Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

SCOTUS: It’s not “bribery” unless it comes from the Bribery region of France. Otherwise, it’s merely “sparkling malfeasance”.

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

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

Chutkan laughs. Lauro sits back down.

Bark louder, little dog.

When the time comes to make an endorsement, the pain of NYT editors will be palpable as they reluctantly whisper “Biden.”

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

Accountability, motherfuckers.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

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

This really is a full service blog.

The US Supreme Court is on the ballot in november.

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

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Live so that if you miss a day of work people aren’t hoping you’re dead.

…and a burning sense of injustice to juice the soul.

Let’s finish the job.

When we show up, we win.

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

This blog will pay for itself.

An unpunished coup is a training exercise.

You are here: Home / Archives for Foreign Affairs

COVID-19 Coronavirus (& H5N1) Updates: August 27, 2024

by | 39 Comments

This post is in: , ,

***********

I’m not even gonna try to summarize this one… it’s short, read the whole thing:

show full post on front page

COVID-19 Coronavirus (& H5N1) Updates: August 27, 2024Post + Comments (39)

Guest Post – Tony Jay: A Letter From Brexitania: UK Election 2024 Catch-Up, Part II

by | 49 Comments

This post is in: ,

British correspondent Tony Jay, continuing from yesterday’s post…

… Back in 2019 the corporate media and the Right of the Labour Party had been justifiably confident they’d left no stone unturned in forging an Establishment-wide coalition of exactly the kind of creepy, crawly things you’d expect to find living underneath stones, all dedicated – for one reason or another – to sparing the UK a nightmare of progressive social policy and reduced inequality by painting a vote for the Party led by the lifelong anti-racism campaigner and pro-diplomacy peacenik as nothing short of a green light for concentration camps in Golders Green and the compulsory renaming of all male children as Yasser Adolf Mao Ho Chi Amin Dzhugashvili, meanwhile the spoilt, mendacious, casually racist asset of Russian oligarchs and American billionaires with the long history of corruption and shameless lying was passed off as that funny posh bloke from the telly who, say what you like about his eye for the dolly birds, at least you could always rely on to put the interests of Great Britain first.

I wouldn’t say the Tories were actually popular in 2019, but by and large the coalition’s PR policy had been to make Labour even less popular and they’d given ‘centrist’ voters licence to sadly shake their heads and tell each other that they simply couldn’t possibly be expected to sully their precious consciences by casting a vote for a man who’d personally betrayed Anne Frank to the Nazis (well, maybe the actual facts didn’t show that, but if even Nigel Havers and that nice girl off Countdown said he would have, well, no smoke without fire) and if anyone was honest rude enough to equate that decision with letting Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson have his destructive No-Deal Brexit, well, that was just another thing to blame that ghastly Corbyn for, wasn’t it?

In comparison, it’s not so easy to overstate just how irredeemably unpopular the Tories had become by July 2024. Cholera. Priests in your bed. Elon Musk’s aesthetic choices. These are just a few of the things a majority of the British electorate found less offensive to their spirit animals than the thought of another five years of Tory Government. 14 years of national decline and the continued widespread enshitification of the culture for everyone who wasn’t already dirty rich.

This national decision-by-osmosis had reached an apotheosis in the clogging of Britain’s rivers and beaches with unprocessed sewage by private water companies while their executives just shrugged, funnelled the billions they’d saved on infrastructure maintenance into shareholder dividends, and paid themselves multi-million pound bonuses as a reward before hiring lobbyists (many of them former Tory or Labour politicians) to bribe offer inducements to fund the off-the-books jet-setting lives of have in-depth private consultations with Government Ministers about signing off on funding the clean-up efforts with public money… or if they couldn’t swing that, then certainly about slow-walking any serious investigation of criminal liability until said executives had moved on to another stratospherically rewarded post and the companies could play the “Oh, that was under previous management, it’s all good now” card. Corruption, deceit, incompetence, these were all the bywords for Tory Government and people were tired of it.

show full post on front page

Guest Post – Tony Jay: A Letter From Brexitania: UK Election 2024 Catch-Up, Part IIPost + Comments (49)

The War for Ukraine Day 916: Last Night’s/This Morning’s Butcher’s Bill

by | 13 Comments

This post is in: , , , , , , ,

A painting by Ukrainian artist NEIVANMADE. The words "NEVER AGAIN" are repeated over and over, from left to right and top to bottom, in a faded, washed out black against a white background. Red, the color of blood, runs and drips down across 2/3rds of the painting. "WHILE YOU TOLERATE TYRANTS" is written/painted in the bottom white corner below the three rows of "NEVER AGAIN".

(Image by NEIVANMADE)

Two quick housekeeping notes. First, Rosie is doing great. She’s off for the rest of this week with her next treatment next Tuesday. Thank you for all the good thoughts, well wishes, prayers, and donations.

Second, I’m fried. Yes, I know it’s only Tuesday, still fried. I’m going to run through the butcher’s bill from last night, a couple of other items, and that’s about it.

From The Kyiv Independent:

Ukraine carried out a successful test of the first domestic-made ballistic missile, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Aug. 27.

“It may be too early to talk about it but I want to share it with you,” the president said at the Ukraine 2024 Independence forum in Kyiv.

Zelensky congratulated to the Ukrainian Defense Industry on the project but did not provide any further details on the weaponry.

A day earlier, Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said that Ukraine is preparing a response to Russian aerial strikes with weapons of its own production.

“This once again proves that for victory, we need long-range capabilities and the lifting of restrictions on strikes on the enemy’s military facilities,” Umerov said. “Ukraine is preparing its own response. Weapons of its own production.”

Zelensky previously revealed that Ukraine has developed a domestic-made missile-drone, Palianytsia. He said it has already been used against Russia.

Kyiv has received a number of long-range missiles from partners, such as U.S.-made ATACMS, British Storm Shadow, or French SCALP/T. Their potential impact is limited by Western restrictions on strikes deep inside Russian territory.

Russia regularly uses ballistic missiles like Iskander-M or Kinzhal in attacks against Ukrainian cities and infrastructure.

 

President Zelenskyy participated in the Ukraine 2024 Independence Forum. There’s no transcript, but I’ve got the English closed captioning on for the video.

show full post on front page

The War for Ukraine Day 916: Last Night’s/This Morning’s Butcher’s BillPost + Comments (13)

Late Night Open Thread: Telegram, for Mr. Musk

by | 208 Comments

This post is in: , , , ,

Adam has already written about Durov’s arrest in France, but I’m curious about Musk’s latest intermittent FREEZE PEACH!!! outburst in connection with the Telegram bust. Per Fortune, via MSN.com, “Elon Musk calls for release of Telegram founder Pavel Durov as arrest sparks debate whether X owner may be next”:

… The spectacular arrest of Pavel Durov on the tarmac of Paris’s Le Bourget airport just after his private jet touched down on Saturday elicited an intense debate over where exactly the boundaries of protected free speech end and the rule of law begins.

Durov is being held in France initially without formal charges, but authorities could accuse the Telegram founder of failing to police illegal content and commerce conducted via Telegram.

Musk’s X is likewise in the crosshairs of European policymakers, with the EU Commission recently reminding him of its failure to observe the Digital Services Act that requires large platform owners to systematically clamp down on false and misleading content.

The entrepreneur, who is also CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, called on France to “free Pavel”, warning his arrest signalled dangerous times ahead for democracy.

“The 2nd amendment is the only reason long-term that the 1st amendment will be upheld,” he added, referring to the constitutionally-protected right in the United States to bear arms and exercise free speech…

show full post on front page

Late Night Open Thread: Telegram, for Mr. MuskPost + Comments (208)

War for Ukraine Day 915: The Russian Bombardments Will Continue Until Putin’s Morale Improves

by | 30 Comments

This post is in: , , , , , , ,

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)

A quick housekeeping note. Rosie is doing great. She’s got all this week off before her next treatment. Thank you all for the good thoughts, well wishes, prayers, and donations.

Russia spent the small hours and most of today pounding civilian targets across Ukraine. And air raid alerts are still up over most of Ukraine or are going up and down in the different oblasts.

Update at 8;45 PM EDT/3:45 AM local time in Ukraine

Russia has its strategic bombers and strike fighters up! Cruise and ballistic missiles, as well as drone swarms to clear the way, are inbound!

Air raid alert map of Ukraine. Air raid warning are up over every region (oblast) of Ukraine. The map also indicates that Russian strategic aviation - bombers - are in the air over Russia and cruise and ballistic missiles are inbound to Ukraine.

End update

Among the targets was the Kyiv hydroelectric plant and dam.

If Russia breaches the dam, then what happened last year in Kherson Oblast will happen to Kyiv.

And lest anyone think that’s doomsaying, the Russians spent a lot of time just last month claiming Ukraine was going to blow the damn up and blame Russia for it.

Remember what I wrote way back in February of 2022 during the first days of Russia’s genocidal re-invasion: if Putin cannot have Kyiv and Ukraine, then no one, including the Ukrainians gets to have Kyiv and Ukraine.

The largest russian air attack: Ukrainian defenders shot down 102 missiles and 99 UAVs.

Overnight, russia attacked Ukrainian energy infrastructure with 109 Shahed UAVs and 127 missiles of various types.

Ukrainian air defenders shot down 201 aerial targets, including:
• 99 Shahed UAVs
• 99 Kh-101, Kalibr, Kh-59 missiles
• 1 Kh-47M2 Kindzhal missile
• 1 Iskander-M/KN-23 ballistic missile
• 1 Kh-22 cruise missile

Thank you, air defenders, for your heroic work!
Thank you, partners, for strengthening Ukraine’s air defense!

The Kyiv Independent has the details on today’s attacks:

Russia has launched the largest attack on Ukraine since the beginning of the full-scale invasion in 2022, Ukraine’s Air Force reported on Aug. 26.

Seven people were killed and 47 were injured, according to the State Emergency Service.

Russian forces carried out an attack targeting 15 oblasts, according to Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal.

Russia launched 127 missiles and 109 drones, while Ukraine downed 102 missiles and 99 drones, according to the Air Force. Russian strikes hit several civilian, energy, and fuel facilities, including a dam in Kyiv, part of the Kyiv Hydroelectric Power Plant.

Ukrainian forces intercepted one Kinzhal ballistic missile, one Iskander-M/KN-23 ballistic missile, one Kh-22 cruise missile, 99 Kh-101, Kalibr, and Kh-59/69 cruise missiles, as well as 99 Shahed-type drones.

A few drones disappeared from location radars and were lost in the Ukrainian territory. Two unmanned aerial vehicles crossed the border with Belarus.

Ukraine deployed all available resources to repel the attack, including jets, anti-aircraft missile forces, mobile fire groups, and electronic warfare units, the Air Force said.

Following the mass Russian attack against Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky met with Air Force Commander Mykola Oleshchuk, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko, Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko, and Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, the head of state grid operator Ukrenergo.

The group discussed the efficiency of air defense and electronic warfare systems and mobile fire groups in each region, among other issues.

Demining operations are underway at the sites affected by Russian attacks. In some areas, Russian forces attacked civilian facilities with cluster munitions. Sappers must check the locations before power engineers can start repairing, according to Zelensky.

Despite all the announcements and pledges over the past several months, the promised air defense systems and munitions have yet to arrive in Ukraine.

For want of a nail!!!!

More on today’s attacks after the jump.

President Zelenskyy made two addresses today. Video of the first one below, English transcript after the jump followed by the video and transcript of the second one.

show full post on front page

War for Ukraine Day 915: The Russian Bombardments Will Continue Until Putin’s Morale ImprovesPost + Comments (30)

Guest Post – Tony Jay: A Letter From Brexitania: UK Election 2024 Catch-Up

by | 33 Comments

This post is in: , ,

Always good to get a missive from our British correspondent, Tony Jay. Blame me for Tony not being here to defend himself answer your questions — it hit my inbox just as the DNC was gearing up, and it’s been non-stop BREAKING NEWS ever since…

War of Wood and Plastic

Fearsome aspects clad in terror sheer
Conjured whole from nightmares children fear
Looming shapes in ghastly regiments
Implacable spawn of primal elements
Crushing blind to gorge and smash
Glacial appetite, the lightning’s lash
Bestriding world of brittle man as titans did of old
Primordial hunger, unmoored by conscience’s hold
When they fell upon the world below
The ants beneath did wail, but lo
Trembling at sight of doom impending
Now witnessing a nightmare ending
A hollow boom, an ice-thin crack
Then blinking in the brightening black
All the ants around could see
The terror and the majesty
The power inchoate, the violent glee
The eldritch foul monstrosity
Were naught but petty artifice
Mimes of might to scare the lice
Masks as worn at monarch’s feasts
Painted ‘pon stretched skins of beasts
No more eternal than winter’s snow
White crest of waves, dawn’s rosy glow
“Why did we cower?” asked the ants of the sky
“By your choice,” spake the wind, as each eye did fly
To horizon’s edge as it bulged anew
With terrors past, now in different hue
And lo, we knelt in muck once more
We ants
It’s what we’re for
Rodney Dangerfield – Reflections On My Toilet Water – A Collection

 
So, the Tories are gone. Humiliated. Downed like pants. Former Prime Miniature Rishi Sunak’s incomprehensible gamble that ‘something’ would just, like, sort of happen and obediently hasten along in the manner of a well-trained sommelier to appear at his elbow, eyebrow cocked and corkscrew primed, right on cue to save his collapsing Premiership from a historical defeat never actually came off, leading me to conclude that it was all a con, and that it was never really supposed to. Twenty months into a sentence of hard fail trying to fit his ¾-size travel-doll self into the gaping fat waster shaped hole Boris ‘Flobalob’ Johnson’s enforced absence had left at the empty heart of the Tory Party, Sunak seemed to have realised he just didn’t want or need to be there anymore. He’d simply had enough.

It kind of makes sense. No one liked him. No one respected him. Everything he did was amateurish or ill-judged or both. From his bone-stupid decision to bail on the D-Day commemorations without pre-clearing it with the Press, through the drizzle-sodden display of “EVERYTHING IS JUST FINE” dog-in-a-blazing-room meme faux-masochism that was his Downing St announcement of a snap election, right on down the line to the baffling lack of control that allowed administration insiders to place equally insidery bets on the date of the Election they were helping to set, he’d somehow succeeded in forging an image for himself that was one part Andrew Ridgeley’s nerdy little cousin (the one who was always posing in front of the mirror in his Mum and Dad’s suburban two-up/two-down in a skimpy pair of beach bulgers but never once got the call to come over and be in one of WHAM’s videos, because George had known him since he was a toddler and never could stand the snotty little snob) to two parts broad-notes slimy corporate bad-guy (a Chad, or maybe a Spencer, occasionally a Phillip, but never, ever, a Phil) with their too-long nose permanently up the pinched grunthole of the grizzled old rags-to-riches Chairman who had settled on them as the least-worst choice to marry his cute, blonde granddaughter and run the company once he retired, the one you all probably remember from any of those early-80s Michael J. Fox vehicles, a kind of subcontinental Judge Reinhold without the occasional glimmer of aw-shucks decency.

The initial modesty-screen of fiscal competence and family-man rectitude erected on his behalf in 2022 by the UK’s always very conserva-compliant corporate media following the post-Truss restoration of Politics As Usual was long gone by July ‘24, corroded by a piss-stream of headline-fodder kulturkampf ‘political events’ and the equally salty spray of angry tears emanating from a Tory electorate that never actually wanted him in charge and was riven – possibly fatally – between clumps of steadily more horrified by the results of the policies they’d enthusiastically voted for ‘normal’ Conservatives and the deeply abnormal columns of jostling proto-Völkists who took all their sociopolitical cues from Nigel ‘What if Pepe the Frog fucked Mr Toad’ Farage and the rest of the social-media revanchistorians of the modern Hard Right. Basically, he had exposed himself to the nation for what he really was – a stiff little prick better suited to spurting multi-billion-pound giveaways in the direction of people like his uber-rich father-in-law than anyone capable of performing successfully in the slick, sweaty, tactile montage of fleeting moments that is retail politics.

He’d done the first part of that relatively adequately, given his limitations and the limping state the Tory Party was in after the sugar-high of Brexit had worn off and the Establishment’s axe-murder of Corbyn’s Labour receded into the faintly embarrassing distance. If Flobalob’s reign had been all about self-gratification and grifting Covid pandemic billions into a VIP Lane superhighway for Tory Party donors, and Mad Queen Lizzie’s brief interregnum a short, sharp – but nevertheless incredibly costly – stamp on the balls of the wackier economic and financial theorists popular in Wingnutiopia, Sunak’s main aim appeared to be keeping his Party’s extreme Right distracted with hugely expensive phantom schemes to send all the forrins Back to Africa (actual point of ethnic origin being immaterial compared to the Hippy-punching spite of it all) while with his wanking hand he was signing off on huge transfers of public money into the hands of the disgustingly rich people he’s always served. Hitting the eject button on a failed political career is always an option for those who have feathered their landing spot with the grace and favour of people they’ve helped make rich(er). It’s pretty much the only raison d’être for the tribe of Conservatives who elevated Sunak to Number 10 in the first place.

Now that Rishi Rich has divested his portfolio of time-consuming distractions like ‘running the country’, I could leave it for those sombre-bearded historians to ponder the question of did he do it deliberately to punish the Tory Party for putting him through those 20 months of mild humiliation, but why on Earth would I ever do that? Calling an election when he did was – in the august opinions of commentators both expert and, well, me – a step beyond bonkers and pretty much verging on Granny buying a one-way ticket to Switzerland after signing over all of her assets to a Cayman Island trust while leaving “Goodbye, fuckers” notes on the pillows of all her unloved children and a gold-dusted cucumber of Herculean proportions on that of Pascal, the muscular topiarist who came over twice a week to trim her hedges. It was 100% a dead-man’s plunge, and he was taking the whole fucking lot of them with him.

show full post on front page

Guest Post – Tony Jay: <em>A Letter From Brexitania: UK Election 2024 Catch-Up</em>Post + Comments (33)

War for Ukraine Day 914: If It’s a Day Ending in Day, the Russians Are Committing War Crimes & Crimes Against Humanity

by | 21 Comments

This post is in: , , , , , , ,

Two quick housekeeping notes. First, Rosie is doing great. Not much more to report until her next chemo treatment a week from tomorrow. Thank you all for the good thoughts, well wishes, prayers, and donations.

Second, everything that was removed from under the bed and moved into the living room for a couple of days, which will now not fit under the new shorter frame, has now been brought back into the bedroom and stowed in the closet. I’ve done a lot of pick up, shield or farmer’s carry, put down, and then wrangle into place today. I’ve got a compression ice wrap on my arm and am going to keep this brief so I can go get cleaned up and rack out.

The Russians committed another war crime and crime against humanity in Kramatorsk today:

Here’s Reuters‘ statement:

Targeting civilian targets, like hotels, and civilians are violations of both International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and the Law of Armed Combat (LOAC).

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

show full post on front page

War for Ukraine Day 914: If It’s a Day Ending in Day, the Russians Are Committing War Crimes & Crimes Against HumanityPost + Comments (21)