Putin Has Burned His Ships

That was one of the thoughts that came to me concerning his Hilterian declaration that four oblasts in Ukraine are now Russian territory. There is no going back for him. He can't negotiate away what he sees as Russian territory.

And the Ukrainians are in no mood to talk about this criminal land grab.

So, for here on out, the choices are these:

1.  Fight until Russia is pushed back out of Ukrainian territory;
2.  Fight until the Russians get tired of dying en masse for the glory of Putin, do something about him, and negotiate and end to this war; or
3.  Surrender to Russia (and wait for them to try again to conquer all of Ukraine).

No matter hou you slice it, I don't see how this war ends before a shitload more people get killed.

Another thought: If the Russians regard the occupied lands as being part of Russia, then that may remove any reluctance to strike targets inside of the borders of what is internationally recognized as Russian territory. On the other hand, doing that may persuade the Russian people that Putler has a point.

Hitler Annexes the Sudentenland and Austria to the Reich After Sham Plebiscites, Declares Them Historically Part of Germany. Oh, Sorry, Wrong War, My Mistake.

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed treaties Friday to illegally annex more occupied Ukrainian territory in a sharp escalation of his seven-month invasion. Ukraine’s president immediately countered with a surprise application to join the NATO military alliance.

Putin’s land-grab and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s signing of what he said is an “accelerated” NATO membership application sent the two leaders speeding even faster on a collision course that is cranking up fears of a full-blown conflict between Russia and the West.

The historical parallels could not be clearer, although, no doubt, Tuckyo Rose and Comrade Tulsi would disagree. There are elements of the far-Right that either support Putin's aggression or give the same tried and untrue excuses for not getting involved that they trotted out in 1914 and 1939.[1]

History teaches us otherwise. Japan was not content with taking Manchuria. Germany was not content with taking Austria and Czechoslovakia. Putin will not be content with nibbling off part of Ukraine. Anyone who posits otherwise is either a Russian lackey[2] or a fool.

Right now, the nations of NATO as well as every other nation that treasures freedom and democracy should be funnelling everything to the Ukrainians that they can use. Macron needs to stop channelling Pierre Laval, grow a pair of balls and stop trying to please both sides of this conflict. The Gepards that the Germans gave the Ukrainians are nice and have been very effective, but some of the NATO nations should consider ceasing to fob off old stuff in reserve and, after training the crews, give the Ukrainians the really good stuff.

The time to stand up for freedom and liberty is now.
____________________
[1] "It's Europe's problem, not ours." "This does not involve us." "We can stay out of this." "We shouldn't spend money fixing Europe's problems."
[2] Not these Lackies.

Because It's Friday

British steam:

I don't know why the Brits didn't get some steam locomotives to pull the Royal Train from Scotland back to London with the Queen's remains. That would have been a bit more compelling that schlepping her coffin down in a C-17.

Lubricating These Down, Here

We in the Northeast Will Never Forget This

As a newly elected congress member in 2013, now-governor of Florida Ron DeSantis was one of the 67 House Republicans who voted against a $9.7 billion federal flood insurance assistance package for the victims of Hurricane Sandy in New York and New Jersey. Now, with Florida on the ropes, DeSantis asked President Joe Biden for an emergency declaration to free up federal money and federal help even before the storm hit, and said Tuesday, “We all need to work together, regardless of party lines.”

No, we aren't going to forget. We won't oppose helping Floridians, but we will remeber those Florida Republicans who were agianst helping us. Just like we remember Ted Cruz and others, who voted for aid to help their state after Hurricane Harvey, but voted not to help people after Hurricane Sandy.

Differences Between TPG and TFG

I'm pretty confident that President Biden will not be publicly whining that the governors of states hit by Ian aren't thanking him for the Federal response to the disaster.

Unlike the TOFF.

You probably won't see President Biden throwing rolls of paper towels to those helping marshal supplies for recovery efforts. Unlike Cadet Bone Spurs.

Not Exactly the Best Sales Pitch for the Russian Army

Russian soldiers who die in the line of duty in Ukraine have all of their sins forgiven, the patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church proclaimed in a sermon, comparing their sacrificial death to that of Jesus.

The assertion, made on Sunday, ratchets up Moscow Patriarch Kirill’s already staunch support for Russia’s war on Ukraine since its beginning in February.

More Christianist bullshit. I'm not aware of anything in the Scriptures to support the notion of Jesus taking up arms, let alone committing war crimes, but the Russians must have their own holy books that condone rape, murder and looting.

The U.S. State Department expressed concern Wednesday that Americans with dual citizenship with Russia could be conscripted by Moscow to help fight its war against Ukraine.

“Russia may refuse to acknowledge dual nationals’ U.S. citizenship, deny their access to U.S. consular assistance, prevent their departure from Russia, and conscript dual nationals for military service,” the State Department said in a statement.

Well, no fucking shit. Those dual nationals are still Russian citizens and they are subjected to being drafted.

I've seen reports that the Ukrainians are already claiming to have Russian POWs who were mobilized under Putin's orders of last week. Some received a day's worth of training. Putin is denying requests for orderly withdrawls in places where the alternative is a Russian collapse (and the Ukrainians getting more equipment). Some of the Russian booty has been near state-of-the-Russian-art AAW and EW gear, much of which has made its way westward into NATO hands as thank-you presents for NATO equipment.

Meanwhile, the Germans seem to be trying to stick to the middle of the road, by prolaiming that they support Ukraine but, on the other hand, not providing much in the way of meaningful support, compared to other European NATO nations. Sometimes, in war, being in the middle-of-the-road means that, like paved roads, one has a wide yellow streak.

This reminds me of a long-deceased friend of my mother's. She was a teenager in Denmark during the war. She didn't like the Germans very much, for obvious reasons, but she really detested the Swedes. She said that they were quislings.

ETA this, per Jon Jones's comment:

Waltzing These Down, Here

This Cries Out to Be a Charitable Fundraiser

Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg and a growing number of other Silicon Valley executives are taking their minds off the current tech sector slump by hitting the gym for mixed martial arts training, according to a report.

Who wouldn't pay good money to watch Zuckerberg get repeatedly punched in the face?

Not a Good Sign in TOFF-World

Digital World Acquisition Corp., the blank-check company looking to take Trump Media and Technology Group public, has changed its listed address to a UPS Store in Miami.

The change from a Miami office building to a UPS address came with DWAC’s regulatory filing on Friday disclosing that some investors pulled out tens of millions of dollars.

The company said it had lost $138.5 million of the $1 billion in financing from private investors in public equity, also known as PIPE, to fund Trump Media after the merger. The contractual obligation for those investors to contribute to former President Donald Trump’s media company [lapsed] after the deal had expired last Tuesday, allowing them to pull their funding.

Seems pretty sketchy to have an investment firm using a private mailbox store as a physical address.

(H/T)

Another Sign the War is Not Going Well for Putin

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has thrust himself more directly into strategic planning for the war in Ukraine in recent weeks, American officials said, including rejecting requests from his commanders on the ground that they be allowed to retreat from the vital southern city of Kherson. ... American officials briefed on highly sensitive intelligence said that behind the scenes Mr. Putin is taking on an even deeper role in the war, including telling commanders that strategic decisions in the field are his to make.

Politicians inserting themselves in decisions on how the war is fought on the battlefield don't have a good record of winning their wars. Hitler is a prime example. So is LBJ, whose staff members were deciding what targets the Air Force and Naval Air could strike. In contrast, Stalin was reportedly content to leave the fighting of the war to his generals, who all knew that success meant they got decorations and prestige, and failure meant a bullet in the back of the head.

Russia has been a major arms supplier for the Ukrainian Army. The advantage for the Ukrainians in using Russian tanks is that Russian anti-tank weapons are not designed to defeat Russian armor.

Meanwhile, Edward Snowden has been given Russian citizenship. Snowden has claimed that he did not give the secrets he absconded with to the Russians, but who knows the truth of that. The fact that Putin's given Snowden a Russian passport says something, but I'm not sure what. One thing is certain: Putin does nothing out of the goodness of his heart.

Russian Mobilization

(Stickied because of additional links.)
Meduza reports that after Putin finishing holding his sham referendum in occupied territories, the Russians will close their border to all young men. I presume that this will apply to those who can't come up with the requisite bribe for an exit visa.

They also state, in the same article, that the 300,000 number is a lie, that the Russians are mobilizing 1.2 million men. I presume that number would not go down so well if known. I've seen that number elsewhere, but those news outlets are mostly quoting Meduza. The Russians are avoiding, as much as they can, drafting people from the cities and concentrating on rural areas that have less access anything other than Putin's propaganda. The Russians are also concentrating on drafting troublesome minorities, such as the Crimean Tartars.

I'm not sure what good a million half-trained, poorly-equipped and unmotivated soldiers are going to do. The fact of the matter remains that the Russian soldiers are fighting for Putin's glory and the Ukrainian soldiers are fighting to defend their country from invasion.

Shades of Vietnam in Russia.

L'Shana Tovah

May you be inscribed in the Book of Life.

Your Sunday Morning Jet Noise

If you're near an airshow where the planes are flying by:

Caturday

"Whose Sidewalk? My sidewalk!!"

Platteville, CO: Warm Up Your Checkbook

This one is going to cost you:

Cops allegedly left a female suspect inside a patrol vehicle that one of them parked on train tracks — a train struck it. Now the young woman is in “serious” condition.

There is no "allegedly" about this one, Danny-boy:

“The driver of the vehicle pulled to a stop just past the railroad tracks, with the patrol officer behind the car on the tracks,” the CBI said. “Two Ft. Lupton officers arrived on the scene and the team conducted a high-risk traffic stop and detained a lone female occupant (age 20, Greeley) placing her in the back of the Platteville patrol car detained on suspicion of felony menacing. While the officers cleared the suspect vehicle as part of the investigation, a train traveling northbound struck the PPD patrol car.”

Park a cop car on active railroad tracks, load a suspect into the car and then be all surprised when a freight train plows into the cop car... that had best be some kind of crime. If you had your ex- tied up in your car and parked it on the railroad tracks and it was hit by a train, even if said ex-lived, you'd not be out of prison until mid-century, unless you left it in a box.

The Wheels Keep Grinding

An American army reservist who was openly antisemitic, was an avowed antisemite and wore a moustache styled after Adolf Hitler was given a four-year prison sentence on Thursday after being found guilty of helping attack the US Capitol on January 6 2021.

Timothy Hale-Cusanelli, 32, received his punishment at Washington DC’s federal courthouse about four months after a jury found him guilty of obstructing the congressional session held on the day of the Capitol siege to certify Joe Biden’s victory over Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election.

Jurors also convicted him of a series of misdemeanors, including breaking into a restricted federal building as well as disorderly and disruptive conduct, and at sentencing the judge presiding over his case determined that he obstructed justice during his trial by lying under oath, US justice department prosecutors said in a statement.

Enjoy the fruits of your assholery, bub.

Because It's Friday

Welsh steam:

Looks like pretty country.

At What Point Will It Become Obvious to Republicans That Trump Has Lost His Marbles

The TOFF asserted to Sean the Loyal two things that are whoppers:

1: Former President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he had declassified the documents he took with him to his Mar-a-Lago estate that have since become the subject of an extensive Justice Department investigation.

Speaking on Fox News’ “Hannity,” Trump declined to point to specific evidence of that declassification. But, in a pre-recorded interview, he told host Sean Hannity that evidence was not needed.

“There doesn’t have to be a process, as I understand it,” Trump said. “You’re the president of the United States, you can declassify just by saying it’s declassified, even by thinking about it.”

So he puts his palms on his temples and says to himself: "I deem these documents declassified" and it magically happens?

Does it also work that way with regards to property values-- he thinks that his apartment in Trump Tower grows in size by three times and increases in value ten times?

2. Former President Donald Trump suggested the FBI ​may have been looking for Hillary Clinton’s lost emails when it raided his Mar-a-Lago resort last month in a search for classified documents he kept after leaving the White House.
...
“There’s also a lot of speculation because of what they did, the severity of the FBI coming and raiding Mar-a-Lago. Were they looking for the Hillary Clinton emails that were deleted but they are around someplace? They may have thought that it was in there!” Trump said in an interview Wednesday with Fox News’ Sean Hannity.

That is just laughable. If the TOFF had Clinton's emails, they would be splashed all over the Right Wing Noise Machine.

Squeezing These Out, Here

"The Asshole," an Old Police Perspective

Enjoy.

Some of the post-script is rather prescient.

Putin Gets Desperate

He has ordered a partial mobilization. In a speech this morning, he ladled out his standard lies about his war of aggression.

I wonder if anyone in Russia is going to ask why they need to call up over a quarter-million men in order to replenish the less than 6,000 KIA that the Russians claim to have suffered.

The number is certainly much, much larger. According to StrategyPage, a leaked budget report calls for a level of spending on survivor's pensions that equates to close to 49,000 killed, which is close to the Ukrainians' estimate of 54,000 KIA.

The tide in the world is shifting against Russia. Putin, who has famously kept other nations' leaders waiting for him, has found that the shoe is on the other foot.

Tells a lot about new perception of Russia by other countries. Putin is one who waits. pic.twitter.com/9XhwWhJMFa

— Sead Turčalo (@sturcalo) September 17, 2022

Here is Mick Ryan's analysis:

The speech from Putin today is a careful balancing act of a leader under pressure, who is trying to: 1. please hardliners and Russian milbloggers; 2. not displease the general populace; 3. appease the military; 4. give the impression he is not losing a war. 1/20 🧵

— Mick Ryan, AM (@WarintheFuture) September 21, 2022

There is one thing that I think is underpinning the sham referenda in Russian-occupied areas: As I understand it, the Russian Army is prohibited from sending conscripts to fight outside of Russian territory. So if the Russians proclaim that the Luhansk and Donetsk Oblasts are part of Russia, they can send conscripts there to be ground into hamburger. They can send the reservists being called up to fight there.

No matter what Tuckyo Rose and his team of Putin-sycophants may spew, the war is not going well for the Ruscists. This is when the free nations of the Earth should be giving the Ukranians every type of weapon that they can use which does not have a CBR warhead.

I Can't Resist This Today

Let the Games Begin!

This:

BREAKING: Migrants flown to Massachusetts file class action lawsuit against DeSantis and other Florida officials in federal court pic.twitter.com/Rp5xgAWOKp

— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) September 20, 2022

And this:

A Texas sheriff on Monday opened an investigation into two flights of migrants sent to Martha’s Vineyard by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, but did not say what laws may have been broken in putting 48 Venezuelans on private planes last week from San Antonio.

Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar, an elected Democrat, railed against the flights that took off in his city as political posturing. But he said investigators had so far only spoken to attorneys representing some of the migrants and did not name any potential suspects who might face charges.

Let the wheels grind on!

The Chair-Force Now Has an Official Song

You can read the lyrics here.

It's really funny that a "combatant force" made up of launch technicians and console jockeys calls themselves "warfighters". For they are the true 101st Flaming Keyboardists.

Retching These Down, Here

Cruelty is the Point With the MAGA Fascists

While there is a decent argument to be made that it is a fair thing to send migrants to other cities, the plain fact of the matter is that the way that those two notorious human traffickers are doing it (DeSantis and Abbott) has nothing to do with helping desperate people. It has everything to do with using people as political props to score cheap points with their MAGA base.

Volunteer groups often wait hours for buses arriving from Texas in a designated space of Manhattan’s Port of Authority Bus Terminal. They rely on tipsters for help.

“It’s a problem because we don’t know when the buses are coming, how many buses are coming, if anyone on these buses has medical conditions that they will need help with, if they need a wheelchair,” said Manuel Castro, commissioner of the New York City Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs. “We at least want to know that so that we can best help people as they arrive.”

A contractor that Texas hired to bus migrants signed an agreement that prohibits them from talking to New York officials, Castro said.

Some fathers have arrived in New York while their spouses and children were sent to Washington, said Ilze Thielmann, a volunteer director with TLC NYC, a group working to reunite them.

Lying to people about where they are going and what awaits them when they get there. Deliberately separating families in the process. Doing the best they can to surprise receipient cities, so they have to scramble to help those who were tossed onto those beses and planes.

There is something seriously sick about the MAGA crowd, that they get off on how cruel those in power can be to those in need. You can bet your last dollar that if Abbot or DeSantis had them dragged off the buses, summarily shot and buried in unmarked graves outside of Terlingua, that the MAGA Morons would cheer them on.

Snarking These Down, Here

I don't feel like saving these:

Remember, the difference between MAGA and Nazi is disappearing:

The Ukrainian Offensive

An analysis:

There is a lot going on in #Ukraine at the moment. The macro story is that Russia appears to have lost the initiative at every level. But there is also an interesting story to be told about Ukrainian campaign planning. 1/24 pic.twitter.com/6w5WTSLBJQ

— Mick Ryan, AM (@WarintheFuture) September 18, 2022

The Institute for the Study of War has reported that the Russians seem to be focusing on making up their troop losses with ill-trained "volunteers", including emptying out the Russian prisons. One Russian Army corps, formed to make up for the losses already incurred and partially made up of physically-unfit older men, as well as drug addicts and drunkards, melted away in the Kharkiv Oblast.

I don't know how this gets better for the Russians.

Moscow Car Bombing?

You might remember that Darya Dugina,the daughter of Aleksandr Dugin, a prominent Putin supporter, was killed last month in a car-bombing. The FSB blamed a Ukrainian special agent who allegedly came to Moscow with her 12-year old daughter in tow.

Strategy Page believes that the killing was done by the FSB as a warning to Dugin, who apparently was kind of squishy on his support for Putin's (mis)handling of the war. Or it was done to gin up flagging support. Whatever, that was by no means the first report on this.

What's the truth? Damned if I know.

Still Corrupt AF

This is today's bestsellers list from the NY Times:

Jerrod the Boy wonder's book is at #2. That dagger symbol, underlined in red, indicates that there have been bulk purchases of the books at the bookstores that report their sales to the Times. What that means is that someone, or a group of someones, are trying to cook the bestsellers list by making it appear that a book is more popular than it truly is.

This seems to be a particular thing with the Right Wing Batshitters. A lot of books by the Fascist Right gain bestseller status by cooking the list. Both The Toff and his eldest spawn have done this. Flip-flop Mitt did it. So did Ben Shapiro, Caribou Barbie, Fascist Newtie and the Canadien Usurper. Because, get real; who the fuck is going to buy a book about a guy who shoved his dog into a rooftop carrier? Or some kid who, without connections to his corrupt family (both by birth and inlaws), would be the swing-shift manager at an Arby's?

But when books about the TOFF that are not flattering come into print, those are legitimate bestsellers.

Your Sunday Morning Jet Noise

The Red Arrows and a 747:

Russia Is Not a "State Sponsor of Terrorism", It Is a "State Practitioner of Terrorism".

The irony is rich here. For a country that claimed to want to "de-Nazify Ukraine," Russia has proven itself to be the closest thing we have seen recently to a nation run on Nazi principles: Invade a neighbring nation, treat the locals as sub-humans and slaughter them. The only difference seems to be that the Russians haven't, as yet, industrialized their machinery of death.

The Institute for the Study of War, which does not routinely cover Russian atrocities because there are lots of other sources for that information, said this:

The revelations of mass graves of civilians and torture chambers in newly liberated Izyum confirm ISW’s previous assessments that the Bucha atrocities were not isolated war crimes but rather a microcosm of Russian atrocities throughout Russian-occupied areas.

Or, in Geekish: Russian atrocities aren't a bug, they're a feature.

The age-old saying has been proven to be true: Scratch a Russian and you'll find a Tartar.

Into the Euro Weeds

What countries are doing to mitigate the loss of Russian natural gas:

You'll need to click on it to enlarge it.

Some of the measures are clarly long-term, as lifiting the ban on fracking (UK) will likely do fuck-all for this winter.

Caturday

"I want out!"

The TOFF's Pet Judge Keeps Doing His Bidding

In asking the judge to back off at least part of her special master ruling, prosecutors had argued that Trump could not possibly have an attorney-client or executive privilege claim over classified documents, which by definition are the property of the federal government.

Cannon roundly rejected those arguments in her filing, saying that whether the documents marked classified were actually classified is a matter of dispute. Trump’s lawyers have suggested the documents may not be classified, but have not asserted in their court appearances or court filings that Trump declassified them.

That is factually crazy talk. Who does that judge think marked the documents as classified? Is she buying the QAnon bullshit that the FBI allegedly classified the documents after seizing them?

Does someone make sure that Judge Cannon keeps her head down when taking a shower to avoid drowning? Are the scissors on her desk made of plastic and have rounded ends? Because she is coming across as one of the dimmest bulbs ever to put on a black robe. (And does her law clerk ensure that she has it on the correct way?)

Because It's Friday

Australian steam in the ending days of the last century:

The Death Toll of the Oligarchs Keeps Climbing

Ivan Pechorin, a top manager at the Corporation for the Development of the Far East and the Arctic, was found dead in Vladivostok [on Sept. 12th] after allegedly falling off his luxury yacht and drowning near Cape Ignatyev in the Sea of Japan two days before, according to the local administration.

Being an oligarch in Russia may not be as dangerous as being an unmotivated, half-trained "volunteer" in the Russian army, but it's getting up there.

There Are No New Racist Tricks, Only the Same Old Ones

The old racist trick:

The new racist tricks:

Florida Gov. [and notorious human trafficker/kidnapper] Ron DeSantis on Wednesday flew two planes of immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard, escalating a tactic by Republican governors to draw attention to what they consider to be the Biden administration’s failed border policies.

Flights to the upscale island enclave in Massachusetts were part of an effort to “transport illegal immigrants to sanctuary destinations,” said Taryn Fenske, DeSantis’ communications director.

And:

Two buses of migrants from the U.S.-Mexico border were dropped off near Vice President Kamala Harris’ home in residential Washington on Thursday morning in the bitter political battle over the Biden administration’s immigration policies.
...
Abbott [the Coyote] tweeted that he’d sent the buses that arrived Thursday: “We’re sending migrants to her backyard to call on the Biden Administration to do its job & secure the border.”

The difference is that the racists of sixty years ago gave warning of what they were doing. The bigots of today are engaging in blindsiding people with their human pawns.

Dollars to doughnuts that those assholes think that they are good Christians and they go to church every Sunday. But they clearly stopper up their ears and close their eyes when it comes to practicing what is preached.

Bleeding These Down, Here

Do Stupid Things, Win Stupid Prizes

Case 1:

Ronald Dunlap, the father of "Cheer" star Cassadee Dunlap, was in critical condition after being shot multiple times in Arkansas, the Little Rock Police Department said.

The incident occurred when Ronald, 49, was returning home from a bar with his nephew. However, Ronald entered the wrong apartment complex in Little Rock in the wee hours of the morning, and tried to force his way into a condo he mistook for his own.

During the commotion, the homeowner of the said apartment shot Ronald at least five to six times, leaving him in critical condition, KARK-TV reported.

In most parts of this country, if you break down someone's door at 3 AM (or any other time, for that matter), you're going to run the chance of coming down with a bad case of bullet wounds.

Case 2:

A man in a rainbow wig was arrested in Delmont [PA] after he walked into a Dairy Queen with a loaded handgun. ... According to police, the man said he was “undercover” and that he was “working to restore Trump to President King of the United States.” He said he was armed to “Kill Democrats and liberals” and to protect himself from “drug traffickers.”

Numbnuts didn't have a carry permit, which is not difficult to get in PA,[1] so he's been charged with several felonies.
_________________________
[1] Unlike Saskatchewan, for instance.

One Long Line, er Queue

Currently 4.2 miles, nine hours, to walk by the Queen's bier:

What's Russia to Do?

The near-collapse of the Russian army near Kharkiv begs the question: What can the Russians do, now?

The Russians seem to be running out of available soldiers. Other places where the Russians are involved are taking note. Putin has been trying to keep to his bargain with the Russian people: He gets to run political, military and foreign affairs as he sees fit and the people are left alone to live their lives. But there is pressure to stop with the "special military operation" bullshit and declare it to be a war.

But then what? Even if Putin orders mobilization and a massive traft, those draftees need to be trained, which will take months and lots of trainers. Unless, of course, Putin would send them into combat barely trained, which would make them more cannon-fodder than soldiers.

Another problem that Russia has is that they find themselves in the same position as Nazi Germany: They only have the resources that they can command. The North Koreans will sell them old equipment, the Iranians will sell them drones, but that's about it. Nobody else will, at least, not openly, for fear of incurring sanctions from the western nations.

As the Ukrainians make gains on the battlefield, more and more tales of Russian brutality have come to light. All give the lie to the Russian claim that there is no difference between Russians and Ukrainians. The Russians claim that they are trying to "de-Nazify" Ukraine, but the truth of the matter is that if there are Nazis in this war, they are Russians.

Putin well knows that his own survival depends on the aura of competence and power that he has in Russia. Fallibility is often fatal in Russia. There is no incentive for him to stop the war on anything less than terms favorable to Russia, which apparently is not going to happen in the near future. Besides that, if he loses power, he loses his hold over the oligarchs and possibly most of the money he's grifted. They'll claw a lot of it back from the various shell companies that they are holding for Putin.

This is a stink that will stay with the Russians for a very long time, even if some filthy companies continue to do business with these 21st Century mass-murderers.

So, how does this end? I have no idea.

Yes, the Christian Taliban Wants to Enact a National Ban on Abortion

And the TOFF's favorite buttmonkey is taking the lead on this:

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham introduced a nationwide abortion ban Tuesday, sending shockwaves through both parties and igniting fresh debate on a fraught issue weeks before the midterm elections that will determine control of Congress. ... The South Carolina Republican said rather than shying away from the Supreme Court’s ruling this summer overturning Roe vs. Wade’s nearly 50-year right to abortion access, Republicans are preparing to fight to make a nationwide abortion ban federal law.

Don't kid yourself, Miss Lindsey's plan to ban abortion after fifteen weeks is only a first step. The Christian Taliban wants to ban abortion with no exceptions whatsoever.

A woman who is bearing a baby with fatal birth defects? The Christian Taliban would make her carry the baby to term? A nine-year old girl raped by her uncle? They'll make that child bear the child. If the mother's life is at risk, an abortion to save her life might well land the doctors in prison.

That's what the Christian Taliban has in store for you, your sisters and yur daughters if the Party of Trump takes control.

Coughing These Down, Here