If you want to know how the Ukrainian offensives are going, the Russian general distress call has gone out to all fellow travelers. https://t.co/zKaKSI9auN
— Fred from Oleksandrivka (@LesserFrederick) October 3, 2022
A sign of Russian colonialism is that politicians and propagandists really did not understand that people in other countries are allowed to defend themselves when Russia invades.
— Timothy Snyder (@TimothyDSnyder) October 3, 2022
It’s fascinating that it seems to be mostly those who were saying in February that Russia was so strong that Ukraine should be sacrificed that are now saying that Ukraine can’t be made too strong to save poor Putin from humiliation
— Phillips P. OBrien (@PhillipsPOBrien) October 3, 2022
I think what it shows is that the realists have no understanding of war. First they made it sound easy; with the awesome Russian army streaking forward like in some video game and taking whatever they wanted. Now they act like it’s some tap you can turn off and on with Ukraine.
Doesn’t work like that. You can’t just dial it up and down easily. Tell me what support in particular you want to stop to slow Ukraine down?
Final thing on this. To show how difficult trying to control a war is, actually NATO aid has been sent in an attempt not to embarrass the Russians. There have been strict limits on the aid given (no advanced fixed wing or AFV, certain ammo limited) and a relatively
Small number of advanced systems such as HIMARS. The reality is that the Ukrainians have been better using their limited aid that most expected, and have humiliated the Russians regardless. This has not been full throttle support for Ukraine.
British expat, former Beijing resident, now living in DC:
a certain percentage of the 'Russia is going to use nukes any day now!' discourse is about Americans being upset the story isn't about them https://t.co/UYE2NCd17j
— James Palmer (@BeijingPalmer) October 4, 2022
also pundits are much happier discussing things that haven't happened because reality can't get in the way; they were more comfortable with the *possibility* of Ukraine invasion than with talking about the reality.
— James Palmer (@BeijingPalmer) October 4, 2022
unless and until ukraine signals that they believe there is a meaningful avenue for diplomacy worth pursuing, leftists — yes, leftists — need to shut the fuck up and sit down https://t.co/YoIAZs6j0G
— GONELIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachi) October 3, 2022
the denial on the left of ukrainian agency and sovereignty from the very beginning of the war has been unseemly and disgraceful from the jump
like, it is worth restating, again and again and for however long it takes, that russia’s intent from the beginning of the war has been the annihilation of ukraine as a country and a national identity. that he has so badly fucked up the execution at every turn doesn’t change that
it’s not savvy analysis to insist that ukraine should give up and submit because they are better at both throwing and taking punches than russia thought they would be
the ukrainians know better than anyone else in the world right now what this war will cost them, and what they should realistically expect from russia in a negotiation.
any person who refers to this war as a proxy war is lying to themselves about how this war started, why it started, how it is being conducted, and has nothing useful to contribute about how it will end
"If you don't let Russia do whatever it wants, you will bring down nuclear war upon us" is as tired a fellow traveler trope now as it was 60 years ago.
— Fred from Oleksandrivka (@LesserFrederick) October 4, 2022
The other Matrix twin joined NAFO https://t.co/MU8hRjOcMA
— zeddy (@Zeddary) September 30, 2022
twbrandt (formerly tom)
Y’all love to bigfoot each other, don’t you?
West of the Rockies
Whoever Will Chamberlain is, he’s an insufferable imbecile.
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
Yes it’s true, the Russian are committing unspeakable atrocities against women and children, but at least they’re not engaging in any barbaric acts like telephone metadata.
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
@West of the Rockies:
I think Will Chamberlain used to play basketball
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@West of the Rockies: only person I can find on-line is part of the Federalist Society, and a lot of people named “Did you mean Wilt Chamberlain?”
@David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch: or getting Goldman Sachs to give them money to say GS should have more diverse hiring and advancement policies
Poe Larity
Where are Vlad’s leftist Human Shields? Can we start a gofundme to ship them over?
Alison Rose 💙🌻💛
I made the very bad decision to read the thread from that Chamberlain douche and holy Lord. What an insufferable gasbag. And any time someone replied to him pointing out what an ignorant asshole he sounds like, he just doubles down. Also, at one point, @-ing the diplomat who told Musk to fuck off, he says “You’re the ones who got into a war you couldn’t win on your own, you don’t get to dictate terms to us.”
I have never wanted to kick someone in the nuts more than I do this guy right now.
Another Scott
IIRC, Obama tried to tell VVP that his foreign adventures in Syria weren’t going to end well. He could have learned a lesson there and not re-invaded Ukraine. But hubris is a hell of a drug.
TheSoufanCenter.org (from 9/28):
It’s not over in Syria, and it won’t be over in Ukraine until VVP’s troops leave. He really should be scoping out plans for a dash to Dubai for a cushy life in exile while he still can. Of course, he won’t, because that would be too sensible a thing to do.
Cheers,
Scott.
NotMax
Repeated from earlier today because this thread seems a better fit.
Underer than under the radar yet nonetheless a positive outcome. A vote of 139 – 25 is indisputably definitive.
Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine Is Thwarting Its International Internet Ambitions
dmsilev
A Twitter drama, in three acts:
Lindsey Graham of all people tries to explain to ElectroTwitRocket Guy that he’s full of shit re:Ukraine:
ETR G still thinks he’s the Smartest Guy Around:
Numerous people point out the numerous flaws in ETR G’s ‘logic’:
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@dmsilev: next time he’s cadging free golf and buffet food at Mar a Lago, he should talk to Sluggo
Gin & Tonic
@dmsilev: I don’t know why anyone responds to him with anything more than Andrij Melnyk’s words. It is like teaching a pig to sing.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
in other crazy-ass news:
A big manly pollster, like you’ve never seen, tears in his eyes, he said, Sir, you would lose like thirty states to Barack Obama……
Poe Larity
The blood of a 21st Century Brusilov Offensive is on our hands if we don’t stop Ukraine now.
dmsilev
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: So, that means that Biden/Harris would have defeated Washington/Lincoln by an even larger margin?
Man, Dark Brandon gets more impressive with each passing day.
phdesmond
@Poe Larity:
i just looked that up. thank you.
phdesmond
@Gin & Tonic:
looked up your phrase and got a very self-referential result:
https://www.google.com/search?q=%22Andrij+Melnyk%E2%80%99s+words%22&rlz=1C1WNOO_enUS979US980&oq=%22Andrij+Melnyk%E2%80%99s+words%22&aqs=chrome..69i57j33i160l2.7435j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
NotMax
OT.
How many RWNJ’s noses will be knocked out of joint at the audacity of TCM airing a movie titled The Gay Bride tomorrow? (N.B.: 1934 film.)
//
Martin
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Man, ‘back to normal’ is a VERY tall order for Florida.
SiubhanDuinne
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I want JL Cauvin to do this bit.
West of the Rockies
@Alison Rose 💙🌻💛:
I concur. He’d be a miserable person to know or work with.
SiubhanDuinne
@NotMax:
I was going to ask if The Gay Bride were a prequel to The Gay Divorcee. Then I looked them both up and discovered that Divorcee’s release preceded Bride’s by two months.
:-)
SiubhanDuinne
@Martin:
That’s exactly what DJTJ is counting on.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
more Florida
This has been a seat that has flipped back and forth a lot, I think, considered a bellwether. The incumbent R beat Donna Shalala, who won in the 2018 wave after Ileana Ros-Lehtinin, IIRC a hard-core Republican who became something of a never-trumper.
Jinchi
@David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch: I assume Will Chamberlain is one of the thousands of children Wilt had with the thousands of women he supposedly slept with.
I also assume most of them are named some varient of Wilt.
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
@NotMax:
Wont’ that violate the “don’t say gay” law in Florida?
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
You’d think someone named Chamberlain would think twice before advocating appeasement.
HumboldtBlue
I blame my mom, dad too with his smooth baritone, but sometimes you must stop and listen.
Never gets old.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
@David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch: This Chamberlain doesn’t have Neville’s excuses of the War to End All Wars being fresh in his memory, and the guts having just been torn out of an entire generation on that battlefield. (I’m in the “Neville Chamberlain made a bad call for the best of reasons” camp, myself.)
J R in WV
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
As far as I can tell, every person affected by the most recent hurricane (out of a potentially infinite number of future hurricanes) voluntarily paid good money to move to Florida, even after seeing the destruction leveled by so many giant storms in the past. No one was forced to stay by armed thugs. If they didn’t want to see a monster storm first hand, why did they move to Florida?? Freedumb in action in Florida.
While no one in Ukraine volunteered to be attacked by Russian Fascists, not one. In real life, people showed up to receive the available weapons – Molotov cocktails, hand-held tank buster rockets, rifles and ammo, and went out and stopped a huge armored Russian ZZ Fascist armored column driving towards Kiev.
That was the first week of the invasion by Russian Fascists.
I’m not sure what the better word for these “appeasers” trying to get NATO from sending supplied to Ukraine — for sure appeasers is too kind an adjective. They are running dogs lapping at the boots of Putinski’s Fascist torturers, sucking up and repeating the lies and distortions of the Fascist Dear Leader Putin.
We have learned that Russian Fascist torturers
wereARE murdering Ukrainian people and accumulating a horde of gold wrenched from the mouths of those they tortured to death. No need to consider whether their victims were already dead when their gold dental work was stolen from their mouths.The Russian Fascist monsters counted the Euros they could get after they melted the dental work down into gold bars.
This is who Will Chamberlain is urging America to allow to continue their horrible work. This is how Putin negotiates for “peace” !!!
No thanks, Will. No, thanks!
Ascap_scab
Feedly feed for BJ seems to be busted. Last update is from yesterday.
Ruckus
@Martin:
Yep. Back to normal. How is that going to help at all?
Bruce K in ATH-GR
@J R in WV:
I think the classic term is “fifth columnist”. I don’t know if the label “quisling” is quite on-point for these particular idiots.
lowtechcyclist
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Given that many of those houses should never have been built in the first place, and should definitely not be rebuilt, that’s kinda like ‘never.’
But the notion that the government can’t do two things at once seems to be taking hold in a big way amongst the RWNJs. A lot of different “we shouldn’t send money to Ukraine until we take care of X” going around.
I’ve seen, for instance, that we shouldn’t send them any money ‘while our Southern border is under attack’ and the ‘under attack’ part is an exact quote. What, are banditos from Mexico coming over and killing Americans in their beds? Who knows the minds of these idiots.
Splitting Image
@Bruce K in ATH-GR:
Will Chamberlain is a fifth columnist. A better example of a quisling is Roger Stone.
Geminid
Russia’s problems may affect the viability of the current governments of Cuba and Nicaragua. The US and Venezuela are already taking tentative steps towards an accommodation. I’m not sure Ortega in Nicaragua has that option.
Baud
I guess we need to apologize to George W. Bush, and blamed Iraq and Afghanistan for not surrendering like they should have.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Since we live in the age of bullshit I am going to predict Putin is going to try and rename the “Russian Federation” the “Ukrainian Federation” just so he can try to claim he won.
matt
That Chamberlain fucko is something else. Musk doesn’t represent the US. Ukraine isn’t ‘dictating terms to the US’ by telling Musk to fuck off with his surrender Dorothy bullshit. I’m sick of these lying fascists. Lampposts.
Princess
This is who Will Chamberlain is. I wonder who is funding this group to do it’s scary ooga-booga Big Tech stuff. Anyway, he’s a rightest not a leftist but it all amounts to the same thing.
https://theiap.org/about/
Geminid
@Geminid: Yesterday the Wall Street Journal had a (paywalled) article reporting that the US was planning to ease sanctions on the export of Venezuelan oil. This was tied to a resumption of talks between the Maduro government and opposition leaders, with a goal of elections iin 2025.
Venezuela’s oil industry needs foreign technical help to rehabitate it’s production infrastructure, but it can potentially produce 2 million barrels a day I think. That is about 20% of US production.
Last week I read about a deal where Venezuela would release seven American prisoners in exchange for the US commuting sentences of two Venezuelans it holds.
Alce _e_ardillo
@lowtechcyclist: Well, given that many of them can’t walk and chew gum without tripping, I’m not surprised.
Alce _e_ardillo
@Geminid: Maduro sees the writing on the wall…
Tony G
@West of the Rockies: He still holds that record for career rebounds, even from beyond the grave. But, yeah, what an asshole.
@David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch:
Tony G
@Princess: The Internet Accountability Project! Exciting concept! “The Internet Accountability Project (IAP) educates the public and advocates for policies that: (1) promote competition and innovation in the technology sector; (2) ensure online platforms provide a forum for diverse points of view; (3) ensure online privacy; (4) protect children and communities online; and (5) strengthen national security through the effective use of technology.” So they want “diverse points of view” and to “protect children communities online”. In other words, they want regulated, moderated content on online platforms, but they want the content to be regulated in the way THEY want it to be regulated. The question, as always, is “who’s funding these dweebs”?
Geminid
@Alce _e_ardillo: Also, the Biden administration can see that the sanctions haven’t produced anything besides a lot of refugees. And we need more oil production to moderate prices in the short and medium term, until the clean energy transition really kicks in.
But yes, I think Maduro can see that Russian support is a depreciating asset.
Paul in KY
@Jinchi: There was some lady who had 23 sons and named them all Dave…so it has been done before.
Tony G
@Poe Larity: These guys choose to lead from the rear. Ted Rall, for example, paid a visit a few months ago to Russia “to get the real story”, but he somehow forgot to visit Ukraine during his jaunt.
artem1s
Same bullshit different day. when the US led NATO forces finally intervened in Kosovo all the leftists whinged about warmongering Clinton wagging the tale to deflect from Monica. Never mind the military action and diplomacy were pretty successful and thousands didn’t die.
Dems are only allowed to use diplomacy – they have to wait for big daddy GQP to bomb some country back to the stone age and have failed ‘nation building’ for ten years before the Dems are allowed to go in and clean up the mess.
Omnes Omnibus
@SiubhanDuinne: It was the first prequel.
Tony G
@Tony G: Rall’s essay about his vacation in Russia included some fascinating political analysis. Apparently some people bought him drinks — and nobody that he talked to (presumably through an interpreter) complained about Putin or about the “Special Military Operation” — thereby proving that the Operation was justified and had widespread support. Brilliant analysis!
Ocotillo
@lowtechcyclist: The border issue and invasion terminology plays well because there is some truth in it. The truth is we desperately need comprehensive immigration reform.
People that live along the border do have concerns because the sheer number of asylum seekers, refugees and every day people crossing to try and find work tax the infrastructure of these communities. Add to that the fear people who live in rural areas feel as migrants pass physically through their property in search of water and food while traveling north.
Beto said (paraphrasing here) Abbott only complains because the problem is a tool to use against Democrats whether it is in national, state or local races. Republicans don’t offer any solutions beyond a wall and inhumane treatment of the people trying to get in. If both parties were to sit down and truly hammer out a new immigration law that improved the situation, it would help Democrats.
The Republican fearmongering works and is playing well here in Texas. Fentanyl is coming across the border and more resources are needed to reduce it. When a story comes out about a huge interception of a trafficker, we here say “way to go Biden” and that is positive. Others wonder how much is getting through that we are not catching.
Latino voters in Texas are slowly migrating to the GOP unlike California and that stems the progress being made in trying to make this state purple.
I am not saying I buy into the GOP rhetoric because that relies on performance, racism, and the use of cudgel against the Democrats.
What I am saying is there is a problem that needs nuanced solutions and because the Democrats have this slim majority in the House, a evenly divided Senate with a Democrat in the White House; they will get the blame due to Republican obstruction and fearmongering. Republicans have zero incentive to end the problems because they benefit from the problems.
I don’t have the answer beyond somehow getting the word out that Republicans are a big part of the border problems and if you really want to improve the situation, like everything else, vote Blue and get rid of the threat.
The Moar You Know
@Bruce K in ATH-GR: An opinion that his replacement, Winston Churchill, agreed with and often stated publicly.
Jay C
@J R in WV:
A righteous rant (and one I generally agree with): but apparently the “ bin full of gold teeth” story seems to have been a piece of propaganda (not gold, and actually the collection of a local dentist). Not that it should detract from the very real atrocities Russian forces have inflicted on Ukraine and Ukrainians, but it’s just an example of how war distorts information.
Scamp Dog
@Bruce K in ATH-GR: Vidkun Quisling led the government during the Nazi occupation, while these dopes are mostly Twitter commentators and the like. So I’m leaning to fifth columnists myself.
StringOnAStick
@J R in WV: You know what is the sickest thing about taking gold from people’s dental work? The amount of actual gold in it is so small as to be just a few bucks these days. Gold is far too soft to be useful in things like crowns and bridges, and also when gold prices spiked, that also drove down the % of gold used in dentistry. Those Russian torturers are doing it as part of the cruelty their leaders want inflicted. If it was actually worth anything, they wouldn’t have left it behind.
StringOnAStick
@lowtechcyclist: I read that since FL is a “net inflow” state as far as federal $ go, it already gets twice as much as we’ve sent to Ukraine in a year. They really are Putin’s stooges.
J R in WV
@West of the Rockies:
Yes, he is. A long time member of the Federalist Society, he is also “Senior Counsel, Internet Accountability Project” which claims to oppose “Big Tech” being involved in politics. He also revived a defunct magazine called Human Events which was originally founded by Felix Morley, Frank Hanighen, Henry Regnery.
That last name reminds me of Regnery Publishing, which prints tens of thousands of copies of RWNJ mostly ghost-written books which are given to people who pay to attend right wing events. Thus the books can get on some best seller lists which don’t care if bales of the books wind up being pulped as opposed to being read.
I’m tired of following the trail of nasty slime Will leaves behind him.
Obviously a Putinist Right Wing Fascist who hates the idea that any former Soviet republic can successfully oppose Russian control.
Needs to be taken into custody the minute actual warfare breaks out generally, because he will be actively working for the Russians in that case.
He is already working for the Russians right now, but it isn’t treason until there is a formal state of war, which isn’t the case today, for some reason Cyber attacks don’t appear to count like hijacked airliners, no matter the comparative/relative death toll.
J R in WV
@Splitting Image:
I’ve always thought a Quisling had to be an installed by external forces national leader… more like Trump was a Quisling maybe.
External force? Check.
National Leader? Check.
Stupid, always does what external force makes him do? Check!
Trump, the American Quisling!!
J R in WV
@Jay C:
Thanks for the correction. But, as you agree, Russians are torturing Ukrainian people for whatever reasons, and those Russian fascist war criminals should hang just like the German Nazis after their trials in Nurenberg. Along with the Russian Fascist leadership in Moscow.
If we could create a fairly functional democracy in Japan, we could probably do it in Russia.
Well, maybe, anyway. Some days my optimism fails me.
Freemark
@StringOnAStick: It appears that never happened. They were stolen from a dentist’s collection from work he did over his career.