Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

The words do not have to be perfect.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

I really should read my own blog.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

No one could have predicted…

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

Tick tock motherfuckers!

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

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Putin’s War Open Thread: Graphic Takes

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Graphic Takes - STOCKPILE

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Putin's War Open Thread: Graphic Takes

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122Comments

  3. 3.

    bbleh

    @burnspbesq:  Yes. I occasionally think, “what would Trump do in this situation?” And then I realize that Putin is both smarter and less cowardly than Trump…

  6. 6.

    SpaceUnit

    FWIW, the Ukrainians are fighting the smarter fight.  I heard they managed to erect a toll gate in advance of the approaching convoy.    The tanks had to send somebody all the way back to Russia for a shitload of dimes.

  9. 9.

    dmsilev

    Trump saying that Putin has changed, the guy he knew would never do such a thing, blah blah blah is his usual blather for the most part, but it’s telling. One of the manifestations of  Trump’s sociopathy is that he seems to have an instinct about when is the right time to backstab a former ally who is now a liability. If even he thinks is on the ropes…

  10. 10.

    E.

    My God if that speech is accurately translated . . . . This man is much worse than I thought, and Russia is in for civil war. “Self purification of our nation”? By “spitting out” the “traitors and scum” and supporters of “gender freedom” onto the sidewalk??? Holy shite.

  12. 12.

    bbleh

    @SpaceUnit: … and the really clever part was, because of currency and banking restrictions, the Russians couldn’t get any dimes!

    Also, they had one of those Turnpike toll-ladies at the booth, and you do NOT fk with them …

  15. 15.

    Calouste

    British Ministry of Defence says that Russia has spend more of their modern weapons than they expected, and they now have to use the older stuff. Less precise, less effective, and according to the MoD more likely to cause civilian casualties, but as the Russians have been explicitly targeting civilians, that might not be the case.

  17. 17.

    PJ

    Don’t count Putin out – if he survives this war and its aftermath (and, right now, I’d put that at 50/50), look for him to be the keynote speaker at the next CPAC meeting.

  23. 23.

    David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch

    A fourth Russian general has reportedly been killed in the war in Ukraine, dealing the Kremlin yet another blow to the top ranks of its armed forces.

    Maj. Gen. Oleg Mityaev was killed on Tuesday during a battle in Mariupol, according to Ukrainian Interior Ministry adviser Anton Gerashchenko, who posted a graphic photo on social media purportedly of the dead general.

    These high value targets being canceled can only only mean Carrie Mathison is on the ground.

  28. 28.

    Mokum

    @E.: I know. The Gulag will be opening up the coming weeks. Yesterday people asked for books to understand Russia. You can do worse than read Solzhenitsyn.

  32. 32.

    David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch

    Putin railing against russians living overseas in “mansions” eating “foie gras” selling out the motherland to party with the “higher caste” sounds like he’s freaking out over complaints he’s receiving from oligarchs.

  36. 36.

    Gvg

    @different-church-lady: apparently Russians tend to think in conspiracy theory, which made it easy to lead our kooks off the deeper end, but they weren’t faking it and maybe even brought back some of our stupider crackpot ideas.  Both sides are infected.

  37. 37.

    Kalakal

    @dmsilev: If Putin thinks Trump is backstabbing him it will not go well for the Mango Mussolini.

    I would love to see an ‘accidental’ release  of Putrid’s files on Drumpf. I’m sure Putin would never resort to violent means of revenge

  39. 39.

    West of the Rockies

    I don’t understand why some cartoons show Putin as slim.  He is a moon-faced, thick little goblin.

  42. 42.

    Suzanne

    @burnspbesq:

    I wonder what the succession plan is if he should pop a brain aneurysm.

     
    What are the odds that Queen Elizabeth survives him?

  45. 45.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @bbleh: They have faster lanes with one of those baskets, but did you ever try to hit one of those little baskets from the top of a tank?

    Convoy gets hung up for hours as people search through the snow for the coins that missed.

  47. 47.

    SpaceUnit

    Also, to hell with unity.  Dems need to tie this Russian shitshow around the Republican Party’s neck and strangle it to death.

    Trump’s cozy, off-the-record meeting with Putin.  All those Russian wise guys hanging around Trump and Rudy G.  That Fourth of July trip to Moscow by a contingent of Republican office-holders.  Russian influence in the NRA.  Withholding Military aid to Ukraine for political leverage.  Etc., etc.

    Screw unity.

  48. 48.

    Sebastian

    If I am assessing the situation correctly (FWIW), then we are going to see dramatic results in a very short time.

     

    The Russians are out of smart ordinance, they stated so themselves in the missile-silo-retreat where Putin and the siloviki spoke about not having enough missiles and that manufacturing would take 3-6 months (if they get the raw materials, something which is in question now).

    The Russians are stuck in the mud, without supplies, morale is shit. They have Chechens shooting deserters. Urban combat is a pipe dream as they don’t have enough troops to conquer any of the large cities.

    They are very successful in rolling over villages and small towns in the South and East because their supply lines are short and villages are hard to defend, unlike a dense urban environment.

    They are currently bombing the shit out of several cities, besieging them as the Serbs did in Croatia and Bosnia or the Russians in Grozny and Aleppo. Once everyone in the city is dead from shelling, freezing, thirst, hunger, and disease, the Russians will march in and execute everyone and declare victory.

    Here is the problem for the Russians:

    US High Tech Weaponry. Those Switchblade drones, of which we are officially shipping one hundred, are super nasty for artillery. You sneak up on the fuckers, let the drone loose, the drone makes a beeline to the ammo dumps. KABLOOWEY! If you think it will be only a hundred of those drones I have a bridge to sell you.

    I believe we’ll see a significant decrease in Russian artillery capability real soon. There will be a lot of dead Russian and Chechen officers and generals and support staff for the same reason. Soon thereafter we will see counteroffensives which will be surprising and astonishing in their velocity. It is likely that Ukrainian forces will gain a myth of Blitzkrieg capabilities. The reason I believe that is because Croatia pulled off the same thing under similar circumstances.

  53. 53.

    White & Gold Purgatorian

    @West of the Rockies:  Putin’s face used to be a lot thinner and it seems odd how much broader it is now at brow and cheeks. The rest of him used to be slimmer as well, but it isn’t odd to put on a few pounds over the years. The facial changes … I don’t know. Looks like the guy hasn’t been living right to me.

  55. 55.

    Kalakal

    @Sebastian:Those  long stalled convoys are within a hairs breadth of converting into pre-assembled lines of POWS. They’ve been stuck and on minimal supplies for at least a week while being whittled down by constant harrassment. Their morale must be non existant

  59. 59.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Sebastian: the Brits are sending their version of the switchblades, and Barry McCaffrey on MSNBC the other day said that France and Australia have some very impressive technology

  64. 64.

    Suzanne

    @SpaceUnit:

    Also, to hell with unity.  Dems need to tie this Russian shitshow around the Republican Party’s neck and strangle it to death. 

    100%.
    God, being a Trump Republican has got to be just humiliating. That complete moron, that used-car salesman, that game-show host… has completely shredded that last credibility you might have had. He tweeted about wanting a war criminal to be his best friend. The war criminal wanted him to be in office. He shook down the president of Ukraine, who has turned out to be a generational hero, for a cheap political favor. God. I can’t imagine how embarrassed I’d feel, for everyone to know that I had such terrible judgment.

  65. 65.

    dmsilev

    @Kalakal: From FTNYT, As Russian Troop Deaths Climb, Morale Becomes an Issue, Officials Say

    Hell of an opening paragraph:

    In 36 days of fighting on Iwo Jima during World War II, nearly 7,000 Marines were killed. Now, 20 days after President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia invaded Ukraine, his military has already lost more soldiers, according to American intelligence estimates. The conservative side of the estimate, at more than 7,000 Russian troop deaths, is greater than the number of American troops killed over 20 years in Iraq and Afghanistan combined.

    Pentagon officials say that a high, and rising, number of war dead can destroy the will to continue fighting. The result, they say, has shown up in intelligence reports that senior officials in the Biden administration read every day: One recent report focused on low morale among Russian troops and described soldiers just parking their vehicles and walking off into the woods.
    The American officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters, caution that their numbers of Russian troop deaths are inexact, compiled through analysis of the news media, Ukrainian figures (which tend to be high, with the latest at 13,500), Russian figures (which tend to be low, with the latest at 498), satellite imagery and careful perusal of video images of Russian tanks and troops that come under fire.

  66. 66.

    CaseyL

    @Gin & Tonic: I figured it was some kind of steroid.  That doesn’t narrow down what might be ailing him, though: steroids are magical drugs that work well against all sorts of things… as long as  you don’t mind your face puffing up and your bones melting.

  68. 68.

    White & Gold Purgatorian

    I just watched the subtitled speech by Putin and it reads to me like he’s declaring war on the oligarchy, preparing to blame those with a villa in Miami, etc. for Russia’s impending failure in his war.  Maybe also a shot across the bow should any of them be considering arranging a little accident …

  69. 69.

    Splitting Image

    @Sebastian:

    If I am assessing the situation correctly (FWIW), then we are going to see dramatic results in a very short time.

    I think that “Slowly, then very suddenly” is baked into the pie at this point. The only variables are how long it will be before we hit the “Suddenly” stage and how many people are killed before that happens.

    I go back and forth between optimism and pessimism on this.

  70. 70.

    Keith P.

    @SpaceUnit:  That Fourth of July trip to Moscow by a contingent of Republican office-holders.

    How in THE FUCK did this not end up being made into a bigger deal?  Just the optics alone (on the 4th of July?!??!!  Nothing going on stateside?  With constituents?)

  72. 72.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Sebastian: And blowing up ammo is a good way to put artillery of commission.  You don’t have to destroy the guns, just deny them the ability to shoot.

  73. 73.

    Calouste

    @Sebastian: I’ve been wondering about those Russian generals that have been killed. Were they taken out by snipers, who presumably after they got their shot in got the hell out of dodge? Or were they taken out by drones or missiles, with presumably some of their staff as additional casualties? The latter makes it harder to keep the whole division running.

  74. 74.

    opiejeanne

    @White & Gold Purgatorian: If he’s been on steroids for any reason, that could explain the moon-face. A friend who was being treated for cancer in the 1980s was put on steroids because the drugs were so hard on her, so that she could stand to eat. Now, I don’t know if that is a treatment that has been dropped since then, but someone mentioned today that Putin has cancer.

    The shaking makes me think he’s got Parkinson’s.

  75. 75.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Cameron:

    I believe I can help.

    I am the very model of a modern Major-General
    I’ve information vegetable, animal, and mineral
    I know the kings of England, and I quote the fights historical
    From Marathon to Waterloo, in order categorical
    I’m very well acquainted, too, with matters
    mathematical
    I understand equations, both the simple and quadratical
    About binomial theorem I’m teeming with a lot o’ news
    With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse
    With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse
    With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse
    With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotepoteneuse
    I’m very good at integral and differential calculus
    I know the scientific names of beings animalculous
    In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral
    I am the very model of a modern Major-General
    In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral
    He is the very model of a modern Major-General

    I know our mythic history, King Arthur’s and Sir Caradoc’s
    I answer hard acrostics, I’ve a pretty taste for paradox
    I quote in elegiacs all the crimes of Heliogabalus
    In conics I can floor peculiarities parabolous
    I can tell undoubted Raphaels from Gerard Dows and Zoffanies
    I know the croaking chorus from the Frogs of
    Aristophanes
    Then I can hum a fugue of which I’ve heard the music’s din afore
    And whistle all the airs from that infernal nonsense Pinafore
    And whistle all the airs from that infernal nonsense Pinafore
    And whistle all the airs from that infernal nonsense Pinafore
    And whistle all the airs from that infernal nonsense Pinapinafore
    Then I can write a washing bill in Babylonic cuneiform
    And tell you ev’ry detail of Caractacus’s uniform
    In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral
    I am the very model of a modern Major-General
    In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral
    He is the very model of a modern Major-General

    In fact, when I know what is meant by “mamelon” and “ravelin”
    When I can tell at sight a Mauser rifle from a javelin
    When such affairs as sorties and surprises I’m more wary at
    And when I know precisely what is meant by
    “Commissariat”
    When I have learnt what progress has been made in modern gunnery
    When I know more of tactics than a novice in a nunnery
    In short, when I’ve a smattering of elemental strategy
    You’ll say a better Major-General had never sat a gee
    You’ll say a better Major-General had never sat a gee
    You’ll say a better Major-General had never sat a gee
    You’ll say a better Major-General had never sat a sat a gee
    For my military knowledge, though I’m plucky and adventury
    Has only been brought down to the beginning of the century
    But still, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral
    I am the very model of a modern Major-General
    But still, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral
    He is the very model of a modern Major-General

    I love G&S parodies! Can’t wait to see yours!

  80. 80.

    bbleh

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: Plus, a clever Ukrainian psy-ops operation convinced enough Russians that a 5-kopeck coin was close enough to a dime to fool the machines, but not!

    And then the toll-lady comes out, and oh boy …

  82. 82.

    realbtl

    One of the side effects of prednisone is reduced immunity.  Might explain the huge table.

  83. 83.

    Gin & Tonic

    @SiubhanDuinne: I knew you’d come through (sorry, was away for a bit reading this WSJ article about Russians getting their asses kicked in a small town in the south.)

    Key graf:

    “Everyone is united against the common enemy,” said Voznesensk’s 32-year-old mayor, Yevheni Velichko, a former real-estate developer turned wartime commander, who, like other local officials, moves around with a gun. “We are defending our own land. We are at home.”

  85. 85.

    cain

    @SpaceUnit: For some reason, I keep thinking this would be the kind of jokes that Zelensky would say on late night TV or hosting Saturday Night Live.

  86. 86.

    White & Gold Purgatorian

    @opiejeanne:  Well, he’s clearly not right. Steroids are used to treat a lot of conditions, but they generally are not a cure for anything, and as others have pointed out, the long term side effects are pretty bad. About 35 years ago one of our cats was very sick. The vet, who admitted not knowing the root cause of his illness, gave him steroids. He said this wouldn’t cure him, but would make him think he was better. And it seemed to, up until he suddenly died.

    Edited to add: The cat died from sudden GI bleeding which, it turns out, is a not unusual side effect of prednisone.

  87. 87.

    Gin & Tonic

    This is important to remember. The bomb on the theater in Mariupol, where women and children were hiding, was dropped not by Putin himself, but by an ordinary Russian. Ordinary Russian who knew that the order was criminal and still did it.#RussianWarCrimes— Oleksandra Matviichuk (@avalaina) March 16, 2022

    The word “children,” in Russian, was written in large white letters on the ground both in front of and behind the theater.

  89. 89.

    sanjeevs

    @White & Gold Purgatorian: I thought Putin was attacking the oligarchs too.

    Kamil Galeev had previously mentioned that Russian purges are sometimes driven by economic reversals. Instead of rightsizing, they purge.

  90. 90.

    West of the Rockies

    @Suzanne:

    I earnestly believe that Democrats have the ability to be embarrassed and the ability to turn on their own (John Edwards, for instance).

    I don’t think Republicans are built the same way.  The biggest lot of them double, triple, quadruple down, deny, lie, sputter whataboutisms, and carry on the collective circle jerk.

  92. 92.

    Ms. Deranged in AZ

    Way back in college in the late ’80s I was in Army ROTC and it was assumed that the next war we fought would be against the  Russians.They emphasized that the best way to defeat the Russian army was to take out their officers. The thinking was that they did not prepare their soldiers to think creatively and adjust to circumstances as well as American soldiers, and the military culture did not reward soldiers who took initiative.   They also did not cross train to the degree that we did.  So if you take out their officers it weakened them, whereas with American troops if you take out an officer they simply adjust taking on the officer’s duties.   Looks like the ukrainians were paying attention, but of course they would have been since they knew there was a high probability they would face the Russian army someday. I never actively served, but those lessons are coming back me to now.

  93. 93.

    Cameron

    @Gin & Tonic: Absolutely.  Putin may be directing traffic, but he’s not on the scene ordering these horrors.  If Fortune smiles (which it usually doesn’t), there will be a very full docket in the Hague for years to come.

  97. 97.

    White & Gold Purgatorian

    @Gin & Tonic:

    The word “children,” in Russian, was written in large white letters on the ground both in front of and behind the theater.

    This was pointed out on the evening news. Unconscionable. And the “poor targeting ability” excuse for hitting all these civilian targets is just not credible day after day. It is deliberate murder and Biden was right to call Putin a war criminal. His reputation can never be cleansed of this blood.

  98. 98.

    Kalakal

     

    @Gin & Tonic:  I’ll bet she’s right. Moon face is the classic symptom of long term prednisone use. One of the common conditions people are put on it for is Irritable Bowel Disease.

    Irritatable Bowel is a good description of Putin

  100. 100.

    NotMax

    OT.

    Noting the death at just shy of 85 of Bernie Nussbaum (WaPo link – NYT link). Senior counsel to the House Judiciary Committee investigating Watergate, later brought back from private practice to be White House counsel for Clinton.

    Knew him personally, not professionally. One tough cookie. Controversial but never less than meticulous and honorable.

  101. 101.

    Jeffro

    @E.: why it almost sounds familiar, from a domestic perspective, doesn’t it?

    This country needs a primer in Fascism 101, stat.

  103. 103.

    Jeffro

    @Kalakal:I would love to see an ‘accidental’ release  of Putrid’s files on Drumpf.

    I can see the next speech including a line or three about having previously owned an American president*.  I’m here for that  ;)

  105. 105.

    Jeffro

    @SpaceUnit:

    to hell with unity.  Dems need to tie this Russian shitshow around the Republican Party’s neck and strangle it to death.

    Trump’s cozy, off-the-record meeting with Putin.  All those Russian wise guys hanging around Trump and Rudy G.  That Fourth of July trip to Moscow by a contingent of Republican office-holders.  Russian influence in the NRA.  Withholding Military aid to Ukraine for political leverage.  Etc., etc.

    Screw unity.

    I am seriously, SERIOUSLY, hoping that this is in the cards.  Every GOP Senator who voted to acquit trumpov the first time, when he tried to extort Zelenskyy’s support for fabricated anti-Biden investigations in exchange for taxpayer-paid-for and Congress-approved defensive weaponry?  STFU.  Beat them absolutely to electoral death with it.

  106. 106.

    NotMax

    @NotMax

    Report from Mom (who attended the funeral today) that she ended up seated next to, of all people, George Conway.

  110. 110.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @NotMax: huh… does that put you within six degrees of separation from The Beast itself?

    You, Mother NotMax, Conway, his awful wife…

  115. 115.

    SpaceUnit

    @J R in WV:

    In 2018 a group of eight Republican senators and congressional reps inexplicably flew to Russia on July 4th, hoping to meet with Putin in Moscow.  They were unable to meet with the Russian president (supposedly) but spent a good deal of time posing for photographs with other top Russian officials.  They were:

    Richard Shelby – AL

    Steve Daines – MT

    John Hoeven – ND

    John Kennedy – LA

    Jerry Moran – KS

    John Thune – SD

    Ron Johnson – WS

    Kay Granger – TX

    Draw what conclusions you will.  Our corporate media mostly yawned.  My own guess is that they were groveling for Kremlin support and favor, auditioning to be the next Trump.

  117. 117.

    Bill Arnold

    @burnspbesq: ​

    I wonder what the succession plan is if he should pop a brain aneurysm.

    “Heart attack” is more traditional in Russia.
    (The US uses insanity. It is said. :-)
    Oh, that was a question. No clue. Whoever it would be could make a big political career of cleaning house, though. A botched war that seriously damages Russia might focus them on internal Russian cleanup.

  118. 118.

    opiejeanne

    @White & Gold Purgatorian: Oh God,  poor kitty.

    I finished up a 5 day prescription of Prednisone last week for temporal arteritis, and inflamed artery in my temple. 5 days was brutal for my blood sugar levels, so the doc had me take metformin for a couple of days, which got my blood sugar under control and made me terribly sick.

    I hope I never have to take that stuff again.

  119. 119.

    NotMax

    @zhena gogolia

    Have told it before here: the tale of the anonymous lady and Watergate.

    Bernie was dispatched to NYC by the committee to retrieve relevant financial records. Which were on reels of computer tape.

    On returning to the airport later that same night, discovered the luggage they’d been packed in (presumably by the bank) was too large to be accepted as carry on, and he wasn’t about to let the data out of his sight for so much as one second.

    Airport shops closed; what to do, what to do?

    Bernie spotted a bag lady and asked if she’d be willing to sell him one of her bags. Slipped her some bills (and, IIRC, the bank’s valise), manged to stuff the computer reels into the shopping bag and carried it onto the plane.

  122. 122.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @SpaceUnit: Chuck Todd won’t like it but fuck him.

    We need Choke Toad in the past tense: Choked Toad. Preferably live on camera. Classic example of a numnutz who parlayed marginal competence in one area (voting data analysis) into a career as Mr Knowitfuckingall…

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