Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

I’m more christian than these people and i’m an atheist.

Books are my comfort food!

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

These are not very smart people, and things got out of hand.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

Jesus watching the most hateful people claiming to be his followers

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

I’m starting to think Jesus may have made a mistake saving people with no questions asked.

It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.

He really is that stupid.

I like political parties that aren’t owned by foreign adversaries.

Text STOP to opt out of updates on war plans.

Let the trolls come, and then ignore them. that’s the worst thing you can do to a troll.

Weird. Rome has an American Pope and America has a Russian President.

’Where will you hide, Roberts, the laws all being flat?’

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / War for Ukraine Day 514: Things in Crimea Keep Going Boom

War for Ukraine Day 514: Things in Crimea Keep Going Boom

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(Image by NEIVANMADE)

Here is the machine translation of his tweet:

Our heroes need their own drones! Please join the collection!

Here is President Zelenskyy’s address from earlier today. Video below, English transcript after the jump.

Inspection of “military commissariats” continues: responsibility for violation is inevitable – address of President of Ukraine

22 July 2023 – 21:15

Dear Ukrainians, I wish you good health!

Report for this day.

First. Law enforcement officers informed me today about the situation with the former military commissar in Odesa. He was notified of suspicion based on the facts of illegal enrichment and violation of the order of military service. Logically, this story was not supposed to end with just the dismissal. The State Bureau of Investigation, the Prosecutor General’s Office continue the necessary investigative and procedural actions. All details that can be made public will be presented to the public by law enforcement officers. And in general, the inspection of territorial recruitment centers, i.e. “military commissariats”, continues. And every such “cabinet” violation somewhere in the military hierarchy, any attempt to somehow get rich there humiliates our warriors, our heroes. Liability for violations is inevitable.

Second. Today, the procedure regarding one of the systemic banks, which belonged to Russian oligarchs, ended. Now, it has public management. The rights of depositors and the resilience of the banking sector are guaranteed. In the future, this bank will operate as usual. I thank the team of the National Bank of Ukraine, the Cabinet of Ministers, and the Deposit Guarantee Fund for the quick and effective steps within the legal procedure. Another asset of the Russian oligarchs, who still continue to work within the system existing in Russia, is under the control of our state.

Third. I spoke with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. The topic is obvious. This is the implementation of the agreements we reached at the Alliance summit in Vilnius. The priority is unchanged: it is the fastest possible accession to NATO when security conditions allow. Only this will reliably guarantee security and peace for the whole of Europe. We also talked about the current security situation, in particular, about Russian aggressive steps in the Black Sea. Any destabilization in this region and the disruption of our export routes will mean problems with corresponding consequences for everyone in the world. The price crisis is the least of the possible consequences.

We discussed with Mr. Stoltenberg our steps to unblock and ensure the stable operation of the grain corridor. In our cooperation, we have moved to a new, higher level – the level of the Ukraine-NATO Council. And this mechanism can work. I turned to Jens with a proposal to urgently convene such a meeting of the Council for appropriate crisis consultations. The meeting will take place in a few days. We can overcome the security crisis in the Black Sea.

Fourth. I want to thank all the countries that this week adopted new decisions in support of our state, our people, our military, and all citizens.

The Republic of Korea announced an increase in aid to Ukraine. Thank you!

Azerbaijan – humanitarian assistance in the field of energy and demining. Thank you!

Sweden – approved program to help us rebuild. Strategy until 2027. Thank you very much!

Japan – an agreement was signed between the World Bank and Ukraine on a $1.5 billion loan under Japanese guarantees. Thank you!

Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States – sanctions against persons associated with aggression. Thank you!

The United States – defense aid package. Artillery, rounds, air defense – all that we need now. Thank you!

Germany – a new defense supply for our warriors: tanks, artillery rounds, equipment. Grateful!

And, of course, our warriors. Everyone who is currently in battle, on combat posts, and on combat missions. Thank you! Thank you that our forces are increasing the pressure on the occupiers daily. Today, I would like to especially mention our national guardsmen – warriors of the 15th operation brigade named after the Hero of Ukraine Bohdan Zavada. They are very powerfully destroying Russian evil in the South of our country. Thanks, guys, for every countered attack and for your progress! Glory to you!

Separately, I want to note today the warriors of the Defense Intelligence, our intelligence unit – Tymur’s unit. Very cool, guys! Well done! Thank you!

Glory to everyone who makes Ukraine stronger!

Glory to Ukraine!

From The Drive‘s The War Room:

It appears that Ukraine is getting closer to obtaining F-16 Vipers it has long requested.

National security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Friday the U.S. is “moving rapidly” to get F-16s to Ukraine.

“We are going to push as fast as possible,” Sullivan said during remarks at the Aspen Security Forum in Aspen, Colo, according to Politico.

“Now look, the F-16s will get there probably towards the end of the year,” John Kirby, National Security Council spokesman, told Fox News on Thursday. “But it’s not our assessment that the F-16s alone would be enough to turn the tide here.”

Ukraine and 11 other nations have formalized a plan to train pilots, maintainers and support staff to operate F-16s, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov announced Tuesday in a Tweet. You can read more about that in our story here and regarding which nations might be able to provide Ukraine with those jets here.

Volume up!

WARNING!!! WARNING!!! INTENSE COMBAT FOOTAGE!!! WARNING!!! WARNING!!!

ALL CLEAR!!!

Odesa:

As I wrote last night, this is the play. Create a global food crisis, but one that hits especially hard in the global south and in the periphery between north and south. Then leverage the crisis that Russia created for Russia’s own advantage.

Kreminna Axis:

KREMINNA AXIS /2115 UTC 21 JUL/ RU renewed offensives across the C-131306 Rd axis at Makiivka & Nevske: these attacks were broken up by UKR forces. Supported by air strikes, Russian VDV and mechanized units staged assaults against Dibrova & Serebryansk Forest; these attacks were also repelled.

Simferopol and Otyabr’skoye, Crimea:

From EuroMaidan Press:

As a result of an attack by Ukrainian drones on the Krasnogvardeiskyi district, a detonation occurred in an ammunition warehouse, Russian-installed head of Crimea Sergei Aksionov said.

Occupation authorities decided to evacuate people within a radius of 5 kilometers from the site of the emergency.

“To minimize risks, it was also decided to suspend traffic on the Crimean railway,” Aksionov added.

After explosions, a fire started on the Elevatorna railway station in the Octiabrskoe village of Crimea, local resident reported to Suspilne, sharing video.

Russian telegram channels speculate that Storm Shadow missiles could be involved in the attack.

“An oil storage facility and an ammunition warehouse of the Black Sea Fleet were hit: a large fire broke out in the area of the incident, local residents reported the sounds of a secondary detonation,” Russian Telegram Channel Emergency Incidents in Sevastopol informed, referring to locals.

Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts:

Kapytolyika, Karkhiv Oblast:

The butcher’s bill sometimes only have a single item on them.

Charlotte Higgins at The Guardian:

Kapytolivka is a village of low, scattered cottages, just beyond the south-eastern tip of the Ukrainian town of Izium. The last house in the village is a simple white building with a corrugated iron roof, a chimney, and a front garden planted with a vine and roses. On 22 March 2022 it would have been a pretty spot, but for the armoured personnel carrier that the Russians had parked right outside. By then, Kapytolivka had been under occupation for a fortnight. Russian soldiers had taken over the houses of those who had fled; they had looted the shop, and stolen any cars they could find.

That day, a military car pulled up at the cottage. Earlier, the Russian occupiers had arrested one of the men who lived here and his autistic son: the 49-year-old writer Volodymyr Vakulenko and 13-year-old Vitaliy, who had not spoken a word for weeks. Now, a couple of hours later, the pair were being returned to the home they shared with the author’s father, also called Volodymyr Vakulenko.

The soldiers who brought them back started searching “from attic to basement, every square centimetre of the house”, as Olena Ihnatenko, the writer’s mother, a warm, auburn-haired woman, tells me a year later. We are speaking in the village house she is borrowing from friends. Unlike her own modern apartment, also in Kapytolivka, the cottage can be heated by firewood when the power cuts out. Which it does now, abruptly silencing the cartoons Vitaliy has been watching in the next room, and making audible the dull boom of distant artillery.

Watching her son’s house turned upside down, Ihnatenko found herself thinking of the Gestapo. What were the Russians searching for? She couldn’t imagine. In Vakulenko’s room there was just his computer; shelves filled with Ukrainian literature, including copies of his own books; framed certificates on the wall marking his success in literary competitions; and, because he loved growing things, three potted plants neatly lined up on the windowsill. A knife – but that was just some souvenir. Then again, his Ukrainian-language books would have been enough to arouse suspicion; so, too, his patriotic tattoos. And then there were his mobiles, one of whose ringtones, uncompromisingly, was the popular Ukrainian anthem Putin Is a Dickhead.

Not that Vakulenko and his son were remotely threatening figures. The author of children’s stories including Daddy’s Book, a volume of jolly illustrated animal poems, was not a robust man. He had suffered a head injury in the pro-Europe Maidan protests of 2013-14 and had been injured, too, during his military service decades ago. Blue-eyed, wiry and slight, with his hair shaved at the sides and back, leaving a Cossack-style ponytail, he had become painfully thin during the six weeks since full-scale invasion, and his mother was worried about that, too. There had been little to eat – aside from the potatoes he’d dug up from the garden and the contents of the few tins he’d managed to buy in Izium before the tanks trundled in. She turned to the soldier she reckoned to be the senior officer. “Can’t you see the boy is disabled and the father’s not in good health?” she asked. “Don’t worry,” he replied. “We’ve brought them back. We won’t take them again.”

As the soldiers finally prepared to leave, Vakulenko asked for the return of his documents and phones, confiscated earlier by the five men who had showed up to arrest him. Vakulenko Sr later tells me that he reckoned, by their accents, that these men were separatists from the so-called Luhansk People’s Republic, illegally annexed from Ukraine by Russia in 2014. They had arrived in the wake of the main army echelon, and had their own base in the village. One of them, a man with a reddish beard, had the call sign Bes, Russian for “demon”.

“Don’t worry, you’ll get your phones and papers back today or tomorrow,” the soldier reassured the writer.

When Ihnatenko tells me this part of her story, she stops and says: “‘Today or tomorrow.’ I heard that phrase so many times, when I was looking for my son. ‘Today or tomorrow’ – that’s what they always said.”

The soldiers finally left the house. Vakulenko told his parents he had been taken to a “special department” set up near the village school, where he had been beaten in the groin. The soldiers had told him: “Don’t get upset.”

The next day, 23 March, slipped by. But the day after that, Ihnatenko’s ex-husband, Vakulenko Sr, returned to her flat with the news that their son had been taken again – and Vitaliy this time left at home. She ran to what she believed was the Russian command post in the village. The same man who two days ago had told Vakulenko he’d get his documents back “today or tomorrow” greeted her, smiling. “Calm down. Why are you getting so het up? He’ll be brought home either tonight or tomorrow evening. Go and take care of Vitaliy.”

Her son was not brought home that night, or the next day, or the day after. It didn’t take his parents long to figure out that the reason for his initial release was likely because the soldiers weren’t interested in young Vitaliy. As the days slid into weeks, the weeks into months, Ihnatenko became increasingly terrified. People were being arrested and released. Or sometimes not released; sometimes killed. She and Vakulenko Sr followed the trail of every rumour. She demanded answers from the military in the village. They filed a missing person report. None of the family had a car, so she hired one to reach an administrative office in Izium. She tried, too, to get to a school in the town where she had heard people were being held, but she was turned back at a checkpoint. Some newly arrived Russian military said maybe he was being held in Olenivka – a prison in the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic. But that was bombed in July, killing 53 Ukrainian POWs. Others said maybe he was in prison in Belgorod, over the Russian border. The family’s lives became a cycle of hope and dread.

“Something happened to me that I cannot convey to you,” she tells me. “I had a realisation, suddenly, that he was no longer among the living. But I tried to suppress those thoughts.” She pauses. “You know, I sometimes felt like I wanted to fall upon the road and hit my head against it, just hit it and hit it, and then I would raise my head and Volodya would be standing in front of me.”

Her son never did stand in front of her again. His corpse was found six months later in a mass grave outside Izium. He had been killed by two bullets from a semi-automatic Makarov pistol. But before he was abducted for the second and last time on 24 March, he did something important: he buried a diary in the back garden, beneath a stand of cherry saplings he’d planted. Six months afterwards, on 10 September, the Russians were driven out of the Izium area by a Ukrainian counteroffensive. And a fortnight after that, on 24 September, the Ukrainian novelist Victoria Amelina dug the diary up.

Much, much, much more at the link!

And sometimes they have just a handful.

Russia, most likely Shoigu, Gerasimov, and the FSB, declare war on the Telegram milbloggers via Russian TV propagandists:

Russian officials are cracking down on “turbo-patriots”, volunteers and other “fascist scum”, as claimed in Solovyev’s live show, following the arrest of Girkin. The host of the show says it’s time to “clear this space, only run fundraisers officially”.

This messaging is important as it could be interpreted as a “declaration of war” against all those endless Telegram admins and volunteers who raised funds for the Russian army but allowed themselves to criticise the authorities over the past 1,5 years.

Transcript of the bit:

“Who are you?

All these Strelkov-Girkins, Gubarevs, Podolyakas, Montyans? Who are you to be pointing to us what Putin, MoD, and others should be like? Who are you?

We already survived Navalny, Yashin, and other scum. And we will survive you, believe me. We have a very strong immunity.

But the question is, who are you? I realise that Navalny’s network didn’t go anywhere. And the smelly fascists are hiding in holes. All this scum, the Black Hundreders, monarchists, all this badly smelling mess with a very strong inclination towards fascism.

They all exist, including Navalnists, and as soon as something catches fire they come for the smell.

You know, as soon as a compost pile appears, the flies are already there, yelling “Shame, shame!”, coming out to the protest events. Who are you to call for protests in Moscow?

Look at their telegram channels – half of them are hohols [Ukrainians]. What’s happening in their comments? It’s just beautiful.

I think that what’s happening now is very characteristic. I think they all need to get ready. All the people in this network, the patriotic-literature gopniks, they need to watch carefully. I’d recommend them to visit a solicitor and just in case organise their property: “In case if I’m [arrested]…” and so on.

Or maybe buy tickets, somewhere to Tbilisi. It’s just the right time. Because the clearing of the space is beginning.

And they think they have the right! Strelkov was arrested, but he’s a “patriot”! Do patriots have indulgences? Can they throw mud at anyone they want?

They’re not defending Strelkov, they’re defending themselves and their fundraisers. It might soon end and even Kashevarova [Russian female blogger] will be washing toilets in Duma. The only thing she knows how to do and always did. And offer tea: “Hello, please, it’s warm”.

That’s all they know how to do. They didn’t become the Counts of Monte Cristo, they’ll have to retrain, to not even become site managers but site cleaning managers.

I emphasise again – we need a total clearing, brutal military censorship. Any fundraisers only via state resources.

But again – get ready, all the graphomaniacs and mediocrities, lovers of military coups, Maidans and all that. We won’t allow a Maidan.

More examples of Russian sanctions evasion:

That’s enough for tonight.

Your daily Patron!

And a new video from Patron’s official TikTok!

@patron__dsns

Морозиво – моя друга слабкість після качечок, напевно 🤭🍦

♬ united in grief – veleffy

Here’s the machine translation of the caption:

Ice cream is my second weakness after ducks, I guess 🤭🍦

Open thread!

Reader Interactions

57Comments

  1. 1.

    Subsole

    Adam,

    Thank you again for your tireless work.

    Re: Russia’s famine strategy:

    It really is just like the GOP, and Obamacare. Destroy a public good, use the public anger at the loss of that good to wedge yourself further into power, tear down more public goods. Lather, rinse, etc.

    The Moscow axis really doesn’t have an original thought, do they? It’s all the same playbook, everywhere

    Edit: Holy Toledo, frist!

  3. 3.

    Adam L Silverman

    Question for the hive mind: I’m starting to shop for a new mattress. One type I’m looking at our hybrids. Of the two I’ve narrowed it down to, one of them has 1,400 pocket coils and the other 1,050. The only thing I can find explaining how many their should be for a king sized bed is a minimum of 400. Anybody have any idea whether the extra 350 or so is going to make a difference?

  4. 4.

    West of the Rockies

    I hope Ukrainian pilots are training already in anticipation of the F16 arrivals so they can hit the skies ASAP.

  6. 6.

    West of the Rockies

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Do you have vendors in your area?  Visit, lay down, and see if you notice a difference.   A good mattress is a worthwhile investment in your health and happiness.

  8. 8.

    Alison Rose

    (Adam, the Zelenskyy video appears to be missing.)

    “All our hope is in the famine” — file under: Things Only Psychopaths Say.

    The article from The Guardian is indeed quite painful to read. The mental and psychological torture being inflicted on not just Ukrainian soldiers or prisoners themselves, but everyone in their family and their circles…I don’t know how people recover from this sort of thing. Maybe you don’t. And so people will suffer years and decades of the ripple effects, all because of one sick individual and millions of timid ones.

    Lukashenko is apparently in russia to meet up with his best buddy. BRING ON THE METEOR, LORD.

    Thank you as always, Adam.

  9. 9.

    japa21

    @Adam L Silverman: ​
      Probably not. Depends on what the padding is like, what box spring, if any, you get, size of the coils. 1,400 small coils will not do as well as 1,050 larger coils. Check if the wire gauge is the same.

  10. 10.

    Adam L Silverman

    @West of the Rockies: Unfortunately no. These are high end and both come very highly recommended. But one has a few hundred more pocket coils than the other. It is time to replace my seventeen year old Tempurpedic.

  12. 12.

    Adam L Silverman

    @japa21: They’re latex hybrids. I’m trying to decide 1) Do I want the hybrid or the full latex and then 2) which hybrid if I go that route.

    This is the description from the one with 1,400+ coils:

    1,438 COILS + 5 ZONES

    Fewer coils mean less support. That’s why our mattress features the most durable and supportive innerspring unit available in any mattress, anywhere. It features up to 1,438 individually tuned, tempered steel coils in three gauges and is arranged in 5 distinct ergonomic zones. With coils that float independently, it boasts a fully reinforced steel perimeter for support all the way to the edge. This best-in-class system reduces motion transfer, keeps your back aligned, relieves back pain, distributes weight more evenly, alleviates pressure points, and lovingly contours your body’s natural curves.

    And from the one with the 1,040 coils:

    Up to 1040 Individually Wrapped Coils. Butterfly locking quadcoils with 4-sided edge reinforcement. Made from 98% recycled steel 5-zone ergonomic design provides 2 zones of firmer coils under the lower back and knees, providing targeted support where it is needed most, and 3 zones of less resistance sections designed to maximize comfort and pressure relief at the shoulders, hips, and feet.

    The mattress is designed to offer superior support and comfort, thanks to its premium fabric-encased coils that provide uncompromising edge support, resulting in motion isolation and a supportive sleep for many years to come.

  13. 13.

    Another Scott

    @Adam L Silverman: We bought a mattress a few years ago.  It seems fine.

    The thing I picked up is – don’t worry about the number of coils or the number of layers of different materials or all that other stuff.  It’s meaningless distractions.  (The springiness depends on the thickness and temper of the wire, which determines the “spring constant”.  The number of coils doesn’t tell you anything about that.)

    You need to go lie on them for an extended period – more than a couple of minutes – and see what feels best to your particular body.

    J’s sister got some Tempurpedic thing quite a while ago and they love it, and they let us try it out, but I find it too form-fitting and very uncomfortable (I move around a lot).

    HTH a little.  Good luck!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  16. 16.

    japa21

    @Adam L Silverman: ​
      Full disclosure. Once upon a time, I did make a living selling mattresses (reputable ones). Based on the description, I would probably go with the 1050 one.

  18. 18.

    Adam L Silverman

    @japa21: I’m going to email you the links to what I’m looking at. If you’d be so kind as to take a look and provide any guidance you might have.

    Thanks in advance!

  19. 19.

    Jay

    Currently the Ruzzian’s, the Vatnick’s and the Usual Suspects are whining about a “targeted” cluster weapons attack that wounded 3 “journalists” and killed one.

    A few slight issues.

    The so called “journalists” are all Ruzzian’s, wore full camo and body armor, carried AKM’s, and have fought on behalf of the so called DPR Militia’s since 2013. None of them had “Press” signage on their uniforms or vehicle.

    They filmed themselves helping load , target and fire a MLRS,

    And were caught as they started to leave in counter battery fire from Ukraine

    https://nitter.net/reshetz/status/1682778307568205824#m

  21. 21.

    patrick II

    About a month ago there was news of a group (48 if I remember correctly) of F18s in Australia that are put out of service and (according to the story at the time) would be made available to Ukraine.  Is that happening?  I have not heard a word since.

  22. 22.

    Jay

    @patrick II:

    Not yet. Canada was looking at buying some a few years ago to bolster out fleet, but it never happened.

    One key issue with the F-18 is that nobody in Europe, other than Finland, Spain and Switzerland fly them and the parts, training and support systems arn’t any where as broadbased as F-16’s in Europe.

  30. 30.

    Geminid

    @West of the Rockies: I read an article from The New Voice of Ukraine about the F-16 training. It quoted a Lockheed official who said that training of F-16 pilots and maintenance technicians would begin next month at Skydstrup Airbase in Denmark, and then move to Romania later this year.

    Lockheed subcontractor Draken International is staffing and equipping a training center at the 86th Borcea Airbase near Fetesti, Romania. The plan for now is to operate it through 2024.

  33. 33.

    Yarrow

    @zhena gogolia:  If you’re talking about the dark theme being hard to see, follow Adam’s directions, then when you’re on someone’s account click on the Preferences icon (upper right corner, looks like a cog), click in the box next to Theme and select the one you want. Auto (Twitter) makes it look like Twitter. Choose Save Preferences to save it. Should show the new theme for all Nitter.net instances.

  35. 35.

    Jay

    @Geminid:

    Canada, (which has no F-16’s), has signed up to set up/modernize all the ground support systems/operations and train Ukrainians on how to build, operate and maintain them, and pay for it all.

  36. 36.

    Jay

    FTFNYT

    https://nitter.net/BadBalticTakes/status/1682737280249675776#m

    Bad Baltic Takes
    @BadBalticTakes
    11h
    Why did the NYT publish such a bizarre article, which normalised a mass murdering russian terrorist and invasion commander as a mere “critic of Putin’s war effort”?

    Meet its author, NYT reporter Ivan Nechepurenko, a russian national who still lives in russia.

    Ivan denies russia invaded Ukraine in 2014, promotes Kremlin narratives about a Ukrainian civil war that is the West’s fault, advocates that the West accept Crimea as russia, ‘expertly’ explained in 2015 that russia had no interest in Ukraine [beyond Crimea], ‘expertly’ dismissed the build up to the full scale war in early 2022 as a “reality show”, and very frequently retweets other prominent russian chauvinists with dodgy Kremlin connections and equally awful analysis about russia over the past decade. His timeline is exactly what you’d expect: @INechepurenko.

    This is who the NYT thinks is capable of explaining “Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and other former Soviet republics”.

    Not really a mystery why that article was so bad.

    I sometimes think people in my replies are too harsh on the NYT as a whole whenever they get something wrong, but this seriously reflects badly on the whole outfit. Ivan Nechepurenko is like a parody of a russian chauvinist. I genuinely thought it was a joke when I first heard that article was written by an Ivan in Moscow.

    What’s infuriating is that there are so many decent journalists across our region from the Baltics to Ukraine yet big international outlets just hire these dodgy Moscow correspondents who get everything significant about russia totally wrong.

    If you want decent journalism about russia and also our region from the Baltics to Ukraine then don’t hire people who can’t see past the russian imperial lens.

  37. 37.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Jay:  I remember a long time ago when Adam explained to us that part of Russia’s trick was to teach us to frame everything in terms of Russia and Russia’s point of view.  That that framing was used everywhere in the west, in academia, the media, government, etc.

  39. 39.

    Jay

    Mickey
    @Mickey4x
    Jul 20
    “All our hope is in the famine, here is what it means

    It means that the famine will start now, and they will lift the sanctions, and be friends with us, because they will realize it is necessary”

    – Margarita Simonyan, Editor-in-Chief of RT

    They are telling you, and you aren’t listening.

    The world must unite, protect food supplies, and stop the engineering of a global famine.

    https://nitter.net/Mickey4x/status/1682074671032811532#m

  44. 44.

    Jay

    Yaroslav Trofimov
    @yarotrof
    2h
    Odesa’s main Orthodox cathedral. Established in 1794, destroyed by Stalin in 1936, rebuilt under an independent Ukraine and destroyed again by Putin in 2023. One of several historical parts of central Odesa, a UNESCO world heritage site, hit by Russian missiles strikes today.

    https://nitter.net/yarotrof/status/1682892910755282945#m

  46. 46.

    Bill Arnold

    [For those tracking the efforts of the Israeli ruling coalition to seize all remaining extra-Knesset government power in Israel for itself.]
    One could presume that the reported inserted subcutaneous Holter monitor (after his “fainting” several days ago) must have found something interesting.
    I am watching with great interest.
    Netanyahu Hospitalized Amid Widespread Protests of Judicial Overhaul (July 22, 2023)

    JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu went to the hospital early Sunday for an emergency procedure to implant a pacemaker, amid widespread protests over his contentious plan to overhaul the judiciary.

  47. 47.

    way2blue

    Just to muddy the water—I bought a California King about five years ago from The Natural Mattress Store:(http://www.thenaturalmattressstore.com) 

    They’re made of layered wool, cotton & latex.  Springs too…  So no chemicals. No fire retardant as wool is fire résistent.   An investment.  But.  Really nice.

  48. 48.

    J R in WV

    After reading a piece in the Guardian about Ukrainian borsch  I  bought raw materials at Kroger the other day,  at dusk I started a batch of borsch for dinner this evening.

    Little Polish sausages, bacon,  onions, peppers , beets, potatoes, garlic, a fresh tomato mostly minced or grated the beets.

    After an hour or so of prep, then slicing and  mincing and sautéed meats and all the veggies  … well, It was a great supper,  with sour cream and really  crunchy bread!

    SLAVA UKRAINE!

  51. 51.

    Captain C

    @Bill Arnold: Any chance he’s trying to set up a backup plan to get out of his trial on health grounds if his attempt to gain control of the judiciary ultimately fails?

  53. 53.

    Sebastian

    @Adam L Silverman:

    I’ve made it a habit to check the brand and model of hotel mattresses if I slept extraordinarily well there.

    I second the advice to visit a mattress store. I had great experience at Nordstrom (but could have been Macy’s).

  55. 55.

    Jay

    @Sebastian:

    Love me some florks,

    Shark walks into a bar,

    Bartender asks, “What will you have?”

    Shark answers. “a White Ruzzian please,”

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