TrickstaPriest

Well, it was likely either an intentional leak or deliberate misinformation. Either way, intentionally mentioned to demoralize Russians about the war effort. And if it's true, there's likely a lot of FSB people who were ticked at Putin turning to mercenaries to do his dirty work. Professional pride and all of that.
 
 
And about Ukrainian forces seeming particularly lucky, I had intended a couple of days ago to post a story about the EU sharing real time satellite intelligence with Ukraine collected by some base in Spain.
 
I honestly don't remember if I posted it here or not. I've had way too many posts (in various places) and conversations to keep everything straight.
 
But eyes-in-the-sky are a tremendous force multiplier.
 
I know Ukraine is using TV to distribute intelligence to the public (which is why Russia targeted Kiev's TV tower today). And I know they're also using publicly-viewable social media posts and likely cell phones.
 
They probably have some other way of communicating intelligence to their citizens. But western media is scrupulously avoiding talking about it, just as they're scrupulously avoiding showing the defensive works going up around Kiev's perimeter and throughout many of Kiev's streets.
 
 
edit: Here's a story about the sharing of satellite data. It's not the one I read earlier but it at least mentions it.
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/eu-help-ukraine-with-intelligence-own-satellite-centre-eus-borrell-2022-02-28/

News roundup
 
I'm not providing links to every story this time since finding links which mentioned all of the information which I found relevant proved to be very time consuming. So instead, I'm writing up the information and throwing in links when the link would be more helpful than confusing or incomplete.
 
====
 
MSNBC tv's daily Meet the Press show on Monday revealed how removing Russia from SWIFT was accomplished: there's a carve out for Italy and Germany to continue making their energy payments to Russia using SWIFT, even to banks which are sanctioned from SWIFT for other purposes.
 
That sidesteps the concerns that Russia's own payment communications system would get a huge boost and also the concern that it would lead to stabilizing the ruble and devaluing the dollar, like I discussed a couple of days ago.
 
Really a genius compromise that no one, including myself, had ever publicly considered or discussed.
 
====
 
Shell Oil is following BP's lead in divesting itself of investments in Russian energy companies. Shell's investment in Russia's energy sector is about $3 billion.
 
In particular, Shell operates in conjunction with Gazprom, which is Russia's largest state-owned oil company.
 
Notable investments
1) it was one of the partners in providing funding for Nord Stream 2
2) the Salym Petroleum Development which is the development of three gigantic oil fields in Siberia. It is a 50/50 owner of that project with Gazprom (Russia's largest state-owned oil company) and presumably Shell had provided most of the technical expertise.
3) the huge Sakhalin 2 LNG plant (Shell holds a 27.5% stake) which exports primarily to China and Japan.
 
Japanese trading houses Mitsui & Co and Mitsubishi Corp, which own stakes of 12.5% and 10% in Sakhalin 2 respectively, said separately that they are examining Shell's announcement. 
 
Norway's Equinor, majority owned by the Norwegian state, said earlier on Monday that it would start divesting from its joint ventures in Russia. (Equinor has been partnered with Rosneft searching for oil in several parts of Russia. You might remember that Rosneft is the Russian oil company which BP just dumped. So Rosneft has lost two of its major western partners. But it's still the largest publicly-traded oil company in the world.) 
 
https://news.yahoo.com/shell-exit-joint-ventures-russias-180818488.html
 
====
 
Russia’s stock market will remain closed on Tuesday, Russia’s central bank has confirmed. (Gee, I wonder why?)
 
====
 
FINLAND on Monday announced it will donate 2,500 assault rifles, 150,000 cartridges for the rifles, 1,500 single-shot anti-tank weapons and 70,000 combat ration packages to Ukraine. Also  2,000 composite helmets and 2,000 bulletproof vests, 100 stretchers and equipment for two emergency medical care stations.
 
They're basing their donations on Ukraine's wish list submitted to the EU and on what Finland has immediately available to send. 
 
https://www.helsinkitimes.fi/finland/finland-news/domestic/21099-finland-to-send-assault-rifles-anti-tank-weapons-and-ammunition-to-ukraine.html
 
====
 
The United States announced Monday it is expelling 12 members of the Russian Mission at the United Nations, accusing them of being intelligence operatives engaged in espionage.
 
White House press secretary Jen Psaki responded to the Russian ambassador’s characterization of the expulsions as a “hostile act” by saying: “I think the hostile act is committing espionage activities on our own soil.”
 
According to the U.N. diplomatic directory, Russia has 79 diplomats accredited to the United Nations.
 
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/u-s-says-it-is-expelling-12-russian-diplomats-for-engaging-in-espionage
 
====
 
Switzerland and Monaco have both decided to honor the sanctions against Russia.
 
====
 
Cyprus, ‘haven for Russian money laundering’, supports excluding Russia from SWIFT banking and all the other EU sanctions (Cyprus is not in NATO but is in the EU). 
 
It's a notorious haven for Russian money, the official home of several companies owned by Russian oligarchs and the second biggest bank in Cyprus is Russian. So banning them from access to Cyrus hurts more than keeping oligarchs from vacationing on the French Riviera.
 
So if they're serious about actually enforcing the sanctions rather than letting things slide, it's significant.
 
https://theprint.in/world/cyprus-haven-for-russian-money-laundering-supports-excluding-russia-from-swift-banking/850757/
 
====
Canada
 
Trudeau announces they're supplying Ukraine with anti-tank weapons systems and upgraded ammunition. This is in addition to our three previous shipments of military equipment – and it’s on top of the night vision goggles, body armour, gas masks, and helmets we announced yesterday.
 
“Canada will continue to deliver support for Ukraine’s heroic defense against the Russian military,” he said, according to Reuters. “We are announcing our intention to ban all imports of crude oil from Russia, an industry that has benefited President Putin and his oligarchs greatly.”
 
====
 
German warplanes are flying armed air patrols in the skies over Poland, the German air force said on Tuesday.
“Safeguarding the skies over Poland,” the air force said on Twitter, above a picture of a starting fighter jet, without giving details.
A military spokesperson told Reuters the Eurofighter jets were flying missions out of Germany over Poland.
Germany is also refueling allied jets over Romania with an A400M tanker and supporting a multinational refueling mission over Poland, according to the spokesperson, on top of having deployed six Eurofighters to Romania where they fly armed air patrols for NATO.
On Monday, Germany announced it would send Tornado warplanes and a maritime patrol aircraft to the Baltic Sea area.
 
My Commentary: This looks like pure intimidation to me. It's obvious by the way that Putin has dribbled his forces into Ukraine that he was worried that NATO would respond in force and annihilate whatever he sent in...but leave alone whatever he didn't send in.
 
So he started off sending in less than a third of the forces he'd assembled. When those weren't successful in the first two days, he gradually ramped it up to half over the following couple of days.
 
But now Putin has gone up to a solid 75% of his forces committed.
 
So Germany starts flying cap over Poland (with Germany's military being the "monster under the bed" of Russian fears).  
 
There's no particular military reason to be over Poland at this point since Putin already committed his forces elsewhere. But by putting them there, it's an intimidation move to try to keep Putin from committing the rest of his forces and putting them at risk (since NATO forces would be much less likely to attack Russian forces which actually remained on Russian soil as opposed to being involved in an invasion of Ukraine).
 
It's a pretty smart move.
 
====
 
YouTube has blocked channels linked to Russian state-owned media outlets RT and Sputnik across Europe – including the UK – amid the invasion of Ukraine.
 
(The EU had been talking about turning off both media outlets for the duration anyway. So this might be just YouTube rushing to the head of a parade and pretending to lead it.)
 
====
 
The 17 mile long convoy of Russian military forces on their way to Kiev grew to 40 miles over the last few hours. British military intelligence is saying the Russians are having logistical problems (likely fuel and breakdowns), So rather than the forces moving along in an orderly fashion, they're backing up along the road back to Belarus.
 
The satellite photos on TV show the forces almost bumper-to-bumper for miles. 
 
If the Ukrainians had significant air-to-mud aircraft available, this would be a very target-rich environment (and likely vehicles detonating other vehicles). Makes me wonder if part of the financial military assistance to Ukraine is being devoted to buying more of those Turkish-made drones which have proved so effective against convoys.
 
====
 
Belarus troops enter Ukraine to assist Russian invasion.
 
https://t.me/verkhovnaradaukrainy/6789
 
They're entering along the same invasion route as that 40 mile long convoy so I'd assume that they're mixed in with the Russian traffic jam.
 
====
 
Australia’ commits $70m to provide Ukraine with missiles and ammunition.
 
====
 
UK bars Russian ships from its ports. This includes chartered, controlled, operated, or owned by Russians.

https://www.facebook.com/andrew.guck1/posts/5359593077398270
 
====
 
A breakdown of the aircraft the EU is providing to Ukraine.
 
Ukraine’s Air Force said on March 1 that Bulgaria will provide 16 MiG-29s and 14 Su-25s, Poland will provide 28 MiG-29 units, and Slovakia – 12 MiG-29s.
 
70 total.
 
(I nailed the identities of the three countries providing the aircraft: small personal victory!)
 
https://www.facebook.com/kpszsu/posts/324628826371739
 
(And remember Poland had just donated a large number of air-to-air missiles for such jets as I mentioned in my last compilation post.)
 
edit: to give some context
 
Before the war started, Ukraine had 
 
37 MiG-29s
12 Su-24s
17 Su-25s
32 Su-27s
 
So that's 98 total fighters if I did the math right in my head. And the EU just gave them another 70 fighters plus the ammunition to make them effective.
 
I read reports before the war started that Ukraine had more trained military pilots in service than they had aircraft. So it's entirely possible, especially with calling up their reserves and retired military pilots, that they could put those aircraft to use immediately.
 
====
 
EU interior ministers asked EU home affairs commissioner Ylva Johansson to prepare proposals to trigger the EU temporary protection directive, drawn up after the 1990s war in the Balkans. If approved, that would allow Ukrainians who flee the war the right to stay and work in the EU for up to three years.
 
====
 
Taiwan has sent 27 tons of medical supplies to Ukraine, Reuters reports. Taiwan has joined with Western allies in putting sanctions on Russia.
 
Honoring the sanctions is notable because Taiwan is a major source of the world's semiconductors.
 
====
 
Ukrainian ambassador to the US claims Russia used a fuel-air explosive (aka thermobaric weapon, aerosol bomb, or vacuum bomb) in an area with civilians and not on a military target. If true, that's a violation of the Geneva Convention.
 
The international criminal court’s prosecutor is seeking the court’s approval to investigate alleged war crimes.
 
Fuel-air explosions can be made large enough to be the next worst thing in size to a nuclear explosion. Russia previously was alleged to use such weapons in first and second Chechen Wars during battles over Grozny (the Chechen capital city and previously the most populous city of the disputed area).
 
Amnesty International has condemned Russia’s reported use of cluster munitions (a different weapons system) on civilian populations and say the use of them on a pre-school may be a war crime.
 
====
 
Russian troops based in the country’s far east are heading for maneuvers closer to Europe, the Interfax news agency quoted Russia’s eastern military district as saying on Tuesday.
 
===
 
An open letter 
 
"We, the Presidents of the EU member states: the Republic of Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, the Republic of Estonia, the Republic of Latvia, the Republic of Lithuania, the Republic of Poland, the Slovak Republic, and the Republic of Slovenia strongly believe that Ukraine deserves receiving an immediate EU accession perspective.
Therefore, we call on the EU Member States to consolidate highest political support to Ukraine and enable the EU institutions to conduct steps to immediately grant Ukraine a EU candidate country status and open the process of negotiations."
 
===
 
Religious figure and former presidential candidate Pat Robertson says that Putin is being compelled by God to invade Ukraine.
(video available at the link)
 
https://deadstate.org/pat-robertson-putin-is-being-compelled-by-god-to-invade-ukraine-and-bring-on-the-end-times/
 
====
 
Ukrainians are posting drive-by firebombing videos as they drive normal cars like minivans by Russian vehicles on the highway and toss a Molotov cocktail out onto them. They use a chase car to catch usable video. Armored personnel carriers seem to burn well.
 
====
 
A poll shows that 74% of Americans oppose Putin's invasion of Ukraine. The other 26% think Trump is President.
— Henry M. Rosenberg
 
====
 
Edited the section on "the donation of 70 fighter aircraft" to compare it to the size of the already-existing Ukrainian air force so as to give you the idea of just how huge of a contribution that was to the war effort.
 
Ukrainian pilots started moving those aircraft from Poland back home yesterday.

Lots and lots of online speculation along these lines.  Is Putin crazy enough to attempt limited use of small yield nuclear weapons?  Probably.  Can we afford to let him benefit from nuclear blackmail?  Probably not.

Understand:  I am not even slightly opposed to any of the aid measures for Ukraine, or the sanctions against Russia.
 
But it also worries me.  I fear that Putin will view all of this as aggression against Russia, particularly if the economy continues down the tubes.  And if he thinks it's aggression against Russia...what will he NOT do?  

Nor I, but these sanctions have been much greater, and come *much* more swiftly, than I imagined possible. I imagined weeks of dithering while governments argued with each other and tried to make up their own minds. Putin probably did as well. While I am no military expert (nor mind reader), I suspect his plan was to wage a short, victorious war and present the rest of the world with a fait accompli. Governments would huff and puff, but nobody would be ready to go to war with Russia for the sake of a country already conquered. The Eurowimps would wag fingers, but would admit they needed Russian gas and oil more than they needed principles. Americans would be hamstrung by internal hyper-partisanship, and wouldn't act without strong allied support.
 
I have not words to say how happy I am this has not happened. Putin is clever, but this time he totally misread the room. It appears he did not, in fact, have a strategy tree by which he could change his plans to win something no matter what the West did in response. He can still "win" in Ukraine, but it will be a bloody, brutal slog instead of a chess-master's brilliant gambit. Instead of breaking up, NATO looks like it's getting new members and new resolve. Russia's trade and financial ties are unraveling. While Europe still needs Russian oil and gas, this will accelerate the search for alternate energy sources, steadily impoverishing Russia and reducing its economic leverage. And, intangibly, just an attitude of disgust toward Russia. Machiavelli warned that while it can be good for a prince to be feared, no prince can survive contempt.
 
Not one path to defeat, but all paths to defeat, in one field or another. I hope the Russian people -- and the Russian generals -- are coming to understand this.
 
Dean Shomshak

I'm glad you appreciate it. I'm constantly worrying that I'm posting too many stories and am boring people rather than informing them. I have to put up with a lot of people on other websites who think they need to post every story that they see...and who seem to have no way of gauging whether the story is important or not.
 
So to those who might be borderline irritated, please rest assured that I'm posting only a tiny fraction of what I'm seeing and am not deliberately trying to bury you under a blizzard of irrelevant information.
 
I'm trying to stick to items which have already come up in the conversation, major changes on the ground, and slow-rolling changes which might turn into something very important over the coming days (like the Finland vote and the potential of a new uprising in Belarus).
 
But if people have specific requests of things they'd like to see as I come across them, let me know. 
 
@Old Man
Thought you'd enjoy this story in light of earlier conversations:
 
Ukrainian troops defending Chernihiv region blew up 56 tanks of diesel fuel that were being transported by a Russian military convoy.
 
https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2022/02/26/7326282/
 
Also:
 
 

This. This right here. The real world is a complex place, and real conflicts require complex analysis and complex solutions. 
 
Simple answers are for simple minds, charlatans, and despots. 

Thanks for keeping up on this, Archer. It's important to remember how Western leaders face choices that are more complex than we ever hear from normal media. (Even responsible media that are really trying to inform.) I am really, *really* glad that I can sit here huffing in outrage and don't have to play this three-dimensional chess game in person.
 
On Saturday, ATC once again spoke to Eastern Europe expert Prof. Timothy Snyder. He rather mocked Putin's recent argument for why Russia, Belarus and Ukraine are, always were, and always must be one nation. Apparently it all comes down to some Viking chieftan baptizing himself Christian a thousand years ago. Sorry, Prof. Snyder says, quite a bit of history has passed since then. But, as Snyder also pointed out in his On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, totalitarian despots (and would-be despots -- the book was specifically written in response to Trumpism) never engage with real history, in all its messy complexity and ambiguity. They construct ultra-simplified narratives of heroic examples and ancient grievances.
 
Snyder also argued that Ukraine, a place most of us never paid the least attention to, has actually been in the heart of the major historical trends and events for at least a hundred years. Early nationalist movement, challenging the Russian Empire; brutal repression by Stalin; a major goal of Hitler, to become Germany's new breadbasket; post Soviet, finding a new path caught between Russia and the West; even the problem of growing income inequality; more. Interesting stuff.
 
Dean Shomshak

Yo.

Just saw from BBC that Putin has placed Russia's nuclear deterrent on "special alert".
 
Seriously?
 
https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-europe-60542877?ns_mchannel=social&ns_source=twitter&ns_campaign=bbc_live&ns_linkname=621b82160ce87e491a0ed58b%26Russian move does not signal intent to use nuclear weapons%262022-02-27T13%3A56%3A05.258Z&ns_fee=0&pinned_post_locator=urn:asset:a0123d9e-83d8-4199-be2f-92361aab4ea7&pinned_post_asset_id=621b82160ce87e491a0ed58b&pinned_post_type=share

I refuse to believe those deluded fools represent the majority of Americans. As it becomes increasingly obvious that what Trumpist Republicans and right-wing media have been telling them about Ukraine is a lie, I expect those politicians to suffer for their allegiance to Vladimir Putin.

You might remember this lady from the 2020 Belarus election. The supposed president there was running for his 6th term in office and arrested her husband who was his main political opponent.
 
She decided to run in her husband's place. After the election, she declared she got 60% of the vote and gathered a transition team to negotiate the transfer of power.
 
The president declared that he got 80% of the vote and she got only 10% then threw her transition team into jail.
 
There were widespread protests about the election results.
 
She went on Twitter today and declared herself to be the president of Belarus and for the current president to be a traitor for assisting the Russians in the invasion of Ukraine.
 
Don't know how this will turn out but since the Russian army actually left her country, she's at least in a much better spot than she would have been trying this a couple of weeks ago. And there's certainly more public sentiment against their president now since the images of the invasion of Ukraine have become public.
 
 

A few days ago on BBC or ATC -- I forget which, there
s been a lot to take in -- a former PM of Finland said the country could join NATO in a day if it and NATO were willing; Finland meets all the requirements. And he's advocated this for a long time.
 
 
Anders Sandberg? I "met" him years ago when he contributed Mage: the Ascension fanwork on a White Wolf gaming forum, and he was sorking on his degree in computational neuroscience. He has that degree now and has appeared on programs about artificial intelligence, transhumanism, and similar topics because IRL he works on that sort of stuff IRL. Basically, he's developing the technology to cause the Singularity that replaces humanity. Very nice guy, or at least he was in his alt/games.white-wolf days, but a bit fearsome.
 
Dean Shomshak

Hi,
 
There's been a lot of conversation about banning Russia from the SWIFT financial system, so I've been engaging in a lot of conversations about the SWIFT financial system. Then having to recreate what I've already written because I can't easily find what I've already written repeatedly.
 
Anyway, I thought it'd help me to write up some basics of where we're at, for the moment, so I could have something to come back to in later conversations. And I thought it might be useful or interesting to people here rather than squirreling it away for my personal use in my email.
 
====
 
SWIFT is the system which banks use to communicate with each other about the financial transactions they're making between themselves. Before SWIFT, they made telephone calls or sent telexes which basically anyone could read so communications weren't secure.
 
Many countries are wanting to kick Russian banks off of the system because it'd make it more difficult, or at least slower, to conduct their business. When Iran was kicked off of SWIFT in 2012, it basically eliminated close to half of their transactions with foreign banks.
 
Of NATO countries, France, Canada, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Czech Republic, and the UK have come out in favor of removing Russian banks from the SWIFT financial system. France is the big surprise on that list since it's highly-dependent on Russian natural gas and had been talking like it'd be against the removal.
 
====
 
Germany, Italy, Austria, Hungary, US at the moment are against removing Russia from SWIFT.
 
Germany, Italy, Austria are highly-dependent on Russian natural gas and so need some way of paying Russian banks. 
 
Italian and Austrian banks being highly exposed with loans into Russia which might not be repaid if Russia were to retaliate when removed from SWIFT.
 
Hungary's strong-man-in-charge, despite his country being in NATO, has been a fairly reliable friend of Putin.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/anger-explodes-at-germany-italy-and-hungary-over-europe-s-failure-to-cut-russia-off-from-swift-payment-network/ar-AAUi8DM
 
====
 
Germany and the US are against removing Russia from SWIFT because they're looking at it this long and involved way...
 
The Bank of Russia began developing its own alternative to SWIFT in 2014, called the System for Transfer of Financial Messages (SPFS). As of 2021, SPFS was already handling up to one fifth of Russian’s payments messaging volume.
https://www.forbes.com/advisor/personal-finance/swift-russia-ukraine-war/
 
 
The Russian system has its drawbacks.
Whereas SWIFT operates 24 hours a day, SPFS can send payment messages only during weekday working hours, Maria Shagina, a fellow at the Center for Eastern European Studies at the University of Zurich, wrote earlier this year. SPFS also has shorter limits on the size of messages, she said. (But they'd likely upgrade their system if it became their primary way of receiving payments from foreign banks.)
 
China, whose economy is far larger than Russia's, is also developing an alternative to SWIFT. In 2015, Beijing launched the Cross-Border Interbank Payment System (CIPS) to help internationalize use of the Chinese currency, the yuan.
 
https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-swift-nuclear-option/31601868.html
 
Russian banks could go back to phone calls and telex. But it's much more likely that they'd just insist on their European customers using their system or China's system.
 
Doing one would be a major benefit to Russia while doing the other would be a major benefit to China...because it would make that system a legitimate alternative to SWIFT for banks worldwide to use.
 
Both Russia and China have objected for decades about having to do oil/natural gas transactions in dollars rather than their own currencies. If Russia is dumped from SWIFT, it could likely get away with insisting that its customers buy rubles from the Russian central bank and then pay for oil in those. 
 
That would help stabilize the ruble which had dropped in value significantly when Putin announced his invasion of Ukraine. At the same time, it would tend to devalue the dollar since it would no longer be the international standard for energy trading.
 
And likely if Russia could get away with making their energy transactions in their national currency rather than the dollar, China could probably get away with it as well.
 
(Personally I don't get the economist's arguments that "trading in rubles" would stabilize the value of the ruble more than "Russia's central bank increasing its store of foreign currency". But they all seem to agree that actually using a country's currency is more stabilizing than having foreign reserves to back the value of it.)
 
So basically, Germany and the US are looking at the "next level" of the bad things which would happen after Russia is kicked out of SWIFT rather than focusing on the immediate bad things which would happen to the Russian economy as it made the adjustment.
 
That's the argument of "in SWIFT" or "out of SWIFT", which you aren't going to get from media sources because the people who write the articles don't understand it for the most part. And the few who do understand it are ordered to not write in that level of detail because it will supposedly "go over the audience's heads".  
 
====
 
Also worth noting, in 2019 then-Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev stated that removing Russia from SWIFT would be a declaration of war. Take that for what you will, Russian officials say a LOT of marginally crazy things which don't turn out to become actual government policy.
 
https://news.yahoo.com/putin-demands-nato-guarantees-not-193448779.html
 

You guys are not doing my concern that WW III is starting any good.
 
My god, Carlson's a jackass.  Oh, the Democrats are overreacting!!  Like they're the only ones?  God, I loathe Fox News.  And if this DOES explode into something much larger...AND we actually make it through unscathed...then historical analysis will, IMO, point a BIG finger at the incendiary manipulations of, primarily, Fox News.
 
Ohhhhhh....and now the utterly hypocritical Carlson sinks even lower.
 
Thursday, he did a 180 after the invasion....well, more like a 135, apparently.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/02/25/tucker-carlson-russia-ukraine-putin/
 
Total slimeball.  

I don't blame you. Folks saying the West has been ENROACHING so Ukraine deserves to be seized are like some weird version of...
"Sure, the guy is beating his wife, but in his defense, she started to get out of beating range!"
It's sick.
 
Him being in Ukraine isn't looking good either. Though I don't blame him so much as I blame Putin

On another forum I'm on, posters are engaging in Both Siderism about Ukraine -- which is dangerously close to me losing my cherub-like demeanor over there...

"Whatever It Takes" Apparently Includes Threating People

Russia Used Beatings and Tricks to Forcibly Send Rookie Troops to Ukraine, Rights Group Says

I hate this timeline.  And I hate how people in my own damn country are fine with this.

With climate change?  Famine.

A mass death event is under way in Eastern Europe.  The "Civilized world" has a solemn obligation to make the consequences as severe as possible for its perpetrators.

Former Texas power chief says Greg Abbott directed him to charge customers max amount during 2021 winter outages
 
https://www.rawstory.com/greg-abbott-ercot/
 
Bill Magness, the former CEO of the Electric Reliabilty Council of Texas (ERCOT), testified in court on Wednesday that millions of Texans received sky-high energy bills during last winter's deep freeze based on the instructions of Gov. Greg Abbott.
 
Magness alleged under oath that " when he ordered power prices to stay at the maximum price cap for days on end during last year’s frigid winter storm and blackout, running up billions of dollars in bills for power companies, he was following the direction" of the Texas governor.
 
Magness said that keeping prices as high as possible were the only way to follow Abbott's directive, which was relayed to him by then-Public Utility Commission Chairman DeAnn Walker, to keep power on at all costs.
 
“She told me the governor had conveyed to her if we emerged from rotating outages it was imperative they not resume,” Magness testified. “We needed to do what we needed to do to make it happen.”
 
 
For some context
 
https://www.kvue.com/article/news/local/texas/former-ercot-ceo-following-gov-abbott-order-prices-at-max-cap-feb-2021-winter-storm/269-fe79947a-8ed2-4817-b4d5-037b72c46443
 
Last year, Abbott's spokesman told the Chronicle that the governor was not "involved in any way" in the decision to keep prices at a maximum of $9,000 per megawatt-hour.
 
 

Avenge the Cow!

Well, that didn't take long. Who's surprised?
 
Trump App Truth Social Reportedly Bans Account for Mocking Devin Nunes
 
Truth Social already censoring content, bans user who made fun of Trump Media CEO
 
"Freedom of speech" = "Freedom to say whatever Trump and his cronies like"