Cellphone footage filmed by a Ukrainian soldier shows the Ukrainian military engaging Russian forces in a firefight in the heavily contested village of Mochun north west of Kyiv.Based on the behaviour and gear it appears that these men are part of the Ukrainian Territorial Defense Force. The Territorial Defense Forces...
Time and anti-tank weapons favor the Ukrainians even if air superiority remains complicated. An extended siege of Kyiv looks possible with the current stalemate, and long-range bombardment continues. Mercenaries are being recruited to support Russian forces. The disinformation campaign continues, including the relocation of some of the Mariupol population elsewhere,...
The military situation is not without progress as bombardment continues with little appreciable changes in position. Unfortunately civilians remain in the line of fire. Politics continues to be extended by war, and unfortunately, Putin is no Yuri Andropov, one of many who facilitated the violent suppressions in Hungary and Czechoslovakia. Russia’s advances...
The situation has become fraught with increases in attacks on civilians, amid charges and counter charges. Bombardment continues and a few Ukrainian counter attacks are offset by brutality in places like Mariupol. Russia appears to be trying to achieve the capture of the land bridge from Moldova to Donbas. Ukraine...
We haven’t yet reached that point where the losses to the Russians are sustainable. Replacements may be on their way to the front. They likely will not see the same troops who have until now resisted any new advances. There have been some Ukrainian counter-attacks. The Russians now settle for longer range...
The war continues with Russian troops hiding among hospital facilities in the south using staff as cover or shields. They exhibit slow progress toward Kiev even as talks continue and the PR offensive remains solid with Zelensky speaking to the Canadian Parliament and the Prime Ministers of Czechia, Poland, and Slovenia....
Bombardment continues with over 900 missiles launched against Ukraine and the notable media appearance was the on-air protest by an editor on Russian State TV. She was arrested and seems to be held incommunicado from her lawyers. “(T)oo many civilian targets have been hit by Russian bombs for them all...
An “operative lull” seems now ready to end. Bombardment resumes and the messaging about “foreign fighters” increases with the slowing of the Russian advance to take major cities. Smaller cities that have been captured are being repressed by Russians and some proxies with brutal efficiency. The war continues to be...
Structural change needs to happen, because in community policing, community should precede policing. The paramilitary trend should not be seen as a burgeoning conflict between armed militias, one more official than the other. We need a de-escalation whose goal is the diametric opposite of the 1/6 insurrection. The problem isn't...
While the Republican Party continues to devolve into the party of white supremacists, authoritarian fascists, and conspiracy theorists, they are losing their grip on many of the voting blocs they have always counted on to keep them in power. Several demographic groups are moving away from the Republicans, such as...
Most of us don’t think Bill Gates has uploaded Windows Vista into the COVID-19 vaccine, and we won’t give credence to inanities burped out by semi-ambulatory heaps of knob cheese who listen to demon sperm doctors instead of world-renowned infectious disease experts. Why? Because we’re astute consumers of media. But Republicans, by and...
Banana Republic is not yet a bankrupt concept in America, although it is being sorely tested. Trump’s 1/6 coup counted on the numbers of RWNJs in the US military, including some QAnon-influenced former National Security and ex-DoD/Military. The hint at the misuse of federal personnel was foreshadowed in the Summer...
I originally posted this as a comment to the diary Dick “@$#^&%” Cheney is Saving Us from a Martial Law Coup D'état??? Now I've Seen Everything and decided it could use a diary and discussion of its own. David Frum asks what should be an obvious question: Why did all...
Hope can see that there is light despite all of the darkness. -Desmond Tutu Trump can hold a grudge for a few months before exploding in a tearful rage and firing anyone who had dared to tell the truth about Trump’s reckless disregard of the Covid disaster. This time around, Dr....
Contradictions and false consciousness inhabit many Trumpists and Trump voters, demanding a crypto-fascist election outcome, a sad commentary on the times. Trump himself is left with autocratic fantasies fed by his closest sycophants. x Sources who have gotten used to Trump’s eruptions over four years sound scared by what’s transpired in...
I am sure others have put this together, but I think it is something that needs to be out there. Two things are happening simultaneously. The United States is suffering its worst cyber attack, possibly in history. Trump and his minions are raising the temperature on a military coup. Even...
in an ad of how Presidents used to talk about the military It offers video of three Presidents talking affirmatively about the military Reagan George H W Bush (who received the Distinguished Flying Cross as the youngest Navy Pilot in WWII) George W Bush ALL REPUBLICANS and the closing text...
The 1961 Trump didn’t meet the 1968 Trump and his bone spurs. Trump runs against his own lies about the size of the MIC budget, military pay, and the invisible F-35 plane. And he thinks the military hates “his” generals as much as he hates the intelligence community. It’s the...
Cadet Bone Spurs's campaign can't help itself, it is like the candidate, lewd and crude, but it looks like there’s more to the iceberg. What is obvious is Trump’s ultimate obsequiousness to the military, even ex-KGB officers, accompanied by a passive-aggressiveness revealed by his comments. The Trump campaign flunkies are...
twitter.com/… National Security Correspondent for Fox News, Jennifer Griffin, has posted a string of tweets quoting former staffers saying that Trump often said things that were insulting to veterans, war dead, and soldiers that suffered battle wounds. Jennifer Griffin @JenGriffinFNC · According to one former senior Trump administration official: “When the...
Honestly, I’d be surprised if Donald Trump didn’t want a North Korea-style military parade at the heart of his inauguration — complete with goose-stepping, FFS! — but that doesn’t mean it’s not jarring to see it in print. I mean, what’s next? Will he announce a cabinet-level Department of Eugenics? Ugh....
Like the DHS and DoJ contractors deployed with the miscellaneous tactical units, a variety of former military are formally and informally at play during the Portland protests. In this case, a rogue element was pursued by citizen activists because these “contractors” were trying to escalate peaceful protests. The Military Industrial Complex...
Received this e-mail today from U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley (D. OR) on behalf of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee: Today, along with Sen. Ron Wyden, Sen. Chris Murphy, and other colleagues, I introduced legislation to stop the Trump administration from using federal forces as a shadowy paramilitary against Americans. Thousands...
From Salon: x YouTube Video Arizona Republican senator and former Air Force combat pilot Martha McSally once published an academic paper in which she said military servicewomen should be counseled against the “foolishness of entering into a lifetime commitment (motherhood)” to avoid deployment, and called for the Pentagon to repeal...
Nebraska is a deep-red state; only 29% of the voters are registered as Democrats. Governor Ricketts is a Republican, both its senators, Fischer and Sasse, are Republicans. Sasse is up for reelection this fall, but fivethirtyeight.com gives him a 98% chance of winning. You would think Biden doesn’t stand a...
Fucking really?!? U.S. Sen. John Cornyn expressed resistance to the idea of changing the name of Fort Hood, a massive Texas military base named after a Confederate military leader, as calls mount nationwide to remove monuments and rename bases memorializing Confederate leaders. “There's no question that America was an imperfect union when...
Hey, Donald Trump is going to be sending the Blue Angels out to do flyovers in honor of doctors and nurses! Mere weeks after sending the Angel of Death! Wow, he really does respond quickly. The Washington Post: The Pentagon is planning a multicity tour of the U.S. military’s top flight...
The Federal Emergency Management Agency and the US military will need to open temporary hospitals for the treatment of the coranavirus. No doubt some plans exist for regional disasters such as hurricanes, but this will have to be like nothing we’ve ever seen before. The US Navy has begun to prepare...
Right now, Texas is under siege, and there’s not too much our military can do about it. On Jan. 7, Gov. Greg Abbott told the Domestic Terrorism Task Force that the Texas Department of Information Resources (DIR) measured, over a 48-hour period, a colossal increase of cyberattacks from Iran on...
Mike Lee (R-UT) doesn’t want to be told by the WH to “shut up and dribble” on discussing War Powers issues. As if no discussion by Congress was relevant to the question of the necessity and proportionality of assassinating Suleimani. “What I found so distressing is one of the messages was do...
Threats against 52 Iranian “cultural sites” are more Trumpian gaslighting and a projection of hope that Iran will reciprocate by attacking the US in a way that galvanizes national support for military action like 9/11. President Trump doubles down on his threat to attack Iranian cultural sites if it should...
Donald Trump’s approval among active duty military personnel has declined to 42%, according to a Military Times poll conducted this fall. The number who disapprove has risen to 50%–a considerable increase from the 37% who disapproved when he first became president. Some 45.1% said they have a “very unfavorable” opinion of Trump....
Yesterday at a White House Hanukkah party, Donald Trump appeared to suggest he had served in the military. x “Like we used to say in the military, make a path,†@realDonaldTrump (who did not serve in the military) says at a White House reception.— Jeff Mason (@jeffmason1) December 12, 2019...
Donald J. Trump and Cheetos may have been conceived at the same time. Zeitscheiße. This is the true story of the Cheeto. https://t.co/SOb23YDy8k — WIRED (@WIRED) December 8, 2019 In the summer of 1945, Little Boy and Fat Man were detonated in Japan, ending the war and leaving the Quartermaster Corps...
Eddie the Seal becomes the Joe the Plumber for war crimes, because Trump needs celebrity props for his rallies. The message to the Trump base is that visceral barbarism might be excused under his rule. And are you distracted from impeachment yet again. If Donald Trump gets his wish, he’ll...
Donald Trump praised a dog named Conan today for “his” role in the successful raid on ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. It could have been a sweet moment remembered fondly by all those who’ve somehow forgotten Trump is a steaming pile of tauntaun carcass who has never cared about a sentient being...
Trump is about the ceremonial and pomp, so awards ceremonies and his pomposity overrule advise and consent when cconsidering federal recognition of the arts. Because for Trump, there should be no federal support, for even the martial arts even as his visit to the UFC match at MSG cost the taxpayers...
All of the reporting on Ukraine-gate deliberately discusses the held up military aid in terms of dollars, specifically $391 million – and reports the story in terms of holding up “funds” for Ukraine (or in one misleading example that I read: Ukraine was left “checking to see if the money had...
According to a new report prepared by the US Army and, commissioned by the Pentagon, found that the next couple of decades will be so chaotic due to a warming climate that we will be unable to adapt in time. Our inability to change will be the result of years...
