Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

This fight is for everything.

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

The “burn-it-down” people are good with that until they become part of the kindling.

The real work of an opposition party is to oppose.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

We still have time to mess this up!

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

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

If America since Jan 2025 hasn’t broken your heart, you haven’t loved her enough.

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

“Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on.”

Disagreements are healthy; personal attacks are not.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

Innocent people do not delay justice.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

Those who are easily outraged are easily manipulated.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

Do we throw up our hands or do we roll up our sleeves? (hint, door #2)

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. keep building.

Come on, man.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

The words do not have to be perfect.

“Perhaps I should have considered other options.” (head-desk)

My right to basic bodily autonomy is not on the table. that’s the new deal.

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War for Ukraine Day 976: Odesa Under Attack

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Screen shot of new artwork by NEIVANMADE. The background is black. In the bottom foreground are grey Ukrainian homes and apartment buildings being bombarded by red Russian missiles with the Special Military Operation "Z" symbol on them. Above the missiles, written in red is the word "Ruzzians". Below the buildings being attacked is the statement "Turns Homes Into Graves".

(Image by NEIVANMADE)

Two quick housekeeping notes. First, Rosie is continuing to slowly do better. Though she is milking it a bit regarding her food. Tonight she got a freshly cooked hamburger. Last night she got a freshly cooked chicken breast. Thank you all for the good thoughts, well wishes, prayers, and donations.

Second, despite a nap yesterday, and about ten hours of sleep overnight, I’m still fried. I’m trying not to nod off as I type this, so I’m just going to run through the basics again so I can rack out. I’ll get to that other stuff tomorrow night.

Russian opened up on Odesa with a ballistic missile earlier today.

Here’s a partial butcher’s bill from Russia’s genocidal attack on Ukrainian civilians and civilian facilities last night:

It you’re wondering why Ukraine needs to retake their Russian occupied territories, it is not just to restore Ukraine’s legitimate, internationally recognized borders. It is also to push Russia’s military back as far as possible to deny the Russians the ability to attack Ukraine from closer range.

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

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War for Ukraine Day 974: North Korean Special Forces Arrive in Kursk

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Two quick housekeeping notes. First, Rosie is still feeling a bit meh. Again, completely unexpected on the Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday after a chemo treatment. She’s chilling on the bed with Ruby and me. Thank you for all the good thoughts, well wishes, prayers, and donations.

Second, I’m fried. So, just the basics tonight. I’ll deal with the Marine vet and crooked cop from Palm Beach, Florida, now residing in Russia, and his work to ratfuck the US election for the GRU’s sabotage unit. As well as his long history doing this stuff to local officials and others who crossed him when he was a sheriff’s deputy in Florida and before he fled to Russia.

The cost:

The funeral of 14-year-old Ania, her mom Iryna and aunt Liudmyla who were killed in their own home in Sumy on the night of October 22nd by a Russian Shahed drone.

Only Ania’s father managed to survive. He was injured and is being treated at a local hospital but managed to attend the funeral.

Deepest condolences.

From The Kyiv Independent:

The first North Korean soldiers to participate alongside Russian forces in the war against Ukraine have been deployed to the front line in Kursk Oblast, Ukraine’s military intelligence (HUR) reported on Oct. 24.

North Korea has sent nearly 12,000 troops to Russia, including 500 officers and three generals. The first sightings of North Korean soldiers were recorded on Oct. 23.

These soldiers are reportedly receiving training at five military training grounds in Ekaterinoslavka, Knyaze-Volkonskoe, and Sergeevka, as well as in Ussuriysk and Ulan-Ude in eastern Russia.

Russian Deputy Defense Minister Yunus-bek Yevkurov has been appointed to supervise the training and adaptation of the North Korean troops, who are given “a few weeks” to adjust, according to HUR’s report.

The North Korean military is provided with ammunition, bedding, winter clothing, footwear, and hygiene products. According to Ukraine’s military intelligence, each soldier receives 50 meters of toilet paper and 300 grams of soap each month.

Ukrainian intelligence claimed that Russia has “high hopes” for the participation of North Korean soldiers in the war.

North Korea has denied reports of North Korean troop presence in Russia, while a Kremlin spokesperson provided an evasive response.

A military intelligence source told the Kyiv Independent on Oct. 21 that Russian authorities detained 18 North Korean soldiers who abandoned their positions in Kursk Oblast. Video footage has also emerged, allegedly showing North Korean troops at a Russian military training camp.

Kyiv and Seoul say Moscow is planning to involve thousands of North Korean troops in its full-scale war.

“If they do deploy to fight against Ukraine, they’re fair game, they’re fair targets, and the Ukrainian military will defend themselves against North Korean soldiers the same way they’re defending themselves against Russian soldiers,” Kirby told a press briefing at the White House.

“And so the possibility that there could be dead and wounded North Korean soldiers… is absolutely real if they get deployed.”

Much more at the link.

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

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War for Ukraine Day 969: The Glide Bombing Continues

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A quick housekeeping note. Rosie, Ruby too, are doing great. Rosie’s last chemo treatment is Monday, so we’ll have more on that then. Now that the humidity has come down a lot and the heat as well, it is safer to walk her. We did a 3/4 mile walk earlier and she did very well despite not doing a lot of walking during the course of her treatments because of the effects of them on her combined with the outrageously high heat and humidity. Thank you all for the good thoughts, well wishes, prayers, and donations.

Now that I’ve gotten a bit of rest, I want to take a moment and spend a little more time on the North Korean soldiers issue. The Republic of Korea’s (ROK/South Korea) National Intelligence Service (NIS) has reported that the soldiers that Kim has dispatched to Russia to fight against the Ukrainians are DPRK Special Forces. These are elite soldiers. They are not conscripts doing their mandatory service. They get special privileges in exchange for their service, proper food and access to sundry goods and commodities included. They are committed to the concept of Juche. These are not troops you want to take lightly. While there’s a lot of sturm und drang right now over whether they’ve actually been deployed to Russia or that they have been, but they’re not going to be used to fight the Ukrainians, these guys are what the Russians thought and mythologized their own Special Forces to be before the Ukrainians chewed them up in February and March 2022. It is also important to remember that it gets VERY, VERY, VERY cold on the Korean peninsula during the winter, there’s a lot of mountainous terrain, and the North Korean Special Forces are trained and acclimated for winter and mountain warfare, so the Ukrainian winter is not going to phase them. If they are assigned to fight the Ukrainians things are going to get very, very, very sporty very quickly.

On the other side of the DMZ, the ROK has their own elite Special Forces. I’ve got friends and colleagues who have worked with them. Even the Special Forces (Green Berets) and Rangers tell stories of agreeing to get up early and do PT with the South Korean Special Forces and getting completely smoked by the latter. They’re in amazing condition, highly trained and skilled, and excellent Soldiers.

The larger issue here is that we are looking at an expansion of one of the kinetic/lethal theaters of operation in Putin’s world war against the US, the EU, NATO, and other US allies and partners. The other three primarily kinetic/lethal theaters are the Russian occupied parts of Georgia; Syria, where Russia attacked civilian targets in Idlib just last week; and the Sahel states. Again, Russia’s world war is primarily being waged with the elements of national power – Diplomatic, Informational, Economic, Financial, Intelligence, and Legal – other than Militaray power except in these four theaters of operation. It is a world war where the aggressor’s/Russia’s military power is not normally distributed as most of the targets are being attacked with the other elements of Russian national power. Where Russian military power is used outside of these four theaters, it is the result of the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence, undertaking it’s sabotage and wetwork campaigns. Campaigns that are also being conducted by Russia’s SVR as the two agencies are in competition with each other. Putin’s world war is being resourced by Iran, North Korea, and, based on recent reporting, the PRC. Russia is killing Ukrainian civilians and destroying Ukrainian infrastructure with Iranian and North Korean weapons systems and munitions. We are now waiting to see if the North Korean Special Forces will actually be deployed against the Ukrainians. And while it is out of scope for the Ukrainian war updates, Kim has cut the roads and rail lines near the DMZ while redeploying additional forces to that area.

I do not expect President Biden and his senior natsec appointees to actually figure this out. They have been incredibly resistant to actually recognizing the geo-strategic reality of the past four years. Even if it was not apparent from their response to and handling of Putin’s genocidal re-invasion of Ukraine, it is visible from space in regard to their mismanagement of the Israel-Hamas, Israel-Hezbullah wars. I read the Israeli news reporting, commentary and analysis, and subject matter experts every day. All of them, every single one, are repeatedly amazed about how Biden, Blinken, Austin, Sullivan, Hochstein, McGurk, et al have been played by Bibi, Dermer, and the rest of Bibi’s people over and over and over again.

Their belief, shared by the rest of the Blob inside and outside the Beltway, that the PRC is the pacing threat and we have to pivot US natsec to meet it before 2027 is based on a significant misunderstanding of Chinese political, strategic, and military culture, Xi, and what the PRC is actually doing in its own geo-strategic activities. Their fundamental misunderstanding of China’s political and military geography has now come home to roost with the latest North Korean developments.

Quite simply, there is not a part of the world that is safer and more stable than it was four years ago. Yes, had Trump been reelected, it would all be worse, but just because Trump and his team would be worse, and that he and they have been actively working to subvert Biden and his team’s natsec efforts, doesn’t excuse the strategic malpractice, mismanagement, and failures of President Biden and his senior natsec appointees.

But just because these are the wrong men – and every single member of the senior natsec team handling these issues are men – to meet this moment, does not mean we should fail to recognize the moment for what it is: an ever expanding world war.

Here’s a summary of Russia’s drone swarm attack last night/early this morning:

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

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War for Ukraine Day 962: Flying Falcons on the Hunt

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A painting by NEIVANMADE of a smiling F16 Flying Falcon emerging from clouds in the top left of the painting. Below the F16, in the center to bottom right, "Sweet 16" is written in blue over yellow scroll art.

(Image by NEIVANMADE)

A quick housekeeping note. We are all still safe and as comfy as possible at the hotel. The girls are doing well. So is the Mominator. My friend is going to go over and check on my house tomorrow morning. Power restoration is still estimated to be on/by 17 OCT. My friend’s power, which did not go out during the actual hurricane, went out yesterday, but is now back on. Reports like this are coming in from all over the area. My friend also texted that the traffic lights at one of the main entrances to where I live is out. Also, someone got a gas delivery to the Walmart gas station in a 1/4 mile from that entrance. A number of fights broke out, the police were called, and armed guards were brought in to prevent rioting. Floriduh! man is alive and well.

Also, if you wind up in Tallahassee, I highly recommend Food Glorious Food. I took mom there for dinner/break fast tonight after Yom Kippur ended. The food was excellent and so was the service. Melissa took great care of us! If we’re here a few more days, which is what I expect as there’s no point going home if there’s no power, no gasoline, etc, that we’ll be going back.

I’ve been offline most of the day, am still fried, and am going to just run down the basics.

The Ukrainians appear to have brought down a Russian Su-34. The Russians are claiming it was brought down by a Ukrainian F-16.

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

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War for Ukraine Day 955: Russia Downs Its Own New Attack Drone Over Ukraine So the Ukrainians Can’t Get Their Hands On It

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Two quick housekeeping notes. First, Rosie is doing very well. Thank you for all the good thoughts, prayers, well wishes, and donations.

Second, the tropical wave/disturbance they were worried was going to form up where Helene did and basically follow Helene’s track up the gulf this weekend instead slowly meandered across the Yucatan and is now in the western Gulf of Mexico as Tropical Storm Milton. It is expected to track southwest to northeast across the gulf from where it is and make landfall somewhere in Florida as a category 3 hurricane sometime on Wednesday or Thursday. Unfortunately, by the time the forecasting and modeling tightens up it will be late Monday. So if you may be in the path of the storm, which is almost all of Florida, start making your plans now knowing you may have to adjust on the fly. At noon today it was supposed to make landfall between Sarasota and Bradenton. Now it is supposed to make landfall on St. Pete Beach and track diagonally across Pinellas County, through Tampa Bay, over Tampa, and then continue northeast across the state. We are well into the uncertainty part of the forecast at this point and they won’t know where the track will shift = north or south – until we are far, far, far too close to landfall.

Last night in comments UncleEbeneezer wrote:

Hey Adam, semi-tangent but sort of on topic: I recently went down a rabbit-hole about the Soviet Anti-Zionist propaganda campaigns from 1920’s-80’s, mostly reading the

GEC Special Report: More Than a Century of Antisemitism:

How Successive Occupants of the Kremlin Have Used Antisemitism to Spread Disinformation and Propaganda

As well as:
Demonization Blueprints: Soviet Conspiracist Antizionism in Contemporary Left-Wing Discourse by Izabella Tabarovsky and I was just curious (since this is right in your area of expertise) as to her reputation as an historian of Soviet AntiSemitism?  Is she reputable?  It all looks pretty legit to my untrained eye.  And it is wild to me to think that almost every major framing I’ve seen from the Left wrt Gaza over the past year (and sometimes Ukraine too), are rooted in an AntiSemitic propaganda campaign from the USSSR.  This seems like the sort of thing more people should be aware of.

Going in reverse order, I’ve bever heard of Tabarovksy. She appears to be a professional think tanker, bouncing from one to the next. Or at multiple ones at the same time. I know some people at the GEC and am professionally familiar with their work. It’s quality stuff. Thanks for bringing this to everyone’s attention.

Russia tried to attack Ukraine with it’s new S-70 Okhotnik heavy attack UAV/drone. When the Russians realized it was in danger, they shot it down themselves. Or they shout it down by mistake, with the Russians you can’t really tell. Anyhow, it landed in Ukraine near Konstantynivka, which means the Ukrainians are already doing exploitation operations.

Ooopsie!

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

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War for Ukraine Day 953: Would You Look at That, Apparently You Can Bomb a Russian Airbase Deep Behind the Lines, Who Knew?

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Two quick housekeeping notes. First, Rosie is doing great. Thank you all for the good thoughts, well wishes, prayers, and donations.

Second, thank you all for the Rosh HaShana wishes.

Apparently you can strike a Russian base well behind enemy lines.

Helping Ukraine defeat Russia will isolate Iran, thus degrading Iranian support for Hizbollah, Hamas, and Houthis. It will also send a message of deterrence to China. These wars are connected…parts of one strategic challenge to our way of life, requiring political will, industrial capacity and military capability.

Who knew?

I expect that the Biden administration will now turn off the long range weapons systems and the flow of long range weapons to Ukra… Wait, I’m getting an update: Israel.

Never mind.

Here’s the butcher’s bill from last night’s Russian attack:

Russia continues to terrorize the civilian population of Ukraine, overnight launching 105 Shahed kamikaze drones onto several regions of the country.

Despite the relentless attacks, Ukrainian air forces are still downing the majority – this time successfully eliminating 78.

Ukraine is forbidden by the US to strike the source of the attacks with western weapons.

From The Kyiv Independent:

About 15 Russian drones were detected and shot down near Kyiv overnight on Oct. 3, city authorities said.

The air raid alert in Ukraine’s capital lasted 5.5 hours, with explosions reported in Kyiv and surrounding areas.

Drone attacks on Kyiv have increased in recent weeks, with Russia launching several groups of drones at night, approaching from various directions and altitudes, according to the Kyiv City Military Administration.

“The enemy launched the first groups of drones before midnight, but more and more UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) were constantly added throughout the night,” authorities reported on Oct. 3.

“Nevertheless, none of the Russian drones reached their target.”

Debris from downed drones fell in Kyiv’s Desnianskyi district. No damage or injuries were reported.

Ukraine’s Air Force reported that Russia launched 105 Shahed-type drones across Ukraine overnight. Seventy-eight were shot down across 15 oblasts, while 23 were lost to electronic warfare, and one flew toward Belarus, the statement said.

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

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War for Ukraine Day 943: President Zelenskyy Travels to the US & Russia Continues Hunting Ukrainians in Kherson with Drones

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Two quick housekeeping notes. First, Rosie is still doing very well. Thank you all for the good thoughts, well wishes, prayers, and donations.

Second, I don’t have the bandwidth to add another conflict for updates right now. But I do want to make a couple of quick points. The first is that Israel has, in just today’s strikes, has killed enough Lebanese to get over the 25% mark of its total campaign numbers from 2006. That campaign lasted 34 days. It is unclear what the proportion of Hezbullah fighters and personnel are to civilian casualties right now, regardless, the overall number and percentage compared to 2006 is astonishing.

Full disclosure: I know Liz Sly. She’s an excellent reporter and knows the Levant exceedingly well. She interviewed me when I was deployed in Iraq.

Second, I don’t know how this ends. The Biden administration had been trying to deescalate this for almost an entire year. That’s not worked for a variety of reasons. Third, the people who will be hurt the worst are just every day Lebanese and Israelis. Some will be Arab, some will be Druze. Some will by Muslim, some Jewish, some Christian, some Druze, some Bahai. They are the real victims. They are the victims of leaders who care more about themselves and their doctrinally derived ideological grievances and megalomaniacal sense of historical over importance than about the people they claim to represent.

Russia is hunting Ukrainian civilians in Kherson:

They’re doing something similar in Nikopol:

❗️The russian bastards are terrorizing Nikopol: they attach heat traps to FPV drones and randomly launch them at houses and cars, thus provoking fires, — the military.

They do not try to find military targets, and these traps are not aimed. The burning temperature is about 2000 degrees.

President Zelenskyy has traveled to the US in order to address the UN General Assembly later in the week. Today he addressed the Plenary Session of the Summit of the Future. Video below, English transcript after the jump.

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