thinks the West is about to fall apart is deluding themselves
🐣 RT @officejjsmart Russia 🇷🇺 is losing its largest partner! ¤ Kazakhstan 🇰🇿 has announced a new strategic cooperation agreement with the United States 🇺🇸! ¤ A key member of the pro-🇷🇺 military bloc is moving away from Moscow 🇷🇺, which has become, globally, a toxic pariah. ¤ – The Moscow Times
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT/1900 UTC 2 MAR/ At great cost, RU continues ops against UKR Lines of Communication and Supply (LOCS). RU units are in contact within the N & E areas of the city and continue to infiltrate and consolidate lodgments within the urban area. UKR reinforcements arrive in AO.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1631366018311282700?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @washingtonpost Breaking news: Former president Donald Trump can be held liable in court for the actions of the mob that overtook the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, the Justice Department said Thursday.
⋙ WaPo: Trump can be sued by police over Jan. 6 riot, Justice Department says https://tinyurl.com/56kpen96
// Two U.S. Capitol Police officers and 11 Democratic House members are seeking to hold Donald Trump liable for injuries they suffered during the riot.
🐣 RT @AlexKokcharov In #Russia, president Putin called today’s events in #Bryansk region “a terrorist act”. ¤ Putin: “those who penetrated the territory of the Bryansk region want to deprive us of historical memory, our history and language”. ¤ Another reason to think this was a false flag operation.
🐣 RT @EuromaidanPress Russian media claims that 50 Ukrainian saboteurs infiltrated across the border into Russia’s Bryansk Oblast towards the villages of Lyubechany and Sushany. ¤ Ukraine’s General Staff denied claims saying the Ukrainian army operates only in the territory of Ukraine.
Reuters: Scholz urges China not to arm Russia as U.S. explores sanctions https://tinyurl.com/xjb9zhjf “My message to Beijing is clear: use your influence in Moscow to urge the withdrawal of Russian troops,” Scholz said. “And don’t deliver any weapons to the aggressor Russia”
⭕ 1 Mar 2023
VOA: Ukraine Says It Has Defeated Russia’s Attempt to Inflict Wintertime Pain https://tinyurl.com/3bkjp2jv “Despite the cold, darkness, and missile strikes, Ukraine persevered and defeated [Putin’s] winter terror” ~ Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba
NYT, Thomas Edsall: This Is Trump’s ‘Magic Trick’ https://tinyurl.com/4v755txu “The parallel to Fox News, [poliscientist Gary] Jacobson noted, ‘is obvious: Trump’s support depends on continuing to meet expectations he has created; doing otherwise might turn his audience elsewhere’”
NYT: In an Epic Battle of Tanks, Russia Was Routed, Repeating Earlier Mistakes https://tinyurl.com/yc2hvu8d “Blown up on mines, hit with artillery or obliterated by anti-tank missiles, the charred hulks of Russian armored vehicles now litter farm fields all about Vuhledar”
// A three-week fight in the town of Vuhledar in southern Ukraine produced what Ukrainian officials say was the biggest tank battle of the war so far, and a stinging setback for the Russians.
🐣 RT @TruWordsRSpoken Trump’s going to burn the whole party to the ground if he loses the nomination. ¤ Oh wait, he’ll burn it down if he wins. ¤ Win/win.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/TruWordsRSpoken/status/1631012740461649923?s=20/photo/1
[Text:] 🐣 RT @realDonaldTrump Failed former Congressman David McIntosh and his Globalist friends at Club for No Growth, who fought me all the way in 2016, and LOST, and then fought me again in 2020 Senate Races in Ohio, Alabama, North Carolina, New Hampshire, plus more, and LOST AGAIN, are now threatening to spend money against me early because their new boy, Ron DeSanctus, the man who wants to cut Social Security and MediCare, has dropped so drastically in the Polls to me. No Growth Members know there will be RETRIBUTION!!!
🐣 RT @Gerashchenko_en As our Warrior spoke about the situation in Bakhmut yesterday, Russian airstrike happened. ¤ It is so horrible what our Defenders have to live through. Glory to Heroes! 📹: Infosich2/TikTok
💽 https://twitter.com/Gerashchenko_en/status/1630978182785400836?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @albir2024 Another # Bakhmut update. Ukrainian forces holds the city and where the fighting is going. Bakhmut is fulfilling its main tasks to contain and demilitarize a huge concentration of enemy troops, and the Russians have found a calling “to see Bakhmut and die.”
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT: Ukraine’s Deputy Defense Minister, Hanna Maliar, reports that UKR is sending reinforcements to the Bakhmut area of operations. Heavy fighting continues on the M-03 and H-32 HWYs, and RU forces are reported to be in contact within the urban area.
⋙ NewVoiceUkraine/YahooNews: Ukraine sends reinforcements to Bakhmut https://tinyurl.com/mwhhbvwf
As the situation in Bakhmut, Donetsk Oblast, becomes increasingly challenging for the Ukrainian military, Kyiv has dispatched additional reinforcements there, Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister, Hanna Maliar, told Ukrainian TV broadcasters on Feb. 28.
According to her, Russian troops have concentrated their main efforts around Bakhmut, in an attempt to capture the entirety of Donetsk Oblast. ¤ She clarified that the Commander of Ukraine’s Ground Forces, Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, during his recent trip to Bakhmut, decided to move additional units there.
Maliar said the decision to hold Bakhmut is purely military, and not political. ¤ On Feb. 28, Ukraine’s General Staff reported that invading Russian forces are focused on the offensive on the Kupyansk, Lymanske, Bakhmut, Avdiivka, and Shakhtarsk axes in Donbas. ¤ On Feb. 27, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that the situation in Bakhmut is becoming ever more difficult, as the Russian invaders systematically destroy every structure Ukrainian troops could use defensively.
🐣 RT @SpiroAgnewGhost We are numb to his insanity at this pt, but imagine if any other Ex-POTUS made a single post that was this conspicuously deranged—their family would immediately seek psychiatric care for them & the public would be in an utter state of shock. ¤ Also, he still can’t spell STOLEN!
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/SpiroAgnewGhost/status/1630943417189699585?s=20/photo/1
[Text:] 🐣 RT @realDonaldTrump If Rupert Murdoch honestly believes that the <- Presidential Election of 2020, despite MASSIVE amounts of proof to the contrary, was not Rigged & Stollen, then he & his group of MAGA Hating Globalist RINOS should get out of the News Business as soon as possible, because they are aiding & abetting the DESTRUCTION OF AMERICA with FAKE NEWS. Certain BRAVE & PATRIOTIC FoxNews Hosts, who he scorns and ridicules, got it right. He got it wrong. THEY SHOULD BE ADMIRED & PRAISED, NOT REBUKED & FORSAKEN!!!
⋙ 🐣 faux outrage: he’s cosplaying that he really believed the election was “rigged and stollen”; he knows he lost but that will be his defense strategy for his sedition trial
Newsweek: Fact Check: Did Zelensky Say U.S. Will Send Its Kids to War for Ukraine? https://tinyurl.com/m3p9wbkt No. He suggested that Russia would not stop if it defeated Ukraine, but could go on to attack NATO countries, resulting in the U.S. becoming involved directly:
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1630970690974121986?s=20/photo/1
“Are American children any different from ours? Don’t Americans enjoy the same things as we do?” he asked rhetorically. “I don’t think we’re very different.”
Zelensky suggested that if American support for Ukraine weakened and depleted, and Kyiv went on to lose the war against Russia, NATO members including the U.S. risk being dragged into a bigger conflict.
This, Zelensky predicted, is because “Russia is going to enter Baltic states, NATO member states, and then the U.S. will have to send their sons and daughters, exactly the same way as we are sending our sons and daughters, to war.
“And they will have to fight because it’s NATO that we’re talking about and they will be dying, God forbid, because it’s a horrible thing.”
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT /1415 UTC 1 MAR/ The situation is assessed as deteriorating. RU units are in contact in the N & E urban areas of Bakhmut city. UKR missile/artillery forces targeted nine RU troop concentrations and two air defense complexes. Heavy fighting along M-03 and H-32 HWYs.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1630932129356951552?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @ABC The number of plots that were disrupted grew by nearly three times, from 81 in 2014 to 456 in 2021, according to data from the Government Accountability Office.
⋙ ABCNews: Domestic terrorism-related cases increased by more than 350% over 8 years: Watchdog https://tinyurl.com/439wdyn5
// Domestic terrorism-related cases increased 357% from 2013 to 2021, according to the Government Accountability Office.
🐣 RT @NewVoiceUkraine “We see Ukraine’s frontline units effectively employing security assistance every day on the battlefield,” Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security, Celeste Wallande said
⋙ NewVoiceUkraine: Pentagon finds no evidence of misuse of US weapons in Ukraine https://tinyurl.com/4mnwebpt
// The United States didn’t find any evidence that U.S.-supplied weapons that were transferred to the Armed Forces of Ukraine ended up outside of Ukraine, CNN reported on Feb. 28, citing Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security, Celeste Wallander
⭕ 28 Feb 2023
🐣 RT @FaceTheNation Fmr. Sec. of State Condoleezza Rice on potential 2024 GOP presidential candidates calling for the U.S. to pull back on its aid to Ukraine: ¤ “To those who are going to run for office, be careful what you say…Just remember dates. 1914, 1941, 2001. These conflicts always come home”
WaPo, Nicholas Eberstadt: China’s collapsing birth and marriage rates reflect a people’s deep pessimism https://tinyurl.com/yckrhn5d “In this land without democracy, the birth collapse can be read as a landslide vote of no confidence in President Xi Jinping’s rule”
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer VUHLEDAR /2220 UTC 28 FEB/ RU is reported to have deployed reinforcements from Melitopol to bolster the battered 155th Naval Infantry Brigade. An attempt to flank Vuhledar is considered likely, possibly by an RU offensive based out of Mykilske and Volodymvrivka.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1630692685727035393?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @SykesCharlie Demented Florida Man has some thoughts.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/SykesCharlie/status/1630566147190923266?s=20/photo/1
[Text:] 🐣 RT @realDonaldTrump Why is Rupert Murdoch throwing his anchors under the table, which also happens to be killing his case and infuriating his viewers, who will again be leaving in droves – they already are. There is MASSIVE evidence of voter fraud & irregularities in the 2020 Presidential Election. Just look at the documentary “2000 MULES” and you will see large scale ballot stuffing caught on government cameras, or votes cast without Legislatures approval, or just recently, the FBI/Twitter Files Scandal. RIGGED!!!
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer KREMINNA /1940 UTC 28 FEB/ Despite RU operations S and W of Kreminna, UKR forces have maintained contact within the Kreminna urban area along the C-130514 HWY. In the last 24 hrs, RU units were reported in contact at Dibrova, SW of Kuzmyne and in the Serebryansk Forestry Area.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1630654687807414290?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT /1450 UTC 28 FEB/ RU forces are in contact in the urban areas of Bakhmut. UKR is holding along the N-S rail right-of-way between Yahidne & Khromove. RU forces are increasing their operational tempo with the objective of taking urban space & severing Ukrainian LOCS.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1630579903421640705?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @KyivIndependent ⚡️Reuters: Blinken warns China’s Wang Yi against aid to Russia in Ukraine. ¤ Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the U.S. was concerned China may provide lethal aid to Russia, warning top diplomat Yi it “would have serious consequences in our relationship,” Reuters reports
⭕ 27 Feb 2023
Law&Crime: Dominion bombshells reveal how Rupert Murdoch, Paul Ryan, and Fox’s top lawyer secretly reacted to Trump’s ‘wild’ election claims https://tinyurl.com/ycke9mxw
TheAtlantic, Tom Nichols (2/27): To Save Ukraine, Defeat Russia and Deter China https://tinyurl.com/5n6mx9un “Chinese aid would be yet another sign that the authoritarians intend to rewrite the rules—or at least the few left—that govern the international system”
// The future of the world order is at stake.
American intelligence officials are concerned that China is considering sending lethal aid to Russia. The West must increase the speed and scale of aid to Ukraine, to remind Beijing that it should stay out of a war Moscow is going to lose.
Since the beginning of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war against an innocent neighbor, Chinese President Xi Jinping and his diplomats have said many of the right things, warning against escalation in Ukraine, including the use of chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons, and reaffirming the principle of state sovereignty in international affairs. But China has also, of course, tried to provide support for a fellow authoritarian regime by continuing trade with Russia, criticizing Western sanctions, and in general pretending that Putin’s war of aggression—including his many crimes against humanity—is just another routine spat in the international community.
Now Beijing might be pondering a more aggressive move. CIA Director Bill Burns said over the weekend that China may be considering sending lethal aid (that is, artillery shells and the like rather than military gear or supplies) to Russia to help Putin’s forces, who are still floundering about in a bloodbath of their own making. Providing shells without more launchers might not help Russia very much in the short term, but it would be a provocative move meant to signal to the West that the authoritarians can and will support each other in attacks against their neighbors—an issue important to Beijing as it continues to covet Taiwan.
Burns indicated that the Chinese had not yet made a decision, and that the U.S. was discussing the possibility in public as a way of trying to warn them off. The Biden administration has been extremely savvy about releasing intelligence, and this seems to be yet another strategic leak. ¤ We know what you’re thinking, the Americans are saying to China. Don’t do it. …
… Russia has escalated the violence despite the West’s measured approach. Putin remains as stubbornly delusional as ever, and he is sending thousands more troops into battles that have already killed or wounded some 200,000 men. A year of pretenses is over: The Russians themselves now know—as does the world—that this is Putin’s personal war and not, as he has tried to frame it, a campaign against neo-Nazis or shadowy globalists or militant trans activists. The West, meanwhile, has fully embraced its role as “the arsenal of democracy,” as it did against the actual Nazis, and Western arms, powered by Ukrainian courage and nimble Ukrainian strategy, are defeating Putin’s armies of hapless conscripts, corrupt officers, and mercenary criminals.
Now it’s time for the West to escalate its assistance to Ukraine, in ways that will deter China and defeat Russia. For example, the U.S. and NATO do not yet have to send advanced fighter jets to Ukraine—but they can start training Ukrainian pilots to fly them. To Russia, such a policy would say that things are about to get much worse for Putin’s forces in the field; to China, it would say that our commitment to Ukraine and to preserving the international order we helped create is greater than Beijing’s commitment to Moscow. As the Washington Post writer Max Boot noted last month, the Chinese president has an interest in helping a fellow autocrat, but he is also “an unsentimental practitioner of realpolitik” who “does not want to wind up on what could be the losing side.”
… [I]f Putin remains unmoved and unwilling to stop, then the only answer is to increase the costs of his madness by sending more tanks, more artillery, more money, more aid of every kind. (We could also reopen the issue of whether we should provide longer-range systems, including the Army’s tactical missile system, the ATACMs.)
China must be warned away from assisting Russia, because so much more than the freedom of Ukraine is at stake in this war. Chinese aid would be yet another sign that the authoritarians intend to rewrite the rules—or at least the few left—that govern the international system of diplomacy, trade, and cooperation constructed while the wreckage of World War II was still smoldering. Many Europeans, who are closer to the misery Russia is inflicting on Ukraine, understand this better than Americans do. …
Americans who ask “What does any of this mean to me?” will find out just how much it means to them when things they want—or need—are provided only through the largesse and with the permission of their enemies. We knew this during the Cold War, and we must learn it again. We should ignore the pusillanimous Putinistas among the right-wing media. Instead, the United States and its allies must make the case, every day, for Ukrainian victory—and send the Ukrainians what they need to get the job done.
🐣 RT @wartranslated Girkin is quite melancholic today about the prospects of the 3-day war: time is running out, air strikes have stopped, production of missiles isn’t going well, and the president has checked out… https://t.me/strelkovii/4070
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1630175329422655489?s=20/photo/1 -2
[Text:] Days, like grains of sand in an hourglass, flow away and flow away … There is less and less time left to make the necessary decisions before they lose their relevance …
Tanks, guns, ammunition and all other weapons and equipment flow in a wide stream to the so-called “Ukraine”, but strikes at supply lines have not been carried out, and are not being carried out. Strikes on the power system have been stopped. “Decision-making centers” in Kyiv make decisions in the most comfortable and safe way, no one even tried to endanger them so far. Meanwhile, the supply of missiles and precision-guided munitions of all kinds over the past year in the Russian Federation has clearly not increased (I won’t be arguing that it simply does not exist now, otherwise I would be accused either of “disclosing military secrets” (which I do not know) or of “defeatist moods” ” (Which I don’t have and can’t even have)). Problems with ammunition and simply the production of the most conventional weapons in the Russian Federation are also increasing every day.
And, against the backdrop of all this, the irremovable “marshals” continue to “beat their foreheads” (not their own, unfortunately) against the enemy’s prepared defenses in the Donbas. With extremely insignificant successes (and more often without any success), but with heavy losses.
There is no martial law and it is not expected (based on the statements of a person who outwardly resembles the president), the borders are open, oil and gas are flowing to partners (including Kyiv). The Central Bank of the Russian Federation is increasing investments in US government bonds.
And the only “entertainment” for angry patriots dumbfounded by reality is the public mutual scuffle paid for by gentlemen Shoigu and Prigozhin, which is ugly as it is, and testifying both to “how rotten everything is” in our country, but also to the fact that in the military leadership – unity of command. (And who of the two indicated persons is “more right” you should decide for yourself, if you wish. As for me, it’s better to avoid sorting out two sorts of crap).
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT /1210 UTC 27 FEB/ 0600 brief of the UKR Gen’l Staff did not clarify initial reports of UKR offensive progress N of Bakhmut. UKR forces were confirmed to have broken up RU attacks in the vicinity of Dubovo-Vasylivka and Yahidne, as well as enemy attacks on the urban area.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1630178012837601281?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer CRIMEA THE VULNERABLE: General Ben Hodges @general_ben lays out the plan for Crimea’s liberation. Long-range strikes to cut off Crimea’s logistics. Daily precision munition attacks on the Black Sea Fleet and RU air forces will prepare the battle space for a land campaign.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1630188206313418754?s=20/photo/1
⋙ 🐣 RT @general_ben Priority: use long-range precision strike to isolate Crimea, then make it untenable for Russian forces. Drive Black Sea Fleet from Sevastopol with daily precision strikes. Ditto for Russian Air Force at Saky, etc. Allow no sanctuary for Drone lunches. Land forces can come later.
¤ https://twitter.com/general_ben/status/1630091591997071361?s=20
[See convo in comments]
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @ChrisFlaherty8 I think the argument isn’t that a Crimean victory is impossible; just that it’s probably impractical while Mariopal, and other vast swathes of Ukraine lie in ruins under Russian control. Crimea can be retaken, as the Soviets knew well, but it would cost a lot of blood.
↥ ↧
Politico, Rory Finnan: Why Crimea Is the Key to Peace in Ukraine https://tinyurl.com/595t8uc5
// Peace is only possible if Ukraine keeps Crimea. Here’s why.
⭕ 26 Feb 2023
💙🐣 RT @wartranslated A quick review of “deescalation”, “regrouping”, “uneasy decision” and “concrete/effective” stages of the SMO by Girkin as he wraps up one year of the war. “In its current state, the Russian army is unable to defeat the Ukrainian Armed Forces”.
💽 https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1629881909030387712?s=20/photo/1
💙🐣 📋 RT @LukeDCoffey The cost of US military aid to Ukraine is 25¢ per day per American
For this investment Ukraine is dismantling the military of a top US adversary & China’s top partner
There is no “forever war” because we aren’t fighting
This isn’t a proxy war because Russia attacked Ukraine
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT / FLASH TRAFFIC/ On 26 FEB, UKR forces launched a combined arms counter-attack SE along the M-03 HWY axis. Timely reporting by Jarosław Wolski @wolski_jaros indicates that RU forces have been flanked and driven SE down the M-03 HWY toward Berkhivka.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1630022705117274113?s=20/photo/1
NYT, David French: Why Fox News Lied to the Viewers It ‘Respects’ https://tinyurl.com/38x9wjdp Fox followed its viewers “straight into a morass of lies and conspiracy theories that should undermine Fox’s credibility for years to come”
Thanks to a recent filing by Dominion Voting Systems in its defamation lawsuit against Fox, there is now compelling evidence that America’s most-watched cable news network presented information it knew to be false as part of an effort to placate an angry audience. It knowingly sacrificed its integrity to maintain its market share.
Why? There are the obvious reasons: Money. Power. Fame. These are universal human temptations. But the answer goes deeper. Fox News became a juggernaut not simply by being “Republican,” or “conservative,” but by offering its audience something it craved even more deeply: representation. And journalism centered on representation ultimately isn’t journalism at all.
To understand the Fox News phenomenon, one has to understand the place it occupies in Red America. It’s no mere source of news. It’s the place where Red America goes to feel seen and heard. If there’s an important good news story in Red America, the first call is to Fox. If conservative Christians face a threat to their civil liberties, the first call is to Fox. If you’re a conservative celebrity and you need to sell a book, the first call is to Fox. ¤ … ver time Fox morphed into something well beyond a news network.
Fox isn’t just the news hub of right-wing America, it’s a cultural cornerstone, and its business model is so successful that it’s more accurate to think of the rest of the right-wing media universe not as a collection of competitors to Fox, but rather as imitators. From television channels to news sites, right-wing personalities aren’t so much competing with Fox as auditioning for it. … ¤ Take, for example, the online space. Fox News is so dominant that, according to data from December, you could take the total traffic of the next 19 conservative websites combined, and still not reach half of Fox’s audience.
But that kind of loyalty is built around a social compact, the profound and powerful sense in Red America that Fox is for us. It’s our megaphone to the culture. Yet when Fox created this compact, it placed the audience in charge of its content. ¤ During the Trump years, Fox faithfully upheld its end of the bargain. If you were Republican and felt embattled for supporting Donald Trump, a quick visit to Fox (especially in prime time) would calm your mind and soothe your soul. …
As the Trump years wore on, the prime-time messaging became more blatant. Supporting Trump became a marker not just of patriotism, but also of courage. And what of conservatives, like myself, who opposed Trump? … ¤ Our disagreement was cast as an act of outright betrayal. People like me had allegedly turned our backs on our own community. We had failed in our obligation to be their voice.
So you can start to understand the shock when, on Election Day in 2020, Fox News accurately, if arguably prematurely, called Arizona for Joe Biden. It broke the social compact. By presuming the fairness of the election and by declaring Joe Biden the winner of a previously red state, Fox sent a message to its own audience — an audience that had been primed to mistrust election results by Trump and by reports on Fox News — that it did not hear them. It did not see them.
In the emails and texts highlighted in the Dominion filing, you see Fox News figures, including Sean Hannity and Suzanne Scott and Lachlan Murdoch, referring to the need to “respect” the audience. To be clear, by “respect” they didn’t mean “tell the truth” — an act of genuine respect. Instead they meant “represent.” …
But there is a difference between coming from a community and speaking for a community. In journalism, the former can be valuable, but the latter can be corrupt. … [I]n extreme instances — such as what we witnessed from Fox News after the 2020 presidential election — it can result in almost cartoonish villainy.
There are courageous reporters at Fox. We learned some of their names in the Dominion filing. They were the people who had the courage to tell the truth. But then there are the leaders, and the prime-time stars. Tough? Courageous? Hardly. When push comes to shove, they embody the possibly apocryphal remark of the French revolutionary Alexandre Auguste Ledru-Rollin: “There go the people. I must follow them, for I am their leader.” And follow them they did, straight into a morass of lies and conspiracy theories that should undermine Fox’s credibility for years to come.
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer FLASE [sic] FLAG? Unconfirmed reports say that a Russian A-50 AWACS aircraft has been damaged in an attack on Machulishchi airfield in Belarus. It is also claimed that one Belarusian soldier is dead after clashes with Ukrainian troops.
⋙⋙ EuroWeeklyNews: Belarusian partisans claim responsibility for blowing up important Russian plane at Belarus air base https://tinyurl.com/3u9mudh5
⋙ 🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer NOTE: The destruction of the Russian A-50 at Machulishchi airfield in Belarus is variously reported as the work of Belarusian partisans, UKR saboteurs or UKR stand-off weapons. Updates as information develops.
⋙⋙ 🐣 Belarus has been loudly warning it would get involved in the war if it were attacked ~ which I took as an alert to be on the lookout for false flags
🐣 RT @nexta_tv Czech President-elect Petr Pavel compared Putin’s current actions to Hitler’s expansionist policies toward Czechoslovakia ¤ “Before the WWII, Hitler behaved in exactly the same way that Putin is behaving now in Ukraine,” Pavel said during a Ukraine solidarity action in Prague. 1/2
⋙ 🐣 RT @nexta_tv Petr Pavel recalled that Hitler used the German national minority in the Sudeten territories of Czechoslovakia to incite hatred and violence. Moscow, he said, also justified the invasion of Ukraine, among other things, by allegedly repressing Russian-speaking residents there. 2/2
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT /1430 UTC 26 FEB/ UKR forces destroyed retention dikes to flood an area S of the M-03 HWY to slow the advance of RU forces toward Berkhivka. UKR units are reported in contact within the urban area of Bakhmut west of the T-13-02 and south of Patrice Lumumba Blvd (H-32).
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1629853368024801280?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @NOELreports Putin talked about the collapse of Russia
“If the West ever succeeds in destroying the Russian Federation and establishing control over its ruins, they may not survive but Muscovites, Uralians and others will,” he said. ¤ Ok. 🫠
💽 https://twitter.com/NOELreports/status/1629776083359789059?s=20/photo/1
⭕ 25 Feb 2023
🐣 RT @Ukrainewartoday #Kuleba says ISW director is sure of #Ukraine’s victory. ¤ The Institute for the Study of #War is sure that #Ukraine will #win the #war, Foreign Minister #Dmytro Kuleba wrote after meeting #ISW director Kimberly Kagan on Feb. 25.
🐣 RT @StateDept NATO protects 1 billion+ people in Europe & North America from 21st-century threats, from cybercrime to pandemics such as COVID-19, and empowers all members to have an equal voice in decisions affecting the alliance. Read some examples of @NATO in action. https://tinyurl.com/2hv7ycj5
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer KREMINNA /1610 UTC 25 FEB/ UKR forces broke up a large RU assault south of Kreminna. 70 RU dead were left on the battlefield after the attacking force was defeated. UKR carried out 20 aviation strike missions & artillery/missile forces targeted RU troop concentrations.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1629510498952593411?s=20/photo/1
🐣 Maybe the China-haters in Congress should reconsider their at-times tepid support for Ukraine in light of Pompeo’s point. (So many tectonic plates are shifting given China’s recent moves regarding possible lethal aid to Russia)
⋙ 🐣 RT @mikepompeo China wants Putin to win. ¤ The best way to deter the CCP is to help Ukraine defeat Russia.
🐣 RT @francis_scarr Igor Girkin says Russia needs a Chinese “lend-lease” if it’s to continue fighting in Ukraine “with any level of success” ¤ He complains that Russian generals led by the “cretin” Gerasimov are burning through armour at a rate that Russian defence plants can’t withstand
💽 [tr] https://twitter.com/francis_scarr/status/1629433899326603264?s=20/photo/1
⋙ 🐣 RT @Chepicoro09 China produces more than half of the world steel, China has the capacity to become the “arsenal of the dictatorships”… Girkin is right
🧵 RT @ChrisO_wiki 1/ Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner Group, has given an interview to Russian milblogger Vladlen Tatarsky in which he explains why he thinks Wagner is experiencing severe ‘shell hunger’ in eastern Ukraine. It includes a lot of interesting details. A rough translation:
📌 https://twitter.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1628676822261985283?s=20/photo/1
[ThreadReader:] https://tinyurl.com/ynuemy2r
⋙ 🐣 another way Ru is utterly dysfunctional, luckily for us, but the West too has been caught flat-footed providing enough ammunition to Ukraine: we thought rifle and artillery warfare between large armies was a thing of the past; we were woefully mistaken
🧵 RT @NikaMelkozerova Zelensky now says the scariest day of the war for him so far was Bucha and what he saw there after liberation. “I saw that devil was here,”he said during the press conference in Kyiv today. And here’s how he looked that day.
📌 🖼 https://twitter.com/NikaMelkozerova/status/1629153796109500416?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @rshereme “Was”. A simple word that is used in everyday life, but it is not that simple for us, because now ordinary Ukrainians cannot say “was” without bursting into tears. This was my home. This was my friend. This was my dog. This was my car. This was my job. And this was my father ….
💽 https://twitter.com/rshereme/status/1629207441828372480?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT /1450 UTC 25 FEB/ RU has cut the M-03 HWY between Dubovo-Vasylivka & Pidhorodne. RU continues to sustain heavy losses in attacks S of the HWY. UKR air defense reports downing a RU Mi-24 helicopter [24 FEB], 2 ‘Lancet’ loitering munitions and an ‘Orlan-10’ recon UAV.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1629490760138498050?s=20/photo/1
🧵 RT @CanadianKobzar FELLAS! STAY AWHILE AND LISTEN! In hour of Ukraine’s heroic fight this past year, I wanted to dedicate this thread to highlighting Ukraine’s heroes throughout the centuries. Today, I will list my Top 10 Ukrainians of all time! 1/24
📌 https://twitter.com/CanadianKobzar/status/1629482719934664705?s=20
🐣 RT @Gerashchenko_en “This is where I’ve been living for a year” – @ZelenskyyUa showed Ukrainian journalist Dmytro Komarov his wartime living conditions and his wardrobe.
💽 https://twitter.com/Gerashchenko_en/status/1629427232618815488?s=20/photo/1
⭕ 24 Feb 2023
🐣 RT @DmytroKuleba Arming a country that defends itself from aggression is legitimate and is an act of defending the UN Charter. On the contrary, helping an aggressor is illegitimate and defies the Charter. If you give weapons to Russia, you commit a crime. ¤ UNSC address: https://bit.ly/3ZdwqZQ
⋙ 🐣 RT @mykhalreynolds I have said this many times it is 100 % legitimate, rational, and morally irreproachable to aid a country against illegal acts of aggression. Chapter VII articles 39-51 go over this in great detail. Aiding Russia would be the equivalent to participating in genocide & terrorism.
🐣 RT @Gerashchenko_en “This is where I’ve been living for a year” – @ZelenskyyUa showed Ukrainian journalist Dmytro Komarov his wartime living conditions and his wardrobe.
💽 https://twitter.com/Gerashchenko_en/status/1629427232618815488?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @ABCWorldNews “The idea that China is going to be negotiating the outcome of a war that’s a totally unjust war for Ukraine is just not rational,” Pres. Biden tells @DavidMuir of China’s peace plan. https://abcn.ws/3Ixsvk5
💽 https://twitter.com/ABCWorldNews/status/1629303920198660098?s=20/photo/1
ABCNews: Biden tells ABC’s Muir ‘we would respond’ if China sends weapons to Russia https://tinyurl.com/w73e4mn6
// He spoke in an exclusive interview at the White House Friday.
During an exclusive interview with ABC’s David Muir, President Joe Biden said Friday the U.S. “would respond” if China were to supply Russia with lethal weapons in its war against Ukraine, although he said he didn’t “anticipate” China doing so, despite warnings from administration officials China may be considering the move.
“I don’t anticipate — we haven’t seen it yet, but I don’t anticipate a major initiative on the part of China providing weaponry to Russia,” Biden told Muir in an interview at the White House one year after the Russian invasion began.
Muir pressed Biden on whether China providing weapons to Russia in the future would be crossing a line, but Biden insisted that the U.S. “would respond” and referred to sanctions other countries have received after supporting Russia.
🐣 RT @ZelenskaUA Even one day of war is a lot – it costs lives that cannot be returned. We remember everyone. We celebrate not a year of war, but a year of resilience, humanity and salvation. A year of united Ukraine that has changed the world. A year of those who made faith and hope a reality
💽 https://twitter.com/ZelenskaUA/status/1629010781848354816?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @Gerashchenko_en First Leopard tanks have arrived to Ukraine! ¤ Polish Prime Minister @MorawieckiM, Prime Minister @Denys_Shmyhal and Defense Minister @oleksiireznikov have welcomed them. ¤ Grateful to our Allies for helping us bring Victory day closer!
🔄 🐣 the [Chinese] proposal is not serious: half just restates existing UN and IAEA rules ¤ but then it proposes replacing NATO, eliminating the ability to impose any sanctions, restoring supply chains (eg Russian gas); borders are to be “negotiated”; no mention of justice for war crimes
// Chinese peace proposal
(📊) WaPo: Mitch McConnell tells US to ‘wake up’ to threat of Russia on Ukraine war anniversary https://tinyurl.com/58x3ktb4 He “urged the US and its allies to renew their resolve to help Ukraine as it stands up to Russian ‘thuggery,’ tacitly pushing back against members of his own party”
Ukrainians vowed Friday to fight on as the world marked the first anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion, which violently ended decades of European stability and unleashed a charged battle between autocracy and freedom.
The war, which has displaced millions of Ukrainians and killed tens of thousands on each side, has galvanized Western powers around defending a vulnerable democracy on Europe’s eastern edge, injected the NATO military alliance with a new sense of purpose and spurred the European Union to designate Ukraine as an official candidate for membership. …
Zelensky recalled the initial moments of the war, when much of the world expected Kyiv to fall within days and U.S. officials offered to ferret him out of the city to escape assassination. He declined to go. ¤ “That is how Feb. 24, 2022 began. The longest day of our lives. The hardest day of our modern history,” Zelensky said in a video address. “We woke up early and haven’t fallen asleep since.” …
A year into the conflict, it remains unclear what sort of concessions he or Putin might accept as part of a negotiated settlement. The Ukrainian leader has put forward a 10-point peace proposal, which includes the full withdrawal of Russian troops, the restoration of his country’s borders and a special tribunal to adjudicate alleged Russian war crimes.
After their discussion with Zelensky, the G-7 nations cited the president’s plan and voiced support for a “comprehensive, just and lasting peace,” expressing their willingness to take part security guarantees that would aim to ensure Russia cannot mount future cross-border attacks. …
[T]he United Nations overwhelmingly approved, with 141 nations voting in favor, a resolution affirming Ukraine’s sovereignty and calling for Russia’s withdrawal. While 32 nations including China and India abstained from the vote, Russia was joined by only six other countries in voting against the measure. …
President Biden underscored support from the United States, by far the biggest military backer, after making a symbolically potent surprise visit to Kyiv on Monday. “A dictator bent on rebuilding an empire will never erase the people’s love of liberty,” Biden said on Twitter. “Ukraine will never be a victory for Russia.” …
Congressional Republican leaders however remain strongly on Kyiv’s side. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), the Senate’s top Republican, said U.S. aid was a “core” American interest. “It is not an act of charity,” McConnell said Friday. Some lawmakers from both parties are pressing the White House to quickly provide additional aid and include fighter jets and longer-range missiles. …
As the war enters its second year, the role of China remains unclear. The Biden administration has said China is actively considering providing lethal weapons to Russia, which would further damage Washington’s already tense relations with Beijing. … ¤ British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said that “international order” was at stake. “Putin cannot, must not, win in Ukraine,” Cleverly said. …
(📊) WaPo: Mitch McConnell tells U.S. to ‘wake up’ to threat of Russia on Ukraine war anniversary https://tinyurl.com/58x3ktb4
// The Senate Republican leader pushed back against calls from within his own party to pare back U.S. funding in support of Ukraine
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Friday urged the United States and its allies to renew their resolve to help Ukraine as it stands up to Russian “thuggery,” tacitly pushing back against members of his own party who have become loudly skeptical of Ukraine’s fight as the conflict passes the one-year mark.
“America and our friends need to finish waking up from our holiday from history, welcome Finland and Sweden into NATO by this summer, and make significant investments in military modernization and our defense-industrial capacities that are commensurate with the major challenges we face,” McConnell said in a statement, shortly before appearing alongside President Sauli Niinisto in Helsinki to support Finland’s bid to join NATO.
The message marked a stark contrast to the one pushed by former president Donald Trump and some congressional Republicans, who criticized President Biden’s trip to Kyiv earlier this week and have called for ending or slowing aid to Ukraine. In a tweet, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga), a hard-right ally of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and one of dozens of House Republicans to vote against Ukraine aid in May, called Biden’s trip “insulting” and proof that he “chose Ukraine over America.”
But nearly 50 U.S. lawmakers, including McConnell and Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), traveled to the Munich Security Conference in Germany last week to reassure European allies that Congress, which is split between a GOP-controlled House and Democratic-controlled Senate, will continue to support Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky with weapons and funds. …
“If Putin were given a green light to destabilize Europe, invading and killing at will, the long-term cost to the United States in both dollars and security risks would be astronomically higher than the minuscule fraction of our GDP that we have invested in Ukraine’s defense thus far,” McConnell said in the statement.
Congress appropriated billions in aid for Ukraine at the end of last year, which was expected to last through September. ¤ The issue is dividing Republicans thought to be vying for their party’s 2024 presidential nomination. Trump, who has announced his candidacy, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis have criticized Biden’s avowed commitment to assisting Ukraine, while former vice president Mike Pence and announced candidate Nikki Haley have argued for a forceful posture against Russia. Trump has said he believes the U.S. aid risks inciting a third world war.
Eleven House Republicans supported a “Ukraine Fatigue” resolution last month in Congress, calling for an end to all aid, but it’s unclear whether they will win out. McCarthy has said he does not favor a “blank check” when it comes to Ukraine aid, but he has not foreclosed on the possibility of providing additional support. And some of McCarthy’s top allies, including Rep. Michael R. Turner (R-Ohio), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, also went to Munich last week.
Recent polling has shown some erosion in public support for the assistance, driven by Republicans’ increasing skepticism. About a quarter of Americans said in a recent Pew poll that too much aid is flowing to Ukraine, up six percentage points since September and 19 percentage points since March, shortly after the war began. An Associated Press poll found that 48 percent of voters support continued assistance, down from 60 percent in May. … McConnell said helping Ukraine sends a message to China, as well. …
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT /2320 UTC 24 FEB/ Heavy fighting is ongoing S of the M-03 HWY between Dubovo-Vasylivka and Pidhorodne. RU advances on this axis have been made at the expense of heavy losses of men and equipment. UKR air defense reports downing a Russian Mi-24 attack helicopter.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1629256776968204288?s=20/photo/1
// second Bakhmut update today
🐣 RT @POTUS Over the past year, our commitment to the people and future of a free, sovereign, and democratic Ukraine hasn’t wavered. ¤ And it never will.
💽 https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/1629251195398152192?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @olex_scherba Zelensky: “Two things I had luck with – my country and my family. Immensely thankful to my wife. Love my parents whom I never see now…”. ¤ Yep. Ukraine wins because of two things. One is courage. The other is love. ¤ #StandWithUkraine #UkraineWillWin
💽 https://twitter.com/olex_scherba/status/1629197073785430020?s=20/photo/1
// tags: tearful Zelensky tearful
⋙ 🐣 RT @drmom1984 Zelenskyy may be a talented actor but he was not acting when he gave this response. His tears were real. His love for family and country is real.
🐣 RT @LeaderMcConnell A year into Russia’s escalation in Ukraine, it’s safe to say it has not turned out how Putin thought it would. He thinks he can wear the free world down. Today alongside President Niinistö [President of Finland], we delivered the message that we will continue to support Ukraine.
NYT, J Michael Luttig: Mike Pence’s Dangerous Ploy https://tinyurl.com/bdhrey4u “Mr. Pence’s decision to brand the Department of Justice’s perfectly legitimate subpoena as unconstitutional is a far cry from the constitutionally hallowed ground on which he stood on Jan. 6”
🐣 RT @anders_aslund Paul Krugman: “Why has Russia’s military failed so spectacularly? Because modern wars aren’t won by strutting guys flexing their biceps. They’re won mainly through logistics, technology and intelligence…that Russia does badly and Ukraine does surprisingly well.”
🐣 RT @POTUS I think Senator Romney would be the first to tell you that we don’t always agree. ¤ But he knows what I know: that standing with Ukraine — and standing up for freedom — advances our national security.
⋙ 🧵 RT @MittRomney It is in America’s interest to support Ukraine. If Russia can invade, subjugate, and pillage Ukraine with impunity, it will do the same again to others, and a world at war diminishes the security of Americans.
📌 https://twitter.com/MittRomney/status/1628817687098060800?s=20
🐣 RT @ 🐣 RT @ReportWar1 🇺🇦🇷🇺The advisor to the head of Zelensky’s office, Podoliak, stated after the publication of the PRC plan that any proposal should include a ‘return to the 1991 borders’. #Russia #Ukraina #UkraineWar #Ukraine #UkraineWarNews #RussiaUkraineWar #UkraineRussiaWar #UkraineRussianWar
🐣 RT @michael_brodsk My tweet exactly a year ago. A year of brutal, tragic and pointless war
⋙ 🐣 RT @michael_brodsk [Feb 24, 2022] Can’t believe it is really happening #Kyiv #Ukraine
🖼 https://twitter.com/michael_brodsk/status/1628881797357371392?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @juliaioffe It’s hard to believe it’s been a year. A year of senseless, mind-stilling slaughter, a year of an imperial bloodlust that just won’t quit, but also a year of Ukrainians not giving in and defying all the odds.
🐣 RT @jaketapper “Russia has already lost this war,” Biden national security adviser Jake Sullivan said during a CNN town hall Thursday night.
⋙ CNN: Takeaways from CNN’s town hall a year after Russia invaded Ukraine https://tinyurl.com/4rm8msnb
💙 RT @MacaesBruno [Kiyanyn:] A 500-year war approaches its end
💽 https://twitter.com/MacaesBruno/status/1629117857459060744?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @KyivIndependent Zelensky on war anniversary: ¤ “Ukraine has surprised the world. Ukraine has inspired the world. Ukraine has united the world. There are thousands of words to prove it, but a few will be enough: HIMARS, Patriot, Abrams, IRIS-T, Challenger, NASAMS, Leopard.” ¤ President’s Office
↥ ↧
🐣 RT @KyivIndependent Read Zelensky’s full address on the occasion of the 1-year anniversary of Russia’s all-out war against Ukraine here:
⋙≣ KyivIndependent: Zelensky’s address on 1-year anniversary of Russia’s all-out war https://tinyurl.com/2s3pk4ys
🐣 RT @NOELreports “As for the “peace plan” proposed by China, they do not have much credibility. They haven’t condemned the invasion until now, but instead signed a limitless partnership agreement with Russia days before,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. ¤ You are totally right Jens
⋙ 🐣 the “peace plan” would replace NATO w “Euroasian security framework” (ie, no US), eliminates sanctions without UN Sec Council approval😂, restores prior trade patterns (eg Ru gas), and skirts punishment for war crimes ¤ many points simply reiterate the UN charter and IAEA rules
🐣 RT @front_ukrainian ‼️Austin: the 🇺🇸USA is preparing motorized infantry brigades of the Armed Forces of 🇺🇦Ukraine, and this will allow to break through the defense of the 🇷🇺Russian military ¤ «We are training and equipping several motorized infantry brigades – this is quite a significant potential.»
🐣 RT @sherwiebp China’s 12-point plan for Ukraine peace #sabcnews
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/sherwiebp/status/1628944613753950210?s=20/photo/1 -2
⋙ 🐣 1. Russia doesn’t accept Ukraine as a separate country, so how would “respecting sovereignty” work?
2. New security apparatus for EuroAsia: Goodbye NATO, US; no “bloc” expansion: forget it, Sweden, Norway etc: add Russia, China
3-4. Ceasefire: so Russia rearms
⋙⋙ 🐣 … 10. Stop “unilateral sanctions“ that don’t have UN SC approval: so Russia and China will veto: end of sanctions
11. Supply chains (see Sanctions): eg restore gas flow from Russia
✛ No mention of justice: no Hague, no ICC
[much of the rest is covered in UN charter, IAEA etc]
🔄 💙 📔 FMPRC: China’s Position on the Political Settlement of the Ukraine Crisis https://tinyurl.com/4xs2v938
// main areas of concern flagged: 1) alliances, 2) ceasefire, 3) sanctions
1. Respecting the sovereignty of all countries. Universally recognized international law, including the purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter, must be strictly observed. The sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of all countries must be effectively upheld. All countries, big or small, strong or weak, rich or poor, are equal members of the international community. All parties should jointly uphold the basic norms governing international relations and defend international fairness and justice. Equal and uniform application of international law should be promoted, while double standards must be rejected.
‼️2. Abandoning the Cold War mentality. The security of a country should not be pursued at the expense of others. The security of a region should not be achieved by strengthening or expanding military blocs. The legitimate security interests and concerns of all countries must be taken seriously and addressed properly. There is no simple solution to a complex issue. All parties should, following the vision of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security and bearing in mind the long-term peace and stability of the world, help forge a balanced, effective and sustainable European security architecture. All parties should oppose the pursuit of one’s own security at the cost of others’ security, prevent bloc confrontation, and work together for peace and stability on the Eurasian Continent.
!? 3. Ceasing hostilities. Conflict and war benefit no one. All parties must stay rational and exercise restraint, avoid fanning the flames and aggravating tensions, and prevent the crisis from deteriorating further or even spiraling out of control. All parties should support Russia and Ukraine in working in the same direction and resuming direct dialogue as quickly as possible, so as to gradually deescalate the situation and ultimately reach a comprehensive ceasefire.
4. Resuming peace talks. Dialogue and negotiation are the only viable solution to the Ukraine crisis. All efforts conducive to the peaceful settlement of the crisis must be encouraged and supported. The international community should stay committed to the right approach of promoting talks for peace, help parties to the conflict open the door to a political settlement as soon as possible, and create conditions and platforms for the resumption of negotiation. China will continue to play a constructive role in this regard.
5. Resolving the humanitarian crisis. All measures conducive to easing the humanitarian crisis must be encouraged and supported. Humanitarian operations should follow the principles of neutrality and impartiality, and humanitarian issues should not be politicized. The safety of civilians must be effectively protected, and humanitarian corridors should be set up for the evacuation of civilians from conflict zones. Efforts are needed to increase humanitarian assistance to relevant areas, improve humanitarian conditions, and provide rapid, safe and unimpeded humanitarian access, with a view to preventing a humanitarian crisis on a larger scale. The UN should be supported in playing a coordinating role in channeling humanitarian aid to conflict zones.
6. Protecting civilians and prisoners of war (POWs). Parties to the conflict should strictly abide by international humanitarian law, avoid attacking civilians or civilian facilities, protect women, children and other victims of the conflict, and respect the basic rights of POWs. China supports the exchange of POWs between Russia and Ukraine, and calls on all parties to create more favorable conditions for this purpose.
7. Keeping nuclear power plants safe. China opposes armed attacks against nuclear power plants or other peaceful nuclear facilities, and calls on all parties to comply with international law including the Convention on Nuclear Safety (CNS) and resolutely avoid man-made nuclear accidents. China supports the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in playing a constructive role in promoting the safety and security of peaceful nuclear facilities.
8. Reducing strategic risks. Nuclear weapons must not be used and nuclear wars must not be fought. The threat or use of nuclear weapons should be opposed. Nuclear proliferation must be prevented and nuclear crisis avoided. China opposes the research, development and use of chemical and biological weapons by any country under any circumstances.
9. Facilitating grain exports. All parties need to implement the Black Sea Grain Initiative signed by Russia, Türkiye, Ukraine and the UN fully and effectively in a balanced manner, and support the UN in playing an important role in this regard. The cooperation initiative on global food security proposed by China provides a feasible solution to the global food crisis.
‼️ 10. Stopping unilateral sanctions. Unilateral sanctions and maximum pressure cannot solve the issue; they only create new problems. China opposes unilateral sanctions unauthorized by the UN Security Council. Relevant countries should stop abusing unilateral sanctions and “long-arm jurisdiction” against other countries, so as to do their share in deescalating the Ukraine crisis and create conditions for developing countries to grow their economies and better the lives of their people.
11. Keeping industrial and supply chains stable. All parties should earnestly maintain the existing world economic system and oppose using the world economy as a tool or weapon for political purposes. Joint efforts are needed to mitigate the spillovers of the crisis and prevent it from disrupting international cooperation in energy, finance, food trade and transportation and undermining the global economic recovery.
12. Promoting post-conflict reconstruction. The international community needs to take measures to support post-conflict reconstruction in conflict zones. China stands ready to provide assistance and play a constructive role in this endeavor.
🐣 RT @AnonOpsSE #BREAKING Chinas Proposed for ending #RussianUkrainianWar
This has been leaked to #Anonymous and it’s expected to be released by Beijing in the coming days. #Russia #Ukraine #China
China’s Peace Plan
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/AnonOpsSE/status/1628939519582957568?s=20/photo/1
● Respect sovereignty of all countries
● A country’s security cannot be at expense of other countries’ security
● Regional security cannot be guaranteed by strengthening or even expanding military blocs
● Cease fire and stop fighting, prevent Ukraine crisis from further aggravating or even getting out of control
● Gradually promote de-escalation and easing of situation and finally reach comprehensive ceasefire
● Dialogue, negotiation are only viable way to resolve Ukraine crisis
● Maintain safety of nuclear power plants, oppose armed attacks on nuclear facilities
● Nuclear weapons cannot be used and nuclear war cannot be fought
● We oppose development, use of biological and chemical weapons by any country under any circumstances
● Oppose any unilateral sanctions not authorized by the UN Security Council
🐣 RT @kalev1990 February 24th is forever a part of our history. It has already been etched in memory by the #Bucha’s blood, #Mariupol’s ashes, #Kharkiv’s tears, #Bakhmut’s fire & the resistance of the whole of #Ukraine, which has become not just a shield, but a sword of #Europe. Just remember!
⭕ 23 Feb 2023
🐣 RT @China_MFA The US is the No.1 violator of sovereignty and interferer in the internal affairs of other countries. Since the end of WWII, the US has reportedly sought to subvert 50+ foreign governments, interfered in elections in 30+ countries & attempted assassination on 50+ foreign leaders.
⋙ 🐣 please: (recent:) Viet Nam, the Uyghurs, Tibet, Hong Kong, Shanghai, plus devastating domestic misadventures like the Great Leap Forward and the draconian COVID-19 lockdowns, not to mention threats to Taiwan and claims to the South China Sea ~ China is no role model
⋙⋙ 🐣 also: Tiananmen Square; and those are just the ones I, not a China expert, can think of; your “weather” balloons have violated the sovereignty of at least 40 countries ¤ where would China be today without the US marketplace and the stealing of US trade secrets?
⋙ 🐣 Post the lists mentioned, please, so our Intelligence Community and @StateDept can respond. ¤ Also, please post your “peace plan” and explain how Russia did not invade Ukraine, whose borders snd sovereignty are recognized by the United Nations.
🐣 RT @PatronDsns During the past year, the 🇷🇺 launched almost 5,000 missiles and 3,500 air strikes. “Kyiv in 3 days”, “Let’s go to Berlin like our grandfathers”, “Everyone will respect and fear us”. But it’s been a year since they became a laughingstock. So cruel and angry but a laughingstock.
🖼 https://twitter.com/PatronDsns/status/1628853474921267202?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer MORE ON THE WAY: The US is expected to announce a further $2 billion Ukraine aid package on Friday. Included will be more HIMARs, 155mm artillery ammunition, combat and reconnaissance UAVs, mine clearance equipment and anti-drone technology.
⋙ CNN: US expected to announce $2 billion Ukraine aid package on Friday https://tinyurl.com/3nzcxzjx
// Defense budget
The Biden administration is expected to announce another $2 billion in Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative [USAI] funds on Friday, the one-year anniversary of the Russian invasion, a US official said Thursday.
Unlike drawdown packages, which are pulled directly from US weapons stocks and can be shipped quickly to Ukraine, USAI [Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative] packages are purchased or contracted from the industry. Though the aid can take far longer to arrive in Ukraine, it also signals a longer-term commitment to providing assistance to Kyiv in what the US sees as a protracted conflict against Russia. ¤ This is new funding for purchases and new contracts for equipment for Ukraine, including:
● HIMARS rockets [launchers or missiles?]
● 155m artillery ammunition
● multiple types of drones (UAVS)
● Counter UAV equipment
● Mine clearing equipment
● Secure communications equipment
● Funding for training and maintenanceThe US announced its 32nd drawdown of US equipment for Ukraine just three days ago, valued at $450 million, which included
● more HIMAR and Howitzer ammunition,
● Javelin anti-tank missiles and
● air surveillance radars.The announcement came the same day President Joe Biden made a highly secretive visit to Kyiv, meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and then giving an impassioned speech in support of Ukraine from Warsaw.
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer WAGNER OUT? Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner Group, is watching his career fade. UKR intel reports that the RU military is setting up a rival Private Military Contracting firm, Yastreb [Hawk]– an organization closely aligned with RU intelligence.
⋙ YahooNews/UkrainskaPravda: Russian secret services set up new private military company to oust Wagner mercenaries General Staff https://tinyurl.com/2p9a64up
⋙ 🐣 RT @MCTothSTL There is a growing proliferation of PMCs in Moscow. Even Shoigu has one now. ¤ Fears of PMCs causing a post-Putin civil war are one major reason why the Biden administration is arguably not tying to outright win this war in Ukraine as I wrote in @TheHill.
⋙⋙ TheHill: Is winning not an option in Ukraine? https://tinyurl.com/2djtb2ye
🐣 📋 RT @robbertt4321 Russia has visually confirmed lost 47% of its tanks in active service in the first year of the invasion… ¤ Data from @oryxspioenkop & the Military Balance 2022, retrieved on February 23rd.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/robbertt4321/status/1628895410738589698?s=20/photo/1
🐣 📋 RT @SecRaimondo Taiwan alone produces 92% of the world’s leading-edge chips – even though the majority of them are still based on American technology created at UC Berkeley with federal funding. ¤ It’s not right – and we’re going to fix it with the CHIPS and Science Act.
WaPo: Oral history: Leaders recall dismay, fury on first day of war in Ukraine https://tinyurl.com/34z3m947 “I thought about the rockets flying over my children, over all of our children. This means that there will be a huge number of deaths. It was clear” ~ Volodymyr Zelensky
// Political, military and intelligence officials describe their reaction to the Russian invasion and what they did that first day
TheAtlantic, Tom Nichols: The War in Ukraine Is the End of a World https://tinyurl.com/jec5btr8 “I underestimated the power of Soviet imperial nostalgia. And so today, I grieve”
// A shroud is settling over the dreams many of us had at the end of the 20th century.
[…] I grieve for the innocent people of Ukraine, for the dead and for the survivors, for the mutilated men and women, for the orphans and the kidnapped children. I grieve for the elderly who have had to live through the brutality of the Nazis and the Soviets and, now, the Russians. I grieve for a nation whose history will be forever changed by Putin’s crimes against humanity.
And yes, I grieve, too, for the Russians. I care not one bit for Putin or his criminal accomplices, who might never face justice in this world but who I am certain will one day stand before an inescapable and far more terrifying seat of judgment. But I grieve for the young men who have been used as “cannon meat,” for children whose fathers have been dragooned into the service of a dictator, for the people who once again are afraid to speak and who once again are being incarcerated as political prisoners.
Finally, I grieve for the end of a world I knew for most of my adult life. I have lived through two eras, one an age of undeclared war between two ideological foes that threatened instant destruction, the next a time of increasing freedom and global integration. This second world was full of chaos, but it was also grounded in hope. The Soviet collapse did not mean the end of war or of dictatorships, but after 1991, time seemed to be on the side of peace and democracy, if only we could summon the will and find the leadership to build on our heroic triumphs over Nazism and Communism.
Now I live in a new era, one in which the world order created in 1945 is collapsing. The United Nations, as I once wrote, is a squalid and dysfunctional organization, but it is still one of the greatest achievements of humanity. It was never designed, however, to function with one of its permanent members running amok as a nuclear-armed rogue state, and so today the front line of freedom is in Ukraine. But democracy is under attack everywhere, including here in the United States, and so I will celebrate the courage of Ukraine, the wisdom of NATO, and the steadfastness of the world’s democracies. But I also hear the quiet rustling of a shroud that is settling over the dreams—and perhaps, illusions—of a better world that for a moment seemed only inches from our grasp.
I do not know how this third era of my life will end, or if I will be alive to see it end. All I know is that I feel now as I did that night in Red Square, when I knew that democracy was in the fight of its life, that we might be facing a catastrophe, and that we must never waver.
🧵 RT @NATO ❝I’d always been a journalist… on day two of Russia’s full-scale invasion, I went and joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine.❞ This is Pavlo’s story [1/10]
📌 https://twitter.com/NATO/status/1628687934000885760?s=20
⋙ 🐣 RT @NATO 🗣️Ukraine is hosting one of the great epics of this century
❝We are Harry Potter and William Wallace, the Na’vi and Han Solo. We’re escaping from Shawshank and blowing up the Death Star. We are fighting with the Harkonnens and challenging Thanos.❞ [9/10]
⋙ 🐣 RT @NATO ❝We haven’t won yet. But in many ways, we have won.❞
Read Pavlo’s full story on #NATOreview: http://bit.ly/3IQbpzf [10/10]
💙 🐣 RT @ManiatiGeorge When I saw this clip on February 24th evening my time…I knew these men here were cut from a different mold. I showed it to my wife. She cried. She was worried they wouldn’t be able to hold the Orcs from taking Kyiv. I knew Kyiv would not fall..too big..and the Ukrainian spirit..
💽 https://twitter.com/ManiatiGeorge/status/1628549905768714241?s=20/photo/1
// clip 2/24/2022: Zelensky addresses nation with his team: “We are here”
⋙ 🐣 RT @Semper1908 When I saw that I cried. And for the next week I went to bed every night fearing Kyiv would fall while I slept. And then one day I realised the Russians were just failing and that maybe Ukraine would triumph. And that little flower just grew in my heart, victory after victory
🐣 RT @GoncharenkoUa The UN General Assembly voted in favor of a resolution calling on Russia to immediately withdraw its troops from Ukraine ¤. Against – only 7 (Russia and Belarus, Syria, North Korea, Eritrea, Nicaragua, Mali – true friends of Putin)
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/GoncharenkoUa/status/1628864048367382536?s=20/photo/1
// In Favor: 141; Abstentions: 32 (incl China, India, Iran, Pakistan, So Africa, etc)
🧵 RT @justartsndstuff “Putin prepared invasion of Ukraine secretly from his inner circle and caused elite discontent with military aggression – FT ¤ One of the oligarchs asked Lavrov how Putin could have planned such a large-scale invasion in such a narrow circle that most senior Kremlin officials, 1/
📌 https://twitter.com/justartsndstuff/status/1628788969897922560?s=20
⋙ the economic cabinet and Russia’s business elite did not believe it was even possible. ¤ “He has three advisors,” Lavrov replied, “Ivan the Terrible, Peter the Great, and Catherine the Great.” ¤ Even as the enormous cost of the invasion to Russia becomes apparent to Putin, 2/
⋙ the Kremlin leader is more determined than ever to see it through, people who know him say. ¤ “The idea was never that hundreds of thousands of people would die. It all went horribly wrong,” said a Russian ex-official. ¤ Some officials are trying to convince him to end the war, 3/
⋙ pointing to the economic damage caused by the sanctions. ¤ “But how can you convince a madman? His brain will collapse if he realizes that it was a mistake,” the source concluded.” END/ [link to Telegram
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer VUHLEDAR /1320 UTC 23 FEB/ Two RU probes toward the T-05-24 HWY at Vuhledar were broken up. UKR reports that elements of the Cossack Detachment (Volunteers) assigned to RU 155th Brigade of Marine Infantry (Pacific Fleet), have refused orders to engage in offensive operations.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1628746280527593472?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @kajakallas Explained to @bbcnickrobinson why it is important to end the cycle of Russian aggression. This aggression cannot pay off. ¤. Also emphasised why accountability is crucial and why no Russian leader can be immune from responsibility. ¤ Listen from 08:45.
🔊 BBC: https://tinyurl.com/4jvwk4ka/photo/1
🐣 RT @Gerashchenko_en Russian propagandists complain that they need more allies and no one is really coming to their side. ¤ Skabeyeva consoles them that as soon as Russia has real successes, allies will appear. ¤ I’ve got bad news for her.
💽 [tr] https://twitter.com/Gerashchenko_en/status/1628651370336374784?s=20/photo/1
KyivPost: Zelensky’s Chief of Staff Yermak Speaks Openly with Kyiv Post about War with Russia https://tinyurl.com/tf2y26dt ‘Unless there are radical changes in the structure of the Russian Federation, there will always be a risk of another full-scale invasion of Ukraine’ ~ Yermak
// The top Ukrainian official told Kyiv Post that only NATO membership will protect Ukraine from another future war with Russia, adding that the Kremlin has “no chance” of winning against the alliance.
🐣 RT @NOELreports Prighozin reports that the “ammunition train” has started moving. Referring towards his tirade yesterday against the Russian military leadership, complaining about the lack of ammunition and an immediate need for it.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/NOELreports/status/1628652615285309440?s=20/photo/1
🚫 🐣 RT @vinm300 #Ukraine
Xi Peace proposition facts
a) Ceasefire
b) halt to weapons for Ukr
FM Kubela has seen part of it & didn’t reject
Therefore (speculation) :
c) Russia withdraws, replaced by UN peace-keepers
d) UN diplomacy to resolve borders within 10yrs
Xi’s amour propre needs success
⋙ 🐣 corr: Dmytro Kuleba ¤ Ukr asked for a vote on its peace proposal by the UN assembly; I think the vote is today(?) ¤ I doubt either Zelenskyy or the Ukr people would be willing to hand over to the UN decisions on restoring Ukraine’s 2014 borders
🐣 RT @mhmck Reacting to the significant losses of personnel suffered by the invaders in the offensive near Vuhledar, the so-called “Cossacks” attached to the 155th Marine Brigade (RU) refuse to go into combat. ¤ Source: Armed Forces of Ukraine operational information, 06:00, 23 February 2023
⭕ 22 Feb 2023
DailyBeast, David Rothkopf: 10 Surprising Lessons of the Ukraine War So Far https://tinyurl.com/2jcy6ky7 “4. Poland is the new Germany. (And Estonia is the new France.)” “8. Ukraine is already in the EU and NATO whether you (or Russia or Turkey) like it or not.”
// From revealing Putin’s weaknesses to new ways to wage war to intriguing new power centers, the war in Ukraine has served up one surprise after another—and we can expect many more.
● While Ukraine has pleaded for fighter jets for a year, unmanned aircraft have stolen the show.
● “No Time for Sergeants” was once a TV hit in America. It has been a flop for the Russian army.
● Speaking of time, it’s time for traditional navies to realize their time will soon be up.
● Poland is the new Germany. (And Estonia is the new France.)
● Vladimir Putin may be a madman, but at least he has the common sense not to want to be obliterated in a nuclear war with NATO.
● Speaking of Putin, stick a fork in him. He may not be quite done yet, but he will be soon… and besides if anyone deserves to have a fork stuck in him, it’s Putin.
● TikTok is more than just an annoying teenage time-waster and Chinese espionage plot.
● Ukraine is already in the EU and NATO whether you (or Russia or Turkey) like it or not.
● With friends like Turkey, Israel, the global South and Elon Musk, who needs enemies?
● And the most important lesson of all is, as it will be for the remainder of this century, everything is always about China.
🐣 RT @POTUS Bucharest Nine leaders have provided critical security assistance to Ukraine and critical support to millions of refugees. ¤ We’ve helped ensure Ukrainians can access basic services. ¤ And together, we’ll continue our enduring support for Ukraine as they defend their freedom.
🐣 RT @SpiroAgnewGhost His panic has now understandably reached a new level.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/SpiroAgnewGhost/status/1628432153049731074?s=20/photo/1
[Text:] 🐣 RT @realDonaldTrump This Georgia case is ridiculous, a strictly political continuation of the greatest Witch Hunt of all time. Now you have an extremely energetic young woman, the (get this!) “foreperson” of the Racist D.A.’s Special Grand Jury, going around and doing a Media Tour revealing, incredibly, the Grand Jury’s inner workings & thoughts. This is not JUSTICE, this is an illegal Kangaroo Court. Atlanta is leading the Nation in Murder and other Violent Crimes. All I did is make TWO PERFECT PHONE CALLS!!!
🐣 RT @AustinAustin231 The #UN General Assembly will vote today on a peace plan for #Ukraine which includes most of plan proposed by #Ukraine. President #Zelensky is calling for all nations to vote for the plan.
🐣 RT @wartranslated Magyar, the mastermind behind “Magyar’s birds” goes into detail about how his air reconnaissance group operates, and what his specific responsibilities in the unit are. It works like taxi – whoever accepts the enemy destruction order first, gets to hit it.
💽 https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1628546751677300736?s=20/photo/1
⋙ 🐣 RT @HickPhilistine Its stuff like this that lets Ukraine do more with less. A force multiplier and faster adaptability than on the Russian side where this kind of initiative is discouraged rather than adopted.
⋙ 🐣 RT @1901James These guys invented a new way of fighting. Drones were used before, of course, but the scale, precision and the entire process used in Ukraine is on an entire different level to anything else except probably the USA. It is probably the most efficient price per target in any war.
🐣 RT @AmbVasyl An excellent oped by @WarintheFuture reflecting on 1 year of the Russian full scale invasion. “A year when Ukraine reminded us what a lion’s heart looks like”
⋙ SydneyMorningHerald, Mick Ryan: A year when Ukraine reminded us what a lion’s heart looks like https://tinyurl.com/3htk3rrc “In his darkest hour, … Zelensky demanded of the free world not a way out of the war but a way to stay, save his people and win the war”
// “It was a roar heard around the world”
// A year on from the invasion of Ukraine, the Western world has been reminded of what a nation with a lion’s heart looks like.
🐣 RT @ @TruWordsRSpoken FACTS NOT FEELINGS MATTER #EastPalenstineOH #TrumpDerailment
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/TruWordsRSpoken/status/1628540701830180864?s=20/photo/1
● No, Buttigieg couldn’t have prevented the disaster
● No, Buttigieg is NOT responsible for the clean-up
● No, Democrats didn’t order the train cars be burned
● Yes, Gov. DeWine ordered the train cars be burned
● Yes, The Norfolk Southern CEO donated to DeWine
● Yes, Trump removed safety standards
● Yes, Trump weakened the EPA
● Yes, we ALL should be working together to make sure this doesn’t happen again
📊 Bipartisan Report: Marist Poll for NPR/PBS: Biden Approval Rating Rises Again As Policy Wins Continue https://tinyurl.com/4tv844ns 49% approve (23% “strongly”)/45% disapprove amid strong economic news, lower gas prices, overseas successes
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer KREMINNA /2120 UTC 22 FEB/ RU units attempted to advance W of Kreminna; they are reported to have been defeated in heavy fighting, losing armored vehicles as they retreated. UKR counter-battery fire destroyed RU guns at Stara Krasnyanka.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1628503477180678144?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @VolodyaTretyak As always an amazing interview with the Chief of GUR, Kyrylo Budanov, from 22.02.2023. He talks about Russian mobilization, Russia’s weapon production capabilities, his opinion on Bakhmut, not accidental arsons in Russia, and the near future of the war.
⋙ WarTranslated: Forbes.ua interview: GUR’s chief Kyrylo Budanov interview https://tinyurl.com/5d6sf324
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @PhillipsPOBrien The Russian offensive is indeed underway–its just of such poor quality that ‘not everyone can even see it’ Ouch. There is also a number of really important points made in the article
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @PhillipsPOBrien Ukrainians are studying Russian ammunition production–the Russians cant make nearly enough to replace what they are using. Then some really interesting ideas on how Russian munitions production is struggling overall.
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @PhillipsPOBrien Near the end Budanov repeats a prediction–the war will turn in the Spring (when presumably the Ukrainian Army will have finished preparing its forces) at that point the Russian offensive will be crushed.
WaPo, David Ignatius: What a year of war has revealed of three leaders https://tinyurl.com/ye26mz7r “Who could have imagined that a Ukrainian comic actor named Volodymyr Zelensky would prove to be the first truly heroic leader of the 21st century”
War reveals the essential traits of human character that shape events. Who could have imagined that a Ukrainian comic actor named Volodymyr Zelensky would prove to be the first truly heroic leader of the 21st century. Who would have bet that Putin, the canny and cynical ex-KGB officer, would grossly misread both intelligence and history and ransom his country to what amounted to a fairy tale about the “oneness” of Russia and Ukraine.
Perhaps most surprising of all, who would have bet that an 80-year-old U.S. president, a man who was garrulous, sentimental and sometimes appeared senescent, would turn out to the most undervalued American leader in modern times. President Biden’s brave visit Monday to Kyiv was a defining moment in his presidency. Even conservative commentators who make a living trashing him had to be stirred by the sight of him standing in St. Michael’s Square while air raid sirens wailed.
… In Putin’s case, this vanity led him to march his nation off a cliff. On Feb. 24 last year, Putin launched the invasion with a speech that is still astonishing for its sense of victimization and desire for revenge.
Putin cast the Ukraine story as a tale of Russian innocence and Western perfidy. In expanding NATO eastward toward Russia’s borders, the United States and its allies had shown a “contemptuous and disdainful attitude” and behaved “rudely and unceremoniously from year to year.” The West had hurt Russia’s feelings, in other words.
Putin’s chief war aim, bizarrely, seemed to be greater respect. The West, rather than treating a disoriented post-Soviet Russia “professionally, smoothly, patiently,” had flaunted its power with a “state of euphoria created by the feeling of absolute superiority, a kind of modern absolutism.” NATO had talked of inviting Russian cooperation, but Putin insisted: “They have deceived us, or, to put it simply, they have played us.”
Zelensky’s piece of this story is a combination of raw courage and an actor’s intuitive understanding of how to play the role of his life. … Zelensky resisted U.S. offers of help in evacuating Kyiv. When he emerged from his bunker after the initial days of assault in his green fatigues, surrounded by his fellow ministers, you sensed a change in Earth’s gravitational field. “I’m not hiding,” he said. “And I’m not afraid of anyone.” …
In the end, war is a test of wills. Putin was convinced that his cold-eyed, brutal resolve would outlast everyone else’s. But a year on, Putin’s staying power begins to look questionable, while Zelensky and Biden have never looked stronger.
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKMUT /1400 UTC 22 FEB/ RU forces continue operations against UKR Lines of Communication and Supply (LOCS). UKR forces are in contact in the eastern suburbs of Bakhmut, north and south of the H-32 HWY.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1628392297120337923?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @POTUS There is no sweeter word than freedom, no nobler goal than freedom, and no higher aspiration than freedom. ¤ All that we do now must be done so our children and grandchildren will know it as well: Freedom.
💽 https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/1628378676491390980?s=20/photo/1
// Biden in Warsaw before a crowd of 30K
🐣 RT @AustinAustin231 The Mariupol city council (Ukrainian authorities, not Russian occupiers) says that a Russian ammo depot has been hit near the Port of Mariupol. Russian sources are shocked but confirm that strikes took place, and claim that a previously unseen weapon was used.
⋙ 🐣 possibly this … these were included in the previous package of mil aid: they double the range for HIMARS and are exceptionally precise
◕ https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1628378476641234947?s=20/photo/1
// Ground-launched Small Diameter Bomb (GLSDB)
🐣 RT @POTUS Mr. President, you and all Ukrainians remind the world of what courage is – every single day. ¤ We have every confidence that you’re going to prevail and we will be with you for as long as it takes.
⋙ 🐣 RT @ZelenskyyUa Kyiv stands strong. Kyiv stands proud, it stands tall and most important, it stands free. @Potus said this today in Warsaw after a historic visit to Ukraine. We all stand united and brave – 🇺🇦, 🇺🇸 and our entire coalition of victory. 1/2
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @ZelenskyyUaI thank @POTUS and all of America for their leadership in rallying the world in support of freedom and for their vital assistance to Ukraine. Together we are heading towards a common victory, and we must ensure it this year already! 2/2
🐣 RT @nytimesworld A delegation of five House Republicans led by Representative Michael McCaul of Texas, who is chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, met with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine in Kyiv on Tuesday, one day after President Biden’s visit.
⋙ NYT: A House Republican delegation visits Kyiv and Zelensky in a show of bipartisan American support https://tinyurl.com/apmn4p4w
According to a spokeswoman for the committee, Mr. McCaul met with Mr. Zelensky and Representative Darrell Issa of California, Representative Max Miller of Ohio and Representatives Jake Ellzey and Keith Self of Texas. Margaret Kibben, the House chaplain, also attended.
The group met with Mr. Zelensky, Ukraine’s top finance, defense and foreign officials, as well as several members of Ukraine’s parliament, the committee spokeswoman said. The American delegation also visited Bucha, the Kyiv suburb that Russian forces have ravaged over the last several months, making it the site of some of the worst atrocities of the war.
Mr. Zelensky updated the Americans on the state of the war and expressed confidence in Ukraine’s position, his office wrote in a readout of the meeting. He also outlined the Ukrainian army’s artillery needs and thanked the congressmen for their support, nearly one year since Russia’s full-scale invasion.
“We are grateful for all the steps that have been taken, which have been endorsed by the president of the United States and the Congress,” Mr. Zelensky said, adding appreciation “for the aid packages for our army, our military on the battlefield. And, of course, for the financial support to overcome all the challenges that have arisen as a result of Russian aggression.”
🐣 RT @nytimesworld A delegation of five House Republicans led by Representative Michael McCaul of Texas, who is chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, met with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine in Kyiv on Tuesday, one day after President Biden’s visit.
⋙ NYT: A House Republican delegation visits Kyiv and Zelensky in a show of bipartisan American support https://tinyurl.com/apmn4p4w
🐣 RT @USAmbKyiv Yesterday, a Congressional delegation led by #HFAC Chair @RepMcCaul and I met with survivors of Russia’s atrocities in Bucha. I am horrified by their stories of brutal murders of civilians by Russia’s forces. The U.S. is committed to ensuring those responsible are held to account
🖼 https://twitter.com/USAmbKyiv/status/1628360122949926913?s=20/photo/1 -2
⋙ 🐣 Thank you, @RepMcCaul, for visiting Bucha. There are many Buchas ~ virtually any town or city Ukr troops have entered after Ru have left. ¤ Please share your insights with your colleagues in the House who do not yet understand the serious threat faced to civilization itself.
🐣 RT @sandumaiamd Had a very good meeting with President @AndrzejDuda today to discuss pressing security challenges and Moldova’s EU accession. ¤ Poland is a key partner in our pursuit of a democratic, prosperous future for 🇲🇩. ¤ Grateful for 🇵🇱’s unwavering support in advancing our shared goals.
NYT: Ukraine appears to attack deep into Russian-occupied territory https://tinyurl.com/2kv99djz “The Ukrainian General Staff said only that Ukraine’s Air Force had launched 8 attacks on the temporary bases of Russian troops & 2 strikes on … Russia’s anti-aircraft missile systems”
🐣 RT @RFERL The treaty, the last remaining nuclear arms accord between the two superpowers, restricts each nation to 1,550 deployed strategic nuclear warheads and 700 deployed intercontinental ballistic missiles and strategic bombers.
⋙ RFERL: Russia’s State Duma Approves Putin’s Move To Suspend New START Nuclear Deal https://tinyurl.com/2p95t86x
🐣 RT @uarealitynow (CNN) Russia carried out a test of an intercontinental ballistic missile that appears to have failed around the time President Joe Biden was in Ukraine on Monday, according to two US officials familiar with the matter.
💙 WaPo: A year in the trenches has hardened Ukraine’s president https://tinyurl.com/59hf8yr8 “Experience and tragedy … washed over him. Cynicism battled with idealism inside him. He had seen the aftermath of atrocities and grasped the hands of the loved ones of Ukraine’s dead soldiers”
// // Volodymyr Zelensky came into office thinking peace with Putin was possible. He now believes victory is the only answer.
🐣 RT @KyivIndependent ⚡️CNN: Russia’s nuclear-capable ICBM Sarmat allegedly failed test. ¤ Russia’s nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missile Sarmat appears to have failed a test launch around Feb. 20, according to the U.S. officials.
⭕ 21 Feb 2023
🐣 RT @ DucuGavril I’m hoping for a plot twist here, something that would destroy the “myth of putin” completely. Something in the classic russian genre of decay and destruction. 🥲
⋙ 🐣 RT @wartranslated There’s a noticeable rift between Wagner and MoD supporters on the channels. Prigozhin himself is livid. I don’t believe this is psyops. But I wouldn’t go as far as saying this might lead to something. But it’s great it’s happening, nevertheless.
🐣 RT @Azovsouth Wagner terrorist boss Prigozhin, said he was not invited to Putin’s dry speech today and that he was busy storming office after office looking looking for ammo to give his stranded Wagner criminals in #Bakhmut. ¤ He has also accused Gerasimov and Defense Minister Shoigu of treason
Politico [EU]: ‘Treason!’ Wagner boss slams Russia’s military leaders https://tinyurl.com/3e85wbch
// They want to ‘destroy’ Wagner, says Yevgeny Prigozhin about Russia’s defense minister and army chief.
🧵 RT @WhiteHouse One year after Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, President Biden traveled to Kyiv to meet with President Zelenskyy. Here’s how it happened. ¤ On Sunday at 4:15 AM EST, @POTUS departed D.C. on Air Force One for Germany – where the plane refueled and was wheels up at 6:29 PM CET.
📌 https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse/status/1628046905178566658?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @GirkinGirkin [tr] Over the past day, units of the Defense Forces of Ukraine have repelled attacks by invaders in the areas of the settlements of Kuzemivka and Dibrova in the Luhansk region and Fedorivka, Yagidne, Berkhivka, Bakhmut and Kurdyumivka in the Donetsk region. ¤ (and Kurdyumivka, yes)
🐣 🗳 RT @gelliottmorris First big night of 2023 elections this year and Democrats are doing very well
– Liberal WI Supreme Court candidates >50% total
– In NH, D outrunning 2022 by 10pts
– A KY state senate seat that was Biden+30 is D+55
– Dems on track to swing VA04 by 10pts; huge rural vote swing
🐣 RT @thejackhopkins BREAKING: Vladimir Putin has initiated a draft. All college students are now going to war. He is sending them to be slaughtered in Ukraine. This man is desperate, and approaching panic mode.
🐣 RT @NSC_Spox 30,000 crowd count for President Biden’s speech tonight, according to the Warsaw Mayor’s office. 🇺🇸🇵🇱🇺🇦
💽 https://twitter.com/NSC_Spox/status/1628089403364249600?s=20/photo/1
🧵 RT @JominiW 1/ Ukraine TVD, 8-19 FEB 23. The past 2 weeks of February saw the Russian Winter Offensive intensify as major pushes continued in Kreminna, Bakhmut, and Vuhledar. Russian made few gains, Ukrainian defenses continue to hold. #UkraineRussiaWar #RussianArmy #UkraineFrontLines
📌 🌎 https://twitter.com/JominiW/status/1628213037768273922?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @officejjsmart 🇷🇺 FOR THEE, NOT ME ¤ Below each of these smiling faces of Russia’s leadership are the names and ages of their sons. ¤ How many of them have sons in the Russian Army? ¤ None of them.
🖼 https://twitter.com/officejjsmart/status/1628129125780099075?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer KREMINNA AXIS /2320 UTC 21 FEB/ Reports indicate that UKR has engaged elements of the RU 55th Motor Rifle Brig and the 331st Reg of the 98th Division (Airborne) east of Yampolivka. RU forces also launched attacks toward Dibrova, south of Kuzmyne and again at Bilohorvika.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1628167902879748096?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @AustinAustin231 Momentum in #Washington is shifting toward sending #Ukraine ATACMS and F-16 Fighter Jets, says a Senior U.S. Lawmaker (#Reuters)
¤ https://twitter.com/AustinAustin231/status/1628133987142053889?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT AXIS /1230 UTC 21 FEB/ N of Bakhmut, RU units are attempting to expand control of the M-03 HWY. UKR units were in contact at Berkhivka, Pidhorodne and south of the T-13-02/M-03 jct. RU pressed attacks in the E Bakhmut suburbs, along the Patrice Lumumba Blvd /H32 axis.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1628008111662325760?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @Gerashchenko_en “The West was not plotting to attack Russia. President Putin chose this war. Every day the war continues is his choice. ¤ It’s simple. If Russia stopped invading , it would end the war. If Ukraine stopped defending itself against Russia, it would be the end of Ukraine” – @POTUS
🐣 RT @NOELreports Belarus said that there is a significant grouping of Ukrainian troops massed near its border and warned that this posed a threat to its security. “At present, a significant grouping of the Ukrainian army is concentrated in the immediate vicinity of the border,” The MoD said.
🚫 🐣 RT @front_ukrainian ⚡️The 🇷🇺Russian Federation is going to seize the airport in Chisinau for the transfer of troops, – 🇲🇩Moldovan Prime Minister Recean [Dorin Recea]
🌎 https://twitter.com/front_ukrainian/status/1628066431517569030?s=20/photo/1
⋙ 🐣 RT @MariusBatca In fact, Zelensky said that. In response, Prime Minister Dorin Recean said that this is one of the “multiple scenarios” to destabilize the situation in the Republic of Moldova.
🐣 RT @wartranslated Update from Bakhmut, 21 February: No success by Russians in Bakhmut, although frequent assaults continue. Comments on the world stage events – Kiyanyn.
💽 https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1628060306629951492?s=20/photo/1
// on Budapest Memorandum; Chinese drones etc
🐣 it’s a sad fact of history that who the aggressor was depends on how far back you want to go ¤ but in 1991-2, when the USSR collapsed, many states became independent and were recognized by the UN ¤ Putin never accepted this, calling it the greatest geopolitical tragedy of the 20thC
🐣 RT @BlaySylvester Summary of Putin’s speech [Bingo card]
¤ https://twitter.com/BlaySylvester/status/1627971470495293441?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @wartranslated More madness from Prigozhin this morning who declares there’s “direct work to destroy Wagner” as even the sapper shovels are not provided to the PMC anymore. “These officials decided it is their country, their people, they will decide when they die”, he adds.
💽 https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1627970502173028353?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @ktotakoe France 2019. Putin’s speech on implementation of the 2015 Minsk agreements and recognition of a special status of the Donetsk and Lugansk republics. The reaction of Zelensky speaks for itself.
💽 https://twitter.com/ktotakoe/status/1625110927421874177?s=20/photo/1
⭕ 20 Feb 2023
NYT, David Axe: Some of the Best Weapons in the World Are Now in Ukraine. They May Change the War https://tinyurl.com/48pv5xky “Allied countries are reaching deep into their arsenals to make sure [Ukraine’s] anticipated counteroffensive has the best possible chance of succeeding”
🐣 RT @michaeldweiss Exclusive: a consortium of international investigative journalists including @holger_r and myself have obtained the Russian Presidential Administration’s strategy document for Vladimir Putin’s takeover of Belarus by 2030.
⋙ YahooNews: Revealed: Leaked document shows how Russia plans to take over Belarus https://tinyurl.com/23n8b4mp
// The document, written for Putin’s Presidential Administration, envisages the total incorporation of Belarus into a “Union State” with Russia by 2030.
TheAtlantic, Anne Applebaum: Biden Went to Kyiv Because There’s No Going Back https://tinyurl.com/mezz83z2 “He’s the American president. He made an unprecedented trip to a war zone, one where there are no U.S. troops to protect him. And, yes, he’s old. But he went anyway”
// The president’s surprise visit sent a message to Moscow—and to European leaders.
🐣 RT @WarMonitors ⚡️What to expect from Putin’s speech via the Kremlin Pool
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/WarMonitors/status/1627939549417467905?s=20/photo/1
[Text:] There are only four hours left before Putin’s message. The head of state did not address the Federal Assembly for 1 year and 10 months, during which time the political environment has accumulated a lot of expectations regarding the president’s speech. We share the main ones:
● The speech should inspire “the country and the army” and paint an image of the future. In this case, the president should not ignore the support of new regions of Russian Federation.
● The theme of the special operation will become the leitmotif of the President’s message and will determine many other topics: social security for the participants of the MD, equipping the army, training fighters.
● The President will outline socio-economic tasks. Will touch upon the issues of the standard of living in the country, demography, incomes of the population, prices for food and medicines
● Interlocutors in the agricultural sector are concerned about the removal of restrictions on grain exports, the abolition of duties, large-scale procurement interventions and electricity tariffs.
● Entrepreneurs expect to understand what kind of social and economic assistance the authorities expect from business, and what kind of support they are ready to give in return. In addition, businesses are waiting for signals regarding changes in the tax area. The message will also be addressed to an external audience.
● The head of state will talk about the fight against terrorists and saboteurs, the modernization of the military-industrial complex and the results of confronting Western sanctions.
🐣 RT @anders_aslund Cleverly, @POTUS showed courage & commitment by going to Kyiv the day before Putin is supposed to give his annual speech to the Russian Federal Assembly in secluded Gostinny Dvor beside the Kremlin in Moscow. ¤ Let us see how far that coward will be from any person!
🐣 RT @IAPonomarenko Lemme give you a detailed plan for Putin’s big speech due tomorrow:
1. Russia has never attacked anyone.
2. They made us do this, we didn’t have a choice.
3. The survival of Russia is at stake now.
4. It’s all still part of the plan though.
You’re welcome.
🐣 RT @KyivIndependent ⚡️Putin to deliver speech ahead of one year mark of war in Ukraine. ¤ Russian dictator Vladimir Putin will give a speech on Feb. 21 updating Russia’s political and military elite on the state of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine that began nearly one year ago.
(📊) USNews&World/AP (2/14): GOP Leaders Start Laying Groundwork for More Ukraine Aid https://tinyurl.com/mrxkrw24 ‘Leading Republicans in Congress are launching an early & aggressive effort to make the case for why the US should continue spending billions on the war effort’
// 2/14/2023; Republicans assuming new positions of leadership in the House and Senate are not waiting for the next funding debate over Ukraine to begin making the case for why the U.S. should continue supporting the war-torn nation
Leading Republicans in Congress are not waiting for the next debate over assistance to Ukraine, instead launching an early and aggressive effort to make the case for why the U.S. should continue spending billions of dollars on the war effort. ¤ One of their main challenges: winning over skeptical Republican colleagues.
“I’m very much focused on the dissension within my own party on this,” Republican Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told The Associated Press. ¤ McCaul plans to hold a hearing in the spring focused on Russian atrocities against Ukrainian civilians, to try to bring home the war’s terrible toll. ¤ “I find that moves the dial, when they see these horrific killings of children,” McCaul said. …
With opponents of Ukraine spending warning of fraud and corruption, the House Armed Services Committee is planning to hold monthly classified briefings for lawmakers to detail, dollar by dollar, how the U.S. security aid is being allocated.
The briefings will be every two weeks for key staff, said Armed Services Chairman Mike Rogers of Alabama, and a public hearing is in the works “to try to get more visibility for the public into the tracking that we’re doing.” …
The inspectors general for the Defense and State departments and the U.S. Agency for International Development are the lead offices tracking Ukraine spending. Rogers said he is encouraging NATO to bring in a third party to track U.S. weapons to assure the public they don’t end up in the wrong hands. …
Recent polling from Gallup found that about two-thirds of Americans support aid for Ukraine to help it regain its territory, even if it means a prolonged conflict. But that support varied depending upon political party. Nearly half of Republicans, or 47%, say the U.S. is doing too much compared with 35% of independents and just 10% of Democrats.
In the Senate, Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has consistently pressed the Biden administration for more robust action to help Ukraine win the war. He wore a bright blue and yellow tie to the State of the Union address last week — the colors of Ukraine’s flag — to trumpet his support.
The ranking Republican on the Senate’s Armed Services panel, Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, is using the bully pulpit as well. He spoke at length on the Senate floor about Ukraine and followed up with an op-ed in the National Review, a conservative outlet.
“It is a relatively modest amount that we are contributing without being asked to risk life and limb,” Wicker told the AP. “The Ukrainians are willing to fight the fight for us if the West will give them the provisions. It’s a pretty good deal.” ¤ “And what we’ve done is expose Russia’s very soft, vulnerable underbelly and we’ve made it less likely that any of our NATO allies will be attacked.” …
🐣 China’s import/export market is seriously intertwined with that of the U.S., in a way Russia’s has never been ¤ At a time when Biden is already promoting a “Built in America” agenda, China has much to lose
⋙ 🐣 RT @KashPrime Authoritarian leaders don’t have to listen to their population or business leaders. Choosing to back Russia is suicide for the Chinese economy, just as invading Ukraine set Russia back decades. Unfortunately doesn’t mean they won’t do it; we just need to prepare ASAP.
🐣 RT @mhmck Today is the Day of Commemoration of the Heroes of the Heavenly Hundred. ¤ Nine years ago today was the worst day of killings on Maidan by Putin-Yanukovych forces. ¤ But it was also the day of the triumph of the Revolution of Dignity. The Ukrainian people held firm and won.
⋙ 🐣 RT @mhmck EuroMaidan is a pivotal event in European history. The Russian fascist state started its long-planned invasion of Ukraine to crush it. ¤ Learn more at the web site of the National Memorial to the Heavenly Hundred Heroes and Revolution of Dignity Museum.
¤ https://maidanmuseum.org/en
WaPo, Eugene Robinson: Biden’s Kyiv visit shows Putin seriously misjudged his courage https://tinyurl.com/mr44khsb “Biden is rarely more animated than when he talks about drag racing in his Corvette at triple-digit speeds. He is a man with considerable tolerance for risk”
As President Biden walked the streets of Kyiv on Monday beside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, air raid sirens began to wail. A Russian fighter jet had reportedly taken off from Belarus, carrying the type of hypersonic missile that Ukraine’s defenders cannot shoot down. The two leaders did not flinch.
Say what you want about Biden, he lacks neither courage nor resolve. His surprise visit to the Ukrainian capital might be the first time a sitting president has braved an active war zone — with no inviolable U.S. military cordon around him — since 1864, when Abraham Lincoln went to see the fighting at Fort Stevens, near the northern tip of the District of Columbia, and came under fire from Confederate sharpshooters. “Get down, you damn fool!” shouted a young Union officer named Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., who later served as a justice on the Supreme Court. …
What many people fail to understand about Biden, the oldest president in our history, is the extent to which he is guided by a sense of mission. He came out of retirement and ran for the White House only because he believed he had the unique ability, and thus the obligation, to save the nation from another four years of Donald Trump. And he has faced Russia’s invasion of Ukraine with the same burden of duty imposed by history.
“I’m a great respecter of fate,” Biden said last year, having seen so much of it during his long and eventful life: He lost his first wife and daughter to a car accident, lost his first son to cancer, almost lost his second son to drug addiction. And in 1988, he suffered two brain aneurysms and was given no better than a 50 percent chance of survival. ¤ In his 2007 book, “Promises to Keep,” Biden wrote: “Maybe I should have been frightened at this point, but I felt calm. In fact, I felt becalmed, like I was floating gently in the wide-open sea. It surprised me, but I had no real fear of dying.” …
… [Putin] neglected to take into account Biden’s deep and abiding Roman Catholic faith, his belief in destiny, his commitment to the rules-based international order — and the fact that Biden is rarely more animated than when he talks about drag racing in his Corvette at triple-digit speeds. He is a man with considerable tolerance for risk. …
Other world leaders allied with Ukraine have visited Kyiv, as have other high-ranking U.S. officials, including former House speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). But Zelensky said Monday’s was “the most important visit in the whole history of the Ukraine-U.S. relationship” — and that was an understatement.
Without Biden’s leadership and diplomacy, it is hard to imagine how the NATO alliance could have been made stronger by Putin’s invasion, rather than weaker. Without Biden and Congress providing what almost amounts to an open spigot of military and economic aid, it is hard to imagine Ukraine not only surviving the Russian onslaught but also reclaiming lost territory and inflicting massive casualties on Putin’s forces. …
It would be no surprise if Putin reacted to the Biden visit with a deadly barrage of missiles against civilian targets. No one can keep Putin from waging his war. But Biden can — and will — keep him from winning it.
🐣 RT @ Cristinamarie62 @POTUS this is a personal message for you from Magyar and his comrade on the front lines in Bakhmut, Ukraine. 🇺🇦🤝🏽🇺🇸
⋙ 🐣 RT @wartranslated Update from Bakhmut, 20 February – Magyar
💽 https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1627807713152360448?s=20/photo/1
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @FerransRichard Magyar, please understand It’s actually the other way around: The President of the United States came to Ukraine to honor YOU & your fellow brave citizen-soldier brothers & sisters. ¤ The President represents all of us who honor you as well. ¤ That’s the simple truth. ¤ Slava Ukraini🇺🇦
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @ gina_shreve Wow!! I just saw This clip from Magyar aired on CNN News!! ¤ @wartranslated please tell Magyar 🇺🇸🇺🇸people heard Him today!! Heroyam Slava 💪🙏🏻🇺🇦🌻🙏🏻
🐣 RT @WarMonitor3 Bakhmut Holds! ¤ Heavy assaults take place to the north sector of the frontline they throw everything. ¤ There is firefights for every metre. ¤ To the south more assaults towards the road attempting to bypass Ivanivske from the west
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT /2245 UTC 20 FEB/ There has been no briefing by the UKR Gen’l Staff for the last 24 hours. RU forces are reported to have crossed the M-03 HWY north of Bakhmut, and captured the important M-03/T-05-13 HWY junction
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1627799256437256194?s=20/photo/1
🐣 .@MSNBC: Don’t listen to MTG, Biggs or Gaetz about aid to Ukraine. Talk to the chairs:
@RepMikeRogersAL, Armed Services: @HASCRepublicans
@RepMcCaul, Foreign Affairs: @HouseForeignGOP
@RepMikeTurner, Intelligence: @HouseIntel
@RepMarkGreen, Homeland Security: @HomelandGOP
💽 MSNBC: Adm. Stavridis: China sending lethal military aid to Russia could trigger more U.S. aid to Taiwan https://tinyurl.com/2p8d2jut
// Former Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes and former NATO Supreme Allied Commander Admiral James Stavridis join Andrea Mitchell to break down what’s at stake if China provides lethal military aid to Russia. Stavridis explains that China providing aid to Russia could lead the U.S. to respond by sending more aid to Taiwan. He says, “Let’s hope both sides can kind of step back from this. It’s in neither sides’ interest for China to take this on, supporting this rotten regime in Moscow.”
RT @ Timodc First look at DeSantis foreign policy:
– Blames US for Russian invasion of Ukraine
– Attacks US president while in war zone
– Signals we should dial back support for Ukraine
– minimizes RUS threat
– Anti Afghanistan withdrawal
– Bellicose talk about China
⋙ 🐣 RT @atrupar Ron DeSantis on Fox & Friends on Biden’s visit to Ukraine: “I and many Americans are thinking to ourselves, Ok, he’s very concerned about those borders halfway around the world. He’s not done anything to secure our own borders here… we have a lot of problems accumulating here.”
━━━━━━━▼ House support for Ukraine
🔄 🐣 Key House Defense Committees:
@RepMikeRogersAL, Armed Services: @HASCRepublicans
@RepMcCaul, Foreign Affairs: @HouseForeignGOP
@RepMikeTurner, Intelligence: @HouseIntel
@RepMarkGreen, Homeland Security: @HomelandGOP
~ combat MD Iraq Afgh; CODEL 2022 met Ze; pro-mil-aid, but wants itaccounted for
4️⃣ Newsweek (2/9): Full List of Republicans Backing Matt Gaetz’s Resolution to End Ukraine Aid https://tinyurl.com/4veuce5k 9 are members of the “Cosplay 🤡 Caucus” (voted to not certify Biden); Luna is new; Massie is anti-Trump, but voted not to honor Hill cops
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1627930964620894208?s=20/photo/1
// 2/9/2023
Eleven (of 435 House Members) oppose Ukraine aid:
Andy Biggs KY 🤡
Lauren Boebert CO 🤡
Matt Gaetz FL 🤡
Paul Gosar of AZ 🤡
Marjorie Taylor Greene GA 🤡
Anna Paulina Luna FL (new member; may have falsified bio)
Thomas Massie KY (anti-Trump; opposed honors for capitol cops)
Mary Miller IL 🤡
Barry Moore AL 🤡
Ralph Norman SC 🤡
Matt Rosendale MT 🤡
3️⃣ 🐣 RT @HASCRepublicans Chairman @RepMikeRogersAL, @RepGaramendi @DonaldNorcross @RepLisaMcClain @Rep_Clyde, @RepMalliotakis, & @RepMarkAlford released the following statement after a CODEL to Romania and Poland to conduct oversight of the U.S. aid being sent to Ukraine. https://tinyurl.com/2naxnzrs
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/HASCRepublicans/status/1625933597122170903?s=20/photo/1
// 2/15/2023
[Text:] The American people have every right to know that U.S. military equipment donated to Ukraine is being used for its intended purpose – Ukraine’s fight for national survival.
As a bipartisan Congressional delegation, we traveled to Poland and Romania to conduct oversight of this process. We came away with a clear understanding of the various safeguards the U.S. government, in partnership with the Ukrainians and other nations, have put in place to ensure each article is accounted for and tracked to the frontline of the war.
We traveled to the International Donation Collection Center in Poland to see firsthand the accounting and tracking practices which provide accurate counts of shipments into Ukraine. While there, we also met with General Agudo and the Department of Defense’s Security Assistance Group Ukraine, who provided us with a comprehensive briefing which detailed how the U.S. tracks our donations directly to the frontline. We left that briefing confident in our ability to track U.S. equipment from the moment it leaves our possession and makes it into the hands of Ukrainian warfighters.
We also relayed the concerns of Americans with the following message: should we confirm that any defense articles are siphoned off, diverted, or missing the flow of U.S. equipment would cease to be tenable. Our job of oversight is not done and we will continue to monitor U.S. equipment flowing into Ukraine.
Chairman Mike Rogers (R-AL), Rep. John Garamendi (D-CA), Rep. Donald Norcross (D-NJ), Rep. Lisa McClain (R-MI), Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA), Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY), Rep. Mark Alford (R-MO)
⋙ 🐣 This visit (CODEL) was clearly intended to counter the small number (“about 10 co-sponsors out of 435 members“) of GOP voices in the House calling for scrutiny of military aid sent to Ukraine and to respond to Speaker McCarthy’s statement that there can be “no blank check”
2️⃣ 🐣 RT @saletan On CNN, @RepMcCaul and @RepMikeTurner dismiss the latest House resolution to cut off aid to Ukraine.
McCaul: “That bill had about 10 co-sponsors out of 435 members.”
Turner: “There are 435 members of Congress. There are probably 400 that are for continuing this direction.”
// 2/19/2023
⋙ 🐣 These are not just two random House members
.@RepMcCaul is Chair Foreign Affairs Cmte: @HouseForeignGOP
.@RepMikeTurner is Chair Intelligence Cmte: @HouseIntel
1️⃣ 🐣 RT @HouseForeignGOP @HouseForeignGOP CHM @RepMcCaul and @HASCRepublicansCHM @RepMikeRogersAL release a joint statement urging the Biden administration and allies to swiftly send Ukraine weapons needed to win
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/HouseForeignGOP/status/1615802390023933952?s=20/photo/1
// 1/18/2023
[Text:] The current handwringing and hesitation by the Biden administration and some of our European allies in providing critical weapon systems to Ukraine stinks of the weak policies of 2021, such as not sanctioning Nord Stream 2 or providing U.S.-origin Stingers before the full scale invasion. While those policies failed to deter this conflict, the current indecision and self deterrence will prolong it – costing Ukrainian lives. Now is the time for the Biden and Scholz governments to follow the lead of our U.K. and Eastern European allies – Leopard 2 tanks, ATACMS, and other long-range precision munitions should be approved without delay.”
⋙ ForeignAffairsCmte (1/18): McCaul, Rogers Urge Admin & Allies to Swiftly Send Ukraine Weapons Needed to Win https://tinyurl.com/58tevhbs //➔ The chairs of key House committees urge Biden “to transfer to Ukraine urgently critical weapon systems they need to defeat Russia”
// 1/18/2023
━━━━━━━▲
🐣 RT @cozad_june Sharing grief is one of his super powers.
🖼 https://twitter.com/cozad_june/status/1627714453973385216?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @BradBeauregardJ President Zelenskyy wipes tears from his eyes as President Biden meets with Ukrainians in Kyiv. ¤ So proud of our president for making this courageous and dangerous trip.
💽 https://twitter.com/BradBeauregardJ/status/1627639661026852865?s=20/photo/1
🧵 RT @KyivIndependent Exactly nine years ago on Feb. 20, 2014, Ukraine was going through one of the bloodiest days in the three-month-long EuroMaidan Revolution. Also known as the Revolution of Dignity, it is often credited as one of the most consequential events in Ukraine’s modern history.
📌 🖼 https://twitter.com/KyivIndependent/status/1627686188311105541?s=20/photo/1 -4
🐣 RT @ZelenskyyUa Historic. Timely. Brave. I welcomed @POTUS in Kyiv as Russian full-scale aggression approaches its one-year mark. I am thankful to the U.S. for standing with Ukraine and for our strong partnership. We are determined to work together to ensure Ukraine’s victory.
💽 https://twitter.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1627631915263004672?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @vinm300 24 Feb 2023 Wang Yi in Moscow will present China’s “Peace proposition”
It will be the same as Deal 1 (9 Nov) : demilitarised Crimea under UN, with a UN referendum after 7yrs
Difference : Crimea will be under the Aegis of Ukrainenfor those 7yrs – NOT Russia
Putin accepted Deal
⋙ 🐣 what about the rest of Ukraine?
🐣 RT @vinm300 Thanks for asking Putin agreed to give up Donbas on 9 Nov, &
Russia would “demilitarise Crimea, UN referendum in 7yrs”
Deal 2 24 Feb Russia will give up Donbas (maybe ‘Basque autonomy’ UN transitioned)
“Crimea demilitarised” by Ukraine – UN transition, UN referendum after 7yrs
⋙ 🐣 thanks a lot; looking forward to the written proposal
the Ukr proposal, of course, wants reconstruction, criminal prosecutions, etc, and ALL territory returned, plus security guarantees and a fast path into the EU
~ hard to see Putin explaining to his people
🐣 📋 RT @lance_cotten Today Is Mon. Feb 20th, 2023 and Joe R Biden has been in Office for 761 Days. Since in office he has reduced the debt in his first year by $1.7T. Pres.Biden has passed the biggest infrastructure bill in History! The Lowest Unemployment in 50yrs! Tap the 💙 and RT to keep it going.
🖼 https://twitter.com/lance_cotten/status/1627630446258319362?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @NOELreports A video of Biden and Zelenskyi visiting the St. Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery where they laid flowers for those who died. They also visited the plaque that was dedicated to Joe Biden on the Alley of Courage in Kyiv.
💽 https://twitter.com/NOELreports/status/1627659113940373507?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @WhiteHouse Today, President Biden is in Kyiv to reaffirm America’s unwavering commitment to Ukraine’s democracy, sovereignty, and territorial integrity. ¤ The United States of America will stand with the Ukrainian people for as long as it takes.
🖼 https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse/status/1627644745735438340?s=20/photo/1 -4
NYT, Oksana Zabuzhko: The Problem With Russia Is Russia https://tinyurl.com/mpkuf8d3 “Russia will not become a democracy until it falls apart. … Russia is not really a nation-state but [a] premodern multiethnic empire living on geographic expansion and resource looting”
The dismemberment of the Soviet empire was duly halted at the borders of the Russian Federation — at the cost of two devastating Chechen wars, for which the Kremlin was given a free hand both domestically and internationally. As a result, Chechnya-Ichkeria became a testing ground for the military strategy now applied against Ukraine: state terrorist warfare.
What if, I keep asking myself, Russia’s new totalitarianism had not been so lightheartedly overlooked by the rest of the world in the 1990s? Back then, to spare humanity the rise of a new Hitler, it would have been enough to let Russia go on peacefully shrinking under proper international control. Alas, the West agreed to blame Communism alone for all the atrocities of the Soviet regime. Russian imperialism was never identified as a problem.
Could this have been — as my war-honed anticolonial acuity prompts me to believe — a case of latent imperialistic solidarity? Was it guilty pleasure that for decades made the elites of the former Western empires smile indulgently, rather than shudder, when faced with the brazen colonial supremacy with which Moscow was treating its non-Russian subjects? I fail to see any other reasonable explanation for why so many in the West clung to the irrational belief that democratic transformation in Russia was just around the corner. …
Russia will not become a democracy until it falls apart. That’s because Russia is not really a nation-state but the same premodern multiethnic empire living on geographic expansion and resource looting as 300 years ago — and is thus doomed to reproduce, again and again, under whatever ideological cover, the same prison-ward-like political structure that alone keeps it together. …
[T]he age of imperialism is over. If there could be any positive result found in the 12 months of this horrific war — in tens of thousands of people murdered, raped and mutilated, in millions of lives ruined, in the best black soil on earth littered with mines, in innumerable treasures of cultural heritage turned to debris — it would be that we Ukrainians have all together, in a united effort of resistance, proved that non-Russian lives matter.
🐣 RT @DefenseU On the eve of the anniversary of the full-scale invasion, on the Day of Heroes of the Heavenly Hundred, our most reliable partner, the United States of America, sends a powerful message to our enemy: tyranny will not defeat the Free World!
Welcome to Ukraine, Mr.President @POTUS
🐣 RT @ APonomarenko This is what historic figures do. ¤ In hard times, they take the leadership and overcome, instead of just drifting with the tide and rolling over. ¤ That’s what makes them different from generic and mediocre managers.
🐣 RT @wartranslated Bombshell audio recording indicates Prigozhin is unable to solve any issues with ammunition for Wagner. ¤ This morning, Prigozhin’s mouthpiece channel posted a 7-minute recording of him saying that he is forced to “apologise and obey” to get ammunition.
💽 https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1627623132528779264?s=20/photo/1
🐣 Richard Haass is clueless. He doesn’t know about the 5x rampup in US production of artillery shells or the EU ammunition alliance to inventory & identify ammo to be sent to Ukraine. As for China, it’s anyone’s guess and he’s guessing, too, but I doubt China wants to ruin US trade
🐣 “Humanity is outraged in me & with me – We must not dissimulate or forget this indignation, which is one of the most passionate forms of love” ~ George Sand
#Ukraine
🖼 https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1627620937536249857?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @AUSTROHNGARO2 U.S. President Biden in #Kyiv: ¤ #Ukraine will receive a new $500 million military aid package to be announced on Tuesday.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/AUSTROHNGARO2/status/1627615306658054144?s=20/photo/1
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 20, 2023
Statement from President Joe Biden on Travel to Kyiv, UkraineAs the world prepares to mark the one-year anniversary of Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, I am in Kyiv today to meet with President Zelenskyy and reaffirm our unwavering and unflagging commitment to Ukraine’s democracy, sovereignty, and territorial integrity.
When Putin launched his invasion nearly one year ago, he thought Ukraine was weak and the West was divided. He thought he could outlast us. But he was dead wrong.
Today, in Kyiv, I am meeting with President Zelenskyy and his team for an extended discussion on our support for Ukraine. I will announce another delivery of critical equipment, including artillery ammunition, anti-armor systems, and air surveillance radars to help protect the Ukrainian people from aerial bombardments. And I will share that later this week, we will announce additional sanctions against elites and companies that are trying to evade or backfill Russia’s war machine. Over the last year, the United States has built a coalition of nations from the Atlantic to the Pacific to help defend Ukraine with unprecedented military, economic, and humanitarian support – and that support will endure.
I also look forward to traveling on to Poland to meet President Duda and the leaders of our Eastern Flank Allies, as well as deliver remarks on how the United States will continue to rally the world to support the people of Ukraine and the core values of human rights and dignity in the UN Charter that unite us worldwide.
🐣 RT @POTUS As we approach the anniversary of Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, I’m in Kyiv today to meet with President Zelenskyy and reaffirm our unwavering commitment to Ukraine’s democracy, sovereignty, and territorial integrity.
🐣 RT @NOELreports Biden in Kyiv, while the air alarm goes off. Today is going to be a good day. ¤ 👊👊👊
🐣 RT @peterbakernyt Biden makes a surprise visit to Kyiv, Ukraine, to demonstrate his commitment to beating back Russian invaders nearly a year after Putin invaded the country. Story with @shearm will post momentarily.
🐣 RT @Purtova_aa President Biden @POTUS is already in Kyiv! This is a moment that will go down in history. It is a symbol that Ukraine is not alone. Our friends are by our side. We are united in our goal of preserving Ukraine, its western and democratic growth path.
🖼 https://twitter.com/Purtova_aa/status/1627606913943732225?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @general_ben Exactly what our President should be doing…personal presence to convey American commitment. I hope POTUS will use this opportunity to say that US policy is for Ukraine to win, to eject Russia from all Ukrainian territory, and that we will do all that is necessary.
🐣 RT @@KyivPost US President Joe Biden in #Kyiv. ¤ To the sounds of air raids, #Biden honored the fallen defenders of #Ukraine.
💽 https://twitter.com/MikeStaresinic/status/1627607612324732929?s=20/photo/1
⬇️ Mykola 🇺🇦🇺🇸🇵🇱🇨🇦🇬🇧🇱🇹🇱🇻🇪🇪🇫🇮
🐣 RT @Mykola65109280 ⚡️Deputy Head of MFA of 🇺🇦 #Ukraine Melnyk: “In #Kyiv, we are preparing a surprise. It is important for us that on the eve of the anniversary of the 🇷🇺aggression, we feel and see not only verbal support but also the presence of our important and main partners. Let’s wait and see.”
🖼 https://twitter.com/Mykola65109280/status/1627592147699482625?s=20/photo/1
// 🇺🇸US, 🇵🇱Poland, 🇨🇦Canada, 🇬🇧UK, 🇱🇹Lithuania, 🇱🇻Latvia, 🇪🇪Estonia, 🇫🇮Finland
// photo of Biden
🐣 RT @DefenceHQ [UK] Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine – 20 February 2023 ¤ Find out more about Defence Intelligence: http://ow.ly/N1Lu50MWtH0
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦
● Russia continues to pursue several offensive axes in eastern Ukraine: Vuhledar, Kremina, and Bakhmut. Casualties reportedly remain high, particularly in Bakhmut and Vuhledar. Specifically, the ‘elite’ 155th and 40th Naval Infantry Brigades have sustained very high losses in Vuhledar and are likely combat ineffective.
● Russian forces are likely under increasing political pressure as the anniversary of the invasion draws near. It is likely that Russia will claim that Bakhmut has been captured to align with the anniversary, regardless of the reality on the ground.
● If Russia’s spring offensive fails to achieve anything then tensions within the Russian leadership will likely increase
⭕ 19 Feb 2023
🐣 RT @JuliaDavisNews Russian TV aired the first installment of the cringiest docu-series, “The Woman on Top”—an ode to the head of RT, Margarita Simonyan. She urged everyone not to lie and then lied the whole time. BTW, LOL, they’ve included the same clip of me—twice.
💽 https://twitter.com/JuliaDavisNews/status/1627532773102583808?s=20/photo/1
// [See Comments]
⋙ 🐣 RT @Prune602 “My lies can lead to a catastrophe for my Motherland” ~Margarita Simonyan ¤ Congratulations Champ! You did it.
⋙ 🐣 RT @Prune602 [Caption:] “The truth is her weapon” ¤ Margarita Simonyan? Is…is today Opposite Day?
🧵 RT @KofmanMichael A few thoughts on the Russian winter offensive, which began 3+ weeks ago, and has so far yielded little progress for RU forces. Poor force quality, loss of junior officers, ammunition, and equipment constraints limit Russian offensive potential. Thread. 1/
📌 https://twitter.com/KofmanMichael/status/1627309427907854336?s=20
[ThreadReader:] https://tinyurl.com/577s9xck
🐣 RT @TimothyDSnyder Deporting children to denationalize them, as Russia is doing, is indeed a war crime. In fact, “forcibly transferring children of the group to another group” is genocide, according to 1948 convention. Summary here, full report @YaleSPH.
⋙ NPR: Russia deports thousands of Ukrainian children. Investigators say that’s a war crime https://tinyurl.com/3b9p8hw6
// 2/14/2023.
🐣 RT @USAmbKyiv I honor the courage and sacrifice of the Heavenly Hundred who, nine years ago, gave their lives fighting for a better future for Ukraine. In the midst of Russia’s horrific war, the United States stands with you in support of a future worthy of them and so many Ukrainian heroes.
💽 https://twitter.com/USAmbKyiv/status/1627543052553183232?s=20/photo/1
NYT: U.S. Warnings to China on Arms Aid for Russia’s War Portend Global Rift https://tinyurl.com/55jz2thh
// Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken says Washington has indications that Beijing is strongly considering giving military aid to Moscow for the war in Ukraine.
[N]ew warnings by U.S. officials that China may be preparing to give weapons and ammunition to Russia for its war on Ukraine portend the worst of the old Cold War.
In that decades-long shadow struggle, the United States, the Soviet Union and occasionally China poured military resources into protracted wars around the globe, engaging in bloody proxy conflicts from Korea to Vietnam to Afghanistan.
American officials say that China, unlike Iran and North Korea, has over the year of the war in Ukraine refrained from giving material aid to Russia. President Biden has stressed to Xi Jinping, China’s leader, that any such move would have far-reaching consequences.
There is no doubt that China’s entry into the war in that manner would transform the nature of the conflict, turning it into an epochal struggle involving all three of the world’s largest superpowers and their partners on opposing sides: Russia, China, Iran and North Korea aligned against the United States, Ukraine and their European and Asian allies and partners, including Japan and South Korea.
Warnings to China from Antony J. Blinken, the U.S. secretary of state — made in multiple settings on Saturday and Sunday, including on television — revealed that the Biden administration believes Beijing is close to crossing the line. And the fact Mr. Blinken spoke out publicly shows the desperation of the United States as it tries to dissuade Mr. Xi and his aides from doing so.
Officials in Washington and European capitals, including here in Madrid, one of the staunchest aid providers to Kyiv, say that they are bracing for a new Russian offensive in Ukraine this spring, and that they need to do everything they can this winter to blunt Russia’s chances of breaking through Ukrainian defenses.
Mr. Blinken confronted China’s top foreign policy official, Wang Yi, when the two met on Saturday night on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, telling him Washington believed that China was “considering providing lethal support to Russia in its efforts in Ukraine,” the secretary of state said in an interview with Margaret Brennan of CBS News. ¤ “And I was able to share with him, as President Biden had shared with President Xi, the serious consequences that would have for our relationship,” Mr. Blinken said. …
American officials say China has deepened its ties with Russia during the war. And last Thursday, on the eve of the security conference, Wang Wenbin, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said, “China stands ready to work with Russia to further advance our comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination for a new era.” ¤ Wang Yi, the foreign policy official, is expected to go to Moscow in the coming days, a trip that U.S. officials are closely watching. Russia has said Mr. Xi will visit it sometime this year. …
The United States has few, if any, good cards to play with China. Though the two nations remain robust trade partners, relations are at one of their lowest points in decades, made worse by the crisis that erupted over the Chinese spy balloon that entered the continental United States at the start of this month.
A long readout of the meeting between Mr. Blinken and Mr. Wang issued by Xinhua, the Chinese state news agency, did not mention any talk of Ukraine and Russia, but did say the two officials clashed over the balloon episode, and said more broadly that “the United States is using all means to block and suppress China.”
Italy’s foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, said on Italian radio last Friday that Mr. Wang had told him that Mr. Xi plans to make a “peace speech” on the war in the coming days. ¤ U.S. officials and some European officials say they are skeptical, asserting that Chinese officials are trying to make it appear as if China is a neutral broker seeking a peace agreement when in reality it is edging toward giving material aid to the Russian war effort.
Barry Pavel, a fellow at the Atlantic Council, a foreign policy research group in Washington, said in an online post that news that Mr. Xi was preparing a speech was “very troubling both for why China is doing this as it also is considering lethal support to Putin, and also what form the ‘peace plan’ may take and how that too, will support Putin’s offensive.”
🐣 RT @IuliaMendel China’s top diplomat Wang Yi said at the Munich conference that world leaders need to think “about what kind of efforts we can make to stop this war.” Chinese President Xi Jinping is set to deliver a “peace speech” Feb. 24, the anniversary of Russia’s invasion.
⋙ 🐣 Alarming: Don’t forget that China claims Taiwan is part of China, similar to Russia’s claim that Ukraine is part of Russia.
WaPo, Robyn Dixon and Catherine Belton: Putin, czar with no empire, needs military victory for his own survival https://tinyurl.com/2s44u7nz “Putin’s vision of Russia horrifies many [elites], who confide that the war has been a catastrophic error that has failed in every goal”
President Vladimir Putin likes to portray himself as a new czar like Peter the Great or Ivan III, the 15th-century grand prince known as the “gatherer of the Russian lands.” But Putin’s year-long war in Ukraine has failed so far to secure the lands he aims to seize, and in Russia, there is fear that he is leading his nation into a dark period of strife and stagnation — or worse.
Some in the elite also say the Russian leader now desperately needs a military victory to ensure his own survival. “In Russia, loyalty does not exist,” one Russian billionaire said.
Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began with hubris and a zeal to reshape the world order. But even as he suffered repeated military defeats — diminishing his stature globally and staining him with allegations of atrocities being committed by his troops — Putin has tightened his authoritarian grip at home, using the war to destroy any opposition and to engineer a closed, paranoid society hostile to liberals, hipsters, LGBTQ people, and, especially, Western-style freedom and democracy. …
[B]usiness executives and state officials say Putin’s own position at the top could prove precarious as doubts over his tactics grow among the elite. For many of them, Putin’s gambit has unwound 30 years of progress made since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Putin’s vision of Russia horrifies many oligarchs and state officials, who confide that the war has been a catastrophic error that has failed in every goal. But they remain paralyzed, fearful and publicly silent. …
As the casualties mount in Ukraine, filling graveyards across Russia’s provinces, Moscow’s glittering facade conveys a hedonistic, indifferent city. Its restaurants and cafes are crammed with glamorous young patrons sporting European designer wear, taking selfies on the latest iPhones, and ordering truffle pizza or duck confit to be washed down with trendy cocktails.
But beneath, Putin is creating a militarized, nationalistic society, fed on propaganda and obsessed with an “existential” forever war against the United States and NATO. So far, no one in officialdom has had the nerve to object — not publicly, at least. …
The president seems forever haunted by the moment when as a young KGB officer serving in Dresden, the Soviet Union “gave up its position in Europe” as the Berlin Wall collapsed. And his pursuit of the empire lost with the subsequent Soviet collapse is throwing his country back into a gray, repressive and isolated past. For Putin, his efforts are a quest to right what he has perceived as historical wrongs. In his near-maniacal revisionist view, Ukraine has always belonged to Russia.
But even if Putin somehow forces Ukraine into capitulating and ceding occupied territory, those in the elite who lean toward a more liberal society stand to lose the most. Punitive Western economic sanctions are likely to remain in place, and some oligarchs undoubtedly would be pressed to pay to rebuild Russia’s new lands. Some analysts predict a sweeping purge of oligarchs and others deemed insufficiently patriotic.
Already, there are shocking glimpses of Putin’s new Russia: A couple in a Krasnodar restaurant were arrested, handcuffed and forced to the floor after being denounced to the police by an eavesdropper who heard them quietly bemoaning the war. ¤ An older woman on a bus was dragged from her seat, thrown to the floor and roughly pushed out the door by passengers because she called Russia an empire that sends men to fight in cheap rubber boots. ¤ Videos purportedly show members of the Kremlin-approved but technically illegal mercenary Wagner Group executing “traitors” in beatings with a sledgehammer.
Former central bank official Alexandra Prokopenko described an atmosphere in which officials fear prison amid intimidation by the security services. ¤ “It is a concern for every member of the Russian elite,” said Prokopenko, who is in exile in the West. “It’s a question of survival for high-ranked, mid-ranked officials who all remained in Russia. People are quite terrified about their safety now.” She said former colleagues still at the bank told her they saw “no good exit for Russia right now.” …
Kremlin image makers convey Putin’s power in staged events where he looks the archetypal dictator — often a lone figure in the distance placing flowers at monuments to past military heroes. His staged appearances with purported ordinary Russians seem scripted and artificial, with participants simpering in nervous awe. The same faces keep appearing in different settings — dressed as soldiers, fishers or churchgoers, raising questions about how many real people the president ever meets.
As the war casualties pile up, Putin and top propagandists extol a fatalistic cult of death, arguing that it is better to die in Russia’s war than in a car accident, from alcoholism or from cancer. … [A] man who died in war “did not leave his life for nothing,” he said. “His life was important.” …
🐣 RT @TimothyDSnyder Everyone should watch “Twenty Days in Mariupol.” A landmark in the culture that helps us understand the conflict of our time.
💽 ⋙ 🐣 RT @bbcselect As we approach a year since the start of the current Russia-Ukraine conflict, three @BBCNews documentaries premiere in the US and Canada on Select. Watch Mariupol: The People’s Story, Putin vs the West and Ukraine: The People’s Fight from today: https://bit.ly/3S3MZoI
🐣 RT @justartsndstuff “The new Prime Minister of Moldova announced the need for the demilitarization of Transnistria. ¤ Dorin Recean said that Transnistria should be demilitarized, RU troops should be expelled from there, after which economic and social integration of citizens will be necessary
🧵 RT @ PhillipsPOBrien There is alot to Blinken saying this publicly that needs to be unpacked. The 1st reason is the USA must be very concerned that China is actually going to supply significant military support to Russia. So far, most have said that China was more helping around the edges.
📌 https://twitter.com/PhillipsPOBrien/status/1627375456491130880?s=20
[ThreadReader:] https://tinyurl.com/yvewwhyh
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @TheresaAFallon Blinken said US is “vy concerned”🇨🇳is considering supplying🇷🇺w/weapons & ammunition in🇺🇦. ¤ Blinken warned that such support would have “serious consequences” for the US relationship with Beijing during a meeting on the sidelines of #MSC2023.
The 2nd thing is that this indicates that China must believe that the Russian army is in terrible shape and desperately needs aid. The Chinese are assumed to be studying how effective sanctions can be if the US order sticks together. [ForeignAffairs link]
The 3rd–this is really important because a major (and regular) supply of Chinese military products would be a real benefit to Russia. Russian domestic production seems to be woefully inadequate to make up for Russian losses. China can produce far more.
I would go so far as to say that the only way Russia can wage a long-war is with significant Chinese support in both finished munitions, spare parts and specialized components such as microchips.
The 4th, is that this will lead almost definitely to an escalation in the aid given to Ukraine (and one wonders if the Chinese decision makers are wondering whether this is worth this risk). If China basically throws in militarily with Russia, Western aid to Ukraine is increased.
the 5th, the USA has to believe that the Chinese government is torn about how much military aid to give Russia and by going public they are trying to put maximum pressure on Beijing not to do this. ¤ It would be one of the most fateful choices of the war–so bears watching closely.
🐣 RT @anders_aslund The Munich Security Conference attracted many more top politicians than Davos World Economic Forum this year. Politicians have become more interested in discussing security policy than in socializing publicly with billionaires. Also, Munich is not for profit.
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT /2045 UTC 19 FEB/ Wagner PMCs continue efforts against the critical M-03 / T-13-05 junction. On 19 FEB, UKR forces broke up a series of RU ground attacks on Dubovo-Vasylivka and Berikhivka, South of the M-03. RU casualties mount in a series ineffective infantry attacks.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1627407790565203968?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer FROM SWEDEN WITH LOVE: Stockholm will be sending C-90 Infantry Fighting Vehicles (IFVs) to UKR. Equipped with updated optics, night vision, thermal targeting systems and armed with a 40mm Bofors L/70 auto cannon, the C-90 will prove troublesome for Ukraine’s uninvited guests.
◕ https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1627089181683126276?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer LONG DISTANCE PUNCH: The UK has said it will provide long range weapons to UKR. One system under consideration is the Stormshadow SCALP/EG, a stealthy air-launched cruise missile. https://tinyurl.com/yxef7ata
◕ https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1627314493700153348?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @mhmck President Biden needs to fire Jake Sullivan and all his incompetent, unqualified advisors who are stuck in pre-1991 thinking about Russia and Ukraine. ¤ The only policy which serves US national security is total victory for Ukraine and utter defeat for the Russian terrorist state.
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer MERCI PARIS: The French Minister of Defense, Sébastien Lecornu, said the the first shipment on AMX-10 Fighting Vehicles will be handed to Ukraine next weekend. A highly mobile recon vehicle with modern sensors and a tank-killing 105mm gun, the AMX-10 will make an impression.
◕ https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1627300531474427909?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @EuromaidanPress Speaking at #MSC2023, @kajakallas said that for sustainable peace in Europe, Russians must face their past and modern crimes through a tribunal for Russia’s leadership and by facing historical crime
⋙ EuromaidanPress: For sustainable peace, all Russians must face their crimes – Estonian PM https://tinyurl.com/5d47dyzw
// For sustainable peace in Europe, Russians must face their past and modern crimes, Estonian President Kaja Kallas said at the Munich Security
🐣 RT @SlavaUk30722777 Witch had a crazy idea in Bakhmut #Ukraine
💽 https://twitter.com/SlavaUk30722777/status/1627158314286194688?s=20/photo/1.
🐣 RT @Hilmatthews1
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/Hilmatthews1/status/1627084508188282882?s=20/photo/1
[Text:] 🐣 RT @@laurenboebert One thing you can be sure of – I’ll never go woke.
⋙ 🐣 RT @Leslieoo I’m sure of that. To be woke requires awareness, an enlightened mind, exposure to different cultures and different types of people. It requires maturity to realize that not everyone looks like you or thinks like you and that’s okay.
Woke is an antonym of ignorance.
⋙ 🐣 we used to just say liberal
1. willing to respect or accept behavior or opinions different from one’s own; open to new ideas.
2. relating to or denoting a political and social philosophy that promotes individual rights, civil liberties, democracy, and free enterprise.
🐣 📋 RT @RobbieGramer Secretary of State Antony Blinken says China is considering sending Russia weapons to help its war in Ukraine in an interview with @margbrennan
⋙ CBSNews: Transcript: Secretary of State Antony Blinken on “Face the Nation,” Feb. 19, 2023 https://tinyurl.com/4kkhh8wf
MARGARET BRENNAN: We go now to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is in Germany attending the Munich Security Conference. Mr. Secretary, I know you just met with your Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, who has publicly said the U.S. response to the spy balloon was ‘absurd,’ ‘hysterical,’ and an ‘effort to divert attention away from domestic problems.’ Was he that dismissive to you in private?
SECRETARY OF STATE ANTONY BLINKEN: Margaret, I don’t want to characterize what he said, I can tell you what I said. I made very clear to him that China sending a surveillance balloon over the United States, in violation of our sovereignty, in violation of international law, was unacceptable, and must never happen again. We also had an opportunity to talk about what’s happening here in Munich, the focus of the conversation of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, and concerns that we have the China’s considering providing lethal support to Russia, in its efforts in Ukraine. And I was able to share with him, as President Biden had shared with President Xi, the serious consequences that would have for our relationship. Finally, it was important for me to underscore that we believe having lines of communication, engaging in direct diplomacy, is very important. We have a responsibility to manage our relationship in a responsible manner. That’s part of what this evening was about.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Does that mean their defense minister will pick up the next phone call from Secretary Austin instead of refusing it?
SEC. BLINKEN: Well, it’s one of the things that we talked about. The importance of having lines of communication, including military-to-military lines of communication. It’s vital to making sure that there aren’t miscommunications, misunderstandings, especially if you’ve got a crisis or some other situation on your hands. And so I tried to impress upon my Chinese counterpart the importance of having those contacts, including military-to-military.
MARGARET BRENNAN: A senior Pentagon official said last week that President Xi Jinping was caught by surprise by the surveillance balloon and that he doesn’t trust his own military. Did the left and right hand of the Chinese government not know what was going on?
SEC. BLINKEN: I can’t speak to that, Margaret. But what I can- what I can tell you is this. It doesn’t matter in the sense that China is responsible for this action. And ultimately, as the leader of the country, President Xi is responsible. It’s one of the reasons it was important for me on behalf of President Biden to share directly with the most senior Chinese foreign policy official, the very clear determination that this must not happen again.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, if Colin Kahl, this Pentagon officials’ comments are accurate, that would raise the risk of miscalculation if China doesn’t have control over its own military. That’s why I wanted you to clarify that.
SEC. BLINKEN: So Margaret, I can’t again- I can’t speak to the- the Chinese views on this. I can only imagine that China must be in the process of trying to draw its own lessons from this incident. And of course, we’re not the only- the only ones concerned, Chinese use these surveillance balloons over more than 40 countries across five continents. So one of the things I’m hearing here in Munich, is real concern about the surveillance balloon program. I suspect the fact that it’s been exposed by us is going to have to cause China to take another look at this.
MARGARET BRENNAN: I’m going to come back to what you mentioned in terms of providing support to Russia. There is open-source reporting that Chinese companies are providing surveillance equipment to that mercenary group, the Wagner group fighting in Ukraine. Does the U.S. consider this to be providing military support to Russia?
SEC. BLINKEN: We’ve been concerned from day one about- about that possibility. In fact, if you go back to the very first conversations that President Biden and President Xi had about Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, just a couple of weeks into the war, President Biden shared with with President Xi our deep concern about the possibility China would provide lethal support to Russia to- to Russia in this effort, as well as engaged in the systematic evasion of sanctions. And the reason for that concern was just weeks before the aggression, you’ll remember that President Xi and President Putin had a meeting in which they just talked about a partnership with no limits. And we were concerned that among those- among the lack of limits would be Chinese support for Russia in the war. We’ve been watching this very closely. To date, we have seen Chinese companies and of course, in China, there’s really no distinction between private companies and the state. We have seen them provide non-lethal support to Russia for use in Ukraine. The concern that we have now is based on information we have that they’re considering providing lethal support, and we’ve made very clear to them that that would cause a serious problem for us and in our relationship.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Lethal support, what would that entail? What do you think–
SEC. BLINKEN: Weapons. Weapons.
MARGARET BRENNAN: That’s ammunition, that’s–
SEC. BLINKEN: Primarily weapons.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Primarily–
SEC. BLINKEN: There’s a whole gamut of things that- that fit in that category, everything from ammunition to the weapons themselves.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Iran is also accused of providing more weaponry to Russia here. So they are–
SEC. BLINKEN: That’s right. We’ve seen Iran provide–
MARGARET BRENNAN: They are building an alliance.
SEC. BLINKEN: We’ve seen Iran provide drones that Russia is using in Ukraine to attack civilian infrastructure, to kill civilians. This is something that’s been going on for months. We’ve been working to expose that, to take action against it, to sanction it. There’s an increasingly noxious relationship between Russia and Iran. And it’s actually a two way street. Not only is Iran providing this- this equipment to Russia, but Russia is also providing military equipment to Iran, including, it looks like, sophisticated fighter planes. That’s something that looks like it may be happening, which would make Iran an even greater threat, if it acquires that technology. So this is something that we’ve been talking about with allies and partners around the world. That relationship is a growing concern.
MARGARET BRENNAN: And that would make them party to this conflict directly. In other words, this isn’t just a war between Russia and Ukraine.
SEC. BLINKEN: Well, what we’ve seen with Iran is that the malicious activities that it’s engaged in, through – throughout the region, and it’s been engaged in for years, we now see that expanding out to other parts of the world, and particularly in this case, to Russia’s war against Ukraine. And that’s, of course, a real concern. We’ve also seen them targeting opponents of the regime, including in the United States, as you know, some individuals were arrested just a short while ago for trying to assassinate an Iranian journalist in New York, who opposes the regime.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So from your conversation with your Chinese counterpart, do I understand that usually, when you say it’s a direct conversation, that’s “diplo-speak” for it didn’t go very well? It was pretty heated? Or did you make plans to visit Beijing in the near future?
SEC. BLINKEN: It’s “diplo-speak” for saying it was very important to speak very clearly, very directly, about the deep concerns we have. The concerns that we have about this surveillance balloon, and the entire program, the concerns we have about the possibility that China will provide lethal material support to Russia and its war effort against Ukraine–
MARGARET BRENNAN: But there was no apology?
SEC. BLINKEN: And it’s important that- again, don’t want to characterize what they said, although it’s safe to say there was no apology. But again, it’s also important, and this is why it was also useful to have this meeting this evening, also important to have these direct lines of communication, to make sure that- that we are talking to engage in diplomacy. We have to manage this relationship responsibly. We have to make sure that the competition that we’re clearly engaged in, does not veer into conflict, into a- into a new Cold War. It’s not in our interest, I won’t speak to theirs, but it’s not in ours. But at the same time, we will very resolutely stand up for our interests. We will resolutely stand up for our values. That’s what we’ve been doing over the last couple of years and that’s what we’ll continue to do.
MARGARET BRENNAN: In terms of Russia’s war, 97% of its military is already engaged in this fight in Ukraine, according to the UK, but they have substantial airpower they haven’t tapped into yet. Do you see evidence that Russia is preparing an aerial attack on Ukraine?
SEC. BLINKEN: Russia’s losses have been horrific. You’re right that 90- 97 percent or so of their ground forces have been engaged in this war, which is extraordinary. And the losses to date have been horrific. Public figures suggest 200,000 casualties, that is a combination of those killed, and those wounded. The destruction of their war machine itself, the tanks, the armored vehicles, the missile launchers, etc, has also been extensive. In terms of airpower, they tried some of this early on. Ukraine’s air defenses were actually successful in shooting down a lot of Russian aircraft. So they backed off of using aircraft. That doesn’t mean that they won’t try to do that going forward. But at least to date, Ukraine has had air defenses that have allowed it to pose such a threat to Russian aircraft that they haven’t really been flying.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So do you see a change in the U.S. position to greenlight other countries to provide fighter jets to Ukraine? Do you expect any policy change when President Biden visits Poland in the days to come?
SEC. BLINKEN: Margaret, what we’re focused on is trying to the best of our ability to make sure that Ukraine has what it needs, when it needs it, to deal with the challenge it faces in the moment. And all along, we’ve been very clear that we shouldn’t fixate or focus on any particular weapons system, because it’s not just the weapon system. You’ve got to make sure that the Ukrainians are trained to use it, you’ve got to make sure they have the capacity to maintain it, because if they’re not trained to use it, it’s not going to do them a lot of good. If they can’t maintain it and it falls apart in a week, it’s not going to do them a lot of good. And so, some of these weapons systems of one kind or another, are highly sophisticated, things that they haven’t used in the past, we’ve got to make sure that- that they have the capacity to use them and use them effectively–
MARGARET BRENNAN: You’re talking about U.S. jets there, it sounds like, versus- versus the Soviet-era jets–
SEC. BLINKEN: Well, I’m talking about any- any–
MARGARET BRENNAN: that Poland has, for example, that could be transferred, that they’ve offered to transfer–
SEC. BLINKEN: I’m talking about any sophisticated piece of military equipment that the Ukrainians haven’t had practice using in the past. But the other thing is this, we’re also very focused on the here and now and the months to come. Right now, what’s going on is this. The Russians are engaged in an offensive along the eastern front, and they’re putting a huge amount into it and they are suffering terribly for that effort, as I said, losing a huge number of forces, using- losing a huge number of pieces of equipment. And the Ukrainians are doing everything that they can with our assistance to withstand that, and they’re doing that very, very well. But in the months ahead, we fully anticipate that Ukraine will engage in its own counter offensive. And what’s vitally important is that they have what they need for that counter offensive, not what they may need in a year or two years. We’re working on that too, but the focus now has to be on what would they be able to use right now to defend themselves against the Russian offensive, and to engage in their own offensive to take back more of the land that was seized by Russia by force.
MARGARET BRENNAN: I’m going to ask you, lastly, about this designation of crimes against humanity that the Vice President announced. She cited horrific things like a four-year-old girl being raped by Russian soldiers, thousands of Ukrainian children being taken from their families, to say that this constitutes legally crimes against humanity. President Biden has already used the term genocide. Is the State Department working on a genocide determination?
SEC. BLINKEN: We will, as always, look at every legal possibility when it comes to going after the atrocities that Russia is committing in Ukraine. The determination that- that we made crimes against humanity that the Vice President announced today is unfortunately, starkly clear. And we’ve seen that almost from day one. We saw it in Bucha, when the Russian tide receded, we saw what was left in its wake, and it’s horrific. And we continue to see it across the country, the fact that they’re targeting civilians, targeting civilian infrastructure, so that people freeze to death, don’t have the lights on.This practice that, as a parent, is almost impossible to fathom, of literally seizing Ukrainian children, sending them to Russia, sending them to centers, there are about 43 of them that we found. There was a project undertaken by Yale University with our support that has documented this, to 43 centers in Russia and some in Ukrainian territory that Russia now holds. Some of these places are closer to Alaska than they are to Ukraine. Separating them from their families and then having them adopted by Russians. This is in and of itself, horrific. It also speaks to the fact that President Putin has been trying from day one to erase Ukraine’s identity, to erase its future. That’s what’s going on, and that too, is a crime against humanity.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Some of what you described is consistent with the statutory basis for the Genocide Convention. So I’m hearing what you’re saying as you are potentially looking at that?
SEC. BLINKEN: We will look at every possible determination, but we’re going to follow the facts, and we’re going to follow the law. These are very serious determinations, and we will engage in them very seriously.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Secretary Blinken, thank you for your time today.
🧵 RT @wartranslated Summary of the semi-daily livestream with Oleksiy Arestovych, former Ukraine’s Presidential Head of Office advisor, Day 330, January 19th. Kindly brought to you by Janat: @Janat_H1 Read thread or visit: https://tinyurl.com/crtvp93e
📌 https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1627240278321991682?s=20
[ThreadReader:] https://tinyurl.com/2p8ut9yb
⚡️ Munich Security Council
– Feygin: US President Biden is expected to address Putin and RF citizens during his visit to Warsaw. Munich security council’s message foreshadows what that speech might be about: “Moscow lost and needs to surrender.”– Arestovych: Russia could have taken a prominent place in the global arena and participated in the formation of a new, fair world order. Putin chose to take RF citizens hostage and started the largest war since WWII.
This led to tectonic changes in global security, and Russia is no longer a global power: Macron called for UN security council reform where RU may not remain a permanent member.
Addressing RF citizens, Biden might say that the new, restructured world order could exclude Russia, but RF citizens still have a chance. They must stop the senseless new offensive and mobilization efforts which will be futile and only result in more deaths. ¤ The united world is determined to fight RF until RF is defeated.
Germany’s Foreign Affairs minister Annalena Baerbock stated that Germany would not support the proposal of territorial concessions to Ukraine in exchange for peace with RF.
To do otherwise is to condone Russia’s aggression, betray the UN charter, and make the people of Ukraine Russia’s prey. RU must withdraw its troops, then peace talks can begin. The West clearly stated its position to support Ukraine until RF’s defeat.
It is up to RF and its president to determine the scale of this catastrophe. Russia can still withdraw its troops, extradite war criminals, pay reparations, and return to the global community, or suffer a catastrophic defeat and be excluded from the new world order.
⚡️ China
China’s Xi plans a ‘peace speech’ on the invasion anniversary, which will not be to Putin’s liking. But the speech will be welcomed by a “peace party” beginning to form behind the scenes in Moscow.This “peace party” can use it to build stronger arguments to win the doubters in RU, presenting the positions of both the West and China.
⚡️ Weapons
The UK pledges to be the first to supply long-range missiles.
Sunak said the irony is that all NATO weapons and equipment were always intended for Moscow, so these deliveries are strictly within purpose.While the UK, US, and Germany do not promise jets, they will support any country that will supply – logistics, training, and maintenance.
⚡️ Frontline Update
Air raids: there were four cruise missile strikes, with two intercepted. ¤ There were hits, but the power supply wasn’t interrupted. 16 missile strikes today. Despite heavy losses, RU continues with the offensive in Bakhmut, Kupyansk, Lyman, and Avdiivka directions. MoD of RF reported the capture of Dvorichna, a settlement of 650 people. Ukraine denied.RU tries to push UA away from Svatove-Kreminna highway, advance toward Lyman and Slovyanks, and encircle Bakhmut. Russia withdraws one artillery regiment from Bakhmut due to heavy losses. RU efforts in the Avdiivka-Maryinka direction resulted in no advances.
Vugledar: RU changed troop concentration and direction of attack but failed. Kherson: artillery exchanges with RU targeting civilian objects and UA targeting military aims.
⚡️ Wagner-MoD Conflict
The rift between the RU private military company and the Army is spilling over into broad information space. Wagnerites shot portraits of generals Lapin and Gerasimov (chief of the general staff).Wagner accuses MoD of not supplying them with ammunition and shot a grim video from the morgue to indicate their losses could have been avoided.
As an authoritarian, centralized state, RU will not tolerate such statements from a field commander.
RU doesn’t need the Wagner group inflated into an army. Wagner will become a smaller, tamed, more manageable company for specific missions, for example, in CAR. Its leader Prigzhin will not become a political figure.
⚡️ New Ethics in Politics
Ukraine fights for new ethics from this war to form the basis for postwar world order – Andriy Yermak at Munich Security Conference.This new ethics should include three points: 1) injustice should be unprofitable; 2) injustice must be reprehensible; 3) benefit should be determined only by justice.
⚡️ Russian Offensive
Arestovych called it suicide. ¤ The new offensive might last 4-6 weeks and result in devastating losses. The time is just as unfavorable as last year, the army is weakened, with inadequate equipment and troops suffering from low morale. There will be waves of cruise missile attacks.They even might take another small village. But ultimately, everyone in the RU government, army, and society will realize that their political goals cannot be reached with military means. Not clear what this realization will lead to.
Three surprises to expect after this “offensive”:
– It will be much smaller than predicted
– It will be shorter than predicted
– It will create a sense of dead-end and senselessness in everyone in Russia
– Russian people may never know the real scale of the losses, but they will all understand this was pointless.Putin is preparing a speech before the federal assembly on Feb 21; the next day, he will speak at the Luzhniki stadium in front of the state employees.
State Duma invited representatives of South Ossetia, Abkhazia and, possibly, Transnistria to its upcoming gathering. Without much success in Ukraine, Putin might take a compensatory measure and announce these territories as new members of the union state.
Moldova and Georgia will have to take a stronger position on that. If this measure is taken, long-range missiles might be supplied by not only UK.
It is unlikely Putin will announce general mobilization. ¤ Mobilization never stopped, but RU lacks training grounds and equipment to train its troops.
⚡️ #SaveMisha
Feygin: February 20 – a global campaign in support of the ex-president of Georgia, Saakashvili, will occur in multiple capital cities. ¤ We need a wide public response to this initiative worldwide.This issue is being discussed in State Department, and President Biden might address the government of Georgia during his press conference in Warsaw. ¤ Georgia faces its biggest defeat in foreign policy if it loses its European integration opportunity
🐣 RT @McFaul Biggest impression from #MSC2023 . Western leaders keep saying to Ukraine we will be with “as long as it takes.” Ukrainians keep saying, be with us stronger and faster now (more & better weapons sent faster). Ukrainians don’t feel like they have a lot of time.
🐣 RT @NOELreports The Supreme Commander of NATO’s Joint Forces in Europe, General Christopher Cavoli, supports providing Ukraine with the most advanced Western weapons, including F-16s and long-range missiles, to bring it closer to victory, he said in a closed door meeting
⋙ Politico: F-16s, longer-range missiles could help Ukraine beat Russia, U.S. general privately tells lawmakers https://tinyurl.com/576s9tpm
// Gen. Christopher Cavoli’s comments go further than other administration officials
⭕ 18 Feb 2023
WaPo: Top U.S., Chinese diplomats hold first meeting since balloon incursion https://tinyurl.com/4uecja3k
// Secretary of State Antony Blinken and China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, discussed China’s surveillance activities and alliance with Moscow — topics that have brought diplomatic relations between Beijing and Washington to new lows
The viewpoint of China is looming particularly large at Munich’s traditionally Eurocentric conference given the surprise announcement that Chinese President Xi Jinping is planning to deliver a “peace speech” on the anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. ¤
China will lay out its position on resolving the Ukraine conflict in a document underscoring that warring countries’ territorial integrity must not be violated, said Wang, who spoke on a panel at the conference on Saturday.
Wang said world powers need to start thinking “about what kind of efforts we can make to stop this war” and underscored that “nuclear wars must not be fought.”
Despite Beijing’s expressions of interest in bringing an end to the conflict, Blinken did not come away from the discussion believing that China is poised to break with Russia, said a senior State Department official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive discussions.
NYT, Nicholas Kristof: Biden Should Give Ukraine What It Needs to Win https://tinyurl.com/ypx98uss “Putin is all in, and we should be as well. That means fighter aircraft, ATACMS, high-end anti-ship cruise missiles — the kitchen sink” ~ James Stavridis, former NATO allied commander
NYT Editorial: Putin Began His Unjust War One Year Ago. Here’s What Ukraine Needs Now https://tinyurl.com/4cuda7z9 “A conflict that ends with a stronger Ukraine will send a message that the US does have the resolve and capability to help counter the excesses of autocrats and bullies”
A conflict that ends with a stronger Ukraine will send a message that the United States does have the resolve and capability to help counter the excesses of autocrats and bullies. The Biden administration’s regular declarations of full support for Ukraine, even when military aspects of that support are under discussion, demonstrate that America has not, as Mr. Putin thought, forever lost its ability to lead. America’s readiness to stand up to Mr. Putin has united most of the world’s major democracies behind a common cause.
It is hard to imagine, for example, that without a strong commitment from Washington, Sweden or Finland would have applied to join a NATO that only three years ago President Emmanuel Macron of France described as “brain-dead,” or that Germany would have agreed to send German tanks to repel Russia. And while key allies such as Britain, France, Germany, Poland and others may not match America’s level of support, they have shown a readiness to absorb far greater economic consequences stemming from sanctions on Russia. …
… [S]erious diplomacy has a chance only if Russia accepts that it cannot bring Ukraine to its knees. And for that to happen, the United States and its allies cannot waver in their support.
TheGuardian, James Meek: One year after the start of war, what lies ahead for Ukraine? https://tinyurl.com/3dyx2wxm “A year ago, the world doubted Ukraine’s survival; now is the time to plan how to help it live and thrive”
// It’s a year since Vladimir Putin’s savage invasion began. The west has been Kyiv’s arsenal and banker but what role would it play in a conflict that could last generations?
… Popular uprisings in 2004 and 2014, in which intellectuals and the emergent middle class played a lead role and European bourgeois democratic ideals came to the fore, failed to alert the west that the old, simplistic framework of a nationalist versus Soviet nostalgist schism in Ukraine was breaking down. Too many in the west were still ready to believe that, in some fundamental sense, Ukraine “belonged” to Russia. When in 2014 Russia annexed Crimea and sent troops into eastern Ukraine to salvage the failing armed uprising it contrived there, there was anxiety in the west, wringing of hands and mild sanctions, but no serious consequences for Putin.
Last year’s invasion shocked the west, and provided us with an entire new set of cliches: Ukraine the brave, the defiant, the ingenious, the suffering, the wronged, screaming “Why?” over the body of a dead newborn. Ukraine, the defender of civilisational values; Ukraine, keeping calm and carrying on as the original writers of the slogan imagined, Ukraine, capturing tanks with tractors, giving a battlecruiser the finger and sinking it. Fleets of Russian tanks pouring down Ukrainian highways in rigid formation, blown apart by a handful of daring Ukrainian improvisers on quad bikes using donated western anti-tank missiles and drones ordered on the internet.
The sense of purpose and righteous mission this has generated in the west is real, and has broad public support, but it has a short time-horizon. Even the overall strength of support in the west for Ukraine since the invasion began conceals radical shifts in the west’s sense of the country. In the first few days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, when the scope of Putin’s ambition became clear, horrified watchers in Europe and America guessed the days to the country’s inevitable fall. A few weeks later, when Ukraine held Russia at the gates of Kyiv, there was admiration and surprise at the country’s resilience.
When the savage nature of Russian occupation emerged in towns like Bucha, a shiver of pity, anger and shame ran through the west, and support for arming Ukraine grew appreciably. The Russian retreat from Kyiv and north-eastern Ukraine raised hopes; doubts set in about Ukraine’s ability to push Russia further; in autumn, the Ukrainians swept Russia from Kherson and Kharkiv, western weapons began to flow and complete victory seemed plausible; the Russians dug in, and began, with methodical waves of missiles, to destroy the Ukrainian economy. … …
If Putin’s ideal Ukraine is a shrunken Russian vassal, Ukraine’s own ideal is security against Russia, and integration with the west, to which the west’s reply is: not yet. Not yet – perhaps never – to Nato, not yet to the EU, not yet to an effective air force. If the west is to keep faith with Ukraine, and encourage it to accept any loss of territory – to lay the grounds, one far-off day, for the good relations it ought to have with a better-run Russia that has learned to lose its contempt for its neighbour’s statehood – it has to make a better offer than “not yet”. It will be exceptionally difficult, since the offer would have to include a military element of peacekeeping troops or air power that will infuriate Putin, and trade terms with the EU that will be politically hard for Europe.
It will be expensive, it will be open-ended, and it will come under constant and furious political attack from inside the west and from outside. It will be hostage to the future politics of Ukraine, Russia, the US and Europe. It’s worth it. A year ago, the world doubted Ukraine’s survival; now is the time to plan how to help it live and thrive.,
🐣 📋 RT @uasupport999 Russia has lost 200 thousand soldiers in the war with Ukraine, – Blinken at the Munich conference. ¤ According to American sources, this figure includes killed and wounded soldiers of the Russian Armed Forces.
🐣 RT @SpencerGuard Big sign they are losing the war – “The Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) confirmed the names of the four military district commanders, finalizing a complete turnover of the Russian military’s initial command since the start of the invasion of Ukraine.”
🐣 RT @@PStyle0ne1 🤡 Russian troops have 2-3 weeks left, – Ghirkin ¤ According to his conviction, the invaders have 2-3 weeks of offensive operation left. Afterward, there is nothing left to fight on. At the same time, the main problem of the Russian army is the communication and control system.
WaPo Editorial: How to break the stalemate in Ukraine https://tinyurl.com/3vwdnuwu “[T]he West’s overarching goal must be ensuring that the Russian tyrant gains nothing by his aggression. To allow an outcome that rewards the Kremlin in any way would be a moral travesty”
Nearly a year after Vladimir Putin unleashed carnage in Ukraine — a war triggered by Kyiv’s aspiration to be fully democratic, pluralistic, European and forever free of Moscow’s yoke — the West’s overarching goal must be ensuring that the Russian tyrant gains nothing by his aggression. To allow an outcome that rewards the Kremlin in any way would be a moral travesty. It would also deal a potentially lethal blow to the principle on which Western stability and civilized international conduct rests: that sovereign states cannot be invaded, subjugated and subjected to mass slaughter with impunity.
To thwart Russia and safeguard Ukraine’s sovereignty, the United States and its European allies have little choice but to intensify their military, economic and diplomatic support for Kyiv. That means equipping Ukrainian forces with more decisive weapons and in greater numbers, imposing more aggressive sanctions on Moscow and galvanizing a more muscular international coalition to isolate and ostracize Russia. …
Kyiv will need greater numbers of almost every type of weaponry — artillery shells, which it is firing at a rate of nearly 100,000 per month; fighting vehicles; advanced drones; and, especially, high-tech air defense systems. The United States and its allies, especially Germany, should accelerate their production and supply of air defense systems to blunt Russia’s systematic campaign to pulverize Ukrainian power stations and degrade critical infrastructure.
Kyiv will also need advanced Western fighter jets. Providing that air capability has been ruled out for now by Mr. Biden, in the case of U.S.-made F-16s. He should reconsider on the condition that Kyiv commits that the jets will be used to defend Ukraine on its own territory, not for attacks inside Russia. Sooner or later, the West will need to provide Ukraine with weapons systems that not only help to end the war but also dissuade Russia from launching new ones. The most effective deterrent will be a convincing array of military muscle on the ground and in the skies — as well as, eventually, NATO membership and the security guarantee it provides.
… Only when the Kremlin grasps that victory is impossible — that it cannot hold sovereign Ukrainian territory seized illegally — will negotiations be possible. …
Western public opinion has so far remained relatively solid behind Ukraine’s plight, despite signs of slippage in some countries. In a January poll by Gallup, nearly two-thirds of Americans supported Ukraine’s effort to regain its territory taken by Russian aggression. That’s roughly the same proportion that held that position last summer, although Republican backing for the war is wobbly. As costs mount to sustain Ukraine’s survival, Kyiv’s successes on the battlefield would help buttress public opinion in the United States and Europe.
Mr. Biden and allied leaders will also be crucial in stiffening Western resolve by reminding their electorates that the bloodletting in Ukraine is a war of aggression led by a dictator deluded by dreams of imperial revival. They need to drive home the point that the inevitable result of a Russian victory would be a far more dangerous world — and an invitation to further aggression by Moscow. The targets of that aggression would likely be other nearby states, including NATO members whose security rests on the assumption that U.S. and European troops will ride to the rescue. …
[A] principal lesson from the past year is that the risk of escalation is overblown. Ukraine is in a defensive war to recapture its own territory. As for the Russian autocrat, he has nothing left to escalate with other than manpower and nuclear weapons. If the West adequately arms Ukraine, he cannot win with the former and is very unlikely to resort to the latter, which would alienate his most important ally, China. A tactical nuclear strike by Russia would be one of history’s greatest acts of strategic self-immolation, cementing Russia’s pariah status for decades.
This is a pivotal moment in 21st-century history and a critical juncture for U.S. interests, leadership and prestige. The crucial objective should be fortifying Ukraine so that Russia’s unwarranted war is understood by dictators as a cautionary tale — and not as a template for remaking the world to their liking.
🐣 RT @NOELreports NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg urged to increase military assistance to Ukraine. “For the alliance, the risk of an escalation of the conflict is not comparable to the risk of a Russian victory.”
🐣 RT @Tendar Russians who suddenly fall out from windows after questioning Putin’s sanity and competence clearly have underestimated the *gravity* of the situation.
⋙ BI: Top Russian military official dead after plunging out of high-rise https://tinyurl.com/mt83n3zb
// Marina Yankina, the head of the financial support department for the Russian Defense Ministry’s Western Military District, was found dead Wednesday.
🐣 RT @Gerashchenko_en Ukrainian anthem at Maidan on fire, 18 February 2014 when Ukrainians fought against pro-Russian president for the right to join the EU.
We will never forget those who gave their lives for our freedom.
9 years ago we didn’t allow to break us and we won. We will win now, too.
💽 https://twitter.com/Gerashchenko_en/status/1626977723707977728?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer KREMINNA /2100 UTC 18 FEB/ RU operations in the Kreminna Area of Operations (AO) appear to have temporarily paused. Intel confirms that RU has concentrated forces N of the urban area of Kreminna: RU units can be assumed to be readying for combined arms operations.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1627049512534515712?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT AXIS /1450 UTC 18 FEB/ It is assessed that Russian units have effectively interdicted the M-03 HWY is between Berikhivka and Pidhorodne. With recent RU gains North of Bakhmut, the struggle for control of the M-03 HWY is entering a critical phase.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1626956617878056961?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @USNATO Russia’s savage attacks on Ukraine are the latest demonstration that President Putin has no interest in meaningful diplomacy. The United States, our NATO Allies and partners will continue to support Ukraine’s self-defense.
💽 https://twitter.com/USNATO/status/1626510262009307138?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @USAmbKyiv We have examined the evidence, and I have heard firsthand from survivors. There is no doubt: Russia’s forces committed crimes against humanity in Ukraine. For all the victims, known and unknown, of this systematic violence: Justice must be served.
⋙ 🐣 RT @SecBlinken Based on the law and available facts, I have determined that members of Russia’s forces and other Russian officials have committed crimes against humanity in Ukraine. All those responsible for these atrocities must be held accountable.
⋙⋙ State[.]gov: Crimes Against Humanity in Ukraine https://tinyurl.com/4ax95a9w
… Members of Russia’s forces have committed execution-style killings of Ukrainian men, women, and children; torture of civilians in detention through beatings, electrocution, and mock executions; rape; and, alongside other Russian officials, have deported hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian civilians to Russia, including children who have been forcibly separated from their families. These acts are not random or spontaneous; they are part of the Kremlin’s widespread and systematic attack against Ukraine’s civilian population. …
There can be no impunity for these crimes. All those responsible must be held accountable. As today’s determination shows, the United States will pursue justice for the people of Ukraine for as long as it takes.
🐣 RT @marlowc2324 “The United States has formally determined that Russia has committed Crimes against Humanity, and I say to all perpetrators & their superiors that you will be held to account. On behalf of all of the victims, known & unknown, Justice will be served.” ¤ – US Vice President #Munich
🐣 RT @GermanyDiplo #USA & Germany are in lockstep in our support for #Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s war of aggression. – @ABaerbock & @SecBlinken also spoke in the margins of #MSC2023 about our cooperation in the #NATO alliance & the upcoming summit in Vilnius.
🐣 RT @MavkaSlavka OTD, February 18 2014, then Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, ordered the Berkut riot police to use disproportionate force, with stun grenades, rubber bullets and real ammunition on people protesting on the Maidan in Kyiv (to be known as the Revolution of Dignity).
🖼 https://twitter.com/MavkaSlavka/status/1626865718221475840?s=20/photo/1 -4
⋙ 🐣 💽 RT @MavkaSlavka Watch: “Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom” https://youtu.be/yzNxLzFfR5w
🐣 RT @GlasnostGone My kind of headline: Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is to urge world leaders to “double down” on military support for #Ukraine. In a speech at the Munich Security Conference, Sunak will say allies must give the country “advanced, #NATO-standard capabilities.” [BBC:] https://tinyurl.com/4nf6zf7d
🐣 RT @SpiroAgnewGhost Deep Thoughts from Deranged Grandpa Ranty at 1:04 a.m.:
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/SpiroAgnewGhost/status/1626827173729533954?s=20/photo/1
[Text:] 🐣 RT @realDonaldTrump [ts] I will never call Ron DeSanctimonious “Meatball Ron, as the Fake News is insisting I will. Even though FoxNews killing lightweight Paul Ryan is revered by him, Low Energy Jeb Bush is his hero and always at his side, his beaches and State were closed for long periods of time, his testing, testing, testing for the China Virus didn’t work out too well, and his loyalty skills are really weak, it would be totally inappropriate to use the word “meatball” as a moniker for Ron!
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT AXIS /0010 18 FEB/ RU units appear to have finally taken Krasna Hora, and have advanced into the adjacent town of Paraskoviivka. A RU airstrike hit Berikhivka; this failed to dislodge UKR defenders, who continue hold the M-03 HWY and the Bakhmut urban area.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1626730977677479937?s=20/photo/1
⭕ 17 Feb 2023
RFE/RL: What Happened in Vuhledar? A Battle Points To Major Russian Military Problems https://tinyurl.com/ydkdjyct Estimates from Ukrainian & Russian sources said Russia lost around 130 armored vehicles; up to 500 dead. A U.S.-based think tank blamed “highly dysfunctional tactics”
The town’s relative high elevation makes it optimal for staging artillery and rocket systems, to threaten not only Pavlivka, but also the east-west T-0509 highway, which leads to a bigger highway connecting the port of Mariupol and the major city of Donetsk. ¤ It also puts at risk a major rail line that can be used to resupply troops in Donetsk and Mariupol, but also ship supplies west to Zaporizhzhya, which is under Russian control. ¤ Some military analysts have speculated that Zaporizhzhya could be the focus of a planned Ukrainian counteroffensive.
… Russian units again attacked Vuhledar — units from the 155th brigade as well as the 40th Naval Infantry Brigade, based on the Pacific peninsula of Kamchatka … ¤ It didn’t go well. ¤ By the end of the first week of February, the Russian offensive apparently stalled. … Russian commanders then tried a flanking assault from the north, but that failed in the face of fierce Ukrainian artillery and drone strikes from higher ground, and heavily land-mined approaches to the town.
Estimates by Ukraine’s General Staff said Russia lost at least 130 armored vehicles, including 36 tanks, though some observers said those figures were likely exaggerated. ¤ But anecdotal reports circulating on Telegram, plus aerial video and still photos from fields near Vuhledar, showed major losses of equipment for Russian units, estimated at between 20 and 40 tanks and other vehicles. … [U]p to 500 soldiers in total may have been killed. …
Igor Girkin, a former Russian military intelligence officer who is now an outspoken critic of Russian commanders’ conduct of the war, also suggested a major loss. He claimed that more than 30 armored vehicles were destroyed and that “dozens” of tank crew members were killed, with “even higher” losses among naval infantry special forces, and motorized riflemen. ¤ “Without much difficulty, the enemy again held his positions in the fortified area, which had already been repeatedly attempted to take in the spring and summer of last year (also head-on),” Girkin, who has been convicted in the 2014 downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, wrote on his Telegram channel.
The Institute for the Study of War, a U.S.-based think tank, said in its February 10 assessment that the video footage that had circulated widely indicated “highly dysfunctional tactics.” ¤ Tactics, it said, “that are far more indicative of the fact that the 155th Naval Infantry Brigade is likely comprised of poorly trained mobilized personnel than of poor command.” ¤ “Fear of commanders, unwillingness to correct mistakes, failure to use the experience of a year of war, and routine bureaucracy: those are the main reasons for what happened,” Rybar wrote on February 11. “Systemic changes are needed in how they approach the conduct of hostilities.” ¤ Otherwise, Rybar said, “Vuhledar will be repeated time after time.”
🧵 RT @LukeDCoffey [thread] Nobody in the think-tank community gets it right all the time. I’ve been wrong and I try being the first to admit when I am. That’s how you learn. But one year ago, just before the invasion, Samuel Charap and Scott Boston of Rand got it WRONG. ¤ And I mean W.R.O.N.G. 👇🏻
📌 https://twitter.com/LukeDCoffey/status/1626765593549455360?s=20
🧵 RT @nexta_tv THREAD Russian Z-bloggers are losing faith in the offensive and winning the war ¤ Russian Z-bloggers are losing faith in a successful offensive after the failed battle near Vuhledar, where 2 elite brigades of marines were destroyed with a hundred pieces of military equipment. 1/5
📌 💽 https://twitter.com/nexta_tv/status/1626557958510239744?s=20/photo/1
// starring (tags) Igor Strelkov Igor Girkin @girkingirkin etc
🐣 RT @nomasofi Orcs, time to give up. You got no choice.💪💪
💽 https://twitter.com/nomasofi/status/1626680035372421131?s=20/photo/1
// video: new Archer self-propelled howitzer firing Excaliber shells
🐣 RT @Tendar General Dynamics Ordnance in Scranton, Pennsylvania, producing 155mm shells for the Ukrainian army. ¤ Another factory in Texas will also produce the same type of shells. ¤ The USA ramping up the production capacities. #USA #Pennsylvania #Texas #Ukraine
🖼 https://twitter.com/Tendar/status/1626753732590419971?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @broe_jake Russian State TV is openly stating that Putin is building a Third Russian Empire… a Third Empire… a Third Realm… a Third Reich. I swear, everyone in the Kremlin looked at the what the Nazis did in the 1930s and said, “Let’s just copy them.”
💽 https://twitter.com/broe_jake/status/1626722457578270721?s=20/photo/1
// 1. Peter the Great, 2. Stalin, 3. Putin
🐣 RT @MunSecConf Last year, President @ZelenskyyUA visited Munich just a few days before Russia brutally attacked his country. Today, he took the stage #MSC2023 to share his vision for next year’s conference
💽 https://twitter.com/MunSecConf/status/1626703072050159616?s=20/photo/1
CNN, Oliver Darcy: Analysis: Fox News has been exposed as a dishonest organization terrified of its own audience https://tinyurl.com/ydkmnxnu “[A] stunning legal filing [was] made public on Thursday as part of Dominion Voting Systems’ $1.6 billion lawsuit against Fox News”
Fox News has been exposed like never before. ¤ A trove of newly-released text messages and emails have laid bare how the right-wing media giant operated with little regard for fact in the weeks and months following the 2020 presidential election. The correspondence reveals that the network’s senior-most executives and highest-profile hosts chose not to disclose what they believed to be the truth of the election out of fear that that the facts would alienate Fox News’ audience and throw the highly profitable business into ruin.
The messages were contained in a stunning legal filing made public on Thursday as part of Dominion Voting Systems’ $1.6 billion lawsuit against Fox News, showing the network’s executives and talk hosts privately trashing lies pushed by former President Donald Trump’s camp and his supporters asserting the 2020 election was rigged.
But, despite privately acknowledging the realiity of the situation, the network allowed the lies to take hold on its air, in large part because executives and hosts were terrified that telling its sizable audience the truth would prompt them to tune out.
After the election, an incensed Trump had attacked Fox News and encouraged his followers to switch to Newsmax, a smaller right-wing talk channel that was saturating its airwaves with election denialism.
Trump was enraged that Fox News was the first network to call the critical swing state of Arizona for now-president Joe Biden. And he couldn’t stand that the network, rightfully, declared Biden as the winner of the presidential contest.
In the days and weeks after the presidential contest had been called, Fox News’ audience listened to Trump and rebelled against the channel. Fox News shed a chunk of its audience while Newsmax gained significant viewership. …
Rupert Murdoch, the Fox Corporation chairman, emailed Suzanne Scott, the Fox News chief executive, telling her that Newsmax needed to be “watched.” Murdoch said that he didn’t “want to antagonize Trump further” and stressed to her, “everything at stake here.”
The messages underscore that Fox News did not live up to the basic journalistic principle that news organizations are supposed to deliver the news to viewers, without fear or favor. Instead, the right-wing talk channel engineered its coverage to appeal to its audience which was actively being lied to by Trump and his campaign surrogates. ¤ “Our viewers are good people and they believe [the election fraud claims],” Tucker Carlson acknowledged in one message to Laura Ingraham.
A week after the election had been called, Sean Hannity told Carlson and Ingraham, “In one week and one debate they destroyed a brand that took 25 years to build and the damage is incalculable.” ¤ “It’s vandalism,” Carlson responded. ¤ Hannity then discussed the damage a competitor could really do to Fox News, describing it as a potentially “serious problem.” ¤ “That could happen,” Carlson replied. … …
In a statement Thursday night, Fox News argued that the court filing contained cherry-picked quotes lacking context. ¤ “There will be a lot of noise and confusion generated by Dominion and their opportunistic private equity owners, but the core of this case remains about freedom of the press and freedom of speech, which are fundamental rights afforded by the Constitution and protected by New York Times v. Sullivan,” the network said.
RFE/RL: How Did Everybody Get The Ukraine Invasion Predictions So Wrong? https://tinyurl.com/27c5jhu7 “The only thing that stopped the Russians from going into Kyiv was the group of a few hundred volunteers that had been preparing for this invasion for months”
On February 22, 2022, Josep Borrell, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, took a phone call from the United States’ top diplomat.
According to Borrell, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told him that Russia, after months of building up a massive military force on Ukraine’s border, was, in fact, going to invade.
“Tony Blinken phoned me and told me, ‘Well, it is going to happen this weekend’,” Borrell recalled in a speech months later. “And certainly, two days later, at 5 o’clock in the morning, they started bombing Kyiv. We did not believe that this was going to happen. ¤ “We did not believe that the war was coming,” he said. …“Undoubtedly, it was a great intelligence success,” said Konrad Muzyka, a Polish-based defense analyst. “We’re used to talking about intelligence failures when it comes to the U.S.: the failures to predict the invasion of Georgia, Syria, all the stuff during the Cold War, the invasion of Hungary, Czechoslovakia.” “What the U.S. intelligence community predicted was spot-on,” he said. “They provided everyone with a lot of warning, which was luxurious, because you usually don’t really get that much warning.” …
With upwards of 175,000 troops deployed in regions along the Ukrainian border, and naval dominance in the Black Sea, Russia’s forces were expected to steamroll into Ukraine, taking Kyiv in a few days and toppling President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s government. Instead, Russia’s efforts to quickly seize Kyiv from the north were thwarted — in large part by the successful defense of an airfield just north of the capital, which prevented paratroopers from landing. In the south, Russia had more success, capturing the administrative capital of the Kherson region and then, after a weeks-long siege, capturing the Azov Sea port city of Mariupol. By spring, Russian units had withdrawn from northern districts, retreating across the border and redeploying for a new effort in eastern Ukraine.
“Why Russia did not prevail — why it was instead stopped in its tracks, routed outside major cities, and put on the defensive — has become one of the most important questions in both U.S. foreign policy and international security more broadly,” Dara Massicot, an expert on the Russian military at the Rand Corporation, a U.S. think tank, wrote in an article published this month in Foreign Affairs. “Where people got it wrong it was in their assessments of the Russian Army,” Freedman said. “It was not preordained that the Russians would screw up so badly.”
… “Despite a poor plan on Russia’s part, Russia has shown it was not the military we thought it was going into the war. And that expectation of Russia was based on assumptions that modernization and training efforts over a decade would produce results on the battlefield. We have not seen that.” “The Russians have been working very hard at building up what you might call a Potemkin village of military capability,” Davies said. …
He pointed to the example of Russia’s newest tank — the T-14 Armata — which, despite vaunted technologies and military officials bragging about its capabilities, has yet to be deployed in Ukraine.
“It’s easy to look at an adversary on paper, look at it and count [equipment]…. You can take all the satellite photographs you want. You can count up all the tanks and armored fighting vehicles, and the aircraft and what have you, and add up the balance sheet — who’s got more on one side or the other,” he said. “But the willingness to use it, the ability to use it, and the skill in using it: You can’t see that in a satellite photograph.” …
The same missed prognosis holds true for Ukraine, whose forces, many experts forecast, would not be able to hold out for long against a larger, better-equipped Russian Army. Instead, supplied with some Western weaponry and intelligence, Ukrainian forces thwarted the early Russian attempt to capture Kyiv. “We did not foresee how effectively Ukraine would resist,” Borrell said in his October speech. “I overestimated the Russian capabilities,” Muzyka said. “On the other hand, you have to remember the initial confusion and chaos on the Ukrainian side, in the initial days of the war.
“The only thing that stopped the Russians from going into Kyiv was the group of a few hundred volunteers that had been preparing for this invasion for months, and it was their resistance in Bucha and Irpin that stalled Russian advances.” Later, Ukraine surprised Russia — and outside observers — when it staged a lightning counteroffensive in the Kharkiv region in the northeast and pressured Russian forces in the Kherson region, in the south, until they withdrew across the defensive barrier of the Dnieper River — abandoning the only regional capital they had taken since the February invasion. …
Western governments and analysts were not alone in their predictions about how the invasion of Ukraine would unfold. Russia’s intelligence also was flawed, according to multiple Russian press accounts and public statements by Western officials. …
“There’s a dog that’s not barking in the night in all these discussions,” [Davies] said. “I have a sneaking suspicion…that the Ukrainians probably had quite good intelligence on the Russians,” Davies said, “and had quite a long time to invest in having good intelligence on the Russians. And [they] seem to have been better prepared for the poor state of Russian preparation than everyone else. “How solid, how detailed the intelligence was that the Ukrainians had on the Russians, and what kind of intelligence — especially their human operations — had on the Russians,” he said. “I think that will, when all the papers come out years from now, prove to be much more significant in how things played out then than we’re giving them credit for right now.”
🐣 RT @SpiroAgnewGhost The flopsweat & terror is dripping off of him.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/SpiroAgnewGhost/status/1626711777471000576?s=20/photo/1
[Text:] 🐣 RT @realDonaldTrump [ts] The Democrats have really WEAPONIZED the Department of Injustice, even sending political operatives to work in the Manhattan D.A.’s Office. They want to GET “Trump” this way, because they know they can’t beat me at the polls. They’ve been after me for years with Hoaxes and Witch Hunts, but as I become more and more popular, at least partially because of the contrast between now and just 3 years ago, it only gets more dangerous and worse. America will not become a Marxist Nation!
NYT, N. Eisen, E.D. Perry & A.L. Copeland: It’s Time to Prepare for a Possible Trump Indictment https://tinyurl.com/mt9dzdmv “It would be the trial of the 21st century, no doubt a long and bumpy ride — but a necessary one for American democracy”
If Mr. Trump is charged, it will be difficult and at times even perilous for American democracy — but it is necessary to deter him and others from future attempted coups. …
Still, the debate is worth having, and the risks are worth taking. The core American idea is that no one is above the law. If there is serious evidence of crimes, then a former president should face the same consequences as anyone else. If we do not hold accountable those who engage in this kind of misconduct, it will recur.
It would be the trial of the 21st century, no doubt a long and bumpy ride — but a necessary one for American democracy.
NYT, Michelle Goldberg: What Fox News Says When You’re Not Listening https://tinyurl.com/35acjvw6 After the “incalculable damage” the accurate Arizona projection did to Fox ratings, “hyping false claims about election fraud was a way for Fox to win its audience back”
As the Dominion filing lays out, there was panic at Fox News over viewer backlash to the network correctly calling Arizona for Joe Biden on election night. Despite its accuracy, the call was viewed, internally, as a catastrophe.
“Do the executives understand how much credibility and trust we’ve lost with our audience?” Carlson texted his producer. He added, “An alternative like Newsmax could be devastating to us.” Sean Hannity, in an exchange with fellow hosts Carlson and Laura Ingraham, fretted about the “incalculable” damage the Arizona projection did to the Fox News brand and worried about a competitor emerging: “Serious $$ with serious distribution could be a real problem.”
Hyping false claims about election fraud was a way for Fox to win its audience back. While the Arizona call was “damaging,” Fox News C.E.O. Suzanne Scott wrote in a text to Fox executive Lachlan Murdoch, Rupert Murdoch’s son, “We will highlight our stars and plant flags letting the viewers know we hear them and respect them.” …
🐣 RT @ZelenskyyUa David defeated Goliath not by conversation, but by courage & sling. Courage we do have. The sling should get stronger. So that the next year we would gather for the Post-War @MunSecConf. We shall prevail over Putin & “putins” in 🇷🇺 & all over the world.
🐣 RT @Azovsouth 🔥🔥 Pro Kremlin accounts reports of growing tension between #Prigozhin & #Shoigu ¤ In his dreams Prigozhin wished to capture Bakhmut before Jan 2023 but was intervened by Shoigu & the Rashists forces. These sentiments have angered Putin & the tension has grown even wider & bitter
🐣 RT @NOELreports “We will hold Bakhmut. Anyone who complains that the defense demands too many victims should not forget: if we withdraw, another city will become a new Bakhmut. That is why our soldiers fight for every square centimeter,” minister Dmytro Kuleba said to WAZ
🐣 RT @SollenbergerRC NEW: Special Counsel Jack Smith is reportedly investigating payments to Trump’s Save America PAC vendors—and it could finally unravel what one campaign finance expert called “one of the biggest campaign finance violations in history.” Me
⋙ DailyBeast: Trump’s Shell Spending Scheme Comes Under DOJ Scrutiny https://tinyurl.com/3tmzxk3z
// Special counsel Jack Smith appears to have set his sights on a number of Trump’s vendors. And there’s plenty to look into.
WaPo: In wake of Ukraine war, U.S. and allies are hunting down Russian spies https://tinyurl.com/26jjxhyd “[T]he fallout may add to the list of consequences that Russian President Vladimir Putin — a former KGB officer … failed to anticipate when he ordered the invasion of Ukraine”
// Officials caution that Russia retains significant capabilities despite exposure of multiple operatives in Europe
WaPo: Fox News hosts, execs privately doubted 2020 conspiracies shared on air https://tinyurl.com/9e7z9r2h “‘Not a single Fox witness testified that they believe any of the allegations about Dominion are true,’ Dominion argued in the filing”
// Rupert Murdoch called election conspiracies ‘really crazy stuff,’ according to new legal filings in Dominion’s $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit
🐣 RT @kajakallas I’m going to #MSC2023 with 3 messages:
Ukraine must win and the aggressor must be defeated.
No Russian crime against Ukraine must go unpunished.
Grey areas in European security create instability and lead to war – they must become a thing of the past
⭕ 16 Feb 2023
🔊 TheBulwark, Charlie Sykes: Ben Wittes: Jack Smith at Ramming Speed https://tinyurl.com/mtuhjx42 “Mike Pence is erasing his own profile in courage by trying to resist special counsel Jack Smith’s subpoena”
🧵 RT @ TheStudyofWar Ukrainian officials stated that Russian forces aim to capture #Bakhmut by the first anniversary of the invasion of #Ukraine, which would require a significantly higher rate of Russian advance than anything seen for many months. http://isw.pub/UkrWar021623
📌 https://twitter.com/TheStudyofWar/status/1626430734624858113?s=20
CNN: Fox News stars and executives privately trashed Trump’s election fraud claims, court document reveals https://tinyurl.com/56yacfnr
🐣 RT @ ErikWemple Fox News wiggled out of a defamation suit by arguing people shouldn’t take the programming seriously (specifically, Tucker Carlson’s show). Perhaps to fend off that defense, the Dominion filing goes into detail to show that the network’s people see themselves as journalists:
¤ https://twitter.com/ErikWemple/status/1626385740106956801?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @krassenstein Text messages revealed from Fox News personalities in Dominion Case:
– Trump is “a demonic force, a destroyer” – Tucker Carlson
– Trump’s election fraud allegations are “total bs,” “insane,” and “nonsense.” – Dana Perino
In other words, Fox News knows Fox News is FAKE!
🐣 RT @mmfa They knew it was a lie: The behind-the-scenes happenings at Fox while the network pushed false claims about Dominion
💙 ⋙ MMFA: They knew it was a lie: The behind-the-scenes happenings at Fox while the network pushed false claims about Dominion https://tinyurl.com/53h7s3ce
// Newly released filing in defamation lawsuit shows the full extent of how Fox lied about Dominion and dishonestly pushed the “Big Lie” after the 2020 election
In March 2021, Dominion filed a defamation suit against Fox for the false claims the network pushed after the election. Those false claims were extensive: In the two-week period after Fox News declared Joe Biden the president-elect, the network questioned the results of the election or pushed conspiracy theories about it almost 800 times, including by using Dominion as a scapegoat. Fox became an outlet that aired Trump campaign lies about Dominion voting machines getting hacked without any evidence.
For Dominion to prove defamation, the company must show that Fox acted with “actual malice,” meaning that Fox knew the allegations made about Dominion were false or that Fox acted in reckless disregard for the truth. …
Here’s some of the damning quotes from the filing showing how much Fox’s executives and employees knew they were lying about Dominion or the election at the time:
● Fox star Tucker Carlson to his producer Alex Pfeiffer about Sidney Powell, one of Trump’s campaign lawyers: “Powell is lying.” [11/16/20]
● Host Laura Ingraham to Carlson and fellow host Sean Hannity: “Sidney Powell is a bit nuts. Sorry but she is.” [11/15/20]
● Carlson to Ingraham: “Sidney Powell is lying by the way. I caught her. It’s insane.” Ingraham replied: “Sidney is a complete nut. No one will work with her. Ditto with Rudy.” Carlson replied: “It’s unbelievably offensive to me. Our viewers are good people and they believe it.” [11/19/20]
Fox Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch: “Really crazy stuff.” [11/19/20]● Murdoch after watching Giuliani and Powell on November 19, 2020: “Terrible stuff damaging everybody, I fear.” Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott replied, “Yes Sean [Hannity] and even [Jeanine] Pirro agrees.” [11/19/20]
● Fox reporter Lucas Tomlinson to anchor Bret Baier: “It’s dangerously insane these conspiracy theories.” [12/1/2020]
● Fox Politics Editor Chris Stirewalt on whether the allegation that Dominion rigged the election was true: “No reasonable person would have thought that.”
● Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott responded “Yes, I believe that,” to the question “You believe, since at least the time that Fox News called the election on November 7th, that Joe Biden was legitimately elected the President of the United States, correct?”
● As the filing outlined, Carlson texted a redacted name “that it was ‘shockingly reckless’ to claim that Dominion rigged the election ‘[i]f there’s no one inside the company willing to talk, or internal Dominion documents or copies of the software showing that they did it’ and ‘as you know there isn’t.’” [11/21/20]
● Fox’s internal “fact checks” about Dominion allegations reported they were “incorrect” and “not evidence of widespread fraud.” [11/13/20; 11/20/20]
● After canceling Pirro’s November 7 show, Fox executive David Clark told Executive Vice President of Primetime Programming Meade Cooper: “Her guests are all going to say the election is being stolen and if she pushes back at all it will just be token.”
● Ingraham’s producer Tommy Firth texted Fox executive Ron Mitchell: “This dominion shit is going to give me a fucking aneurysm—as many times as I’ve told Laura it’s bs, she sees shit posters and trump tweeting about it.” [11/8/20]
● Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott to Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch: “Viewers going through the 5 stages of grief. It’s a question of trust—the AZ [call] was damaging but we will highlight our stars and plant flags letting the viewers know we hear them and respect them.” Murdoch replied: “Yes. But needs constant rebuilding without any missteps.” Scott responded: “Yes today is day one and it’s a process.” [11/9/20]
● Fox News Washington, D.C., Managing Editor Bill Sammon to Fox Political Editor Chris Stirewalt on the network’s coverage of “supposed election fraud”: “It’s remarkable how weak ratings make[] good journalists do bad things.” [12/2/20]
● Carlson to Ingraham: Powell’s “a nut, as you said at the outset. It totally wrecked my weekend. Wow… I had to try to make the WH disavow her, which they obviously should have done long before.” Ingraham responded to Carlson: “No serious lawyer could believe what they were saying.” [11/22/20]
● Rupert Murdoch told Scott to read a Wall Street Journal piece about Newsmax, telling her: “These people should be watched, if skeptically. Trump will concede eventually and we should concentrate on Georgia, helping any way we can. We don’t want to antagonize Trump further, but Giuliani taken with a large grain of salt. Everything at stake here.” [11/16/20]
● Scott: “Privately, I had a number of conversations with Sean where he wanted the President to accept the results.”
● After White House correspondent Kristen Fisher fact-checked Giuliani and Powell’s press conference, she received a call from her boss, Bryan Boughton, in which he “emphasized that higher-ups at Fox News were also unhappy with it,” and said that Fisher “needed to do a better job of…—this is a quote—‘respecting our audience.’” [11/19/20]
● Fox Corp. Senior Vice President Raj Shah wrote: “shit is so crazy right now. so many people openly denying the obvious that Powell is clearly full of it.” Carlson’s producer Alex Pfeiffer replied: “She is a fucking nutcase.” [11/22/20]
● Rupert Murdoch told Suzanne Scott, “It’s been suggested our prime time three should independently or together say something like ‘the election is over and Joe Biden won,’” and that such a statement “would go a long way to stop the Trump myth that the election [was] stolen.” [1/5/21]
● Carlson complained to Hannity about Fox News reporter Jacqui Heinrich, who “was ‘fact checking’ a tweet by Trump that mentioned Dominion—and specifically mentioned Hannity’s and Dobbs’ broadcasts that evening discussing Dominion” Carlson reportedly wrote: “Please get her fired. Seriously….What the fuck? I’m actually shocked…It needs to stop immediately, like tonight. It’s measurably hurting the company. The stock price is down. Not a joke.” [11/12/20]
● According to the filing, “Ingraham herself testified that she has no basis to believe Dominion committed election fraud by rigging the 2020 Presidential Election or that it is owned by a company founded in Venezuela to rig elections for Hugo Chavez (and agreed its ownership is ‘readily ascertainable’).”
● Anchor Dana Perino also called the voter fraud allegations “total bs,” “insane,” and “nonsense.”
● Powell sent an email to Bartiromo about voter fraud claims that “Powell had received from a ‘source’ which the author herself describes as ‘pretty wackadoodle.’” According to the filing, “Bartiromo agreed at her deposition that this email was ‘nonsense’ … and inherently unreliable.”
● As the filing laid out:
Each circumstantial factor cuts strongly in Dominion’s favor. But here, the words of multiple Fox employees provide overwhelming direct evidence of actual malice. In addition to the evidence cited above, the excerpts below feature just some of the additional examples showing Fox employees knew at the time that these claims—and the guests promoting them—were:
● “ludicrous” –Tucker Carlson [11/20/20]
● “totally off the rails” –Tucker Carlson [12/24/20]
● “F’ing lunatics” –Sean Hannity [12/22/20]
● “nuts” –Dana Perino [11/16/20]
● “complete bs” –Producer John Fawcett to Lou Dobbs [11/27/20]
● “kooky” –Maria Bartiromo, regarding email received from Powell [11/07/20]
● “MIND BLOWINGLY NUTS” –Raj Shah, Fox Corporation SVP [11/21/20]Fox knew that it was pushing lies about Dominion and the election, and the network continued to smear the company and spread conspiracy theories anyway.
🐣 RT @KatiePhang “[Fox News] hosts Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity & Laura Ingraham, as well as others at the company, repeatedly insulted and mocked Trump advisers, including Sidney Powell and Rudolph W. Giuliani, in messages with each other in the weeks after the election.”
⋙ NYT: Fox Stars Privately Expressed Disbelief About Election Fraud Claims. ‘Crazy Stuff.’ https://tinyurl.com/mx9h9vpw //➔ It’s never been clearer that Fox’s business model is based on lying to their viewers, that Ratings are King, and the stars, producers and owners are all in on it
// The comments, by Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and others, were released as part of a defamation suit against Fox News by Dominion Voter Systems.
🐣 RT @leahmcelrath I’ve never seen anything quite as damning as the evidence in this Dominion lawsuit against Fox News. ¤ Setting aside Dominion, these Fox News people have contributed to the destruction of the social fabric of this nation and harmed not only our democracy but countless families.
🧵 RT @ErikWempel Huge day in the Dominion Voting Systems v. Fox News defamation case, with both sides filing summary-judgment motions. Dominion’s version is a nearly 200-page document bursting with text messages from network talent in the tense days following the 2020 presidential election. 1/
📌 https://twitter.com/ErikWemple/status/1626372140479004672?s=20
🧵 RT @willsommer This filing in the Dominion lawsuit against Fox News is one of the most remarkable documents I’ve ever seen. Filled with private texts between Fox stars like Hannity and Carlson, plus Murdoch, all admitting they knew Fox’s stolen election claims were lies.
📌 https://twitter.com/willsommer/status/1626382493480878080?s=20
≣ 📔 🔆 This❗️⋙ Dominion v. Fox: Court Doc: [pdf] https://tinyurl.com/3s5f9pk8 192p
// “DOMINION’S BRIEF IN SUPPORT OF ITS MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT ON LIABILITY OF FOX NEWS NETWORK, LLC AND FOX” Jan 17, 2023
DailyBeast: REVEALED: Fox Stars Think Trumpworld Figures Are Just as ‘Insane’ as You Do https://tinyurl.com/3a8r9xnx “As the start of an explosive brief unsealed Thursday evening as part of Dominion Voting Systems’ $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against the network argues: ‘Fox knew’”
// Tucker, Sean, Laura, and others privately trash-talked the conspiracy theorists they were putting on the air, according to an unsealed filing in Dominion Voting Systems’ suit.
Behind the scenes of the shows where they were amplifying baseless claims that the 2020 presidential election was rigged, the star hosts, producers, and executives of Fox News were furiously messaging each other. They reacted in frustration and bewilderment to their own broadcasts, calling the conspiracy theorists to which they were ceding airtime “F’ing lunatics,” “totally off the rails,” and “MIND BLOWINGLY NUTS.”
As the start of an explosive brief unsealed Thursday evening as part of Dominion Voting Systems’ $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against the network argues: “Fox knew.”
“From the top down, Fox knew ‘the dominion stuff’ was ‘total bs,’” the filing continues. “Yet despite knowing the truth—or at minimum, recklessly disregarding that truth—Fox spread and endorsed these ‘outlandish voter fraud claims’ about Dominion even as it internally recognized the lies as ‘crazy,’ ‘absurd,’ and ‘shockingly reckless.’”
The partially redacted, 192-page filing is stuffed with texts, emails, and testimony from marquee names like Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, and Laura Ingraham lashing out at key Trumpworld figures and insulting them in bitter terms.
Sidney Powell? An “unguided missile,” “dangerous as hell,” and “poison,” according to Carlson. ¤ Mike Lindell? “On the crazy train with no brakes,” as Gary Schreier, senior vice president of programming for Fox Business, phrased it. ¤ Rudy Giuliani? “So full of shit,” a Lou Dobbs Tonight producer snapped.
The concerns wormed their way up to the top of the food chain, according to the filing. On Nov. 19, Rupert Murdoch, Fox’s powerful chairman, watched as his network broadcast the entirety of a press conference held by Giuliani and Powell, who took turns spewing vitriolic remarks about the election. Murdoch then fired off a text: “Really crazy stuff. And damaging.”
The messages show that Murdoch also at one point asked Fox CEO Suzanne Scott if it was “unarguable that high-profile Fox voices fed the story that the election was stolen and that January 6 [was] an important chance to have the results overturned.” ¤ Network executives responded to his query with 50 examples proving as much, the brief states.
On Nov. 7, the New York Post, another Murdoch family jewel, published an editorial begging Trump to “stop the ‘stolen election’ rhetoric” and help yank Giuliani off TV. Scott, according to the filing, ensured the editorial “received wide distribution” inside the company. That was the same day Fox called the election for President Joe Biden.
Less than 24 hours later, Murdoch told Scott, “Getting creamed by CNN! Guess our viewers don’t want to watch it.”
In the days and weeks that followed, the filing states, any “effort to prevent false charges from spreading” by the network became markedly less overt.
Dominion’s lawyers have a high bar to clear in finding the “actual malice” they need to prove to win the case. The company’s attorneys need to demonstrate that Fox either knew that what it was broadcasting was false, or that it acted with reckless disregard of the truth. ¤ The term “actual malice,” a standard established in the landmark 1964 Supreme Court case New York Times v. Sullivan, is used 45 times in Thursday’s briefing.
“Here… literally dozens of people with editorial responsibility—from the top of the organization to the producers of specific shows to the hosts themselves—acted with actual malice,” the filing explains in its opening pages. Then it begins pulling receipts. ¤ On Nov. 5, Bret Baier, Fox’s chief political correspondent, texted, “There is NO evidence of fraud. None. Allegations—stories. Twitter. Bullshit.” ¤ Exactly a week later, a producer for The Ingraham Angle texted an executive, “This dominion shit is going to give me a fucking aneurysm—as many times as I’ve told Laura it’s bs, she sees shit posters and trump tweeting about it—” The rest of the producer’s message is redacted. …
🐣 RT @TeamPelosi We are in solidarity with the people of Ukraine as they fight for their nation and for Democracy – for themselves and for the world. -NP #SlavaUkraini
💽 https://twitter.com/TeamPelosi/status/1626290312766423041?s=20/photo/1
// Recalling JFK’s innaugural address, which she attended: “‘ … To the citizens of the world, ask not what America can do for you, but what we can do together for the freedom of mankind.’ And Joe Biden did just that.”
🐣 RT @atrupar Mitch McConnell on Fox News: “I’m gonna try to help explain to the American people that defeating the Russians in Ukraine is the single most important event going on in the world right now … there should be a bipartisan support for this.”
💽 https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1626244170917478400?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @ Maks_NAFO_FELLA Wow 👀👀👀
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/Maks_NAFO_FELLA/status/1626317881490214914?s=20/photo/1
[Text:] TheTimes [UK]: Russia is losing as many as 2,000 men for every 100 yards gained in human wave assaults in eastern Ukraine, according to Nato intelligence.
↥ ↧
TheTimes [UK]: Russia ‘loses 2,000 troops for every 100 yards won’ https://tinyurl.com/5435845h
// Nato is racing against the clock to get anti-aircraft missiles and ammunition to Ukraine […]
🐣 RT @ neal_katyal Very important thread by Judge Luttig. The most impt individual tweet is the one where he points out that any privilege would yield to the demands of criminal process. Pence’s legal maneuvering is frivolous and about delay, not about protecting our Constitution.
⋙⋙ 🧵 RT @judgeluttig It is an unsettled question of constitutional law whether a Vice President of the United States possesses qualified Speech or Debate Clause privileges and protections when he or she serves, in accordance with the Twelfth Amendment, as President of the Senate
📌 https://twitter.com/judgeluttig/status/1626375756946321408?s=20
⋙ 🐣 RT @drothkopf I’d add that the Const. specifically identifies Sens & Reps as those receiving the protections of the Speech or Debate clause & refers to the VP, specifically, elsewhere w/no such protections. In fact, were a VP to have them, he’d have more such protections than the president.
NYT: Russia lost about half of its tanks since invading Ukraine, new report says https://tinyurl.com/msx5d7sh “The report also identified…Russian difficulties on the battlefield, including undertrained reservists being called to the front lines w/o ammunition or proper equipment”
// A report by the International Institute for Strategic Studies said Russia’s tank and artillery fleets had suffered “significant attrition” in the war.
🧵 RT @ ChrisO_wiki 1/ Three Russian generals are reported to have been sacked over the provision of poor-quality uniforms, which has left troops fighting in Ukraine without adequate protection against the cold. A further scandal has erupted over the decision to appoint a new uniform provider. ⬇️
📌 https://twitter.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1626148736295440385?s=20
🚫 WaPo: As Russians inch forward near Bakhmut, Ukrainians dig fallback defenses https://tinyurl.com/yfx75ur2
// waiting to post
🧵 RT @andrewmichta I’m increasingly convinced that #Putin and “Putinism” have been made possible by the accumulation of resentments across the Russian society. #Putinism has emerged from Russians’ inability to accept that they lost the Cold War because the Soviet Union could no longer compete 1/
📌 https://twitter.com/andrewmichta/status/1626104801397276672?s=20
[ThreadReader:] https://tinyurl.com/sde4d6sc
#Putinism is akin to the Dolchstoßlegende that emerged in Germany after its 1918 loss in Wold War I. It argued that the great German people were never defeated, but betrayed by cowardly politicians-stabbed in the back. That German legend fueled DEU interwar national resentment.2/
Roughly within a decade after WWI the Dolchstoßlegende and the national resentment it fueled gave rise to Hitler and his attempt to re-litigate the outcome in 1918. Only the unequivocal defeat of Germany in 1945 buried the legend, foreclosing the path to empire through war.3/
At a risk of over-rationalizing history, I’d argue that for the past 30 yrs Russia has travelled a trajectory similar to that of interwar Germany. Putin’s neo-imperial aspirations are nested in a sea of RUS national resentment over loss of power & prestige on the world stage. 4/
The Russian story that Putin has been pushing is one of the West, having taken advantage of Russia’s weak leaders (Gorbachev, Yeltsin, etc) robbed Russia of it glory to diminish its “velikiy russkiy narod [great Russian people],” That it is now poised to destroy RUS civilization. 5/
If I’m right, the Russian threat to its neighbors and its neo-imperial drive will not end regardless whether Putin remains in power or not. In the long duree of Russian history, it can only break if Russia is decisively defeated in #Ukraine- in a way that every Russian sees it 6/
That’s why so much is riding on the outcome of the war in #Ukraine. If Russia wins it will see this as a civilizational victory over the West. It will be emboldened to press on into #Georgia, #Moldova and down even breaching the @NATO line. 7/
But if Russia is defeated in #Ukraine, the collapse of the legend of “velikiy russkiy narod” could unleash centrifugal forces in RUS that would foreclose its path to empire. It would be a period of instability & risk but it would offer Europe a path to peace. #ArmUkraineNow End
🧵 RT @Frialum I still want to ask those who say that we must separate Russian culture from the context of war – how do they explain that Russians so easily wage war and commit genocide in Ukraine? How do they have so little empathy toward Ukrainians? You know, it’s not coming from nowhere.
📌 https://twitter.com/Frialum/status/1626103287152881670?s=20
⋙ 🐣 RT @Frialum The answer is simple and complicated at the same time – it’s their imperial culture and how they explain the history with this grand idea that all neighboring people are inferior to them and thus have fewer human rights than them.
⋙ 🐣 RT @Frialum And when so-called cultural institutions in Europe invite Russians for another talk about “great Russian art or literature, or philosophy” they embrace their chauvinistic worldview, and they give them a platform to spread it.
⋙ 🐣 RT @Frialum Ask yourself why even Europeans knew so little about Ukraine before the war. Why was it such a surprise that Ukrainians are a nation with its own long history and multilayered culture? Mb because everybody has seen it only through the eyes of Russians and their “culture?
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer KREMINNA AXIS /1945 UTC 16 FEB/ The 1800 (local) briefing of the Gen’l Staff indicated UKR forces are counter attacking SW of Kreminna. UKR troops are in contact in the western limits of the urban area of Krimenna. RU efforts to maneuver west of Lysychansk have been broken up.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1626305273521442825?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT AXIS /1320 UTC 16 FEB/ RU forces are assessed to have functionally interdicted the M-03 HWY North of Krasna Hora. RU units appear to have been driven back from the H-32 HWY S of Chasiv Yar, with UKR troops in contact in the vicinity of Klischiivka.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1626207979136602113?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer VUHLEDAR /0200 UTC 16 FEB/ It is assessed that 2 RU Brigade Tactical Groups (BTGs) lost more than 40 Main Battle Tanks and upwards of 130 Infantry Fighting Vehicles in a series haphazard attacks on Vuhledar– making it one of the worst defeats suffered by RU since World War II.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1626038204410331141?s=20/photo/1
⋙ 🐣 RT @PlessierMarc Hi Chuck, So was that over the last 10 days or so, and does 2 brigades equate to 10,000 soldiers? Also, what do you believe the casualty rates were for them 30, 50 or 70% maybe?
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @PaulAndCoffee Yes, this is a loss summation from the past couple weeks there. The UK intelligence folks estimate that, in this time span & just in that area, total KIA, WIA, MIA & captures total ~5,000 men. That’s a LOT of men made combat ineffective from ~12 days of engagements in one area.
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer KREMINNA /0030 UTC 16 FEB/ A 14 FEB Russian surge west of Kreminna has been halted and reversed by UKR counter-attacks. RU probes were broken up by Ukrainian forces at Novosadove and Zarichne, with RU units withdrawing back across the P-66 highway.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1626013797818281984?s=20/photo/1
⭕ 15 Feb 2023
🐣 📋 RT @CSwampthing The US has given $50B to Ukraine over 12m, yes that’s right just $13/month per American or 42 cents per day. ¤ Yes that’s right, for less than a cup of coffee per day you too can vaporize the russian army! ¤ This has got to be the best deal in the history of foreign relations.
CNN: Exclusive: Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows subpoenaed by special counsel in Jan. 6 investigation https://tinyurl.com/yc3jfhey “Meadows received the subpoena sometime in January, the source said”
WaPo: Election deniers face a nationwide wave of pushback https://tinyurl.com/4w4rw9s6 “[E]lection denialism does not appear to be going away, even as the evidence has grown — in public polling as well as in the midterm election results — that most Americans have grown tired of it”
// The growing effort by election officials and others is intended to counter mistrust arising from Donald Trump’s claims of a rigged 2020 vote
🐣 RT @ TheStudyofWar Kyiv’s continued defense of #Bakhmut … has been “strategically sound” because it sapped Moscow’s momentum, ISW said late Tuesday. Kyiv’s defense has “degraded significant #Russian forces,” including units from the #Wagner Group. @AP http://ow.ly/hEhm50MT7wQ.
🐣 RT @wartranslated Prigozhyn declares Russians shouldn’t downplay the enemy by saying Bakhmut is “surrounded”, his best guess is encircelemnt will happen in March-April now, although new weapon deliveries will have a significant impact in this estimation.
💽 https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1625912951373692929?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @ DefMon3 Artillery wizard and owner of the “Stick of death” Magyar talk about the Situation in Bakhmut today. Video from @wartranslated
💽 https://twitter.com/DefMon3/status/1625926693004116003?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT /1430 UTC 15 FEB/ On 14 FEB, UKR conducted offensive actions against at Krasna Hora & Chasiv Yar. At present, the Forward Edge of the Battle Area (FEBA) is unclear; these two operations may be described as raids.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1625863816935342082?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer PUTIN’S TROLLS: RU is increasingly turning to social media to sew disinformation and attack Ukraine’s supporters. Cambridge University has put together a 5-minute game to show you the techniques trolls use disseminate fake news on any topic. https://goviralgame.com/en/play
◕ https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1625619765438849030?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @ZMiST_Ua British intelligence claims that the production of weapons and equipment in the Russian Federation “is becoming a critical weak point” and does not meet the needs of the Russian Federation in waging war against Ukraine
🐣 RT @front_ukrainian The United States signed a contract for the production of ammunition for Ukraine, – Welt. ¤ According to the publication, the contract was signed with two companies for more than $500 million. The first artillery ammunition under this order should be delivered next month.
🐣 RT @starsandstripes Time is growing short for Ukraine’s military backers to gather vast quantities of new equipment and move it along supply lines that are fast becoming overwhelmed with shipments Kyiv awaits as it plans to launch a spring counteroffensive.
⋙ Stripes: Ukraine’s allies rush to send more equipment, risking logjams https://tinyurl.com/2p8cxv5a
🐣 RT @NOELreports Around 6,000 Ukrainian children were forcibly put into 43 “re-education camps” in Russia. Under the guise of recreation, children are being brainwashed with Russian propaganda. Some camps even provide military training for children.
⋙ Conflict Observatory: Russia’s Systematic Program for the Re-education and Adoption of Ukraine’s Children https://tinyurl.com/4npe9az8
⭕ 14 Feb 2023
TheAtlantic, Anne Applebaum & Nataliya Gumenyuk: ‘They didn’t understand anything, but just spoiled people’s lives’ https://tinyurl.com/7cff5pv7 “They discovered a world different from the one they knew. So they smashed it up, hit back at it, & are still trying to destroy it forever”
// How Russian invaders unleashed violence on small-town residents
🐣 RT @ AWeissmann_ BREAKING-Crime Fraud Exception: not unusual that Jack Smith is seeking to learn communications between atty Corcoran and Trump, arguing it’s not covered by privilege if Trump were doing it to further a crime. The DC judge ruled in favor of govt on this issue in Manafort case.
NYT: Prosecutors Seek Trump Lawyer’s Testimony, Suggesting Evidence of Crime https://tinyurl.com/ufwa2edt ‘The crime-fraud exception allows them to work around attorney-client privilege when they have reason to believe legal advice or services have been used in furthering a crime’
// tags: crime fraud crime/fraud; The Justice Department cited the crime-fraud exception to attorney-client privilege in demanding testimony from a lawyer representing former President Donald Trump in his documents case.
🐣 RT @grantstern When you think about the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, and the GOP’s tepid response, keep in mind that the Trump Administration did what railroad lobbyists wanted the most. ¤ They repealed an Obama Administration safety rule for trains with hazardous chemicals.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/grantstern/status/1625235092908961795?s=20/photo/1
🧵 📊 Survey: A survey was carried out in Ukraine for the Munich security conference. 85% of Ukrainians said that Russia retreating to pre-February 2022 borders would not be sufficient cause for peace.
📌 https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1625764872318251010?s=20
⋙ 🐣 89% would be willing to carry on the war until victory even in the event of a nuclear strike by Russia.
⋙ 🐣 The main conclusion that was drawn from this survey was that the united determination of the Ukrainians to defend their democracy is the main reason for the resilience of Ukraine.
⋙ 🐣 via @wartranslated
¤ https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1625617555585900550?s=20
🧵 RT @wartranslated Short summary of the livestream with Oleksiy Arestovych, former Ukraine’s Presidential Head of Office advisor, Day 355, February 13th (yesterday). Kindly brought to you by Stepan: twitter.com/childsacrifice1 Read thread or visit: https://tinyurl.com/3u9b7ybn
📌 https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1625617555585900550?s=20
[ThreadReader:] https://tinyurl.com/5brtrnws
⚡️ Wagner: PMC Wagner killed another person with a sledgehammer as if it was ISIS. Arestovych would like for the Ukrainian authorities to clarify how exactly prisoners are exchanged with Russia as he is not satisfied with this process that has allowed this to occur twice now.
Wagner’s significance on the front is diminishing however they are still fighting in all the main directions, mainly Bakhmut.
⚡️ Battlefield update: The enemy is still concentrating their forces on the Kupyiansk, Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Novopavlivka directions.
Enemy attacks were repulsed in Hryanykivka north of Kupyiansk, near Kreminna. Bakhmut is being attacked from all directions. Several enemy attacks in the Siversk salient were also repulsed.
The enemy is trying to cut off the Siversk salient, which is critical for success in the Lyman and Bakhmut directions. Despite claims by Wagner, Krasna Hora has not yet fallen.
The Russians are having no success in Avdiivka and Vuhledar and some of their units have gone into defense. The overall situation is complicated, especially around Bakhmut/Siversk.
⚡️ Stoltenberg: The head of NATO Jens Stoltenberg said that the Russian offensive has started.
He also added that the current stage of the conflict is the logistics phase and the pace of weapons and ammunition to Ukraine should be increased. This will be discussed at the NATO meetings on 14-15 February.
President Duda also commented that Russia could win in Ukraine if Kyiv does not receive urgent support from the West. This was said to create buzz before the NATO meetings. However, Ukraine will receive the weapons and Russia will not win.
⚡️ 📊 Survey: A survey was carried out in Ukraine for the Munich security conference. 85% of Ukrainians said that Russia retreating to pre-February 2022 borders would not be sufficient cause for peace.
89% would be willing to carry on the war until victory even in the event of a nuclear strike by Russia.
The main conclusion that was drawn from this survey was that the united determination of the Ukrainians to defend their democracy is the main reason for the resilience of Ukraine.
⚡️ Sanctions: According to Politico, upcoming sanctions may affect 3 major Russian banks including Alfabank, 130 financial personnel, the exporting of construction equipment from the EU, and the importing of bitumen from Russia.
A ban on the exporting of Russian diamonds is also being discussed. Ukraine has accused Russia of deliberate sabotage of the grain deal as the rate of inspections of ships is deliberately sabotaged.
⚡️ Negotiations and Belarus: The Hungarian foreign minister visited Belarus and phrased Hungary’s desire for Negotiations in Ukraine. Columbia, Brazil and Argentina also announced their support for negotiations.
Lukashenko also spoke to the CSTO implying that Belarus will eventually have to get involved in the conflict. The governments of France, Canada and Brazil (?) called for their citizens to leave Belarus.
Arestovych believes this is a warning to Belarus or any other CSTO countries that war may break out on their home soil if they decide to get involved in Ukraine.
⚡️ India: India has halted talks with Russia concerning the purchase of new fighter jets and helicopters.
This shows that the world is assessing the performance of Russian weapons on the battlefield. India refusing to buy weapons would be a very major blow to the Russian defense industry.
🐣 RT @JeffLawsonOttaw Prigozhin’s Freudian slip on Telegram. ¤ “Bakhmut will not be taken tomorrow, because there is heavy resistance and grinding,…” ¤ Not liberated, but taken.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/JeffLawsonOttaw/status/1625538378111369227?s=20/photo/1
[Text:] Press Service of Prigozhin [likely on Telegram]
“We publish a comment by Evgeny Viktorovich Prigozhin:”
“I don’t understand where this nonsense comes from. In all directions, the enemy is becoming more active, pulling up more and more new reserves. Every day, from 300 to 500 new fighters approach Bakhmut in all directions. Artillery fire intensifies every day. To date, heavy fighting is going on in the north. There are no prerequisites for encircling the enemy in the northern regions. House after house is stormed, square meter after square meter. Hard work is going on. Where the stories about some kind of environment and something else come from is not at all clear. Bakhmut will not be taken tomorrow, because there is heavy resistance and grinding, the meat grinder is working. In [ … ? … ]
From CNN: https://tinyurl.com/4e8hk273
Bakhmut will not be taken tomorrow, because there is heavy resistance and grinding, the meat grinder is working,” Yevgeniy Prigozhin said in a statement distributed on a Wagner Telegram channel. “For the meat grinder to work properly, it is impossible to suddenly start festivities. There won’t be any festivities anytime soon.”
Despite months of intense battle, Wagner and Russian forces have failed to capture Bakhmut, though they are slowly pushing towards encircling the city.
And yet, Prigozhin cautioned that that was anything but imminent. He was responding to a question about whether Wagner forces had captured a small portion of northern Bakhmut.
“I don’t understand where this nonsense comes from,” he said. “In all directions, the enemy is becoming more active, pulling up more and more new reserves. Daily 300 to 500 new fighters approach Bakhmut in all directions. Artillery fire intensifies with each day.”
“To date, heavy fighting is going on in the north. There are no prerequisites for encircling the enemy in the northern regions. Attack is carried out house by house, square meter by square meter. We are seeing the full-blown military engagement. It is just not clear where all these stories about some encirclement and something else come from.”
↥ ↧
🐣 RT @pedrodesanta93 [tr] Official statement by Mr. Prigozhin on rumors of a quick takeover of Bakhmut: “I don’t understand where this nonsense comes from. In all directions, the enemy is becoming more active, pulling more and more reserves.
💽 https://twitter.com/pedrodesanta93/status/1625702256971505665?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @KyivIndependent Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Kremlin-controlled Wagner Group, whose mercenaries, along with the Russian regular army, have been attempting to capture Bakhmut, says the battle for the city is far from over.
⋙ KyivIndependent: Ukraine war latest: Wagner boss says Russia won’t capture Bakhmut soon, West says no planes for now https://tinyurl.com/4rmzcxk2
// Key developments on Feb. 14: No news on fighter jets for Ukraine after Ramstein, US says; Pentagon head says allies to help Ukraine launch
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Kremlin-controlled Wagner Group, whose mercenaries, along with the Russian regular army, have been attempting to capture Bakhmut, says the battle for the city is far from over. ¤ “Bakhmut will not be taken tomorrow because there is heavy resistance and grinding,” he said on Feb. 14, referring to the battle for the city as a “meat grinder.”
“We will not be celebrating in the near future,” he added. ¤ Bakhmut and surrounding areas remain the primary focus of Russia, as Moscow seeks to open up the main road leading to two other cities in the east — Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.
On Feb. 12, Russia claimed it had seized control of Krasna Hora, a village about five kilometers north of Bakhmut, but Ukraine denied the statement the next day. ¤ However, the U.K. defense ministry said in its daily intelligence update that over the past three days, Russia’s Wagner mercenaries had “almost certainly” made further small gains around the northern outskirts of Bakhmut, including into the Krasna Hora.
The battle for Bakhmut is the fiercest at the moment, according to Mark Milley, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff. He said on Feb. 14 that the fighting for the eastern city is the most extensive in terms of losses, and Ukrainian forces continue to repel attacks. ¤ “I would describe it as a war of attrition. The Russians are suffering huge losses,” he said.
Ukrainian officials describe the situation in the city as very dire. ¤ Donetsk Oblast Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said on national television that “there is not a single square meter in Bakhmut that is safe or that is not in range of enemy fire or drones.”
… NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that providing Ukraine with Western fighter jets was “not the most important issue now,” though adding that it was an “ongoing discussion.” …
🐣 RT @igornovikov A few days ago Prigozhin (the founder of the Wagner mercenary group) posted a video in a SU-24 fighter jet “over Bakhmut” inviting President Zelensky to a dogfight. ¤ Well… That SU-24 has been shot down by our forces yesterday ¤ I suppose the dogfight is postponed
‼️ 🐣 RT @Azovsouth Wagner terrorists boss Prigozhin said, it won’t be possible for the Rashists Orcs to take Bakhmut in the near future. This comes after Putin banned the words #Wagner & #Prigozhin in🇷🇺 ¤ At this stage Prigozhin is ready to withdraw his Wagner criminals from the #Bakhmut front. [⁉️]
🐣 RT @jennycohn1 I think I’m done with this bird. I reactivated only so I can find my own research and to post a farewell thread of some of my work. Thank u to those who supported me. It’s been an interesting 7 years or so. I hope I made a small difference 4 the better. 1/
📔 https://twitter.com/jennycohn1/status/1625535958723743745?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer KREMINNA /1615 UTC 14 FEB/ RU forces have extended a salient west of the city. UKR forces report breaking up a RU assault east of Nevske. RU forces are reported in contact at Kuzmyne, near Shypylivka, and N of Bilohorivka as RU attempts to push SW out of the Kreminna AO.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1625526974994169856?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT AXIS /1520 UTC 14 FEB/ Despite heavy losses & minimal gains near Krasna Hora, RU press & sympathetic social media continue to issue daily claims of victory. UKR forces remain in strong defensive positions in the urban center.
// 2 Su-24Ms, 1 Su 25 downed by UKR air defense.Fighting continues along the H-32 HWY south of Chasiv Yar.UKR air defense downed two Su-24M strike fighters, believed to have been piloted by Wagner PMC pilots. UKR missile/Artillery strikes interdicted 7 concentrations of RIItroons
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1625511743978872833?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @ GlasnostGone US top general Mark Milley castigates Russia, branding the war “a barbaric Russian invasion”, one started by Putin “brutally, illegally & in an unprovoked way. For 🇺🇦, it’s not a war of aggression, it’s a war of defence. For 🇷🇺, it’s a war of aggression.” https://tinyurl.com/mr3rar7d
🐣 RT @pravda_eng The Minister of Defense [of UA Reznikov] stated that he was “very satisfied” with the results of Ramstein-9. He noted that 54 representatives of the world participated in the meeting, which means that “the anti-Kremlin coalition is growing.”
🐣 RT @NewVoiceUkraine U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin opened the eighth meeting of the Ramstein format on February 14, declaring the readiness to continue efforts to support Ukraine against the background of continued Russian attacks on peaceful cities. ¤ More news here https://english.nv.ua
🐣 RT @Gerashchenko_en We are all witnessing a dying Moscow empire in agony. Over there barbarians with sledgehammers and propagandists run wild, leadership is going crazy from inevitability of retribution. ¤ Sadly, Ukrainians are not just historians who observe the fall. Empire’s last strike is at us.
⋙ 🐣 I dream of a day without Russia’s malign, disruptive influence throughout the world, and am thankful beyond measure for Ukraine’s sacrifice, its bravery and commitment to freedom. I wish we could do much, much more. Godspeed, Heroes. Slava Ukraine‼️ 🇺🇦 💙 🇺🇦
NYT: NATO Defense Ministers to Discuss Supplying More Ammunition to Ukraine https://tinyurl.com/2p9dn2nj Faced with wave after wave of “cannon fodder” Wagner prisoner-recruits and poorly trained “mobiks” with guns at their backs, Ukrainians risk being overwhelmed in Bakhmut
🐣 RT @nexta_tv According to the Norwegian Intelligence Service (NIS), the ships and submarines of #Russia’s Northern Fleet carry tactical nuclear weapons on board. This is the first time in 30 years.
⋙ 🐣 RT @MarekZezulka Nice, nato submarines (UK and US) are carrying them all the time.
🐣 RT @IlvesToomas Starlink Competitor Touts Pentagon Partnership, Blasts Musk
⋙ BloomberlLaw (Oct): Starlink Competitor Touts Pentagon Partnership, Blasts Musk https://tinyurl.com/y5yfsdyy
// 10/19/2022; Bill Gates-funded; Rivals of Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite communications are gaining attention from the Pentagon as Musk draws criticism for Starlink’s Starlink’s unavailability in contested areas like Ukraine
⭕ 13 Feb 2023
🐣 RT @ Reuters Russian forces bombard Ukraine’s Bakhmut in what NATO sees as start of new offensive http://reut.rs/3RStPSJ
r🐣 RT @ JEyal_RUSI Interesting: @SlawomirDebski, @PISM_Poland director, said Orbán’s position on Russia has in effect ended bilateral ties, as well as activities of the Visegrád Four. “Nobody wants to meet the Hungarians anymore.” @VisegradPlus @BalazsOrban_HU
⋙ TheGuardian: Hungary’s staging of the opera War and Peace puts spotlight on its Russia stance https://tinyurl.com/yc38mwdn Budapest “has emerged as the friendliest European Union capital towards Russia since the war broke out last year”
// Patriotic Russian opera opens in Budapest as first anniversary of war in Ukraine approaches
Orbán, who won a fourth consecutive term in office at election last spring, has long thrived on criticism from abroad. He has proudly announced he is building an “illiberal democracy” in contrast with what he views as the degenerate, “woke” west. ¤ However, even some of Orbán’s conservative friends have been alarmed at the Hungarian prime minister’s courting of Russia. Most notably, it has torpedoed the country’s warm relations with Poland. The two countries had previously supported each other over criticism on rule of law issues from Brussels, but now Poland has emerged as a leading supporter of Ukraine.
Sławomir Dębski, director of the Polish Institute of International Affairs in Warsaw, a thinktank close to the Polish government, said Orbán’s position on Russia has in effect ended bilateral ties, as well as activities of the Visegrád Four, a grouping of Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia that holds frequent leader summits and has often been aligned on issues in the past. …
🐣 RT @ NewVoiceUkraine “Just ‘de-putinization’ (of Russia) will certainly not be enough,” said Ohryzko.
⋙ NewVoiceUkraine: Post-war Russia must be disarmed, former Ukrainian FM argues https://tinyurl.com/yckpysec
// Moscow must be made unable to attack its neighbors again in the future, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine in 2007-2009 and head of the Russian Research Center, Volodymyr Ohryzko, said in an interview with NV Radio on Feb. 13
🐣 RT @wartranslated Wow, a damning piece by Prigozhyn’s mouthpiece Grey Zone channel, suggests (confidently) that the Vuhledar assault was an attempt by the Rus. MoD to take away some of Wagner’s fame after Soledar. A serious attack on MoD with Wagner promising to “protect its prey”.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1625203163111235585?s=20/photo/1 -3
⋙ 🐣 RT @wartranslated It almost seems that Prigozhyn is dead serious on taking over certain authority (not power (yet)) among the Russian army and the MoD is facing a major challenger in the face of Wagner, especially after catastrophes like in Vuhledar. [Ru link]
⋙⋙ [Comments interesting]
🐣 RT @DmytroKuleba In December 1991, Russia illegally usurped the USSR’s seat in the United Nations Security Council. No legal procedures defined by the UN Charter were upheld. This gave Moscow a feeling of absolute impunity which led to numerous crimes. The UNSC will be better off without Russia.
🐣 RT @haynesdeborah Vital words from #NATO chief @jensstoltenberg that could decide who wins in Ukraine – the side that makes ammo fastest: “It is clear we are in a race of logistics. ¤ “Key capabilities like ammunition, fuel, and spare parts must reach Ukraine before Russia can seize the initiative”
🐣 RT @paulmcleary NEW: US concerns over Ukraine using ATAMCS to strike into Russia have subsided, the Pentagon is now telling Kyiv is doesn’t have enough to spare w/ @laraseligman @alexbward
⋙ Politico: U.S. tells Ukraine it won’t send long-range missiles because it has few to spare https://tinyurl.com/d29bmsac
// The Biden administration wants to ensure it has enough ATACMS for the U.S. military.
🚫 🧵RT @EuromaidanPR BREAKING Representatives of five regions of the russian Federation announced the start of preparations for referendums on their independence (!) 1/
📌 https://twitter.com/EuromaidanPR/status/1625104167290167297?s=20
⋙ 🐣 RT @EuromaidanPR The leaders of certain regions, namely: the Urals, Koenigsberg (Kaliningrad Region), Ingria (Leningrad Region), Siberia and the Kuban, declared their intention to fight on the side of Ukraine and ask for help from NATO and the EU in secession from the russian Federation. 2.
⋙ 🐣 RT @EuromaidanPR Five russian regions will hold referendums on independence https://tinyurl.com/bddjm8kv #UkraineFrontLines
🌎 https://twitter.com/EuromaidanPR/status/1625323225554071554?s=20/photo/1
// hmmmm, interesting psyops
This was reported by “censor.net.” ¤ “We announce the beginning of the process of secession from Moscow and the first referendums of free people who live in Königsberg, Ingria, Siberia, Ural and Kuban, on the sovereignty of our states,” the group members said.
This became known during the “Post-Russia Forum” at the premises of the European Parliament in Brussels on Monday, January 30. Initiative groups emphasize that the time has come for real changes.
“We appeal to our compatriots to take part in referendums and say their firm yes to independent Königsberg, Ingria, Ural, Siberia and Kuban,” they called.
The members of the initiative groups also noted the advantages in the field of economy for each individual region, if it decides to separate from the russian federation. The initiators announced their slogans: “Enough to feed Moscow!”, “Enough to die for the Kremlin!”, “Vote for the Independence of your republic! Choose a happy future for yourself and your children!” They plan to hold a referendum on February 16 on an online platform; the organizers will soon announce about it.
The announcement is made not by the officials from the mentioned regions, but initiative representatives willing to stress attention on the problems people in russia face with now, due to the full-scale war against Ukraine. Any referendum results will have no legislation background and will not come into force the next day. But it is already something, that the ordinary citizens in russia will surely discuss.
NYT: G.O.P. Legislative Agenda Hits Snags Amid Party Divisions https://tinyurl.com/s2j2svcj 🤡 🤡 🤡
// Republicans have pulled back on legislation to crack down on unauthorized immigrants and support law enforcement as internal disputes conspire with a tiny majority to freeze them in place.
🐣 RT @AWeissmann_ BREAKING: substantial win for Willis; but three portions may be released Thursday but won’t include names of those thought to have lied to the special grand jury.
⋙⋙ [CourtDoc:] https://tinyurl.com/2y232fd 8p
⋙ 🐣 RT @AWeissmann_ Key: the portions to be released include the introduction/conclusion, as well as a section discussing concern that “some witnesses may have lied under oath… Because the grand jury does not identify those Witnesses, that conclusion may be publicly disclosed at this time.”
⋙ 🐣 RT @AWeissmann_ If the special grand jury thinks there were witnesses who lied to them, then you can pretty sure that they are going to have recommended prosecution for folks. That makes it pretty clear that they hardly think there were no crimes to see here!
🧵 RT @DionisCenusa #Moldova: The picture of allegedly planned subversive actions by Russia in Moldova becomes clearer. President Sandu revealed the details received from Zelensky last week. The alleged subversive actions could include the following: 1) attacks on state institutions with the⤵️
📌 https://twitter.com/DionisCenusa/status/1625075455379361794?s=20
🐣 RT @AP Moldovan President Maia Sandu has outlined what she described as a plot by Russia to overthrow her country’s government using external saboteurs and derail its aspirations to one day join the European Union.
⋙ AP: Moldova’s President outlines Russian ‘plan’ to topple gov’t https://tinyurl.com/s76snmd9
CHISINAU, Moldova (AP) — Moldova’s President outlined Monday what she described as a plot by Moscow to use external saboteurs to overthrow her
🐣 RT @nytimes Ukraine’s military on Monday barred aid workers from entering Bakhmut as Russian forces tightened their grip, in what could be a prelude to a Ukrainian withdrawal and the biggest tactical gain for the deeply troubled Russian invasion since July.
⋙ NYT: Ukraine Bars Aid Workers From Bakhmut as Russia Tightens Its Grip https://tinyurl.com/jys75j8u
// With Moscow’s forces closing in, the besieged city is too dangerous for the volunteers, Ukrainian commanders said, in what could be a prelude to a Ukrainian withdrawal.
🚫 WaPo: U.S. warns Ukraine it faces a pivotal moment in war https://tinyurl.com/4xvkjvps
// appeasement; As first anniversary nears, White House fears flow of arms may be harder to come by
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT AXIS /1320 UTC 13 FEB/ RU continues operations against the M-03/ T-05-13 JCT north of Bakhmut. Repeated claims that RU has captured Krasna Hora are false: UKR forces remain in contact within the urban center. Fighting continues along the H-32 HWY south of Chasiv Yar.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1625121586981347328?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer VUHLEDAR AXIS /1345 UTC 13 FEB/ RU forces have advanced north of Grafske and enveloped the UKR salient between the T-05-09 HWY in the west and the O-0531 road in the east. Outflanked, UKR forces in Blahodatne and Volodymvrivka withdrew in an orderly manner.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1625128665087373319?s=20/photo/1
📋 WaPo: Russians abandon wartime Russia in historic exodus https://tinyurl.com/2p8wf23v “Initial data show that at least 500K, and perhaps nearly 1 million, have left … — a tidal wave on scale w emigration following the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution & the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991”
◕ https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1625031837897695232?s=20/photo/1
⭕ 12 Feb 2023
🐣 RT @MuellerSheWrote DID YOU KNOW: the US & some EU members are paying Elon for Starlink for Ukrainian forces but Elon jammed it so it won’t work for drones saying “this wasn’t meant for war” but then launched “Starshield” last month which is Starlink but “for war”?
⋙ SpaceNews (1/19): With Starshield, SpaceX readies for battle https://tinyurl.com/3t42ke6m
// 1/19/2023; Government-focused ‘secured satellite network’ positions SpaceX to heed the Pentagon’s call for commercial allies
🧵 RT @wartranslated Summary of the livestream with Oleksiy Arestovych, former Ukraine’s Presidential Head of Office advisor, Day 353, February 11th. Kindly brought to you by Stepan: https://twitter.com/childsacrifice1 ¤ Read thread or visit:
📌 https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1624716793183981568?s=20
⋙ 💽 WarTranslated: Day 353, February 11th. Summary of Arestovych and Feygin broadcast https://tinyurl.com/34myhdd9
NYT: Jack Smith, Special Counsel for Trump Inquiries, Steps Up the Pace https://tinyurl.com/uvjzskx7 “The intensified pace of activity speaks to his goal of finishing up before the 2024 campaign gets going in earnest, probably by summer”
// Named less than three months ago to oversee investigations into Donald J. Trump’s efforts to hold onto power and his handling of classified documents, the special counsel is moving aggressively.
The intensified pace of activity speaks to his goal of finishing up before the 2024 campaign gets going in earnest, probably by summer. At the same time, the sheer scale and complexity and the topics he is focused on — and the potential for the legal process to drag on, for example in a likely battle over whether any testimony by Mr. Pence would be subject to executive privilege — suggest that coming to firm conclusions within a matter of months could be a stretch. …
In looking into Mr. Trump’s efforts to hold onto power after his election loss and how they led to the Jan. 6 riot, Mr. Smith is overseeing a number of investigative strands. The subpoena to Mr. Pence indicates that he is seeking testimony that would go straight to the question of Mr. Trump’s role in trying to prevent certification of Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory in the election and the steps Mr. Trump took in drawing a crowd of supporters to Washington and inciting them.
His team is sifting through mountains of testimony provided by the House Jan. 6 committee, including focusing on the so-called fake electors scheme in which some of Mr. Trump’s advisers and some campaign officials assembled alternate slates of Trump electors from contested states that he had lost.
More recently his team has been asking witnesses about research the Trump campaign commissioned by an outside vendor shortly after the election that was intended to come up with evidence of election fraud. The existence of that research was reported earlier by The Washington Post. …
In the investigation into Mr. Trump’s handling of classified information, and whether he obstructed justice when the government sought the return of material he had taken from the White House, investigators are casting a wide net. They appear to be seeking to recreate not only what took place once Mr. Trump had departed the White House with hundreds of sensitive documents, but also how he approached classified material and presidential records long before that, according to multiple people briefed on the matter.
Mr. Smith’s team is seeking interviews with a number of people who worked in the Trump White House and who had familiarity with either how he consumed classified information, or how he dealt with paper that he routinely carted with him in cardboard boxes, during much of the span of his presidency. …
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Chuck Rosenberg, a former federal prosecutor and former F.B.I. official, said of the cascade of Trump aides and lawyers becoming drawn into investigations. “It’s just a whirling dust cloud, and everyone who gets near it gets covered in grime.” …
🐣 RT @Heroiam_Slava Russians have already launched an offensive in five areas ¤ The occupants have deployed a large number of forces and equipment at the Kupyansk, Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Vuhledar directions, but continue to suffer huge losses and have no success,” -Vladyslav Selezniov.
🐣 RT @ChristopherJM Ukraine’s Minister of Finance @SergiiMarchenk3 in the @FT: It’s time to cut Russia out of the global financial system.
⋙ FT: It is time to cut Russia out of the global financial system https://tinyurl.com/y3kv82se
// Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and financing of terrorism makes a mockery of the idea of a ‘rules-based order’
🧵 RT @FreudGreyskull [SoW:] https://tinyurl.com/mpcmzstw #Ukrainian military officials and #Russian pro-war nationalist voices are downplaying Russia’s ability to launch a sweeping large-scale offensive in #Donetsk Oblast in the current circumstances of the Russian Armed Forces. […]
📌 https://twitter.com/FreudGreyskull/status/1624678306552614917?s=20
⋙ 🐣 RT @FreudGreyskull Russian forces’ reported culmination and tactical failures around #Vuhledar, Donetsk Oblast, have likely further weakened the Russian ultranationalist community’s belief that Russian forces are able to launch a decisive military effort.
⭕ 11 Feb 2023
WaPo: After helping prince’s rise, Trump and Kushner benefit from Saudi funds https://tinyurl.com/4pb7y9zp
// An investment fund overseen by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is backing ventures that profit the former president and his senior adviser, raising questions of conflict
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT AXIS /2120 UTC 11 FEB/ RU continues attempts to cut Lines of Communication and Supply (LOCS) into Bakhmut. RU has consolidated a salient N of Krasna Hora, threatening the M-03 HWY. UKR air defenses downed a Russian Su-25 strike aircraft.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1624517992884105217?s=20/photo/1
HistoryChannel (2019): Why Have There Been So Many UFO Sightings Near Nuclear Facilities? https://tinyurl.com/453vmm44 “In the last 75 years, high-ranking U.S. military and intelligence personnel have also reported UAPs near sites assc’d w nuclear power, weaponry and technology”
// 6/2023/2019; It started in the 1940s, near A-bomb development sites. More recently, something has been stalking nuclear carrier strike groups.
NYT (1/13/2023): Did Aliens Land on Earth in 1945? A Defense Bill Seeks Answers https://tinyurl.com/4kh9y8tp 1945 was the year when, by one account, “a large, avocado-shaped object” struck a tower in NM known as the “Trinity Site,” where the world’s first atomic bomb was detonated”
// The Defense Department’s annual spending bill requires it to review U.F.O. sightings dating to 1945, the year some believe an object from space crashed in the New Mexico desert.
WIRED, Chantel Tattoli (Feb 2022): Jacques Vallée Still Doesn’t Know What UFOs Are https://tinyurl.com/2at4bde2 “Vallée’s papers, entrusted to Rice University, will ultimately include files on some 500 anomalous events that he has personally investigated”
// After six globe-trotting decades spent probing “the phenomenon,” the French information scientist is sure of only one thing: The truth is really, really out there.
🐣 RT @ wartranslated More on the mobiks from 1231 regiment I posted about earlier, addressing the command personally. They’ve been robbed of all equipment and sent to assault a height the locals were unable to take for ages. Several battalions of mobiks before them have already been slaughtered.
💽 https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1624536177863802881?s=20/photo/1
WaPo, Matt Bai: I should care more about Hunter Biden. Here’s why I don’t. https://tinyurl.com/yc4t4wam 😕
WaPo: Trump campaign paid researchers to prove 2020 fraud but kept findings secret https://tinyurl.com/4wapwa6w The researchers found no evidence that Trump had won the election. The results were shared with Trump, Meadows and others prior to the January 6th attack.
// An outside firm’s work was never released publicly after researchers uncovered no evidence that the election had been rigged for Joe Biden
Former president Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign commissioned an outside research firm in a bid to prove electoral-fraud claims but never released the findings because the firm disputed many of his theories and could not offer any proof that he was the rightful winner of the election, according to four people familiar with the matter.
The campaign paid researchers from Berkeley Research Group, the people said, to study 2020 election results in six states, looking for fraud and irregularities to highlight in public and in the courts. Among the areas examined were voter machine malfunctions, instances of dead people voting and any evidence that could help Trump show he won, the people said. None of the findings were presented to the public or in court.
About a dozen people at the firm worked on the report, including econometricians, who use statistics to model and predict outcomes, the people said. The work was carried out in the final weeks of 2020, before the Jan. 6 riot of Trump supporters at the U.S. Capitol. ¤ … The Trump campaign’s commissioning of its own report to study the then-president’s fraud claims has not been previously reported. …
Senior officials from Berkeley Research Group briefed Trump, then-chief of staff Mark Meadows and others on the findings in a December 2020 conference call, people familiar with the matter said. Meadows showed skepticism of the findings and continued to maintain that Trump won. Trump also continued to say he won the election. The call grew contentious, people with knowledge of the meeting said. …
The findings from Berkeley were among the many streams of information after the election that showed Trump he lost. According to testimony presented to the Jan. 6 committee, Trump was repeatedly told by advisers that he did not win the election but continued to cast about for others who would entertain his theories and say that he had won. Dozens of judges — including many Trump appointees — rejected his campaign’s attempts to challenge election results in court. …
The Berkeley research was done through a subsidiary company called East Bay Dispute and Advisory. Federal Election Commission filings show the Trump campaign paid East Bay Dispute and Advisory more than $600,000 in the final weeks of 2020. A person familiar with the matter said there were also other researchers commissioned to help prove electoral fraud from outside Berkeley Research Group. The payments were described as consulting fees.
The states studied by the analysts over a period of several weeks included Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona and Nevada, according to people familiar with the matter. All but Nevada had been won by Trump in 2016 but flipped to the Democratic nominee four years later.
🐣 RT @ruinwanderer A fuller video of the Russian collapsing offensive at Vuhledar previously advertised as a big winter offensive. There’s quite a bit of movement back and forth with people running not knowing what to do.
💽 https://twitter.com/ruinwanderer/status/1624610924509253632?s=20/photo/1
⭕ 10 Feb 2023
Politico: Biden prepares largest Pentagon budget in history as spending cuts loom https://tinyurl.com/bdc7hzcr ‘ … reflecting efforts to simultaneously counter the threat from Russia, keep pace with China’s growing technological advantage, modernize aging arsenals and fight inflation’
// Lawmakers have threatened defense cuts in larger battle over the debt ceiling.
🐣 RT @SpiroAgnewGhost Aaaand..its Friday Midnight Meltdown from Citrus Caligula.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/SpiroAgnewGhost/status/1624271420577689601?s=20/photo/1
[Text:] @realDonaldTrump [ts] Will Trump Hating Prosecutor Jack Smith be investigating the FACT that they SPIED on my campaign, even as I was in the Oval Office, they Stuffed the Ballot Boxes (per 2000 Mules), used Covid to cheat, that the FBI pushed Twitter & Facebook around, causing massive voter disruption, and so much more? That’s really what he should be looking at, not asking a very decent Mike Pence why he didn’t send the votes back to State Legislatures for scrutinization, which he could have done. Get the RIGGERS!
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer KREMINNA /1910 UTC 10 FEB/ UKR forces report breaking up a desultory RU assault on the O-0528 HWY axis at Dibrova. RU maintains a strong presence in the area; despite the apparent lull, it’s assessed RU is capable of large-scale maneuver operations from Kreminna on short notice.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1624120227666460693?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT AXIS /1720 UTC 10 FEB/ Cutting UKR Lines of Communication & Supply (LOCS) remain a RU priority. RU has advanced North of Krasna Hora, threatening the M-03 HWY. UKR missiles, artillery and strike aviation targeted RU troop concentrations & HQ elements in heavy fighting.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1624093813609316352?s=20/photo/1
Politico [EU]: Moldova’s pro-EU government falls after months of pressure from Russia https://tinyurl.com/mvnu6aw3 “Moldova has found itself precariously close to the war, and has been keen to strike a balancing act as it seeks to protect itself militarily without provoking Moscow”
// Moldova was granted EU candidate status last June, but has faced intense pressure from Moscow.
🐣 RT @flash_news_ua ⚡️ Volodymyr Zelenskyi: “Several russian missiles passed through the airspace of Moldova and Romania. These missiles are a challenge to NATO, collective security. This is terror that can and must be stopped. The world must stop it.
💽 https://twitter.com/Flash_news_ua/status/1624024302323367942?s=20/photo/1
⋙⋙ 🐣 I agree it’s a challenge to NATO, but Moldova is not part of NATO. My guess is the US will want to not over-react but make clear we expect the government in Moldova to proceed with selecting a new PM without outside interference.. No little green men, no pressure from Russia
⋙ 🐣 RT @flash_news_ua [Ze:] I thank everyone who understands this. Thanks to everyone who helps. And of course, I thank our Air Force, all our anti-aircraft fighters, everyone who protects Ukraine and our people.”
🐣 RT @thehoff102 I don’t like the sound of this. The Kremlin and its proxies in Moldova have been trying to bring down the pro-Ukrainian pro-European and pro-Western Moldovan Government led by their President Maia Sandu over the last year.
🔆 This❗️⋙ 🐣 RT @GreenSquareAC The Prime Minister of Moldova, Natalia Gavriliță, has just announced she is resigning, and it looks like the entire government in Chisinau will also resign.
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @GreenSquareAC “Moldova is expected with open arms inside the EU — Moldova has friends — but if the government had had the same support at home, we would have progressed more and faster,” Gavrilita told reporters in Chisinau.
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @GreenSquareAC A new government will be nominated by President, Maia Sandu, and then needs to be approved by Moldova’s parliament.
🐣 RT @EUwatchers Day 351: highlights from Zelenskyi’s addresses to European Parliament, European Council in Brussels https://uacrisis.org/en/day-351 source/editor : Дмитро Васильєв
⋙ UACrisis: Day 351: highlights from Zelenskyi’s addresses to European Parliament, European Council in Brussels Оригінал статті – на сайті Українського кризового медіа-центру: https://uacrisis.org/en/day-351
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi made a trip to Brussels on Thursday, February 9, a day after he made a surprise visit to the UK and France. In Brussels, Zelenskyi delivered a speech to the European Parliament and later addressed the 27 EU leaders gathered for a summit.
The European Council is meeting for a summit in Brussels on February 9-10 to discuss Russia’s war against Ukraine, EU support for Ukraine, and results of last week’s EU-Ukraine summit. Here are the highlights from President Zelenskyi’s addresses to the European Parliament and the European Council.
“Ukrainian European way of life”
During an address to EU lawmakers, President Zelenskyi said: “All of us, Europeans, each and every one of the hundreds of millions of people on our continent, combine these two statuses — representatives of Europe and leaders of Europe. This combination reflects what our Europe, a modern Europe, a peaceful Europe, gives to the world. European way of life. European path of life. European manner of life. European rules of life.”
“When everyone matters. When the law rules.”
“When states strive to be social and societies strive to be open. When diversity is a value and the values of the different are united by fair equality.”
“When borders are inviolable, but one does not feel them as they cross them.”
“When people believe in tomorrow and are willing to take to the streets to fight for their tomorrow. When there is only one single barrier between the president and the protesters, and that is fair elections.”
“This is our Europe. These are our rules. This is our way of life. And for Ukraine, it’s a way home, a way to its home.”
“Now I am here in order to defend our people’s way home. All Ukrainian men and Ukrainian women, [people] of different ages, political beliefs, social classes, religious views, personal history, who share European history with all of you.”
“There is an attempt to destroy the Ukrainian European way of life by an all-out war. But what for?”
“In order to fully destroy the European way after the Ukrainian European way of life is destroyed, [destroy it] for each of the 27 elements of the European way of life — the 27 countries of the European Union. We will not allow that to happen.”
“We defend ourselves against the most anti-European force in modern world.”
“This total war that has been unleashed by Russia is not just about territory in one part of Europe or another,” President Zelenskyi said as he addressed the European Parliament.
“Its threat is not only in the fact that there is a dictator with huge stockpiles of Soviet-made weapons and weapons supplies from other dictatorships, in particular the Iranian regime. In order to be able to wage this war, the Kremlin has been consistently destroying, step by step, year after year, what we see as the basis of our Europe.”
“The sacred value of human life has been completely destroyed in Russia as well. No one matters to the authorities there, except for those inside the Kremlin walls, their relatives and their wallets. For them, for the Kremlin, all others, all 140 million citizens are just bodies capable of carrying weapons — carrying weapons to Ukraine and on the battlefield, keeping others obedient or being obedient themselves.”
“The rule of violence and obedience are the rules there instead of the rule of law.”
“The Russian regime not only hates everything, any sociality and diversity, but also deliberately stirs xenophobia and tries to make all the inhuman things that happened in the 1930s and 1940s part of the norm on our continent.”
“But will it last forever? This is a question for all of us. The answer is no! No! Europe! We are defending ourselves against the most anti-European force in the modern world. We are defending ourselves. We, Ukrainians, are on the battlefield with you.” …
President Zelenskyi called on EU leaders to “enhance the dynamic of our cooperation and act faster than the aggressor can mobilize its potential.” He thanked them for the “sanctions packages that are already in force.”
“But have they sufficiently limited Russia’s aggressive potential? This is a path that needs to be completed,” he added.
“We need to add security to our freedom and unity. (…) The European Union is already on the way toward the security. Fundamental steps have already been taken, but we have to go all the way through. We must enhance the dynamic of our cooperation and act faster than the aggressor can mobilize its potential.”
“Security interaction [between the EU] and Ukraine created a historical precedent for any aggressor, and set an example of why one should not start aggression against Europeans. Russian aggression must inevitably fail,” Zelenskyi said.
“The sooner freedom and European values are restored in all of Ukraine, including the parts that are now occupied, the more solid and lasting will be the peace in all of Europe,” he said.
Zelenskyi called for a special tribunal to prosecute Russia for its crime of aggression against Ukraine. “There must be a compensation mechanism for all the damage caused by Russian terror,” he said.
“These are all part of the peace formula. Ukraine has never sought this or any other war. Ukraine has never provoked it and has always tried to maintain peace,” Zelenskyi said. …
⭕ 9 Feb 2023
NYT, Bret Stephens: How to Destroy (What’s Left of) the Mainstream Media’s Credibility https://tinyurl.com/ms43nced “Our job is to collect and present relevant facts and good evidence. … The only place where nonobjective truth can play a valuable role … is in the Opinion section”
WaPo, Eugene Robinson: The Republican clown-car caucus is undermining itself https://tinyurl.com/2p98xrvj “Right now, we have one center-left political party — the Democrats — and one flaming hot mess of ego, resentment and paranoia. It’s going to be a long two years”
💙 🧵 RT @JominiW 1/ Ukraine TVD, 1-7 FEB 23. The first week of February saw the Russian Winter Offensive move into full swing as major pushes were made in Kreminna, Bakhmut, and Vuhledar. The Russians made some gains but Ukrainian defenses held. #UkraineRussiaWar #RussianArmy #UkraineFrontLines
📌 🌎 https://twitter.com/JominiW/status/1623857574679392257?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @TristanSnell BREAKING: Putin plans to destroy nation of Moldova. ¤ Ukraine intercepted the Russian plans and handed them over to their western neighbor Moldova. ¤ Putin’s plan for 2023 is clearly to expand his war of aggression, surrounding Ukraine on another front. ¤ Moldova must be defended.
🐣 RT @RonaldKlain He’s not wrong.
⋙ 🐣 RT @seungminkim Yowza — McConnell, to KY radio guy Terry Meiners, absolutely knifes Rick Scott on his 12-point plan: ¤ “This is a bad idea. I think it will be a challenge for him to deal with this in his own reelection in Florida, a state with more elderly people than any other state in America.”
¤ https://twitter.com/seungminkim/status/1623842177750118400?s=20
🐣 RT @ABC EXCLUSIVE: Former Vice Pres. Pence has been subpoenaed by the special counsel overseeing probes into former Pres. Trump, according to multiple sources.
⋙ ABC: Mike Pence subpoenaed by special counsel overseeing Trump probes: Sources https://tinyurl.com/2tsvdp84
// It follows months of negotiations between prosecutors and Pence’s legal team.
WaPo: SpaceX questions Ukraine’s use of Starlink for war https://tinyurl.com/e6sbxwk4 “Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, said Kyiv was not worried” ⇊ ⇊
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1623811566641594369?s=20/photo/1
[Text:] Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, said Kyiv was not worried. “If you believe that we use only Starlink, and because of this we don’t have any other options of use for this or that weapon — this does not correspond to reality at all,” Danilov told The Washington Post. “Let’s not rush to conclusions. We need to clarify to what extent this will be an influence, or not be an influence. Maybe we need to change the means of attack in one sector or another.”
🐣 RT @Euan_MacDonald Ukraine has been using Starlink for drones for nearly a year, and SpaceX suddenly decides it’s against the rules just as the long-expected big new Russian offensive starts? This effectively means the company is aiding fascist Russia’s invasion of democratic Ukraine.
⋙ 🐣 RT @julianborger Fury in Ukraine as Elon Musk’s SpaceX limits Starlink use for drones Report by @dansabbagh ¤ The decision partially blinds Ukrainian forces just as they face new Russian offensives in the East and South.
⋙⋙ TheGuardian: Fury in Ukraine as Elon Musk’s SpaceX limits Starlink use for drones https://tinyurl.com/37n8uxyn
🐣 RT @RepDanGoldman In 2020, Sens Grassley and Johnson funneled through their committees Russian disinformation provided to them and Rudy Giuliani by a Russian intelligence agent in order to damage candidate Joe Biden. ¤ It was a gross abuse of power and a “weaponization of the federal government.”
🐣 RT @wartranslated Girkin believes that with Wagner terminating recruitment, its days are basically numbered. But given the state of the Russian armed forces, there will be no one to replace the death battalions who were the only ones to achieve any success in recent months.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1623635097680244736?s=20/photo/1
[Text:] With regard to the statement by E. Prigozhin on the termination of the recruitment of prisoners in the Wagner PMC. – I believe that the termination of the recruitment was caused by the “order from above”. And (after some time) it will seriously affect the Wagner’s ability to successfully assault one position after another head-on, as is happening now near Bakhmut.
Simply due lacking the resources for replenishment of large losses in the infantry. I refrain from evaluating the expediency and correctness of such a measure, since it is a “double-edged sword.”
The only thing I will repeat for the hundredth time is that the “death battalions” cannot win the war in the absence of normal military discipline and order in the rest of the active army. And the active army (judging by the numerous video messages to the president from the “mobiks”) – everything remains in the same “amazing” state (in terms of supply, armament, provision of basic food and uniforms, etc.) and demonstrates the same signs of decay that our media and “cheerleaders” “relish” when discussing the problems of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer KREMINNA /2140 UTC 9 FEB/ RU artillery resumes fire missions against the urban area of Kreminna– confirming UKR presence in the city. RU forces carried out attacks at Shypylivka and Zolotarivka. This may indicate the opening of a new RU axis of advance based in Lysychansk.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1623797589215772672?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT /2100 UTC 9 FEB/ RU forces have registered important gains in the Bakhmut Area of Operations (AO). North of the city, RU forces threaten the M-03 HWY. South of Bakhmut, RU units are in contact across the H-32 west and east of the rail right of way at Chasiv Yar.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1623788525626720256?s=20/photo/1
⋙ 🐣 Chuck, you thought Ukr would retreat to Chasiv Yar and take up defensive positions there. Does this mean it’s too late for that?
🐣 RT @petestrzok Starlink – now paid for in Ukraine by US/NATO – just reduced capability, helping Russia. ¤ “There are things that we can do to limit [Ukraine’s] ability to do that,” referring to Starlink’s use with drones. “There are things that we can do, and have done.”
⋙ Reuters: http://reut.rs/
Harvard (4/13/2021): The Effect of Spanking on the Brain https://tinyurl.com/b6n6ph36
// Spanking found to impact children’s brain response, leading to lasting consequences
🐣 RT @mhmck By constant and fruitless assaults on Vuhledar, Donetsk region, Ukraine, the 155th Marine Brigade of the Russian fascist invaders is being wiped out. ¤ Losses – especially of personnel – of this “elite” Russian unit are catastrophic.
🐣 RT @LeaderMcConnell Russia’s brutal aggression has brought @NATO even closer together. Our allies are deepening their commitments to collective defense. Glad to meet with Secretary General @jensstoltenberg today and discuss the future of the strongest military alliance the world has ever known.
NYT (2017): In Targeting Political Groups, I.R.S. Crossed Party Lines https://tinyurl.com/yc7wspxy An exhaustive Treasury Dept Inspector General Report found that the IRS also targeted left-wing groups (words like “Progressive,” “Occupy,” “Green Energy,” & “ACORN”) #weaponization
// 10/5/2017
WaPo, Philip Bump (12/5): No, limiting the Hunter Biden laptop story didn’t cost Trump the election https://tinyurl.com/2p83cj2y The MRC poll cited was “a push poll of the rankest sort,” like telling people their candidate “was an alien from the planet Toxicus” #weaponization
// 12/5/2022
🧵 RT @atrupar I’m going to follow the House Republican hearing on “weaponization” of the government. Thread starts here.
📌 💽 https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1623739261227790336?s=20/photo/1
WaPo: U.S. declassifies balloon intelligence, calls out China for spying https://tinyurl.com/ye294tsj The State Department revealed what it’s calling “a sophisticated effort to surveil ‘more than 40 countries across 5 continents’”
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer VICTORY at VUHLEDAR /1532 UTC 9 FEB/ UKR forces broke up a Russian company-sized armor & mech. infantry attack on Vuhledar. More than 31 RU vehicles were damaged, destroyed or abandoned in a failed attack across the T-05-09 HWY. RU KIAs estimated at 400 plus scores wounded.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1623702105172152321?s=20/photo/1
CNBC: Russian forces are closing in on the strategic city of Bakhmut, giving Ukraine a tough choice to make https://tinyurl.com/bddex8pe “The Russians are desperate to advance ahead of the one year anniversary of this aggression” ~ Yuriy Sak, advisor to Ukraine’s defense ministry
⭕ 8 Feb 2023
Politico: House Republicans’ wanted list: Hunter Biden, big tech and the FBI https://tinyurl.com/msdm8cxd Hunter Biden, Twitter and the FBI: 1. House Republicans: 0.
// Republicans’ Wednesday Twitter hearing was a who’s who of the party’s major targets.
WaPo, Paul Waldman: Sarah Huckabee Sanders’s strange ‘woke’ rant reveals a big GOP problem https://tinyurl.com/bdh3pc5m The GOP “can demagogue an issue brilliantly, but they can’t persuade the middle to support their policies”
🐣 RT @UkrainianNews24 Ukraine is preparing for a large-scale Russian offensive in Donbas . Moscow has concentrated hundreds of thousands of troops in the east of the country, using tactics of brute force and numerical superiority, trying to destroy the defense of the Armed Forces of Ukraine
ISW: Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, February 8, 2023 https://tinyurl.com/yckryztu
🧵 RT @anneapplebaum Do people who think the Russian war in Ukraine should be ended for “humanitarian” reasons not understand what is happening in Russian-occupied Ukraine? They haven’t read about the torture chambers? The mass murders? Deportation of thousands of children?
📌 https://twitter.com/anneapplebaum/status/1623432463753134080?s=20
There may be less bombardment of occupied Kherson or Donetsk provinces at the moment, but an even uglier, bloodier and more terrifying humanitarian crisis is unfolding there. You want to make that crisis permanent? You want more people to die?
You say you want to stop the suffering in Ukraine. Do you have any idea what kind of suffering would follow a Ukrainian capitulation? Or even a decision to hand over more Ukrainian territory?
Also, what makes you think Putin has given up on his original plan to occupy Ukraine, kill Zelensky, carry out genocide and install a puppet government? How is your negotiation going to persuade him to give up that imperialist dream? What’s your plan?
🧵 RT @WarintheFuture There is so much to learn from the war in #Ukraine. But, as we approach 1 year since the Russian invasion, we should also be thinking about how our potential adversaries might learn from the conflict. 1/17
📌 https://twitter.com/WarintheFuture/status/1623436354284843008?s=20
WaPo: At combative hearing, GOP fans allegations of collusion by government, Big Tech https://tinyurl.com/2s372bz3 “Twitter hearing ends with no testimony that FBI tried to influence Twitter’s decision on the Hunter Biden laptop”
🐣 RT @NOELreports In #Bakhmut the situation is precarious. The M03 to Slovyansk is operationally cut. RU troops are in the vicinity of the highway. UA does fight back. The aim is to encircle UA troops in Paraskoviivka and Krasna Hora. In the latter, some positions have reportedly been abandoned.
🌎 https://twitter.com/NOELreports/status/1623432479595167745?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @AdamParkhomenko
Democrats: we need to protect social security and Medicare
Republicans: we need to see the president’s son’s dick
🐣 RT @RVAwonk AOC, as usual is on fire: ¤ “Political operatives [are] weaponizing the use of this committee… A whole hearing about a 24-hour hiccup in a right-wing political operation. That is why we are here right now. It’s an abuse of public resources and an abuse of public time.”
🐣 RT @JDLuckenbach Keep an eye on Daniel Goldman. He’s going to be an absolute star. ¤ This guy will not let Republicans lies go unchallenged.
⋙ 🐣 RT @atrupar Rep. Goldman schools Comer on facts in the Hunter Biden story that the New York Post got wrong
💽 https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1623364616213483520?s=20/photo/1
⋙ 🐣 RT @atrupar Goldman: “So far we’ve seen no actual evidence of any lies or any support for Joe Biden being involved in anything having to do with Ukraine other than promoting US foreign policy.”
💽 https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1623365159447142400?s=20/photo/1
↥ ↧
🧵 RT @atrupar House Republicans are unveiling their inflation plan this morning
⋙ caption: “OVERSIGHT HEARING ON HUNTER BIDEN CENSORSHIP”
📌 https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1623337349097697281?s=20
⋙ 🐣 RT @atrupar Goldman: “Let’s run down what Twitter know about this hard drive and this story when it was published. First, the sole source of the hard drive was Rudy Giuliani, who had been working closely with Russian intelligence agents throughout 2020.”
💽 https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1623408363999485952?s=20/photo/1
↥
🐣 RT @tooronlists The Republican Party can’t cut taxes for the rich any more than they already have, soooooooooo, they got nothin’. ¤ But alas Caesar, the people must be entertained!! Send in the clowns!, Que the M&M battle!, Release the pronouns!, Fire the Conspiracy cannon!! Are you not amused!
USAToday, Rex Huppke: Dark Brandon’ shows up at State of the Union, mops the floor with lost Republicans https://tinyurl.com/y6s6hvk8 “[T]hey ran at him like a pack of lemmings and, with a wink and a grin, he politely directed them to the cliff”
// Biden went off script regularly, parrying GOP lawmakers who heckled him, at one point backing the party into a corner and getting them to swear to protect Medicare and Social Security benefits.
President Joe Biden, at the ripe age of 80, came out with ample vim and vigor in Tuesday night’s State of the Union address and proceeded to mop the House floor with the howling, discombobulated remains of the Republican Party.
Preaching populism and leaning hard on his noted skill as the empathizer-in-chief, Biden bounded through a speech that acknowledged the nation’s struggles while remaining unerringly optimistic. He went off script regularly, parrying Republican lawmakers who heckled him, at one point backing the whole party into a corner and getting them to swear to protect Medicare and Social Security benefits.
I’ve never seen anything like it in a State of the Union speech – they ran at him like a pack of lemmings and, with a wink and a grin, he politely directed them to the cliff.
⭕ 7 Feb 2023
🐣 RT @DavidJollyFL Whoa. It’s not often you see an 80 year old man giving a public beat down to 222 grown adults, but my word. What a night.
🐣 RT @AdamKinzinger Joe Biden sparring with the crowd and winning wasn’t something I expected.
🐣 RT @POTUS Nearly 25% of our country’s debt was added under my predecessor. ¤ How did Congress respond? They lifted the debt ceiling three times. They paid America’s bills. Tonight, I’m asking this Congress to follow suit. ¤ The full faith and credit of America will never be questioned.
🐣 📋 RT @WhiteHouse In the last two years, President Biden cut the deficit by more than $1.7 trillion. ¤ This is the largest deficit reduction in American history.
🐣 RT @ KeithOlbermann Hi, Professional Cynic Here, the President just gave the best State of the Union speech I’ve ever heard.
🐣 RT @djrothkopf To anyone who thinks Joe Biden should not run for re-election listen to this speech. Listen again. He is the best candidate either party can muster. He has the best record of any president’s first two years in modern memory. And he’s very good at making the case for his agenda.
🐣 RT @Victorshi2020 That was one of the best speeches President Biden has given. He called out Republicans. He made his accomplishments clear. He spoke directly to the American people. And he offered bold policies that would help American families. That was a true State of the Union speech. Amazing.
Politico: Why Biden’s Speech Worked https://tinyurl.com/282hafxf
// He had a clear political message, and his populist outrage sounded genuine
🐣 RT @ TVietor08 Really strong speech from Biden. Love the contrast of his (mostly) unifying message vs the ranting extremist idiot faction. The WH must be so happy about the heckling and energy it brought.
🐣 RT @RepRaskin What a brilliant, refreshing speech that revives true American populism—progressive democratic populism, not right-wing authoritarian fake-populism. Biden sounds Rooseveltian and is taking American politics by storm.
WaPo: Biden, in State of the Union, mixes bipartisanship with defiance https://tinyurl.com/2p8cxm8w
// Speech is marked by unusual back-and-forth between president and Republican lawmakers
🐣 RT @sbg1 Biden made perhaps the best speech of his presidency. The heckling from Republicans only helped make his points
🐣 RT @POTUS Done. And we’re set to decrease it by another $250 billion over the next decade.
⋙ 🐣 RT @POTUS By the end of this year, the deficit will be down to less than half what it was before I took office. ¤ I’m the only president ever to cut the deficit by more than one trillion dollars in a single year.
🐣 RT @ MuellerSheWrote Brilliant bit of unanimity as Biden forces republicans to pledge to take Social Security and Medicare cuts off the table. Absolutely perfectly handled. #sotu2023
🐣 RT @DavidJollyFL I’m not sure anyone expected Biden to so quickly and ably put Republicans on the ropes and then just keep swinging, all with a smile on his face. ¤ This is a very good speech and a very good look for the President.
🐣 RT @KamauMandela We have a President who understands where we are, accomplishing & working to get major things done for ALL Americans while doing it with class. ¤ Tonight’s #SOTU speech was a homerun. Forever proud to be Team 46. It’s more work ahead. Well done, @POTUS! ¤ Let’s finish the job!🇺🇸
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer KREMINNA AXIS/2315 UTC 7 FEB/ RU resumed artillery fire missions against targets in Kreminna– confirming a UKR lodgment in the city. Sources report that UKR troops are engaged with RU units in central Kreminna along Kuybyshev St and south of School No 4 in the city center.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1623097040908566528?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT /2250 UTC 7 FEB/ Heavy fighting ongoing in the Bakhmut Area of Operations (AO). RU’s aim is to cut UKR supply lines & seize road junctions to dimmish UKR maneuver options. RU forces, including airborne units, attempt to cut the the M-03 / T-05-13 HWY junction.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1623089460593164288?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @JosepBorrellF Information oils the engine of democracy. ¤ Russia is using information manipulation & interference as a crucial instrument in its war of aggression against Ukraine ¤ We have plenty of evidence – over 15.000 cases collected and published by @EUvsDisinfo, to expose & raise awareness
⭕ 6 Feb 2023
WaPo, Jennifer Rubin: Prosecutors must carefully select which charges, if any, to bring against Trump https://tinyurl.com/yc3bvt6s “[T]he public’s desire for Trump to be held accountable is not sufficient reason to file every possible criminal case against him” [‼️]
🧵 ISW: #Ukrainian officials assess that #Russian forces are preparing to launch a large-scale decisive offensive in eastern Ukraine in mid to late February. https://isw.pub/UkrWar020623
📌 🌎 https://twitter.com/TheStudyofWar/status/1622803359739809793?s=20/photo/1 -4
[ThreadReader:] https://tinyurl.com/29az9ed5
2/ Key takeaways for February 6, 2023: Select Russian nationalist voices continued to express skepticism towards #Russia’s ability to launch a successful offensive in #Ukraine past late February.
3/ German Chancellor Olaf Scholz undermined Russian President Vladimir #Putin’s false narrative that the provision of German tanks to #Ukraine threatens Russian security.
4/ Kremlin-appointed Russian and occupation officials continue to implement social benefit schemes that target children and teenagers in occupied areas of #Ukraine to consolidate social control and integration of these territories into #Russia.
5/ Kremlin-appointed Russian and occupation officials continue to implement social benefit schemes that target children and teenagers in occupied areas of Ukraine to consolidate social control and integration of these territories into Russia.
6/ Russian Commissioner on Children’s Rights, Maria Lvova-Belova (appointed by #Putin) is likely working directly on Putin’s orders to institute several social institutions and programs in occupied areas of #Ukraine to collect personal data on children…
7/ …carry out various social programming functions aimed at integrating occupied areas using pseudo-humanitarian organizations, and set conditions to legitimize and institutionalize the deportation and adoption of Ukrainian children into Russian families.
8/ Russian President Vladimir #Putin continues to open the door for further institutionalized corruption in Russia through legislative manipulations.
9/ The Kremlin continues to deny Wagner financier Yevgeny Prigozhin legitimacy and authority in #Russia. Prigozhin’s appeal in the Russian nationalist information space may also be declining as he continues to overcompensate for the culmination of Wagner’s attack around Bakhmut.
10/ Failures of Western sanctions efforts against the provision of arms components to Iran have likely contributed to #Russia’s ability to bypass Western sanctions to acquire components for combat drones through military cooperation with #Iran.
NYT: Russian Attacks Intensify in Eastern Ukraine Ahead of Expected Offensive https://tinyurl.com/35tp8k8m “Ukraine’s defense minister, Oleksii Reznikov … , said that Moscow was determined to break through Ukraine’s defensive lines before the anniversary of Russia’s invasion”
// Russia is deploying hundreds of thousands of newly mobilized soldiers, in small groups, to probe for vulnerabilities in Ukrainian defensive lines.
💙 NYT: Outnumbered and Worn Out, Ukrainians in East Brace for Russian Assault https://tinyurl.com/mw3248z4 If you read anything, read this: gifted article
// The war is intensifying in a string of villages on the eastern front, where doctors struggle to handle an influx of gruesome injuries and soldiers fret about a Russian army sending waves of new conscripts.
🧵 RT @WarintheFuture Recently there has been more speculation about the timing & size of 2023 Russian offensives in #Ukraine. That the Russians will attempt them is almost a given. Russia has been assembling the pieces of their 2023 offensives since late last year. 1/21
📌 https://twitter.com/WarintheFuture/status/1622748080482418688?s=20
🐣 RT @dpatrikarakos I embedded with UA Special Forces fighting in Bakhmut. This is the story of life & death on the frontlines of the war’s most intense battle. In it, you see both the determination of #Ukraine 🇺🇦 & the cost of #Russia|n🇷🇺 imperialism. My latest for Unherd.
⋙ Unherd, David Patrikarakos: The madness behind the battle for Bakhmut https://tinyurl.com/yssmwew9
// Russian troops are dying in their thousands here
📊 WaPo, Aaron Blake: GOP’s ‘weaponization’ committee viewed as more suspect than its targets https://tinyurl.com/2p8uak2k polls, polls, polls
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer KREMINNA AXIS /2310 UTC 6 FEB/ RU forces resumed serial offensives & armed reconnaissance across the P-66 HWY. RU artillery fire missions are plotted inside central Kreminna– confirming that UKR forces have maintained contact within the urban area.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1622731212899991552?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT /1405 UTC 6 FEB/ UKR reports ‘complete lack of coordination’ between Wagner PMC & RU forces in the Bakhmut Area of Operations. UKR forces were again in contact S of the H-32 HWY at Ivanivske. UKR Gen’l Staff reports 9 aviation strike missions on RU troops & HQ elements.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1622595573730709512?s=20/photo/1
⭕ 5 Feb 2023
RT @tribelaw “The Koch network joins the Club for Growth and several of the party’s biggest individual donors, such as finance billionaires Kenneth C. Griffin and Stephen A. Schwartzman in signaling their opposition to Trump’s current campaign.” The balloon’s bursting
⋙ WaPo: Koch network to back alternative to Trump after sitting out recent primaries https://tinyurl.com/mrxr6ya9
// The return of one of the biggest spenders in American politics to the presidential primary field poses a direct challenge to the former president’s comeback bid
NYT: Taking Aim at Trump, Koch Network Will Back G.O.P. Primary Candidates https://tinyurl.com/35r2af3j “The best thing for the country would be to have a president in 2025 who represents a new chapter” ~ letter from Americans For Prosperity (AFP) to donors
// The move by the alliance of conservative donors could provide an enormous boost to a Republican alternative to the former president.
⋙ Letter to AFP donors: https://tinyurl.com/b25rm9sc
🐣 RT @ademyarslan White House says stands ready to provide “any and all” needed assistance following the massive earthquake in Turkey and Syria.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/ademyarslan/status/1622460889566793735?s=20/photo/1
[Text:] TheWhiteHouse: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 5, 2023 Statement from National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan on the
Earthquake in Turkiye and Syria
The United States is profoundly concerned by the reports of today’s destructive earthquake in Turkiye and Syria. We stand ready to provide any and all needed assistance. President Biden has directed USAID and other federal government partners to assess U.S. response options to help those most affected. We will continue to closely monitor the situation in coordination with the Government of Türkiye.
🐣 RT @Ayei_Eloheichem Prigozhin says Ukraine is not withdrawing from Bakhmut, and won’t: “Fierce battles are going on for every street, every house, every stairwell…The Ukrainian Armed Forces are not retreating anywhere. The Ukrainian Armed Forces are fighting to the last man.”
😅 RT @EdKrassen Republicans: “Trump would have shot down a Chinese spy balloon. ¤ Pentagon: “It happened three times under Trump and he didn’t shoot it down.” ¤ Republicans: “Hunter Biden!”
⭕ 4 Feb 2023
DefenseOne: Key Republicans Launch Two-Part Plan to Pressure Biden on Ukraine https://tinyurl.com/yncypt3x
// Sen Roger Wicker, Rep Mike Rogers; National security committee leaders in Congress are waging a public campaign to signal they support sending more advanced weapons to Ukraine–and faster than Biden is allowing
Republicans have launched a two-front campaign to pressure the Biden administration in the coming months into sending more advanced weapons to Ukraine, including some the president has so far been reluctant to provide. But the conservatives’ push comes with the expectation of more and faster progress by Ukraine, as polls indicate declining support for the effort to arm Ukraine, particularly among Republicans.
The first part of the dual campaign is to conduct closed-door classified information gatherings in Congress, like the recent classified Senate Armed Services Committee briefing that included Celeste Wallander, assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs and William LaPlante, the under secretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, according to two people with direct knowledge of current discussions within Republican leadership.
The second part is a public-facing campaign to call on President Joe Biden to provide things like Grey Eagle drones, and the long-range Army Tactical Missile System, or ATACMS, which would help Ukraine strike at the Russian artillery batteries continuously lobbing missiles at Ukrainian forces. Kyiv has been requesting ATACMS since the start of the war, but the requests have grown louder as the United States approved other pieces of equipment it previously resisted, such as M-1 Abrams tanks.
The public portion of the Republicans’ campaign could take a variety of forms. Virtually every Armed Services Committee hearing in the House and Senate provides opportunity for comment, the two individuals said. Lawmakers could also speak on the issue during floor speeches and media engagements. …
🐣 RT @krassenstein GOP this morning: How dare Biden not shoot the Chinese Spy Ballon down. ¤ GOP at 2PM: How dare Biden wait so long to shoot balloon down. ¤ Pentagon: We tracked the balloon, jammed it’s signal & gathered data on it, before shooting it down over the Atlantic. ¤ GOP Now: Silence
🧵 RT @ CanadianKobzar Fellas! Stay awhile and listen! Today I present a Two cautionary tales from Ukrainian history. Two divided eras of Ukrainian history following the collapse of golden ages – The fragmentation of Rus in the 12th century and the Ruin of the 17th. 1/17
📌 https://twitter.com/CanadianKobzar/status/1621972437620359168?s=20
🐣 RT @jimsciutto Notable: US officials say they were able to block the balloon from gathering intel during its overflight of the US, while the US military was able to turn the tables, so to speak, to gather intel on the balloon itself and its equipment.
🐣 my guess is they waited to shoot the balloon down over water, not because someone on the ground might get hurt (mostly was over unpop. areas), but in the hope of recovering the technology intact ~ as opposed to a hard landing; plus, easier to locate
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT AXIS /1310 UTC 4 FEB/ RU forces continue offensive operations against Krasna Hora. UKR has maintained a disruptive lodgment near Klischiivka. UKR missiles, artillery and strike aviation targeted RU troop concentrations and HQ elements in heavy fighting.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1621856267605000195?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer KREMINNA AXIS /1245 UTC 4 FEB/ RU continues determined offensive efforts in the Kreminna Area of Operations (AO). During the period 3-4 FEB, RU forces resumed serial offensives & armed reconnaissance across the P-66 HWY. UKR artillery and air strikes hit RU troops.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1621849727607111683?s=20/photo/1
🧵 RT @tomiahonen Here is latest daily count of cumulative Russian losses in their disastrous year-long invasion war into Ukraine, via the excellent Kyiv Independent RT @KyivIndependent ¤ That number of dead Russian soldiers inside one year, 130,000… is STAGGERING ¤ Let’s do a bit of math […]
📌 https://twitter.com/tomiahonen/status/1621816826354192384?s=20
⋙🐣 RT @tomiahonen In WW1, your chance to die was 4% per year ¤ In WW2, it was 3% per year ¤ For Soviet soldier, 8% died per year in WW2. That was worst casualty rate of any army of WW2 ¤ In Ukraine, for Russian soldiers it is EIGHT TIMES DEADLIER than WW2 = 68% death rate! ¤ This is sheer madness!
// numbers appear to exclude newly mobilized
🐣 📊 RT @jburnmurdoch German public opinion on allowing its tanks to be sent to Ukraine is striking: ¤ 75% of Green voters back sending tanks, vs just 6% of AfD. ¤ Really shows how the Greens have embraced pragmatism (see also agreeing to keep nuclear pants open), while AfD captured by pro-Russian nuts.
◕ https://twitter.com/jburnmurdoch/status/1621807289970704384?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @NAChristakis Here, @billmaher @RealTimers rightly sees the Maoist elements of many denunciation cases in the arts and academia. This idea that humans can simply negate reality, with words, is an old one — and well understood for its limits if not falsity.
⋙ 🐣 RT @billmaher If you’re part of today’s woke revolution, you need to study the part of revolutions where they spin out of control.
💽 https://twitter.com/NAChristakis/status/1621850269725196288?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @olex_scherba Nice. Ukraine’s security service hacked a zoom-call between moscow and the quislings in Ukraine. And officially notified the latter that they’re charged with treason. ¤ And then let them listen to ukraine 🇺🇦 anthem. ¤ #StandWithUkraine
💽 https://twitter.com/olex_scherba/status/1621803146501554176?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @NikaMelkozerova This is mind-blowing. Chechens fighting for Russia after Grozny, after everything… Buryats dying for Russia while their native culture is almost destroyed.
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @NOELreports Kadyrov’s detachments do not allow Buryats to retreat from the battlefield, urging them to stand with shovels against tanks. ¤ True comradery.
💽 https://twitter.com/NikaMelkozerova/status/1621826267434696706?s=20/photo/1
⋙ 🐣 RT @olex_sherba All you need to do is convince people that freedom doesn’t exist. That it’s a western ploy to conquer others. Also, liberate them from the “chimera of conscience”… ¤ Someone did terrible things to them when they were weak. Now they’re strong – and entitled to do it to others.
⭕ 3 Feb 2023
OCCRP: Kremlin-Linked Group Arranged Payments to European Politicians to Support Russia’s Annexation of Crimea https://tinyurl.com/2p86vyz6
// For years, a secret organization run from inside Russia’s parliament successfully interfered with European policies on occupied Ukraine. Leaked emails give a new overview of the operation and show how European Union politicians who helped push Moscow’s agenda were offered cash and perks.
● Leaked emails show how a Duma insider built a network of analysts, journalists, and others who helped him push the Kremlin’s interests abroad.
● His group offered cash to European politicians to propose pro-Russian motions in their local legislatures, and paid far-right activists to publish pro-Kremlin articles in European media outlets.
● The network arranged trips to occupied Crimea for European politicians and businessmen, with travel and accommodation covered by Russian state-funded organizations and honoraria apparently offered to some individuals.
● It also helped bring European political figures to Russia to act as election observers, with a 68,000-euro budget allocated to the project.
EuromaidanPress: US announces $2.175 bn worth aid for Ukraine, confirms it includes longer-range rockets https://tinyurl.com/7298vfbj ‘The ground-launched, bomb-tipped rocket Ground Launched Small Diameter Bomb (GLSDB) will double Ukraine’s strike range to 150km’
// Defense budget
The US has announced two new military aid packages for Ukraine worth $2.175 billion in total.
“Pursuant to a delegation of authority from the President, I am authorizing our 31st drawdown of US arms and equipment for Ukraine since August 2021, valued at $425 million. In addition, the US Department of Defense will be committing another $1.75 billion in support for Ukraine under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative to help strengthen Ukraine’s military,” US State Secretary Antony Blinken’s press statement reads.
According to the statement, the packages include “critical air defense and counter-drone capabilities,” armored infantry vehicles, Javelin anti-tank missiles, artillery ammunition, and “conventional and long-range rockets for US-provided HIMARS.” Brigadier General Patrick Ryder also told a news briefing at the Pentagon that the packages also include counter artillery and air surveillance radars, communications equipment, PUMA drones, and medical supplies.
According to The Independent, the air defense equipment included in the package are the HAWK air defense firing units.
Reuters adds that Gen. Ryder told that a new rocket included in the US military aid package is the ground-launched, bomb-tipped rocket Ground Launched Small Diameter Bomb (GLSDB). These rockets would double Ukraine’s strike range as the GLSDB’s range is 151 km against the 77 km range of standard HIMARS rockets.
🐣 RT @gtconway3dg [“ghost of George Conway”] Mark Pomerantz: “He demanded absolute loyalty and would go after anyone who crossed him. He seemed always to stay one step ahead of the law … In my career as a lawyer, I had encountered only one other person who touched all of these bases: John Gotti.”
⋙ NYT: Trump Likened to Mob Boss John Gotti in Ex-Prosecutor’s New Book https://tinyurl.com/2p83wevh
// Mark F. Pomerantz, who resigned from the Manhattan district attorney’s office last year, wrote that he had pursued a racketeering case against the former president.
Mark F. Pomerantz, resigned in protest early last year after the newly elected district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, decided not to seek an indictment of Mr. Trump at that time. By then, the inquiry was more narrowly focused on whether the former president had fraudulently inflated the value of his assets to secure loans.
But for months beforehand, Mr. Pomerantz had mapped out a wide-ranging possible case against the former president under the state racketeering law, according to the soon-to-be published book, “People vs. Donald Trump.” That broader approach was based on the theory that Mr. Trump had presided over a corrupt business empire for years, a previously unreported aspect of the long-running inquiry.
Mr. Pomerantz and his colleagues cast a wide net, examining a host of Trump enterprises — including Trump University, his for-profit real estate education venture, and his family charitable foundation.
“He demanded absolute loyalty and would go after anyone who crossed him. He seemed always to stay one step ahead of the law,” Mr. Pomerantz, a prominent litigator who has prosecuted and defended organized crime cases, writes of Mr. Trump. “In my career as a lawyer, I had encountered only one other person who touched all of these bases: John Gotti, the head of the Gambino organized crime family.” …
🐣 RT @PKouretsos Goodnight Moon,
Goodnight Chinese high-altitude spy balloon,
Goodnight stars,
Goodnight air,
Goodnight persistent overhead reconnaissance everywhere.
NYT: Zelensky insists ‘no one will give away Bakhmut’ https://tinyurl.com/2p9b8bk9 “The challenge for Ukraine, he said, is to resist the increased Russian pressure while waiting for its own forces to gather strength, complete training on new weapons systems and build up its arsenal”
🐣 RT @JosepBorrellF [EU official] Our meeting in Kyiv today underlines the vital importance of our bilateral agenda. It demonstrates that the European dream of the Ukrainian people is becoming reality. ¤ The EU and Ukraine are closer together than ever. Ukraine’s future lies within the EU.
🐣 RT @ZMiST_Ua The great offensive of the Russian Federation will end by April and will not be successful – ISW
⋙ 🐣 RT @ZMiST_Ua Putin probably overestimated the strength of the Russian army again, and therefore its major offensive in the east of Ukraine will end prematurely in the spring rainy season and will not be effective, analysts of the Institute for the Study of War are convinced
🐣 RT @ZMiST_Ua The great offensive of the Russian Federation will end by April and will not be successful – ISW
WaPo, Sean Connelly (Oct): In the 1850s, the Irish faced the same hostility as today’s immigrants https://tinyurl.com/4kbssz44 “The parallels between the era of the American Know-Nothings and the present day are undeniable”
// 10/6/2022; This history provides lessons about why our current immigration panic is misguided
⭕ 2 Feb 2023
NYT: Soaring Death Toll Gives Grim Insight Into Russian Tactics https://tinyurl.com/2p89ytwv “American officials … say the strategic value of Bakhmut simply is not in line with the price Russia has paid”
// Moscow is sending poorly trained recruits, including convicts, to the front lines in eastern Ukraine to pave the way for more seasoned fighters, U.S. and allied officials say.
🐣 RT @BillKristol Continue to supply Ukraine money? ¤ All voters: 63% favor, 34% against.(79% of Democrats, 51% of Republicans, 55% of independents favor) ¤ Continue to supply Ukraine weapons? ¤ All voters: 64% favor, 33% against. (79% of Ds, 55% of Rs, 56% of indies favor)
⋙ FoxNews: Fox News Poll: Bipartisan support for sending funding, weapons to Ukraine https://tinyurl.com/34s8vby6
// Over half of American voters think Ukraine is winning the war against Russia
// 1/27-1/30/2023
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT AXIS /1425 UTC 2 FEB/ RU forces have cut the T-05-13 HWY N of Bakhmut at Blahodatne. UKR staged a disruptive counter-strike against RU areas near Klischiivka. UKR Missile and Artillery targeted RU troop concentrations and a HQ element.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1621151491741618177?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer KREMINNA AXIS /2150 UTC 2 FEB/ During the period 1-2 FEB, RU forces conducted a series of armed reconnaissance and offensive operations. UKR forces report contact W of the P-66 HWY between Ploschanka & Bilohorivka.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1621247758907719682?s=20/photo/1
NYT: Putin Promises Victory in Ukraine as His Forces Strike Key City of Kramatorsk https://tinyurl.com/4vnrf8n8 https://tinyurl.com/2xcan3wm “Russia’s slow gains in the east and its attempts to capture the nearby city of Bakhmut have come at a huge cost in lives, Ukraine says”
⭕ 1 Feb 2023
🐣 RT @ john_sipher “Russia is a whole separate world, submissive to the will, caprice, fantasy of a single man…Contrary to all the law of the human community, Russia moves only in the direction of her own enslavement and the enslavement of neighboring people.” Peter Chaadaev 1854
🐣 RT @WarMonitor3 Ukrainian forces are inflicting significant losses on the most highly trained and capable brigades of the Russian army around Bakhmut, Kreminna and Vuhledar. ¤ In these areas naval brigades, airborne divisions and Spetsnaz units continue to take losses in frontal assaults.
🐣 RT @nytimes On Wednesday, the head of Ukraine’s military administration in Luhansk said that Russia was “trying to advance” from Kreminna and the city of Svatove. Ukrainian officials say they expect the Kremlin to renew its offensive soon in Luhansk and in Donetsk.
Ukrainian soldiers firing shells toward Russian fortifications located inside the city of Kreminna, at the end of December.
⋙ NYT: The town of Kreminna is in the cross hairs in the fight for northern Luhansk https://tinyurl.com/msf7tecu
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer KREMINNA AXIS /1230 UTC 1 FEB/ The 0600 brief of the Gen’l Staff reports UKR forces are in contact at Terny, Chervonopopivka & Dibrova. UKR forces have apparently maintained some positions in Kreminna. RU offensive ops aim to secure the east bank of the Zherebets reservoir.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1620762145326788608?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @ ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT / 2145 UTC 1 FEB/ RU Wagner PMC units conduct offensive operations at Krasna Hora in an attempt to capture the T-05-13 / M-03 HWY junction. S of the city, Wagner & VDV units continue efforts to reach the H-32 Hwy in the vicinity of Ivanivske.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1620899569620983833?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @ ChuckPfarrer FRIENDS LIKE THESE: @abdbozkurt reports that Turkey’s President Erdogan, smarting over a US refusal to provide F-35 fighter jets, now proposes a Turkish alliance with Syria, Russia and Iran. Erdogan has previously voiced doubts about the ascension of Sweden & Finland to NATO.
⋙ 🐣 RT @abdbozkurt #Turkey’s President #Erdogan threatened to make the US pay a price for what he claimed unfulfilled promises on fighter jets, vowed to make an alliance with #Russia, #Iran, and #Syria to bring peace in the region.
WaPo: Amid attacks from DeSantis, AP African American studies course is updated https://tinyurl.com/3mkdkxjy //➔ the revised course outline is significantly improved over the previous one; the course will be a better preparation for serious scholarship in college
// The College Board denies that it watered down the course after criticism from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R)
⋙ WaPo doc: College Board: Proposed AP African American Studies Course [pdf] https://tinyurl.com/v677caxm 234p
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT /0000 UTC 01 FEB/ RU forces maintain a lodgment across the T-05-13 HWY north of Blahodatne, and are attempting an encirclement of Krasna Hora. UKR forces are in contact east of the T-05-13 / M-03 HWY and continue to hold this important junction.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1620572197256564736?s=20/photo/1
⭕ 31 Jan 2023
🧵 RT @JominiW 1/ Ukraine TVD, 1-31 JAN 23. The first month of 2023 saw a determined effort by the VSRF to finally seize control of Bakhmut in central Donetsk, blunt ZSU advances in Luhansk, and expand territorial control in Zaporizhzhia. #UkraineRussiaWar #RussianArmy #UkraineFrontLines
📌 🌎 https://twitter.com/JominiW/status/1620626767366209537?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @RonFilipkowski Stormy thanks Trump for his confession.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1620494501751177217?s=20/photo/1
[Text:] 🐣 RT @StormyDaniels Thanks for just admitting that I was telling the truth about EVERYTHING. Guess I’ll take my “horse face” back to bed now, Mr. former “president”. Btw, that’s the correct way to use Tweet quotation marks. Donald J. Trump @realDonald Trump, With respect to the “Stormy” 💋
⋙ [Text:] 🐣 RT @realDonaldTrump With respect to the “Stormy” nonsense, it is VERY OLD & happened a long time ago, long past the very publicly known & accepted deadline of the Statute of Limitations. I placed full Reliance on the JUDGEMENT & ADVICE OF COUNCIL, who I had every reason to believe had a license to practice law, was competent, and was able to provide solid legal […]
⋙ 🐣 RT @KAFearless Also.. the statute of limitations has NOT run out 😂😂😂
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/KAFearless/status/1620501720731361280?s=20/photo/1
[Text:] Statute of limitations on Trump over Stormy Daniels I have seen a few posts that claim that AG Bragg allowed the statute of limitations to run out against Trump on the Stormy Daniels case. ¤ That’s what Trump claims, but, as usual, it is a false claim. Under NY law, the statute of limitations can be extended an additional 5 years if the suspect continually lives outside of NY. Trump spent 4 years in DC and has lived in Florida since then. So Bragg is able to pursue the case, still within NY’s statute limits. Scroll down to the end of this article to read what it says about the NY statute of limitations.
🐣 RT @Reuters The euro zone posted an unexpected rise in GDP in the fourth quarter, amid warnings that growth in 2023 is expected to be among the weakest on record https://reut.rs/3Hjdem5
⋙ 🐣 Goldman Sachs now says the US and the EU (except for the UK) may not have a recession this year
TheIntercept (2020): Erik Prince Offered Lethal Services to Sanctioned Russian Mercenary Firm The WagnerGroup https://tinyurl.com/34vwac2f
// 4/13/2020; A business relationship between Prince and Wagner would, in effect, make the prominent Trump administration adviser a subcontractor to the Russian military.
🐣 RT @BlackKnight10k Attorneys General*
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/BlackKnight10k/status/1620598348888825857?s=20/photo/1
[Text:] 🐣 RT @ @realDonaldTrump The Democrat D.A.’S, Attorney Generals, and Prosecutors are very DANGEROUS to the well being of our Country. Many are deranged and only interested in pleasing the Fake News Media and the Democrat Party. Fair and True Justice means NOTHING in our Country anymore. I am being hit by so many DEMOCRAT Prosecutors, LOCAL, STATE, & FEDERAL, all to keep me from “running,” and all because I am leading by sooo much. The great people of our Country aren’t going to take it. MAKE AMERICA
GREAT AGAIN!
WaPo: GOP report shows plan to ramp up focus on disproven election fraud claims https://tinyurl.com/2p8mv2b8 “The report suggests building a massive new party organization involving state-level ‘election integrity officers’ & intensive new training models for poll workers & observers”
// The report prepared by the Republican National Committee proposes expanding ‘election integrity’ activities in response to perceptions of a rigged process
🐣 RT @NOELreports $1.725 billion will be received from the USAI (weapons from industry, not from current US stock) and used to purchase GLSDB with a 150km range. No delivery time has been announced. The US has rejected requests for 300km range ATACMS missiles, writes Reuters.
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @NOELreports The United States reportedly is readying a $2.2 billion package of military aid for Ukraine that is expected to include longer-range rockets for the first time, and other munitions and weapons, two U.S. officials briefed on the matter told Reuters on Tuesday.
⋙ 🐣 RT @Frank68332165 Finally! goes further than HIMARS and just as precise. The same launcher as HIMARS can be used.
◕ https://twitter.com/Frank68332165/status/1620569598868484099?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @Biz_Ukraine_Mag Former US President Donald Trump says he trusts Russian dictator Vladimir Putin over America’s own intelligence services
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/Biz_Ukraine_Mag/status/1620561715305017344?s=20/photo/1
[Text:] 🐣 RT @realDonaldTrump [ts] Remember in Helsinki when a 3rd rate reporter asked me, essentially, who I trusted more, President Putin of Russia, or our “Intelligence” lowlifes. My instinct at the time was that we had really bad people in the form of James Comey, McCabe (whose wife was being helped out by Crooked Hillary while Crooked was under investigation!), Brennan, Peter Strzok (whose wife is at the SEC) & his lover, Lisa Page. Now add McGonigal & other slime to the list. Who would you choose, Putin or the Misfits?
⋙ 🐣 Brennen, Comey, Strzok, McCabe and Page are all good ret. FBI leadership or agents targeted by Trump. McGonigal is now in hot water for taking $$ from and working with Deripaska and acting in ways that may have helped get Trump elected over Hillary Clinton.
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer KREMINNA /1325 UTC 31 JAN/ Two RU offensive probes were undertaken during the period 29-30 JAN. The first, north of Kreminna, was repulsed by UKR east of Terny. RU forces retreated with losses. A second RU thrust on the O-0528 HWY was apparently also broken up by UKR forces.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1620409645801283584?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @NOELreports Currently, approximately 326,000 Russian soldiers are fighting in Ukraine says head of intelligence Budanov in The Washington Post.
⋙ WaPo: Ukraine intel chief predicted Russia’s war. He says Crimea will be retaken https://tinyurl.com/yc7x9zxr
It was Feb. 23 — the night before Russia launched its war on Ukraine — and Budanov had staked his career on being the rare Ukrainian official who was convinced that Russia was about to attack and attempt to capture Kyiv, the capital. ¤ He and his wife stared at the clock that night, anxious that Budanov could soon be out of work if all did not go as he had loudly predicted to Ukraine’s skeptical political leadership. …
Eleven months later, the 37-year-old Budanov’s words carry serious weight with President Volodymyr Zelensky and others in Kyiv. In Ukrainian political circles, he is respected as the one person — along with U.S. and British intelligence — who correctly warned months in advance what Russia was planning. ¤ At the time, he was largely brushed off. Most other Ukrainian government and military officials expected Russia’s invasion to be limited to the eastern part of the country rather than a full scale, three-pronged attack.
Budanov’s forecast for this year is that Russia will focus on occupying more territory in the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions. A renewed offensive from its forces stationed north of Ukraine, in Belarus, is unlikely, he said, and just an attempt to distract and divide Kyiv’s troops. He also said that “we must do everything to ensure that Crimea returns home by summer.”
Asked if he thinks Ukrainian troops reaching Crimea, which Russia invaded and annexed illegally in 2014, could trigger Russian President Vladimir Putin to use a nuclear weapon, Budanov said: “This is not true. And Crimea will be returned to us. I’ll tell you more: It all started in Crimea in 2014, and it will all end there.”
Budanov’s other claims have included that Putin is terminally ill with cancer and has multiple body doubles. “It’s an open question if it’s the real Putin now,” Budanov said. He is so confident in his intelligence that he occasionally opens a folder to give exact figures — “approximately 326,000 Russian forces” fighting in Ukraine now or that Russia has just 9 percent of its stock of Kalibr long-range missiles left.
Budanov’s quick rise to becoming one of the youngest generals in Ukraine’s history accelerated in August 2016, when a lieutenant colonel in Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB, was killed in Crimea, allegedly by Ukrainian saboteurs. Budanov was believed to have been one of the Ukrainian special operators involved, working behind enemy lines, and he was later awarded Ukraine’s “Order of Courage” for undisclosed operations. In 2020, then just 34, he was named head of Ukraine’s Main Directorate of Intelligence, or GUR. …
He remains a target for the Kremlin. After an explosion on the Crimean Bridge in October, Moscow named Budanov and other GUR agents as the culprits. ¤ Ukrainian officials, including Budanov, have not publicly claimed responsibility for the bridge attack or others deep into Russian territory. … ¤ “What’s next?” Budanov asked, repeating a request that he serve up further predictions. “Ukraine’s victory,” he said. “I’m not saying anything new.
🐣 RT @MarQs__ The US is readying a $2.2 billion package of military aid for Ukraine that is expected to include longer-range rockets for the first time, and other munitions and weapons, two U.S. officials briefed on the matter told Reuters
⋙ YahooNews/Reuters: U.S. readies $2.2 bln Ukraine aid package with longer-range weapons [⁉️] – sources https://tinyurl.com/3k5v7p6n
WaPo, Manuel Roig-Franzia: A conservative judge helped stop Trump on Jan. 6. He wants to finish the job https://tinyurl.com/bdhzpm52
// Michael Luttig, one of the most celebrated legal minds of his generation, never ascended to the Supreme Court. But many think the retired jurist played a far more consequential role for the nation. Now he envisions ‘the beginning of the end of Donald Trump.’
🐣 Slavery in many forms has been the rule not the exception through human history & prehistory. Oppression of one group by another is the natural state of nature. This makes the aspirations of the Enlightenment & US founding principles, however imperfectly fulfilled, remarkable
🐣 RT @NOELreports According to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, any peace negotiations should be conditional on Russia withdrawing its troops from the territory of Ukraine. In addition he said there can be negotiations with Ukraine only, not behind their backs or on behalf of them.
⋙ 🐣 Stated US policy: “Nothing about them without them”
⭕ 30 Jan 2023
WaPo, Boris Johnson: Putin has paved the way for Ukrainian membership in NATO https://tinyurl.com/nevv2x34 “Ukrainians should be given everything they need to finish this war, as quickly as possible, and we should begin the process of admitting Ukraine to NATO, and begin it now”
🐣 RT @MuellerSheWrote YES! @JudiciaryDems are going to look into the Durham misconduct. Please ask Wray, Garland, Barr, and Durham to testify before your committee, @SenatorDurbin. We deserve to know why Durham has not been fired for cause, or investigated himself. [TheHill:] https://tinyurl.com/2p8mneyc
⋙⋙ 🧵 RT @MuellerSheWrote [1/27] THREAD: Did the Durham probe cross a line from prosecutorial discretion to misconduct, or even criminal misconduct? I believe this new reporting is something @TheJusticeDept needs to address – either by press conference or testimony to @HouseJudiciary or both. 1/
📌 https://twitter.com/MuellerSheWrote/status/1618974945639530496?s=20
⋙ 🐣 RT @AshaRangappa_ How has Garland been letting this idiotic investigation go on this long?? I can only imagine that he thought shutting it down would make him look partisan. Now Durham is going to write his Deep State conspiracy report for his fans.🙄
WaPo, Aaron Blake: The crimes Trump could be charged with in Fulton County, Georgia https://tinyurl.com/h47z876h
According to legal experts, including a group at the Brookings Institution and Georgia State University law professor Clark D. Cunningham, a few could be in play. Below is a look at the various crimes that could be cited, along with the past conduct pointing in that direction and how compelling the publicly available evidence is.
● Solicitation to commit election fraud
● Conspiracy to commit election fraud
● Intentional interference with performance of election duties
● Interference with primaries and elections/filing false documents
● False statements
● Racketeering
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer KREMINNA AXIS /1350 UTC 30 JAN/ A growing concentration of RU forces are centered at Kreminna. These RU are assessed to be preparing offensive ops, likely a thrust west on the O-0528 HWY axis. The goal would appear to be the capture of Dibrova, Zarichne and ultimately Lyman.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1620048165323030528?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT /2040 UTC 30 JAN/ RU units have made significant progress in isolating Bakhmut. Advancing from Soledar, RU forces have crossed the T-05-13 HWY north of Blahodatne. This salient has severed Bakhmut’s principal north-south Line of Communications & Supply (LOCS).
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1620156596641992704?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @harrylitman Very big development. The Stormy Daniels hush money case that DA Bragg previously mothballed is now being presented to a grand jury. via @NYTimes
⋙ NYT: Manhattan Prosecutors Will Begin Presenting Trump Case to Grand Jury https://tinyurl.com/2p93wcfn
// The Manhattan district attorney’s decision represents a dramatic escalation of the inquiry, and sets the case on a path toward criminal charges against the former president.
WaPo: Some Democrats are worried about Harris’s political prospects https://tinyurl.com/4a3nuvar Plagued by staff turnover, communications missteps and a number of “resets,” is Harris an asset in 2024 and a viable candidate to lead the party to a Democratic presidency in 2028?
// At a pivotal point in Biden’s term, many party activists are not sure the vice president has shown she is up to winning the top job
NYT, David Firestone: Bill Barr’s Image Rehab Is Kaput https://tinyurl.com/t4vv8pke //➔ The House Committee on the “weaponization of government” should call on him to testify and see which version of Bill Barr appears
Former Attorney General William Barr has spent the last year in a desperate salvage operation for what’s left of his legal and ethical reputation. During his 22 months in office, he allowed his Justice Department to become a personal protection racket for his boss, Donald Trump, and left prosecutors, the F.B.I. and other law enforcement officials subject to the worst impulses of the president. But then, in his 2022 memoir, Mr. Barr did an about-face, bashing Mr. Trump for lacking a presidential temperament and singling out his “self-indulgence and lack of self-control.”
In the book, he urged Republicans not to renominate Mr. Trump in 2024, accusing the former president of going “off the rails” with his stolen-election claims by preferring the counsel of “sycophants” and “whack jobs” to that of his real advisers. Clearly concerned that history was paying attention, he was even stronger in his videotaped testimony to the Jan. 6 committee, loosing a variety of barnyard epithets and bitter insults to describe Mr. Trump’s legal strategy. He said the president had become “detached from reality” and was doing a disservice to the nation. …
But if Mr. Barr harbored any fantasy that he might yet be credited with a wisp of personal integrity for standing up for democracy, that hope was thoroughly demolished on Thursday when The Times published the details of what really happened when Mr. Barr launched a counter-investigation into the origins of Robert Mueller’s report on the 2016 Trump campaign’s ties to Russia. The reporting demonstrated a staggering abuse of the special counsel system and the attorney general’s office, all in a failed attempt by Mr. Barr to rewrite the sour truths of Mr. Trump’s history.
It was bad enough when, in March 2019, Mr. Barr tried to mislead the public into thinking the forthcoming Mueller report exonerated Mr. Trump, when in fact the report later showed just how strong the links were between the campaign and the Russian government, which worked to help defeat Hillary Clinton. A few months later Mr. Barr assigned John Durham, a federal prosecutor in Connecticut, as a special counsel to investigate Mr. Mueller’s investigation, hoping to prove Mr. Trump’s wild public allegations that the federal intelligence officials had helped instigate the claims of Russian interference to damage him. …
When the Justice Department’s own inspector general prepared to issue a report saying that, while the F.B.I. made some ethical mistakes, the investigation was legitimate and not politically motivated, Mr. Durham lobbied him to drop the finding. When that effort was unsuccessful, Mr. Barr reverted to his usual pattern of trying to spin the report before it was issued, disagreeing with its finding before it was even out. Mr. Durham then followed up with a similar statement, shattering the clear department principle of staying silent about a current investigation.
The two men even traveled to Britain and Italy together, pressuring government agencies there to disclose what they told U.S. spy agencies about the Trump-Russia connections. That infuriated officials of those governments, who said they had done nothing of the kind, and no evidence was ever found that they had. But on one of those trips, The Times reported, Italian officials gave the men a tip which, people familiar with the matter said, linked Mr. Trump to possible serious financial crimes. (It is not clear what those crimes were, and more reporting will be necessary to reveal the details.) Did Mr. Barr follow protocol and turn the tip over to regular prosecutors in his department for investigation? No. Instead, he gave it to his traveling companion, Mr. Durham, who opened a criminal investigation but never made it public and never filed charges, and when word began to trickle out that a suspected crime had been discovered, he falsely let the world think it had something to do with his original goal.
The Durham investigation, of course, has never presented any evidence that the F.B.I. or intelligence agencies committed any misconduct in the course of the Russia investigation, bitterly disappointing Mr. Barr and especially his patron, Mr. Trump, who had assured his supporters for months that it would produce something big. Desperate for some kind of success, Mr. Durham indicted Michael Sussmann, a lawyer who had worked for Democrats in their dealings with the F.B.I., over the objections of two prosecutors on the special counsel team who said the case was far too thin and who later left the staff.
Mr. Sussmann was acquitted last May of lying to the bureau, and the jury forewoman told reporters that bringing the case had been unwise. Mr. Barr later tried to justify the trial by saying it served another purpose in exposing the Clinton campaign’s starting the Russia narrative as a “dirty trick.” The trial did nothing of the kind … .
One of the other casualties of this deceitful crusade was the deliberate damage it did to the reputations of the F.B.I., the intelligence agencies and officials in Mr. Barr’s own department. All of these agencies have had many problematic episodes in their pasts, but there is no evidence in this case that they willfully tried to smear Mr. Trump and his campaign with false allegations of collusion. They were trying to do their jobs, on which the nation’s security depends, but because they got in Mr. Trump’s way, Mr. Barr aided in degrading their image through a deep-state conspiracy theory before an entire generation of Trump supporters. Republicans in the House are launching a new snipe hunt for proof that these same government offices were “weaponized” against conservatives, an expedition that is likely to be no more effective than Mr. Durham’s and Mr. Barr’s. …
🐣 Does Russia have an inferiority complex? With about 60% of the population of Russia, Germany has about 240% of Russia’s GDP. Other statistics:
GDP Pop.
$. 1.8Tr 143M Russia
$ 32.4Tr 959M NATO
$ 23.3Tr 332M US
$ 16.6Tr 448M EU ($4.3Tr, 83M Germany)
⭕ 29 Jan 2023
WaPo: Black Memphis police spark dialogue on systemic racism in the U.S. https://tinyurl.com/6an2yubu
// By Robert Klemko, Silvia Foster-Frau and Emily Davies
My Comment: Police in this country kill a disproportionately high percentage of Blacks compared to Whites. For Blacks, about 10% more are killed than would be expected based on population. For Whites, it’s about 15% fewer. Metropolitan areas with the highest levels of police killings cluster in the Southeast.
But what worries me most is that police killings in this country are at least 10 TIMES what they are in other developed countries. In the US in 2019, there were 33.5 police killings per 10 million people. In Canada, there were 10, in European countries 1 or 2, in Japan 0.
My hunch is that focusing entirely on systemic racism may blind us to other factors, including “toxic” police culture, male “pack” behavior, the militarization of police departments, and the guns, the guns, the guns.
🐣 RT @OneLoveNLAW “The Russians only understand our strength” – Petr Pavel is hot and based AF
🖼 https://twitter.com/OneLoveNLAW/status/1619824769955934209?s=20/photo/1
JerusalemPost: Drone attack on Iranian weapons factory was phenomenal success – sources https://tinyurl.com/25fscefy “Multiple large drones with significant amounts of explosives were involved and hit their targets with pinpoint accuracy” ~ Mossad?
// The Islamic Republic claimed that the drone attack had failed and only cause minor roof damage.
🐣 RT @lindacosylife Blinken: All options available to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon https://ara.tv/4ttvb This is how the war machine uses propaganda. Tell Iranian people that we are worried about their freedom and that we are going to help them get rid of their government. Chaos
⋙ Al-Arabia: Blinken: All options available to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon https://tinyurl.com/mr2swsu3 “Blinken highlighted US support to Iranian people, stressing that the decision of ‘regime change’ remains ultimately up to the [Iranian] people”
// US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, said on Sunday that Iran has rejected the current proposal
US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, said on Sunday that Iran has rejected the current proposal to return to the nuclear agreement, adding that Washington still believes that diplomacy is the most effective way to deal with the Iranian nuclear file [sic]. ¤ Blinken said in an exclusive interview with Al-Arabiya that Iranian youth are defending their basic rights in the face of Tehran’s regime, adding that US focus now is on the Iranian regime’s suppression of its people in the streets.
‘We support the Iranian people’
Blinken highlighted US support to Iranian people, stressing that the decision of “regime change” remains ultimately up to the people. He added: “The Iranian regime is convincing its people of the idea that the US wants regime change.” ¤ In addition, he stressed that Iran supports Russia in its war against Ukraine and provides it with drones and other weapons, expressing his concern about Tehran providing Moscow with drones and missiles.
‘All options are available’
He stressed that US President Joe Biden stressed his determination that Iran not acquire nuclear weapons, explaining that all options are available on the table to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. ¤ He pointed out that Washington has punished all those responsible for repression in Iran, stressing that his country continues to search for ways to disrupt Iran’s malign activities.
‘Deterring aggressors’
Blinken also said that the main goal of US military efforts was deterring aggressors, specifically the US military exercises with Israel. ¤ He announced that he would hold talks with the Israelis and Palestinians to reduce the escalating tensions.
‘Important relationships’
As for the Saudi-American ties, Blinken said that the relations between his country and the Kingdom have been important and ongoing for decades, noting that Saudi Arabia has provided great support to Ukraine in the face of the Russian war. ¤ He said that Saudi Arabia voted against the Russian war in Ukraine before the UN General Assembly, stressing the need for relations with Saudi Arabia to reflect common interests and values.
He also said: “We were worried about the OPEC+ decision to cut oil production.” ¤ He reaffirmed that Washington is working with Riyadh to end the war in Yemen.
🐣 RT @NewVoiceUkraine Blasts erupted at five military sites across Iran at night on Jan. 29, with the Iranian Defense Ministry saying there had been a drone attack on at least one of its facilities.
🧵 RT @RitchieTorres Iran is the leading aggressor of the Middle East; the leading state sponsor of terrorism in the world; and a longstanding oppressor of its own people. ¤ The Iranian regime has been shaken to the core by a revolution led by powerful women.
📌 💽 https://twitter.com/RitchieTorres/status/1619692061959262210?s=20/photo/1
[ThreadReader:] https://tinyurl.com/2p9ferm
The women in Iran, who are risking their lives in confronting a monstrous and murderous regime, are among the most courageous freedom fighters in the world.
The United States must stand with our Iranian sisters in their fearless fight for freedom. ¤ On September 13th, 2021, Masha Amini was brutally beaten to death by the Iran’s Orwellian morality police merely for not wearing a head covering.
Out of the tragedy of Masha’s murder came a spontaneous groundswell of thousands of Iranian women rising up for their freedom, some removing their head coverings and cutting their hair as a poignant form of protest.
The revolution there reminds us that the future of Iran does not belong to a regime whose malevolence and obsolescence have become too glaring to ignore.
Iran’s future belong to its people led by its fearless formidable female freedom fighters. ¤ The vision of a free and democratic Iran is an unrealized dream whose time has come, whose realization is long overdue.
🐣 RT @ABCWorldNews: Drone strikes hit several targets, including a munitions factory inside Iran, and according to the Wall Street Journal, Israel may have been behind the attacks. It comes amid renewed tensions in the Middle East. @lamahasan has more. https://abcn.ws/2XvP3JQ
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT /1445 UTC 29 JAN/ A RU attack was broken up short of the H-32 HWY. UKR staged a disruptive raid against RU rear areas near Andriivka. UKR Missile & Artillery targeted RU troop concentrations, EW stations and air defense complexes. UKR supply lines threatened.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1619705612312674304?s=20/photo/1
WSJ: Israel Strikes Iran Amid International Push to Contain Tehran https://tinyurl.com/e7kp2eta “Israel’s latest strike comes as Israeli and American officials are discussing new ways to combat Iran’s destabilizing operations, including its deepening military cooperation with Russia”
// Israeli, American officials discuss new ways to combat Iranian operations
Israel’s latest strike comes as Israeli and American officials are discussing new ways to combat Iran’s destabilizing operations, including its deepening military cooperation with Russia. ¤ Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns made an unannounced trip to Israel last week to discuss Iran and other regional issues, according to people familiar with his visit. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is scheduled to arrive in Israel on Monday to continue the U.S.-Israel talks about Iran and other regional issues.
Last week, the U.S. and Israel carried out their largest-ever joint military exercise involving more than 7,500 personnel from both countries and a series of scenarios to test their ability to take out air-defense systems and refuel jet planes—both of which could be key elements of a major military strike on Iran.
WaPo/AP: Iran says drone attack targets defense facility in Isfahan https://tinyurl.com/56wkk3dk “Bomb-carrying drones targeted an Iranian defense factory in the central city of Isfahan overnight, authorities said early Sunday”
🐣 RT @Flash_news_ua ⚡️ The events in Iran are the consequences of their policies, said Yuriy Ihnat, the spokesman of the Verkhovna Rada of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
🚫 🐣 RT @manamuntu Iran Nuclear site totally destroyed! ¤ This video is from yesterday night,the National Nuclear Center of Iran has been bombed by NATO which caused an Earthquake of 5.5 magnitude in the nearby areas. This is a revenge attack by NATO, Iran supplied drones to Russia despite warnings!
// waiting confirm
🐣 RT @KorsasErik The list of objects in #Iran on which #missile strikes were carried out has become known
-Headquarters of the IRGC
IRGC Special ForcesBase “Quds”
-Ammunition and UAV Production Center
-Refinery.
-Weapons factory.
-Military bases in #Hamadan and #Keredzh
#iranunderattack #Iranian
💽 https://twitter.com/KorsasErik/status/1619582453328523265?s=20/photo/1 -4
⭕ 28 Jan 2023
🐣 RT @AnonOpsSE Internet services suspended across the #Iran after multiple drone strikes on Iranian cities Tehran, Karaj, Narmak, Hamadan, Isfahan, Khoy, Azarshahr and Tabriz. Drone factories and other military installations targeted. Irani fighter jets are hovering in own sky.
🐣 RT @ExScientia_Vera Dear Iran & the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution: ¤ You were advised by the greatest military power in the world not to assist Russia in its genocidal war against Ukraine. You fucked around anyway, and find out you did.
💽 https://twitter.com/ExScientia_Vera/status/1619532496760360960?s=20/photo/1
// Lloyd Austin: On Iran providing military support to Russia is “We think … it’s a really, really bad idea. And we’ll leave it at that”
🐣 RT @noclador The mullah regime in Iran is one of the most brutal dictatorships in the world and it constantly exports it’s vile ideology, brutality, and cruelty to other nations. ¤ To the nation bombing this regime tonight: thank you! Please continue!
🐣 RT @TreasChest Residents of the capital of Iran rejoice at attacks on military facilities and shout from their windows “Death to the dictator, death to Khamenei.”
🐣 RT @ ChuckPfarrer ISRAELI AIR STRIKES? Jason Jay Smart @officejjsmart reports that several aerospace / drone manufacturing plants in Iran have been attacked. Iran’s Telegram channels claim that Israeli aircraft have been reported over several cities in the Islamic Republic.
⋙ 🐣 RT @ officejjsmart Iran 🇮🇷 is being attacked. A number of weapons / drones factories have been struck. ¤ Iranian 🇮🇷 Telegram indicates that Israeli 🇮🇱 Air Force has been seen over multiple Iranian cities. ¤ Seems Russia’s 🇷🇺 drone supplier, to attack Ukraine 🇺🇦, may be going out of business!!! 👍👍👍
⋙⋙ 🐣 to date, Israel hasn’t shown much interest in helping out Ukraine; Zelensky has complained about it multiple times ¤ so what changed?
🐣 RT @ igorsushko 🚨 #Iran: What appears may have been a bunker-buster strike against an underground weapons factory in Iran was followed by a significant earthquake in the area.
🐣 RT @igorsushko Overnight in #Iran, in addition to strikes on oil refineries, munitions manufacturers, and multiple military bases, extreme-precision strikes reportedly eliminated individual human targets. Iran has been supplying weapons and munitions to #Russia for use against #Ukraine.
🐣 RT @davidfrum Seriously, no one country operating alone would have dared a strike like this. Whoever was the tip of the spear – it’s a world coalition acting to stop Iran from supplying Russia with weapons of atrocity and genocide. Holocaust Remembrance Day. It’s fitting.
⋙ 🐣 do you have a source, or it this conjecture? ¤ I trust your writing, David, but this seems like quite a branch to go out on
⋙ 🐣 RT @seybertooth It was obviously Israel and of course they “dare”, they know they can do what they want under the unlimited cover from their sugar-daddy America (and the veto protection in the UN). ¤ I’m no fan of Israel’s militarily aggression but in this case it is justified and convenient.
⋙⋙ 🐣 Israel has a way of doing things the US disapproves of and then expecting the US to back them up ¤ I did read Blinken will be paying them a visit soon; the very awkwardness of that implies to me the US didn’t know ~ if, that is, it was Israel
NYT: How an Oligarch May Have Recruited the F.B.I. Agent Who Investigated Him https://tinyurl.com/3u292sbx
// The bureau tried to court Oleg Deripaska, a Russian aluminum magnate, as an informant. Instead, one of its own top agents may have ended up working for him.
TheDrive: Iran Claims It Has Come Under Drone Attack Following Explosions https://tinyurl.com/bdz4z6u2
// The Iranian Ministry of Defense claims drones struck a facility in Isfahan as reports of blasts in other cities cause alarm.
🐣 RT @KateGoesTech 🇺🇸 reconnaissance planes have entered 🇮🇷 controlled region of Syria 🇸🇾 ¤ It’s happening
🐣 RT @JasonMBrodsky Targeting #Iran’s drone or nuclear program are possible explanations concerning attack on the MODAFL facility in Esfahan. #Israel in 2021 warned Tehran was training proxies at the Kashan Air Base, north of Esfahan. That base also made a cameo appearance in training Russians. 1/3
⋙ 🐣 RT @JasonMBrodsky Although the MODAFL facility was not in same location as the Kashan Air Base, that general area is of interest relating to the drone program. Of course Esfahan also has interesting facilities related to Iran’s nuclear program. 2/3
⋙ 🐣 RT @JasonMBrodsky In 2022, Iran informed IAEA that it intended to produce centrifuge rotor tubes and bellows at a new location in Esfahan following the attack on the TESA Karaj complex. So these are some potential reasons, but we’ll have to wait for more details. 3/3
🐣 RT @NewsBreakingX 🇮🇷 Iran. Situation at the moment
▪️ A fire at a factory for the production of ammunition and UAVs.
▪️ Fire at an oil refinery.
▪️ Fire at the weapons factory.
▪️ Explosions at the military base in Hamadan and Keredzh.
▪️ Explosions on some military units.
🐣 RT @k_sonin Whoever is behind the attack on the Iranian factory that produces Shahed drones tonight, I hope it will help not only to dwarf Iran’s military cooperation with Russia, but bring freedom for Iranians closer.
⋙ 🐣 RT @MrFukkew The factory that produces ammo and Shahed kamikaze drones is hit by a kamikaze drone in Isfahan, Iran. Oops! #Iran #Ukraine #Russia #UkraineRussiaWar️
💽 https://twitter.com/MrFukkew/status/1619481702191202305?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @Neighbour88 David, it’s precision missile strikes at several facilities within a very short timeframe. ¤ I’ll give you one guess. ¤ Iran are now in this war whether they like it or not. ¤ Russia cannot protect themselves, never mind their abettors.
⋙ 🐣 Iran made its choice
🐣 RT @WernerDThomas Turkie, Azerbaijan, Israel, Emirates, Saudies, Taliban, everybody is fed up with the gangster Mullahs
🐣 RT @ NOELreports Local authorities confirm the explosions at the munitions factory in Isfahan, — IRIB News ¤ Iranian media also reported drone attacks on military facilities in the Iranian cities of Tabriz, Hamadan and Karaj.
🐣 RT @stavridisj So happy to see my dear friend and former NATO colleague, Peter Pavel, become the leader of the Czech Republic. He is a strong voice for freedom, democracy, and trans Atlantic alliance!
🐣 RT @OlgaNYC1211 Whoa! Multiple blasts reported in Iran. There were explosions at a military factory in the city of Isfahan from a drone attack ¤ Iran’s Defense Ministry says there was an ammunition depot was hit. Meanwhile, Iranian drones continue to kill Ukrainians
🐣 RT @anneapplebaum The new Czech president is a former general who supports Ukraine, has broad Nato experience and wants his country firmly anchored in the democratic world. The Czechs have just made an important civilizational choice.
// Petr Pavel @general_pavel
🐣 RT @front_ukrainian 🇺🇸✈️ The Pentagon insists on sending F-16s to Ukraine, – Politico. ¤ A group of military officials are quietly pushing the Pentagon to approve sending F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine to help our country defend itself, according to three people familiar with the discussions.
🐣 RT @front_ukrainian ⚡️🇺🇦Ukraine is conducting accelerated negotiations with Western countries on the transfer of aviation and long-range missiles to Kyiv, said Mikhail Podolyak, adviser to the head of the office of the President of Ukraine.
🐣 RT @stavridisj This is the right thing to do. Tanks will be helpful, better aircraft will be decisive via #politico
⋙ Politico [EU]: At the Pentagon, push to send F-16s to Ukraine picks up steam https://politi.co/3WJWKcC
// Kyiv has renewed its request for modern fighters in recent days after the U.S. and Germany approved transferring tanks.
🐣 RT @lindyli The ex-girlfriend of Russia-funded FBI agent McGonigal stayed at Giuliani’s home for an extended period
Giuliani knew AHEAD of time that Comey was gonna sabotage Clinton
Nothing to see here ¤ Just traitors literally in bed with each other & prostituting themselves to Daddy Putin
⋙ 🐣 Giuliani bragged they had something ‘up their sleeve’ and it had to do with players in the FBI
🐣 RT @SkinnerPm I don’t know how I can continue to be a police officer in America. I do know I don’t want to right now. Law enforcement in America is the scattered good will of individual officers in a change-resistant structure with fundamental principles & philosophies that are utterly rotten
⋙ 🐣 you might consider writing a book; it would be a good book ♡
🐣 RT @MuellerSheWrote Imagine if Jack Smith met with Garland weekly to sip bourbon, and then asked the DoJ Inspector General to lie in a report about his investigation into Jeffrey Clark, then found Biden committed a crime but covered it up. Because that’s what Durham did.
🐣 RT @polialertcom Man Who Assaulted Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick Sentenced To 80 Months In Prison
🐣 RT @BernieSanders While working families struggled to pay outrageously high gas prices last year, Chevron made a record $35.5 billion in profits & will spend $75 billion to manipulate its stock price in order to make the rich even richer. We must ban stock buybacks & enact a windfall profits tax.
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT /1310 UTC 28 JAN/ UKR troops are engaged in the urban area of Krasna Hora as RU tactical units attempt to take the T-05-13 / M-03 HWY junction. South of the city, the UKR Gen’l Staff reports two RU attacks were repelled S of Ivanivske.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1619319943375523840?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer KREMINNA AXIS /1325 UTV 28 JAN/ RU launched attacks across the P-66 HWY, engaging UKR troops at Novosadove & Chervonopopivka. UKR is a reported to have rebuffed these sallies. UKR air defense downed a RU ‘SuperCam’ recon UAV, as well as an Mi-8 helicopter.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1619325559238172672?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @ZelenskyyUa We share 🇮🇱 pain after the terrorist attacks in Jerusalem. Among the victims is a 🇺🇦 woman. Sincere condolences to the victims’ families. The crimes were cynically committed on the Intl Holocaust Remembrance Day. Terror must have no place in today’s world. Neither in 🇮🇱 nor in 🇺🇦
🐣 RT @ TODAYshow A New Jersey man was sentenced to almost seven years in prison for assaulting Capitol police officer Brian Sicknick during the Jan. 6 riots.
🐣 RT @pewglobal Majorities say voting, helping reduce climate change effects, staying informed, getting COVID-19 vaccination are important for being a good member of society https://pewrsr.ch/3ZZygyM
◕ https://twitter.com/pewglobal/status/1619280880500985858?s=20/photo/1
⭕ 27 Jan 2023
🐣 RT @theworldindex World’s Top 10 Richest People:
1.🇫🇷Bernard Arnault: $190b
2.🇺🇸Elon Musk: $167b
3.🇺🇸Jeff Bezos: $126b
4.🇺🇸B Gates: $112b
5.🇺🇸W Buffet: $108b
6.🇺🇸Larry Ellison: $101b
7.🇮🇳Gautam Adani: $93b
8.🇺🇸Larry Page: $92b
9.🇺🇸Steve Ballmer: $89b
10.🇺🇸Sergey Brin: $88b
(Bloomberg Jan 27, 22)
🐣 RT @UkraineAidOps Today is International #HolocaustRemembranceDay, a day to remember the past and reaffirm our commitment to the promise #NeverAgain
Genocide once again haunts and we must take a stand against it! Will you join us?
⋙ 🎹 RT @michael_brodsk The Ukrainian Army choir singing Eli Eli at #BabynJar on the #HolocaustMemorialDay
💽 https://twitter.com/michael_brodsk/status/1618953814257860608?s=20/photo/1
piano
🐣 RT @Tendar Russian pundits are in panic mode and they have all reason to be. What amazes me is that how this conversation between Solovyov and Alex Kots reflects the obvious. Russia is in huge trouble and they feel it maybe better than anyone in Kremlin.#Ukraine
💙 ⋙ DailyBeast, Julia Davis: Putin’s No. 1 Cheerleader Rips into Russia’s War Failures https://tinyurl.com/2p8aw54y
// Putin’s favorite propagandist (Vladimir Solovyov) lost it on his latest TV show, blasting the failed tactics and strategy that’s left Russia losing in Ukraine and facing worse to come.
Top Russian propagandist Vladimir Solovyov has been spending his weekends on the frontlines in order to support and promote Russia’s stuttering invasion of Ukraine. Unfortunately for the Kremlin, all that time being confronted by the grim reality is teaching Solovyov just how badly this war is going. ¤ And he’s not happy about it.
In a wild rant on Thursday, Solovyov attacked the overall strategy, claimed the Russian Army was failing miserably to suppress their enemies, and said he had first-hand evidence of foolish tactical errors on the frontline.
During his show Full Contact, Solovyov was raging about the recent announcement that Ukraine would soon be getting Abrams and Leopard-2 tanks from NATO countries. The host started his monologue with a deep sigh, asking, “So, we lived long enough to see this?” He urged the audience not to trust the numbers of the tanks slated for the upcoming deliveries, predicting they will send even more: “They will deliver everything. I’ve been saying it for a while, these bastards will also rehabilitate Hitler in our lifetime… this is where everything is going… WWIII is underway and the West has returned to its Nazi roots. Germany got tired of concealing its Nazi nature and America finally openly acknowledged its own Nazi ways.”
Calling Americans “conniving liars,” Solovyov said that their arrogance is Russia’s own fault: “We aren’t creating any threats against them. We aren’t conducting strikes against New York, we aren’t banging Washington, we aren’t threatening Miami, we aren’t doing anything to endanger Americans. They blew up our pipelines, we just wiped our face off. They’re delivering heavy tanks, we’re wiping our face off. Stop talking about red lines! It’s a totally empty phrase that doesn’t mean a thing!”
Enraged, Solovyov screamed: “Berlin, Paris, Madrid, London, Washington should be on fire! The capitals of Nazi countries who made a decision to go to war with Russia… Why wasn’t Kyiv wiped off the face of the earth after the Nazi nation of Ukraine conducted a strike against our strategic aviation base? Stop resorting to empty, worthless words!”
The host went on to claim: “Strikes are being carried out against our cities! Against our land! Russian soldiers are perishing! Russian people are dying! Nazis are rejoicing! How are we planning to respond? By howling that avoiding nuclear war is the most important thing? Then why the heck do we have a stockpile of tactical and strategic nuclear weapons? To be afraid to use it? So that big decorated generals would gasp, “Do you want a nuclear war?” Do you want the destruction of Russia with conventional weapons, of which NATO countries have 3 and a half times more than we do?”
Solovyov yelled that destroying Ukraine’s infrastructure was insufficient. He demanded to know: “Why do Odesa, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk [Dnipro] still exist?” He angrily shouted: “We are no longer stationed near Kyiv! Was it a damn goodwill gesture? A goodwill gesture? And Kharkiv was a goodwill gesture? No one was executed by shooting for [surrendering] Kharkiv! No one was sent into retirement, at least not publicly. The society didn’t get any answers to its questions. I’m asking you, why did you move the frontline closer to Belgorod? We still didn’t get back to those positions! In response—silence. Silence.”
Solovyov demanded that enemies be destroyed “on their land”: “Citizens of NATO countries should not feel at peace, while the Russian man is suffering… Citizens! A war has been declared against us. Wake up! Wake up.”
Solovyov’s guest, military correspondent Alexander Kots, revealed one of the reasons for the host’s helpless rage: glaring incompetence and mismanagement of the invading forces by their military leadership. Discussing new items slated for delivery to Ukraine by NATO countries, Kots said: “While we have this list, only on paper for now, we should start thinking about what we will do when or if all of it gets to the frontlines. Somehow, we have to counter their artillery systems and tanks. For the last month, throughout the holidays, as a member of the presidential Human Rights Council, I was receiving outraged and concerned messages from the relatives [of soldiers]. We have trained—I won’t say how many, but a decent quantity of the artillery battalions, but all of them were sent to the infantry. This is a huge number of people, we’ve been training them for three months, spending ammo, spending money to house them, great instructors from our military universities—including the Mikhailovskaya Artillery Military Academy—had given their time and knowledge to train them. With respect to our artillery, it’s a very sad story… we don’t have any artillery schools left! We used to have eleven and now only Mikhailovskaya remains.”
Solovyov remarked that he was aware of this problem because of his frontline visits. Kots added that the same issue is happening with the anti-tank divisions, describing them as “the very units that should have been the ones meeting this tank Armada, burning up those Abrams and Leopard tanks. Instead, for some reason, they’re also being transferred to the infantry. I can’t understand why this is happening… We professionally trained up specialists, trained them well, but they sit without being given appropriate tasks… While we’re facing a threat of these deliveries from the West to the frontlines by Spring, it’s very wasteful on our part.”
Solovyov chimed in: “I understand that you don’t fight tanks with tanks, you use other means. Our anti-tank fist should be ready.” Kots hit him over the head with more bad news: “The first line of defense that will be meeting these tanks will often be comprised of mobilized men. Our mobilized soldiers on the frontlines are armed solely with Kalashnikovs. Unfortunately, there are no anti-tank weapons on many stretches of the frontline.”
Solovyov reverted to his favorite topic, claiming that it’s only a matter of time before NATO gives the Ukrainians tactical nuclear weapons. He said, “I believe that the use of tactical nuclear weapons is unavoidable. The question is who will do it first: us or them.” Playing along, Kots pointed out: “The tanks that are being delivered contain depleted uranium.” After Solovyov noted that depleted uranium is not radioactive, Kots suggested: “It could still be used as the pretext, in order to use our tactical nuclear weapons.”
But even his trademark shtick of threatening Russia’s adversaries with nuclear mayhem failed to bring the bitter propagandist even a modicum of customary satisfaction. Introducing his next guest, Solovyov bitterly complained: “I’m sad. All of this is very sad.”
🐣 RT @stuartpstevens Republicans have appointed a woman who supports the overthrow of the US Government and genocide in Ukraine to Homeland Security. It’s a radical, anti-American act by a party that has become radical and anti-American. There is no saving this party. It must be defeated.
// @stuartpstevens was Romney’s campaign manager
🐣 📋 RT @JimPethokoukis GOLDMAN SACHS (Hatzius): All major economies (except the UK) now look likely to avoid recession this year.
🐣 RT @DenesTorteli 27.01.2023. Pr. Zelenskyy today: “Never again to – hatred. Never again to – indifference. The more nations of the world overcome indifference, the less space there will be in the world for hatred. Eternal memory to all victims of the Holocaust!”
💽 https://twitter.com/DenesTorteli/status/1618940752247283712?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @cepa “Since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, its troops have deported more than 2 million Ukrainians from the occupied territories, forcing them to adopt Russian citizenship.” @elina_beketova
⋙ CEPA: Behind the Lines: Russia Steps up Ukrainian Deportations https://tinyurl.com/2p8djm35
// While Russia offensives continue Donbas and Zaporizhzhia oblasts, more people were deported from Ukraine’s occupied territories.
KyivPost: Senators Call for U.S. to Give Ukraine F-16s and ATACMS https://tinyurl.com/3sbm3mt6 “Sens Sheldon Whitehouse, Lindsey Graham, and Richard Blumenthal said even more advanced weapons systems were still needed to ‘erode Russia’s capability to continue fighting in Ukraine’”
// One intelligence specialist says that besides their accuracy and range, the weapons are useful for the “abject fear it would project into the hearts of Russian battle commanders.”
A bipartisan trio of senators have called for the U.S. to bolster military support for Ukraine even more by sending ATCAMS long-range artillery systems and F-16 fighter jets. ¤ Welcoming President Biden’s recent announcement about the delivery of Abrams heavy tanks, Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Rhode Island), Lindsey Graham (R-Tennessee), and Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut) said even more advanced weapons systems were still needed to “erode Russia’s capability to continue fighting in Ukraine.”
In a statement released on Friday Jan. 27, they said: “While the tanks represent a tremendous upgrade in Ukraine’s military, we urge the Biden Administration and our allies to send more long range artillery, such as ATACMS, and fighter aircraft such as F-16s and MiG-29s.
“The combination of tanks, fighter aircraft, and ATACMS will help Ukraine confront the upcoming Russian offensive and go on offense in both the East and the South in an attempt to further erode Russia’s capability to continue fighting in Ukraine. ¤ “Let’s give the Ukrainians everything they need to win – now.”
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer SVATOVE AXIS /1410 UTC 29 JAN/ Intel reveals a significant & growing concentration of RU forces around Kreminna; an assembly of units and capabilities far in excess of the the defensive requirements of this sector of the front. A pending RU offensive cannot be ruled out.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1618973380061073409?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @dabeard How did Putin’s dictatorial predecessors hide their slaughter of millions of Ukrainians in 1932-33? They destroyed local archives, altered death records, even census records—and barred discussion in schools and elsewhere. From “Red Famine,” by @anneapplebaum
⭕ 26 Jan 2023
🐣 RT @SenatorRomney History has taught us that when one country feels they can invade another country with little consequence, violence spreads and we become vulnerable to being pulled into a conflict. Supporting Ukraine is not just the right thing to do, it’s imperative for U.S. national security.
💽 https://twitter.com/SenatorRomney/status/1618682140887027725?s=20/photo/1
🐣 So, now the DOJ Inspecctor General and the Senate Intelligence Committee have to investigate the investigator who was investigating the investigation ~ while House Intelligence proceeds merrily on its way as if the original investigation was “weaponized” when it wasn’t @nytimes
🐣 If you do a simple (twitter) search on “Bakhmut,” it’s swarming with Ru trolls (40%?). A similar search on “Kreminna” ~ almost none. ¤ Why the difference? Prigozhin, who leads Wagner militia heavily engaged in Bakhmut, also runs Ru’s main troll farm
Pravda [UA]: Special operations forces of Azov regiment become separate assault brigade of Ground Forces and fight in Bakhmut https://tinyurl.com/y5nmdy6m “The special operations forces of the Azov regiment are expanding and gaining even greater strength in the war of liberation”
// The Special Operations Forces of the Azov regiment became the 3rd Separate Assault Brigade as part of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and are already fighting on the Bakhmut front in Donetsk Oblast.
🐣 RT @carman_upshaw. Here is a conservative third party summary of russian equipment losses in Ukraine. After 11 months Russia has only been losing territory to Ukraine and can’t even take Bakhmut. So Ukraine is doing alright with what they have. New equipment will crush 🇷🇺
⋙ 📋 Oryx: Attack On Europe: Documenting Russian Equipment Losses During The 2022 Russian Invasion Of Ukraine
Ru losses: https://tinyurl.com/4pcz7675
Ukr losses: https://tinyurl.com/2z9vynh3
🐣 📋 RT @WhiteHouse Today’s economic report shows that our economy grew at 2.9% last quarter while annual inflation fell and unemployment hit record lows. ¤ President Biden’s first two years of economic growth were the strongest first two years since President Clinton.
🐣 RT @CAPAction MAGA Republicans are threatening to throw the economy into chaos to force cuts on Social Security and Medicare. @POTUS: “This nation has gone through too much…I will not let that happen.”
💽 https://twitter.com/CAPAction/status/1618701743440920577?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @DavidCornDC Hey I found the “weaponization” of the federal government! Spoiler alert: It was Barr & Durham. I’m sure the House GOP will be investigating this. And guess what: The Russian investigation was no witch hunt. The effort to prove it was…was the witch hunt.
🐣 RT @MuellerSheWrote BREAKING: Durham – who is batting zero in his investigation of the Russia probe – LOBBIED THE DOJ IG HOROWITZ TO DROP HIS FINDING THAT THE RUSSIA PROBE WAS OPENED PROPERLY.
🐣 RT @JoyceWhiteVance Jaw dropping reporting. Lots here including an explanation of why Durham’s colleague resigned: under pressure from Barr to release an “interim” report damaging Clinton & the FBI as the election drew near, Durham had a draft prepared that wasn’t factual.
🐣 RT @PaulaChertok Now THIS warrants a special counsel, AG Garland >> Trump was under **criminal investigation** while running for re-election in 2020 and Barr & Durham kept it secret
🐣 RT @AWeissmann_ This is all about the Trump weaponization of the DOJ – but we know that the House Rs won’t give a damn about it. ¤ How Barr’s Quest to Find Flaws in the Russia Inquiry Unraveled
💙 🔆 This❗️⋙ NYT: Barr Pressed Durham to Find Flaws in the Russia Investigation. It Didn’t Go Well https://tinyurl.com/fysfme8h How the Durham investigation, after insinuating much, went down in 🔥 #longread
// The review by John Durham at one point veered into a criminal investigation related to Donald Trump himself, even as it failed to find wrongdoing in the origins of the Russia inquiry.
Egged on by Mr. Trump, Attorney General William P. Barr set out in 2019 to dig into their shared theory that the Russia investigation likely stemmed from a conspiracy by intelligence or law enforcement agencies. To lead the inquiry, Mr. Barr turned to a hard-nosed prosecutor named John H. Durham, and later granted him special counsel status to carry on after Mr. Trump left office.
But after almost four years — far longer than the Russia investigation itself — Mr. Durham’s work is coming to an end without uncovering anything like the deep state plot alleged by Mr. Trump and suspected by Mr. Barr. …
Interviews by The Times with more than a dozen current and former officials have revealed an array of previously unreported episodes that show how the Durham inquiry became roiled by internal dissent and ethical disputes as it went unsuccessfully down one path after another even as Mr. Trump and Mr. Barr promoted a misleading narrative of its progress.
● Mr. Barr and Mr. Durham never disclosed that their inquiry expanded in the fall of 2019, based on a tip from Italian officials, to include a criminal investigation into suspicious financial dealings related to Mr. Trump. The specifics of the tip and how they handled the investigation remain unclear, but Mr. Durham brought no charges over it.
● Mr. Durham used Russian intelligence memos — suspected by other U.S. officials of containing disinformation — to gain access to emails of an aide to George Soros, the financier and philanthropist who is a favorite target of the American right and Russian state media. Mr. Durham used grand jury powers to keep pursuing the emails even after a judge twice rejected his request for access to them. The emails yielded no evidence that Mr. Durham has cited in any case he pursued.
● There were deeper internal fractures on the Durham team than previously known. The publicly unexplained resignation in 2020 of his No. 2 and longtime aide, Nora R. Dannehy, was the culmination of a series of disputes between them over prosecutorial ethics. A year later, two more prosecutors strongly objected to plans to indict a lawyer with ties to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign based on evidence they warned was too flimsy, and one left the team in protest of Mr. Durham’s decision to proceed anyway. (A jury swiftly acquitted the lawyer.)
Now, as Mr. Durham works on a final report, the interviews by The Times provide new details of how he and Mr. Barr sought to recast the scrutiny of the 2016 Trump campaign’s myriad if murky links to Russia as unjustified and itself a crime. …
A month after Mr. Barr was confirmed as attorney general in February 2019, the special counsel Robert S. Mueller III ended the Russia investigation and turned in his report without charging any Trump associates with engaging in a criminal conspiracy with Moscow over its covert operation to help Mr. Trump win the 2016 election.
Mr. Trump would repeatedly portray the Mueller report as having found “no collusion with Russia.” The reality was more complex. In fact, the report detailed “numerous links between the Russian government and the Trump campaign,” and it established both how Moscow had worked to help Mr. Trump win and how his campaign had expected to benefit from the foreign interference. …
At the time Mr. Barr was confirmed, he told aides that he already suspected that intelligence abuses played a role in igniting the Russia investigation — and that unearthing any wrongdoing would be a priority. …
… Mr. Durham spent his first months looking for any evidence that the origin of the Russia investigation involved an intelligence operation targeting the Trump campaign. ¤ Mr. Durham’s team spent long hours combing the C.I.A.’s files but found no way to support the allegation. Mr. Barr and Mr. Durham traveled abroad together to press British and Italian officials to reveal everything their agencies had gleaned about the Trump campaign and relayed to the United States, but both allied governments denied they had done any such thing. Top British intelligence officials expressed indignation to their U.S. counterparts about the accusation, three former U.S. officials said.
Mr. Durham and Mr. Barr had not yet given up when a new problem arose: In early December, the Justice Department’s independent inspector general, Michael E. Horowitz, completed his own report on the origins of the Russia investigation.
The inspector general revealed errors and omissions in wiretap applications targeting a former Trump campaign adviser and determined that an F.B.I. lawyer had doctored an email in a way that kept one of those problems from coming to light. (Mr. Durham’s team later negotiated a guilty plea by that lawyer.)
But the broader findings contradicted Mr. Trump’s accusations and the rationale for Mr. Durham’s inquiry. Mr. Horowitz found no evidence that F.B.I. actions were politically motivated. And he concluded that the investigation’s basis — an Australian diplomat’s tip that a Trump campaign adviser had seemed to disclose advance knowledge that Russia would release hacked Democratic emails — had been sufficient to lawfully open it. …
Minutes before the inspector general’s report went online, Mr. Barr issued a statement contradicting Mr. Horowitz’s major finding, declaring that the F.B.I. opened the investigation “on the thinnest of suspicions that, in my view, were insufficient.” He would later tell Fox News that the investigation began “without any basis,” as if the diplomat’s tip never happened.
Mr. Trump also weighed in, telling reporters that the details of the inspector general’s report were “far worse than anything I would have even imagined,” adding: “I look forward to the Durham report, which is coming out in the not-too-distant future. It’s got its own information, which is this information plus, plus, plus.”
And the Justice Department sent reporters a statement from Mr. Durham that clashed with both Justice Department principles about not discussing ongoing investigations and his personal reputation as particularly tight-lipped. He said he disagreed with Mr. Horowitz’s conclusions about the Russia investigation’s origins, citing his own access to more information and “evidence collected to date.
But as Mr. Durham’s inquiry proceeded, he never presented any evidence contradicting Mr. Horowitz’s factual findings about the basis on which F.B.I. officials opened the investigation. ¤ By summer 2020, it was clear that the hunt for evidence supporting Mr. Barr’s hunch about intelligence abuses had failed. But he waited until after the 2020 election to publicly concede that there had turned out to be no sign of “foreign government activity” and that the C.I.A. had “stayed in its lane” after all. …
By the spring and summer of 2020, with Mr. Trump’s re-election campaign in full swing, the Durham investigation’s “failure to deliver scalps in time for the election” began to erode Mr. Barr’s relationship with Mr. Trump, Mr. Barr wrote in his memoir.
Mr. Trump was stoking a belief among his supporters that Mr. Durham might charge former President Barack Obama and former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. That proved too much for Mr. Barr, who in May 2020 clarified that “our concern of potential criminality is focused on others.”
Even so, in August, Mr. Trump lashed out in a Fox interview, asserting that Mr. Obama and Mr. Biden, along with top F.B.I. and intelligence officials, had been caught in “the single biggest political crime in the history of our country” and the only thing stopping charges would be if Mr. Barr and Mr. Durham wanted to be “politically correct.”
Against that backdrop, Mr. Barr and Mr. Durham did not shut down their inquiry when the search for intelligence abuses hit a dead end. With the inspector general’s inquiry complete, they turned to a new rationale: a hunt for a basis to accuse the Clinton campaign of conspiring to defraud the government by manufacturing the suspicions that the Trump campaign had colluded with Russia, along with scrutinizing what the F.B.I. and intelligence officials knew about the Clinton campaign’s actions.
Mr. Durham also developed an indirect method to impute political bias to law enforcement officials: comparing the Justice Department’s aggressive response to suspicions of links between Mr. Trump and Russia with its more cautious and skeptical reaction to various Clinton-related suspicions. … … …
As the focus of the Durham investigation shifted, cracks formed inside the team. Mr. Durham’s deputy, Ms. Dannehy, a longtime close colleague, increasingly argued with him in front of other prosecutors and F.B.I. agents about legal ethics. …
Now, Ms. Dannehy complained to Mr. Durham about how Mr. Barr kept hinting darkly in public about the direction of their investigation. In April 2020, for example, he suggested to Fox News that officials could be prosecuted, saying that “the evidence shows that we are not dealing with just mistakes or sloppiness. There is something far more troubling here.” ¤ Ms. Dannehy urged Mr. Durham to ask the attorney general to adhere to Justice Department policy and not discuss the investigation publicly. But Mr. Durham proved unwilling to challenge him. …
By summer 2020, with Election Day approaching, Mr. Barr pressed Mr. Durham to draft a potential interim report centered on the Clinton campaign and F.B.I. gullibility or willful blindness. …
Ms. Dannehy erupted, according to people familiar with the matter. She told Mr. Durham that no report should be issued before the investigation was complete and especially not just before an election — and denounced the draft for taking disputed information at face value. She sent colleagues a memo detailing those concerns and resigned. …
In any case, in late September 2020, about two weeks after Ms. Dannehy quit, someone leaked to a Fox Business personality that Mr. Durham would not issue any interim report, disappointing Trump supporters hoping for a pre-Election Day bombshell. …
[On AlfaBank:] Trial testimony, however, showed that while Mrs. Clinton and her campaign manager hoped Mr. Sussmann would persuade reporters to write articles about Alfa Bank, they did not want him to take the information to the F.B.I. And prosecutors presented no evidence that he or campaign officials had believed the data scientists’ complex theory was false.
After Mr. Sussmann’s acquittal, Mr. Barr, by then out of office for more than a year, suggested that using the courts to advance a politically charged narrative was a goal in itself. Mr. Durham “accomplished something far more important” than a conviction, Mr. Barr told Fox News, asserting that the case had “crystallized the central role played by the Hillary campaign in launching as a dirty trick the whole Russiagate collusion narrative and fanning the flames of it.” ¤ And he predicted that a subsequent trial, concerning a Russia analyst who was a researcher for the Steele dossier, would also “get the story out” and “further amplify these themes and the role the F.B.I. leadership played in this, which is increasingly looking fishy and inexplicable.”
That case involved Igor Danchenko, who had told the F.B.I. that the dossier exaggerated the credibility of gossip and speculation. Mr. Durham charged him with lying about two sources. He was acquitted, too. ¤ The two failed cases are likely to be Mr. Durham’s last courtroom acts as a prosecutor. Bringing demonstrably weak cases stood in contrast to how he once talked about his prosecutorial philosophy.
James Farmer, a retired prosecutor who worked with Mr. Durham on several major investigations, recalled him as a neutral actor who said that if there were nothing to charge, they would not strain to prosecute. “That’s what I heard, time and again,” Mr. Farmer said.
Delivering the closing arguments in the Danchenko trial, Mr. Durham defended his investigation to the jury, denying that his appointment by Mr. Barr had been tainted by politics.
He asserted that Mr. Mueller had concluded “there’s no evidence of collusion here or conspiracy” — a formulation that echoed Mr. Trump’s distortion of the Russia investigation’s complex findings — and added: “Is it the wrong question to ask, well, then how did this get started? Respectfully, that’s not the case.” ¤ The judge interrupted him: “You should finish up, Mr. Durham.” [Ta dah‼️]
🐣 RT @GlasnostGone Today Russia launched 55 cruise missiles at #Ukraine. Again targeted civilian “energy facilities,” some power substations hit. However another remarkable effort by 🇺🇦 air defences saw 47 of the missiles shot down, along with 24 Iran drones downed overnight [FB link]
◕ https://twitter.com/GlasnostGone/status/1618612498151936001?s=20/photo/1 -2
⋙ 🐣 … and this is BEFORE a single Patriot air defense system has been set up: 4 are promised ~ and another 3 NASAMS
🐣 📋 RT @ byHeatherLong Sometimes you need to look at the big picture: It’s been an incredible rebound from the 2020 pandemic recession. ¤ The US has recovered all output lost in the crisis and gotten back on trend.
GDP
2022: +2.1%
2021: +5.9%
2020: -2.8%
https://tinyurl.com/bdh39cxd via @abhabhattarai
◕ https://twitter.com/byHeatherLong/status/1618606527606317058?s=20/photo/1
⋙ WaPo: U.S. economy grew 2.1 percent in 2022, but recession fears linger https://tinyurl.com/bdh39cxd
// GDP report shows six months of solid growth, including 2.9 percent expansion in the most recent quarter, though many economists say a slowdown may be near
NYT, Steve Erlanger: Ukraine War Accelerates Shift of Power in Europe to the East https://tinyurl.com/mtjhsc9p Central and Eastern Europe, “delivers a lot of attitude” … The war “has confirmed the reality that Europe can no longer be ruled from Paris and Berlin”
// The war has raised the influence of Central and Eastern European countries with negative views of Russia, amplified calls to expand the E.U. and NATO, and dimmed the power of France and Germany.
NYT, Mikhail Zygar: The Man Who May Challenge Putin for Power https://tinyurl.com/y9468ymj Prigozhin “appears to be the most important player in Russia. He is both the most popular political operator and the one who is feared by Russian high officials and businessmen”
// Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the mercenary group Wagner, may be Putin’s greatest threat to power.
[I]n recent years, Mr. [Yevgeny] Prigozhin has made a very unexpected career. At first, he was known as “Putin’s chef,” who managed to become a state contractor of school lunches for Russian children all across the country. Then he created the troll factory, the Internet Research Agency, and he was singled out in Robert Mueller’s investigation into interference in the 2016 election. Finally, Mr. Prigozhin became famous as the founder of the Wagner group, whose contractors fought in Africa, Syria and now Ukraine.
… [T]his year, Mr. Prigozhin moved into another league, surpassing all of Mr. Putin’s other friends in power. These include Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu; the Russian Security Council secretary, Nikolai Patrushev; the C.E.O. of Russia’s state-owned defense giant, Rostec, Sergei Chemezov; and Mr. Putin’s closest friend, Yury Kovalchuk. Mr. Prigozhin bypassed all of them and appears to be the most important player in Russia. He is both the most popular political operator and the one who is feared by Russian high officials and businessmen. …
On Jan. 10, Mr. Prigozhin reported on his company’s Telegram channel that Wagner militants had taken the Ukrainian city of Soledar. … The Ministry of Defense claimed that the seizure of Soledar was their achievement, which was immediately denied by Mr. Prigozhin and numerous military correspondents. [Neithee had]
It was presumably at this moment that Mr. Putin realized that Mr. Prigozhin might be a bit too popular. So he elevated Mr. Prigozhin’s main enemies — Generals Lapin and Valery Gerasimov, and appointed the latter as commander of the operation in Ukraine. This is Mr. Putin’s traditional bureaucratic game, which has been effective but may not work this time. …
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT AXIS /1330 UTC 26 JAN/ RU forces continue attempts to cut Bakhmut’s Lines of Communications and Supply (LOCS). RU forces at Soledar have reached positions near the T-05-13 HWY, other RU units have advanced northwest of Myika Pond in an attempt to sever the vital H-32 HWY
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1618600321823150084?s=20/photo/1
WaPo: Biden to blast House GOP over economic agenda amid debt ceiling feud https://tinyurl.com/5hfzbwyt He “seeks to draw a contrast with Republicans, highlighting how some … have sought to ‘cut Social Security and Medicare’ and target other ‘programs Americans have earned’”
// The White House maintains it will not negotiate with the new GOP majority over its refusal to raise the debt ceiling
🐣 RT @mhmck Units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine have advanced farther towards Russian-occupied Kreminna in Luhansk region. The Russian fascist invaders shelled positions of Ukrainian defenders in the Veryhins’ke Forest. ¤ –General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, 06:00, 26 January 2023
🌎 https://twitter.com/mhmck/status/1618483959587037186?s=20/photo/1
⭕ 25 Jan 2023
WaPo, Benjamin Wittes:The Jan. 6 committee report footnotes: A treasure trove in fine print https://tinyurl.com/2s4avm5r ‘The Amazing Mr Klukowski’ and other tales the DOJ shouldn’t overlook
🐣 RT @Gerashchenko_en Oleksandra @avalaina Matviichuk, head of the organization that received a Nobel Peace prize this year, called to give Ukraine all the weapons it needs at
@ksfopenukraine. She said values must be protected
YahooNews/NewVoiceUkraine: Ukrainian forces’ withdrawal from Bakhmut ‘out of question,’ says General Staff https://tinyurl.com/267p6hkb “As long as there are basements in Bakhmut and the ability to hold this territory, the fighters will stay there” ~ Ukrainian General Staff spokesman
// “[Ukrainian General Staff spokesman Andriy] Kovaliov said.”
TheDrive: M1 Abrams Tanks In U.S. Inventory Have Armor Too Secret To Send To Ukraine https://tinyurl.com/m963pmm3
// M1 tanks will be heading to Ukraine, but they can’t just be pulled from U.S. stocks due to their sensitive armor.
🐣 RT @CharlesPfarrer ARMORED EQUALIZER: The US has confirmed it will send M-1 Abrams Main Battle Tanks (MBTs) to Ukraine. The Abrams is the standard MBT used by the US Army. Its sensors, targeting computers and main gun will make it an exesential threat to RU armor.
◕ https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1618312650177536002?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @Hay69A It will take decades to rebuild Ukraine and clear munitions from the land – the environmental damage is severe
⋙ 🐣 I don’t understand why landmines at least aren’t designed to deactivate after a given period of time. I suppose the bad actors would not go along with it but there are other “rules” of armed conflict that we expect countries to follow or face war crimes tribunals
WaPo Editorial: McCarthy may regret kicking Schiff off House Intelligence Committee https://tinyurl.com/wr8bmhas “He might have laid the groundwork for Mr. Schiff to succeed Ms. Feinstein not only as a senator but also in a leading role on the Senate [‼️] Intelligence Committee”
NYT: How Biden Reluctantly Agreed to Send Tanks to Ukraine https://tinyurl.com/msf22vbd ‘What the Pentagon was not taking into enough account was the intense fear among EU governments of doing anything to provoke Russia without having the cover of the US doing the same thing first’
🐣 RT @AaronBlake Freedom Caucus is a little over 20% of House GOP.
It will be:
-38% of Oversight Committee
-44% of Judiciary
-44% of select covid panel
-50% of panel on “weaponization” of gov’t
And that doesn’t include Rules, where 2 HFC members + Massie loom large.
⋙⋙ WaPo, Aaron Blake: GOP gives the Freedom Caucus the keys to the car https://tinyurl.com/3vy4r326
⋙ 🐣 RT @AaronBlake To be clear, these are percentages *of GOP members* on each committee.
🐣 RT @clashreport Danish-Swedish racist Rasmus Paludan says he received help for the idea to burn the Holy Quran in front of the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm from Swedish journalist Chang Frick, who collaborated with a subsidiary of the Russian propaganda channel RT. ¤ Frick made all the payments.
¤ https://twitter.com/clashreport/status/1618267831379820545?s=20/photo/1
🧵 RT @TimothyDSnyder In April 2016, I broke the story of Trump and Putin, using Russian open sources. Afterwards, I heard vague intimations that something was awry in the FBI in New York, specifically counter-intelligence and cyber. We now have a suggestion as to why. 0/20
📌 https://twitter.com/TimothyDSnyder/status/1618309363084718080?s=20
[ThreadReader:] https://tinyurl.com/bjxvkjws
The person who led the relevant section, Charles McGonigal, has just been charged with taking money from the Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska. Follow this thread to see just how this connects to the victory of Trump, the Russian war in Ukraine, and U.S. national security. 1/20
The reason I was thinking about Trump & Putin in 2016 was a pattern. Russia had sought to control Ukraine, using social media, money, & a pliable head of state. Russia backed Trump the way that it had backed Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, in the hopes of soft control 2/20
Trump & Yanukovych were similar figures: interested in money, & in power to make or shield money. And therefore vulnerable partners for Putin. They also shared a political advisor: Paul Manafort. He worked for Yanukovych from 2005-2015, taking over Trump’s campaign in 2016. 3/20
You might remember Manafort’s ties to Russia from 2016. He (and Jared Kushner, and Donald Trump, Jr.) met with Russians in June 2016 in Trump Tower as part of, as the broker of the meeting called it, “the Russian government’s support for Trump” (#RoadToUnfreedom, p. 237). 4/20
Manafort had to resign as Trump’s campaign manager in August 2016 when news broke that he had received $12.7 million in cash from Yanukovych. But these details are just minor elements of Manafort’s dependence on Russia. (#RoadToUnfreedom, p. 235). 5/20
Manafort worked for Deripaska, the same Russian oligarch to whom McGonigal is linked, between 2006 and 2009. Manafort’s assignment was to soften up the U.S for Russian influence. He promised “a model that can greatly benefit the Putin government.” (#RoadToUnfreedom, p. 234). 6/20
While Manafort worked for Trump in 2016, though, Manafort’s dependence on Russia was deeper. He owed Deripaska money, not a position one would want to be in. Manafort offered Deripaska “private briefings” on the campaign. He was hoping “to get whole.” (#RoadToUnfreedom, 234) 7/20
Reconsider how the FBI treated the Trump-Putin connection in 2016. Trump and other Republicans screamed that the FBI had overreached. In retrospect, it seems the exact opposite took place. The issue of Russian influence was framed in a way convenient for Russia and Trump. 8/20
The FBI investigation, Crossfire Hurricane, focused on the narrow issue of personal connections between the Trump campaign and Russians. It missed Russia’s cyber attacks and the social media campaign, which, according to Kathleen Hall Jamieson, won the election for Trump. 9/20
Once the issue of Russian soft control was framed narrowly as personal contact, Obama missed the big picture, and Trump had an easy defense. Trump knew that Russia was working for him, but the standard of guilt was placed so high that he could defend himself. 10/20
It is entirely inconceivable that McGonigal was unaware of Russia’s 2016 cyber influence campaign on behalf of Trump. Even I was aware of it, and I had no expertise. It became one of the subjects of my book #RoadtoUnfreedom. 11/20
The FBI did investigate cyber later, and came to some correct conclusions. But this was after the election, and missed the Russian influence operations entirely. That was an obvious counterintelligence issue. Why did the FBI take so long, and miss the point? 12/20
I had no personal connection to this, but will just repeat what informed people said at the time: this sort of thing was supposed to go through the FBI counter-intelligence section in New York, where tips went to die. That is where McGonigal was in charge. 13/20
The cyber element is what McGonigal should have been making everyone aware of in 2016. In 2016, McGonigal was chief of the FBI’s Cyber-Counterintelligence Coordination Section. That October, he was put in charge of the Counterintelligence Division of the FBI’s NY office. 14/20
We need to understand why the FBI failed in 2016 to address the essence of an ongoing Russian influence operation. The character of that operation suggests that it would have been the responsibility of an FBI section whose head is now accused of taking Russian money. 15/20
Right after the McGonigal story broke, Kevin McCarthy ejected Adam Schiff from the House intelligence committee. Schiff is expert on Russian influence operations. It exhibits carelessness about national security to exclude him. It is downright suspicious to exclude him now. 16/20
Back in June 2016, Kevin McCarthy expressed his suspicion that Donald Trump was under Putin’s influence. He and other Republican members concluded that the risk of an embarrassment to their party was more important than American security. #RoadToUnfreedom, p. 255. 17/20
The Russian influence operation to get Trump elected was real. It serves no one to pretend otherwise. We are still learning about it. Denying that it happened makes the United States vulnerable to ongoing Russian operations. 18/20
I remember a certain frivolity from 2016. Trump was a curiosity. Russia was irrelevant. Nothing to take seriously. Then Trump was elected, blocked weapon sales to Ukraine, and tried to stage a coup. Now Ukrainians are dying every day in the defining conflict of our time. 19/20
The McGonigal question goes even beyond these issues. He had authority in the most sensitive possible investigations within U.S. intelligence. Sorting this out will require a concern for the United States that goes beyond party loyalty. 20/20
CNN: High-ranking Russian officials are defecting. This man is aiding them https://tinyurl.com/3rp3rufu “Implicit in such officials’ escape from Russia through Osechkin’s network is an agreement to provide him with information about Moscow’s inner workings”
🐣 RT @NuggetMcBoom They’re pouring in combat aircraft to slow down or halt the advance. If Ukraine takes Kreminna it puts pressure on the Ruskie holdings around Rubizhne and Severodonetsk. The stakes are pretty high there and can potentially threaten to undo Russia’s big victory from last summer.
🐣 RT @Sky_Lee_1 “Today I’m announcing that the United States will be sending 31 Abrams tanks to Ukraine, the equivalent of one Ukrainian battalion…the Abrams tanks are the most capable tanks in the world.”- @POTUS
⋙ 🐣 RT @Acyn Biden: Putin expected Europe and the United States to weaken our resolve. He expected our support for Ukraine to crumble with time. He was wrong. He was wrong. He was wrong from the beginning and he continues to be wrong
💽 https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1618295823246233609?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @Sky_Lee_1 “Today I’m announcing that the United States will be sending 31 Abrams tanks to Ukraine, the equivalent of one Ukrainian battalion…the Abrams tanks are the most capable tanks in the world.”- @POTUS
🐣 RT @PaulaChertok Russian propagandist demands Moscow nuke Berlin for sending tanks so Ukraine can defend itself from these genocidal maniacs
⋙ 🐣 RT @Gerashchenko_en “German tanks on Russian land – the reason to destroy Berlin!” ¤ Sign of a right decision – Solovyev’s tantrum.
💽 https://twitter.com/PaulaChertok/status/1618283796234932224?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @Sensibleplease Happy Birthday!
🖼 [TextLink:] https://twitter.com/Sensibleplease/status/1618235325196931072?s=20/photo/1
[Text:] 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
🐣 RT @front_ukrainian In the new package of military aid, the 🇺🇸USA will also transfer to 🇺🇦Ukraine 8 BREM ARV M88A2, intended for the repair, evacuation and emergency refueling of Abrams tanks
🐣 RT @Gerashchenko_en Wishing President @ZelenskyyUa a happy birthday! ¤ Hoping to include a Victory announcement in the video for your next birthday.
💽 https://twitter.com/Gerashchenko_en/status/1618273268854849536?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer KREMINNA /1350 UTC 25 JAN/ UKR forces are advancing NE of Dibrova. During 23-24 JAN, RU increased close air support / aviation strike missions. UKR reports that air defense downed a Su-25 strike aircraft, 3 Ka-52 attack helicopters, 4 recon UAVs, and 1 Lancet loitering munition.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1618242596270407681?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT / 1310 UTC 25 JAN / RU troops press offensive operations on the Bakhmut Area of Operation (AO). An increase in RU Close Air Support Sorties has resulted in a number of kills for UKR air deference. UKR shot down a Su-25 strike aircraft and 3 RU Ka-52 attack helicopters.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1618237222892998663?s=20/photo/1
🧵 RT @BeschlossDC “When the C.I.A. noticed in late 2010 that its spies were disappearing…as fears of a mole grew, the government set up a secret task force….A veteran F.B.I. counterintelligence agent, Charles McGonigal, was assigned to run it,” reported @nytimes in 2018.
📌 https://twitter.com/BeschlossDC/status/1617673023053778945?s=20
[ThreadReader:] https://tinyurl.com/ywhd49ft
🐣 RT @bpolitics Germany pledged to supply Ukraine with Leopard 2 battle tanks, providing Kyiv’s forces with a significant upgrade against Russia. ¤ Chancellor Olaf Scholz says the decision was made following “intensive consultation” with allies (via @quicktake) https://trib.al/mfUUi2k
💽 https://twitter.com/bpolitics/status/1618255452625670146?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @AtlanticCouncil “The war in Ukraine will prove that tanks still matter—and Leopards will outclass their Russian counterparts,” the @AtlanticCouncil’s @John_T_Watts tells @CNBC. Read more:
⋙ CNBC: Germany announces it will send 14 of its Leopard 2 battle tanks to Ukraine https://tinyurl.com/kt47jm3r
// Germany announced it is ready to send 14 its own tanks to Ukraine and to allow others to do so, in an U-turn from its previous position
🐣 RT @grahworin Well, Al-Jaz got access to a TOC drone room in Bakhmut direction
💽 https://twitter.com/grahworin/status/1618231520250171397?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @abel_riu “Ahead of what is expected to be a brutal spring of fighting, US & Western officials have begun suggesting that Ukrainian forces cut their losses in Bakhmut, which has little strategic significance, and focus instead on planning an offensive in the south”
⋙⋙ CNN: The US and its allies want Ukraine to change its battlefield tactics in the spring https://tinyurl.com/yxt744c9
⋙ 🐣 RT @ abel_riu “The US wants to help Ukraine shift away from the sort of pitched battle of attrition playing out in Bakhmut and focus instead on a style of mechanized maneuver warfare that uses rapid, unanticipated movements against Russia”
🐣 RT @JillWineBanks Fulton County DA Willis asked Court not to release the Special Grand Jury Report but,more importantly, said “decisions are imminent” about seeking criminal charges against figures involved in Mr Trump’s push to overturn the 2020 election. That is big news. More than 1 defendant!
🐣 RT @ZelenskaUA I am often asked about how you have changed this year. And I always answer: “He haven’t changed. He is the same. The same guy I have met when we were seventeen.” ¤ But actually, something has changed: you smile much less now. For example, like on this photo… 1/2
🖼 https://twitter.com/ZelenskaUA/status/1618141304793485313?s=20/photo/1
⋙ 🐣 RT @ZelenskaUA I wish you to have more reasons for smiling. And you know what it takes. We all do. ¤ You are stubborn enough. But the main thing is to have enough health. So please, be healthy! I want to smile near you forever. Give me this opportunity! 2/2
// Zelensky is 45 today 🎂
🐣 RT @leonidragozin Contours of settlement as per Blinken:
– Ukraine inside the EU but outside NATO and armed so as to be fully aggression-proof
– Demilitarised Crimea under Russian control; status issue deferred
– No word on Donbas (implicit hope of liberation)
⋙ WaPo, David Ignatius: Blinken ponders the post-Ukraine-war order https://tinyurl.com/mr28sdvt
… The administration’s standard formula is that all decisions must ultimately be made by Ukraine, and Blinken reiterated that line. He also backs Ukraine’s desire for significant battlefield gains this year. But the State Department, Pentagon and National Security Council are also thinking ahead.
Crimea is a particular point of discussion. There is a widespread view in Washington and Kyiv that regaining Crimea by military force may be impossible. Any Ukrainian military advances this year in Zaporizhzhia oblast, the land bridge that connects Crimea and Russia, could threaten Russian control. But an all-out Ukrainian campaign to seize the Crimean Peninsula is unrealistic, many U.S. and Ukrainian officials believe. That’s partly because Putin has indicated that an assault on Crimea would be a tripwire for nuclear escalation.
The administration shares Ukraine’s insistence that Crimea, which was seized by Russia in 2014, must eventually be returned. But in the short run, what’s crucial for Kyiv is that Crimea no longer serve as a base for attacks against Ukraine. One formula that interests me would be a demilitarized status, with questions of final political control deferred. Ukrainian officials told me last year that they had discussed such possibilities with the administration. …
🐣 RT @UkrainianNews24 Ukrainian pilots have visited the U.S. and the specific type of aircraft to be provided to Ukraine has already been selected, the top spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force claimed on Tuesday. [link]
🐣 RT @NOELreports “Discussions about red lines are a thing of the past, the United States has unequivocally declared its desire to inflict a strategic defeat on the Russian Federation,” says the Russian Foreign Ministry.
🔄 🐣 Tanks Encyclopedia: World’s Main Battle Tanks (2017) https://tinyurl.com/3vxs7pby
◕ https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1618162674889805824?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @Flash_news_ua The US endorses Volodymyr Zelenskyi’s resolute action against corruption and irresponsibility, says a spokesman of the US State Department Ned Price.
⭕ 24 Jan 2023
AlJazeera, Botakoz Kassymbekova: How Western scholars overlooked Russian imperialism https://tinyurl.com/56tekavw “To understand former and current Russian colonies, one needs to listen to historians from these places and study their cultures, languages and histories”
// For far too long, Western academia has ignored the legacies of the Russian Empire and colonisation.
Russian imperial ambitions date back to the 16th century when the Grand Principality of Moscow, or Muscovy, proclaimed itself the third Rome, the successor of the Byzantine Empire and protector of all Orthodox Christians.
The Russian imperial army fought numerous wars in the east, west and south, and by the mid-19th century, Russia had become the largest land empire. Along with the British, Austro-Hungarian and French empires, it understood and presented itself as a European colonial power.
Following the October Revolution in 1917, the Bolsheviks proclaimed the end of the Russian monarchy and Russian imperialism, but they fought brutally to preserve the Russian imperial borders. They reconquered newly formed independent states, such as Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan, which emerged after the collapse of the Russian Empire.
In the early 1930s, Joseph Stalin embraced Russian nationalism based on the old imperial myth of the greatness of the Russian people. Bolshevik Moscow made ethnic Russians the most privileged group in the Soviet Union and sent Russian settlers to populate and control non-Russian regions.
Purging native leaders, forcefully resettling entire ethnic groups and creating conditions that led to mass deaths were all part of Soviet colonisation. Non-Russian people’s cultures, languages and histories were disparaged while Russification was presented as enlightenment.
At the same time, the Soviet Union adopted a progressive narrative of enfranchising nations conquered by the Russian Empire and giving them national rights within the Soviet Union. Many in Western academia bought into the anti-colonial narrative Moscow was trying to sell because they took official proclamations at face value and wanted to believe in the story of communist anti-imperialism.
Indeed, the Bolsheviks eliminated the tsarist aristocracy, and the people who took power were of diverse backgrounds. Stalin, for example, was an ethnic Georgian who spoke Russian with an accent.
For many Western scholars, that apparently meant that he was leading a post-colonial state. By focusing on individuals and official proclamations, Western academia too often overlooked the fact that Stalin was obsessed with maintaining Russian imperial borders and had adopted the same toolkit – ethnic cleansing, crushing dissent, destroying national movements, privileging Russian ethnicity and culture – that tsarist Russia used to maintain them.
Soviet coloniality was dismissed also because knowledge about the Soviet Union in the West was Russocentric. The Soviet Union was often referred to simply as Russia. There was little knowledge about non-Russian people. Non-Russian émigrés who fled to the West and wrote about Soviet coloniality with firsthand experience of Soviet imperialism were dismissed as anti-Soviet conservative ideologues.
Importantly, the Soviet Union also became a space of projections for those who looked for ways to criticise capitalism and Western imperialism. Those who blamed capitalism for oppression believed that eliminating capitalism would end all forms of oppression. For them, the Soviet Union was an internationalist project that brought equality and freedom to formerly subjugated peoples. ¤ Violence against various nations and ethnic groups was either ignored or treated as a necessary evil of the transition to communism.
Western scholarship also overwhelmingly focused on the Soviet metropoles – Moscow and Leningrad. They knew very little, if at all, about the Soviet peripheries, which meant that nobody really understood the uprisings in Central Asia, the Caucasus or the Baltics from the late 1980s onwards or the bloodshed in Tajikistan, Nagorno-Karabakh, Transnistria, Abkhazia, South Ossetia and later Chechnya.
As Ronald Gregor Suny, historian of Soviet imperial nation-building, noted in a 2017 interview, “Before the late 1980s, no one cared about non-Russians. Sovietology and Soviet studies [were] about the centre and the top – who was standing where on the Kremlin, on the mausoleum, and so forth.”
The generation of scholars who started studying the Soviet Union in the late 1980s and early 1990s were also shaped by their firsthand experience of the country. When they travelled as foreign students to Moscow, they found impoverished people. Empty shelves and pervasive poverty made Russians look like victims of the Soviet regime, and financially, Soviet Moscow seemed more like a European periphery than an imperial metropole, which they associated with material affluence. …
In Russia itself, the dominant narrative was one of victimhood. Russians learned to see themselves as a special nation that sacrificed its own wellbeing for the sake of non-Russians in the Soviet Union. “Let us stop feeding them” was the slogan Russians used to explain Moscow’s decision to let the colonies go in 1991.
In the West, the collapse of the Soviet Union came as a shock. Many – both in academia and politics – liked Mikhail Gorbachev and saw him as a hero, a man of peace. They approved of his reforms, which spurred a new era of freedom of speech.
Gorbachev was soft, open and democratic in his communication and seemed like a good partner for the next few decades. The United States was even willing to offer him assistance to reform the country; US policy was against Soviet disintegration.
This is how late Professor Mark von Hagen recalled in 2016 the political atmosphere back then: “Again, George Bush … was defending Gorbachev until the very last possible moment because he and the United States government at that level, with a few dissenting voices, wanted to keep the Soviet Union together because they were so afraid of the kind of crazy, fascist nationalism that they thought the Ukrainians represented.”
Indeed, this Western fear of chaos, bloodshed and even nuclear incidents led to the perception of independence movements within the former Soviet space as expressions of destructive ethno-nationalism rather than a natural progression of an empire collapsing.
At the same time, since the official dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 was organised centrally by Moscow, it made the question of imperial oppression obsolete in the minds of Western observers. The idea that the Soviet Union was an internationalist experiment continued to stick, and its collapse was seen as this experiment simply expiring.
Many Western historians perceived it not as a regime that erased diverse polities and national movements, but as a political project that created and developed nations. This is highly problematic not only because it ignores the history of national movements that took place prior to the Bolshevik takeover but also goes contrary to the idea of a nation being formed on the basis of popular legitimacy.
Still there were exceptions. Influential works by historians like Ronald Grigor Suny (The Revenge of the Past) and Andreas Kappeler (Russia as a Multinational Empire) have pointed to the violent Bolshevik policies towards colonised nations and their resistance. Others like von Hagen (Does Ukraine Have a History?) and Timothy Snyder (Bloodlands) who have written from the point of view of the colonised were able to properly predict and warn of historical continuities and dangers still posed by Russia today for these nations.
What the myth of the Soviet Union as a nation-builder did was promote in the West the idea that Russia has a sphere of influence, a “backyard”, where it has the right to intervene.
That is why Western academia and political circles had little to say about the genocidal wars Boris Yeltsin and his successor, Vladimir Putin, led in Chechnya. Rather than seeing people claiming sovereignty and nationhood, the West readily bought into their portrayals of Chechens as bandits, nationalists and terrorists. That is why they also failed to see Russian imperial ambitions in Eastern Europe – the 2008 war on Georgia, the annexation of Crimea, etc – as such.
There has already been some recognition that mistakes were made. As Professor Susan Smith-Peter recently commented: “As scholars of Russia, we need to undertake a searching moral inventory to see the ways in which we have taken the Russian state’s point of view as a default. Have we in any way taken part in the glorification of the Russian state that Putin has taken to a pathological extreme? Has our field participated in casting Ukraine as a state without history in our own way?“ ¤ Indeed, it has. And it is time to correct that.
To understand Russia, one needs to listen to those who lived under Russian colonial rule. To understand former and current Russian colonies, one needs to listen to historians from these places and study their cultures, languages and histories, both written and unwritten. To appreciate the ways out of colonial dictatorships, one needs to study the successful transformations of states like Ukraine. This would require dismissing the myth of the “artificial nation” and finally seeing Russia as an empire.
🐣 RT @KyivIndependent Zelensky: Russia preparing new wave of aggression. ¤ Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned in his evening address that Russia is preparing for a new wave of aggression and is increasing military activity near Bakhmut and Vuhledar in Donetsk Oblast.
🐣 RT @RepAdamSchiff Kevin McCarthy just kicked me and @RepSwalwell off the Intelligence Committee. ¤ This is petty, political payback for investigating Donald Trump. ¤ If he thinks this will stop me, he will soon find out just how wrong he is. ¤ I will always defend our democracy.
⋙ 🐣 Trump hates you because you described him so perfectly in one of the best speeches ever given in the House (Impeachment #1 summary argument)
🐣 RT @IlvesToomas Ukraine’s Sacrifice Protects NATO, EU, and Democracy – CEPA
⋙ CEPA: Our Debt to Ukraine — Payback Time https://tinyurl.com/5cmvarky
// NATO and the EU are still standing and still viable, because of the heroism and sacrifice of the Ukrainians to stop Russian aggression.
🐣 RT @nicholadrummond Lots of people asking which tank is best. Challenger 2, Leopard 2 and M1A2 Abrams all have comparative advantages relative to each other, but all are quantifiably better than anything Russia has fielded, including T-90M.
🚫🐣 RT @RisingSC_taiwan The frigate of the #Russian Navy “Admiral #Gorshkov” with nuclear warheads on board is now moving towards the United States, – The Sun. ¤ The publication also claims that the Admiral Gorshkov is under close surveillance by the #NATO naval forces.
// messing around
🚫🐣 RT @TreasChest The frigate of the Russian Navy “Admiral Gorshkov” with nuclear warheads on board is now moving towards the USA, – The Sun.
¤ https://twitter.com/yasminalombaert/status/1617997111907454979?s=20
// ~Noon Central
🚫 ⋙ 🐣 RT @Quetzalcoatl_SF Eight (8) stratofortress B52 type bombers flying due East over Long Island , in formation, perhaps a meet and greet?
// ~4:30pm Central
🐣 RT @Artur_Micek [tr] In an optimistic scenario, the UA can receive the following amount of Leopard 2 tanks:
– Poland: 14
– Germany: 14 to 19
– Netherlands: 18
– Sweden: 10-12
– Norway: 8
– Finland: 10am to 2pm
– Portugal: 4-6
– Denmark: 10-14
– Spain: 6-12
Total: from 94 to 117. ¤ These are estimates!
🐣 RT @ IAPonomarenko If you want my honest opinion, 🇩🇪 Germany today has scored the very final victory over the shadow of its past. It’s been tempted by deceitful evil, yet it made the most crucial symbolic step. Not without pressure from its friends, but it made it.
🐣 RT @IAPonomarenko Germany, in a painful moment of truth, said no to empowering a revanchist, hateful war of aggression, and opted to help the victim prevail and restore just peace. No more deals with the devil. ¤ So thank you 🇩🇪Germany for being on the right side of history with us. ¤ And goodnight.
WaPo, Michael McFaul: Are we seeing the beginning of the end of Putinism? https://tinyurl.com/2p9cmr4f “It is hard to escape the sense though that the best days for Putin and his ideas are behind him. Like Leonid Brezhnev in Afghanistan, Putin has overreached in Ukraine”
🐣 RT @ @nickschifrin US officials confirm to me the US will announce tomorrow sending approximately 30 M1 Abrams tanks, in coordination with Germany’s announcing Leopard 2’s can go to Ukraine.
⋙ 🐣 RT @nickschifrin The Abrams will be sent using Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI), NOT through Presidential Drawdown Authority, the officials confirmed. Which means when it comes to spring offensives, the focus will be on getting Ukrainians trained and operating the Leopard 2’s.
🐣 RT @ @nickschifrin US officials confirm to me the US will announce tomorrow sending approximately 30 M1 Abrams tanks, in coordination with Germany’s announcing Leopard 2’s can go to Ukraine.
🐣 RT @officejjsmart New Wagner cemetery in Russia . ¤ Of 50,000 prisoners taken into their ranks, only about 10,000 are left. ¤ Wagner admits that it does not keep stats on its soldiers, but the organization suffered from the desertion of many soldiers who returned home to Russia with their weapons
🐣 RT @ @Tendar Many see only the military aspect of the decisive step of sending Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, but far more important is the political framework around it. The West has made the irrevocable decision to enable Ukraine to defeat Russia and it will use all necessary tools to achieve.
🐣 RT @francis_scarr Solovyov reacts to media reports that Olaf Scholz has decided to send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine ¤ He urges Russia to carry out strikes on Germany so that Germans “know which new Nazi leaders they’ve raised and brought to power” ¤ “You European Pharisees, you Nazi scumbags!”
💽 https://twitter.com/francis_scarr/status/1618010872995270657?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @BalticSnowTiger 🇺🇦💪🇩🇪 The Dam has broken #FreeTheLeopards HQ @MriyaReport thanks 🇺🇸🇬🇧& 🇫🇮🇵🇱, the 🐆Coalition of the Willing🇪🇸🇳🇱🇸🇪🇩🇰🇵🇹🇬🇷🇳🇴and🇨🇿🇸🇰, the millions of supporters & friends. A Leap of Leopards @general_ben @WarintheFuture @YAmzallagh @AndriyYermak @Makeiev @VVoytsitska @noclador
🐣 RT @KremlinTrolls F16s
⋙ 🐣 RT @ bayraktar_1love “Our military pilots traveled to the US. The type of aircraft that will probably be provided to 🇺🇦 and the corresponding terms for pilot training have already been determined,” – Yuriy Ignat, speaker of the Ukrainian Air Force. https://tinyurl.com/2p9yfxe4
🐣 RT @Gerashchenko_en [Ru tv]”Berlin will be destroyed if Germany continues supplying weapons to Ukrainian Nazis”
💽 [tr] https://twitter.com/Gerashchenko_en/status/1617901901986828289?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @sentdefender The Ukrainian Military is reportedly expecting a Large-Scale Russian Offensive across multiple Fronts sometime between February and March with Defenders in the North, East, and South continuing to make all preparations needed.
🐣 RT @STEMthebleeding DODM 5200.01 , Vol 2, change 4, page 40. ¤ Every declassified document must be reviewed by a board and annotated in the following manner prior to release, which is synonymous w/ declassification in this regard.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/STEMthebleeding/status/1617956109469503489?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @NOELreports An overview of the latest announced military equipment from Western countries to Ukraine which will be provided within short to mid term. ¤ Tomorrow, this graphic will probably be outdated :-)
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/NOELreports/status/1616149484526010368?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT /1310 UTC 24 UTC/ N of Bakhmut, UKR troops are engaged within the urban limits of Krasna Hora, defending the T-05-13 HWY. In the eastern industrial districts of the Bakhmut, fighting continues along the Patrice Lumumba Blvd axis.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1617870473442000903?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer KREMINNA /2000 UTC 24 JAN/ UKR forces are reported to be advancing NE of Dibrova, pushing the line of contact eastward. UKR air defense reports the downing of an Orlan-10 recon UAV as well as 2 Russian Su-25 aircraft and a Ka-52 attack helicopter.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1617972021564157952?s=20/photo/1
🐣 Leopards freed! 🐆🐆🐆🐆🐆🐆🐆🐆🐆🐆🐆🐆🐆🐆🐆🐆🐆🐆🐆🐆🐆🐆🐆🐆🐆🐆🐆🐆🐆🐆🐆🐆🐆🐆🐆🐆🐆🐆🐆🐆🐆🐆🐆🐆🐆🐆🐆🐆🐆🐆🐆🐆🐆🐆
NYT: Pentagon Will Increase Artillery Production Sixfold for Ukraine https://tinyurl.com/3jpfvbk7 “The effort, which will involve expanding factories and bringing in new producers, is part of ‘the most aggressive modernization effort in nearly 40 years’”
// The Army’s top acquisition official says production of the 155-millimeter shells badly needed by Kyiv will rise to 90,000 a month in two years.
The Pentagon is racing to boost its production of artillery shells by 500 percent within two years, pushing conventional ammunition production to levels not seen since the Korean War as it invests billions of dollars to make up for shortfalls caused by the war in Ukraine and to build up stockpiles for future conflicts. ¤ The effort, which will involve expanding factories and bringing in new producers, is part of “the most aggressive modernization effort in nearly 40 years” for the U.S. defense industrial base, according to an Army report
🐣 RT @stavridisj If true, this could be a true pivot point in the war. Well done, Germany, and “Danke Schoen”
⋙ Reuters: Germany to send Leopard tanks to Kyiv, allow others to do so – sources https://tinyurl.com/55hf6y24
😅 RT @Sputnik_Not BREAKING: Russia’s Ministry of Defence says today Russian forces in Ukraine have destroyed 200 Abrams M1 tanks, 150 Leopards, 15 HIMARS, four Swedish submarines, two Royal Navy aircraft carriers and a NATO mosquito training centre
🐣 RT @POLITICOEurope “Officials will no longer be able to travel abroad for vacation or for any other non-governmental purpose,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
⋙ Politico: Zelenskyy bans Ukrainian officials from traveling abroad https://tinyurl.com/2d2ubatw
// Kyiv is dealing with a major corruption probe involving government officials.
WaPo: Top Ukrainian officials ousted in anti-corruption sweep https://tinyurl.com/mr4xb8zu “Ukraine, under pressure from the US and especially the EU, has worked aggressively in recent years to root out corruption, which had long been pervasive across the government”
🧵 RT @Tatarigami_UA (12/3) Some people have been wondering why Russians have concentrated several brigades near a tiny town called Vuhledar, which approximately occupies only 5 square kilometers, and what makes Russians so obsessed with the idea to take it?
// 12/3/2022
📌 🌎 https://twitter.com/Tatarigami_UA/status/1599074248647057408?s=20/photo/1
[ThreadReader:] https://tinyurl.com/43bs87ju
To understand that, we need to look at the Russian military doctrine. Railroads are a core of Russian logistics and essential to supply entire armies. It allows Russia to move large numbers of supplies and reinforcements within a relatively short period. /photo/1 -4
After the destruction of the railroad section in the Crimean bridge, Russians are facing significant logistics issues and frantically looking at possible solutions to reinforce their Southern group.
The railroad pathway highlighted in red color would allow the Russian army to establish an important logistics route between Russia-Luhansk-Donetsk-Mariupol and possibly Crimea. 🌎
The proximity of the railroad to Vuhledar, Novomykhailivka, and Mar’inka makes this endeavor difficult, as the Ukrainian army has fire control over the railroad, making it impossible for Russians to use. I marked that small railroad section with the red line 🌎
This brings us back to the Vuhledar question. Despite the small size, Vuhledar is located at an important strategic point that allows the Ukrainian army to keep under control both the railway and railway stations, more importantly – Volnovakha 🌎
To get closer to the Vuhledar, the enemy made a series of attempts to take over Pavlivka in October and November, which resulted in the total loss of about 2000 people as KIA, MIA, POWs, or seriously crippled on the Russian side.
While the enemy was able to push out Ukrainian troops from Pavlivka, they couldn’t establish control over the settlement, as it’s located much lower than Vuhledar and gives Ukrainian troops great fire control over the area. 🌎
After suffering devastating losses during the Pavlivka offense, the enemy replenishes its forces with manpower and vehicles. It seems like the enemy is planning to utilize additional battalions which just underwent training and rotation.
The same units involved in Pavlivka will be used in Vuhledar – 40th Naval Infantry Brigade, 155th Naval Infantry Brigade, special task unit “Kaskad” and various volunteer battalions such as “Tigr” /photo/1
At this moment, the enemy focuses on Vuhledar’s defense suppression. To achieve that, the enemy uses regular and rocket artillery, direct and indirect tank fire, and occasional unguided rocket barrages from helicopters and jets. /photo/1
The morale remains low, and the regular army units perform fake offensives – they retreat under minimal fire and exaggerate combat reports to justify their retreats. To avoid stalling, the Russian command utilizes brutal tactics:
They use units consisting of BARS(Active Combat Military Reserve), volunteer battalions, and freshly mobilized, supported by armored units to perform assaults and to exhaust available Ukrainian material and human resources /photo/1
Another offensive operation will result in much worse losses than during the Pavlivka offense, but the threat to Vuhledar remains real and needs to be taken seriously – the Kremlin wants this task to be done, no matter the cost.
🐣 RT @ CaptFreneyNAFO Just to rub salt in his wounds after his failed business venture in Soledar Prigozhin is now expected to be called to the Kremlin for tea. On his way there he will have to avoid having a fatal car accident as well as potentially lethal ruzzian windows wherever he stays. 🤡💀☠️
⋙ 🐣 RT @EarthlyTweet The kremlin does not rule out that Kyiv may commit an assassination attempt on Yevgeny Prigozhin. ¤ This was stated by the press secretary of Khyla Dmytro Peskov in a comment to journalists on Tuesday, January 24. ¤ Sounds like someone needs to avoid windows & tea.
🐣 RT @Flash_news_ua ⚡️The Biden administration provided the Chinese government with evidence that some Chinese state-owned companies are assisting russia in military operations in Ukraine — Bloomberg with reference to sources.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/Flash_news_ua/status/1617860314799955968?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @vmedick BIG NEWS: Germany sends heavy Leopard tanks to Ukraine, approves Polish request, forms new tank alliance with other partners. @ChHickmann with exclusive details of what could be military turning point @derspiegel
⋙ DerSpiegel (S+): Krieg in der Ukraine: Deutschland schickt Leopard-Panzer https://tinyurl.com/2nx65ehf
// Nach monatelanger Debatte hat sich Kanzler Scholz durchgerungen, Kampfpanzer an die Ukraine zu liefern. Auch die Verbündeten wollen …
🐣 RT @Ukrainene The U.S. is considering sending 30-50 Abrams tanks, sources from #Pentagon said. ¤ #US is weighing heavily sending #Abrams tanks to #Ukraine, thus unlocking the #German #LeopardsForUkraine from #Germany and other European capitals, thus settling a growing rift over tanks.
WSJ: U.S. Leans Toward Providing Abrams Tanks to Ukraine https://tinyurl.com/4w56ept6 “The deal would address a rift between the U.S. and the Germans and other Europeans over providing tanks for Ukraine during a pivotal phase of the war”
// Deliveries would be part of deal to enable provision of German-built Leopards
The shift in the U.S. position follows a call on Jan. 17 between President Biden and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in which Mr. Biden agreed to look into providing the Abrams tanks against the judgment of the Pentagon. A senior German official said that the issue had been the subject of intense negotiation between Washington and Berlin for more than a week and appeared to be on the way to resolution.
In a contentious meeting last week at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, the U.S. and its allies failed to persuade Germany to allow other nations to send German-made tanks, exposing the first serious rift in the alliance that has supported Kyiv. ¤ Previously, the Pentagon had ruled out providing the tanks to Ukraine, saying they were too complicated for the Ukrainians to maintain and operate. But White House and State Department officials were described as being more open to providing Abrams to break the diplomatic logjam holding up Leopard deliveries.
German officials initially said that they wouldn’t be the first to send tanks to Ukraine and wouldn’t do so unless the U.S. provided its own Abrams tanks. Germany’s new defense minister, Boris Pistorius, told German television last week that German and U.S. tanks don’t need to be provided at the same time and indicated that his government was still weighing what to do.
Poland’s defense minister said Tuesday that Poland had asked Germany for permission to send some of its German-made tanks to Ukraine. ¤ “The Germans have already received our request for consent to transfer Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine,” Defense Minister Mariusz Błaszczak said. “I also appeal to the German side to join the coalition of countries supporting Ukraine with Leopard 2 tanks.”
Publicly, U.S. officials have praised Germany for weapons contributions it has made to Ukraine, including the IRIS-T air defense system and the promise to send a Patriot antimissile battery to supplement the ones pledged by the U.S. and the Netherlands, as well as Marder infantry-fighting vehicles.
Privately, U.S. officials were frustrated by Germany’s refusal to approve the provision of German-made tanks and have debated how to persuade Berlin to change its stance.
Some State Department and White House officials, however, have been open to meeting the German demands on the Abrams to avoid a deepening rift among Ukraine’s backers over aid to Ukraine and to expedite the delivery of more armor. ¤ The British promised earlier this month to send 14 Challenger 2 main battle tanks to Ukraine, but that wasn’t enough to persuade the Germans to release their hold on the Leopards.
🐣 RT @EuromaidanPress The Biden administration is leaning toward sending a significant number of Abrams M1 tanks to Ukraine and an announcement of the deliveries could come this week, US officials said – WSJ
⋙ .EuromaidanPress: US leaning toward sending a significant number of Abrams tanks to Ukraine – WSJ sources https://tinyurl.com/y6v8tnzz
The Biden administration is leaning toward sending a significant number of Abrams M1 tanks to Ukraine and an announcement of the deliveries could come this week, US officials said, The Wall Street Journal reports. ¤ According to WSJ, the announcement would be part of a broader diplomatic understanding with Germany in which Berlin would agree to send a smaller number of its own Leopard 2 tanks and would also approve the delivery of more of the German-made tanks by Poland and other nations. The White House declined to comment.
🐣 RT @JChengWSJ The war in Ukraine has exposed widespread problems in the American armaments industry that may hobble the U.S. military’s ability to fight a protracted war against China, according to a new study. @glubold
⋙ WSJ: U.S. Weapons Industry Unprepared for a China Conflict, Report Says https://tinyurl.com/2m2runbh
// The war in Ukraine is highlighting the inability of U.S. arms companies to replenish the military’s stocks
But the protracted conflict has also exposed the strategic peril facing the U.S. as weapons inventories fall to a low level and defense companies aren’t equipped to replenish them rapidly, according to the study, written by Seth Jones, a senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank.
For more than the last 20 years, the U.S. fought insurgency warfare in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, a troop-intensive strategy, but the Ukraine conflict is a largely conventional war that relies more on heavy weaponry. A potential conflict with China in the Indo-Pacific would be different from the largely land war taking place in Ukraine, but would nonetheless need to draw deeply from U.S. arms stockpiles.
The problems with the industrial base, in part the result of outdated military contracting procedures and a sluggish bureaucracy, are now affecting the ability to create a credible deterrent in the Indo-Pacific region or face-off against China in a military conflict, according to the study’s finding. ¤ “These shortfalls would make it extremely difficult for the United States to sustain a protracted conflict,” the report said. “They also highlight that the U.S. defense industrial base lacks adequate surge capacity for a major war.”…
Mr. Jones recommends that the U.S. reassess its total munition requirements, urging Congress to hold hearings on the matter. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army Gen. Mark Milley said in November that such an effort is already under way. … The study also suggests reassessing American requirements for replenishing its stockpiles, creating a strategic munitions reserve and determining a sustainable munitions procurement plan to meet current and future requirements.
🐣 RT @maxseddon Blockbuster @MilesMJohnson investigation: how high-end lawyers in London and Moscow helped Wagner’s Yevgeny Prigozhin evade western sanctions for his role running paramilitary group Wagner – and helped him construct an elaborate lie to hide it
⋙ FT, Miles Johnson: Wagner Inc: a Russian warlord and his lawyers https://tinyurl.com/2va2m3ha
// Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of the mercenary operation, has used prominent legal firms around the world to try to keep western governments
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer SLENDER THREADS: General Ben Hodges @general_ben points out the vulnerabilities of RU’s ‘colony’ of Crimea. Only 2 Lines of Communication (LOC) connect Crimea Ukraine. Only one, the Kerch Bridge, connects it to Russia. UKR’s long-range precision weapons can hit them all.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1617893809014345728?s=20/photo/1
⋙ 🐣 RT @general_ben This is the so-called “land bridge”, one of only two Land Lines of Communication (LOC) connecting Crimea to Russia. The other is the Kerch Bridge. There’s a reason the Kremlin is upgrading that road. Send UKR the necessary long-range precision weapons to wreck this “land bridge”.
🔄 🐣 Feel free to follow my curated Lists on Ukraine and (more technical:) War in Ukraine
(Don’t tell Elmo, but there on no ads in Twitter Lists)
Ukraine: https://twitter.com/i/lists/157259218
✛ War in Ukraine: https://twitter.com/i/lists/1545071393397784576
🧵 RT @RealCynicalFox Scholz und Panzers [thread]: ¤ Chancellor Scholz has once again prevaricated on the decision whether to authorize Leopard 2 transfers to Ukraine from Germany’s various client states. While there are likely several reasons for this, I’d like to briefly delve into one of them here. ¤ 1/
📌 https://twitter.com/RealCynicalFox/status/1617844201953329152?s=20
[ThreadReader:] https://tinyurl.com/yc3fpuk8
My assessment of his behavior is that Scholz still harbors dreams of returning to something approaching a pre-war status quo between Russia & Germany. He’s caught between this desire, & growing internal/external pressure to provide increasing levels of aid to Ukraine.
2/
Therefore Scholz continually attempts to thread the needle between the two. Aid is forthcoming, but not in relatively large quantities for a nation like Germany, nor is it sent with great alacrity. Increases happen only under pressure, & when Germany can delay – she does.
3/
MBTs are a Rubicon, especially considering that Leopard 2s would be far easier to transfer & sustain in quantity than a like number of Abrams sent from the US. They & their entire support system are already in Europe. They’re also vastly superior to any Russian tank.
4/
So, Scholz can’t say “Yes” if he wishes a return to the post-war status quo w/ Russia. He also can’t give a definitive “No” given the mounting pressure from NATO allies & his own govt.’s previous statements on the issue. His solution is to say neither, to delay.
5/
Scholz hopes (IMO) that if he delays long enough the decision will be taken out of his hands. Either the US will step in with the Abrams, or German client states will violate their agreements & transfer Leopard 2’s w/o German consent. In his mind, this keeps his hands clean.
6/
This would give him cover to eventually agree to transfers or support assistance (if he has to), but allows him to make the argument post-war to Russia that he didn’t initiate the transfer & either his hand was forced or agreements were violated so it isn’t his fault.
7/
I’m admittedly ascribing some fairly cynical motivations to the German Chancellor. H/e given his statements & behavior to date, I do not think it an unfair assessment. ¤ 8/8.
🐣 RT @RenaEUNV Ukraine: Stoltenberg ‘confident’ solution on German tanks will be found soon video | Global #GermanNews #German #GlobalNews
⋙ EuropeNewsVideo[.]com: Ukraine: Stoltenberg ‘confident’ solution on German tanks will be found soon video | Global https://tinyurl.com/ycx5ewm8
// Nato’s secretary general told reporters that Ukraine needed heavier and more advanced weapons and it needed them quicker
🐣 RT @RFERL The departure of the deputy head of the presidential administration came as Volodymyr Zelenskiy announced he would make personnel changes at senior and lower levels following the most high-profile graft allegations since Russia’s invasion.
⋙ RFE/RL: Ukrainian Officials Out Amid Corruption Scandal As Poland Presses Germany On Tanks For Kyiv https://tinyurl.com/4v4nr6b7
🐣 RT @UFfrontline 🚨#Breaking, Reportedly 12 countries have agreed to supply 🇺🇦Ukraine with 100 Leopard 2 tanks if the 🇩🇪German government gives its approval, a senior Ukrainian official tells ABC News. ¤ #Ukraine #UkraineRussiaWar #kreminna #Leopard2 #Leopard #Leopards #LeopardsForUkraine
WaPo, Ishaan Tharoor: Tanks, but no tanks: What’s the matter with Germany? https://tinyurl.com/2mdrkuaa “‘[F]or domestic consumption, it is seen as a positive thing for a German chancellor not to lead on this, to be cautious, to be resistant, to have tried all other options’”
⋙ 🐣 It’s a feature (not a bug?) of the German language that you can structure a sentence so the verb comes at the end and even after the verb, you can play around with adverbs “I tomorrow to the store go maybe”
⭕ 23 Jan 2023
NBC: Jan. 6 rioter who put his feet on desk in Pelosi’s office is convicted on all eight counts https://tinyurl.com/ycxrssz8 “‘I made some bad mistakes and I regret them, but I don’t think I broke the law,’ Barnett said. ‘I feel like a f—— idiot’”
// Richard Barnett, of Arkansas, said on the witness stand last week that he regretted going to the Capitol the day of the riot.
🐣 RT @ChrisMurphyCT You can’t make this up. ¤ Republicans added $4 TRILLION to the debt with their tax cut for corporations and billionaires. ¤ Now, they are refusing allow Treasury to pay back the loans unless Congress agrees to cuts to Medicare and Social Security.
🐣 RT @BryanDawsonUSA BREAKING: Charles McGonigal. the FBI Special Agent in Charge who said he found no Trump-Russia collusion was arrested over Russian collusion, taking 250K & covering for sanctioned Deripaska implicated in Trump scandal. He worked at office that leaked Hillary emails investigation.
🔊 https://twitter.com/BryanDawsonUSA/status/1617672079008231426?s=20/photo/1
⋙ 🐣 RT @ While Republicans defend Trump’s theft of top secret documents, a reminder @GOP destroyed Hillary over nothing but lies.
🔹Emails FBI thought marked classified: 3 [Human error]
🔹Actual emails marked classified: 0
🔹# of 33,000 “missing” emails: 0
🧵 RT @ jimfitznews EXCLUSIVE INVESTIGATION – A vast cache of hacked material from Russia has shed new light on how the UK govt helped warlord Prigozhin mount a targeted legal attack on a journalist in London. This is #londongrad writ large.
📌 https://twitter.com/jimfitznews/status/1617580880935153666?s=20
// many addtl links in thread
⋙⋙ OpenDemocracy: Exclusive: Treasury helped Putin ally sue UK journalist https://tinyurl.com/yc6weky3
// UK Treasury, then under Rishi Sunak’s control, let Yevgeny Prigozhin circumvent sanctions to target Eliot Higgins
🐣 RT @Kasparov63 As I’m fond of saying, I believe in coincidences, but I also believe in the KGB!
‼️ 💙 ⋙ 🧵 RT @KaivanShroff Just to be clear, when the New York Times reported that the FBI saw “no link between Trump and Russia” — a week before the 2016 election — the FBI agent who was just arrested over ties to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska was heading up the investigation. ¤ Just an absolute scandal.
📌 [NYT TextLinks:] https://twitter.com/KaivanShroff/status/1617613877868662785?s=20/photo/1 -2
// see comments
TheDrive: Ukraine Situation Report: Why Capturing The Small Town Of Kreminna Matters https://tinyurl.com/2p8vazyf “‘Kreminna is a gateway to the north and central Luhansk region,’ a Ukrainian military advisor told The War Zone on Monday. ‘And it allows us to hit the flank of Bakhmut’”
// Taking Kreminna could bust open the lines in Luhansk and put pressure on Russian forces advancing on Bakhmut.
🐣 RT @ Azovsouth Private Group of terrorists and mercenaries Wagner boss #Prigozhin has been left abandoned by the Kremlin after him and his terror troops, failed to capture #Bakhmut. -ISW Reports
🐣 RT @ Historian_Matt How is Germany “coordinating internationally” when Czechia, France, Morocco, North Macedonia, Poland, Slovenia and UK are *already providing tanks*, while Denmark, Finland, Poland, and others have asked for Germany’s permission to export their Leopard 2s but Scholz prevents it?
🐣 RT @KvvKwiatkowski The head of the Ministry of National Defense @mblaszczak announced that Poland will transfer 100 T-72 main battle tanks and infantry fighting vehicles to Ukraine together with 14 Leopards #Ramstein #NATO #LloydAustin #FreeTheLeopards @SecBlinken @SecDef @jensstoltenberg
🐣 RT @KyivIndependent PM: Poland to apply for Germany’s approval to send Leopard tanks to Ukraine. ¤ “Even if we did not get this approval, we would still transfer our tanks together with others to Ukraine,” Mateusz Morawiecki said, adding that Germany’s consent is “of secondary importance.”
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT /2125 UTC 23 JAN/ RU has continued incremental advances in the Bakhmut Area of Operations. N of Bakhmut, UKR troops are contesting a RU attack on Krasna Hora. UKR air defense downed 2 Russian Su-25 strike aircraft, a Ka-52 attack helicopter and an Orlan-10 recon UAV.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1617632291924369409?s=20/photo/1
⋙ 🐣 RT @the_black_leaf Chuck I don’t see any evidence that the heights above Klischiivka have been taken. Not even Rybar claims those heights. I understand Ivanivske was included in a daily report, but I don’t think that’s enough to explicitly say that hill is now in Russian hands.
🐣 RT @UrmasReinsalu [Estonia] I will emphazise today @ #FAC in #Brussels 🇧🇪 that #Ukraine needs additonal defensive aid including heavy weaponry & oil🛢️price cap must be lowered. ¤ 🇪🇪 will contribute than 1% of our GDP to 🇺🇦 defensive aid & I call on other nations to do the same.
🧵 RT @SniperFella Stoltenberg: More main battle tanks for Ukraine. In the debate about the delivery of Western-style battle tanks to Ukraine, the NATO Secretary General emphasized NATO’s unity and again campaigned for more arms deliveries.
📌 https://twitter.com/SniperFella/status/1617620255194636288?s=20
⋙ 🐣 RT @ Since the war began almost a year ago, there has been “an unprecedented level of support” in the alliance, said Jens Stoltenberg on the TV station Welt when asked whether the alliance was divided in a crucial phase of the war. Asked if he would welcome German approval….
⋙ 🐣 RT @ …of Poland’s announced supply of Leopard tanks to Ukraine, Stoltenberg said: “My message is that the Allies have to supply more, have to supply heavier equipment, equipment, combat systems for Ukraine. And that is absolutely urgent.”
⋙ 🐣 RT @ He welcomes all the announcements made by the Allies about battle tanks. “So if we really want to have a solution where Ukraine survives as a sovereign country and a free country, then it’s absolutely essential to act like that.”
🐣 RT @PLPermRepEU [Poland in the EU] FM @RauZbigniew 🇵🇱 after #FAC in Brussels: ¤ We are going to send #Leopard 2 tanks to 🇺🇦. We will be in touch with the 🇩🇪 government about it. But regardless of the decision of other countries, we are more determined to deliver these tanks as promised.
🐣 📋 RT @JaneotN When Clinton banned assault rifles in 1994, mass shootings dropped by 44%. When Republicans let this ban expire in 2004, mass shootings increased by 245%. ¤ Listen. It’s the guns.
WaPo: Former senior FBI official accused of working for Russian he investigated https://tinyurl.com/2fvcx24z “The former head of FBI counterintelligence in New York has been charged in two separate indictments that accuse him of taking secret cash payments of more than $225,000”
// Charles McGonigal, a former counterintelligence chief, is charged with money laundering and other counts connected to oligarch Oleg Deripaska
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer KREMINNA AXIS /1445 UTC 23 JAN/ UKR forces continue incremental advances within the urban area of Kreminna. Battle-space information on 23 JAN indicates that UKR forces have captured a sawmill and entered the campus of a boarding school in the western limits of Kreminna.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1617532063128911874?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @alextencate (1/22) Pistorius has already overruled her, by stating it’s the chancellor’s decision and by repeating that Germany isn’t the only country with doubts. It’s back to the reluctant follower position.
↥ ↧
🐣 RT @OlgaNYC1211 Who could have anticipated this? Germany is pathetic and doesn’t want to burn bridges w Russia for future relations
⋙ 🐣 RT @vonderburchard Seems like Baerbock did not represent an agreed government line when she said that Germany “would not stand in the way” of a Polish Leopard request. ¤ Gov spox told @grinaldi97 that such a request would have to be first discussed and decided in Germany’s Federal Security Council.
🚫⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @vonderburchard Germany “would not stand in the way” if Poland or other allies asked for permission to send their German-built Leopard tanks to Ukraine, said Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock. ¤ Her comments put pressure on Scholz and put the ball back in Poland’s court:
🚫⋙⋙⋙ Politico [EU] (1/22): Germany ready to let Poland send Leopard tanks to Ukraine: foreign minister https://tinyurl.com/2s49r7c8
// Warsaw still hasn’t requested permission from Berlin, but ‘if we were asked, we would not stand in the way,’ Annalena Baerbock said.
🐣 RT @sumlenny A wise move from Germany would be sharing the power and leading by example and by participation. Instead, the corrupt SPD elites have stupidly chosen the way of blockade and betrayal, heading Germany towards a huge fall, second only to our crash after we chose the NS deception.
🐣 RT @IAPonomarenko Yeah, some of those not-my-problem people in the West need to sit down and watch Russian television with subtitles, for just one day. ¤ They’d be shocked.
⋙ 🐣 RT @wartranslated If only people could observe the rhetoric and the spiralling down to complete insanity by Russia over the past year. We’re so incredibly lucky there’s a nation sacrificing itself every day to stop it. But we’re arguing whether to give them tanks. Wake up, before it’s too late.
🐣 RT @andersostlund Soviet Union (Russia) committed genocide against Ukrainians in the 30s. ¤ Germany committed genocide against Ukrainians in the 40s, the massacre of Ukrainians at Babi-Yar was probably the worst atrocity of WWII when it happened. ¤ Russia is committing genocide against Ukrainians now.
⋙ 🐣 RT @andersostlund Ukraine has been the big prize for the aggressors in all the three major European wars the last 120 years, and millions of Ukrainians have died because of it.
🐣 RT @Gerashchenko_en “There is no time for bargaining, we need to survive” – @ZelenskyyUa in an interview to ARD about tanks for Ukraine.
💽 [tr] https://twitter.com/Gerashchenko_en/status/1617465193046413312?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @mccaffreyr3 Careful we don’t confuse a political argument with a military view. The most effective, battle tested, lethal, and reliable main battle tank in the world is the US M1A2 upgrade. We have 1500. MULTI FUEL. Gas. Diesel. Jet fuel. 265 mile range. 45 MPH.
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @McFaul If Abrams tanks work in Poland, why cant they work in Ukraine? I understand the jet fuel and high maintenance constraints. And Leopards are better. But there’s no military utility in deploying them in Ukraine? Really?
¤ https://twitter.com/McFaul/status/1617379224691806208?s=20
// [Comments interesting]
⋙⋙⋙ AP (12/6/2022): US approves $4B sale of Abrams tanks to NATO ally Poland https://tinyurl.com/3vcjbz3m
⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @JoseonOne The M1 is a sophisticated platform that requires tons of maintenance. It takes 6 months or more to train to maintain, way longer than to operate. Weapon systems are more than capabilities. The logistics and maintenance goes hand in hand to be combat effective.
⋙⋙⋙⋙ 🐣 RT @McFaul Yep. Just talked to a 3 star general who used to command them. But that was also exactly the same argument we heard about Patriots six months ago. And if they so damn hard to use, why are we selling them to Poland? Why do we like them?
⋙ 🐣 RT @mccaffreyr3 It has superb Indep Tank CDR Thermal Viewer. IVIS battle management. A radical upgrade redesign from the M1A2 tanks in my 24th ID that slaughtered Soviet era armor in Desert Storm. The M1 incredibly survivable when hit. Turbine engine SIMPLE in design.
NYT: Here’s a look at Stryker vehicles and why the Pentagon is sending them to Ukraine https://tinyurl.com/5n8wc58m “[T]he U.S. is providing Ukraine with specific capabilities designed to enable Kyiv’s armed forces to break though Russian defenses”
// faulty link
⭕ 22 Jan 2023
‼️🐣 RT @Heroiam_Slava Germany will not prevent Poland from transferring Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, – German Foreign Minister Annalena Burbock
💽 https://twitter.com/Heroiam_Slava/status/1617261601341448192?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @JayinKyiv US Army General Keith Kellogg visits Izyum to witness the destruction left by Russian barbarian trash that spent 5 months committing brutal atrocities here. ¤ Russians tortured, raped, buried residents alive, the whole laundry list of Russian activities went down in Izyum.
🖼 https://twitter.com/JayinKyiv/status/1617183364280365058?s=20/photo/1 -4
🧵 RT @ TheStudyofWar Putin likely turned to Prigozhin & Prigozhin’s reported ally, Army Gen. Sergey Surovikin, to continue efforts to gain ground and break the will of #Ukraine and its Western backers to continue the war after the conventional military had culminated & suffered disastrous setbacks.
📌 https://twitter.com/TheStudyofWar/status/1617365586052534272?s=20/photo/1 -4
[ThreadReader:] https://tinyurl.com/bdfv737t
2/ The Russian MoD and General Staff, headed by Sergey Shoigu and Army General Valeriy Gerasimov respectively, had turned their attention to mobilizing Russian reservists and conscripts and setting conditions for improved performance by the conventional Russian military… ¤ …but they had little hope of achieving anything decisive in the Fall and early Winter of 2022.
3/ Putin apparently decided to give Prigozhin and Surovikin a chance to show what they could do with mobilized prisoners, on the one hand, and a brutal air campaign targeting Ukrainian civilian infrastructure on the other.
4/ Both efforts failed, as Prigozhin’s attempts to seize Bakhmut culminated and Surovikin’s air campaign accomplished little more than inflicting suffering on Ukrainian civilians while expending most of Russia’s remaining stocks of precision missiles.
5/ Prigozhin seems to have decided in this period that his star really was on the rise and that he could challenge Gerasimov and even Shoigu for preeminence in Russian military affairs. Those hopes now seem to have been delusional.
6/ Putin appears to have decided to turn away from relying on Prigozhin and his irregular forces and to put his trust instead in Gerasimov, Shoigu, and the conventional Russian military once more.
7/ Putin began to re-centralize control of the war effort under the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) in early December.8/ Ukrainian and select Kremlin officials have also reported that Putin is preparing to launch a second wave of reserve mobilization to expand the Russian Armed Forces… ¤ … and ISW has reported that the Russian MoD has been attempting to improve the professionalism of its conventional forces and to test the effectiveness of its chains of command.
9/ Such reforms and appointments mark a significant inflection in the Kremlin’s efforts to reconstitute its conventional military and a deemphasis on short-term mitigation efforts such as using irregular formations on the frontlines.
10/ Putin’s decision to focus and rely on conventional Russian forces is marginalizing the Wagner Group and the faction that nevertheless continues to contribute to Russian war efforts in Ukraine.
11/ Putin likely turned to Prigozhin’s irregular forces to get through the period following the Russian conventional military’s culmination after the reckless and costly push to seize Severodonetsk and Lysychansk.
12/ Prigozhin likely imagined that his efforts in Ukraine would continue to lend him military and political power in Russia.
13/ Prigozhin’s command over the Bakhmut direction and proximity to Putin likely gave him a false sense that he could use the victory in Bakhmut against the backdrop of Russian MoD’s military failures as a bargaining tool for his own commercial objectives… ¤ …such as the legalization of Wagner Group’s mercenary activity in Russia, expanding his political power within the Kremlin, or even displacing the authority of Shoigu.
14/ Putin had never fully given in to Prigozhin’s recommendations or demands throughout this transitional period and had likely always planned to put Prigozhin back into his place once the Russian conventional military improved enough to bear the burden of continuing the war.
15/ Putin’s turn on Prigozhin has positive and negative implications for Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine. He is now marginalizing & distancing himself from a hard-to-control mercenary group made predominantly of ill-disciplined convicts commanded in the most brutal manner.
16/ The marginalization of people like Prigozhin, who has had men executed with sledgehammers and hands out Wagner sledgehammers as gifts, is a good thing.
17/ The return to influence of more professional military officers likely suggests a reduced likelihood that Putin will give in to the crazier demands of the far-right pro-war faction, possibly in turn further reducing the already-low likelihood of irrational Russian escalations.
18/ But the re-emergence of the professional Russian military is also concerning, as Prigozhin could never have established a formidable and sustainable national military apparatus.
19/ It can never be good to have people like Prigozhin near the center of power, so any indication that he is receding from power is positive.
20/ Prigozhin is not yet gone and will not likely leave Putin’s circle permanently. And he could rise again if Gerasimov and his cronies fail Putin once more. But Prigozhin is, for now, apparently an increasingly spent force in the Kremlin’s inner circles, and that is good.
🐣 RT @KyivIndependent⚡️ISW: Wagner boss rise in decline after failure to take Bakhmut. ¤. Private mercenary Wagner Group boss Yevgeny Prigozhin appears to be on the outs with the Kremlin after failing to capture Bakhmut with his troops, the Institute for the Study of War said in its latest update.
🐣 RT @KyivIndependent ⚡️US lawmakers call for giving Ukraine Abrams tanks. ¤ Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, on Jan. 22 called for giving Ukraine U.S.-made Abrams tanks as a way to push Germany to allow the delivery of German-made Leopard tanks to Ukraine.
🐣 RT @andersostlund Good thread on German obstruction.
⋙ 🧵 RT @jgotkowska 1.🇵🇱 has been delivering huge amounts of heavy equipment to 🇺🇦: tanks (300+), infantry fighting vehicles (200+), self-propelled howitzers… 🇵🇱 doesn’t need to be frustrated because 🇩🇪 declared to deliver 40 Marders. Here is an overview
📌 https://twitter.com/jgotkowska/status/1617235688314867717?s=20
WaPo: Germany won’t object if Poland sends tanks to Ukraine, foreign minister says https://tinyurl.com/4xawzexj //➔ They have flip-flopped on this so many times, it’s hard to know what to believe […tbc…]
🐣 RT @Gerashchenko_en “USA are going to help Ukraine strike Russian Crimea” – Skabeyeva [Ru tv]
💽 https://twitter.com/Gerashchenko_en/status/1617190424325623810?s=20/photo/1
⋙ 🐣 note: these warheads (GLSDB) have a range of 150km, twice the range of current HIMARS missiles (70-90km), but half of ATACMS (300km)
🐣 RT @KleineBrockhoff Here is an unlikely saviour for Olaf #Scholz: Mike McCaul, new chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, wants to send #Abrams to unblock 🇩🇪 policy
⋙ CNN: House Foreign Affairs chairman says some members don’t understand what’s at stake in Ukraine https://tinyurl.com/485naztk
🐣 📋 RT @MacFarlaneNews About #DebtCeiling ¤ Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) tells CNN: “Almost 25% of the national debt accumulated over the history of the United States, 230 years, was accumulated during the four years of Donald Trump”.. says GOP leaders “need to face the responsibility to pay for it”
🐣 RT @mccaffreyr3 [1/20] Astonishing nonsense about refusal to provide M1A1/A2 MBT’s to Ukraine. The Egyptians have 1100. The Saudis have 450. The Moroccans have 380. Its a multi-fuel engine of enormous speed and reliability. Incredible lethality. An experienced UKR tank crew could fight in 30 days.
⋙ 🐣 RT @mccaffreyr3 [1/20] Germany’s refusal to give tanks to Ukraine without a similar pledge from the U.S. has left Scholz isolated among allies—but so far aligned with public opinion at home
// 1/20/2023
EuromaidanPress: Germany could send 19 Leopard tanks to Ukraine from available 212 – Spiegel https://tinyurl.com/yb4r99mv “Since the summer of 2022, the German Ministry of Defense has had a list of Leopard tanks that could be used to identify vehicles [for] Ukraine”
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer KREMINNA AXIS /1500 UTC 22 JAN/ Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) task elements attached to UKR recon teams continue render-safe operations in the the heavily mined areas surrounding Kreminna. UKR units enter W Kreminna urban area.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1617173380322725891?s=20/photo/1
// “Again today, on 22 JAN, RU conducted fire missions against the western urban areas of Kreminna, indicating that UKR troops have achieved a lodgment.”
🐣 I just noticed on the list of items from Ramstein that it does include Stryker armored vehicles and GLSDB which, while not ATACMS, seriously increases the missiles’ range to 150KM with very high precision:
◕ https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1617178255756238849?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT /1300 UTC 22 JAN/ In the E. industrial districts, fighting continues along Patrice Lumumba Blvd / H-32 HWY. RU forces have achieved a lodgment in the Bakhmutskty Building / ceramics factory complex & maintain positions in the furniture factory on the N side of the HWY.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1617144376391516160?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @wartranslated Girkin does not think highly of a successful Russian offensive in the coming future unless done by small motivated units such as Wagner on limited sectors of the frontline. He believes Russian forces have no superiority over Ukraine to achieve success anywhere due to low morale
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1617131387923873792?s=20/photo/1 -3
🐣 RT @thorstenbenner US administration sources make public via @sz that Llyod Austin had “fierce exchange of words” with head of chancellory @W_Schmidt_ & that Sullivan “read riot act” to Scholz’ national security advisor Plötner for putting conditions on Leopard transfer.
⋙ SuddeutscheZeitung: Die USA sind wütend [furious] auf Scholz https://tinyurl.com/4pvvnadh
⋙ 🐣 RT @thorstenbenner Sounds like Julie Smith called up Stefan Kornelius to write up story in deliberate effort to undercut narrative “Scholz & Biden are fully aligned on support for ” & to make it clear that Biden administration expects Scholz to move on US terms rather than him setting conditions.
⋙ 🐣 RT @bjan9 So why doesn’t the US agree to send some tanks as Scholz requests?
⋙⋙ 🐣 it would look like egregiously wasteful spending at a sensitive time when the Republicans are trying to make deep budget cuts in order to go along with increasing the debt ceiling ~ the US says the Abrams don’t match what Ukr needs
🐣 RT @Winter_z123 Interesting, John Kirby & the Pentagon speaker had really nice compliments for Germany yesterday. May it be, that this is another propaganda campaign by US defense industry, now that journalists start to analyse the interests of defense industry? They don’t want to reveal that
🐣 RT @saabj35 So that’s why the rhetoric changed from “We can only release them if USA goes first” (excuse #134) to “Uhhm, I suddenly remembered, we still… eh… have to count them! Yes, that’s it, we haven’t counted them yet!” (excuse #135).
🐣 RT @Nickyschwenzer German opposition & even parts of the government (everyone except SPD) is absolutely appalled of what Scholz & the SPD does!💥💥💥
Love u Poland 🇵🇱 & 🇪🇪🇨🇿🇬🇧🇫🇮🇸🇪🇦🇹🇱🇹
Free the Leopards!💙💛🇪🇺🇺🇸👊 #UkraineWillWin
#GermanyHasNoBalls
🔄 🐣 You amaze me with your courage and bravery, bearing the entire fate of the West and our shared values on your shoulders. You are heroes indeed. Fight well and come home safe to your families. We will help you rebuild your beautiful country to be the moral beacon of Europe! Slava!
🐣 RT @thorstenbenner “US offers used tanks from its own stocks plus long term industrial partnership to every European country that can deliver Leopard 2 to “, defence industry circles claim. “Each country that accepts US offer is lost for defence industry”.
¤ https://twitter.com/thorstenbenner/status/1617064545788522497?s=20
⋙ 🐣 my German is not good enough to understand fully the nzz article, but I find nothing in the US press about an offer by US to provide Leopards (if we even have them) and cut deals with EU countries to buy US arms; sounds implausible
🐣 RT @ukraine_map What Ukraine 🇺🇦 needs the most to help them win the war
1. ATACMS
2. Leopard 2 Tanks
3. More Patriot Batteries
4. Gray Eagle Combat Drones
5. Lots of 155mm Artillery Shells
🐣 RT @wartranslated Hilarious. Russian volunteer in “LPR” Murz explains how expensive Russian EW works. It’s put in the rears to avoid destruction by artillery and… you guessed it, it jams own Russian equipment. And no one does anything about it because “orders”. Waste of money, says Murz.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1617094220430610432?s=20A/photo/1 -3
🐣 RT @NOELreports State Duma speaker Volodin threatens the US and NATO with a “terrible war”. Putin’s associate said that the supply of offensive weapons to Ukraine would lead to a global catastrophe and to retaliatory measures using more powerful weapons.
⋙ 🐣 RT @NOELreports “Given the technological superiority of Russian weapons, foreign politicians making such decisions need to understand that this could end in a global tragedy that will destroy their countries,” Volodin added.
⋙⋙ 🐣 such threats are exactly why Russia must be defeated; the idea that nuclear-armed countries can simply invade and take over their neighbors is a situation the world cannot accept ¤ Russian forces need to leave Ukraine
🐣 RT @Andrii2603 ISW explained why the months-long defense of Bakhmut is crucial ¤ Experts from the American Institute for the Study of War (ISW) call the defense of Bakhmut, during which Ukraine suffers significant losses, “a strategically sound operation, despite its costs.”
⋙ 🐣 RT @Andrii2603 Ukraine would pay a significant price if Russian troops could easily take Bakhmut, analysts are sure.
⋙ 🐣 RT @Andrii2603 “Ukrainian forces are effectively holding back Russian forces … hindering Russia’s ability to continue its offensive elsewhere,” ISW said.
🧵 RT @CanadianKobzar FELLAS! Stay awhile and listen! Today I am very very excited, as I will be discussing my FAVOURITE topic in history. One which is of absolute monumental importance to Ukraine – The KOZAKY! This thread is dedicated to @PainfulFella – hope you are doing well my brother. 1/21
📌 https://twitter.com/CanadianKobzar/status/1617055788111101952?s=20
Kozaky have their origins in 15th C. Ukraine in the wake of the Mongolian Invasion. Ukraine was raided by Tatars leading to thousands women and children were taken as slaves to the Ottoman Empire. The “lucky” ones became serfs under either Muscovite or Polish rule. 5/21
In response, groups of brave warriors began to form self-governing military communities in Ukraine to resist against oppression. Adapting the tactics and martial arts of the Tatars, these “free men” or “kazaks” in Turkish, would become the Kozaky. 6/21
Early Kozak rebellions against PLC [Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth] in the 17th focused on expanding the register and Kozak rights. But as the PLC began to impose serfdom and attack the rights of the Orthodox church – Kozaky would rebel against the PLC, championing the oppressed and the Orthodox faith. 14/21
This would culminate in 1648 with the Khmelnitsky Rebellion. This resulted in the liberation of Ukraine from the PLC and the creation of the first Kozak state known as the Hetmanate. This state included Sloboda Ukraine, the Zaporozhian lands and much of modern day Ukraine. 15/21
Kozaky were not just innovators on the battlefield. The Hetmanate had one of the highest literacy rates in Europe in the 18th century. Art and science flourished under the Kozak Baroque period of the 18th century. But democratic thought was truly a Kozak innovation. 16/21
From its birth the Sich was a democracy. The Otaman (later Hetman) was an elected position. In 1710, Pylyp Orlyk’s Constitution was the FIRST constitution to establish the separation of powers of state between judiciary, executive and legislative – well before Montesquieu. 17/21
This all ended in 1775 when Catherine II liquidated the Sich and slaughtered thousands of innocent Ukrainians. While Ukrainian Kozaky had periodic appearances in the Napoleonic wars, the Kuban Kozak Host, and the Kozak movement in 1918 – 1775 marks the death of Kozakdom. 18/21
The spiritual legacy of the Kozaky lives on in various aspects of Ukraine today – in our dance, song culture and especially in our armed forces defending against Russian oppression. 19/21
Many will ask what the difference between Russian Cossacks and Ukrainian Kozaks are. While this deserves a thread on its own, I will sumarize my thoughts here: ¤ Kozaky always fought in opposition to authority and fought for freedom for the oppressed. 20/21
Russian “Cossacks” on the other hand were always the enforcer of the Tsar’s will and oppression. So when you see a Russian “Cossack” – they are not real Kozaky or “free men”, but they are merely false pretenders and slaves to authority. Slava Ukraini! SLAVA KOZAKY! 21/21
PS – some additional personal details about Kozaks. They were very ritualistic. When a Hetman (leader) of the Kozaks was elected, he had to reject his election three times. Other traditions include my family tradtion in the thread below!
⋙ 🧵 https://twitter.com/CanadianKobzar/status/1597015084118601728?s=20
🧵 RT @CanadianKobzar FELLAS! Stay awhile and listen! Today I am very very excited, as I will be discussing my FAVOURITE topic in history. One which is of absolute monumental importance to Ukraine – The KOZAKY! This thread is dedicated to @PainfulFella – hope you are doing well my brother. 1/21
📌 https://twitter.com/CanadianKobzar/status/1617055788111101952?s=20
🐣 RT @igorsushko While we are still sitting on our hands and refusing to supply #ATACMS, #GreatBritain says so be it, we are going to send #Ukraine Storm Shadow cruise missiles (#SCALP). 250km – 560km range, 1000 lb warhead. 👏
💽 https://twitter.com/igorsushko/status/1617054808661188608?s=20/photo/1
⋙ 🐣 ◕ https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1617056896346726400?s=20/photo/1
💙 🐣 RT @WarintheFuture “President Vladimir Putin’s war in #Ukraine was meant to be his crowning achievement, a demonstration of how far Russia had come since the collapse of the Soviet empire in 1991. It hasn’t turned out that way.”
⋙ ForeignAffairs, Liana Fix and Michael Kimmage: Putin’s Last Stand https://tinyurl.com/3nfyymds
// Jan-Feb 2023; The promise and peril of Russian defeat.
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT AXIS /0030 UTC 22 JAN/ A RU probe crossed the rail line N of Blahodatne and was broken up by UKR forces. Efforts by RU to cut the T-05-13 HWY continued at Krasna Hora and Pidhorodne. UKR defends H-32 at Ivanivske.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1616955233791365122?s=20/photo/1
⭕ 21 Jan 2023
WaPo Editorial: Germany is refusing to send tanks to Ukraine. Biden cannot let this stand https://tinyurl.com/3cb3ac6a ‘Scholz is sacrificing sound strategy on the altar of political calculation by wavering in the face of opposition from some political allies and a segment of Germans’
🧵 RT @DofConsequence 1/ I haven’t written about the Svatove-Kreminna axis because the fog of war is thick. Now that 🇺🇦 is knocking on Kreminna’s door, we’re getting clarity. Here’s a short [thread] explaining what’s going on, & why it’s a big deal. h/t @AndrewPerpetua @BruckenRuski @Suriyakmaps
📌 🌎 https://twitter.com/DofConsequence/status/1616922342336110594?s=20/photo/1 -2
StudyofWar: The Ukrainian defense of Bakhmut is likely a strategically sound effort despite its costs for Ukraine https://tinyurl.com/yckw2zps ‘By “slow-rolling” weapons systems & supplies, the West has contributed to Ukraine’s inability to take advantage of pinning Russia at Bakhmut’’
// Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, January 21, 2023
The Ukrainian defense of Bakhmut is likely a strategically sound effort despite its costs for Ukraine.
While the costs associated with Ukraine’s continued defense of Bakhmut are significant and likely include opportunity costs related to potential Ukrainian counter-offensive operations elsewhere, Ukraine would also have paid a significant price for allowing Russian troops to take Bakhmut easily. Bakhmut itself is not operationally or strategically significant but had Russian troops taken it relatively rapidly and cheaply they could have hoped to expand operations in ways that could have forced Ukraine to construct hasty defensive positions in less favorable terrain. One must also not dismiss the seemingly “political” calculus of committing to the defense of Bakhmut lightly—Russian forces occupy more than 100,000 square kilometers of Ukrainian territory including multiple Ukrainian cities and are inflicting atrocities on Ukrainian civilians in occupied areas. It is not unreasonable for political and military leaders to weigh these factors in determining whether to hold or cede particular population concentrations. Americans have not had to make such choices since 1865 and should not be quick to scorn considerations that would be very real to them were American cities facing such threats.Ukrainian forces have previously employed a similar gradual attrition model to compel Russian operations in certain areas to culminate after months of suffering high personnel and equipment losses in pursuit of marginal tactical gains. Russian troops spent months attempting to grind through effective Ukrainian defenses in Severodonetsk and Lysychansk in the early summer of 2022 and captured Lysychansk only after a controlled Ukrainian withdrawal from the area.[1] The capture of Lysychansk and the Luhansk Oblast administrative border, however, quickly proved to be operationally insignificant for Russian forces, and the ultimate result of the Ukrainian defense of the area was the forced culmination of the Russian offensive in Luhansk Oblast, leading to the overall stagnation of Russian offensive operations in Donbas in the summer and fall of 2022. Ukrainian defense of Bakhmut will likely contribute to a similar result—Russian forces have been funneling manpower and equipment into the area since May 2022 and have yet to achieve any operationally significant advances that seriously threaten the Ukrainian defense of the area. ISW continues to re-evaluate its assessment that the Russian offensive on Bakhmut may be culminating but continues to assess that Ukrainian forces are effectively pinning Russian troops, equipment, and overall operational focus on Bakhmut, thus inhibiting Russia’s ability to pursue offensives elsewhere in the theater.
The West has contributed to Ukraine’s inability to take advantage of having pinned Russian forces in Bakhmut by slow-rolling or withholding weapons systems and supplies essential for large-scale counteroffensive operations.
🐣 RT @SofiOksanen This is what the leadership looks and sounds like. #Scholzing and sleepwalking is not leadership. #Estonia #Ukraine
⋙ 🐣 RT @kajakallas There is war in #Ukraine because Russia started it, not because Ukraine is defending itself. Russia’s goals haven’t changed, it wants to continue its war of aggression. ¤ This means we all need to do more. Give many more weapons to Ukraine, faster. We’re in it for the long haul.
🐣 RT @Gerashchenko_en Pain is filling the heart. The indescribable sadness is covering the soul. Ukraine is losing its best sons and daughters every day. ¤ Thank you for your important and decent work for the benefit of Ukraine. You are forever in our hearts. Eternal memory! -@ZelenskyyUa
💽 https://twitter.com/Gerashchenko_en/status/1616788355987148800?s=20/photo/1
// Visitation for members of .Ukraine’s Department of .interior who died in helicopter crash
🐣 RT @W_W_3_2022 The USA will support the transfer of F-16 fighter jets by allies to Ukraine – the American ambassador to the OSCE.#UkraineRussianWar #Ukraine #UkraineUnderAttack #Kherson #Soledar #Wagner #ATACMS #Bakhmut #HIMARS #Kramatorsk #Luhansk #Ukraina #Zaporizhzhia #Moscow #Crimea
⋙ 🐣 RT @W_W_3_2022 The United States ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Michael Carpenter, confirmed that Washington will agree with the idea of partners to transfer F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine.
🐣 📋 RT @m8rbnsn
_ Abrams M1A2 _
Fuel capacity: 1909l
Range: 426km
km/l: 0.223
_ Leopard 2 _
Fuel capacity: 1200l
Range: 340km
km/l: 0.283
A Leopard 2 can only go 27% farther on a litre of fuel than an M1A2. An M1A2 can drive round trip from Kharkiv to Bakhmut without refueling.
NYT: Amid Mounting Frustration With Germany, Ukraine Holds Out Hope It Will Get Tanks https://tinyurl.com/2s3tupx8 “Ukraine’s appeals for tanks and more weapons … have taken on greater urgency with the approach of spring, when both sides to the conflict are preparing offensives”
// While Germany has not yet made a decision on whether to send Leopard 2s to Ukraine, a Kyiv official said his country’s soldiers would begin training on them.
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer COMPROMISED? This hirsute young politico is Olaf Scholz. In the 80’s, Scholz was a self-identified Marxist. The DDR (East Germany) then regarded him as an ‘important ally in the struggle against NATO’. Scholz is now the principal stumbling block to providing armor to Ukraine.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1616800669121363971?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer KREMINNA AXIS /1410 UTC 21 JAN/ RU conducted fire missions against sections of the western urban areas of Kreminna, indicating that UKR troops have achieved a lodgment in the city. RU has deployed considerable reinforcements to the Kreminna axis as see-saw fighting continues.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1616797931985686528?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @ChristopherJM Sen. Lindsey Graham in Kyiv yesterday: “I am tired of the s*** show surrounding who is going to send tanks and when are they going to send them. Putin is trying to rewrite the map of Europe by force of arms. World order is at stake. To the Germans: Send tanks to Ukraine…”
⋙ 🐣 RT @LindseyGrahamSC All three of us, one Republican and two Democrats, share the same goal – for Ukraine to drive the Russians out of Ukraine. ¤ To achieve that goal, the Ukrainian military needs tanks.
🐣 RT @tashecon Germany has plenty of Ukrainian blood on its hands for WW2, and it will have more if it does not do more to help Ukraine defend itself against Russia’s Genocidal war against Ukraine.
🐣 RT @McFaul Ukraine is winning. Russia is losing, And Putin knows it.
🐣 RT @ Gerashchenko_en “Sanctions can bring Russia back into the previous century in just one moment” – Simonyan
💽 [tr] https://twitter.com/Gerashchenko_en/status/1616708425471217664?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @apmassaro3 US Senators in Kyiv: “If Putin gets away with this, there goes Taiwan. If Putin is successful in Ukraine and is not prosecuted under international law, everything we’ve said since WWII becomes a joke. He will continue beyond Ukraine” @LindseyGrahamSC @SenWhitehouse @SenBlumenthal
💽 https://twitter.com/apmassaro3/status/1616753733735415808?s=20/photo/1
KyivPost, Timothy Ash: Outlook for the war in Ukraine https://tinyurl.com/yrmkazfv “Russia has no path to victory, and the longer the war goes on the worse it gets for Russia, and Putin”
// Timothy Ash shares his frank thoughts on the state of Russia’s war against Ukraine and the West.
Russian conventional kit losses are just so huge now that they cannot be easily or quickly replaced – they are running short of key munitions and armaments. … ¤ … Putin has continuously set red lines when it has come to military supplies from the West, and NATO has continuously rolled through these, calling Putin’s bluff. ¤ What we have learned from red lines being set and rolled through is that Putin does not have escalation domination. He has limits. He is ultimately scared of NATO … If NATO deploys its own 4th and 5th generation kit against Russia it would be over in hours. Putin knows this. He faces total defeat if he escalates – and WMD are just not options …
Speaking to military types with firsthand experience now in Ukraine I asked them why the Russians have not really bombed NATO convoys supplying arms to the Ukrainians. They told me that the Russians don’t have full battlefield satellite coverage, which is key in modern warfare. And thru NATO, the Ukrainians do. …
[W]hile Russia might have lost 100k plus dead and injured and plenty of treasure for not very much, Putin dominates the information narrative at home, and can sell whatever narrative he wants. If people don’t agree they can leave, or protest and end up with Navalny in the Gulag.
… Despite the shift from Russia to attacks on critical infrastructure I see zero change in the motivation of the Ukrainian government to fight on – opinion polls still show 90% support for continuing the war, and they think they are going to win (so do I). …
Talk I know of the West being soft on Ukraine and not willing to stay for the long haul. Add in there the GOP control of the House in Congress and concerns about the ability of Biden to fund the Ukrainian defence. ¤ Actually I think the West is remarkably unified, and they get that the future of European security depends on Putin being beaten. The Yanks, the Brits, the East Europeans, the Scandies, even the Dutch are absolutely on the same page. Germany is a joke, and will be pulled kicking and screaming along with the dominant Western view. Orban is largely seen as a traitor in the West now who will be dealt with after the war ends. Macron is just not relevant on Ukraine – the French are providing sufficient finance nor military kit as to be relevant in any way. The French, and Germans, have been totally and utterly wrong on Russia for the past decade and are not seen as having any useful perspective.
A large majority in Congress are still anti Putin, and pro Ukrainian. And in any event, Congress already signed off in the $38bn financing package for Ukraine in 2023 which will be front loaded. ¤ So, I see no change in prospects for US and indeed NATO/Western support for Ukraine. In fact, I think the realisation is dawning that the best way to avoid NATO having to fight Putin’s Russia at some point in the future, is actually to ensure the Ukrainians beat Russia now.
… I see a decent chance that we see the end of Putin and, while not my base case, I think it’s possible we see a collapse of the Federation into many new states – as with the USSR in 1991. Think here Tatarstan, Chechnya, Dagestan, Rump Russia, et al. The Federation is I think 89 regions and autonomous republics. We could see 20 new states.
And the irony herein that Putin started this war to create a Greater Russia, but the likely net effect will be a Lesser Russia.
🐣 RT @UkrainianNews24 US President Joe Biden has responded to a question about sending Leopard tanks to Ukraine by saying that Ukraine will receive “all the help” it needs to fight against Russian troops. ¤ Source: CNN
⋙ 🐣 This could mean the US will continue to pressure Germany to provide Leopard tanks or even that the US will provide Abrams tanks; but it could ALSO mean that the US believes the many lighter tanks that have been provided are adequate in the immediate timeframe
🐣 RT @OnePaul87 🇺🇲🇺🇦⚡— US advises Ukraine to withdraw troops from Bakhmut, – AFP publication, citing a senior US official ¤ Kiev’s heightened focus on holding the city is reportedly hindering preparations for the expected spring offensive.
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT /0340 UTC 21 JAN/ RU has poured reinforcements into the pocket west of Klischiivka and are attempting a northward advance. UKR forces are engaged south of Ivanivske; the vital H-32 HWY supply route is at risk.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1616639238308519938?s=20/photo/1
⭕ 20 Jan 2023
🐣 RT @mbk_center If the West holds firm, Putin’s regime will likely collapse in the near future. Everything from ’s advances to the West’s unity & resolve in the face of Putin’s aggression points to 2023 being a decisive year @Kasparov63 & @mbk_center for @ForeignAffairs
⋙ ForeignAffairs, Garry Kasparov & Mikhail Khodorkovsky: Don’t Fear Putin’s Demise https://tinyurl.com/mscanmdb ‘Putin’s defeat would help catalyze a transformation in Russia, allowing those who seek a brighter future to dismantle the old regime & forge a new political reality’
// Victory for Ukraine, Democracy for Russia
🐣 📋 RT @LukeDCoffey The U.S. has provided $27.5 billion in military assistance to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion. This equals 3.2 percent of the FY 2023 defense budget, about one-tenth of one percent of America’s GDP, or about $3.50 from each American taxpayer per week. A bargain!
📋 WSJ: China’s Global Mega-Projects Are Falling Apart https://tinyurl.com/2963rj5s “During the past decade, China handed out a trillion dollars in international loans as part of Beijing’s Belt and Road initiative, intended to develop economic trade and expand China’s influence”
// Many of China’s Belt and Road infrastructure projects are plagued with construction flaws, including a giant hydropower plant in Ecuador, adding more costs to a program criticized for leading countries deeper into debt
WaPo: U.S. to brand Russia’s Wagner Group a ‘transnational criminal’ entity https://tinyurl.com/374mp8vv “The designation will come alongside additional U.S. sanctions against Wagner and its support network, spanning multiple continents”
// Wagner has risen to international renown as a ruthless shadow instrument of Russian power, now using convicts to wage Putin’s war against Ukraine
🐣 RT @KyivIndependent ⚡️ US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman: Hard to eject Russian forces from Ukraine this year. ¤ U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark A. Milley said on Jan. 20 at the Ramstein-8 summit that Russia’s full-scale war will likely “end in a negotiation” and not on the battlefield.
⋙ 🐣 that is NOT the position articulated by Biden who says it’s the prerogative of Zelensky and the Ukr people how/when to end the conflict ¤ yes, many wars end in negotiation, but it’s not the place of the US to press for this (Milley speaks inappropriately on a regular basis)
🐣 RT @OSINTreporting Finally a Russian who is not on drugs
⋙ 🐣 RT @Gerashchenko_en [‘]Starting a special military operation was a catastrophic mistake. ¤ I don’t know who told Putin that the Ukrainians would not resist.[‘] ¤ I highly recommend listening to it.
💽 https://twitter.com/Gerashchenko_en/status/1616518635702419471?s=20/photo/1
WaPo: Tank dispute splits Ukraine’s allies as Zelensky seeks more firepower https://tinyurl.com/bdd5eym2 “We need to keep our momentum and resolve,”US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin told the allies. “We need to dig even deeper”
// Germany has rebuffed requests for its Leopard tanks to be used against Russian forces, roiling a meeting of defense ministers from nations aiding Ukraine
🐣 RT @front_ukrainian 🇵🇱Poland plans to train a tank brigade of the Armed Forces of 🇺🇦Ukraine by March, – Polish Minister of Defense Mariusz Blaszczak.
🐣 What’s at stake in Ukraine
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1616482338166145025?s=20/photo/1
[Text:] The group will remain united and continue to increase efforts to support Ukraine.
This is not only about the security of Ukraine. It is also about European security and global security. It is about the world we want to live in and the world we want our children and grandchildren to inherit.
— US Defense Secretary Austin
🐣 RT @ Flash_news_ua ⚡ The United States Department of Justice plans to begin the process of transferring some of the confiscated Russian assets to Ukraine in the coming weeks and months. The funds are to be transferred through the State Department in accordance with a recent law, says Andrew Adams.
🐣 RT @PaulaChertok 🇺🇦”As much as it takes. As long as it takes.”—General Milley in Germany stating allies’ collective commitment to help #Ukraine defeat #Russia
💽 https://twitter.com/PaulaChertok/status/1616469799999262720?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @Biz_Ukraine_Mag Russian Orthodox Church leader Patriarch Kirill says Russian defeat in Ukraine would mean the end of the world. Are they starting to get worried?
Reuters: UK, Poland, others pledge to pursue ‘unprecedented’ military support for Ukraine http://reut.rs/ b
A group of nine nations including Britain, Poland and the Netherlands on Thursday pledged to pursue providing an “unprecedented set of donations” including main battle tanks to help Ukraine in its conflict with Russia.
“We commit to collectively pursuing delivery of an unprecedented set of donations including main battle tanks, heavy artillery, air defence, ammunition, and infantry fighting vehicles to Ukraine’s defence,” a joint statement said.
The statement, published on the British government website, was made by the defence ministers of Britain, Estonia, Poland, Latvia and Lithuania, and representatives from Denmark, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands and Slovakia following a meeting in Estonia.
🐣 I believe this meeting was in part to brief Zelensky on the nuances of US politics, esp the impact of the 2022 US elections, ie to not worry too much about the chaos in the House; that mil support for Ukr will in all likelihood not be significantly curtailed
// on CIA Director Burns’ “secret” meeting with Zelensky
🐣 RT @wartranslated As Wagner’s GREY ZONE comments, the infantry is advancing practically in an open field. No support with armoured vehicles was provided and the infantry was left to their own devices.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1616452867593994240?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @GlasnostGone Let’s not get hung up on leopards. Yes #Ukraine needs tanks to aid its offensives, but they’ll come eventually. Lets rejoice at the huge level of support out there for the Ukrainian people & the mass of military aid donated to the country.
WaPo, Iuliia Mendel: Ukrainians are bracing for the next Russian onslaught https://tinyurl.com/k3vk257b “Russia is now gathering forces for another escalation. Together with our partners, we must make it clear to the ‘owners’ of Russia that no escalation will help them” — Zelensky
Russian propaganda continues to insist on its own twisted version of events. Day in and day out, Russian media calls for the complete destruction of the Ukrainian state, vows war with NATO, or threatens the use of nuclear weapons. Meanwhile, Moscow presses ahead with covert and open mobilization, the training of soldiers, the accumulation of weaponry and the massing of troops along the border. All of this suggests that Russia, like a wounded beast, might be preparing for a new attack. …
“They don’t have good equipment, they just send in lots of people to die,” Maryna told me. “This is not a war with spears — the advantage belongs to those who have modern equipment. We have strengthened and fortified Kyiv, and we’re getting modern equipment from the West. We have no reason to panic.” I don’t believe that Maryna, the mother of a 3-month-old daughter, ever thought that she would one day be offering expertise on military matters. But circumstances have forced all Ukrainians to adapt.
Preparing to counter this possible aggression, Ukraine has been pleading for modern tanks and more weapons. At least three European Union countries have publicly declared their willingness to supply Leopard 2 main battle tanks to Ukraine – but they can’t do so without approval from Germany, which manufactures the tanks. Leaders in Kyiv worry that the resulting delays might not leave enough time to prepare for fresh Russian attacks. Though 74 percent of Europeans approve of E.U. support for Ukraine, some fear becoming directly involved in a military conflict. …
🐣 The one country that will take encouragement from Germany’s waffling is Russia ¤ #Ramstein
🐣 RT @ KyivIndependent ⚡️US Defense Secretary: Russia suffers significant battle losses, almost out of ammunition. ¤ The U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said during the Defense Contact Group meeting that “Russia is running out of ammunition and is suffering significant battle losses,” CNN reports.
🐣 RT @ @wartranslated Kiyanyn – update from Bakhmut, 20 January. No major changes in the Soledar-Bakhmut area, the enemy is struggling to gain a foothold in Soledar as the city is destroyed. Do not listen to false claims by the enemies on their progress in Bakhmut.
💽 https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1616386606075617280?s=20/photo/1
// daily [tr] video report from Bakhmut
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT /1320 UTC 20 JAN/ On 19 JAN, a RU Motor Rifle unit was repelled in a probe on the eastern suburbs of Bakhmut city. UKR conducted 21 aviation strike missions across all axes of contact, including 7 strikes on RU air defense sites. UKR missile forces hit 6 RU HQ elements.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1616422499495063553?s=20/photo/1
🐣 Germany didn’t resist fascism in 1933 ¤ and they’re doing little to resist it now ¤¤ I hope something happens to change my mind ¤¤ Ramstein
🐣 RT @United24media Russia is RUNNING OUT OF AMMUNITION, it has suffered significant losses, according to the head of the Pentagon at the Ramstein meeting. ¤ News we LIKE to hear.
🐣 RT @GlasnostGone At #Ramstein, US Secretary of Defense said: This is a crucial moment. regrouping, recruiting & trying to re-equip. This isn’t a moment to slow down. It’s a time to dig deeper. people are watching us. Kremlin’s watching us. And history is watching us.
⋙ CNN: US will support Ukraine “for as long as it takes,” says @SecDef Austin https://tinyurl.com/muasr2ef “Russia’s attacks are designed to break the spirit of Ukraine. But they have failed. And the people of Ukraine have inspired the world,” he said.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1616422271781945344?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @DefenceU .@oleksiireznikov There are three priorities of Ukraine at #Ramstein 8:
✅ More air defence systems;
✅ Weapons for the offensive operations (tanks, howitzers, ammo);
✅ Systematic ammo supplies +service&repair for armament and machinery.
We will win together!
🐣 RT @oleksiireznikov Chevrons of 🇺🇦 military units at #Ramstein base displayed at the venue,which has become a symbol of international support for 🇺🇦 More proof of Ukraine’s strides towards integration into NATO. #Ramstein 8 is sure to bring great news for 🇺🇦 soldiers with these chevrons. Stay tuned! 🖼
🐣 RT @MelnykAndrij We appeal to the new German Minister of Defence to put an end to this crazy Punch & Judy show around Leopards today in Ramstein & clear the way for a global TANK COALITION to empower Ukraine to kick out russian troops.please stop hiding behind back [link SDZeitung]
🐣 RT @Gerashchenko_en Addressing Ramstein meeting, @ZelenskyyUa called to speed up military support because time plays in Russia’s favor. ¤ We have very little time. Russia can throw millions of mobilized into war. Without sufficient & timely weapon supplies, war will go further.
🐣 RT @nexta_tv The meeting at #Ramstein Air Base has begun.#Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin said the war was is a tipping point, noting that support for #Ukraine would continue as long as necessary.
🐣 RT @ WarMonitors⚡️The head of the Pentagon said during his speech at the Ramstein base that Ukraine’s support will continue as long as necessary.
TheGuardian: Trump and lawyer ordered to pay $1m for bringing ‘frivolous’ lawsuit against Hillary Clinton https://tinyurl.com/4fynds2e
// In scathing ruling, US district court judge writes, ‘misuse of the courts by Mr Trump and his lawyers undermines the rule of law’
[Court doc:] https://tinyurl.com/4csnnje3
In a scathing ruling, US district court judge Donald Middlebrooks castigated Trump and his lead attorney, Alina Habba, for abusing the legal system by advancing a lawsuit that furthered his political grievances over the 2017 Russia investigation using arguments replete with misinformation and errors.
“We are confronted with a lawsuit that should never have been filed, which was completely frivolous, both factually and legally, and which was brought in bad faith for an improper purpose,” Middlebrooks wrote in the 46-page order imposing sanctions of $937,989.39 against Trump and Habba.
The lawsuit, originally filed by Trump in March 2022, alleged that Clinton and the Democratic National Committee conspired with senior FBI officials and others before the 2016 election to fabricate ties between the Trump campaign and Russia in order to damage him politically.
But Middlebrooks dismissed the case after he found that Trump engaged in a scattershot pleading that amounted to an obstruction of justice, and which included allegations that were known to be false. His legal arguments, including racketeering and conspiracy, were found to be without foundation.
The judge noted for instance that Trump’s allegations that former FBI director James Comey conspired with Clinton to prosecute him was wrong – as Trump was never prosecuted – while such a conspiracy was implausible since Comey likely damaged Clinton’s 2016 campaign by reopening the investigation into her emails.
“I find that the pleadings here were abusive litigation tactics. The complaint and amended complaint were drafted to advance a political narrative; not to address legal harm caused by any defendant,” Middlebrooks wrote of Trump’s lawsuit.
The judge also found that Trump’s racketeering and conspiracy lawsuit appeared to be part of a pattern by the former president of misusing the courts by filing frivolous lawsuits in order to serve a political purpose. ¤ “Misuse of the courts by Mr. Trump and his lawyers undermines the rule of law, portrays judges as partisans, and diverts resources from those who have suffered actual legal harm” he wrote.
Middlebrooks examined other seemingly politically motivated lawsuits filed by Trump and wrote that they all followed a playbook of including provocative rhetoric, political language carried over from rallies, attacks on political opponents and, typically, a lack of legal analysis.
“Trump is a prolific and sophisticated litigant who is repeatedly using the courts to seek revenge on political adversaries. He is the mastermind of strategic abuse of the judicial process,” the judge wrote. “He knew full well the impact of his actions.”
The immediate fallout of the sanctions order was not clear. Trump had wanted to drop the lawsuit after the case was assigned to Middlebrooks, an appointee of Bill Clinton, but Habba told Fox News in a segment referenced in the ruling that she had advised him to press ahead.
Trump and Habba – as well as her law firm Habba, Madaio and Associates – are jointly liable for the $1m penalty, though the former president indicated to associates that he essentially believed it should be paid by his attorney instead of him, according to sources familiar with the matter.
The penalty handed down by the judge, designed to disincentive future frivolous lawsuits, is in addition to a $50,000 fine imposed in November and $16,000 in reimbursement of legal costs for Charles Dolan, a Democratic public relations executive, who filed the first sanctions request.
🐣 RT @washingtonpost Over the past few weeks, Western allies of Ukraine have committed massive packages of mechanized armor to break the stalemate with Russia. Here’s how it came together — and what they expect Kyiv to do with it.
⋙ WaPo: Inside the urgent push to arm Ukraine for a spring offensive https://tinyurl.com/yaxwmf36
// Over the past few weeks, Ukraine’s Western allies have committed massive packages of mechanized armor to break the stalemate with Russia. But is it enough to change the tide of the war?
⭕ 19 Jan 2023
Reuters: UK, Poland, others pledge to pursue ‘unprecedented’ military support for Ukraine http://reut.rs/ b
A group of nine nations including Britain, Poland and the Netherlands on Thursday pledged to pursue providing an “unprecedented set of donations” including main battle tanks to help Ukraine in its conflict with Russia.
“We commit to collectively pursuing delivery of an unprecedented set of donations including main battle tanks, heavy artillery, air defence, ammunition, and infantry fighting vehicles to Ukraine’s defence,” a joint statement said.
The statement, published on the British government website, was made by the defence ministers of Britain, Estonia, Poland, Latvia and Lithuania, and representatives from Denmark, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands and Slovakia following a meeting in Estonia.
VOA (Dec): Republican, Democratic Senators Predict Continuing US Support for Ukraine https://tinyurl.com/msc7k7hp Interview; “[T]here is strong, strong support in both houses and both parties. Are there a handful of people who are dissidents? Yes. … That’s the American way”
// 12/6/2022
AP (Nov): What US election results mean for the future of Ukraine aid https://tinyurl.com/h63khh9t “Despite the escalating opposition from the right, there is little risk of Congress ending America’s financial and military support for Ukraine anytime soon”
// 11/11/2022
🐣 RT @MSkrypchenko Preliminary list of all weapons and equipment that NATO countries are going to transfer to Ukraine in the nearest future #Ukraine️ #UkraineWar #russiaisateroriststate #Ramstein
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/MSkrypchenko/status/1616149099514073088?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @ ChuckPfarrer KREMINNA AXIS / DELAYED POST 19 JAN/ RU forces, likely from the 4th Separate Motor Rifle Brigade, have advanced in the forested area to the W of Kreminna. Presently, a salient extends from the western suburbs to a point 4 Km NW of Dibrova.
🌎 https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1616222903829143552?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @IAPonomarenko America rocks again. ¤ Goodnight from Ukraine. There will be a new day and new hope for the best.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/IAPonomarenko/status/1616224945171734539?s=20/photo/1
// Defense Budget
• Additional munitions for NASAMS;
• 8 Avenger air defense systems;
• 59 Bradleys+590 TOW missiles+ammo;
• 90 Strykers + 20 mine rollers;
• 53 MRAPs;
• 350 HMMWVS;
• 20,000 155mm artillery rounds;
• 600 precision-guided 155mm rounds;
• 95,000 105mm artillery rounds;
• 11,800 120mm mortar rounds;
• Additional ammo for HIMARS;
• 12 ammunition support vehicles;
• 6 command post vehicles;
• 22 tactical vehicles to tow weapons;
• HARM missiles;
• Approx 2,000 anti-armor rockets;
• 3,000,000 rounds of small arms ammo;
• Demolition equipment for obstacle clearing;
• Claymore anti-personnel munitions;
• Night VIS devices,
• Spare parts and other field equipment.
WaPo: CIA director holds secret meeting with Zelensky on Russia’s next steps https://tinyurl.com/2b9cbm38
// High-level visit by Burns comes at critical juncture in war and as government in Kyiv airs concern about durability of U.S. support
CIA Director William J. Burns traveled in secret to Ukraine’s capital at the end of last week to brief President Volodymyr Zelensky on his expectations for what Russia is planning militarily in the coming weeks and months, said a U.S. official and other people familiar with the visit.
Top of mind for Zelensky and his senior intelligence officials during the meeting was how long Ukraine could expect U.S. and Western assistance to continue following Republicans’ takeover of the House and a drop-off in support of Ukraine aid among parts of the U.S. electorate, said people familiar with the meeting. All spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the private high-level engagement.
Burns emphasized the urgency of the moment on the battlefield and acknowledged that at some point assistance would be harder to come by, the people said. ¤ Zelensky and his aides came away from last week’s meeting with the impression that the Biden administration’s support for Kyiv remains strong and the $45 billion in emergency funding for Ukraine passed by Congress in December would last at least through July or August, those familiar with the discussion said. Kyiv is less certain about the prospects of Congress passing another multibillion-dollar supplemental assistance package as it did last spring, they said. ¤ While hawkish Republicans in Congress continue to favor arming Ukraine, other conservatives have said they want to slash U.S. spending, in particular, the billions of dollars going to the war effort. …
At the moment, Ukrainian and Russian forces are locked in an intense war of attrition in eastern Ukraine around Bakhmut. The city has relatively little strategic value but it has taken on symbolic importance for both sides, in particular, Russia, which hasn’t captured a major Ukrainian city since last summer. ¤ Military analysts expect that an uptick in fighting this spring could determine the war’s trajectory. …
Moscow, which has recruited convicted felons in the war effort, has shown a willingness to endure heavy casualties. Last year, many of the recruits were highly inexperienced, given only two weeks of training before being sent to the front lines. But in recent months, Russia has improved its training, according to Western intelligence officials.
More recently, Burns has linked the Russian president’s decision to invade Ukraine as a key step in his goal of returning Moscow to its former glory. ¤ “He is convinced that his destiny as Russia’s leader is to restore Russia as a great power,” he told an audience at a security forum in Aspen in July. “He believes the key to doing that is to re-create a sphere of influence in Russia’s neighborhood and he does not believe you can do that without controlling Ukraine and its choices. And so that’s what produced, I think, this horrible war.” …
That same day, NATO defense ministers began a two-day meeting in Brussels where the topic of Leopard tanks divided allies, with Poland threatening to send 14 tanks regardless of whether Germany approves. Technically, Germany’s approval is required because it is the manufacturer of the Leopard 2. ¤ “Either we will obtain this consent, or we will do the right thing ourselves,” Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told a local broadcaster.
🐣 RT @mbk_center [Mikhail Khodorkovsky] Acclaimed film director Martin Scorsese addressed the Ukrainians: ¤ “At this moment, your spirit, the strength of your spirit, is like light. It is the light of the whole world. And I pray that it will be bright enough to guide you through this darkness.”
⋙ 🐣 RT @olex_scherba Wow. The great Martin Scorsese. Thank you. #StandWithUkraine
💽 https://twitter.com/mbk_center/status/1616041914431684608?s=20/photo/1
🧵 RT @TheStudyofWar #Lavrov’s equations of the West with Nazi Germany and its support for #Ukraine with an effort to exterminate the Russian people are ludicrous and almost certainly aimed at a domestic Russian audience. http://isw.pub/UkrWar011823
📌 https://twitter.com/TheStudyofWar/status/1616061373619834882?s=20
🐣 RT @ChuckPfarrer BAKHMUT/ 1300 UTC 19 JAN/ RU continues a series of platoon and company sized probes along the line of contact. On 18 JAN, UKR air defense downed a Russian Ka-52 attack helicopter and a RU ‘Merlin’ recon UAV. UKR missiles strike RU Electronic Warfare site, troop assemblies & HQ.
◕ https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1616057237419458561?s=20/photo/1
WaPo/AP: EU assembly wants special court for Russia’s war in Ukraine https://tinyurl.com/2dx2ppnc
The nonbinding resolution was approved by a 472-19 vote with 33 abstentions in the European Parliament, and underscored the EU’s willingness to make sure Moscow should be brought to justice for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The legislature called on the EU “to work in close cooperation with Ukraine to seek and build political support in the U.N. General Assembly and other international forums … for creating the special tribunal for the crime of aggression against Ukraine.”…
The Hague-based ICC has launched an investigation into war crimes in Ukraine but can’t prosecute the crime of aggression — the act of invading another country — because the Russian Federation is not a signatory to the Rome Statute, the treaty that created the court.
The call came despite the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court saying his court was capable of effectively dealing with war crimes committed in Ukraine.
Since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, his military forces have been accused of abuses ranging from killings in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha to deadly attacks on civilian facilities, including the March 16 bombing of a theater in Mariupol that an Associated Press investigation established likely killed close to 600 people.
Reuters: Putin ally Medvedev warns NATO of nuclear war if Russia is defeated in Ukraine https://tinyurl.com/yc4b4fex
⋙ It’s OKAY, Everyone gets a ⬇️ Partcipation Trophy! ⬇️
🖼 https://twitter.com/Auriandra/status/1616045482631122944?s=20/photo/1
MOSCOW, Jan 19 (Reuters) – Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, an ally of Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin, warned NATO on Thursday that the defeat of Russia in Ukraine could trigger a nuclear war.
Striking a similar tone at what he described as an anxious time for the country, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church said trying to destroy Russia would mean the end of the world.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine, Medvedev has repeatedly raised the threat of a nuclear apocalypse, but his admission now of the possibility of Russia’s defeat indicates the level of Moscow’s concern over increased Western weapons deliveries to Ukraine.
“The defeat of a nuclear power in a conventional war may trigger a nuclear war,” Medvedev, who serves as deputy chairman of Putin’s powerful security council, said in a post on Telegram.
“Nuclear powers have never lost major conflicts on which their fate depends,” said Medvedev, who served as president from 2008 to 2012.
Medvedev said NATO and other defence leaders, due to meet at Ramstein Air Base in Germany on Friday to talk about strategy and support for the West’s attempt to defeat Russia in Ukraine, should think about the risks of their policy.
Russia and the United States, by far the largest nuclear powers, hold around 90% of the world’s nuclear warheads. Putin is the ultimate decision maker on the use of nuclear weapons.
Asked if Medvedev’s remarks signified that Russia was escalating the crisis to a new level, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “No, it absolutely does not mean that.”
He said Medvedev’s remarks were in full accordance with Russia’s nuclear doctrine which allows for a nuclear strike after “aggression against the Russian Federation with conventional weapons when the very existence of the state is threatened”.
While NATO has conventional military superiority over Russia, when it comes to nuclear weapons, Russia has nuclear superiority over the alliance in Europe.
Putin casts Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine as an existential battle with an aggressive and arrogant West, and has said that Russia will use all available means to protect itself and its people.
“ALARMING TIME”
Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine has triggered one of the deadliest European conflicts since World War Two and the biggest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.The United States and its allies have condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as an imperial land grab, while Ukraine has vowed to fight until the last Russian soldier is ejected from its territory.
Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, said in a sermon: “We pray to the Lord that he bring the madmen to reason and help them understand that any desire to destroy Russia will mean the end of the world.”
“Today is an alarming time,” state news agency RIA quoted him as saying. “But we believe that the Lord will not leave Russian land.”
NOT BACKING DOWN
Since a grim New Year’s Eve message describing the West as Russia’s true enemy in the war on Ukraine, Putin has sent several signals that Russia will not back down. He has despatched hypersonic missiles to the Atlantic and appointed his top general to run the war.Putin said on Wednesday that Russia’s powerful military-industrial complex was ramping up production and was one of the main reasons why his country would prevail in Ukraine.
Washington has not detailed in public what it would do if Putin ordered what would be the first use of nuclear weapons in war since the United States unleashed the first atomic bomb attacks on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
U.S. Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns cautioned Putin’s spy chief Sergei Naryshkin in November about the consequences of any use of nuclear weapons by Russia, U.S. officials said at the time.
Russia has 5,977 nuclear warheads while the United States has 5,428, China 350, France 290 and the United Kingdom 225, according to the Federation of American Scientists.
Medvedev, 57, who once presented himself as a reformer who was ready to work with the United States to liberalise Russia, has recast himself since the war as the most publicly hawkish member of Putin’s circle.
He said that the nuclear risks of the Ukraine crisis should be obvious to any Western politicians who had “preserved at least some traces of intelligence.”
🐣 RT @Gerashchenko_en “Russia must be brought to justice for every burnt Ukrainian city and village, for every destroyed life. We must punish evil. This terrorist war should become the last such war.” – @ZelenskyyUa during Russian War Crimes exhibition at @Davos
🌎 https://twitter.com/Gerashchenko_en/status/1616033102958051329?s=20/photo/1
🐣 RT @carlbildt While much of the buzz in Davos is about 🇩🇪, Scholz and Leopard tanks 🇸🇪 announces a very solid military support package to 🇺🇦 with advanced artillery and 50 CV90 armored fighting vehicles.
⋙ 🐣 RT @ZelenskyyUa Sincerely grateful to the Government of Sweden & @SwedishPM for the new military assistance package to 🇺🇦. CV90 IFVs, Archer self-propelled howitzers & NLAW ATGMs are powerful weapons that 🇺🇦 army needs to liberate our land from the Russian invader. Together to a common victory!
🐣 RT @ IAPonomarenko Just when you’re thinking Russia can’t fall even deeper, FM Lavrov crawls out of woods and draws parallels between the Western support of Ukraine and Hitler’s Holocaust. ¤ “The Final Solution for Russian people” is what’s happening, yeah.
⋙ 🐣 RT @IAPonomarenko Among the Kremlin’s key, long-lasting issues that will eventually bring it to its downfall is that it never knew when to stop in propaganda.
🐣 RT @saintjavelin 🐆Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said that his government will either receive permission from Germany to give Ukraine Leopard 2 or will do it on its own.
WSJ: Berlin Won’t Allow Exports of German Tanks to Ukraine Unless U.S. Sends Its Own https://tinyurl.com/y8n5vnmt “By deferring to Washington, Mr. Scholz is now adding pressure on President Biden to authorize the export of Abrams tanks to Kyiv, the closest U.S. equivalent”
// North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies have over 2,000 German-made Leopard tanks
🐣 RT @KyivIndependent Scholz on Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine: ‘We must avoid Russia-NATO war.’ ¤ When asked about Berlin’s reluctance to provide Ukraine with German-built Leopard 2 tanks in Davos, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Germany has been “among the biggest supporters of Ukraine.”
🐣 RT @ryankakiuchan Joint statement by Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba and Minister of Defence of Ukraine Oleksii Reznikov on German-made Leopard 2 tanks.
[TextLink:] https://twitter.com/ryankakiuchan/status/1615984636576018433?s=20/photo/1
[Text:] We welcome the bold and very timely decision of the United Kingdom to transfer the first squadron of Challenger 2 tanks to Ukraine. However, it is not sufficient to achieve operational goals. Therefore, we are addressing our appeal to the states that have Leopard 2 tanks in service, including Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and Turkey. We guarantee that we will use these weapons responsibly and exclusively for the purposes of protecting the territorial integrity of Ukraine within internationally recognized borders.
⭕ 18 Jan 2023
NatRev, Stanley Kurtz: AP African-American Studies Program, as Written, Violates Florida Law https://tinyurl.com/bdefzutj The curriculum “promotes leftist radicalism, with virtually no readings providing even a classically liberal point of view, much less some form of conservatism”
DeSantis’s refusal to approve APAAS is entirely justified. Although the College Board has pointedly declined to release the APAAS curriculum, I obtained a copy and wrote about it in September. There I argued that APAAS proselytizes for a socialist transformation of the United States, that it directly runs afoul of new state laws barring CRT, and that to approve APAAS would be to gut those laws.
Florida’s Stop WOKE Act, for example, bars any K–12 attempt to promote the idea that color blindness is racist. Yet most of the readings in the final quarter of APAAS (Unit 4: Movements and Debates) reject color blindness. … Overall, the readings in the final quarter of APAAS — the quarter chiefly devoted to ideological controversies rather than to history per se — are extraordinarily one-sided. They promote leftist radicalism, with virtually no readings providing even a classically liberal point of view, much less some form of conservatism. If DeSantis were to approve a course pushing the idea of “color-blind racism,” he would effectively be nullifying his own Stop WOKE Act.
In my earlier exploration of APAAS’s curriculum, I described the neo-Marxist thrust of the course. This is evident enough from the readings. On top of that, however, we know that Joshua M. Myers, the member of the APAAS curriculum-writing team whose expertise covers the final quarter of the course, is an acolyte of Cedric Robinson, author of Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition. Myers’s writings on African-American studies explicitly call for the field to reject traditional concepts of disciplinary neutrality and adopt openly anti-capitalist radical advocacy instead. In short, for DeSantis to approve the APAAS course as currently configured would be to repudiate everything he stands for. It would welcome woke, not stop it.
Again, for the College Board to keep the APAAS curriculum secret while simultaneously asking states to approve the course for high school and college credit is indefensible. This secrecy validates long-standing concerns about the College Board’s acting as a de facto unelected national school board. By filling APAAS with Marxism and critical race theory, while at the same time presenting the course as a harmless exercise in African-American history, the College Board is trying to fool the public. …
The larger danger here is that once APAAS is approved, we will see the College Board devise AP courses in women’s studies, gender studies, transgender studies, latino studies, environmental studies, the full panoply of politicized “studies” courses that have balkanized and politicized higher education.
That said, Florida has invited the College Board to revise its curriculum. A radically reconfigured APAAS still has a chance in Florida. A successful revision wouldn’t necessarily require the complete elimination of readings based in neo-Marxism and CRT. At minimum, however, it would call for such readings to be fully balanced by traditional liberal and conservative perspectives.
We shall see how it all plays out—and whether the College Board maintains its unjustified secrecy. At a minimu