TrickstaPriest

Let me consult my list:
 
"A Guide to Ukraine’s Swear Words So You Can Follow the Viral Videos"
 
https://www.thedailybeast.com/a-guide-to-ukraines-curse-words-so-you-can-follow-the-viral-videos?ref=home

Well, the main obstacle at the time was that there was no way to ban abortion which would hold up to even minor scrutiny in lower courts.
 
This "bounty hunter" model caught most everyone by surprise.
 
I'd heard this issue discussed in both left and right forums for over 20 years and never heard a hint of any plan going toward that route.
 
I don't personally think bounty hunters should hold up to scrutiny when applied to people exercising their constitutional rights. If it did, you could have anti-free speech bounty hunters and anti-free press bounty hunters and anti-"people attending church" bounty hunters.
 
But for now, they've got a foothold.

I wish Twitter would ban that guy, purely for his own good.

I saw that tweet referenced earlier today.
 
The TV segment it shows was from before the invasion of Ukraine. That doesn't make it just a whole lot better. But it's not like they're showing this to Russians while their troops are in Ukraine and telling them "this is what we're going to do next".
 
I'm sure they'll wait until after they finish in Ukraine before they start showing their next targets on TV and talking about finding a pretext to invade them.
 
 
You know, I get that people think the US runs around the world getting involved in other people's wars...because we do.
 
But we don't tend to look at our immediate neighbors, repeatedly, and tell ourselves stuff like "it'd be really great if we were to conquer Baja California" or "Quebec is kind of nice this time of year and, come to think of it, we don't have a French-speaking state in the north".

It will be interesting to see how much Trump's position will alienate people, because from what I've seen, support for Russia's only been on the very fringe.

I thought you might find these developments regarding America's northern neighbor to be of some interest, particular for those of you in the US where there's some spillover.
 
'We're effectively a border state with Russia': Defending Canada's far-north called key to protecting sovereignty
 
This is not just a hypothetical issue. Russia has recently been restoring closed Cold War-era air bases in the Arctic, and even expanding them. The country has long followed a policy of asserting claims to resource-rich Arctic waters, and deploying air and naval units to back up their claims. And as during the Cold War, should the United States find itself in direct conflict with Russia, the shortest route to the US is over us. The old NATO early-warning systems in the high North, like the DEW line, are obsolete against modern ballistic missiles.
 
Identities of nearly all the people arrested at the Freedom Convoy protest remain secret
 
The approach the Canadian federal government and police have been taking has some unsettling implications. While the majority of protesters arrested were released fairly promptly, there's been no response to frequent media requests for the identities of those charged, nor what they're charged with. I'm also disturbed by government security officials declaring that "there's no doubt" that those who organized the Ottawa protest "came to overthrow the government," and even that they may have been incited by "foreign entities," but offering no proof of those claims.
 
I've seen those tactics and heard that kind of language many times before, almost always from parties unconcerned with human rights or the rule of law.

I must say that I'm still not fond of nationalism.

News roundup
 
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Russia says its businesses can steal patents from anyone in ‘unfriendly’ countries - Washington Post
 
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"Panic is spreading among the personnel of the Russian troops due to the huge losses in manpower and equipment." The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported this on Facebook the day before yesterday.
 
Normally such I wouldn't take such claims as being newsworthy because it's practically the boss's job to claim the other side is falling apart, whether it's true or not. But then we get this from a number of sources out of an area in the north-central part of Ukraine.
 
 
That's a lot of equipment to abandon all at once. That area is defended by the Ukrainian army's 1st Tank Brigade so it's not like the Russians are running away in panic from just poorly-trained civilians armed with random anti-armor weapons...but still.
 
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550 of the Canadians who've arrive to fight have been formed into their own brigade and are deployed in the Kiev area.
 
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The US House of Representatives has approved a massive spending bill that would rush $13.6 billion in US aid to Ukraine. The Senate is expected to approve it today before they break for the weekend. Have of it is humanitarian aid, the other half is military aid.
 
So basically $6.9 billion in military aid.
 
To put that in perspective, Ukraine before the war spent around $5 billion per year on its military.
 
That amount was 3% of its GDP. To put that in perspective, NATO members are supposed to spend at least 2% of their GDP on defense spending but most of them don't bother.
 
And of course this is in addition to the previous money and equipment that's already come from the US and the billions in money and equipment that's already come from other countries. Ukraine is getting likely more than a decade's worth of military spending poured into their country over the course of one month.
 
So now you have the context to appreciate the video. This is very recent, at least since the coldsnap/snowstorm went through the Kiev area. That's a heck of a lot of gear....
 
 
 
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< tongue-in-cheek >
 
Russia has been claiming Ukraine belongs to it because they were for a short time part of the same country together.
 
In historic terms, India was part of England for much longer. Could England reclaim India? How about Australia?
 
Putin claims Lithuania as Russian territory because it was once part of Russia for a decade then the Soviet Union. But Lithuania and Poland were (voluntarily) one country for much longer (more than two centuries).
 
Doesn't Poland have a superior right to conquer Lithuania because it's Polish territory?
 
Russia's been financially supporting the Texas separation movement despite the fact that Texas was a republic for only a couple of decades and has been part of the United States for more than 170 years. Isn't that inconsistent?
 
California has never been a separate nation but Russia financially supports the California separatist movement. The same goes for the Quebec separatist movement. Inconsistent?
 
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Facebook and Instagram temporarily allows calls for violence against Russians soldiers and officials
 
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Russia helps out with sanctions against Russia
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-60689279
 
Russia implements an export ban of telecoms, medical, vehicle, agricultural, and electrical equipment, as well as some forestry products such as timber...so that no foreign country can buy such things.
 
The economy ministry said further measures could include restricting foreign ships from Russian ports...so that they couldn't deliver goods to Russia nor take on exports from Russia.
 
The article's a little unclear, to me, whether the sanctions extend to just the countries which have sanctioned Russia or whether it applies to all countries except for the ones specifically on Russia's list of friends.
 
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US officials deny reports that it is sending Patriot anti-missile systems to Ukraine. (I hadn't thought that very likely.)
 
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Interpol decides not to kick Russia out. But says it will now begin monitoring Russia's use of Red Notices to harass and track down dissidents and Ukrainian politicians.
 
Also Russia is now forced to send requests through Interpol central, so it can decide on the validity of the request, rather than send requests directly to individual nations in Interpol.
 
Russia is currently responsible for 44 percent of the publicly available Interpol red notices. - The Guardian
 
That's as reasonable of a compromise as I guess anyone could expect, if they weren't going to kick Russia out.
 
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The stalled Russian convoy forces are starting to deploy off of the road. Some appear to be just moving off into nearby trees. Other vehicles appear to be deploying in a coordinated fashion, likely as part of an effort to encircle Kiev enough to cut off resupply or utilities.
 
I've lost track of how many days they've been stalled in place but "hey, let's move off into the trees where we're less visible" should have dawned on someone PDQ. Or maybe they were just looking for shelter from the wind and snow.
 
Of course, perhaps the drop in temperature and the snowstorm has made moving off the road itself more feasible. But if that's the case, as soon as it warms up a bit, a large number of them will get stuck.
 
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Russia’s energy ministry has claimed that Belarusian specialists have restored electricity supply to the Chernobyl. No corroboration. - Reuters
 
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A humanitarian convoy trying to reach Mariupol today has been forced to turn around due to fighting. Civilians still haven't been allowed to evacuate from there despite it being one of the first places where humanitarian corridors were supposed to have been established by agreement with Russia. It hasn't had operational power or water for days. Or food/medicine shipments. - Reuters
 
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Following the end of the cold war, Sweden’s defense spending as fallen from 3% of GDP in the early 1980s to around 1% in recent years. Sweden’s government plans to increase military spending to 2% of GDP “as soon as practically possible” - prime minister, Magdalena Andersson.
 
Sweden is considering NATO membership where governments are expected to spend at least 2% of GDP on defense.
 
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Greece sending busses and airplanes to Poland to help relocate refugees from there to Greece. It's already taken in over 50,000 Ukrainian refugees while Poland has taken in around 1.3 million.
 
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The Kyiv Independent, said the Kharkiv institute - home to experimental nuclear reactor - had been bombed, citing an announcement from the State Inspectorate for Nuclear Regulation of Ukraine.
According to the inspectorate, the facility was struck with damage to the exterior and possibly numerous labs throughout the building.

There has to be a way to block youtube videos from a specific account.

The U.S. is for some reason terrified of anything that Putin might perceive as a direct NATO vs. Russia attack, because that automatically triggers World War III® somehow.  I am not sure why a thirty year old Russian-built MiG counts more than a U.S. built Javelin.
 
Alternatively, the U.S. is terrified that Zelenskyy might do something unapproved with the MiGs, like attack supply lines or missile launchers on Russian soil, which he is eventually going to  have to do if he is serious about getting his country back.
 
Meanwhile the Russians are laying the internal propaganda to justify the use of chemical or tactical nuclear weapons, or else blow up a reactor.

Can anyone explain why the US can hand the Ukrainians thousands of Javelin missiles, but can't risk helping Poland gift its MiGs?

All of this graphically illustrates why it's essential for any nation that wants to project its power beyond its own borders, to have friends and allies in the global community. It pains me to think how frustrating it must have been for his defense and security advisors to try to explain that to Donald Trump.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed a bill to extend free college tuition to most New Mexico residents. 
 
Two and four year degrees or career training certificates.
 
https://www.lcsun-news.com/story/news/local/new-mexico/2022/03/04/new-mexico-free-college-tuition-bill-signed-michelle-lujan-grisham-wnmu/9376293002/

Zelensky held a Zoom call with US Senators yesterday. Afterward, a Democrat Senator came onto MSNBC saying that NATO countries are holding out on their supply of Soviet era MiG-29's. And particularly mentioned Poland not handing them over. (Four of the senators eventually going on the record calling out Poland.)
 
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/03/05/white-house-deal-fighter-jets-ukraine-00014424
 
That didn't sound right to me so I started digging.
 
The numbers that have been given over according to the EU were
 
16 MiG-29s from Bulgaria and 14 Su-25s (it's a close air support craft aka as Frogfoot)
12 MiG-29s from Slovakia
28 MiG-29 from Poland
 
Now before the EU decided to do that, Janes Defense (the best source available to civilians) said, "the Polish Air Force fields 21 single-seat and six twin-seat MiG-29s; the Bulgarian Air Force fields 11 single-seat and three twin-seat MiG-29s; while the Slovak Air Force fields nine single-seat and two twin-seat MiG-29 aircraft (although only a small number is thought to still be in an airworthy condition). The Bulgarian Air Force also fields six single-seat and two twin-seat Su-25s."
 
https://www.janes.com/defence-news/news-detail/ukraine-conflict-eu-to-supply-kyiv-with-fighter-aircraft
 
So either
 
1) Janes is completely wrong, which is highly unlikely
2) the sources quoting the EU are wrong and not all those aircraft have been given over yet (though still promised).
3) or those NATO countries scrapped the bottom of the barrel to give over that number of aircraft...because the number listed by the EU is more than the number which their air forces still had in active service.
 
I supposed some of those Mig-29's are trainers which are typically unarmed and they're having to be fitted with weapons and attachment points for rockets before giving them over to the Ukrainians. Or had been stripped for parts and are having to be restored before being put back into flying condition before they can be flown to Ukraine.
 
But there's not more MiG-29's in NATO countries which haven't been given (or at least promised).
 
 
Now what does exist of old Soviet era aircraft or other aircraft which Ukraine uses that's still within NATO countries?
 
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Poland hasn't given over any of their air force's 18 Sukhoi-22 fighter bombers. There's an additional 14 of those in Poland which have been given over to technical schools, put on display in museums, or stripped for parts since they were taken out of service around 2015. Plus another couple of Sukhoi-20's were given to museums.
 
Now the Ukrainian air force hasn't flown the Sukhoi-22 (or -20) specifically but it does fly the -25, -25, and -27, which is likely close enough in an emergency.
 
Poland also has 11 Mil-Mi8 transport helicopters purchased from Russia around 2010.
 
Poland has contracted to buy 24 of those Bayraktar TB2 drones from Turkey. The first four were to be delivered this year. No idea whether they've been delivered yet but those could be easily diverted to Ukraine. Probably better used blowing up Russian armor now than being held to blow up Russian armor in the future.
https://www.janes.com/defence-news/news-detail/poland-signs-bayraktar-tb2-contract-with-turkey
 
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Bulgaria has 6 Soviet era Mil-Mi24 attack helicopters and 5 Mil-Mi17 transport helicopters. Not exactly what Ukraine flies but the same manufacturer from the same era.
 
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Slovakia has 13 Mil-Mi17 transport helicopters.
 
It previously flew a lot of Soviet aircraft but no idea what happened to the rest of it over the decades.
 
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The Czech Republic has 19 Mil-Mi8 helicopters which is exactly what Ukraine flies. No idea whether the Czech copters rigged for transport only or for being a gunship.
 
15 Mil Mi-24 attack helicopters
 
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Hungary has a close relationship with Putin but has
 
15 Mil-Mi24 attack helicopters
5 Mil Mi-17 transport helicopters
 
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Romania has
23-28 MiG-21 fighters. That's a few generations earlier than what Ukraine flies and was first produced in the mid-1950's.
 
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Croatia has
12 MiG-21 fighters. That's a few generations earlier than what Ukraine flies and was first produced in the mid-1950's.
25 Mil Mi-17 transport helicopters, at least some of which are rigged for search and rescue.
 
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Montenegro had
4 Mil Mi-8 transport helicopters which were retired in 2012. Not sure what happened to them.
 
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North Macedonia has
12 Mil Mi-24 attack helicopters
 4 Mil Mi-17 transport helicopters
 
And that's their entire "air force" despite being a NATO member.
 
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That's a depressingly thin list.

I’m thinking I’ve seen where he said something similar fairly recently. Though unless he backs it up with something egregiously stupid, it’s just posturing. 
 
Attacking a NATO country, or pretty much any other country, doesn’t make a whole lot of sense when he apparently has his hands full militarily with Ukraine. 
 
I’m in the camp that suspects he’s just trying to convince everybody else that he just might be crazy enough to do the unthinkable if he’s pushed too far and maybe we shouldn’t be too enthusiastic with the implementation of sanctions. 
 
Hopefully I’m just not trying to reassure myself that Putin hasn’t really gone crazy and he’s trying to convince himself (and the people who would have to actually push the buttons) that he’s justified in trying to destroy world in self-defense. 

No.
 
Even if I were young or healthy, I have too many people here who depend on me to take care of them day-to-day.
 
The Ukrainian embassy in Canada has been fielding a lot of requests though. I don't know how many of those are Canadians of Ukrainian descent vs other outraged Canadians. There's more people of Ukrainian descent in Canada than in any other non-European country, many of them in the western parts of Canada which has a similar climate to Ukraine. 

A long post on the invasion from the standpoint of a Russian "special services" analyst.  Facebook, Russia, internet, translation--take this with a grain of salt.  Translation spoilered for length:
 
 

I'm not sure that atrocities have ever broken the will of the occupied country.  And today?  Every incident that gets recorded and sent out will more likely harden the resolve of most of the rest of the world.  
 
One thing the sanctions bring up:  if the Russian economy collapses, how much general recession pressure will this apply to the rest of the world?  The point about the wheat harvests is also a good one.  I knew Ukraine was huge...and one has to assume their production will suffer *greatly*...but it hadn't percolated forward.
 
Yep, it's gonna be fugly before it's over.

I think I have a new favorite definition of chutzpah
 
Vladimir Putin Says Russia Has 'No Ill Intentions,' Pleads for No More Sanctions
 
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/vladimir-putin-says-russia-has-no-ill-intentions-pleads-for-no-more-sanctions/ar-AAUBDYa

About RT:
 
Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok made RT's and Sputnik's social media content unavailable to users in the European Union on 28 February.
 
Microsoft removed RT and Sputnik from MSN, the Microsoft Store, and the Microsoft Advertising network on the same day.
 
YouTube, on 1 March, banned access to all RT and Sputnik channels on its platform in Europe (including Britain).
 
Apple followed by removing RT and Sputnik from its App Store in all countries except Russia.
 
Roku dropped the RT app from its channel store
 
DirecTV pulled RT America from its channel lineup.
 
New Zealand satellite television provider Sky also removed RT, citing complains from customers and consultation with the Broadcasting Standards Authority.
 
There's been a wave of resignations from RT, including some on-air talent, because the channel wouldn't characterize what's happening in Ukraine as an "invasion" and allow unbiased coverage.
 
Today, there's scattered reports that RT America (the branch responsible for US content) is shutting down.
 
When RT was registered in the US as an agent of the Russian government in 2017, many hoped they'd open their books and reveal how much of their funding comes from the Russian government (much like Canadian Broadcasting and the BBC do). But RT kept their funding hidden even then.
 
If it's true that they're shutting down US operations, I guess that answers the question about how much of their funding comes from the Russian government.
 
edit:
 
15 minutes ago CNN confirmed RT America has permanently laid off most of its employees which will mean it effectively has ceased operations.
 
That's 22 minutes after I made the original post. Remember to come here for all your breaking news before it breaks.  
 
https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/03/media/rt-america-layoffs/index.html

On the Oath Keeper:  seditious conspiracy is, I think, about as severe as it can get.  And there certainly are add-ons.  
 
archer, if you're reading Ukraine war news, not sleeping is entirely understandable.
 
BTW, the massive business pullout is why I'm still greatly concerned that Putin *may* get forcibly removed...and that's enough to make me concerned he'll push the button.  The US and EU aren't waging military war, they're waging a financial one, and it's massive.

Ukrainian anti-corruption authorities: No need to declare captured Russian tanks, equipment as income. 
The National Agency for the Protection against Corruption has stated that captured Russian tanks and equipment do not need to be declared to tax authorities. This is because the value of this “crap” does not exceed 100 living wages, the agency joked. On a serious note, it said that war trophies are untaxable.
 
https://www.ukrinform.ua/rubric-ato/3416691-deklaruvati-zahopleni-rosijski-tanki-ta-insu-tehniku-ne-treba-nazk.html
 
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The BBC has launched a new shortwave radio service in Ukraine to ensure the resilience of its news operations in Ukraine and Russia, the corporation has announced.
The new broadcasts will make four hours of World Service English news available every day and will reach audiences in Ukraine and parts of Russia.
 
(The weekly audience for the BBC's Russian language news website more than tripled following the invasion compared to its weekly average from earlier this year. But access to that can easily be blocked by the Russian government if it wants while shortwave cannot.)
 
https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-europe-60582327?ns_mchannel=social&ns_source=twitter&ns_campaign=bbc_live&ns_linkname=621fa92bec502b53cd4806be%26BBC launches new shortwave radio service in Ukraine%262022-03-02T21%3A47%3A39.123Z&ns_fee=0&pinned_post_locator=urn:asset:ed36bf50-ad9f-4830-a6bc-905ebf19cd71&pinned_post_asset_id=621fa92bec502b53cd4806be&pinned_post_type=share
 
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 Four Russian fighter jets violated Swedish airspace over Baltic Sea.
 
A Russian aircraft violated Japanese airspace.
 
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EU
 
It shall be prohibited to sell, supply, transfer or export euro denominated banknotes to Russia or to any natural or legal person, entity or body in Russia, including the government and the Central Bank of Russia, or for use in Russia.
 
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32022D0346&from=EN
 
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Exxon Mobil has also said it will exit Russia oil and gas operations that it has valued at more than $4b and halt new investment as a result of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
The decision will see Exxon pull out of managing large oil and gas production facilities on Sakhalin Island in Russia’s Far East, and puts the fate of a proposed multi-billion dollar liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility there in doubt, Reuters reports.
 
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Primary school children were reportedly arrested by police in Moscow for laying flowers at the Ukrainian embassy and holding signs saying “no to war”.
Russian opposition politician Ilya Yashin posted photos purporting to show three children holding placards and flowers in the back of a police van, with others pictured behind metal bars and in what appeared to be a police station.
 
Later, a video emerged of a mother of one young girl attempting to soothe her daughter who was crying inside a cell, explaining why the group had been arrested, The Moscow Times reported.
 
https://inews.co.uk/news/russian-school-children-arrested-for-laying-flowers-at-ukraine-embassy-and-holding-no-to-war-signs-1494704
 
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Georgia to Apply for EU Membership Immediately - asking for emergency consideration. Their previously-stated goal was to ask to be considered for membership sometime in 2024.
https://civil.ge/archives/477032
 
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Russian natural-gas giant Gazprom, oil-producer Lukoil and leading bank Sberbank are all penny stocks based on their trading on the London Stock Exchange, as the local market was shut for a third day.
 
Sberbank SBER, -78.43%, which had assets of over $500 billion at the end of 2021, was trading for 3 cents a share in afternoon action.
 
Lukoil LKOD, -93.23%, Gazprom OGZD, -23.50%, and Rosneft Oil ROSN, -77.71% continued to collapse as the dollar-denominated secondary listings in London remained the one venue where Russia’s top companies could be valued.
 
The collapse of the energy giants came even as Western sanctions specifically exempted the Russian energy sector. 
 
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/gazprom-lukoil-and-sberbank-are-now-penny-stocks-as-russian-companies-collapse-in-london-11646227312
 
 
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Apologies for yet another news roundup today.
 
Bad health day and haven't been able to do anything more productive than sit at my computer...and wish I could sleep some more.

By having the government seize control of all the affected companies, of course. If Putin's pushing for a return to the good old days of the USSR, this is just one more step along the way.

I remember in fall 1973 there was a serious flirtation with nuclear war.  In the Yom Kippur War, at one point the Israelis believed there was a serious possibility of them losing, at which point Meir gave permission to assemble nuclear warheads.  (Israel had had the ability to make nuclear warheads for some time, but did not so so for obvious political reasons.)
 
Supposedly the Soviets detected this, loaded a dozen or so SS-20 missiles with nuclear warheads onto a ship, and tried sending that through the Bosporus-Dardanelles to their client states.  It being impossible to mask such things as you pass through Istanbul, the Americans detected those, and went to full alert.  I lived on a SAC base at the time, and I remember waking up in the middle of the night as every jet engine on base roared to life and the B-52s and their attendant KC-135 tankers got off the ground as fast as they could, so that a preemptive strike would not destroy them on the ground.
 
Again supposedly, a conversation occurred over the Hot Line about this, and the Soviets responded by saying that they assumed the Americans had given the Israelis permission to go nuclear if they needed to, and indicated what they had detected and where they had detected it.  The Americans sent an SR-71 over the site; the Israelis gave the order to shoot it down; they could not.  Meanwhile there was a hostile naval standoff in the Mediterranean between the superpowers.
 
About the time things were getting really gnarly, the Egyptian-Syrian forces started running out of AA missiles and the Israelis drove back the spearheads and started winning the ground war, partly with changes of tactics.  Their warheads were dismantled and the crisis cooled off.
 
How that scenario can inform our current situation is unclear.  Here it is the Russians directly threatening nuclear strikes in raw aggression, as opposed to a client state pulling out what they believed what might be their last chance for survival.  So if the Russians use tactical nuclear weapons, what next? 
 
This expansionism is exactly the sort of crap the Japanese Empire was doing in the 1930s, and when the US imposed crippling economic sanctions on them to bring it to a halt, well, the response was Pearl Harbor.  It is a distortion of the process to say this, but that made the Americans so angry they invented nuclear weapons, and then used two-thirds of their nuclear arsenal in three days.  If the Russians had been hoping that their cyberattacks would be more crippling than Pearl Harbor it seems not to have panned out that way; will they try something more overt?