Ukraine's ambassador to Japan is really something else pic.twitter.com/7h6aAOUUlv
— Oryx (@oryxspioenkop) August 31, 2022
MMRLG = Massive Multiplayer Real-World Game
Russians now urgently looking for that February save game file they had there somewhere
— Wedge Fellales (@Vuukowski) September 10, 2022
I do not think even system restore would help…
Clean install may be the only option if you know what I mean ??— Wojciech Pilecki (@pileckiwojciech) September 10, 2022
— volo ?????????????? (@volostrom) September 10, 2022
I can't stop laughing at the fact that one day before the launch of the most successful Ukrainian counter offensive since the battle for Kyiv Tucker Carlson did a segment talking about how Russia is winning and its inevitable that Ukraine loses the war pic.twitter.com/OR3MjnO7KH
— Dylan Burns ?????????????? (@DylanBurns1776) September 9, 2022
Russia must stop supplying weapons to Ukraine. They're only prolonging the conflict.
— Bucktron ?? he/him (@bucktron2021) September 10, 2022
I hope the war ends with a diplomatic settlement as soon as possible with as little loss of life and human suffering as possible and i call upon the Russians to surrender immediately to make that happen
— your himbo boyfriend (@swolecialism) September 10, 2022
Serendipitous global benefit:
Use of Wagner Group in Ukraine is wearing down Russian mercenary force
— Mike Walker (@New_Narrative) September 12, 2022
To all you guys coping hard out there rest assured that, if he were in Ukraine, Erik Prince would be on your side. Especially if you offered 10 kilos hidden in a shipment of purity rings and an expense-paid weekend in Macau. https://t.co/mbMBzoHmdQ
— zeddy (@Zeddary) September 12, 2022
HumboldtBlue
Slava Ukraini
trollhattan
Eagerly awaiting unveiling of design for “Is Now Winning Second Place–Special Operation for Not-Ukraine, 2022” medal for awarding to all involved.
Just a little hair-mussing, then back to work running the kleptocracy.
NotMax
How much longer before Dolt 45 claims he was knighted by Putin?
//
SixStringFanatic
@NotMax: Probably won’t happen now. He likes dictators who DON’T lose special operations.
Citizen Alan
Off topic, but just now, I was about to start freaking out because everything on my browser looked wrong and freaky. And then, I finally noticed that I had somehow opened fucking Edge instead of Chrome but didn’t notice because Edge had imported all my bookmarks. Sigh.
oatler
@Citizen Alan:
I did that too with Edge, and it was like it was waiting for me, adware red-hot and eager to serve…
Dangerman
@SixStringFanatic: To Putin: “Might as well face it, you’re a dictator who lost.”
/kinda Robert Palmer
ETA: Simply Detestable on the B side.
sab
@Citizen Alan: There are more reasons than technological incompetence that I am a luddite.
sab
@sab:Why the phuck would I want my phone, my tablet and my computer talking to each other? I try to compartmentalize, so that one mistake doesn’t blow up everything. Am I naive?
Brachiator
I still don’t understand why a right wing doofus like Tucker Carlson is backing Russia. More to the point, I don’t understand why Rupert Murdoch and his family or whoever, is backing Russia.
I also don’t understand how supposedly patriotic Americans can watch various Fox hosts root for other countries over the USA.
And the theory that American wing nuts see Putin as some savior of Christianity does not work. The religious zeal of the average MAGA fool is barely detectable with even the most sensitive equipment.
Fox News executives also think this kind of crap will help Republicans and hurt Democrats. Again, this just looks stupid to me.
Very darkly droll.
HumboldtBlue
@Citizen Alan:
See? This why I still use Netscape Navigator.
sab
@HumboldtBlue: When dinosaurs walked the earth my ailanthus tree was not unpopular//.
oatler
@HumboldtBlue:
And Alta Vista?
sab
@oatler: I liked Alta Vista. No algorithms at all.
HumboldtBlue
@sab: @oatler:
Wait’ll I resurrect MySpace
sab
@HumboldtBlue: That is different, since strong whiff of Murdoch.
sab
Fun times here tonight. Six weeks after husband’s back surgery, and he shrieks in pain everytime he rolls over or even moves.
So 4 am and I just heard him yell. He wakes himself up. Understandably, I am in the guestroom with the cats. We are all stressed. Dutiful pitbull is trying to sleep on his floor.
8 am is the “wellness check” which I call the ” welfare check” just to piss him off. What if I lose custody? Dark humor.
ColoradoGuy
My take is that Murdoch has been steadily working to undermine democracy in ALL the English-speaking countries for decades. You look at what’s he’s actually done in Australia, the UK, and the US, it’s the wet dream of the KGB … sponsoring oligarchs, sowing confusion and hatred, pushing Brexit and the extreme far right, all with the net result that strong, wealthy societies are internally weakened and divided.
Well, who benefits most of when this happens? I would submit that things are exactly as they appear: China and Russia benefit the most when the Five Eyes alliance is splintered with decades-long disinformation campaigns. Realistically, Murdoch is a far more potent propagandist than the Chinese or Russian intel agencies, yet they are the two countries that benefit the most from his activities. If it quacks like a duck …
sab
@sab: We were hoping to lose the PICC line ( central line for meds) this week because they promised. Why would they promise when his white cell count is above 13? Hopes unjustifiably up and then crashing downdown is somehow helpful?
I come from a medical family, but pathology. More realistic outlook.
Steeplejack
@sab:
Yikes. Sorry to hear you’re going through that. “Nursing” a patient is not like it’s portrayed in 19th-century novels.
sab
@Steeplejack: He is going through more than I am. And the cats are beside themselves. Who knew that they even cared?
ETA He is in so much pain he doesn’t even know how much better he is. Six weeks ago he could barely stand up. He tripped on a twig in the driveway using a walker. Today he mostly just used his cane. We had a car ride with the pitbull in back.
But nighttime sucks.
sab
@Steeplejack: We twenty first century people just don’t have the imagination or experience to fill in the blanks that they took for granted.
sab
Pitbull just dozed off. Yay! Concerned busybody.
Steeplejack
@sab:
In my experience, cats (and dogs) are very sensitive to the house vibe, even if their demeanor is “I really don’t care do u?”
Is your husband getting some good pain meds?
Amir Khalid
@Brachiator:
I see two things at work here. One thing is that Trumpism is pro-Putin because of Trump himself. The other thing might be as simple as the operation of Cleek’s law: Democrats and the Democratic Biden Administration support Ukraine, so …
Steeplejack
@sab:
After I wrote that I thought, Nobody ever takes a dump in a 19th-century novel, or even empties a chamber pot. All that icky stuff happens off screen, handled by invisible minions.
Steeplejack
@sab:
Pitbull realizes what a good family he(?) lucked into after previous chaotic existence.
I have a special feeling for crazy cat Dobby. How is he(?) doing?
sab
@Steeplejack: Yes, but he is very reluctant to take. His kid, my stepson was a heroin addict, now recovering. We are terrified of pain meds.
sab
@Steeplejack: You wouldn’t even recognize Dobby. He is a silly little snuggly love bug, except when he loses his temper and bites me. He still has trust boundaries, but mostly he is a goofy house cat. But still a handsome little guy. He is lucky he is so pretty.
Steeplejack
@sab:
Bummer.
I am up because I allowed myself to doze off about 9:00 and then (of course) popped wide awake about 2:00. Been catching up on the news and now the rerun of Rachel Maddow’s program. Talking with former U.S. attorney Geoffrey Berman, whose book comes out today (Tuesday). Reaming Bill Barr for his pro-Trump interference in multiple DOJ investigations.
Steeplejack
@sab:
Also lucky that he, too, found a good home. You have been a lifesaver for him and the pitbull.
sab
@Steeplejack: Pitbull is a she. Ponyo, named after an anime character who was a goldfish that wanted to be a little girl.
Our weekly nurse who does blood draws finally met Ponyo today because I didn’t lock her up fast enough. With pitbulls you never know the reception. Turns out this Ohio nurse likes pitbulls because she has one, and also recognizes Ponyo’s name as an anime character because her late husband was Japanese. Ohio is more in touch with the rest of the world than I realized.
bjacques
NATO assistance may stop at the Russian border, but NAFO goes where it will. Russia had the Little Green Men, now caught between righteously angry Ukrainians and RF border guards laughing at their useless Russian passports. Ukraine has the Little Fellas, doubtless making stuff outside the country go ka-BLAANNNGGG! FOOSSSHH!! WHRAM-M-M! and making other 1970s DC War comics noises.
Little Fellas are this century’s Gremlins from (not) the Kremlin.
@sab:healing vibes from across the ocean, and psychic recovery to you both after the physical recovery.
Mokum
@sab: Miyazaki is a genius.
sab
@Mokum: Yes indeed.
sab
@bjacques: I realize our problems are microscopic compared to others’.
Steeplejack
@sab:
Ponyo is great! Hayao Miyazaki. Recently got my brother and his kids to watch that and most of Miyazaki’s other films.
Aussie Sheila
@ColoradoGuy:
Murdoch is a nihilist. He is the single biggest threat to English speaking democracies to date. Bigger threat than Putin. He is hated here in OZ by all people that voted to oust the Morrison government in May. That means a majority. While the ALP government won’t make an overt move against him (too scared of his media reach), Murdoch made a dangerous enemy in Malcolm Turnbull, a previous conservative PM that was ousted with Murdoch’s support.
Murdoch is old now, but his son Lachlan needs to be tracked and traced to the ends of the earth. I can only say sorry to the world that the old bastard once was Australian, but what was the excuse of the US to give him citizenship? One thing though, having taken on another citizenship, he is not immune to local laws regarding national legal restrictions on foreign ownership of Oz media outlets.
we live in hope.
lowtechcyclist
I found this Ukraine-related video rather funny. (It’s short, too.)
Soprano2
@sab: That sounds awful, you both have my sympathy. This is why I do everything I can to avoid the back surgeon. I’m afraid of pain meds too, and I don’t have an addict in my family, but I think I’d try them if I woke up yelling in pain every time I rolled over.
Geo Wilcox
@ColoradoGuy: AND who was Murdoch married to before Jerry? Wendy, the Chinese spy.
prostratedragon
Hey, I just got Balloon Juice to load in lynx!
Central Planning
MMRWG = Massive Multiplayer Right Wing Grift
Searcher
@Amir Khalid: Putin/Putin’s Russia hates the right people, doesn’t hurt too. The gays, the womens, the Muslims, the Darwinists, the journalists, etc etc.
There’s nothing like your eyes meeting across the body of a hippie you’re kicking for that love connection.
prostratedragon
Uncle Cosmo
Who benefits are the oligarchs. The bastards with more money than God. They’re fighting – actually paying others to fight – for their well-funded extraterritoriality: A world where they can go wherever they want and do whatever they want whenever they want with no consequences, payong no taxes to any government ever but hitting up the government treasury (filled with the taxes of the powerless) as their own private ATM whenever they need a few millions for pocket change.
To the BOTU (Bazillionaires/Bastards of the Universe) Putin is just the biggest oligarch of all, crappo di tutti crappi, and he’s doing the work of their Lord Mammon by destroying liberal democracy wherever it still rules. The fact that he’s an oligarch with thermonuclear weapons and death squads that would be turned on them in a heartbeat escapes them. Wouldn’t escape them for long if he & they “win.” Our mostly-thankless task is to ensure that doesn’t happen.
Tony G
@Brachiator: I think that American Putin backers (both on the right and on the “left”) are being paid by the Russian government. I think that it’s really just that simple. And I think that Tucker’s legion of fans are just really stupid people who are incapable of thinking for themselves (and who couldn’t find Russia — let alone Ukraine — on a map). It really might be just that simple.
Baud
@Tony G:
Tucker’s fans are in it for the white supremacy. I don’t think they could care less about Russia or Ukraine or Tucker’s views on that outside the context of furthering white supremacy.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@sab: Six weeks is a long time. Sympathy to all involved.
Do you need to be able to hear him? Would ear plugs help?
SFAW
Re: Murdoch: I used to say that Traitor Turtle/Moscow Mitch was the person most responsible for the destruction of American democracy, but at some point years ago, I realized (later than I shoulda, I guess) that Rupert was/is a much greater threat. The only question is whether he was (intentionally) using Oz and Blighty as practice before he went after America, or if he tried it in those places, then said “Hey, maybe I can do this in the biggest market of all!” and then set his sights on ‘Murica.
It’s not a question where I really care about the answer, because he’s now succeeded in America, and our lives are so much worse because of him.
prostratedragon
Guardian article this morning about UK Foreign Office fake news operations against worldwide activists such as Stokely Carmichael (a Commonwealth citizen by birth). The quotation at the end might remind one of another country today:
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Amir Khalid: Faux was fluffing Putin as the manly alternative to Obama more than a decade ago. It’s weird…my guess is the Russians started throwing money at Murdoch and he’s not a guy whose ever passed up an opportunity to make a buck. Then Faux realized that their viewership responded favorably to the Putin fluffing at Obama’s expense (probably it was a version of “owning the libs”) and it just fed on itself.
It’ll be interesting to see what happens as Putin’s glorious invasion fails and the $ dries up.
Baud
Berman is throwing Barr under the bus. Barr is going to need another rehabilitation tour.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Wheels on the bus go round and round…
marklar
@Brachiator: “The religious zeal of the average MAGA fool is barely detectable with even the most sensitive equipment.”
Perhaps. However, MAGA-mind can conflate all the various components (racism, sexism, Christianism, toxic masculinity, etc.) such that boosting one works to augment the others. Supporting Putin and opposing the Biden administration (and NATO by proxy) stokes their religious fervor.
Chief Oshkosh
@oatler: Best search engine eva!
NotMax
@Chief Oshkosh
Dogpile was pretty damn good, also too.
Lapassionara
@sab: it is important for the healing process for him to get pain relief. Explore all options. Many people take low doses of a pain med for short term pain relief without becoming addicted.
Matt McIrvin
@Brachiator:
“Christianity” is a proxy for white supremacy and toxic masculinity here. That’s what it means when right-wingers start banging on about it. The Russians are categorized as white and make a big deal about hating brown people and gays and sissies and supporting traditional gender roles.
They thought the Russian army would crush everything because the Russian army’s recruitment videos looked super duper macho and fashy. No soy boys or unisex toilets for them! etc. etc. etc.
That’s without even considering who might be getting paid. Putin started getting his hooks in the American right during the Obama years.
On the “left” I think it started during the GWB years. RT and such positioned themselves as the thinking person’s alternative to the warmongering Washington foreign-policy blob, trading on vague Soviet nostalgia. You’d have to be pretty unaware to think that’s still the case but some people are.
Geminid
@marklar: In my state (Virginia) the more secular tea party cranks have made common cause with the politicized bible thumpers. It’s an alliance with some internal contradictions. The two factions are united, though, in their animus towards the Democrats and more immediately, the RINO establishment.
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
Truth is General Biden has done an incredible job in leading international resistance. Dare I say: its FDR with Lend Lease and Truman with Berlin Airlift.
Ohio Mom
Being in pain prolongs healing and recovery. But I get the reluctance to take any of the stronger stuff. Too bad the doctors don’t have any alternatives to offer. You can see why years ago they jumped at OxyContin’s deceptive sales pitch.
On another note, all I can think of Tucker’s puzzled-look act is that his audience finds it reassuring. They are addled and confused and find it comforting to think Tucker is too. It’s not their shortcoming they can’t make sense of the world, even the sophisticated and worldly Tucker gets thrown for a loop.
Then he reasons himself out of his confusion out loud, they can follow that, and instant relief! The world makes sense again. Talk about falling for a sales pitch. And the relief brings its own kind of addiction.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Amir Khalid: A lot of the Fox viewership are hard right Christian Conservatives so that means they are Millianialists. In their eyes Russia is Gog and Magog from The Bible and has to conqueror most of Eurasia before God strikes them down as they attack Israel.
Tucker is doing Left Behind fan service.
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
If this was 1950, Fox and Fucker Carlson would be rooting for Mao and Stalin to crush and enslave the people of South Korea
Benno
@sab:
My straight-edge 1980s English teacher say no to this is your brain on drugs mother had back surgery this summer. Weed helped with the pain.
Baud
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
I didn’t know that. Thanks for the revelation.
Brachiator
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
I hear this a lot. Has any Fox News personality said anything like this on the air?
Has anyone documented any evangelical minister saying this in church? Or anywhere?
Why would Rupert Murdoch insist that this be part of the Fox News agenda?
Matt McIrvin
@Benno: After my knee surgery last year I was so wary of the oxycodone they gave me that I bought myself some unnecessary suffering–tried to avoid it only to realize that once the opioids they’d given me at the hospital wore off, I really needed to take one or two to get through the first couple of days. After that, the massive horse doses of ibuprofen and Tylenol were enough.
(Which reminds me, I finally found the drug-disposal bin at the CVS when I was over there to get my COVID booster and flu shot. I can dump some of this stuff I don’t want in my house.)
Paul in KY
@Brachiator: He backs Russia cause they pay him & also the idiots who watch his show have become pro-Putin, as they know how much he helped TFG back in 16.
Paul in KY
@sab: Jeez that sucks! Am so sorry for him. Is there any kind of pain med that would help?
Paul in KY
@sab: I think they were made for this kind of situation. They are a tool and should be used when necessary (like for terrible back pain).
Wapiti
@Brachiator: Russia = White Christian Supremacy?
I still can’t figure why Flynn and various other retired senior officers love them some Russia.
Jinchi
@Wapiti:
Well, in Flynn’s case, he’s been well paid by them.
Chris Johnson
@Brachiator: Same as others, I think he is paid by Russia, but I have an extra twist.
If you’re not plugged in to media business (like say newspapers) it most likely seems a mighty empire making shitloads of money for all. But back in the day, over ten years ago in fact, I was very into cartooning. I did a webcomic for 440 episodes, and was very plugged in to that scene JUST when it was doing a hard and acrimonious transition from comics being of newspapers, to comics being of the web/internet.
Media budgets and resources have been collapsing for DECADES. It’s all glitter over rotting particleboard out there. The first to go is the comics: the days when that was a living (or wealth machine, like for Charles Schulz) are long long gone. The surviving newspaper cartoonists lorded it over the webcomics people, insisting there was no money in webcomics, and webcomics folks got up in their grills saying listen buddy, there’s like three of you making a living and all the second string guys have to work day jobs.
THAT is the environment in which media exists, whether it is the New York Times or TV stations, now. It’s a very Trump-like facade of bluster and need to assert wealth and power, over a grinding poverty and rotting infrastructure, with the revenue streams drying up like rivers under climate change… TEN YEARS AGO. Twenty. This has been happening for a very long time.
And what do you get when you get people in a situation like this? MICE, an acronym by counterintelligence people in the DoD and elsewhere, standing for the things by which you can subvert and entrap people. Money, Ideology, Coercion, and Ego. Media is desperate for Money, and full of Ego, and delights in a sort of both-sides Ideology which lends itself to doing business with anybody ‘cos hey, nonpartisan! CAN’T be partisan if you’re media, so why not take money from someone flattering your ego and offering opportunity? And then if they spring the trap and say, you just took Russian mob money and were recorded doing this and we can not only hurt you, but get you in trouble with your government… then you literally have EVERY letter of MICE accounted for.
It’s really that simple. Media (especially archaic stuff like notable print media) is a perfect storm of getting compromised by the Russian mob, through money and ego and the desire to interact with all sides showing no partisanship.
The rest is simple extortion and how they play their fish/agents once they hook ’em. Not all have to be as brazen as Tucker Carlson: Tucker surely is ideological soulmates with his Russian masters and is working wholeheartedly as a traitor to the USA. Others get more subtle pressures, but it’s pervasive.
All down to once-great media empires being broke in the age of the Internet. I watched it happen, with a few little windows into how things really are.
Queen of Lurkers
@Steeplejack: Realism is not reality.
lowtechcyclist
@Brachiator:
This shit was in The Late Great Planet Earth which has been around for >50 years. And of course, the Left Behind novels solidly entrenched the whole “End Times are coming!” business at the core of fundagelical Christianity.
I’m out of touch with what they actually say from the pulpit nowadays, but my guess would be that they don’t need to preach on it more than occasionally, but casual references tying in the outrage du jour with End Times stuff would be part of many sermons. This stuff is deeply embedded in the culture at this point.
J R in WV
@sab:
My experience is that when you really hurt bad, pain meds don’t really get you high. So I take them as provided. RN friend said it can be important to stay ahead of the pain, take them as scheduled. I had to taper off my post op pain meds slowly.
On the other hand, I understand the fear, I had a good friend who went down the pain meds path, stole $1K cash from us before I knew he was hooked, eventually died of his addiction. Jim was such a handsome guy, great electrician. Sad.
Hard choices. Maybe just take them at bedtime, 2 am?