Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

It looks like winning debates is a black job!

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

I conferred with the team and they all agree – still not tired of winning!

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

Let’s finish the job.

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” is supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

We need to vote them all out and restore sane Democratic government.

If marriage is the equivalent of selling yourself into slavery, women with self respect should reject the offer.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

Quote tweet friends, screenshot enemies.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Let’s show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

Nikki Haley, who can’t acknowledge ‘slavery’, is a pathetic shill.

Battle won, war still ongoing.

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

Democrats are back in array!

The jury literally has a bell they can ring to force Trump to show up on command. Greatest thing ever!

The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

If you still can’t see these things even now, maybe politics isn’t your forte and you should stop writing about it.

You are here: Home / War in Ukraine / Open Thread – Spread the Word on Ukraine

Open Thread – Spread the Word on Ukraine

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This is the only war in my lifetime that I have supported, because Ukraine has the absolute right to exist and to defend their homeland from invasion by Russia.

I hope the Republicans who are blocking aid are getting an earful from their constituents on their little 2-week vacation.

And many of them may not even understand that much of what we are spending on Ukraine stays right here. We have workers in factories producing what we send to Ukraine, or producing stuff for the US to replace what we send to Ukraine, which puts money in the pockets of the employees, which in term is part of why our economy in the US is doing so well.

90% of Ukraine aid spending stays in the U.S., creating thousands of jobs

Although some may claim U.S. aid vanishes into a cesspool of unchecked Ukrainian corruption, one study has shown that 90% of Ukraine aid dollars are not actually sent to Ukraine after all. Rather, these funds stay in the U.S., where leading defense contractors have invested tens of billions in over 100 new industrial manufacturing facilities, creating thousands of jobs across at least 38 states directly, with vital subcomponents sourced from all 50 states.

Virtually all the munitions Ukraine is most reliant upon are fully built in the U.S., ranging from javelins made in Alabama, to Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (GMLRS) made in West Virginia, Arkansas, and Texas. Not forgetting the smaller-ticket items such as night-vision gear, medical supplies, and small-arms ammunition, all made in the U.S. Any additional Ukraine aid would likely only help the U.S. economy even more, since previous weapons shipments were largely drawdowns of musty old stockpiles and existing inventories rather than new supplies.

I have been hearing this for months, but not enough people understand this.  We need to spread the word.

Read the whole thing.

Update:  And this from Navalny’s wife.  She is one brave woman.

Oh boy, that was hard to watch.

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

111Comments

  1. 1.

    Urza

    I’m sure its just a bonus, but conservatives blocking all that spending in the US that might actually somewhat slow the economy has to be something they want to happen regardless of how they feel about Putin.

  2. 2.

    Matt McIrvin

    I don’t support the war. I support it ending by Russia getting the hell out of Ukraine.

    Ukraine didn’t start this war and neither did we–it’s a pure war of aggression and just letting Russia get what they want as a result of starting it is unacceptable.

  3. 3.

    Ksmiami

    Should we storm the capitol? Get the traitor trash out? I mean what’s good for the goose and all? This is insane

  5. 5.

    Princess

    Is it true that Musk threw Yuliana Navalnaya off Twitter? Someone mentioned it this morning and I was shocked he’d show so clearly how in the tank for Putin he is.

  8. 8.

    trollhattan

    This gives me slight hope Putin has overreached assassinating Navalny. Back in 2016 interviews with of our Area Russians revealed a LOT of Trump support, “Is America Needing Strong Man” kind of stuff. Will caution I do not know what fraction of them feel this way, but it’s gratifying in any case.

    When Anna Berbeneva’s husband woke her at 3 a.m. Friday with the news that the Russian pro-democracy leader Alexei Navalny had died in an Arctic penal colony, she said his death hit her like a bolt of lightning.

    Berbeneva, founder of the activist group Voices of Russian Opposition in Sacramento, said, “We expected that something like this could happen, but still, nobody could believe it. It’s like he was some kind of superhero. Nothing can break him or kill him. He always emerged with a smile for us. “But now he is gone.”

    For the past decade, Navalny and his Anti-Corruption Foundation have been a thorn in the side of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Navalny survived a Kremlin-linked poisoning in 2020 that left him in a near-death coma and, more recently, inhumane treatment in frigid prisons after he defiantly returned to Russia in 2021.

    In the middle of the night on Friday, following news of Navalny’s death, Berbeneva started exchanging messages with other Sacramento-area Russian anti-Putin activists. “We couldn’t find words to express our feelings, we just knew we had to organize a protest at the state Capitol that night. That is what Alexei would have wanted.”

    Berbeneva’s shock and outrage were sentiments shared around the world. Russian authorities said that the cause of Navalny’s death at age 47 is still unknown — and the results of any investigation are likely to be questioned abroad. “Make no mistake: Putin is responsible for Navalny’s death,” U.S. President Joe Biden said at a White House news conference Friday, echoing the sentiment of other Western leaders.

    Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov slammed the accusations from Western leaders as “boorish” and “inadmissible.”

    https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/article285648452.html#storylink=cpy

    Know what else is boorish? Murder.

  9. 9.

    Almost Retired

    Great, so Republican voters in ruby red states are benefiting from government largess – so to speak – while many of their representatives are working to undermine our efforts in Ukraine and cut the taxes on their bosses.   Yet they continue re-electing these cretin.  This is almost as stupid as paying $400 for flimsy golden sneakers.  I give up trying to understand these people.

  10. 10.

    Captain C

    @trollhattan:

    “inadmissible.”

    Translation:  “You can’t prove in a court that we did it, especially if we hide/destroy all the evidence that clearly shows we’re guilty as fuck.”

  11. 11.

    SomeRandomGuy

    Thank you for spreading the signal.

    Small editing bit: you have “in tern” and I doubt seagulls are involved :-).

    which puts money in the pockets of the employees, which in tern

  12. 12.

    Captain C

    @Almost Retired: Status and spite are more important to some people than prosperity, especially if the latter means they can’t publicly treat whoever is Those People like shit and be praised for it.

  14. 14.

    Jackie

    @WaterGirl: I posted this last thread, but will repost here:

    I watched this earlier today; I so admire her strength and determination to carry on her husband’s cause, yet fear for her life in doing so. I also fear for their daughter’s safety, who’s currently a student at USC. Putin’s reach is limitless.

  15. 15.

    Bg

    I called my right wing GOP congressman a week or so ago to tell him to support Ukraine. The staffer I spoke to sounded kinda bored and said he would relay my message. I got an email acknowledging my call but it was their  form letter on a different topic    So I called again.yesterday. The staffer apologized profusely, no longer sounding bored. He told me they’re getting a lot of calls on Ukraine. So keep calling and writing to them, even if they generally are in the Putin wing of the GOP. We seem to be making an impression. Let’s see what they do after they get back from their disgraceful vacation

  16. 16.

    rikyrah

    Say their name:

    NEX BENEDICT

    A 16 year old straight-A non-binary student was beaten in the bathroom by three girls,  in Owasso, Oklahoma, and died as a result.

     

    NOBODY from the Administration called the police for this child.

    NOBODY from the Administration called an ambulance for this child.

    I am so livid.

    This is what their right-wing hate has produced.

  21. 21.

    WaterGirl

    @Almost Retired: I believe the Rs know full well that one by-product our support of Ukraine is that it is making our economy stronger.

    The Rs do not appear to give even one flying fuck about their constituents or their country.  Power is a drug for them, and hate and disregard for humanity are not far behind.

  24. 24.

    kindness

    I’m not worried about reaching folk on our side.  The MAGA folk are unreachable by design & choice.  Refute their lies but don’t spend all your time engaging them.  Don’t accept their framing at all.  Of course since much of the MSM uses Republican framing, that’ll have to be fought daily.  The Village Elders will never admit they were wrong (till Trump throws them in concentration camps too).

  25. 25.

    cain

    @rikyrah: our so called Christians have nothing but hatred for those not like them.

    I hope as a population we wake up to the fact that these people are out to get us.

    For those who think it’s just blabbering – one only need to point to Roe vs Wade no longer in place. That there is a direct consequence – red states are passing _laws_ – they are implementing exactly what they are saying. It’s not bloviating.

  29. 29.

    Jackie

    @Urza:

    I’m sure its just a bonus, but conservatives blocking all that spending in the US that might actually somewhat slow the economy has to be something they want to happen

    Conservatives in CONGRESS may want our economy to slow down – or better yet, FAIL – but, do their constituents? Their voters? These factories produce good paying jobs, and I’d think they’d want a piece of that.

    I wonder if Biden’s communications dept. wrote editorials to the newspapers in the regions effected touting these benefits would help get the word out. These MAGA conservatives might find themselves in the undesirable position of dealing with their constituents demanding to pass these bills.

  32. 32.

    H.E.Wolf

    Called my US Rep and my 2 Senators. Big thanks to the local League of Women Voters for their pamphlet with contact info for govt. officials, from the President on down to local city councils.

  33. 33.

    cain

    @Jackie:

    Conservatives in CONGRESS may want our economy to slow down – or better yet, FAIL – but, do their constituents? Their voters? These factories produce good paying jobs, and I’d think they’d want a piece of that.

    It depends – if it results in cheaper labor – sure why not? They want cheap labor so they can exploit it – but they don’t seem to understand that then nobody can afford their products.

  36. 36.

    Manyakitty

    @cain: if those people want cheap labor, they should reconsider their views on immigration.

    That sounds callous, but it’s a way to get through to them. Plus, getting immigrants settled in and working is a net positive, especially for struggling communities. And they start paying taxes. IT’S NOT DIFFICULT.

    Migrant farm workers don’t want to come up here, even with visas. Who could blame them?

  37. 37.

    rikyrah

    @Manyakitty:

     if those people want cheap labor, they should reconsider their views on immigration.

     

    Why do you think they’re trying to gut all those child labor laws in those red states?

  38. 38.

    Jackie

    GQP in-house cat fighting is ALWAYS good! I knew AZ and MI were having intra party squabbles, and now GA? LOL!

    FiveThirtyEight: “In Michigan, Arizona and Georgia, intense internal battles are tearing through the state Republican parties. The fights largely pivot around divisions that opened up in the wake of the last presidential election. A new cadre of Trump-loyalist party leaders, in many cases propelled into power based on their defense of the Big Lie that former President Donald Trump actually won in 2020, have found themselves at war with more establishment-aligned Republicans … and, increasingly, with each other.”

    “These rifts in three potential swing states are one of the many ways that Trump’s hold on the GOP and the rise of election denial in the aftermath of the 2020 election are defining not only the election this fall — when Trump loyalists could be looking at their 2020 playbook for ways to influence the outcome — but also the Republican state party organizations that will shape their states’ politics for years to come.”

  39. 39.

    rikyrah

    Ukraine = England 1940

     

    This is so obvious.

    But, instead of it being the last man standing, it’s the first. And, we need to help them.

  40. 40.

    trollhattan

    Are California Republicans bored? Survey says, hell yeah.

    California schools would be required to have at least one armed police officer, also known as a school resource officer or SRO, on campus during regular school hours, under a bill introduced last week. Assembly Bill 3038, by Assemblyman Bill Essayli, R-Corona, is part of a trio of public safety bills that the lawmaker unveiled in a Tuesday morning press conference.

    “California has experienced 96 school shootings between 2018 and 2023. If we want to get serious about preventing school shootings and stopping them before they can happen, we need good guys, and girls, with guns, ready to act,” Essayli said.

    The bill is likely to be opposed by the American Civil Liberties Union, which in 2021 published a report identifying the dangers of more police officers in public schools. “The data conclusively show harmful and discriminatory policing patterns in schools. School police contribute to the criminalization of tens of thousands of California students, resulting in them being pushed out of school and into the school-to-prison pipeline,” according to an ACLU of Southern California statement.

    https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article285688511.html#storylink=cpy

  41. 41.

    AlaskaReader

    Along the lines of things we can all do:

    We know that churches are driving much of the hate and bigotry.

    Every one of you know of a church that has abused it’s tax status through political action.

    File a complaint.  It’s a simple process, and you can file anonymously if you wish, 

    …so please, no excuses, just file a complaint.

    (and as the IRS page suggests, copy those complaints to your state tax regulators too.)

    https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/irs-complaint-process-tax-exempt-organizations

  42. 42.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Manyakitty: The ones with the money realize that the real purpose of immigration hysteria (besides riling up the rubes for votes) is to crack down on undocumented immigrants just hard enough for their labor to be as cheap as possible, because they’re under perpetual threat of deportation and effectively have no rights. If we were allowed to normalize their status, if they actually had green cards or were otherwise legally present, they’d become more expensive.

    The only trouble is, sometimes they get in their own way when the true believers among them ramp up the mass deportations and take all the cheap labor away. But generally they manage some kind of steady state.

  44. 44.

    SomeRandomGuy

    @WaterGirl: don’t worry, friend – I see typos as a mar to the beauty of a well written piece, and mention them to form a more perfect document.

    In this case, “tern” was too funny for my brain to handle without skipping :-)

  46. 46.

    cain

    @Manyakitty:

    Migrant farm workers don’t want to come up here, even with visas. Who could blame them?

    And they shouldn’t. The pocket book will cut through any kind of bullshit about policy. Your bank account will always align with reality not what what you think reality is.

    You want cheap labor then you’re going to have to have a progressive immigration policy. Even a guest worker program would have been pretty good – and you pay them what they owe. Otherwise fuck off.

  49. 49.

    cain

    @trollhattan: What happens if the SRO is the one that killed a kid? Didn’t we have that before when it was some off duty cop? They aren’t equipped to handle kids especially if they are on the spectrum.

  50. 50.

    laura

    @trollhattan: Maybe 10 or more years ago, the Grant Joint Union High School’s in house police department ran roughshod over the entire neighborhood and they had a police boat to boot. Those “Officers” were just a giant barrel of wormy bad apples. School to prison pipeline remains a thing to no community’s benefit.

    Nex deserved a life of freedom but died to satisfy their classmate’s hate.

  52. 52.

    Citizen Alan

    @Manyakitty: I’ve gone farther than that. I absolutely believe that there is a growing percentage of Republicans who LITERALLY want slavery back.

  54. 54.

    Doc Sardonic

    @TBone: Can you give us the Cliff’s Notes version? For the most part, since I don’t have an account at Leon Skum’s playhouse, I can’t view linked Xhits.

  57. 57.

    bjacques

    @Citizen Alan: the US labor shortage is chronic like the European labor shortage in its depth and breadth across many sectors. I question whether slavery and/or child labor would really help all that much, but the GOP would love to try.

  58. 58.

    Bill Arnold

    @TBone:
    From the linked document, bold mine.

    During this same trip, Smirnov apparently attended a separate meeting with Russian Official 1, the individual who controls groups that are engaged in overseas assassination efforts.

  59. 59.

    Gin & Tonic

    I truly appreciate this community’s support of Ukraine, more than I can put into words.

    Tangentially, I was doing some research and came across these words, written by a close (female) family member a century ago. Literally, in 1924:

    The task of a Ukrainian feminist is work, … positive, public work with the nation and for the nation. Then the realization of all our ideals, that is, the liberation of our nation, will simultaneously be the complete liberation of the Ukrainian woman

    I chose to translate the Ukrainian word “народ” as “nation,” but an alternative translation is “people.”

  60. 60.

    TBone

    @Bill Arnold: like mebbe that defector shot to death in a parking garage in Spain.  He’d flown his military helicopter into Ukraine loaded with fighter jet parts.

  61. 61.

    Doc Sardonic

    @TBone: Thank you. Curioser and curiouser, seems every time these jack wagons come up with some of this shyte, you find out the KGB is in the woodpile somewhere.

  63. 63.

    Bill Arnold

    @bjacques:

    I question whether slavery and/or child labor would really help all that much, but the GOP would love to try.

    Nationally/on average, no. But as you say, it would be economically advantageous for those willing to use slave or child labor, in business competition with their more ethical peers. And those willing would be (mostly) GOP people.

  67. 67.

    trollhattan

    Given the main topic—North Korean missile shot into Ukraine by Russia stuffed with US-built components. Whew.

    A short-range ballistic missile (SRBM) produced by North Korea and recently used against Ukraine by Russia relied on more than 290 foreign-sourced components, many of them originating from U.S. manufacturers. This is the alarming result of a study by Conflict Armament Research (CAR), a U.K.-based investigative organization.

    More concerning, perhaps, is the fact that according to CAR’s study — which you can read in full here — those U.S. components were manufactured within the last three years. This raises clear questions about the efficiency of United Nations sanctions placed on North Korea which are intended, above all, to disrupt its wide-ranging ballistic missile development program.

    https://www.twz.com/news-features/north-korean-missile-used-in-ukraine-was-packed-full-of-u-s-parts

    Somebody needs to pay closer attention to ebay.

  68. 68.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @rikyrah: Meanwhile Chaya “Libs of TikTok” Raichik is once again reveling in being labeled a stochastic terrorist.

    Can we get that confetti again? Okay, thank you. Yeah, they literally made that up for, like, me, Tucker, Matt Walsh, and Chris Rufo. Like they made up a term for that, terrorist for us. So honestly that makes me feel really important, so thank you.

    @WaterGirl: Ryan Walters, Oklahoma’s Superintendent of Schools — same guy who hired Raichik to the state’s Oklahoma Department of Education’s Library Media Advisory Committee — put out a video in June 2023 calling transgender students a threat to the physical safety of other students.

    Nex brutally beaten to death in the school bathroom by their classmates, whose identities are being carefully protected. Nex’s head was slammed into the ground over and over and over, their injuries so severe that they couldn’t stand up afterwards. The teacher who finally intervened didn’t even assist Nex to the nurse’s office. Another student had to step in. The school didn’t call an ambulance.

    None of the school teachers or staff reported the assault to the police at the time. One of Nex’s relatives had to call the police from the hospital, and a school resource officer was sent to take a statement from Nex’s parent.

    The hospital sent Nex home despite ”one of the girls was pretty much repeatedly beating her head across the floor.”

    Nex died the next day, after being rushed back to the hospital.

    Local media stories refer to it as an “unexpected death” in their headlines, investigators are not sure if the fight played a role in [Nex’s] death.”

    This is the future Republicans want.

    *Nex, the name they went by, had been assigned female at birth and was in the girls bathroom. The linked news story, as well as other local media continue to deadname and misgender them.

  69. 69.

    Geminid

    This item by Turkish journalist Ragip Soylu caught my attention:

       NEW- The U.S. is establishing 155mm artillery shell production lines in Texas with the help of a Turkish defense company, U.S. Ambassador Jeff Flake reveals in an op-ed.

    “In Texas, the Department of Defense is building three munitions lines purchased from a Turkish defense firm.

    By next year, an estimated 30% of all 155mm rounds made in America will come from these Texas factories, thanks to the U.S.-Turkish defense partnership.”

    Ambassador Flake’s op-ed ran a week ago in the Deseret News. He began it:

       I recently swam from Asia to Europe. It took me just over an hour. That is not a boast of my anemic athletic abilities [Narrator: It was]. Rather, it’s an acknowledgement that one country, Turkiye…and one city, Istanbul, are physically straddling that philosophical divide.

    Flake went on to talk about the strategic importance of Turkiye and its relations with the US. That relationship has been contentious over the past decade but seems to have taken a turn for the better since Presidents Biden and Erdogan met at the Nato Summit in Vilnius last July.

  70. 70.

    Bill Arnold

    @Sister Golden Bear:
    She says the term was invented for her. She is, as usual (with few if any exceptions), full of shit:
    Stochastic terrorism – Origin_and_popularization_of_the_term (wikipedia)

    Credit for the first use of the term as it is used today is given to the blogger, G2geek, on the Daily Kos platform in 2011, when defining it as “the use of mass communications to stir up random lone wolves to carry out violent or terrorist acts that are statistically predictable but individually unpredictable”, with plausible deniability for those creating media messaging.

    That is roughly nine years before she started her social media operations.

  71. 71.

    Jackie

    Reiterating what WaterGirl posted at top, wouldn’t a majority of these jobs be in union factories?

    Associated Press: “As President Joe Biden pushes House Republicans to pass needed aid, he wants voters to understand that nearly two-thirds — or nearly $40 billion — of the money for Ukraine would actually go to U.S. factories spread out across the country including plants in Lima, Ohio and Scranton, Pennsylvania.”

    I don’t see Biden pushing these jobs for child labor.

  75. 75.

    Bill Arnold

    @Jackie:

    I don’t see Biden pushing these jobs for child labor.

    Depends. Small hands can be useful in some cases.
    I had a colleague years ago, who grew up on a rapeseed (canola) farm in Southern Saskatchewan. He related that he and his brother(s?) would regularly climb inside the combines to [clear clogs?], because they were smaller than adults.

  76. 76.

    gene108

    @rikyrah:

    Sister Golden Bear posted about this yesterday.

    What gets me more than the lack of attention from school officials is the police have not made any arrests that I am aware of.

    The three girls that jumped Nex and her friend can’t be that hard to identify and track between the friend, and teacher who broke up the fight being eyewitnesses, plus whatever school security footage from the school.

    I get police and prosecutors not being sure if Nex’s death  be treated as a homicide, but at least book the girls on an assault charge or something similar. There should be enough evidence for that without the autopsy report.

  77. 77.

    gene108

    @WaterGirl:

    So I assume there were screams coming from the bathroom and no one came in to help, or even call the police?

    Teacher did come in and breakup the fight after a period of time.

    There aren’t details about when the fight took place, ie during the school day, after school, etc.? Time of day matters, I think, regarding how many people would be around to intervene.

  79. 79.

    Jackie

    😂 Senator Fetterman is setting the right example!

    U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) is calling “BS” on Senate Republicans – and calling them out by name – over their continued failure to pass the Senate’s massive border and military funding for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan bill that he helped craft.

    Sen. Murphy’s first target: top Trump MAGA surrogate Senator Tim Scott (R-SC), who told Fox News, “The left want an open, insecure border. The conservatives and common sense independents, we want a secure America. That means you have to control your back door.”

    Murphy did not hold back.

    “Bulls–t,” the Connecticut Democrat wrote on social media Tuesday. “We reached a bipartisan compromise to give the President enormous new powers to control the border. Almost every single Republican – including Sen. Scott – voted against it because Trump told them to keep the border a mess because it might help him politically.”

    Murphy’s second target was U.S. Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI), who claimed, “The recent bill would have been worse than doing nothing by codifying [Biden’s] open border policies into law.”

    “Bulls—,” Murphy again responded. “The bipartisan border bill that Sen. Johnson’s party asked for and then voted against because Trump said so would have allowed the president to secure the border.”

    Next, the Connecticut Democrat called out U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN). writing, “also bulls—.”

    Blackburn had claimed, “Even Secretary Mayorkas has said what’s happening at the southern border ‘certainly is a crisis.’ It’s past time the Biden administration put a stop to this madness. CLOSE the border.”

    Murphy added, “Senator Blackburn knows the bill would have actually allowed the President to close parts of the border when crossings get too high. But who would book Republicans on cable news if the border was actually under control? That’s why they killed it.”

    https://www.rawstory.com/bs-top-dem-senator-names-and-shames-republican-in-profanity-laden/

  82. 82.

    WaterGirl

    @Doc Sardonic:

    JUST IN: Feds say in a detention memo that Alexander SMIRNOV — charged with fabricating claims that Joe Biden was bribed by Ukrainians — had high-level contacts with Russian intelligence operatives.

  83. 83.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @rikyrah: Yup.

    “We need someone younger!”

    “Okay, she’s right here”

    “But not her!”

    Also, in 2020 most of them wanted the guy who’s OLDER than Biden (Bernie).

  84. 84.

    Ksmiami

    @Geminid: the biggest mistake the English made in WWI was not aligning with Turkey when they asked… instead, Turkey ended up going with Germany and welp…

  85. 85.

    Anonymous At Work

    Was waiting for later but it really does gall me that NOW, RIGHT NOW, all these “free press” organizations actually did some journalism and discover that we are buying up our own munitions and sending them to Ukraine, as opposed to Shrub sending pallets of bribe money overseas.  Free press is a right so no one can judge, but Gods of Kobol, can the effing media treat it like a privilege to be earned?

  87. 87.

    bjacques

    An artillery shell factory is always going to mean to me Bugs Bunny Doing quality control by hitting the shells with a hammer and writing DUD on them when they don’t explode.

  90. 90.

    Ealbert

    Heads up – this is a One Weird Trick question – since the Dodd decision, a lot of old and mostly forgotten laws have come back into effect, so: Does anyone know if the Lend Lease law was ever repealed? Did it have to be refunded every year? Did congress have to approve the spending on a regular basis? If it is still hanging out in limbo, could it be used to fund Ukraine?

  93. 93.

    WaterGirl

    @Anonymous At Work: I have been reading about and hearing about this for months.  That’s why I am hoping we can help get the word out.

    The mainstream media wants to talk about the equivalent of Hillary’s emails, so our job is to work around them.

    It’s infuriating, but that’s the way it is

    Biden was smart to refuse the Super Bowl interview.  Hopefully he will continue to talk with local media and bypass the fucking stenographers.

  94. 94.

    Geminid

    @Ksmiami: After the Ottomans surrendered, the British intended to control the Turkish Straits along with the French and the Greeks. The Treaty of Sievres also carved up the rest of Turkiye, leaving a rump Turkish nation in central Anatolia.

    The ensuing Turkish War of Independence was one of two major wars fought in the aftermath of WWI but overshadowed by it (the Poland /USSR War was the other one). By the end, Mustapha Kemal’s army had run a 150,000-man Greek Army into the Mediterranean. Gladstone and Churchill said they would defend the Straits anyway, but the Tories thought better, dumped Gladstone as Prime Minister and yielded Istanbul without a fight.

    A Turkish engineer I follow on Twitter, Bora Bingol, posted a funny meme about this. It showed pictures of a frowning Churchill and a smiling Kemal. First, Churchill asks, “Pasha, how long can my troops withstand your army,” and Kemal says, “10.”

    Then Churchill says, “What is ’10?’ ” and Kemal says, “…9…” like he’s counting down.

  96. 96.

    frosty

    I’m gobsmacked. My R Rep, Lloyd Smucker, has voted 100% with Ukraine on every related bill. I have to call and thank him. Thanks for the reminder.

  97. 97.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Jackie:

    CLOSE the border

    And this is the secret.  No border compromise would ever have made Republicans happy anyway, because what they want is to close the border.  If anyone comes through, it is ‘open’.  They want no immigration through the Mexican border.  None.  Zero.  That is exactly how their base thinks about it.

  99. 99.

    Geminid

    @Steve in the ATL: Bora Bingol’s favorite team, Galatasary F.C. plays on the European side.

    Galatasary was supposed to play cross-Bosphorus rivals Fenerbahce F.C. for the Turkish championship right before last New Year’s, and some bright promoters thought Riyadh would be a good venue.

    The promoters were wrong. The players announced they would wear Kemal Ataturk warm-up shirts in honor of the 100th anniversary of the Republic. Saudi football officials visited the locker rooms and warned they’d better not, and brought police along to show they meant it.

    So the match was cancelled and the teams flew home. They got back to Istanbul at midnight and were met at the airport by thousands of cheering fans waving Turkish flags and Ataturk posters. Turks love to hate on the Saudis.

  100. 100.

    Gvg

    @Sister Golden Bear: The rules for juveniles are going to be different. I am not a lawyer, but I am sure the process is different. And children’s brains are not fully developed. They might still be salvageable though our justice system is bad at that. At any rate, public outrage encourages officials to say they will be tried as an adult far too often. I am against that, and I don’t think an exception should be made,  because I am sure it would be for the wrong reasons.

    IF the process is playing out the way it should, I would expect things to move slower and more carefully than with adults. Unfortunately I don’t have any reason to think this area has a good juvenile Justice system in place, and the non commenting makes it impossible to tell. They should resist commenting on minors but it still makes me doubt them.

    i’d like to hear from our legal experts.

  101. 101.

    wjca

    @trollhattan: Know what else is boorish? Murder.

    Putin: nekul’turnyy 

    Being called “uncultured” is a serious insult in Russia.  And fits Putin like a glove.

  102. 102.

    wjca

    @Almost Retired: so Republican voters in ruby red states are benefiting from government largess – so to speak – while many of their representatives are working to undermine our efforts in Ukraine and cut the taxes on their bosses.   Yet they continue re-electing these cretin.  This is almost as stupid as paying $400 for flimsy golden sneakers.

    Except that, you at least end up with something concrete: the sneakers.  Which means re-electing the RWNJs is more stupid.

  103. 103.

    Yutsano

    @H.E.Wolf: Too late in the day today, but I need to call Newhouse. I haven’t looked up how he voted last time but he’s such a Quisling who is afraid of a primary that he’ll vote whatever way TFG wants him to.

  104. 104.

    wjca

    @frosty: I’m gobsmacked. My R Rep, Lloyd Smucker, has voted 100% with Ukraine on every related bill. I have to call and thank him.

    Very good!  Positive reinforcement is very important in training.

  108. 108.

    Chris T.

    @Formerly disgruntled in Oregon:

    I have a teenage NB who uses these pronouns. It’s a big deal to them.

    The importance seems to vary depending on the individual, but it’s always courteous to use their preferred pronoun. There’s a vet at the practice I use that’s nonbinary and using “they” doesn’t come all that naturally to me personally, but I sidestep my problem by saying “Doctor”  :-)

  110. 110.

    rikyrah

    @Gvg:

    The rules for juveniles are going to be different. I am not a lawyer, but I am sure the process is different. And children’s brains are not fully developed.

     

    I know this is a dead thread, but, I have to respond.

    I have to believe that these are three White girls, which is why nothing has happened.

    After all, this was just a Native child that they killed.

    Why ruin these three White girls’ lives over a Native child?

     

    Why do I believe they are White?

    Because, there has never been any hesitation to arrest Black children and charge them as adults, anywhere in this country.

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