UKRAINE 4 war

antagonist = pro putin proxy

SEE STARLINK 2X 180 MUSK HCR SAYS DEFINITIVE SWITCH SIDES DIESEL 10 26

3 22 post invasion

no merri

SEE CRISIS [WW3] DOOMSDAY CLOCK 85 SECS

SEE IRAN WAR 3 TRUMP DROPS OIL SANCTIONS

SEE KOCH FDN FAIL

see BLT 3 on rudy trump

see energy dominance war watershed

see disaster capitalism

see pivot walk back 180

SEE DISINFO 3 AI}:}:

SEE DISINFO 2 false flag crisis actor

SEE PUTIN 3

see useful idiots RT punks tim pool benny j dave rubin

see war crimes

how many troll caucus, hard right? gaetz

tulsi g

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mike j fuckery irs funding 1123

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TRUMP MIDTERM POLLS LOW ANNOUNCE ENERGY CEASE FIRE BOTH SIDES SAY NOT TRUE 10 26 //

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AN 11 26

A Ukrainian researcher has said Melania Trump may have walked straight into the Kremlin’s trap.

Petro Andrushchenko, head of the Center for the Study of the Occupation, was livid following a Russian drone strike at a train station in Dnipro, about 160 miles from Oleshky, on October 29. The attack killed 14 civilians and injured at least 14 more as they were waiting on the platform

“While screaming to the world how much he wants Melania Trump to mediate saving 1,500 people in Oleshky, Putin continues to kill civilians 10 minutes away from my house, continues to bomb Kyiv and Zaporizhzhia,” he told the Daily Beast.

“Now Putin will be a ‘humanitarian’ for moving people from Oleshky to Russia," he said. "The Oleshky operation is truly the greatest victory of Russian propaganda.”

The first lady hosted an event at the White House on Thursday with delegations from both Russia and Ukraine in attendance, where both sides praised her efforts to achieve peace.

She said she had “acted immediately” to secure a ceasefire in Oleshky and described herself as the “exclusive intermediary” between the hostile nations. The event lasted about 15 minutes, and the first lady did not take questions from the press.

Nearly 800 people were evacuated from Oleshky, according to the first lady. The frontline Russian-occupied city in the Kherson region has been trapped in a horrific war zone since 2022, with residents facing months of severe food shortages.

Andrushchenko was even more blunt about the propaganda surrounding the operation.

“Using Donald Trump and Melania as their façade, Russian propaganda is building a campaign in order to blame Ukraine, put the ‘genocide,’ hunger in Oleshky on our shoulders,” he said.

“They are allowing American journalists in; they have brought a bunch of dubious reporters from Moscow. Not sure how Ukraine is supposed to react.”

President Volodymyr Zelensky has awarded the first lady the Order of Princess Olha, 1st Class, for her humanitarian work supporting Ukraine, including efforts to bring Ukrainian children home.

The Daily Beast reports that Ukrainians have mixed feelings about Melania’s involvement in the Oleshky evacuation. It helped people escape Oleshky while Russian strikes continued elsewhere, including Dnipro. It may have set a precedent for more truces on the frontline, but critics said it also handed Russia a propaganda coup. The report also raised concerns that moving Ukrainians out of occupied territory contributed to ethnic cleansing.

“Melania Trump brokered a ceasefire without a single independent monitor in the room, and Russia used that gap to stage exactly the picture it wanted the world to see,” Lyudmyla Yankina of the Ukrainian human rights group Civil Fortis told the Daily Beast.

Special envoy Steve Witkoff came under fire from U.S. lawmakers and Ukraine for describing Russian President Vladimir Putin as a “humanitarian” following Russia’s release of U.S. citizen Stephen Hubbard on October 21.

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AN 10 26

'Morally bankrupt': McConnell rips Trump for 'coddling' Russia deals

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MMA

Fox host Brian Kilmeade: "No doubt" that Trump's money for Russian oil is "going to be used to help kill innocent Ukrainians"

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PRES Z SAYS IF PUTIN AND TRUMP GANG UP, HE CANNOT WIN 10/22/26

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an 10 23 26

On Thursday, the Trump administration’s attempt to dodge blame for the disruption of Ukraine’s Starlink capabilities appeared to blow up. What’s more, the call came from inside the house, as it was Vice President JD Vance who accidentally exposed the whole thing. While President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other officials have attempted to direct responsibility for the throttling of Ukraine’s Starshield speeds at the company rather than the government, Starlink CEO Elon Musk has pushed back, asserting that the military branch of the system is operated by the Pentagon. When asked about this by Fox News, Vance appeared to back up Musk’s account.

“Fundamentally, Elon Musk runs a private corporation, and I think it's completely understandable that he doesn't want to get in the middle of what is a war between two state actors without the United States government effectively directing him on what to do,” said Vance. “So I don't think this is about Elon. I think it's fundamentally, what is America's policy in Ukraine to Russia going to be?" And as Reuters National Security Correspondent Erin Banco emphasizes, “As Vance notes here, Starshield is a contract held between DOD and SpaceX. Contractually, SpaceX can't do anything without decision from USG.”

In other words, if Vance is right, then the Trump administration has actively degraded a U.S. ally’s military capacity while aiding one of the United States’ greatest adversaries. As many commentators have suggested, Trump has increasingly aligned with Russia through both word and action. Critics have argued that Trump's order dropping sanctions to buy Russian diesel not only breaks U.S. law, but hands President Vladimir Putin a financial lifeline while doing little to ease skyrocketing diesel prices.

Trump has blamed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for the ongoing war — which was launched by Russia — while his special envoy has drawn bipartisan outrage for calling Putin a “humanitarian.” Meanwhile, Putin has floated the idea that Russia, the U.S., and China hold a summit to discuss the war — without Ukraine’s participation — a move Fox News says would be a “serious mistake.” According to Fox national security analyst Rebeccah Heinrichs, “The Russians view the United States as its number one adversary, and they're trying to get the United States to back down and not support Zelensky.”

A growing number of lawmakers are calling for investigations into the Starlink matter, while seven Republican senators have signed a letter telling Musk to remove Ukraine’s restrictions. Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman has declared the sabotage of Ukraine an act of “treason,” suggesting it warrants the seizure of Starlink.

ref hill

A bipartisan group of nearly two dozen House members is urging President Trump to ask tech mogul Elon Musk to give Ukraine access to Starlink satellite systems to hunt for missile launchers inside Russia, according to a letter sent Wednesday and obtained exclusively by The Hill.

The signatories included seven House Republicans alongside 16 Democrats, widening the GOP coalition looking to bring Trump back to the side of Ukraine as he has swung hard in favor of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“We are writing to urge you to ask Elon Musk to let Ukraine use the Starlink satellite internet system to hunt for missile launchers inside Russia. With one phone call, you could both save lives and give Vladimir Putin greater incentives to negotiate,” the lawmakers wrote.

“If Ukraine cannot reliably intercept Russian ‘arrows,’ it must be able to shoot the ‘archer.’ The Starlink system run by Mr. Musk’s company SpaceX could help with that.”

The Republican signatories include stalwart Ukraine supporters Reps. Joe Wilson (S.C.), Brian Fitzpatrick (Pa.) and Don Bacon (Neb.), along with Reps. Carlos Gimenez (Fla.), Jeff Hurd (Colo.), Andy Harris (Md.) and Max Miller (Ohio), who represents a heavily Ukrainian district.

“Mr. President, we all share the goal of bringing an end to the war in Ukraine and the devastating loss of life it has caused,” the lawmakers wrote in the letter sent Wednesday.

“Unfortunately, Putin presently has no intention of stopping the bloodshed.”

The letter bolsters the lobbying campaign on the Senate side led by Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), who chairs the Armed Services Committee and led a congressional delegation to Ukraine last week.

Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) was also on that trip and penned an op-ed in The Washington Post urging the U.S. to give Ukraine expanded access to Musk’s satellites.

Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky has also pushed for more U.S. help in targeting Russia’s missile launchers.

“Mr. President, as you know, Kyiv has petitioned Mr. Musk for a carve-out to this restriction. But only you can push this matter over the goal line,” the lawmakers wrote.

Trump has called for Ukraine to stop hitting Russian oil refineries, blaming those attacks for the high diesel prices in the U.S. that are largely attributed to the war against Iran.

The bipartisan letter comes as a growing number of Republicans have expressed outrage over disruptions in Ukraine to Starlink — and its military-

grade version, Starshield — that hampered air defense and offensive missions.

The Wall Street Journal reported Musk ordered a slowdown in Starlink’s services. It’s not clear how involved Trump was in the discussions surrounding the slowdown.

Some Republicans have joined Democrats in calling for an investigation into the throttling of Starlink and Starshield. Many of these same Republicans have expressed further outrage over Trump waiving sanctions on Russia to export diesel fuel, as he tries to lower prices before the midterms.

Fitzpatrick and Bacon, in particular, have threatened to disrupt Trump’s agenda after the midterms if the president does not change course on Russia and Ukraine.

This includes providing Ukraine “any and all defensive equipment,” blocking imports of Russian oil and raising sanctions against Russia, Fitzpatrick wrote on social media Monday.

“Each and every one of these items will be brought to the House Floor—and each and every one of these items will pass on the House Floor by an overwhelming margin,” he wrote.

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Trump's own spy chief just secretly delivered a warning to Putin :report

AN 10 26

Trump's CIA director traveled to Moscow to assess the Russia-Ukraine war, and his verdict came with a warning to Vladimir Putin.

Trump sent the CIA director, John Ratcliffe, in August to meet Russian security officials, The Atlantic reported Friday, citing sources familiar with the talks.

Ratcliffe presented his conclusion that neither side is winning the war, noting that Russian forces had failed to make any meaningful gains, but Ukraine had also failed at pushing them out of occupied territory.

American and Russian spies communicated through an intelligence back channel, called "the channel," to speak privately.

While Ratcliffe did not meet Putin personally, his intelligence chiefs documented his message for the Russian president.

U.S. officials believe that Putin is being misled by his advisers, and they hope the information would get him to negotiate with Ukraine to end the war.

Ratcliffe later spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky about the Moscow visit while they refueled their planes in Ireland in September, according to the report.

This comes as Trump’s public statements seem to contradict his own spy chief's conclusion about the conflict.

Trump, who has never had a good relationship with the Ukrainian president, recently became a more vocal critic, accusing him of refusing to make a peace deal and saying he is "more difficult to deal with than Putin."

Trump also attacked Ukraine's renewed strikes on Russian oil refineries, calling them "a disgrace" and blaming them for the rising cost of fuel globally, while most experts believe the Iran war is mostly responsible for the price hike.

Trump also insisted that Ukraine could choose other targets in direct contradiction to Zelensky’s repeated warnings that Russia is using their fuel to attack Ukraine.

The International Energy Agency report suggests Ukraine has been successful in its campaign. Per the report, Russian refinery throughput fell to its lowest level in more than 20 years in June, roughly 30% below the previous year.

Its analysis also found that Ukrainian strikes hit a Russian refinery about once every three days during the first eight months of 2026. Russian gasoline production fell by 20% and diesel production had fallen by about 30%, which led to export restrictions to preserve supply.

Meanwhile, The Atlantic reported that the CIA gives Ukraine intelligence to help them identify and hit russian energy targets. A Baltic intelligence officer said the operations are "much more aggressive" than under Biden.

After Trump criticized Zelensky, Ukraine's defenses faced restrictions on Starlink satellite services, which disrupted its ability to operate defensive drones.

Zelensky has repeatedly said Ukraine is willing to end the war, but Russia has no plans to stop.

Ratcliffe's Moscow mission seemingly contradicts Trump’s statements about Ukraine and Russia, as his relationship with Putin sparks anger across both sides of the political aisle.

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8 26

putin ~ son conor mercenary?

raw

Putin's has set his sights on a member of Donald Trump's Cabinet — by going after his kid.

A Moscow court has ordered the arrest of Conor Kennedy, the son of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., branding him a "mercenary" for a stint spent fighting alongside Ukrainian forces, according to the Russian state media outlet TASS.

TASS also reported that the 32-year-old has been added to an international wanted list. The Daily Beast reported on the development.

ALSO READ: 'God's money': White House enrages with vow that public cash belongs to evangelicals

If he was arrested, Conor Kennedy would face between seven and 10 years in a Russian prison, according to the report.

But since the case was built in absentia, the warrant carries more symbolism than teeth as he isn't likely to be extradited.

Why Moscow decided to act now — nearly four years after Kennedy first went public about his time in Ukraine — was not explained.

Back in October 2022, Kennedy used Instagram to describe why he'd signed up to fight for Ukraine. He said he was profoundly affected by what he witnessed on the ground and was prepared to die there. He said he'd kept his identity quiet from most people to spare his family worry and avoid special treatment, and he praised the international volunteers he served alongside as genuine freedom fighters from all walks of life.

He fought in the Kharkiv region as part of Ukraine's International Legion, though he didn't say publicly how long his deployment lasted.

Conor is RFK Jr.'s third child and his oldest with ex-wife Mary Richardson.

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10 26

Overnight, Starlink was blocked in Ukraine, which led to people being killed. Ukraine’s President Zelensky appeared on Piers Morgan and said he felt betrayed by President Trump, who announced an energy ceasefire and diesel deal with Putin, and Musk, whose company manages Starlink

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OFFICIAL 3 26

Doomsday Clock Today | Current Time & Complete Timeline (2026)

The Doomsday Clock is currently at 85 seconds to midnight — the closest it has ever been to global catastrophe since its creation in 1947.

clock moved to 85 seconds in February 2026 due to increased nuclear risks, the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, the Middle East conflict, climate change, and AI-related threats. It had previously been at 89 seconds.

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CMD

...

The rebrand appears to be working. In the past five years, Charles Koch and his staff have managed partnerships with musicians like and Guns ‘N’ Roses drummer. Celebrity athletes have also participated. Koch’s “Prime 5” collaboration involved retired football player Deion Sanders, and the LeBron James Family Foundation received a $575,000 grant from Koch’s Stand Together Chamber of Commerce in 2020. Charles Koch touts his collaboration with former political foe Van Jones, who allegedly thinks of his primary contact at Koch “

In sharp contrast, Koch’s historical political extremism—dating back to his work with the John Birch Society during the height of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s—continues unabated.

The Bill of Rights Institute, an organization operating out of Koch’s compound in Arlington, Virginia, was involved in efforts to whitewash the history of slavery in the U.S. in its lesson plans. Koch cash flowed to members of a network of neo-Confederates and white supremacists as recently as 2017. Since then, he has continued to support groups that manufacture hysteria over critical race theory, despite his public statements disavowing the trend.

Most recently, the Atlantic Council ceased its $4.5 million collaboration with the Charles Koch Institute after new staff hired from the Koch-founded Cato Institute advocated against focusing on Russia’s violations of human rights. This followed Koch Industries’ controversial refusal to discontinue its business operations in Russia immediately after Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine in February. By April, the company reversed its position following weeks of dogged investigations by journalist Judd Legum.

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AN 3 26

President Donald Trump reportedly spoke with Russia about whether they are helping Iran and told other officials that he holds them at their word that they aren't involved. Now, it turns out, there is evidence to the contrary.

Speaking to CNBC about the matter on Tuesday, Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, claimed that Russia was being honest with the U.S.

"That's what they said. So, you know, we can take them at their word. But they did say that," Witkoff claimed. "Let’s hope they’re not sharing."

It prompted a question at the White House press briefing on Tuesday when one reporter asked, "The Kremlin put out a statement, a statement where Putin said, 'I would like to reaffirm our unwavering support for Tehran and our solidarity with Iranian friends.' How does the president think that Russia could be helpful if not helping Iran? And did the president push Putin on Russia sharing intelligence with Iran in this war?"

Press secretary Karoline Leavitt softened that emphatic claim by Trump and Witkoff, telling the press, "Both said that they've sent a message to Russia that if that was taking place, it's not something they would be happy with and they hope that it is not taking place."

CNN reported Wednesday morning that Russia has specifically been working with Iran on "advanced drone tactics," a problem that the Defense Department confessed was causing them headaches.

“There are not great defenses available to the U.S. military to defend against the Shahed,” a congressional official told The Atlantic last week after a Capitol Hill briefing with senior Trump administration members.

“So they have to use the defensives they have, which are costly,” the congressional official said. “We have known this for a long time. We don’t have, at scale, good defenses against drones.”

CNN confirmed that Russia is helping Iran with those drone tactics, after facing off against the assault themselves from Ukraine, Western intelligence said.

"Shahed drones, designed by Iran but mass-produced by Moscow for use in Ukraine, have been unexpectedly successful in penetrating the air defenses of Gulf nations," the report explained. "Russian intelligence sharing with Iran has until now been reported as general assistance with targeting, but specific tactical advice is a new level of support."

“What was more general support is now getting more concerning, including UAS [drone] targeting strategies that Russia employed in Ukraine,” the official told CNN.

The individual wouldn't provide specifics about the tactical help.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on X, “Russia has started supporting the Iranian regime with drones. It will definitely help with missiles, and it is also helping them with air defense."

He has his own drone interception experts and has agreed to send them to aid the U.S. They have a small, easily-produced $5,000 device that can stop the cheap Russian drones.

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FOUR YEars

AN 2 26

The global diplomatic goals of the U.S. used to be handled by a vast corps of skilled professionals, but under Trump, virtually all overseas goals are in the hands of one "witless" envoy, as James Ball wrote for The i Paper, possibly because he has a background "almost identical" to the president's.

Ball broke down Steve Witkoff's unlikely and alarming ascent in a scathing analysis from Wednesday. Initially chosen to oversee an Israeli ceasefire deal in Gaza, he was later upgraded to overseeing all missions in the Middle East, including brokering a deal to defuse tensions with Iran.

Now, he is also handling talks to end the years-long war between Russia and Ukraine. This high-stakes job has seen him make many alarming breaks from standard diplomatic procedures, such as meeting solo with Russian President Vladimir Putin and insisting that he trusts the Kremlin's English interpreters. These decisions overwhelmingly give Russia an upper hand, something Witkoff might not mind, Ball noted, as he has previously praised Putin and said that he does not "regard him as a bad guy."

"Is he amoral, or just incompetent?" Ball asked. "Usually, sensitive diplomatic negotiations are left to people with huge experience of the areas in which they operate. Typically, the lead negotiator has lived and worked in the region for decades, speaks the relevant languages, and has relationships with key power brokers in the various factions involved. They know the history, the resentments, the red lines. The hope is they can leverage that into the patient drudgework of diplomacy, dragging often reluctant parties over the line to a deal none of them will love, but that they can all live with."

Witkoff cannot meet that standard for all the missions he has been tasked with, Ball argued, because "No one on the planet has intimate experience of Israel, Gaza, Iran, Russia and Ukraine." That matter is made by the fact that the billionaire has had no diplomatic experience at all prior to his appointment as Trump's "Special Envoy for Peace Missions." The president, Ball suggested, seemed to pick him because of their strikingly similar professional backgrounds.

"His background is almost identical to Trump’s – Witkoff is a billionaire who made his money through real estate deals," Ball explained. "His portfolio is even more U.S.-focused than the President’s, and the handful of major deals his company closed outside the U.S. were in London. Witkoff knows the world of US real estate, and little else."

With "the witless Witkoff" now handling the Russia-Ukraine peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, Ball wrote that Trump has made him all of Europe's problem, with no regard for the consequences of his failure.

"It is Ukrainians first, and then Europeans, who will pay with their lives if Witkoff screws up," Ball wrote. "Americans will sit a continent away and pretend it’s not their problem if it blows up in their faces."

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HE’S BAAAAACK! AN 11 25

The peace plan that President Donald Trump's administration offered to end the ongoing war in Ukraine has been widely criticized for being overly accommodating to Russia. Now, a new report shows that Russia may have been even more intricately involved in its composition than previously known.

The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that the proposal — which Trump administration special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner (who is also the president's son-in-law) — relied heavily on input from a "Kremlin insider." Kushner, Witkoff and the Kremlin advisor huddled behind closed doors in multiple "secret meetings" in Miami, Florida, according to the Journal.

That Kremlin advisor was identified as Kirill Dmitriev, who the Journal described as an envoy of Russian President Vladimir Putin who also has ties to Kushner. Witkoff also met Dmitriev during his April trip to Moscow. The 28-point plan has been described as a "framework" to end the war, though multiple senators allege Secretary of State and National Security Advisor Marco Rubio described it as "essentially the wish list of the Russians." (Rubio has denied making that comment)

The three men reportedly met for three days in late October at Witkoff's home in Miami, where Dmitriev communicated multiple items the Kremlin demanded in order to agree to end hostilities with Ukraine. The Journal reported that Dmitriev called for Ukraine to never be allowed to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), pull all troops out of the eastern Donbass region and other territory Russia wanted to control (like the Crimean Peninsula, which it illegally invaded in 2014). The Kremlin also wants Ukraine's military to be capped at a much lower number than its current 900,000-member force.

Dmitriev also specifically called on the Trump administration to engage in multiple economic agreements in the areas of artificial intelligence, energy and other industries. The Journal also reported that the bulk of the plan was written by both Kushner and Witkoff before they even engaged with Russia or Ukraine.

When Witkoff and Kushner attempted to engage senior Ukrainian officials to get their input on the peace plan, one told the two Trump administration envoys that the deal was better for Russia than for Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked the two men for working toward ending the war, but also said their plan needed revisions.

Trump administration officials maintain that the final version of the plan will be more accommodating to Ukraine, and suggested amending it to raise the cap on the size of the Ukrainian military beyond what Russia wanted, and that language permanently barring Ukraine's membership in NATO could be removed.

Click here to read the Journal's report in full (subscription required).

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RED CARPET ALASKA, BEAST RIDE; SHOWS OFF PUTIN PIX AT wh 8 25 25

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AN 10 25

CONTEXT

A weekend call between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy devolved into a "shouting match," and Russian state media pundits are now declaring it the result of Russian President Vladimir Putin's influence over Trump.

Mediaite reported Monday on a recent segment by CNN's Erin Burnett, in which she highlighted comments by Russian media bragging about Trump being captive to Putin. Burnett said Trump's "complete 180" on supporting Ukraine in its war with Russia prompted Russian propagandists to refer to the U.S. president as "Putin's puppet."

Burnett then played a clip captured by Daily Beast columnist Julia Davis, who runs the Russian Media Monitor account. Davis reported that on the show "Sunday Evening with Vladimir Solovyov," Trump is simply playing Putin's game when it comes to Ukraine.

"Putin understands Trump all too well. Trump doesn’t understand Putin," the guest said. "Putin can manipulate him very well and lead Trump by his nose."

During the call with Zelenskyy, Trump didn't commit to sending Ukraine long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles despite earlier suggestions that he may do so. Davis wrote Monday that one Russian media host said that Trump was simply teasing Zelenskyy with the potential for Tomahawks "like dangling a carrot in front of a donkey." He further opined that in the coming summit in Budapest, Hungary between Trump and Putin, if Zelenskyy ends up attending it will be "solely to sign his capitulation."

IFrame Content

As CNBC reported, the source of the tension on the call between Trump and Zelenskyy came from Trump insisting that the Ukrainian leader accept Putin's conquest of Ukraine's Donbas territory in the east for the sake of ceasing hostilities. The initial 2022 invasion was over the Donbas territory, and came eight years after Russia illegally annexed Ukraine's Crimean peninsula.

“It’s cut up right now, I think 78 percent of the land is already taken by Russia," Trump said on Sunday. "They should stop right now at the battle lines. ... Go home, stop killing people and be done."

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OMG

an 10 25

ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl said MAGA firebrand Steve Bannon was communicating with President Donald Trump even as he sat in jail for contempt of Congress.

In his new book "Retribution," Karl reports Bannon managed to discreetly keep in touch with Trump and his camp during his 2024 prison stay through a "coded" system that allowed his daughter and top aide to pass along messages to Trump through the monitored email system he was allowed in prison.

"Bannon claims that an investigative officer at Danbury — an official he described as 'pure MAGA' — had warned him that his communications were being reviewed by 'Main Justice,' otherwise known as the Biden administration,” Karl wrote, according to ABC News.

"So he developed a coded system to let 'the girls' know which messages were to be passed on to Trump or to those around him, in particular the aide Boris Epshteyn: 'I had just a system to get to Boris, kind of in quasi-code, through [daughter Maureen] into [aide Grace Chong],' he said. Was there literally a code word? 'Well, we had — ' he began, before catching himself. 'I don’t — the Bureau of Prisons could go back through it. We had a way that they could get to him,'" Karl writes.

Karl reports Bannon remained an influence on Trump’s presidency after he was released from prison, and he was likely a source of Trump’s hostility toward Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at a controversial meeting earlier this year.

IFrame Content

“In his book, Karl reported on a meeting of Trump's national security team shortly before Zelenskyy's visit to Washington in February where Trump stopped the meeting and asked then-national security adviser Michael Waltz to ‘get Steve Bannon’ on the phone,” ABC reports.

"Hey, Steve, I’ve got the boys here," Trump said. "I’m going to put you on speaker."

“Trump, keeping Bannon on speakerphone for half an hour, had the MAGA firebrand make his case to the national security team against the deal, and Zelenskyy, who he referred to as ‘that punk,’" according to ABC News.

“I f—— hate it," Bannon said, arguing that the deal "ties us to Ukraine."

"If that punk comes here, he’s going to want a security guarantee,” Bannon said of Zelenskyy to Trump and his top advisers. He told the group they "can’t trust Zelenskyy" or "any of the Europeans."

Karl claims in his book that the previously unreported conversation set the tone for Trump’s combative meeting in the Oval Office with Zelenskyy, which crumbled into a shouting match in front of reporters and international viewers.

“You’re not acting at all thankful,” Trump said to the Ukrainian leader, in contradiction of Zelenskyy thanking the U.S. profusely for weaponry and aid to defend itself against its Russian aggressor. Trump also accused Zelenskyy of “gambling with World War III,” despite Russia invading Ukraine in 2022.

Read the ABC News report at this link.

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AN 8 25

Vice President JD Vance is facing criticism for reshaping the historical record of the past century of wars in a way seen as aiding Vladimir Putin, and for appearing to defend Russia by refusing to denounce the Russian President over the bombing of a U.S. factory in Ukraine.

Speaking to NBC News’ Kristen Welker on Sunday, the Vice President was asked if he was “enraged” when he learned that Russia had “targeted an American company based in Ukraine?”

“I don’t — I’m — I don’t like it, Kristen, but this is a war, and this is why we want to stop the killing,” was Vance’s response, “The Russians have done a lot of things that we don’t like, a lot of civilians have died. We’ve condemned that stuff from the get-go, and frankly, President Trump has done more to apply pressure and to apply economic leverage to the Russians.”

Some were stunned by Vance’s “this is a war” remark.

IFrame Content

Vance then went on to attack former President Joe Biden’s handling of Putin’s illegal war against Ukraine, while praising President Trump for allegedly ending a half-dozen wars.

Russia is now refusing to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, despite President Trump’s claim to the contrary, the Vice President also said, “I think the Russians have made significant concessions to President Trump for the first time in three and a half years of this conflict.”

“They’ve actually been willing to be flexible on some of their core demands,” Vance added. “They’ve talked about what would be necessary to end the war.”

Critics disputed Vance’s “significant concessions” claim.

Political science Professor Maria Popova, wrote: “For the umpteenth time: asking for a piece of Ukraine they cannot conquer in return for (maybe) pinky promising not to take another piece they cannot conquer is NOT a concession. Ru[ssia] has not made a single concession. Vance is lying through his teeth. He cannot be this obtuse.”

French civil servant Nicolas Tenzer, a senior expert in international and security issues, responded to Vance’s “concessions” claim: “We knew it from the outset. Full ideological alignment. Vance is cozying up to Putin. Period.”

Later, the Vice President was asked, “If Russia is allowed to keep any of the territory that it illegally seized, what message does that send to China? Does it give China a green light to invade Taiwan?”

Vance insisted (video below) that it’s up to Ukraine if it cedes territory to Russia after being illegally invaded, in an effort to end the war, but then added, “this is how wars ultimately get settled.”

“If you go back to World War II, if you go back to World War I, if you go back to every major conflict in human history, they all end with some kind of negotiation,” he claimed.

Critics, including experts on war, corrected the Vice President.

“This…is not at all how World War II ended,” wrote The Atlantic’s Tom Nichols, a retired U.S. Naval War College

professor and an expert on Russia.

“Fact check,” wrote James Robert Carroll, Washington Bureau Chief of the Capital News Service, “World War II ended with the unconditional surrenders of Germany and Japan.”

“And since Vance also mentioned WWI,” Nichols added, “the Treaty of Versailles was drafted by the victors and handed to the already-defeated Germans as an ultimatim.”

“Everybody remembers that seminal moment in WW2,” snarked The Bulwark’s Tim Miller, “with FDR in his wheelchair rolling out the red carpet for Hitler discussing which portions of France he will get in exchange for peace.”

Professor Larry Sabato, Director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics, wrote: “In both Europe and the Pacific, Germany and Japan surrendered unconditionally—no negotiation whatsoever—just as the Allies insisted in 1945.”

“People need to stop thinking that Vance didn’t know he’s wrong. He knows. He’s just assuming that Trump voters are too stupid to know better, and judging from the replies around here, he’s making a good bet,” Nichols observed.

Watch the video below or at this link.

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lara logan wiki

Russian invasion of Ukraine

During the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Logan in her television appearances linked Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy to "satanic, occult" practices, called him a "puppet" and claimed that he had been "selected [...], not voted in". She praised Russian president Vladimir Putin for "not going to stand by while the globalists take over the world" and accused Ukrainians of being "actual Nazis". Logan's comments were praised and taken up by Russian government propaganda.^{[54][55][56][57}]

AN 8 25

During his four years as president, Joe Biden worried that if Donald Trump ever returned to the White House, it would pose a major threat to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Trump, during his first term, toyed with the idea of withdrawing the U.S. from NATO — whereas Biden, as president, aggressively championed NATO's expansion when Sweden and Finland opted to join the alliance.

Seven months into Trump's second presidency, the U.S. is still a NATO member. But author/military historian Phillips O'Brien, during an interview with economist Paul Krugman, stressed that Trump's return to the White House marks a dramatic change in U.S./Europe relations.

Krugman, on August 23, posted video of the interview on his SubStack page and also published it as a Q&A article. And O'Brien voiced major concerns about the United States' relationship with Europe.

"The United States is going to great lengths to antagonize its allies," O'Brien told Krugman. "I don't get it. None of this makes any sense to me."

IFrame Content

The author/historian said of the Ukraine/Russia War, "I think what happens to Ukraine will determine how Europe deals with this. If Ukraine is sacrificed, I think Europe is going to have a terrible future. Because it's going to be dependent on the U.S., which has basically sacrificed Ukraine to (Russian President Vladimir) Putin's Russia. Europe might even break apart, structurally, such that you'll have the Central Eastern Europeans, the ones who want to stand by Ukraine, the Finns, the Baltics, the Nordics going one way and then the Western Europeans sort of pretending things are OK."

O'Brien added, "So, I think people are underrating the chance of Europe splitting over Ukraine, which is why it's so important, I think, that Ukraine comes out of the war in good shape."

According to O'Brien, U.S. allies in Europe will be paying very close attention to the outcome of the United States' 2026 midterms.

"Well, that's the key thing, isn't it? The 2026 midterms," O'Brien told Krugman. "I don't think people are paying enough attention, because they have to be run fairly. I do think the Democrats have a very good chance of winning them if they are run fairly and happen under normal conditions. But they could also be easily perverted…. I would say that 2026 elections will show not whether America can come back, but whether it has a chance to come back — or whether the period we're going into could be a lot longer and darker than we imagined."

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2x? newsweek

feb 2023 gaetz bill

feb 2022

Conservative Rep. Mary Miller is something of an outlier within the Illinois delegation on Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Unlike her colleagues — Ds and Rs alike — Russian aggression has made her wistful for the Trump days.

She praised former President Donald Trump, whom she visited earlier this week in Mar-a-Lago for a candidate forum, issuing a statement about Russians crossing the southern border and condemning “Green New Deal policies” in Congress that haven’t passed.

Miller said in her statement she misses the “peace through strength” policy of the Trump administration, and she blamed President Joe Biden for a “disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan” (while a messy exit, for sure, the timing was dictated by Trump).

“None of this would be happening if President Trump was still in the White House,” according to Miller’s statement. “I will continue to pray that God watches over the people of Ukraine.”

Miller’s statement underscores how Trump— who praised Putin’s “genius” earlier this week — continues to drive a wedge within the Republican Party, this time about Ukraine. While most Republicans blasted Putin’s aggression and welcomed Biden’s sanctions (even if they’ve urged for stiffer punishments), Miller and others aligned with Trump took a softer view.

Rep. Rodney Davis, Miller’s opponent in the June 28 primary, calls Putin a “thug.”

“I join the free world in strongly condemningRussia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. The Ukrainian people need our prayers, and they need our support through tough sanctions on Russia. Thugs like Putin only respond to strength. Now is the time for severe economic consequences,” Davis tweeted.

Miller, a freshman from Oakland, and Davis, a five-termer from Taylorsville, are facing each other in the newly drawn 13th Congressional District.

She trails Davis in fundraising,but has Trump’s endorsement. Davis is backed by county Republicans throughout the district and won a sizable donation from House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s Take Back the House 2022 PAC.

politico

2 13 25 trump talks to putin fo 90 min war crim invite to US, he to russia

no nato crimea

'Palpable harm': Hegseth slammed for 'screwup' of 'biggest foreign policy issue'

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an 2 25

The Senate on Wednesday confirmed former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) to serve as President Donald Trump’s director of national intelligence. Republican senators almost unanimously voted for Gabbard despite unified Democratic opposition, with a final vote tally of 52-48.

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who was the Senate Republican leader for nearly two decades and a former member of the "Gang of Six" that gets classified intelligence briefings, was the lone dissenter among his party. After casting his "no" vote with Democrats, McConnell ripped Gabbard over her "history of alarming lapses in judgment."

"The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) is a key participant in the process that informs every major national security decision the President makes. The ODNI wields significant authority over how the intelligence community allocates its resources, conducts its collection and analysis, and manages the classification and declassification of our nation's most sensitive secrets," he stated. "In my assessment, Tulsi Gabbard failed to demonstrate that she is prepared to assume this tremendous national trust."

Multiple Democratic elected officials also tore into their GOP colleagues over their decision to be a rubber stamp for Trump. On Bluesky, Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) wrote that Gabbard amplified "propaganda" for Russian President Vladimir Putin and deposed Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad for years. Anti-Trump group the Lincoln Project tweeted that Russia refers to Gabbard as "Putin's girlfriend." And Rep. Sean Casten (D-Ill.) slammed Republicans as "worse than useless" for confirming "Tulsi F—ing Gabbard."

"Confirming her as DNI serves only to tell Trump that Senate Rs would rather lick his boots than do a single damn thing to protect our national security," he tweeted. "They are worse than useless. And they are putting every American at risk."

Around the same time Gabbard was confirmed, Fox News liberal host Jessica Tarlov tweeted a video of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth (also one of her former Fox News colleagues) calling for Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula — which Russia has been illegally occupying since 2014 — to be considered Russian territory. Hegseth added that Ukraine shouldn't be considered for membership in the NATO alliance anytime soon.

"Tulsi confirmed at virtually the same time," Tarlov wrote. "A sunny day in Moscow even if's still only 19 degrees out."

Software engineer Alex Cole wrly noted on Bluesky that Gabbard — who was once the vice chair of the Democratic National Committee — has found far greater political success after abandoning the Democratic Party.

"Tulsi Gabbard was once on a government watchlist. Now she’s running U.S. intelligence," Cole wrote. "Moral of the story? If at first you don’t succeed, just switch political parties."

Gabbard's alleged closeness to Russia didn't go unnoticed by MSNBC columnist Brandon Friedman. He recalled a time when social media platform Instagram announced it was going dark in Russia on March 13, 2022. He then posted a screenshot of a March 23, 2022 Fox News interview with Gabbard where the former congresswoman complained that her Instagram video views had dropped from 250,000 to 300,000 to just 15,000, suggesting that Russian Instagram users were the main source of her traffic. Friedman called that complaint "the funniest thing" Gabbard said.

Former Chicago Tribune editor Mark Jacob took a more somber tone, writing: "No foreign country in its right mind will share sensitive intelligence with Tulsi Gabbard. We are now a country that's flying blind in a dangerous world."

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PUBLIC NOT RUPAR

Lisa Needham

...

Kennedy is far from the only freak show Trump plans to empower in his second term.

Thanks to a leaked Trump transition planning document, everyone is now aware of the entirely depressing and predictable possibility that Judge Aileen Cannon might be Trump’s next attorney general.

And why not? Cannon gave Trump an incredible pre-election gift by slow-walking his classified document case and then throwing it out entirely back in July. She’s proven her worth and usefulness to Trump, exhibiting exactly the kind of moral flexibility required to serve in his cabinet.

...

Along with Bobby Kennedy, Trump is floating the name of another former faux-Democrat, Tulsi Gabbard.

:{Gabbard, who recently confirmed what everyone already knew — that she’s a Republican — is currently on the campaign trail stumping for Trump. According to Gabbard, Vice President Kamala Harris is the reason we are all “staring down the barrel of nuclear Armageddon” because she instigated the war in Ukraine.

This requires, of course, ignoring the fact that Russia started it openly and brazenly, but Gabbard has been a Putin fan for years now. Gabbard has said she wants a role in foreign policy in the Trump administration. Just what the foreign policy world needs: a backer of murderous Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad and brutal authoritarian General Abdel Fattah el Sisi in Egypt.

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AN 10 24

During a town hall Thursday, Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance suggested that Russia is not the “bad guy” in its illegal war of choice against the sovereign nation of Ukraine, leading critics including national security experts to accuse him of promoting Vladimir Putin’s talking points.

“I think that the seeds of peace and Russia and Ukraine come from recognizing that is unfortunate as it is, and Russia shouldn’t have invaded Ukraine in the first place,” Vance told an self-identified undecided voter, according to the NewsNation transcript. “Both the Russians and the Ukrainians are exhausted. They’re both struggling to find men, because primarily men in those countries that are fighting the war. But they’re struggling to find women too. They’re struggling to get the equipment necessary to send to the front lines.”

“Their economies are exhausted. Whole parts of their country have been destroyed. Both of these parties want this war to end.”

“And I think unfortunately, you’ve got a lot of American leaders who like to beat their chest and say, ‘Well, this is the good guy and that’s the bad guy.’ Look, yes, Russia should not have invaded Ukraine, but we are where we are, and what’s in the best interest of America, and what I believe is in the best interest of Ukraine and Russia is for the killing to stop.”

Olivia Troye, who has an extensive national security résumé, including as Vice President Mike Pence’s Homeland Security and Counterterrorism advisor, blasted Senator Vance:

“JD Vance: the perfect Russian asset, delivering Putin’s propaganda straight to the American people. At a time when democracy needs defending, Vance is more interested in spreading Moscow’s talking points than standing up for American values.”

The Atlantic’s David Frum, who served as speechwriter and special assistant to President George W. Bush, wrote of Senator Vance, “This man was put on a national ticket at the behest of a cabal of billionaires with sinister secret obligations to the dictators of Russia and China.”

Foreign policy, national security, and political affairs analyst and commentator David Rothkopf warned, “This is what the (not-so-soft) pitch for Putin looks like. Make no mistake. Vance may be weird and inexperienced [but] he is also a threat. This man could very easily succeed Trump (sooner than anyone expects) as president.”

Amy McGrath, a retired Marine combat fighter pilot who served for two decades and has a huge defense résumé, commented: “If we had JD Vance back in 1987, the line would be, ‘Mr. Gorbachev, this wall looks really beautiful.'”

Professor of history and biographer Lee Annis added: “Unconscionable statement! Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Jerry Ford and especially Ronald Reagan would be horrified by this TRULY pathetic excuse for the ‘evil empire’ Reagan so nobly and loudly condemned.”

Marc Polymeropoulos, who served at CIA for more than a quarter-century, remarked: “There actually is a good guy and a bad guy re Ukraine and Russia. Good god. This is the GOP position? My GOP ntl security friends, u good with this?”

Watch below or at this link.

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an 10 24

A new report details how Russian actors played a significant role in the spread of disinformation concerning the federal response to Hurricanes Helene and Milton this fall.

On Thursday, the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) — a Washington, D.C. based think tank that researches extremism, polarization and misinformation — published a detailed report into how Russia capitalized on America's partisan climate in the wake of both hurricanes. Researchers found that Russian actors aimed to "sow distrust in U.S. institutions" by "attempting to exploit existing frustrations among certain political groups."

One particular talking point Russia seized on was the false claim that U.S. support for Ukraine's defense against Russia's invasion was diverting federal money from hurricane victims. Of course, this is flatly untrue: The last Ukraine aid package was appropriated by Congress months before the hurricanes hit.

READ MORE:['Totally out of luck': How Project 2025 would gut relief for Hurricane Helene victims

However, Russian disinformation artists still managed to seize on that narrative as a means of undermining American support for Ukraine. The Vladimir Putin regime was particularly fond of billionaire X owner Elon Musk's tweets making that point for them, according to ISD.

"Similarly, Russian media echoed remarks from former President Donald Trump in which he criticized the Biden administration’s supposed focus on Ukraine over domestic disaster recovery," ISD researchers wrote.

Russian actors also shared fake AI-generated images of supposed flooding at Disney World in Florida that never actually occurred. Moscow-based news outlet RIA Novosti shared the fake images on the social media app Telegram in the hopes of reaching English-speaking audiences.

"The Kremlin’s overarching goal in these disinformation campaigns is not simply to critique the Biden administration’s handling of Hurricanes Milton and Helene, but to sow distrust in US institutions," ISD wrote. "By painting the U.S. government as either incompetent or actively malicious, Russian media attempts to undermine public confidence in the U.S. disaster relief system, federal agencies including FEMA and broader political leadership.

READ MORE:[Trump — who has $4 billion — is now asking other people to donate to Helene relief

The Biden administration's response to the hurricanes was praised by governors of affected states representing both parties. Georgia Republican Governor Brian Kemp noted that after Helene ravaged his state, Biden called him personally and simply asked: "What do you need?" South Carolina Republican Governor Henry McMaster also praised FEMA's rapid recovery efforts in the Palmetto State. And North Carolina Democratic Governor Roy Cooper heaped praise on Biden for deploying thousands of federal employees and equipment to help rescue stranded residents and rebuild infrastructure.

"We’re grateful for the quick actions and close communications that we have had with the president and with the FEMA team,” Cooper said. “And Mr. President, we know that we have made a lot of asks of you, and we are grateful for your ear and for your actions.”

*Click here to read ISD's report in full.

Trump billionaire ally blames Biden for Russian invasion that happened under Bush

an 10 24

===

mma

Right-wing media falsely insist there is no federal response to Hurricane Helene, while praising Trump for visiting victims in Georgia

The MAGA crowd is claiming that the administration is purposely ignoring Southern Appalachia, despite extensive aid efforts

Special ProgramsClimate & Energy

Written by Ilana Berger

Research contributions from Allison Fisher

Published 10/01/24

Right-wing and MAGA influencers are falsely insisting that the Biden administration is ignoring the millions of Americans who have been impacted by intense flooding in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, while lauding Trump for visiting and bringing aid to those affected in Georgia on September 30.

After Helene made landfall in Florida on September 26 as a Category 4 storm, the Biden administration approved federal assistance to supplement state and local efforts in Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Virginia, and Georgia.

Dismissing these efforts, right-wing media have argued that the administration is more interested in giving aid to Ukraine than Appalachia, that the Federal Emergency Management Agency is too concerned with equity to handle the aftermath, and that the Biden administration isn’t doing more for hurricane victims because they are primarily white, Republican voters.

The storm has caused mass destruction and killed at least 133 people across six states, while as many as 600 haven’t been accounted for. In Western North Carolina, many residents do not have power, cellular service, or drinking water.

Vice President Kamala Harris is planning to visit Georgia on October 2, while Biden said he is planning to visit North Carolina on the same day.

## The Biden administration has approved disaster declarations in affected states and counties that are allowing them to receive additional federal aid.

- In North Carolina, South Carolina, and Florida, Biden has approved Major Disaster Declarations, making a number of federal assistance programs available to those states. In the most impacted counties in these states, both public assistance and individual assistance programs are available. This could mean up to $750 of federal aid for families or individuals with serious needs like food, shelter, or medication. Public assistance, according to FEMA, is also for “state and local governments and certain private nonprofit organizations for emergency work and the repair or replacement of disaster-damaged facilities.” FEMA.gov, accessed [9/30/24; FEMA.gov, 9/29/24; SCEMD.org, 9/30/24; FEMA.gov, 9/29/24; Alabama Reflector, 10/1/24]

- In North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, and Virginia, Biden also approved Emergency Declarations that are meant to “supplement state and local efforts in providing emergency services."While Major Disaster Declarations are only for natural disasters, Emergency Declarations can provide more federal assistance for any occasion that governors and the president feel poses a threat to public health, safety, or property. FEMA.gov, accessed [9/30/24; GEMA.georgia.gov, 9/26/24; FEMA.gov, 9/29/24; The Tennessean, 9/28/24; FEMA.gov 9/26/24; FEMA.gov, 9/27/24; FEMA.gov, 9/26/24; FEMA.gov; 9/25/24]

- On September 29, the Biden administration released a fact sheet outlining the administration’s “continued response efforts to Hurricane Helene,” noting that tens of thousands of state and federal personnel are helping victims of the storm across several states.The administration wrote that 50,000 personnel from across the country and Canada traveled to help fix power outages, 3,300 personnel are helping allocate federal resources and carry out search and rescue, and 200 medical responders are providing health services. Whitehouse.gov, [9/29/24]

- Biden has said he may ask Congress to pass additional disaster aid that was excluded from the recent stopgap spending bill to avoid a government shutdown.According to Politico, the bill, which passed on September 25, did not include “a $10 billion supplemental infusion for the Federal Emergency Management Agency after congressional leaders capitulated to the House’s most conservative fiscal hawks.” The New York Times, [9/30/24; Politico, 9/26/24]

## MAGA influencers made the baseless claim that the federal response to the hurricane is lacking.

- Newsmax host and MAGA influencer Todd Starnes has repeatedly claimed that the federal government has abandoned those impacted by Hurricane Helene, saying that “many towns and cities have yet to see any disaster relief.” He also suggested that the so-called lack of response is because those impacted are mostly Republican, saying that “Western North Carolina is just too Conservative and too Caucasian for FEMA to care” and asking if the reason the government hasn’t done more is “because most of the people there are not Haitians or … because they are mostly are Republicans?” Twitter/X, [9/30/24, 9/30/24, 9/30/24]

- Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk and former Fox News writer Blake Neff told viewers that Harris would favor Black communities in disaster recovery and promoted speculation that “the feds are doing nothing” because the voters affected are Republican. Neff, who was fired from Fox for posting racist and sexist content online, falsely said that Harris “believes that the aid that you offer should be doled out, as you say, based on characteristics like skin color rather than destruction.” Kirk then said, “It’s tempting to say the federal government’s doing nothing — I mean, they’re doing something. They did issue some warnings. However, this is definitely being underplayed by the media.” Finally, Kirk read a message purportedly from a “friend in North Carolina” who claimed that the “feds are doing nothing.” The message also noted that “90% of the impacted voters here are Republican voters. Makes you wonder if they’re being forgotten for a reason.” Real America’s Voice, *The Charlie Kirk Show*, [9/30/24; CNN, 7/11/20]

- Attacking a photo of Harris shared by her campaign along with a response to the devastation in North Carolina, InfoWars host Owen Shroyer wrote on X: “This photo is the epitome of the Biden Harris Hurricane response. Blank pieces of paper, headphones not plugged in, a halfass photo opp to appear like they're doing something when they really aren't.” Twitter/X, [9/30/24]

- Right-wing account Libs of TikTok suggested that the federal response to Helene “has been a disaster” because on FEMA’s website, the agency lists as one of its goals instilling “equity as a foundation of emergency management.”“In case you’re wondering why the response to Hurricane Helene has been a disaster… Fema’s goal 1 is to instill equity as a foundation of emergency management. This is real.” Twitter/X, [9/30/24]

- The X accounts RNC Research and I Meme Therefore I Am shared a video clip falsely suggesting that the Biden administration was not providing federal aid to victims.The post suggested that when asked about additional aid for those impacted, Biden simply said, “No.” In reality, he approved aid and also said, “We have pre-planned a significant amount of it even though they didn’t ask for it yet.” Twitter/X, [9/29/24, 9/29/24, 9/29/24]

- On X, the Trump War Room account falsely claimed Biden “told reporters today that the people impacted were not going to receive any additional aid from the government.”The account wrote: “Kamala Harris addresses the horrific damage of Hurricane Helene from a campaign stop 2,000 miles away in Las Vegas. Joe Biden told reporters today that the people impacted were not going to receive any additional aid from the government. Absolutely disgusting.” Twitter/X, [9/29/24]

- Right-wing influencer Raw Egg Nationalist suggested on X that “victims of Hurricane Helene aren’t getting the aid they need” because “Kamala Harris thinks that aid for floods, hurricanes, tornados, & fires should be distributed based on race.”The account was amplifying a post from End Wokeness, which featured a clip of Harris talking about disaster aid and equity. Twitter/X, [9/30/24, 9/27/24]

- Referring to a 2023 fire on the island of Maui that left 100 people dead, far-right conspiracy theorist Mike Cernovich claimed that “North Carolina is being abandoned like it’s Maui.” He added: “This is the Biden administration at work. Kamala Harris wants it to continue for four more years.” Twitter/X, [9/29/24; The New York Times, 2/6/24]

- Cernovich also wrote, “They let Maui burn, they let Asheville drown, can the country survive four more years of this?” Twitter/X, [9/29/24]

- Former Trump adviser and frequent Fox News guest Stephen Miller: “Kamala used every available government resource to airlift and evacuate 500 thousand Haitian illegals to the United States. But she couldn’t lift a finger to rescue drowning Americans in Asheville.” Twitter/X, [9/29/24]

- Far-right commentator Jack Posobiec shared a video depicting the damage caused by Hurricane Helene, asking, “Where is the military in any of these videos to help the people of North Carolina?” Twitter/X, [9/30/24]

- Posobiec also wrote, “Maybe the mayor of Asheville, NC can put on a green sweatsuit so the Harris-Biden admin actually sends them some aid,” referring to an outfit donned by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky when he visited Congress in 2022.Twitter/X, [9/29/24; The New York Times, 12/22/22]

- Daily Wire host Matt Walsh wrote: “Unfortunately the North Carolina flood victims are citizens of the USA, not Ukraine, so the Biden Administration sees no reason to help them.” The post has a community note labeling it false. Twitter/X, [9/29/24]

- Right-wing MAGA and conspiracy account End Wokeness complained that Biden has “no more aid for Hurricane Helene,” ignoring the aid that has been approved. It posted: "$2.4 billion aid to Ukraine" vs “No more aid for Hurricane Helene” - 3 days apart.”Twitter/X, [9/29/24]

- Sharing a video of a wreckage in North Carolina, Truth in Media founder Ben Swann wrote on X: “How quickly do you think we could rebuild North Carolina and Tennessee if the nearly $400 BILLION we’ve sent Ukraine could be spent here in America instead?” Twitter/X, [9/29/24]

- QAnon-supporting Telegram account BioClandestine, which is run by conspiracy theorist Jacob Creech, claimed, “The US Government are willing to send trillions of our tax dollars to fund conflicts all around the globe. But when the American People desperately need aid, the Biden regime are nowhere to be found…Anyways, here is a completely unrelated painting from the French Revolution.”Telegram, [9/30/24; Vice, 4/12/22]

- A post on the far-right social media platform Gab claimed that North Carolina has received “$0” while Israel and Ukraine have received billions. Gab, [9/30/24]

## Right-wing media praised Trump for visiting Georgia and criticized Biden and Harris for not going.
- Meanwhile, emergency management experts say that when politicians swoop in directly after a disaster, it’s disruptive and diverts media attention and key resources. In 2016, when Trump visited Baton Rouge after major flooding, Craig Fugate, the FEMA administrator at the time, told CNN, “We still have response operations going on. To move the president into a disaster area actually takes away some time from the response and the focus on” saving people. Emergency management expert Samantha Montano wrote on X, “When the president comes to town (even on a good day) everything has to shut down -- air space, roads, etc. First responders & other officials are reassigned to secure & facilitate the president's arrival. In a disaster that means search & rescue stops, help to survivors stops.” Twitter/X, [9/30/24; Politico, 8/19/16; Fortune, 8/19/16]

- On Fox News’ The Five, co-host Jesse Watters criticized Harris for not going to North Carolina and said because of Trump’s visit to Georgia, “when they ask in these polls which candidate cares more about people like you, he has completely closed the gap.”“She should have been in North Carolina,” said Watters of Harris. “Donald Trump is down there looking and occupying the presidential space. He is saying the right things, he’s delivering goods and services, he’s even calling on Elon Musk to restore the internet.” Fox News, *The Five*, [9/30/24]

- On Newsmax’s The Right Squad, former Trump White House official Mercedes Schlapp called Trump the comforter-in-chief for going to an impacted area in Georgia:“And I think for Donald Trump to basically say we're going to put politics aside. He joined forces with Rev. Franklin Graham from the Samaritan Purse to bring supplies and to really be what I call the comforter-in-chief. That is a critical role for a president. And I think the one thing you see with Kamala Harris and with Joe Biden, time and time again, is that they are completely out of touch with the American people." Newsmax, *The Right Squad*, [9/30/24]

- Fox’s Sean Hannity praised Trump for going to Georgia while criticizing Biden and Harris for not being in the disaster zone. He said, “This is by every measure a national emergency and today Donald Trump, he flew to Valdosta, Georgia, to witness the devastation up front and personal and firsthand and meet with disaster relief specialists from Franklin Graham himself and Samaritan’s Purse. … Noticeably missing on the ground, the current president, Joe Biden, vice president, Kamala Harris." Fox News, *Hannity*, [9/30/24]

- On Fox’s Jesse Watters Primetime, Trump senior adviser Jason Miller suggested that because Trump went to Georgia, “for millions of Americans, President Trump is still the leader of this country.”He added: “It's not Joe Biden. He's at the beach. It's not Kamala Harris. She's in San Francisco at a fundraiser, raising money. The person who showed up, partnered up with Franklin Graham and Samaritan's Purse, fantastic organization, someone who is actively helping to raise money online for these victims right now, is President Trump. We need a leader back in the White House.” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [9/30/24]

- Fox’s Laura Ingraham claimed that Trump is the real leader for going to Georgia while Biden and Harris managed the crisis from afar.“Harris couldn't give up a day on the trail to pretend to care. Yet hours after Trump showed up with truckloads of supplies, speaking to responders and volunteers, Kamala showed up at work. …Of course, the government should be mobilized to help. But that does not change the fact that Biden and Kamala Harris were not at the White House driving our federal preparedness.” Fox News, *The Ingraham Angle*, [9/30/24]

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maga mike finally allowed vote, biden apologize for delay, russians made progress for lack of ammo

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===

Media portrayal of the Russo-Ukrainian War - Wikipedia

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A U.S. online content creation company that features several prominent right-wing influencers — including one from B.C. — was heavily financed by a Russian state-controlled media outlet as part of a “secret influence campaign” to sow discord and chaos, prosecutors allege.

The U.S. Justice Department does not allege any wrongdoing by the influencers, noting that some of them were given false information about the source of the company’s funding.

An indictment filed by U.S. federal prosecutors in New York this week charged Russian nationals Kostiantyn Kalashnikov and Elena Afansyeva, both staffers at Russian state-backed news site RT, formerly known as Russia Today, with conspiracy to violate America’s Foreign Agents Registration Act and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

It is alleged that the Russians funnelled $10 million to covertly finance a Tennessee-based online content creation company as part of a “scheme to create and distribute content to U.S. audiences with hidden Russian government messaging.”

While the indictment does not directly identify the company, it says the company describes itself as a “network of heterodox commentators that focus on Western political and cultural issues.” That is the description used by Tenet Media. Its stable of half a dozen conservative influencers have been featured in thousands of videos on multiple social media platforms, including YouTube, X, and Instagram.

Those influencers include Surrey native Lauren Southern. In the nine months leading up to July 31 of this year, Southern created 94 videos for the network’s social media channels. In one of her videos, the 29-year-old describes the 2021 discovery of suspected unmarked graves at a former Kamloops residential school as a “hoax”.

Two months ago, Southern created a video titled “My home town’s been destroyed” that blamed mass immigration from “countries like India” for ruining the city of Surrey. “It’s not looking like Canada,” she said.

In 2015, Southern unsuccessfully ran in the federal election as a Libertarian candidate in the Langley-Aldergrove riding.

Southern did not respond to a request for comment from Postmedia.

Some of Tenet’s other political commentators include Americans Dave Rubin, Benny Johnson and Tim Pool, each of whom has an online following in the millions.

As of Thursday, Rubin, Johnson and Pool released statements saying they were unaware of the alleged Russian influence.

“We are disturbed by the allegations in today’s indictment, which make clear that myself and other influencers were victims in this alleged scheme,” Pool said on X.

The indictment alleges the network’s coverage “contain(ed) commentary on events and issues in the United States, such as immigration, inflation, and other topics … consistent with the government of Russia’s interest in amplifying U.S. domestic divisions.”

“The Justice Department will not tolerate attempts by an authoritarian regime to exploit our country’s free exchange of ideas in order to covertly further its own propaganda efforts, and our investigation into this matter remains ongoing,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement on Wednesday.

Tenet Media emerged following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine when Russian news organizations were no longer able to operate in the U.S., Canada, Europe and the U.K. as a result of sanctions.

According to the indictment, following a terrorist attack at a music venue in Moscow in March of this year, one of the accused Russian operatives, posing as an editor, encouraged one of the founders of the U.S. content creation company to blame Ukraine and the U.S.

“I think we can focus on the Ukraine/U.S. angle,” Afanasyeva allegedly wrote in a message. “The mainstream media spread fake news that ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack, yet ISIS itself never made such statements. All terrorists are now detained while they were heading to the border with Ukraine which makes it even more suspicious why they would want to go to Ukraine to hide.”

At least one content creator for the U.S. company was paid $400,000 a month for four videos a week, plus a $100,000 signing bonus and an additional performance bonus, the indictment states.

*With files from The Associated Press

sgrochowski@postmedia.com

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jd v

worse on ukraine than trump?

'They are celebrating that choice': Former GOP lawmaker says 'Moscow' wants JD Vance as VP

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am april 2x?

US Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is working hard against passing the bipartisan foreign aid package in support of Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression — mainly by calling for Speaker Mike Johnson's (R-LA) ouster if he works with Democrats to pass it.

Capitol Hill reporter Juliegrace Brufke shared via x (formerly Twitter) Wednesday night, "Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene introduced an amendment requiring members to 'conscript in the Ukrainian military' if they vote for the Ukraine supplemental bill."

The amendment titled "Amendment to Ukraine Security Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2024," reads: "Any Member of Congress who votes in favor of this Act shall be required to conscript in the Ukrainian military."

READ MORE:['Completely detached': Johnson’s speakership in danger amid GOP’s far right revolt

That's not all.

President Joe Biden counsel Eric Columbus tweeted, "MTG also introduced an amendment appropriating 'such sums as necessary . . . for the development of space laser technology on the southwest border.' (I’m not making this up, read the second screenshot!)"

The second screenshot Brufke posted, reads: "By the funds made available by this Act, such sums as necessary shall be used for the development of space laser technology on the southwest border."

Still, the amendment that stands out most to lawmakers and legal experts is the proposal requiring House members who support aiding Ukraine in its fight against President Vladimir Putin and Russia to enlist in the Ukrainian military.

Former US Rep. Peter Meijer (R-MI) tweeted, "'WHY DONT U GO FIGHT THEN!' is not just a bad faith attack, but a royally dumb argument. Devoid of logic.Reasonable to argue that supporting Ukraine is not in our interest. But Ukrainians aren’t asking us to fight.They are already fighting. Thats why they are asking for aid!"

World Liberty Congress co-founder Garry Kasparov said, "We all know she’s an idiot spouting Kremlin propaganda, but the irony here is that the only way US troops will have to see action over Ukraine is if we let Ukraine lose and Russia attacks NATO. Of course I’m sure she’d be for abandoning NATO too, as would Trump."

US Rep. Hillary Scholten (D-MI) wrote, "America deserves so much better than MTG and House Republicans' political theater. What a mockery of this very serious moment. We're going to take away their gavels in November."

Center for European Policy Analysis senior fellow Olga Lautman added, "She is really working hard for Russia. Unbelievable she is in Congress after openly supporting our adversary and assisting in an insurrection."

Greene, herself, replied to Brufke's tweet, writing, "I mean if you want to fund the war, why don’t you go fight in it. Show your support for Ukraine."

Then, the anti-Donald Trump Lincoln Project responded to the Georgia congresswoman, tweeting, "@RepMTG If you want to help Russia so much, why don’t you go fight in their military. Show your support for Putin."

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mma

ROB SCHMITT (HOST): I mean, again, this trial was so meaningless. In the grand scheme of what this family's been doing, this is the psyop. Here it is.

MONICA CROWLEY (GUEST): Yeah exactly. I mean, it's not meaningless in the sense that it was a head fake. It's meant to distract the American people with Hunter's shiny little object of a gun away from the much larger crimes of the Biden crime family, and that is influence peddling and making bank by selling America out to some of our worst enemies, including the --

SCHMITT: China, Russia.

CROWLEY: Chinese Communist Party, the Russians, and deeply corrupt entities and regimes like Ukraine. 6 24

wave of House members who —frustrated by all the chaos — have decided against running in 2024.

buck trashes moscow marjorie mtg 4 24 an

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context, cocks they tossed her

'Sophomoric ranting': Conservative calls out MTG’s 'preposterous' crusade against non-MAGA Republicans - Alternet.org

'Disinformation': Greene pushes pro-Putin propaganda in 'war on Christianity' rant - Alternet.org

after two top Republican House committee chairmen said Russian propaganda has made its way into Congress and “infected” some in the GOP base, U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) spread demonstrably false pro-Russia talking points about a “war on Christianity” while defending and promoting President Vladimir Putin.}:

“It is absolutely true we see, directly coming from Russia, attempts to mask communications that are anti-Ukraine and pro-Russia messages, some of which we even hear being uttered on the House floor,” House Intelligence Chairman Mike Turner told CNN on Sunday, as NBC News reported. Republican House Foreign Affairs Committee chair Michael McCaul, NBC added, “told Puck News that he thinks ‘Russian propaganda has made its way into the United States, unfortunately, and it’s infected a good chunk of my party’s base.”

On Monday, Congresswoman Greene, who strongly opposes any U.S. funds for military aid to Ukraine and has threatened to oust Mike Johnson as Speaker if he moves to assist Ukraine, once again praised Putin.

“Let’s talk about what this really is,” Greene said to far-right MAGA messenger Steve Bannon, the former Trump campaign CEO and White House advisor.

“This is a war on Christianity. The Ukrainian government is attacking Christians, the Ukrainian government is executing priests. Russia is not doing that,” Greene falsely declared.

“They’re not attacking Christianity. As a matter of fact, they seem to be protecting it. So that’s something else that’s clear and obvious to many people that are looking closely at what’s going on.”

Last month The Tablet, a nearly 200-year old UK-based Catholic weekly reported, “The International Religious Freedom or Belief Alliance said that 30 Ukrainian priests had been killed by Russian forces.” It also detailed accounts of several Ukrainian priests who allegedly had been tortured, including one who allegedly was “Tortured to death by Russian soldiers.” The full statement from the IRFBA was published by the U.S. Dept. of State.

“Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine is exterminating religious freedom, signaling a return by Moscow to Soviet-era levels of persecution of faiths, the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church has said,” Newsweek reported, also last month. “The Kyiv-based Institute for Religious Freedom (IRF) said in February 2023 that, in the first 12 months of the war, the Russian military had destroyed, damaged, or looted at least 494 religious buildings, theological institutions, and sacred sites, with the figure estimated to be higher today.”

Voice of America has also documented alleged killings of Ukrainian clergy by Russian forces.

Hours before Greene’s remarks to Bannon, U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY), pointing to a Washington Post piece on the two GOP chairs warning about Republicans promoting Russia propaganda, said: “Even leading Republicans say Marjorie Taylor Greene is parroting Putin and Russia’s disinformation. She must be exposed and her irresponsible behavior must be stopped.”

He also said Monday, “we need to stop Marjorie Taylor Greene from repeating Putin and Russia’s talk[ing] points!!”

Last year Newsweek reported Greene “has become a Russian state media darling by mirroring some of the Kremlin’s views on the war in Ukraine,” and noted she “has featured prominently on Russian state TV and in state media publications for her remarks on the war and has been accused of parroting Kremlin propaganda.”

Watch Greene’s remarks below or at this link.rep ~ trump twt]

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an 4 24

“ i want to be on the right side of history,” is what House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Michael McCaul (R-TX) told Puck News’ Julia Ioffe in a recent interview.

The Texas Republican spent much of the conversation expressing frustration towards his GOP colleagues' refusal to move on the bipartisan package passed by the Senate in February — which includes Ukrainian aid.

A self-described “Reagan Republican,” the Texas congressman told Ioffe he’s a strong supported of “freedom, democracy, human rights.”

READ MORE:[GOP strategist: 'Very feasible' Democrats will have House majority before election day

According to Ioffe, the “pressure” Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has been getting from colleagues like McCaul “has resulted in Johnson’s inching closer to letting the House vote on the Senate aid package, provided he can dress it up in a way that would make it more attractive to his fellow Republicans: namely, through the inclusion of McCaul’s REPO for Ukrainians Act, which would allow the U.S. to redirect seized Russian assets to Ukraine; reversing Biden’s moratorium on new LNG terminals; and, in line with Trump’s demands from the sidelines, making part of the Ukraine aid a loan, rather than a grant.”

The Puck News Washington correspondent reports:

*As for making a portion of the aid a loan, it would apply only to the funds that go toward supporting the Ukrainian government’s budget—things like salaries for the soldiers and bureaucrats who keep the fight going and the state from collapsing. That is a tiny fraction of the $60 billion aid package. The vast majority is going to weapons and ultimately stays in the U.S. with U.S. manufacturers, creating U.S. jobs. Moreover, making the loan zero-interest and forgivable makes it palatable even to Ukrainians, who—as the Ukrainian ambassador told me the other day—understand that it’s a meaningless sweetener for Republicans, but if that’s what it takes to get the rest of the aid through, so be it.

“I think Russian propaganda has made its way into the United States, unfortunately, and it’s infected a good chunk of my party’s base,” the Foreign Affairs Committee chair told Ioffe. “And I have to explain to them what’s at stake, why Ukraine is in our national security interest. By the way, you don’t like Communist China? Well, guess what? They’re aligned [with Russia], along with the Ayatollah. So when you explain it that way, they kind of start understanding it. And unlike 1939, we want to provide deterrence so that we don’t have to send anyone over, and we don’t want Article V invoked. Because the next thing the Russians will do is [attack] Moldova, Georgia, and then part of the Baltics. Or at least provoke a lot. So I just think it’s preventative. “

Referring to his far-right colleagues against supplying aid to Ukraine, McCaul added, “There’s a new wing of isolationism, and that takes you back again to the 1930s. That was not helpful. Now, I understood it—because World War I was very bloody, and Americans were like, “We don’t want to go over to save Europe again.” But had we been involved earlier and provided that deterrence, we could have saved a lot of blood and treasure.”

The GOP leader emphasized, “I just see so many parallels between then and what’s happening right now. And if we fail in this aid package and Putin does take Ukraine—and it won’t take him very long—then where will the United States be?”

*Ioffe's full interview with McCaul is available [here.]

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2 24 no lnx

Republican complicity in Kremlin espionage against the US is now overwhelming - Alternet.org

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from military aid to Ukraine to encouraging the expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), U.S. President Joe Biden has been a major thorn in the side of Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin.

Former President Donald Trump, in contrast, has said he would encourage Putin to invade NATO countries if they don't pay enough into the alliance. Putin is clearly hoping that Trump will win the 2024 GOP presidential nomination and defeat incumbent Biden in November.

According to NBC News reporters Dan De Luce and Kevin Collier, Putin's Kremlin loyalists are "already spreading disinformation" in the election by "using fake online accounts and bots" to "damage" Biden "and his fellow Democrats."

De Luce and Collier, in an article published on February 26, explain, "The dissemination of attacks on Biden is part of a continuing effort by Moscow to undercut American military aid to Ukraine and U.S. support for and solidarity with NATO, experts said. A similar effort is underway in Europe. France, Germany and Poland said, this month, that Russia has launched a barrage of propaganda to try to influence European parliamentary elections in June."

Bret Schafer, a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund's Alliance for Securing Democracy, told NBC News that Putin and the Kremlin have even more "incentive to interfere" in the United States' 2024 election than they did in the 2016 and 2020 elections.

Former CIA official Paul Kolbe, now with the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, told NBC News, "In many ways, it's a perfect storm of opportunity for them. I think, for a lot of reasons, we will see the same approach, but amplified and, I think, with some of the constraints that you might have seen taken off."

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an 2 24

maga mike said no ukr $ w/o border, got border lankford sinema, than trump said kill bill i want issue so 180; kpfa maga mike $ from 2 russian olig

In response, Cornyn quote-tweeted Paxton's post (https://twitter.com/JohnCornyn/status/1757412800488407479), writing, "Ken, your criminal defense lawyers are calling to suggest you spend less time pushing Russian propaganda and more time defending longstanding felony charges against you in Houston, as well as ongoing federal grand jury proceedings in San Antonio that will probably result in further criminal charges."

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an 1 24

a group of seventeen senators led by U.S. Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI), among them some of the most hardline, far-right Republicans, have joined together in calling for a special conference meeting on Ukraine funding ahead of a vote that could come as soon as next week.

The move comes as Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is aligning with Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and, effectively, President Joe Biden, in calling for House and Senate Republicans to accept a border deal crafted by U.S. Senator James Lankford (R-OK).

House Republicans have tied any funding support for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan to HR2 a bill that has little to no chance of passing in the Senate. It is opposed by immigration advocates, the Biden White House, Senate Democrats and some Senate Republicans, and other groups including Catholic Bishops.

Punchbowl News’ Jake Sherman was first to report the demand for the meeting, posting the letter (below) signed by Republican U.S. Senators Ron Johnson, Mike Lee, Rick Scott, Mike Braun, John Cornyn, Marsha Blackburn, Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz, Roger Marshall, Eric Schmitt, Tommy Tuberville, Cynthia Lummis, Bill Hagerty, Marco Rubio, James Risch, J.D. Vance, and Ted Budd.

The letter calls for the special conference meeting on Ukraine funding to come next week. Punchbowl News’ Andrew Desiderio reports that meeting will take place next Wednesday, according to Punchbowl’s Andrew Desiderio.

Pointing to that letter, Desiderio writes, “Of note — not all of these signatories are opposed to Ukraine funding. But most of them are.”

The letter also came while the top four House and Senate leaders were meeting with President Joe Biden. The Republican Speaker, Mike Johnson, quickly announced at the end of that meeting that nothing has changed.

“Johnson’s remarks show a continued hardline position on tying Ukraine funding to border restrictions,” Politico reports. “He also said he was not wedded strictly to the name of any bill being attached, a nod to the fact that many House Republicans want the deal to closely mimic the conservative border bill H.R. 2, but said the elements in any deal ‘have to be meaningful.'”

See the letter below or at this link.

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an 1 24 no lnx thom

Why Trump wants a country where everything is for sale

Thom Hartmann

January 09, 2024

Donald Trump and his fellow rightwing billionaires have a plan for America. They want to turn the United States from a prosperous, middle-class nation into a country of paupers, where bribery is common and the wealthy can get away with anything.

The latest example of this comes from the House Oversight Committee’s report last week documenting how Donald Trump took at least $7 million in bribes in exchange for changes to US foreign policy when he was president.

Most of the world already operates the way Republicans are pushing our country: no social safety net, corrupt regulatory and police agencies, politicians and legislation for sale, and absolute immunity for the morbidly rich.

It was 1980 when I first really discovered what it’s like doing business or just living life in countries that are the models for how this nation’s rightwing billionaires are trying to remake America.

I was a volunteer on behalf of an international relief organization out of Germany and had flown into Kenya, on my way to Uganda. Tanzania had recently evicted the murderous dictator Idi Amin (who was welcomed, along with his bevy of wives, by Saudi Arabia, where he lived like a king in his own palace to the day he died). Famine was creeping across the northern part of the country. (I wrote about this trip in The Prophet’s Wayand published that chapter on my website.)

Three days in a row I’d gone to the Ugandan embassy to try to get an entry visa into the country; each time I was told, after waiting a few hours and without explanation, to come back the next day.

I was staying at the New Stanley Hotel in Nairobi, and they had an outdoor bar called the Thorn Tree Café, where Ernest Hemmingway used to stay and where he popularized the Swahili word “safari” and wrote The Snows of Kilimanjaro. I’d gotten to know an old British expat who lived in the hotel and we shared a couple of gin-and-tonics every afternoon in the café. When I told him about my frustration, he said:

“When you go in tomorrow, slip a $20 bill into your passport when you hand it to the official. You’ll get your visa.”

There were a couple of other regulars sitting with us and they all agreed, so the next day, with some trepidation, I tried the bribe. It worked: the Ugandan diplomat lifted the bill out of my passport, it vanished into the top drawer of his desk, and I had the visa stamp in my passport in thirty seconds.

When I got to the airport and the Ugandan Airlines’ check-in desk, I was told that my plane reservation, which I’d booked and paid for over the phone, “Can’t be found.” The agent shrugged, like it was an everyday occurrence. I slid another twenty across the counter and he broke into a huge smile, scratched out a line on the flight manifest with his pencil, and said, “Give me your name again?” I did and he wrote it in and an hour later I was on the plane to Entebbe.

A few months later I was in Haiti, meeting with the government official in charge of licensing foreign charities to operate in the country. He was less subtle than the Ugandans; he told me right up-front that I’d have to give him a substantial cash down-payment (I’m remembering $5,000, but could be in error) and an annual smaller payment, all in cash and all handed over directly to him.

While I was successful in starting a program in Uganda that’s still running to this day (among others), when the level of bribery got as high and as naked as it was in Haiti, we chose to pull the plug on our plans to operate in that Caribbean country.

Later that year I was pulled over by a Mexican police officer while driving with a Vice President of Scientific Atlanta from the Acapulco airport to our hotel; the cop told me — even though I’d been traveling the same speed as every other car on the highway — that I’d have to stay in town for a week to show up in court unless I gave him $50 cash on the spot. He got his bribe, and, on reflection of some legal peril, I listed it as such on my expense report.

You may be shaking your head right now, thinking all of this bribery to do business or even travel in foreign countries is terrible. America would never tolerate such corruption, right?

Wrong.

We’re already there on one level; it’s just that there’s only one class of Americans who can legally bribe the system to get what they want, and they blow through every obstacle in front of them by simply paying people off.

That group is America’s rightwing billionaires. And they damn well want to keep things that way. As long as they can bribe their way into or out of things, they’re very happy with the status quo and will continue to fund efforts to keep things this way.

Look at, for example, how they spiffed Clarence Thomas to get him to agree to be the deciding vote in Citizens United, which legalized bribery of both American politicians and Supreme Court justices. Multiple rightwing billionaires spent literally millions of dollars buying Thomas’ and his wife’s loyalty and rewarding their behavior on the billionaires’ behalf.

The fossil fuel industry showers millions every year on Republican politicians, both in direct bribes campaign contributions and through the political cover they get from the rightwing media and think-tanks they underwrite. As a result, you won’t find a single Republican politician who’s willing to do anything whatsoever about climate change, and most won’t even acknowledge it exists so long has the money keeps flowing.

Ditto for Big Pharma, Big Insurance, and Big Banks: all three routinely rip off Americans, and the Republican answer is to gut the regulatory agencies that might hold them to account.

While Uganda was in chaos in 1980 and the people I paid off were probably just freelancing because they weren’t even getting paid, when I was in Haiti I heard from other people operating in the country that part of the bribe money they’d paid was going all the way to the top: “Baby Doc” Jean-Claude Duvalier ran that country like his own personal corrupt little fiefdom until he was deposed in 1986.

Donald Trump aspires to Baby Doc (or even “Papa Doc”) status, and showed us — during the one-term presidency that Vladimir Putin helped him secure — how he and his billionaire buddies want to reshape our country in Duvalier’s image. This is how a country travels the path from functioning democracy to corrupt oligarchy.

Trump came into office echoing a widespread public freak-out about the 20 million or so jobs that had been offshored to China by Reaganomics. Trash-talking China worked really well on the campaign trail for Trump, but when he became president he began acting like that Mexican cop who’d pulled over me and my client.

— The Chinese embassy and one of the country’s largest banks (that helps North Korea evade US sanctions) shoveled $5.5 million into Trump’s corporate checking accounts; within months he hopped on a plane, flew to China, and told Chinese dictator Xi “my feeling toward you is an incredibly warm one.”

— Trump was trash-talking Qatar, calling them a “funder of terrorism,” so, as Mary Trump notes in her excellent newsletter:

“[I]n April of 2018, the Qatari Permanent Mission to the United Nations bought a fourth apartment at Trump World Tower for $6.5 million, and then in the SAME MONTH, Donald welcomed its monarch to the Oval Office and labeled Qatar as a partner in ‘stopping the funding of terrorism.’”

Not only that, Qatar went on to backstop a billion-dollar buyout of Jared Kushner’s terrible 666 Fifth Avenue building purchase.

— Trump was ignoring Kuwait’s desire to buy an air-force-worth of F18 Hornet fighter jets, so, like my sticking a $20 bill into my passport in Nairobi, they moved their Christmas Party to his DC hotel, putting hundreds of thousands of dollars in Trump’s pocket; he promptly approved the sale of the weapons systems.

— Saudi Arabia was reeling under international condemnation for murdering and dismembering Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, so they gave Trump well over a half-million dollars cash by renting entire floors in his properties; he immediately went against his own policy advisors’ advice and began selling them billions of dollars’ worth of high-tech weapons without congressional authorization.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg, the little bit that Democrats on the House Oversight Committee were able to discover before Republicans took control of the House and put Trump toady James Comer in charge of the committee; Comer immediately ended the investigations into the Trump family and redirected their efforts to investigating Hunter Biden. (There’s a great summary of the House Democrat’s report, with a link to the report itself, here.)

This is the America that our country’s rightwing billionaires want. Where everything is for sale, but the price is usually so high that only the morbidly rich can afford it.

— Want $600 billion a year in fossil fuel subsidies that help destroy our children’s future? Give Republican politicians a few hundred million over the years.

— Want to own a private island and run an underage sex ring? Just buy off or blackmail enough politicians and a guy who ends up in Trump’s cabinet will, himself, arrange sweetheart deals for you to avoid prison or liability (until it all comes unraveled years later).

— Want such massive tax cuts that they will leave the nation $34 trillion in debt and siphon a full $50 trillion out of the homes and savings of working class people, reducing the middle class income from two-thirds of us to 43 percent? Just recycle a few billion of those trillions to fund a few hundred Republicans’ campaigns.

America has become a nation increasingly run by rightwing grifters and greedy corporations:

— Want to sell pesticides that are neurotoxic to children?

— Dump toxic waste from mining operations into our rivers where it will poison downstream water supplies?

— Gut workers’ rights?

— Sell off and ruin public parklands for pennies on the dollar?

— Steal from working people’s retirement plans without consequence?

Every one of those five things (and more) happened in the first months of Trump’s administration, and in every case there was big money paying off Trump and congressional Republicans for taking those actions.

We’re seeing a similar embrace of corruption in Republican-controlled states across the country. Texas’ Attorney General Ken Paxton, for example, has been facing securities fraud charges for eight years now; the trial is finally scheduled for next year, but don’t hold your breath. Meanwhile, he’s suing to prevent women with crisis pregnancies from getting life-saving abortions.

In Virginia, that state’s Republican Attorney General went after “good government” as soon as he took office. As Radley Balko notes in his Substack newsletter, The Watch:

“Jason Miyares made his priorities clear the moment he took office. Shortly after the Virginia Republican was sworn in as the state’s new attorney general in 2022, he abruptly fired everyone in the conviction integrity unit (CIU), the office charged with investigating and rectifying wrongful convictions. …

“Miyares fired 17 attorneys and 30 total employees, including many attorneys in the civil rights division, as well as the general counsel for the University of Virginia — who at the time had taken leave to serve as lead investigator for the special congressional committee investigating January 6th. Miyares insisted the attorney’s termination had nothing to do with his work on the attempted insurrection.”

And it’s not just American billionaires who are paying off Republican politicians (and apparently one Democrat in the Senate). A foreign billionaire who may be the richest man in the world controls a massive social media operation that can build up or tear down any Republican who doesn’t dance to his tune.

Vladimir Putin, a billionaire who makes his friends into billionaires, has invested heavily in social media troll farms, now that billionaires Zuckerberg and Musk have dialed back on content moderation, leaving Nazis, Russian agents, and their Republican fellow travelers to flourish on their platforms.

Putin’s social media operations have been so successful that he’s managed to bring a few dozen Republican politicians under his control, most notably Tommy Tuberville and Marjorie Taylor Greene. As the Byline Supplement Substack newsletter noted last week:

“Among Republican politicians, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia has led the way in normalizing extremist pro-Russian propaganda, making a public appearance at a pro-Putin rally and floating Putin’s peace plan which cedes all occupied territory to Russia. Greene calls the defense of Ukraine a corrupt scheme, citing as her source a Russian propaganda outlet that was sanctioned by the US Treasury Department over alleged interference in the 2020 presidential elections.

“On the US Senate side, Tommy Tuberville of Alabama blames Democrats, claiming Democrats “created” the war in Ukraine — exactly parroting the Kremlin influence operation as reported by the declassified US intelligence assessment. Tuberville has gone so far as to green-light a Russian takeover of Ukraine, opining against all contrary evidence that he sees no risk of further Russian aggression once Ukraine is subdued. Tuberville is a close ally of Donald Trump, who claims he has a plan for an immediate end to the war.”

And, of course, Putin was able to buy Trump’s loyalty by running an online influence operation, outed by Robert Mueller’s investigation, that helped Trump win the electoral college and occupy the White House even though he lost to Hillary Clinton by about 3 million votes.

This is the America our rightwing billionaires have been working to create ever since the Reagan Revolution: a nation where everything’s for sale and everyone’s on the take.

After all, when everybody’s a criminal, nobody’s a criminal.

And it all really started in a big way when five corrupt Republicans on the Supreme Court legalized political bribery by billionaires (1976) and corporations (1978), most recently overturning hundreds of good government laws nationwide with their bizarre Citizens United (2010) decision declaring that corporations are persons and money is “First Amendment-protected ‘free speech.’”

For two decades now, we’ve had Republican justices who’ve been put on the bench through millions of dollars from a handful of rightwing billionaires and the institutions they fund. They’re then groomed with first class and private jet travel, homes, travel trailers, speaking gigs, entrance to billionaire-only private events, and millions in “pay” opportunities for justices’ spouses.

They’re backstopped by billionaires who own media operations like Fox “News” and the CEOs of industries that want to continue making money while exploiting or even killing us and our children.

The simple reality is that today in America rightwing billionaires can buy just about anything, including tax breaks, new laws that protect them and their businesses, and immunity from prosecution for anything they say or do. They can even buy henchmen who will take down university presidents who offend them.

Widespread Republican victories this November will make the situation far worse, and, if Trump keeps his promises, will finish the job Reagan began of gutting the middle class and fully handing control of America over to the GOP’s billionaire overlords.

Then Ken Paxton, Clarence Thomas, and Ron DeSantis types of politicians will rule the nation, always bowing to the demands of their rich benefactors.

Democrats (Senator Menendez notwithstanding) have been fighting this corruption and promise to end the culture of bribery and impunity that Citizens United established. They tried with the For The People Act, but the GOP filibuster prevailed.

The choice has never been starker: do we want America to sink farther into the GOP‘s version of Uganda or Mexico? Or do we want to become a nation where we all have opportunity and prosperity, and all Americans are both bound and protected equally by the law?

What kind of country do we want to leave to our children? A functioning democracy or a corrupt kleptocracy run by the toadies of a handful of rightwing billionaires?

The stakes this November are huge. Pass it along.

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an 12 23

Congressional Republicans are meeting in secret this week behind closed doors with allies of the far-right Christian nationalist authoritarian Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orbán. Those allies, including from a Hungarian government agency that reportedly organized a far-right U.S. group’s conference in Budapest (https://www.cpachungary.com/en/), are working to support Russian President Vladimir Putin’s illegal war against Ukraine. GOP lawmakers, especially in the House but increasingly in the Senate (https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/06/us/politics/senate-ukraine-aid-bill.html), have been voicing strong opposition to the U.S. sending any additional funding to Ukraine.

“Members of the Hungarian Institute of International Affairs and staff from the Hungarian embassy in Washington will on Monday begin a two-day event hosted by the conservative Heritage Foundation thinktank,” The Guardian (https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/dec/10/hungary-viktor-orban-republicans-ukraine-aid) reports. The Heritage Foundation, once considered the premier conservative think tank, by 2016 was a pro-Trump group. Now, Heritage is behind the massive Project 2025, which aims toinstall tens of thousands of pro-Trump loyalists (https://bpr.berkeley.edu/2023/11/17/project-2025-democratic-doomsday/) into the federal government if the ex-president re-takes the White House.

“The first day,” The Guardian explains, “includes panel speeches about the Ukraine war as well as topics such as Transatlantic Culture Wars. It is expected to feature guests including Magor Ernyei, the international director of the Centre for Fundamental Rights, the institute that organized CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) Hungary.”

Orbán, called “Putin’s Buddy” just last week by Politico (https://www.politico.eu/article/vladimir-putin-russia-buddy-hungaria-viktor-orban-pushes-eu-brink-ukraine-aid/), is “a strongman who cultivates close ties with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin (https://www.politico.eu/article/viktor-orban-vladimir-putin-us-concerned-over-hungary-relationship-with-russia/) and who is widely seen as having undermined democracy and rule of law at home.”

READ MORE: ‘Ballsy Move’: Experts Praise Special Counsel for Not Playing Trump’s ‘Stupid Reindeer Games’ (https://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/2023/12/ballsy-move-experts-praise-special-counsel-for-not-playing-trumps-stupid-reindeer-games/)

“In other words,” wrote (https://twitter.com/SenatorDurbin/status/1734247515501850814) U.S. Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin (D-IL), “Far-right Republicans are conspiring with Hungary’s extremist Russian-sympathic PM Viktor Orbán to help former KGB dictator Putin defeat democratic Ukraine. Ronald Reagan and John McCain must be looking on in utter disbelief.”

Many are outraged that Republicans will be meeting with Orbán’s allies in D.C. while refusing to publicly acknowledge their attendance at the anti-Ukraine events. To date the guest list has not been published.

National security expert, former U.S. Rep. Denver Riggleman (R-VA), blasted the GOP’s secrecy (https://twitter.com/RepRiggleman/status/1734025753212203308): “A list of every representative in that meeting with Orban should be made available to the press. Public servants shouldn’t hide in the shadows— especially when discussing decisions with foreign leaders that could benefit Vladimir Putin.”

READ MORE: ‘They’re Coming After Our Children’: Watch Casey DeSantis’ Dystopian Fear-Mongering Ad (https://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/2023/12/theyre-coming-after-our-children-watch-casey-desantis-dystopian-fear-mongering-ad/)

Conservative commentator Bill Kristol explained (https://twitter.com/BillKristol/status/1733892421895746022), “Heritage Foundation and Viktor Orbán are not simply against aid for Ukraine. They are against Ukraine. They hate Ukraine, because a) they’re pro-Putin, and b) they hate liberal democracy, especially one fighting to defend itself against a brutal dictator.”

National security and international law expert Eugene Vindman, a retired U.S. Army colonel whose twin brother made national headlines when he blew the whistle on Donald Trump and was mercilessly targeted for his actions, blasted (https://twitter.com/YVindman/status/1734271993887821874) both the Hungarian prime minister and the GOP: “Viktor Orbán is actively interfering in domestic politics and colluding with extremist republicans to help Vladimir Putin. This is dangerous. Republicans must stop putting Putin ahead of U.S. national security interests.”

---

12 23 bb

russia-is-repurposing-purchased-cameo-videos-from-us-celebrities-to-make-them-seem-to-be-disparaging-ukraines-leader

The Microsoft Threat Analysis Center has released a report stating that Russia has been covertly purchasing Cameo video messages from US celebrities, purportedly for fans, and then manipulating them to make it seem to be messages directed at Ukraine leader Volodymyr Zelensky. Celebrities whose video messages have been used include Elijah Wood, Mike Tyson, John McGinley ("Scrubs"), and Kate Flannery ("The Office"). Link to the article in The New York Times here.

*The Kremlin has unleashed a new weapon in its information war with the West: the fake celebrity cameo.

*"Hi, Vladimir, Elijah here," the actor Elijah Wood said in a video packaged to seem as if Mr. Wood were addressing Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky. The actor, best known for playing Frodo Baggins in "Lord of the Rings," urged the president to enter treatment for drug and alcohol abuse. "I hope you can get the help you need," Mr. Wood signed off.

*The video was recorded on Cameo, the popular, though now struggling, app where users can pay for personalized messages from famous people — in Mr. Wood's case, starting at $340. While a genuine video, it was repurposed as part of Russia's efforts to falsely denigrate Mr. Zelensky as a drug-addled neo-Nazi. Beginning in July, according to a report released on Thursday by Microsoft's Threat Analysis Center, the video and others like it ricocheted through Russian social media and were ultimately featured by news organizations owned or controlled by the government.

A representative for Elijah Wood confirmed that he had recorded the message on Cameo in response to a request, but it was "in no way intended to be addressed to Zelensky or have anything at all to do with Russia or Ukraine or the war."

===

11 23 an

Tuesday, December 5, Democratic and GOP senators attended a closed-door briefing in which President Joe Biden's request for military aid to Israel and Ukraine was discussed. But according to NBC News reporters Frank Thorp V, Kate Santaliz and Lori Rampani, the briefing did not go well.

The briefing's leaders included, among others, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Alejandro Mayorkas as well as Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Senators who attended were invited to ask questions about Biden's request.

But according to Thorp, Santaliz and Rampani, the "heated" briefing "fell apart" when "Republicans began asking about the" U.S./Mexico border.

"GOP members in both chambers have demanded serious changes to immigration policy to address rising migrant crossings in exchange for passing new aid for Ukraine," the NBC News reporters explain. "They didn't like what they heard."

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) told NBC News there was "a lot of tension in the room." And Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) complained that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) didn't want to "talk about the border."

Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-North Dakota) told reporters, "People got up and walked out, because this is a waste of time."

Schumer, however, complained that the briefing "was immediately hijacked by" Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky), who asked Sen. James Lankford (R-Oklahoma) to discuss the border.

READ MORE:[Mitch McConnell’s Ukraine policy puts him 'on a collision course' with House Speaker Johnson: report

Schumer said of McConnell, "The first question, instead of asking our panelists — he called on Lankford to give a five-minute talk about the negotiations on the border. And that wasn't the purpose of the meeting at all…. One of them started — it was disrespectful — started screaming at one of the generals and challenging him to why he didn't go to the border."

READ MORE:[Vivek Ramaswamy implies Hunter Biden is reason behind US aid to Ukraine: report

*Read NBC News' full report at this link.

Laura Ingraham says aid to Ukraine is funding “a losing cause” | Media Matters for America

missiles knock out pwr so ppl freeze

===

nuke plant )// blew up dam)

https://www.alternet.org/ukraine-accuses-russia-objects-explosives/

===

wagner implodes 150 mi moscow, putin flees

wagner group war crimes prigo olig

https://www.democracynow.org/2023/3/8/headlines/wagner_group_says_it_seized_eastern_bakhmut_nyt_reports_pro_ukrainian_group_sabotaged_pipelines

===

trumpista illinois mary miller

HR199

Secure America’s Borders First Act

A BILL To prohibit the obligation or expenditure of military or security assistance to Ukraine until operational control of the United States-Mexico border is achieved, and for other purposes.

===

conspiracy theory?

https://www.alternet.org/vivek-ramalwamy-hunter-biden-ukraine

during a Saturday Iowa appearance, 2024 Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy alleged that President Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden is the reason for the United States' aid to Ukraine, NBC reports.

The GOP hopeful made his remarks as "Rep. James Comer (R-Kentucky) and his colleagues have been alleging that President Joe Biden took a bribe from the Ukrainian energy company Burisma, which Hunter Biden represented as a lobbyist."

NBC notes:

Russia invaded Ukraine in the winter of 2022, years after Biden left Burisma’s board. Since the invasion, the Biden administration and Congress have given billions of dollars of aid to Ukraine despite polls that show the American people are split on sending more funding.

"The purpose of the U.S. military [is] to advance American interests, to protect the homeland. Not to aimlessly fight some random war that's arguably a repayment for a private bribe that a family member of the United States received, $5 million from Burisma," Ramaswamy said. "Was the payment to Hunter Biden corrupt? Absolutely it was. Do I think that it has some relationship towards our posture toward Ukraine? I think it's likely that it does."

Washington Postcolumnist Phillip Bump wrote in a recent column "despite Comer's claim," his allegation against the Biden family "is not becoming more credible every day," noting, "there has been no evidence tying Joe Biden to Hunter Biden's work" for Burisma "in any concrete way."

===

2x?

an 8 23 no lnx

Why far-right White evangelicals are among Vladimir Putin’s strongest American supporters

Alex Henderson March 03, 2022

During the 1980s, far-right white evangelicals like the Moral Majority’s late Rev. Jerry Falwell, Sr., televangelist Jimmy Swaggart and Christian Broadcasting Network founder Pat Robertson railed against the Soviet Union relentlessly — often applauding President Ronald Reagan for standing up to the Kremlin. But times have changed.

These days, Donald Trump, not the late Ronald Reagan, is the most influential figure in the Republican Party — and white evangelicals, journalist Anthea Butler explains in an op-ed published by MSNBC’s website on March 1, are among Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most ardent admirers in the United States.

“While the world looks on in horror as Russia's invasion of Ukraine unfolds,” Butler observes in her op-ed, “one group has been praising Russian President Vladimir Putin. It turns out Putin has a fan base in America’s right-leaning evangelical politicians and pundits.”

Butler continues, “At this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference, which wrapped up over the weekend, Lauren Witzke, a GOP candidate for the Senate in Delaware, said: ‘Here’s the deal. Russia is a Christian nationalist nation. They’re actually Russian Orthodox.... I identify more with Putin’s Christian values than I do with Joe Biden.”

Witzke’s praise of Putin, according to Butler, “isn’t an uncommon stance among some Republicans and white American evangelicals today” — as they have “admired Putin because of the alignment of their beliefs with his abouthomosexuality, authoritarianism and fealty to former President Donald Trump.” Far-right white evangelicals, Butler notes, believe that Putin’s Russia, Butler notes, “is the way America should be.”

“Evangelicals are a long way from how they historically thought about Russia and communism,” Butler observes. “Back in the 1950s, white evangelical leaders like Billy Graham preached against the evils of communism and called then-Soviet states ‘godless’ and a threat to Christianity and America. Fast-forward to the 21st Century, and today’s evangelical leaders, as well as Republicans, have embraced Russia — and, more specifically, Putin.”

Butler adds, “In 2014, Putin made the cover of the evangelical magazine Decision in a piece in which Graham's son Franklinlauded his handling of the Winter Olympics and his protection of Christians. Franklin visited Russia in 2015, and ever since, has promoted Putin as a godly leader. A few days before the invasion of Ukraine, he asked people to ‘pray for Putin’ but not for Ukrainians, creating a decent amount of backlash.”

Of course, it cannot be stressed enough that far-right white evangelicals don’t represent all of Christianity. They are the radical lunatic fringe of Christianity, and many other Christians — from Mainline Protestants to Catholics — want nothing to do with their movement. And they don’t go around praising Putin’s authoritarianism or saying that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a good thing.

Butler, in fact, wraps up her article by noting all the non-evangelical Catholics and Protestants who have been speaking out against Putin and the Kremlin.

“Other faith leaders in America held a vigil for peace in Ukraine, and Pope Francis visited the Russian Embassy in Rome — a sign of the seriousness of the situation,” Butler writes. “As the conflict in Ukraine continues, admiration of Putin by some White evangelicals and Republicans may lead to more than they bargained for.”

===

mma 6 23

RACHEL CAMPOS-DUFFY (CO-HOST): Which incidents have the most impact on the American people? A sitting president, who we now know received at least $10 million in a bribe from the Ukraine, where we are now spending gazillions of dollars, I think $120 billion that we've spent so far over there in a money laundering scheme, in my opinion. And, you know, what impacts your life more,that Donald Trump didn't put the right things in the right boxes,or didn't, you know, did he declassify, did he classify, when we know he's the president and he has the ability to do that? Or what we're seeing, this corruption that's actually impacting our foreign policy and national security.

===

---

stew 3 23

Peters is a supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin and has pushed conspiracy theories related to his invasion of Ukraine, including claiming that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “is a flaming gay, cross dressing, high heels-wearing bondage freak” who “happens to be a full-blown Nazi.”
Peters has claimed that the war in Ukraine is being staged.

===

an 3 23

fox News host Sean Hannity interviewed former President Donald Trump on Monday and, apparently, omitted crucial chunks of their conversation about Ukraine when it was broadcast to Hannity's radio audience.

Justin Baragona, the senior media reporter atThe Daily Beast, noticed the discrepancy on Tuesday.

"According to Trump, all he needed to do was let Russia 'take over' parts of Ukraine," Baragona explained. "Saying that Russia was going for the 'whole enchilada' with Joe Biden as president, Trump added that Russia 'took over nothing' while he was in the White House because Russian President Vladimir Putin 'understood' that 'he would have never done it.'"

Trump added, "that's without even negotiating a deal. I could have negotiated. At worst, I could've made a deal to take over something, there are certain areas that are Russian-speaking areas, frankly, but you could've worked a deal."

But as Baragona pointed out, that is not what Hannity played.

"Instead, shortly after Trump says, 'I could have negotiated,' the audio quickly skips about 30 seconds of speaking time before picking back up where the former president pivots to his complaint that 'China no longer respects the United States,'" Baragona observed.

Baragona also noted that "besides asserting that he would have stopped Russia from invading Ukraine by making a deal to let them 'take over something,' Trump also said in the portion not aired by Fox that 'so many more people are dying than is being reported' while reiterating this 'would have never happened' under his watch."

===

an 3 23

**Greene** (R-GA), a far-right Christian nationalist extremist, kicked off her speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC)Friday morning by telling the room filled with many empty seats that the left is “coming for our children,” in her hate-filled, lie-filled, fear-mongering, anti-LGBTQ speech portraying her cause as virtuous because, she preached, “our God is bigger.” That God, she promised, would help her pass anti-transgender legislation that “will make it a felony to perform anything to do with gender-affirming care on children.”

“The left has told us something that should put fear in the heart of every parent,” Greene said as she began her speech. “Not just parents – every single person.”

“They said they’re coming for our children,” Greene declared.

“I think the Republican Party has a duty. We have a responsibility, and that is to be the party that protects children,” her speech (video below) continued.

Greene again falsely claimed that **Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy** said “he wants our sons and daughters to go die in Ukraine,” which is the exact opposite of what he said. She attacked the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus for “literally singing we’re coming for your children,” referring to a 2021 “tongue in cheek” song the group received right-wing death threats over because it advocated for teaching children to love and “not to hate.”

She did not offer any other examples where “the left” said they are “coming for our children."

she called medical experts who support transgender children a“billion dollar industry that mutilates the genitals of children” and claimed “they have a target, or should I say a victim?”...

===

an bad 3 23

**U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene** (R-GA) and **U.S. Senator Mike Lee** (R-UT) are actively spreading anti-Ukraine disinformation, posting to Twitter a deceptively-edited video of Volodymyr Zelenskyy, which they falsely claim means the Ukrainian President wants America's "sons and daughters" to die defending Ukraine.

Senator Lee complained his personal Twitter account was suspended at some point after he retweeted the video. It was recently restored and his post with the deceptively-edited video has not been removed.

The original Twitter sources of the video have warning labels that Greene and Lee appear to have ignored before posting. Greene posted it to her official U.S. government Twitter account.

That warning, in the form of a readers' note, says: "This quote is taken out of context. The full quote is :'If Ukraine loses, Russia is going to enter Baltic states, NATO states, then the U.S will have to send their sons and daughters exactly in the same way as we are sending our sons and daughters to war'."

The Associated Press also published a fact check on Wednesday noting the deceptively-edited video is "missing context." The AP states: "He was not suggesting Americans would have to fight in Ukraine."

But in the deceptively-edited video Greene and Lee tweeted, Zelenskyy (via an interpreter) says, "the U.S will have to send their sons and daughters exactly in the same way as we are sending our sons and daughters to war."

Zelenskyy goes on to say, "and they will have to fight because it's NATO that we're talking about. They will be dying, God forbid, because it's a horrible thing."

In the full video from February 24, Zelenskyy is urging Americans to not give up on Ukraine. The most important portion of Zelenskyy's remarks have been edited out in Greene's and Lee's version: "If Ukraine loses, Russia is going to enter Baltic states, NATO states."

Greene tweeted, "There's not a parent in America that wants their son or daughter dying defending Ukraine's border. When have Ukrainian & NATO sons and daughters died defending America's border?"

Lee tweeted, "Zelensky has no right to presume that our sons and daughters will fight his war. Shame on him. We've somehow sent the message that we work for him. Shame on us!"

The 19-second deceptively-edited video has been viewed nearly 400,000 times.

Zelenskyy's (via interpreter):

"I would like to thank the American people. I would like to thank all of the American people that are supporting Ukraine, the Congress, the President, the TV channels, the journalists, and everyone that has been supporting us, and that percentage of Americans, as you've mentioned is increasing. I can tell them only one thing. If they do not change their opinion, if they do not understand us, if they do not support Ukraine, they will lose NATO, they will lose the clout of the United States, they will lose the leadership position that they are enjoying in the world, that they are enjoying for a very fair reason, and they will lose the support of the country with 40 millions of population, with millions of children. Are American children any different than ours? Don't Americans enjoy the same things as we do? I don't think we're that different. And I'm actually very happy that we have bipartisan support, but we keep hearing those messages from time to time and they’re dangerous.

There are political leaders that are elected by people. And if this issue is raised, those political leaders need to be responsible and cautious because people are looking at them. Who wants a third world war? Would anyone risk would anyone be willing to accept that risk? The US is never going to give up on the NATO member states. If it happens so that Ukraine, due to various opinions and weakened and depleting of assistance, loses, Russia is going to enter the Baltic states, NATO member states, and then the US will have to send their sons and daughters exactly the same way as we are sending their sons and daughters to war and they will have to fight because it's NATO that we're talking about and they will be dying, God forbid because it's a horrible thing."

===

an raw 3 23

During a hearing this week, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) was humiliated after promoting a report from the Global Times to justify the end of military aid to Ukraine — only for the witness to point out the Global Times is Chinese state-run media.

But there's a lot more to the story, wrote Aaron Blake for The Washington Post on Tuesday.

"The Trump administration in 2020 designated the Global Times and three other outlets as 'foreign missions' because they are 'effectively controlled by the government of the People’s Republic of China,'" wrote Blake. "'This designation recognizes PRC propaganda outlets as foreign missions and increases transparency relating to the CCP and PRC government’s media activities in the United States,' the State Department said."

"Some media scholars have likened the Global Times to China’s Fox News. The New York Times in 2019 labeled it 'a 24-hour propaganda machine' whose top editor at the time was 'seen as a combative public voice of the administration of President Xi Jinping in an era of more open rivalry with the United States,'" said the report. "Responding to a request for comment from The Washington Post, Gaetz spokesman Joel Valdez said, 'Congressman Gaetz wanted to ask if the report was true. The panelist said it wasn’t true, and that was a good enough answer for him.' He did not address the congressman’s apparent surprise at where his source came from."

The specific article Gaetz was pushing alleged that the Azov Battalion was getting access to U.S. weapons. The Azov Battalion is a militia founded by far-right extremists that was later incorporated into Ukraine's military and separated from its original extremist mission. Russian propagandists have long used the existence of the group to claim, baselessly, that the entire Ukrainian government is run by neo-Nazis, one of the public justifications used by Vladimir Putin for the invasion of the country.

The Global Times article cites a 2018 blog post to support the idea the U.S. is training the Azov fighters — but there is no firm evidence to support this.

"The Global Times article goes on to cite various experts accusing the United States of 'inciting conflicts between Ukraine and Russia” and “being very much conniving with the neo-Nazi forces' in Eastern Europe," wrote Blake. "It cites the United States and Ukraine having voted against a United Nations resolution on 'combating the glorification of' Nazism and neo-Nazism. But it does not explain that this is a resolution frequently pushed by Russia, which many European countries abstain from voting on. The United States has repeatedly said the resolution calls for 'unacceptable limits on the fundamental freedom of expression' and that it’s a thinly veiled political attack on Ukraine and even a pretext for Russia’s invasion."

===

https://www.vice.com/en/article/88qwbx/far-right-conspiracy-theory-wants-you-to-think-ukraine-war-staged

no lnx

david Gilbert @ Vice News: The Far Right Wants You to Think Ukraine’s War Is Staged: ‘It Is Clearly a Psyop.’

a year after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, tens of thousands of civilians have been murdered, tens of millions of Ukrainians are displaced, and billions of dollars in damage have been inflicted on homes and buildings across the country—and the American far right is still pushing the narrative that the war in Ukraine is fake.

Coinciding with the one year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, conspiracists, far-right influencers, and trolls have made a coordinated effort to push the conspiracy theory that the entire conflict in Ukraine has been staged.

The narrative that the war was fake first emerged in the early days of the invasion, and one of the key pieces of “evidence” used by those spreading the disinformation was a video they claimed showed “fake bodies” in body bags.

:{:{}:

The video, which shows the body bags moving in the background, was in fact taken at a climate change protest in Austria about a month before Russia invaded Ukraine. Over the weekend, it was once again shared as “evidence” that the mainstream media was lying about the war.

:{:{}:

The most popular post came from an anonymous right-wing Twitter account called Amuse, which shared the video with the comment: “Stop Moving - You’re Supposed to be Dead! Psyop?”

:{:{}:

The tweet currently has been viewed over 3.9 million times and been liked over 45,000 times.

When it was pointed out that the video was not taken in Ukraine, the account holder responded: “Someone told me it is some sort of crazy four dimensional misinformation—video might be from Austria. Not sure who is pushing it - Ukraine or Russia. Without embedded journalists we’ve got this mess.” They later added: “No one seems to know who is responsible but it is clearly a Psyop.”

The same video was shared widely across Facebook and Twitter in recent days.

At the same time, Catturd, a hugely influential MAGA shitposter favored by Elon Musk, posted a screen on Twitter that questioned the reality of the war in Ukraine because he apparently has not seen any footage from the war front.

“We get no footage, no detailed updates, no graphs explaining how the war is going, who has control of what land,” Catturd wrote. “All we get is Biden fake air raid sirens and one famous actor or politician a day happily prancing around Kiev with Zelenskyy with no helmets or body protection offering him 100s of billion of dollars.”

Catturd’s tweet has been viewed over 10.4 million times, despite Twitter’s fact-checking community appending a note to the post saying: “Footage and analysis of the Russian war on Ukraine from multiple media sources including reporters embedded with Ukrainian troops is and has been available.”

On Truth Social, disgraced former national security adviser Michael Flynn endorsed Catturd’s claims,writing: “What Catturd said, and I double dare anyone to say he is wrong.”

Kyle Becker, a far-right commentator who has in the past worked for Fox News and Tim Pool’s podcast, also shared the claim that there was no footage available of what’s likely the most-documented war in human history.

“I am sick and tired of the lack of footage of the Ukraine war. I worked in cable news. I am initiated. If it bleeds, it leads. Where is the war footage? Where are the Pulitzer Prize winning photos? This smacks of a scam and the American people are fed up,” Becker tweeted.

Meanwhile Stew Peters, a far-right podcaster and COVID conspiracist, added to the conversation by posting a video from the Ukrainian government that shows how the country has been working to fix some of the damage inflicted by the war over the last year.

According to Peters, the video is not a positive story about the resilience of the Ukrainian people, but proof the war is “100% fake” and that the damage was never inflicted in the first place.

Peters spent the weekend pushing the narrative that the media and governments around the world are lying about the war.

“The world is a stage,” Peters tweeted on Sunday. “It’s ALL fake. When enough people realize what has been done to them, and they’re ready to admit it, there will be NOWHERE safe for these criminals to hide.”

One other strand to the conspiracy about the war in Ukraine being fake is a renewed push to surface videos from the former life of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as a comic actor and using it to claim he is merely playing the role of a head of state.

One of the most prominent people sharing this claim in recent days was Donald Trump Jr. who shared a clip of Zelensky dancing in high heels and leather from a 2014 parody video with the comment:

:{:{}:

“Just so we understand, this is the leader of the left’s new religion, Ukraine. He replaced Lord Fauci who replaced goddess Greta as the leader of the leftist lunacy movement. Give him all of your money forever it doesn’t matter how much or for what… the Gods have spoken!”

The tweet has racked up almost 9 million views in the space of just 24 hours.

TAGGED:

UKRAINE DISINFORMATION CATTURD STEW PETERS FAR RIGHT TWITTER WORLD NEWS

===

david Gilbert @ Vice News: The Far Right Wants You to Think Ukraine’s War Is Staged: ‘It Is Clearly a Psyop.’

:{:{}:

Coinciding with :{the one year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}:, conspiracists, far-right influencers, and trolls have made a coordinated effort to push the conspiracy theory that the entire conflict in Ukraine has been staged.

:{:{}:

The most popular post came from an anonymous right-wing Twitter account called Amuse, which shared the video with the comment: “Stop Moving - You’re Supposed to be Dead! Psyop?”

The tweet currently has been viewed over 3.9 million times and been liked over 45,000 times.

The same video was shared widely across Facebook and Twitter in recent days.

:{:{}:

At the same time, Catturd, :{a hugely influential MAGA shitposter:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}: favored by Elon Musk, posted a screen on Twitter that questioned the reality of the war in Ukraine because he apparently has not seen any footage from the war front.

:{:{}:

On Truth Social, disgraced former national security adviser Michael Flynn endorsed Catturd’s claims, writing: “What Catturd said, and I double dare anyone to say he is wrong.”

:{:{}:

According to Peters, the video is not a positive story about the resilience of the Ukrainian people, but proof the war is “100% fake” and that the damage was never inflicted in the first place.

:{:{}:

Peters spent the weekend pushing the narrative that the media and governments around the world are lying about the war.

One of the most prominent people sharing this claim in recent days was Donald Trump Jr. who shared a clip of Zelensky dancing in high heels and leather from a 2014 parody video with the comment:

“Just so we understand, this is the leader of the left’s new religion, Ukraine. He replaced Lord Fauci who replaced goddess Greta as the leader of the leftist lunacy movement. Give him all of your money forever it doesn’t matter how much or for what… the Gods have spoken!”

The tweet has racked up almost 9 million views in the space of just 24 hours.

Want the best of VICE News

TAGGED:UKRAINE DISINFORMATION CATTURD STEW PETERS FAR RIGHT TWITTER WORLD NEWS

https://www.alternet.org/a-very-slow-destructive-campaign/

Carlson takes aim at Kamala Harris blaming her for Russia's invasion of Ukraine

https://www.alternet.org/tucker-carlson-2659437361/

===

an 2 23

During the United States' 2020 presidential race, Ukraine-born Lev Parnas was still an ally of then-President Donald Trump and his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani. But that was before Russian forces, on February 24, 2022, launched a full-fledged invasion of Ukraine on orders from Russian President Vladimir Putin.

These days, Parnas regrets allying himself with Giuliani, Trump and the MAGA movement. And in an article published by Time on February 13, Parnas describes the role he played in Trump and Giuliani’s efforts to "undermine" Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

"I was used by Trump and his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani in ways that helped pave the way for Putin to invade Ukraine, my native land," the 51-year-old Parnas laments. "If Trump and Giuliani's plans had worked, the Ukrainians might not have had the necessary weapons, medical equipment, and other supplies they needed to fight back."

In 2021 and 2022, Parnas was found guilty on criminal charges that ranged from fraud to illegally funneling non-U.S. money to Trump's 2020 reelection campaign. He was sentenced to 20 months in federal prison but only served four and is now confined at home.

"My connection to Trump came through Giuliani, with whom I had done business, and through the large campaign donations I had made to Trump's campaign," Parnas recalls. "Giuliani, who desperately wanted to be secretary of state, recruited me to help him further Trump's interests overseas. I had no official position, but my primary task was to be their go-between with Ukrainian and Russian oligarchs and government officials. In retrospect, I concluded that my real job was to help undermine and destabilize the Ukrainian government."

Parnas believes that Trump's disdain for Ukraine’s government and affinity for Putin was partly motivated by his animosity for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

"Trump and Giuliani argued that Ukraine's leaders were corrupt and anti-American," Parnas explains, "but I believe there were other reasons Trump had it in for them.He viewed them as political enemies who had supported Hillary Clinton in 2016…. Trump acted on his hatred of Ukraine as he tried to improve his reelection chances in 2020. The plan that Giuliani and Trump put into operation was simple: Giuliani sent me to collect compromising information that the Eastern European oligarchs had on Hunter Biden's activities in Ukraine to use against Joe Biden…. Trump didn't care if this made Ukraine vulnerable to Russia."

Although Parnas supported Trump in 2020, he applauds the Biden administration for helping Ukraine militarily in 2022 and 2023.

"Trump weakened Zelensky, but fortunately, Biden won the 2020 election, and Ukraine received a steady supply of weapons," Parnas writes. "Since my arrest, I have done my best to help the people of Ukraine with charitable works, but Giuliani is still peddling his version of events. And even now, Republican politicians are campaigning to stop the pipeline of weapons and medical supplies. They are just trying to please Trump, exactly as Giuliani does. And whether they realize it or not, they are making it easier for Putin and his gang to steal everything they can from Ukraine."

Read Lev Parnas’ full Time article at this link.

===

yikes

https://www.alternet.org/doomsday-clock-90-seconds-midnight/

an 1 23

We are living in a time of unprecedented danger, and the Doomsday Clock time reflects that reality."

That's what Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists president and CEO Rachel Bronson said in a statement Tuesday about the historic symbol being set at 90 seconds to midnight, or global catastrophe, after three years at 100 seconds to midnight.

As the bulletin's annual statement explains, the clock—created in 1947—has reached its current position due to "an exceedingly dangerous nuclear situation," largely from Russia's war on Ukraine;inadequate global action to tackle the climate emergency; a "daunting array" of biological threats, exemplified by the Covid-19 pandemic; and "disruptive" technologies enabling the spread of disinformation.

"90 seconds to midnight is the closest the clock has ever been set to midnight, and it's a decision our experts do not take lightly," Bronson noted. "The U.S. government, its NATO allies, and Ukraine have a multitude of channels for dialogue; we urge leaders to explore all of them to their fullest ability to turn back the clock."

Watch the full announcement:

2023 Doomsday Clock Announcement

While the nearly yearlong Russian invasion—with fighting over a nuclear power plant and thinly veiled threats of using weapons of mass destruction—is a primary reason humanity is now closer than ever to apocalypse, experts from across the globe emphasized that it's far from the only threat.

The Elders chair Mary Robinson, a former president of Ireland and U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, stressed that "the Doomsday Clock is sounding an alarm for the whole of humanity. We are on the brink of a precipice. But our leaders are not acting at sufficient speed or scale to secure a peaceful and liveable planet."

"From cutting carbon emissions to strengthening arms control treaties and investing in pandemic preparedness, we know what needs to be done," she said. "The science is clear, but the political will is lacking. This must change in 2023 if we are to avert catastrophe. We are facing multiple, existential crises. Leaders need a crisis mindset."

1 23 much mil aid going in, some dothering german tanks

===

an 1 23

Elon Musk is still facing deep criticism for echoing remarks tweeted by one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's allies.

According to HuffPost, Dmitry Medvedev —a vocal supporter of the Russian-Ukrainian war— tweeted remarks suggesting that the United States would be "ripped apart by civil war, that Musk would become U.S. president, and that a 'Fourth Reich' would be created in Europe."

In response to the thread of tweets, Musk commented saying, "epic thread."

Almost immediately after Musk shared his reaction, Twitter users wasted no time chiming in to criticize him for seemingly bragging about the disturbing Russian propaganda.

"Are you a Russian agent/ propagandist now? Why are you doing this?" one Twitter user asked.

Another user asked, "Are you F out of your mind? Cheering on a Russian war criminal 'predicting' a civil war in the US? Tesla shareholders must be thrilled!"

After hours of facing a litany of tweets, Musk chimed in with another tweet appearing to offer an explanation for his previous remarks. He also attempted to downplay his gushing over Medvedev's remarks by describing the claims as "absurd."

"Those are definitely the most absurd predictions I’ve ever heard, while also showing astonishing lack of awareness of the progress of artificial intelligence and sustainable energy," he tweeted.

However, some weren't buying Musk's response. In fact, Putin critic and world chess champion Garry Kasparov also weighed in with criticism of Musk.

“This is moral idiocy, repetition of Kremlin propaganda, a betrayal of Ukrainian courage and sacrifice, and puts a few minutes browsing Crimea on Wikipedia over the current horrific reality of Putin’s bloody war,” Kasparov said on Twitter.

===

bad code

useful idiot?

https://www.alternet.org/2022/10/elon-musk-fiona-hill-ron-desantis

badash

Florida GOP **Gov. Ron DeSantis** appears to be aligning with the increasingly powerful **Elon Musk**, as the richest man in the world is accused “transmitting a message” for Russian President **Vladimir Putin**.

On Monday DeSantis blasted Musk’s critics, including Ukraine, who were angered the billionaire had threatened to pull his SpaceX Starlink satellites away from Ukraine. The low earth orbit (LEO) satellites provide internet access to Ukraine and especially its military forces.

Despite the U.S. government having paid Musk $3 million for equipment and to keep the satellites over the war-torn country, Musk threatened to pull the hardware critical to the war effort.

He was quickly excoriated, and recently agreed to keep the satellites in place, at least for now.

DeSantis has generally avoided international issues, leading some to question where he stands. Many were surprised when the ultra-outspoken Florida governor not only was silent when Putin invaded Ukraine, but appeared to dodge questions about the illegal war. Politico at the time called his refusal to speak “eerie.” DeSantis has invested what were at the time about $300 million of his state’s pension funds in Russia, and refused to pull out.

Monday was different.

“When Russia invaded Ukraine, Elon Musk positioned his satellites over Ukraine and gave them these things. So they’ve actually been using his devices to be able to defend their country, and I guess some of the people in the government [of Ukraine] were attacking Musk,” DeSantis said Monday, as Florida Politics reported.

“And I’m just thinking to myself,‘He’s doing this for free,’ ” DeSantis said.“Don’t bite the hand that feeds you. Good Lord!”

“He’s provided that for them for free,” DeSantis continued. “And if you think about it, in a country that big, given what’s going on, that’s tens of millions of dollars that he’s effectively donated.”

READ MORE:... [twt vid] republican former U.S. Congressman Joe Walsh

https://twitter.com/WalshFreedom/status/1582094061539688449...criticized DeSantis.

“Yet another leading Republican voice ‘admonishing’ Ukrainian officials. Republicans never admonish Putin. But they never hesitate to admonish Ukraine,” he said.

More Perfect Union reporter Jordan Zakarin observed: “Ron DeSantis choosing Elon Musk and Putin over the Ukraine is pretty on brand for a wannabe dictator who caters to billionaires.”

Musk reportedly had spoken to Putin before tweeting what many saw as pro-Putin remarks, but Musk denied the claim.

“Last week, Musk tweeted out his proposals for ending the war in Ukraine ― and they were very similar to what [Ian Bremmer] said Musk told him Putin wanted,” HuffPost reported.

Bremmer is a political scientist with an expert focus on Russia and the founder of a political risk research consulting firm. He has a PhD from Stanford where he wrote, “The politics of ethnicity: Russians in the Ukraine.”

Meanwhile, earlier on Monday Politico reported on “Fiona Hill, one of America’s most clear-eyed observers of Russia and Putin, who served as an adviser to former President Donald Trump and gained fame for her testimony in his first impeachment trial.”

“In the early days of Russia’s war on Ukraine, Hill warned in an interview with POLITICO that what Putin was trying to do was not only seize Ukraine but destroy the current world order. And she recognized from the start that Putin would use the threat of nuclear conflict to try to get his way.”

Politico adds that “despite the setbacks Russia has suffered on the battlefield, Hill thinks Putin is undaunted. She sees him adapting to new conditions, not giving up. And she sees him trying to get the West to accede to his aims by using messengers like billionaire Elon Musk to propose arrangements that would end the conflict on his terms.”

“Putin plays the egos of big men, gives them a sense that they can play a role. But in reality, they’re just direct transmitters of messages from Vladimir Putin,” Hill told Politico.

“It’s very clear that Elon Musk is transmitting a message for Putin,” she says.

Watch DeSantis’ remarks above or at this link.

===

12 22 an comm dr

...Tessa Khan of Uplift, one of the organizers of Saturday's rallies, said in a statement that "people only need to look at their bills to know that the U.K.'s energy system is broken."

"This Day of Action is to give a voice to those who want change from this government," said Khan. "Instead of spending billions of our money subsidizing gas fields and expensive gas imports, which will guarantee bills stay high for years, people want sensible, practical solutions to permanently lower our energy costs."

"People want those in fuel poverty given the support they need to stay warm this winter; they want help to insulate their homes; and they want this government to unblock onshore renewable energy, which will provide our homes with cheaper energy for years to come," Khan added. "This is about coming together to tell the government to look after the needs of British people, and not the needs of wealthy oil and gas companies."

===

The Democrat’s surprising strength in the midterms has been framed mostly as a rebuke of Republicans’ attack on abortion rights and on democracy. The GOP’s flirtation with imperial oligarchic Russian leader Vladimir Putin has, in contrast, received little attention.

That’s not exactly a mistake. Foreign policy rarely drives many votes, and the war between Russia and Ukraine was never a top issue for voters or for candidates on the campaign trail.

And yet the Democratic midterm strength serves as a powerful defeat not just for the GOP, but for Putin. Republican losses in the Senate and narrow gains in the House all but guarantee that the US will continue to lead international support for Ukraine.

GOP Putinistas

The GOP has been divided on aid for Ukraine. An older, more traditional wing of the party, steeped in Reaganite Cold War antagonism to the Soviet Union, has supported the (much more justified) Ukrainian war against Russia imperial invasion.

But there’s another wing that’s openly pro-Putin.

Putin has long cultivated ties with far-right nationalist groups globally, portraying himself as a defender of manly tradition through shirtless iconography and vicious homophobic policies.

He saw a potential ally in wannabe-authoritarian Donald Trump, and tried to aid his campaigns in 2016 and (less successfully) in 2020.

Trump reciprocated by praising Putin consistently over the last six years. Most recently, he called the Russian invasion of Ukraine “genius” and “wonderful.”

Trump’s enthusiasm has affected his partisans.

Between 2015 and 2017, GOP opinions of Putin went up 20 points from 12 percent favorability to 32 percent favorable. A February poll found that Putin’s favorables among Republicans were higher than those of Democratic President Joe Biden.

It’s not just the rank-and-file either. Fox News far-right host Tucker Carlson has ceaselessly pumped out pro-Putin propaganda since the invasion of Ukraine in February. So has Carlson’s frequent guest, erstwhile progressive and current far-right shill Glenn Greenwald.

Many in the GOP conference have followed along. In the House, the chair of the rabid more-MAGA-than-thou Freedom Caucus, Scott Perry, wants to investigate, and potentially spike, US aid to Ukraine.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy signaled support for Perry in an interview in October: “I think people are gonna be sitting in a recession and they’re not going to write a blank check to Ukraine.”

In May, 57 House Republicans voted against $40 billion in aid to Ukraine. Eleven senators joined them, including Rand Paul and Josh Hawley.

In addition, one of the few midterm contests focused on foreign policy was that of JD Vance, the Ohio Republican Senator-elect, boosted by fash-curious tech billionaire Peter Thiel, who made opposition to Ukraine a centerpiece of his campaign.

Republicans are split

With far-right Putinophilia bubbling up from the MAGA swamp, observers believed Biden might have real trouble continuing support for Ukraine. Reports suggest Russia put off announcing its retreat from Kherson until after the midterms because Putin did not want news of a Ukrainian victory to bolster Democrats.

Republicans who support Ukrainian aid were reportedly nervous that they’d be undercut in a GOP-controlled House. Biden was floating a Ukrainian aid package in the lame-duck session of the Congress, anticipating that further funding might be blocked.

Democrats may still vote on a Ukraine funding bill. But prospects for aid in the new Congress have significantly improved.

First of all, Democrats retained control of the Senate. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has strongly supported aid for Ukraine. Even so, his conference is unpredictable, and the Democrats are in a much better position to buttress Biden’s foreign policy priorities than they would have been had they lost the chamber.

Democrats did lose the House — but it was very close. The GOP majority is likely to be somewhere between 220-215 and 222-213.

McCarthy — or whoever the GOP chooses as speaker — is will block many Democratic initiatives on abortion rights, voting rights and much else. Ukrainian aid is different, though. That’s an issue that sharply divides McCarthy’s own caucus. Even if he wanted to, he’s not going to be able to win a vote striking down Ukrainian aid.

And if he were to try, the Democrats could likely get enough GOP support to bring it to the floor without his say-so.

Opposition to aid would likely expose huge fissures in the Republican caucus and lead to an embarrassing defeat for the speaker.

Stepping away, domestically

If the GOP were a normal party, that would be the end of that.

But the conference is neither normal, so there are caveats.

Representatives like Marjorie Taylor Greene, Jim Jordan and Matt Gaetz hate their more moderate Republican colleagues almost as much as they hate Democrats. They might oppose Ukrainian aid precisely because they know it would put their own speaker in an impossible and humiliating position.

So there could be bumps in the road.

The bottom line is that after their weak showing in the midterms, the Trumpy GOP pro-Putin wing doesn’t have the leverage to successfully advance their dream of global totalitarianism.

The defeat of election deniers in races for governor and secretary of state across the country means that the US has taken a step back from authoritarianism — domestically.

===

9 22 400 ppl well doc, torture, noose

https://www.alternet.org/2022/09/war-crimes-russia-ukraine-izyum/

===

tom b raw an 11 22

When Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump in 2020’s presidential election, many world leaders were quick to congratulate him — from French President Emmanuel Macron to then-U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson. But Russian President Vladimir Putin and his allies in the Kremlin were clearly disappointed in that election’s outcome, and according to Daily Beast reporter Julia Davis, Russian officials are closely observing the United States’ 2022 midterms and hoping for a major red wave.

“Russian state media is following the midterm elections in the United States with great interest, but the mood in Moscow’s studios had noticeably soured in comparison to the fun-filled episodes of the years preceding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” Davis observes in an article published on November 8. “While the experts and the hosts are still rooting for the Republicans, they stop short of promising the audience total salvation even with the GOP back in charge. Even the most seasoned propagandists can’t hide the fact that Russia’s war against Ukraine — and the global fallout that followed — is only going from bad to worse.”

Davis reports that Sergei Luzyanin, a professor at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations under the Russian Foreign Ministry, is hoping that Republicans will win big on Election Night — and that there will be considerable animosity between the Biden Administration and a GOP-controlled Congress in 2023.

On the state-operated Russian show “60 Minutes” (not to be confused with the CBS News program in the U.S.), Luzyanin commented, “A potential victory of the Republicans in the Congress and perhaps in theSenate will mark the beginning of a political Halloween…. After the midterm elections, we’ll see a glass jar full of poisonous American spiders tearing each other up. Go ahead and eat one another! It will be a frightening political process... It may also lead to tactical or strategic changes in their foreign policy…. Get lots of popcorn, and let’s watch.”

As some Russian media pundits see it, a GOP-controlled Congress will be better for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine than a Congress that remains in Democratic hands.

Olga Skabeeva, a Russian media host, commented that she hopes Democrats and Republicans tear each other to pieces but wasn’t sure it will happen as much as she would like. And while Skabeeva prefers Republicans over Democrats, she isn’t counting on any direct military help from the GOP.

Skabeeva told viewers, “We keep hoping it happens, but they’re yet to destroy each other…. The situation won’t change for the better, and we have to rely solely upon ourselves, on the Russian Army. Republicans can’t help us to hold on to Kherson.”

One clip that has been played on Russian TV, according to Davis, is a clip of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene promising that “not another penny will go to Ukraine.” Skabeeva obviously likes what the Georgia congresswoman had to say.

Skabeeva commented, “There aren’t many chances that the magnitude of the funding (for Ukraine) will change, but an everyday Russian keeps on hoping and believing. They’ve never followed the midterm elections so closely.... We trust and believe in the Republicans. Do we even have any other allies?”

===

https://theintercept.com/2022/10/19/russia-hack-wagner-group-yevgeny-prigozhin/

in SEPTEMBER, a video surfaced online apparently showing Yevgeny Prigozhin, a wealthy businessman and close associate of Vladimir Putin, speaking to a group of incarcerated men in the yard of a Russian prison. Prigozhin was encouraging them to join the Wagner Group, the infamous mercenary organization he founded, and fight in Ukraine as a way out of prison.

The video signaled Prigozhin’s first apparent confirmation that he does, in fact, control Wagner.While Prigozhin had been known for years for his connection to the group, he had until recently always denied that he controlled its fighters, who have deployed in support of Russian campaigns in half a dozen conflicts around the world, where many have been accused of human rights abuses that include torture, rape, and the mass killing of civilians. More videos confirming Prigozhin’s role at the helm of Wagner have since emerged, and for the first time he acknowledged founding the group in a statement issued last month through one of his companies.

Wagner got its start during the 2014 Russian invasion of Ukraine, and as evidence of its mercenaries’ abuses mounted, Prigozhin fiercely fought off reports of his links to them, often enlisting the help of attorneys to do so. Now, a cache of hacked emails and documents reviewed by The Intercept details for the first time the behind-the-scenes relationship between Prigozhin’s legal team in Russia and several British and U.S. law firms that worked on his behalf to contest sanctions; defend him against U.S. prosecution; discredit journalists investigating his shadowy businesses; and sue Eliot Higgins, the founder of the investigative website Bellingcat.

Earlier this year, Higgins’s attorneys took action against the British firm that sued him for defamation on behalf of Prigozhin. In a complaint to the U.K. Solicitors Regulation Authority, Higgins accused the firm, Discreet Law LLP, of filing a so-called SLAPP, or Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation: litigation intended to intimidate or censor critics into silence by saddling them with the costs of defending themselves in court. Higgins told The Intercept that the hacked emails further reinforce his position.

“We always knew this was a SLAPP action and a possible abuse of process. It now appears that Prigozhin and, worse, his lawyers knew as well, but went ahead with it anyway,” Higgins wrote in a statement to The Intercept after reviewing the emails. “It seems this was a calculated effort by Prigozhin, aided by his lawyers, to quash the free press as part of a cynical PR campaign to challenge international sanctions.”

While reliance on foreign law firms is hardly unusual or illegal for an oligarch with global business interests, the emails and documents paint the most detailed picture yet of how a well-known but secretive figure — dubbed as “Putin’s chef” by the Western media because of his catering company’s business relationship with the Kremlin — worked with lawyers to clean up his worsening reputation as a Russian warlord.As he faced intensifying scrutiny in recent years, and as his businesses came under pressure following sanctions, Prigozhin relied on the services of at least four U.S. and U.K.-based firms, according to the documents.

The emails paint Prigozhin as a man fixated on challenging the narrative that had formed around him — even though he has come to embrace that narrative in the aftermath of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine that Russia launched in February. In a failed effort to contest sanctions, some of Prigozhin’s attorneys sought to discredit the growing body of reporting that connected him to the Wagner Group, which he believed to be the basis for the sanctions against him.

But while surrounding himself with teams of legal advisors, Prigozhin at times sought to do things his own way. The hacked documents, for instance, include a lengthy draft letter Prigozhin wrote to former President Donald Trump urging him to appoint former special counsel Robert Mueller to prosecute one of his companies, which U.S. officials had accused of election interference, so that Prigozhin could personally face Mueller in court and clear his name. (Prosecutors later dropped the case.) That draft letter, which appears to ultimately not have been sent, stated that it was written against the advice of Prigozhin’s U.S. attorneys.

The documents and emails were unearthed in a series of hacks against over 50 Russian companies and government agencies after this year’s invasion, in what appears to be the largest cumulative hack of a nation-state to have ever taken place. The companies hacked included a top Russian law firm that represents Prigozhin: Capital Legal Services,which has offices in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Helsinki, Finland. The identities of the hackers are not known. The CLS files were hacked by activists associated with Anonymous, but The Intercept was not able to speak with the people behind that hack.

...As Putin’s invasion of Ukraine escalated into a monthslong conflict with tens of thousands of casualties, the Wagner Group played a symbolic and at times strategic role supporting Putin’s war with thousands of mercenaries.

European officials believe that upward of 20,000 mercenaries were deployed in support of Russia’s war in the first months of the invasion, including fighters Wagner had recruited in Syria and Libya, where it has long operated.Wagner mercenaries are believed to have been behind a series of so-called false flag attacks in eastern Ukraine before the invasion, intended to give Russia a pretext to attack. Since the invasion, Ukrainian officials have accused Wagner mercenaries of committing war crimes, alongside Russian soldiers, that include the killing of civilians in Bucha. Wagner mercenaries have also faced losses in Ukraine, including after U.S.-provided rockets hit one of the group’s bases in the Luhansk region in August. As Putin has sought to replenish the ranks of Russia’s military, Prigozhin appears to have done the same with Wagner’s, including by recruiting in Russian prisons.

Prigozhin had long been known to U.S. and European officials, who have investigated his activities, including interfering in the 2016 U.S. election by funding a troll factory, the Internet Research Agency. In 2018, he wasamong the individuals and companies indicted by a federal grand jury for conspiracy in relation to the election interference. Two years later, just weeks before the case was supposed to go to trial, prosecutors dropped charges against two of Prigozhin’s companies, Concord Management and Consulting and Concord Catering. But Prigozhin continues to face charges. Before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Prigozhin was under sanctions in the U.S. over that interference, and in Europe over Wagner’s involvement in the conflict in Libya. Along with his mother, wife, and children, Prigozhin faced additional sanctions as a result of the invasion....

===

smacked down?

https://www.alternet.org/2022/10/elon-musk-ukraine/

Ukraine ambassador Andrij Melynk recently fired back at billionaire Elon Musk's latest remarks about the ongoing contention between Russia and Ukraine. His fiery response has left Twitter users reeling.

On Monday, October 3, Musk took to Twitter to offer his take on the unrest between the two countries. He also included a poll to see if anyone agreed with his take.

"Ukraine-Russia Peace: - Redo elections of annexed regions under UN supervision. Russia leaves if that is will of the people. - Crimea formally part of Russia, as it has been since 1783 (until Khrushchev’s mistake). - Water supply to Crimea assured. - Ukraine remains neutral," Musk tweeted.

He added, "This is highly likely to be the outcome in the end – just a question of how many die before then."

While many Twitter users appeared to agree with Musk, Melynk had a colorful response as he offered a blistering suggestion for the Tesla owner.

"The only outcome ist [sic] that now no Ukrainian will EVER buy your f…ing tesla crap. So good luck to you. [Elon Musk]," Melynk tweeted. He also added, "F--k off is my very diplomatic reply to you [Elon Musk]."

It didn't take very long for Twitter users to catch his response and many have shared their reaction to it. While some assumed Musk's suggestions were a means of helping to resolve the situation, others agreed with Melynk.

"I am sorry, but WHAT? What help he’s offering? To give up? To stop fighting for our lives and our people, that don’t want to live under [Russian flag]?" one Twitter user asked. "To give this evil, what he wants, our lands? Shame. And about what war are you saying???? The war, which we haven’t started."

Another user wrote, "Best thing Elon Musk could do is offer Putin a free one-way #SpaceX ticket to #Mars. That's the off ramp everyone's looking for. Season 1 of 'The Expanse' will explain the rest."

===

mma 9 22 https://www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/**carlson-kremlin-feedback-loop**

Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s dubious allegation that the United States sabotaged a natural gas pipeline between Russia and Germany as part of a sinister “escalation” of Russia’s war with Ukraine echoed the Kremlin’s own propagandists. Carlson’s report is now getting substantial attention from Russian state TV, which is promoting his theory — and his suggestion for how Russia could strike back at U.S. interests in light of the supposed attack.

On Monday, “two powerful underwater explosions” damaged the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines. While the former had been shut down by Russia in August and the latter never became operational, both contained pressurized gas which is now leaking into the Baltic Sea. The international consensus is that the pipelines were sabotaged, with U.S. and European Union officials suggesting Russia is behind the explosions.

But the Kremlin, in turn, is suggesting that the U.S. sabotaged the pipelines, latching on to a since-deleted Tuesday tweet from Radek Sikorski, a Polish E.U. parliamentarian, which stated, “Thank you, USA,” alongside a photo of the leak. On social media, a Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson immediately questioned whether Sikorski’s tweet was an “official statement that this was a terrorist attack,” while another Russian official likewise thanked Sikorski for “making it crystal clear who stands behind this terrorist-style targeting of civilian infrastructure!” Russian state media outlet RT quickly amplified their theorizing under the headline “U.S. praised for Nord Stream explosion.”

[twt]

carlson’s coverage of the crisis created by Russia’s February invasion of Ukraine generally aligns with the Kremlin’s preferred narratives, to the point where Russian state media outlets, following their government’s explicit instructions, regularly air clips from his program.

That is what happened following the apparent sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines.

Just hours after Russian officials floated the narrative that the U.S. was responsible for damaging the pipelines, Carlson adopted it as his own.

Describing the ruptures as an “act of industrial terrorism,” Carlson quickly dispatched with the notion that Russia or its dictator, Vladimir Putin, might be involved. According to Carlson, Putin “would not do that” and would have to be “a suicidal moron to blow up your own energy pipeline.”

Instead, Carlson strongly suggested that the U.S. had sabotaged the pipelines. “If they did this, this will be one of the craziest, most destructive things any American administration has ever done,” he said. “But it would also be totally consistent with what they do. What do they do? They destroy.”

Carlson’s comically weak case revolved around two main pieces of evidence – Sikorski’s tweet, and a February statement from President Joe Biden that if Russia were to invade Ukraine, “there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2. We will bring an end to it.” That seems to very obviously reference what happened after Russia invaded – Germany froze the pipeline project, which has yet to become operational. But in Carlson’s typically dishonest translation, Biden “said ‘there won't be a Nord Stream 2. We'll put an end to it. Will take it out. Will blow it up.’”

On that scanty evidence, Carlson suggested that the U.S. had blown up an ally’s energy infrastructure. While on-screen text stated “Today’s escalation will have huge consequences,” Carlson asserted that “we've entered a new phase, one in which the United States is directly at war with the largest nuclear power in the world.” He added: “If we actually blew up the Nord Stream pipelines, why wouldn't Russia sever undersea internet cables? What would happen if they did that?" [vid]

it was inevitable that Carlson’s theory would spread through the right-wing media, given his influential role in that ecosystem. But it isn’t just the likes of Charlie Kirk rushing to follow him in blaming America.

Carlson’s monologue “entered heavy rotation” on Russian state TV, as The Washington Post’s Philip Bump noted on Thursday. Bump highlighted 12 different times that Russia’s Channel One, Russia1, and Russia24 networks had aired clips of Carlson highlighting his theory.

Julia Davis, a Russian media monitor and Daily Beast columnist, compiled and translated some of the segments. She noted that the Russian commentators seemed particularly interested in Carlson’s suggestion for how their state might retaliate for the supposed U.S. attack.[twt nice pix of puny panel and big tucker]

===

an 9 22

For Americans who are old enough to remember the Cold War and the Reagan era, it is ironic that some of today’s MAGA Republicans aren’t shy about openly expressing their admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin — even during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. This admiration for Putin, liberal New York Times opinion writer Paul Krugman noted in a scathing column published on September 12, has been expressed by everyone from Fox News’ Tucker Carlson to former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani to the leader of the MAGA movement: former President Donald Trump. In that column, Krugman argued that praising Putin’s authoritarianism fits right in with the “MAGA ethos.”

But liberals and progressives certainly aren’t the only ones who have been calling out the pro-Putin attitudes in the MAGA movement. More than a few Never Trump conservatives have been slamming Putin’s MAGA sympathizers, including veteran columnist Mona Charen. In an article published by The Bulwark on September 14, Charen lambasts “pro-Putin, pro-authoritarian” Republicans as the “new useful idiots.”

“At the moment when freedom-loving people around the world are elated, if on tenterhooks, at the progress of Ukrainian forces in pushing back the Russian invaders, Heritage Action, the political arm of the conservative Heritage Foundation, has joined with other self-styled conservative groups to oppose helping Ukraine fight for its life,” laments the 65-year-old Charen, who was a speechwriter for First Lady Nancy Reagan during the 1980s. “I know, I know, the Trumpification of the GOP has been a fact for six years, and yet, this heel turn is remarkable. It’s as if People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals announced that they support puppy mills for medical research.”

Charen adds, “Responding to President Biden’s request that Congress appropriate another $13.7 billion to help the Ukrainians cope with energy price hikes and other security needs, Heritage Action urged a no vote, railing that ‘These funding requests ignore the concerns of the American people.’”

The conservative journalist/author points out that “pro-Putin” Republicans are also likely to be admirers of far-right Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

“The pro-Putin, pro-authoritarian voices in the GOP are not yet a majority — about a quarter of House Republicans and 11 of 50 Senators voted against the $40 billion aid package for Ukraine in May — but they’re not a small minority either, and the wind is at their backs,” Charen explains. “CPAC has all but canonized Hungary’s strongman Viktor Orbán, and in the first hours after Putin rolled into Ukraine, Trump reveled in the murderer’s ‘savvy’ and ‘genius.’ The 2022 election could bring more authoritarian-friendly Republicans to Congress, and meanwhile, hatcheries of conservative orthodoxy like Fox News and The Federalist are doing the spade work of persuading the base that Kremlin propaganda is more trustworthy —pravda, if you will — than the New York Times.”

Charen continues, “Just two weeks ago, Tucker Carlson, Putin’s favorite American broadcaster — clips from his show are routinely featured on Russian state TV — told viewers that Biden’s steadfast support of Ukraine was absurd…. It was bad enough to excuse Putin before February 24 on the risible grounds that he represented some sort of Christian champion (against the) scourge of wokeness. But after? That a spokesman for a so-called ‘conservative’ TV network can cheer the rape of a free country — Carlson has said he ‘roots’ for Russia to win — is not just morally depraved, it violates the basic tenets of what used to be conservatism.”

Charen also calls out two Trump-backed U.S. Senate candidates — Blake Masters in Arizona and “Hillbilly Elegy” author J.D. Vance in Ohio — for their indifference to the invasion of Ukraine.

“The vapidity of this new ‘conservatism’ is bottomless,” Charen writes. “They haven’t bothered to consider that brutal aggression by a larger against a smaller state invites a Hobbesian international disorder in which no one is safe….

Putin’s Russia differs from the USSR in ideology, but in repression and rapacity, it is comparable. And it’s scarcely believable that the ‘useful idiots’ who make excuses for it today — who actually root for its success — are ‘conservatives.’”

===

https://www.alternet.org/2022/08/kremlin-propagandist-dwindling-human-resources/

===

9/13/22 ukr army big territory gains

an 922

The invasion of Ukraine has not gone as planned for the Russian government. When Russian forces invaded Ukraine on February 24, President Vladimir Putin and his Kremlin allies were obviously hoping to take over the country in a hurry; instead, the Ukrainian military have fought back much more aggressively than Putin anticipated — and done so with the support of the Biden Administration and the United States’ European allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). September has found Russian forces suffering some major humiliations at the hands of the Ukrainian military.

Liberal economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman examines the state of the conflict in a September 12 column, drawing a parallel between Putin and his allies in Russia and MAGA Republicans in the United States. Both of them, Krugman argues, underscore the fact that “tough-guy swagger” doesn’t automatically translate to military victories.

Krugman opens his column by noting that on August 29, Fox News’ Tucker Carlson — who Krugman slams as a “Putin cheerleader” — happily told viewers that Putin was “winning the war in Ukraine.”

“Carlson’s timing was impeccable,” Krugman writes. “Just a few days later, a large section of the Russian front near Kharkiv was overrun by a Ukrainian attack. It’s important to note that Putin’s forces weren’t just pushed back; they appear to have been routed. As the independent Institute for the Study of War reported, the Russians were driven into a ‘panicked and disorderly retreat,’ leaving behind ‘large amounts of equipment and supplies that Ukrainian forces can use’…. The Russian collapse seemed to validate analyses by defense experts who have been saying for months that western weapons have been shifting the military balance in Ukraine’s favor, that Putin’s army is desperately short on quality manpower and that it has been degraded by attrition and missile attacks on its rear areas.”

Krugman goes on to explain why “Putin cheerleaders” like Carlson are so flawed in their thinking.

“There’s something special about the MAGA embrace of the mystique of Russian might: a worldview that equates tough-guy swagger with effectiveness,” Krugman writes. “This worldview has warped the right’s perception not just of the Russian Army, but also, of how to deal with many other issues. And it’s worth asking where it comes from. Many Republicans have admired Putin for a long time — even before Donald Trump took over the GOP. Back in 2014, for example, Rudy Giuliani said of Putin, ‘That’s what you call a leader.’ And Trump continued to praise Putin even after he invaded Ukraine.”

Krugman continues, “So, it’s not hard to see where the MAGA right’s admiration for Putinism comes from. After all, Putin’s Russia is autocratic, brutal and homophobic, with a personality cult built around its ruler. What’s not to like?.... On the right…. approval of authoritarian regimes is all bound up with assertions about their military prowess…. The MAGA ethos is all bound up with exaltation of tough talk and denigration of expertise.”

MAGA Republicans, according to Krugman, “needed to see Putin as a leader made powerful by his rejection of liberal values.”

“There’s growing speculation about what will happen inside Russia if the invasion of Ukraine ends in outright defeat,” Krugman observes. “But you also have to wonder how the U.S. right will handle the revelation that sometimes, tough guys finish last.”

===

ukraine war

an 8 22

An alleged Russian mercenary brandished a human skull as a prop during a recent speech in which he justified his participation in genocide against Ukraine's population.

The man was identified as "Igor Mangushev" by Ukrainian blogger Den Kazansky.

"He is from Moscow. The Russian authorities deny that the Russian army organized the massacre in Bucha. But the Russian military openly calls for massacres and takes pride in torturing and killing Ukrainians," Kazansky tweeted early Sunday morning along with a video of Mangushev's macabre performance.

"We're alive, and this guy's already dead. Let him burn in Hell. He wasn't lucky. We'll make a goblet out of his skull," Mangushev boasted.

"We are not at war with people of blood and flesh. We are at war with the idea – with the idea of Ukraine as an anti-Russian state. There can be no peace. We must de-Ukrainize Ukraine. We must return our Russian lands. We are not at war with people. We are at war with the idea," he proclaimed.

"This is the tragedy of Ukrainian soldiers. We don't care how many; we have to kill them," Mangushev continued. "If we were at war with people, we could make peace with them. But we are at war with the idea, so all bearers of an idea must be killed. Like this guy, probably he did not want to lie near Azovstal."

A member of the audience asked for confirmation that the deceased was "definitely not a civilian."

Mangushev maintained that "this is definitely not a civilian" and bragged that "we killed him ourselves."

The unidentified onlooker then pondered, mockingly, "did he understand what the 'Russian world' is?"

Mangushev replied that "I think he did."

Notable Twitter observers like Russian Media Monitor founder and Daily Beast columnist Julia Davis reacted with horror.

"Pay attention to those genocidal barbarians," she wrote. "They're telling on themselves."

Watch below or at this link.

===

omfg

https://www.mediamatters.org/one-america-news-network/oan-calls-darya-dugina-casualty-joe-bidens-red-regime-and-its-war-impose

8 22

PEARSON SHARP (CORRESPONDENT): Washington's proxy war against Russia claims another victim. Darya Dugina, an innocent journalist, who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. On Saturday night, Darya was killed in a massive explosion from a car bomb planted under her father's truck. Evidence suggests that bomb was meant for her father instead – the famous Russian political commentator Aleksandr Dugin, who also happens to be a close friend with president Vladimir Putin. Darya, like her father, has been adamantly opposed to the illegal, criminal, and unprovoked western aggression in eastern Europe, especially towards Russia. Over the last year, she has cemented her reputation as an independent journalist fiercely critical of Joe Biden’s red regime, as well as his efforts to start World War III.

Her reporting took her across the war zones in Ukraine, where she even contributed to a documentary by One America News on the fighting at the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol. Of course, you can't cover Joe Biden’s shadow war against Moscow without including hispuppets in the corrupt Ukrainian government. Puppets like president Volodymyr Zelensky, who’s been bought and paid for by George Soros. But tragically, truth-telling in journalism is rarely profitable, especially for an independent journalist, and Darya’s courageous reporting made her the target of some very powerful enemies.

…

Naturally, Ukraine is denying any involvement. In a very convincing speech, one of Zelensky's stooges protested that Ukraine couldn't be responsible for the assassination because Ukraine is not a criminal state. No, Ukraine is just run by criminals who are financed by the greatest criminals on Earth, like George Soros, and which works hand in hand with the criminals in the Biden crime syndicate. No, no, no reason to suspect Ukraine.

…

SHARP: Following the brutal assassination, western governments drummed up their allies in the media to pump out attacks on Darya, with the BBC even pushing sickening reports trying to portray her death as justified. The New York Times ran a hit piece on Darya, trying to discredit her work and painting her as a pro-Russian radical, calling her an ultranationalist guilty of spreading misinformation about the war in Ukraine.

But for anyone remotely familiar with Darya or her work, that's obviously fake news designed to cover up western war crimes in Ukraine, which Darya was fighting hard to expose.

…

SHARP: These are scenes from the documentary she contributed to for One America News. Darya described the war in Ukraine as the result of liberal fascism,which by definition is exactly what it is. This is a conflict brought on by the liberals, the Democrats in Washington, as a result of the rampant fascism and their war to impose totalitarianism upon the entire world. Darya was absolutely right. And now, she's dead.

…

SHARP: Ultimately, Darya will be remembered as a brave and courageous journalist, who took a stand for freedom, and for the innocent civilians suffering from the illegal wars of Washington. She exposed the crime and corruption behind these conflicts, and paid for it with her life. One more casualty of the criminal war being waged by Joe Biden and his bloody regime.

But as long as we keep her memory alive, and continue reporting the truth about what's happening in Ukraine, then that freedom and her struggle will never die. For One America News, I'm Pearson Sharp.

OAN host uses Nazi youth book burning to push book banning

08/23/22

After Mar-a-Lago search, OAN calls attack on FBI office a false flag

08/15/22

OAN host reacts to FBI Mar-a-Lago search: “We are the closest to Civil War II we've ever been"

08/15/22

===

a reactor is out of control?!

https://www.alternet.org/2022/08/russian-general-threatens-to-bomb/

===

an 8 22

Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) is at the center of controversy yet again for her recent remarks inadvertently exposing the truth about the Republican Party. A new political ad released by the political action committee (PAC), Meidas Touch, highlights the Republican lawmaker's controversial remarks.

According to HuffPost, the clip of Greene's remarks featured footage of her echoing conspiracy-driven talking points laid out by Kremlin officials who have publicly discussed the Russian military's invasion of Ukraine.

The clip also highlighted grotesque remarks from Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) who could be heard describing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as a “thug” as former President Donald Trump praised Russian President Vladimir Putin’s attack on Ukraine; disturbing behavior and leadership the former president has described as “genius.”

[twt vid]

at another point, the clip also featured a portion of a recent interview Greene conducted where she insisted that Ukraine was to blame for the Russian invasion. "You see Ukraine just kept poking the bear, poking the bear, which is Russia, and Russia invaded," Greene said, adding, "And the hard truth is ... there is no win for Ukraine here. Russia is being very successful in their invasion."

The video clip, which was released on Tuesday, March 22, quickly began circulating on Twitter and garnered more than 325,000 views in less than 12 hours. Despite Greene's arguments, HuffPost pointed to the assessments from independent reports on the tension between Russia and Ukraine. Based on those reports, it appears "Russia misjudged the strength of Ukrainian resistance and is incurring higher casualties than expected."

The latest clip follows multiple incidents where Greene has been criticized for backing conspiracies and making baseless claims about a number of key issues. From the COVID-19 pandemic, to vaccines and the presidential election, Greene has often made remarks that have led to extensive fact-checks and opposition on social media.

===

raw

https://www.alternet.org/2022/07/three-men-linked-russian-spies/

one of America's top counterintelligence experts revealed his thoughts on Saturday on the three men linked to sanctioned Russian spies who were present for a key White House meeting plotting Donald Trump's coup attempt.

"Four days after the electors met across the country and made Joe Biden the president-elect, Donald Trump was still trying to find a way to hang on to the presidency," Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) said in Tuesday's public hearing of the Jan. 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol.

"On Friday, December 18th, his team of outside advisers paid him a surprise visit in the White House that would quickly become the stuff of legend," Raskin explained. "The meeting has been called unhinged, not normal and the craziest meeting of the Trump presidency. The outside lawyers who'd been involved in dozens of failed lawsuits had lots of theories supporting the big lie, but no evidence to support it."

At the meeting, the idea of using the U.S. military to seize voting machines.

"In the wee hours of December 19th, dissatisfied with his options, Donald Trump decided to call for a large and wild crowd on Wednesday, January 6th, the day when Congress would meet to certify the electoral votes," Raskin explained. "Never before in American history had a president called for a crowd to come contest the counting of electoral votes by Congress or engaged in any effort designed to influence, delay, or obstruct the joint session of Congress in doing its work required by our Constitution and the Electoral Count Act. As we'll see, Donald Trump's 1:42 AM tweet electrified and galvanized his supporters, especially the dangerous extremists in the Oath Keepers, the Proud Boys, and other racist and white nationalist groups spoiling for a fight against the government."

In a thread posted to Twitter, former FBI Deputy Assistant Director for Counterintelligence Peter Strzok noticed a pattern among some of the participants. Strzok had also headed the FBI's counterespionage section.

Strzok said the meeting had 'staggering counterintelligence issues' presented the three of those in attendance.

"Mike Flynn, who was paid by an organ of Russian state media to travel to Moscow to attend a dinner where he was seated next to Putin. Flynn later plead guilty to lying to the FBI about conversations he had with the Russian Ambassador about election interference," he noted.

"Patrick Byrne, one of several men once in an intimate relationship with convicted Russian agent Marina Butina. Byrne gave money to Butina after her return to Russia, where she ran for the Duma,hounded Navalny, and supported the invasion of Ukraine," Strzok continued. "Rudy Giuliani, who repeatedly met with and took info from sanctioned Russian agents like Andrii Derkach, despite USIC warnings to the White House in 2019 that Trump’s personal lawyer 'was the target of an influence operation by Russian intelligence.'"

"So in this tiny meeting in the Oval Office where options to upend US democracy were advanced to the President of the United States, there were not one, not two, but three people directly linked to sanctioned and convicted agents of the Russian government," Strzok noted. "While I doubt Russia planned it, their efforts to gain access to Trump’s inner sanctum succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. And it demonstrates just how successful seemingly amateurish intelligence activity can be."

He included a Russian Foreign Ministry photo from inside the Oval Office of Trump meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.

The meeting occurred in May of 2017, one day after Trump fired FBI Director James Comey for investigating Russia's successful efforts to help Trump win the 2016 election.

"President Trump revealed highly classified information to the Russian foreign minister and ambassador in a White House meeting last week, according to current and former U.S. officials, who said Trump’s disclosures jeopardized a critical source of intelligence on the Islamic State," The Washington Postreported a few days later. "A Russian photographer took photos of part of the session that were released by the Russian state-owned Tass news agency. No U.S. news organization was allowed to attend any part of the meeting."

Here is the thread Strzok posted to Twitter:...[twt]

===

https://www.mediamatters.org/charlie-kirk/putin-apologist-doug-macgregor-charlie-kirk-war-exception-kharkiv-and-odessa-far

===

7 22

nazi will not work/ used/ taken so next best (and tried and true) devil term:

https://www.alternet.org/2022/07/russian-lawmaker-us-terrorist-state/

===

WAPO https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/05/24/republican-gop-pro-russia-pro-putin-ukraine-war-isolationism/

ukraine war

That brings us to the bad news: Isolationism — or is it Putinism? — remains disturbingly resilient within Republican ranks. In the Pew poll, more than twice as many Republicans as Democrats said that the United States is providing too much aid to Ukraine. Roughly a quarter of House Republicans and a fifth of Senate Republicans share that view. Some of the influential voices opposing aid to Ukraine include former president Donald Trump, Fox “News” host Tucker Carlson, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), Heritage Action for America (the lobbying arm of the Heritage Foundation), and FreedomWorks (the Koch-supported advocacy organization).

===

texas gop 6 22

Tensions within the party at times got personal. Video posted online showed far-right activists physically accosting U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw, calling the conservative Republican “eye-patch McCain” over his criticism of Russia. The group included self-identified Proud Boys and Alex Stein, a social media activist from North Texas. A Navy SEAL veteran, Crenshaw lost his right eye to a bomb in Afghanistan.

===

6 22

propagandists on Russian state television have announced a new objective in President Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine – assassinating Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Putin's genocidal "special military operation" has slogged on for nearly four months. After failing to capture the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, Moscow has begun intensifying its efforts in the Eastern Russian separatist-controlled regions of Luhansk and Donbas, where they are slowly advancing.

Tens of thousands of Russian troops have died amid fierce resistance by the Ukrainians, who have in turn faced indiscriminate slaughter by Putin's forces. Mass graves outside the flattened Southern port city of Mariupol, for example, have been reported to contain 16,000 victims.

The Kremlin, meanwhile, has pushed the false narrative that Ukraine is a fake country filled with Nazis and that the greater number of its citizens who are massacred, the better. In a recent segment on Russia 1, Putin's stooges expanded on that grim objective, claiming that the only path to victory is to push Russia's borders as far to the West as possible and kill Zelenskyy (who has already survived multiple attempts on his life).

"How far away do we have to move Ukraine? How far away could you move a maniac, a ghoul, who wants to turn everything into dead meat?" propagandist Andrei Sidorchik asked his panel of Zelenskyy. "On which territory will this moment take place, when will this ghoul stop being a ghoul?"

Putin started this war, and that has only emboldened his minions into viciously dehumanizing the Ukrainian population.

"I'm telling you, we're fightingghouls! They mysticallywant to turn everything into dead meat, they announce that openly," Sidorchik continued, which is not true. "We can only stop when they lose the opportunity to kill us. That's why, I'll say it again, the unclean can be stopped only when you drive a stake through it. When a stake is driven through Volodymyr Zelenskyy, then there will be peace. There is no other way."

Professor Vitaly Tretyakov, the Dean of the Higher School of Television at Moscow's Lomonosov State University, agreed.

The translation was provided by The Daily Beast's Julia Davis.

===

5 22

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/foxs-laura-ingraham-calls-aid-ukraine-complete-outrage

https://www.mediamatters.org/steve-bannon/steve-bannon-claims-ukrainian-border-ill-defined

https://www.alternet.org/2022/05/pope-francis-putin-altar-boy/

russ ortho

===

https://www.alternet.org/2022/04/alex-jones-sandy-hook-kremlin/

no lnx twt

Reporter lays out the ‘eerie’ parallels between Kremlin media and America’s ‘mass shooting deniers’

Alex Henderson April 26, 2022

During Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, some of the propaganda and disinformation coming from Kremlin-controlled media uses language that — when translated from Russian into English — sounds a lot like terms coming from far-right MAGA media in the United States, including “fake news” and “false flag.” Journalist Elizabeth Williamson, author of the book “Sandy Hook: An American Tragedy and The Battle for Truth,” takes a look at this type of terminology in an article published by the New York Times on April 25. And she notes the disturbing parallels between Kremlin propagandists in Russia and right-wing media figures in the U.S.

“The similarity is eerie,” Williamson explains. “Russia has long used incidents of American gun violence to support its propagandistic claims of cultural superiority. Now, during this war, the Kremlin is adopting the language of American mass shooting deniers to deny towering evidence of its army’s atrocities in Ukraine, including calling injured and killed Ukrainians crisis actors.”

One of the “mass shooting deniers” and far-right conspiracy theorists that Williamson discusses in her article is Infowars’ Alex Jones, who claimed that the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting of December 14, 2012 was a false flag operation. Williamson points out that the term “crisis actors” has been used by the Infowars crowd in connection with Sandy Hook as well as by Russian media in connection with massacres of Ukrainian civilians by Russian troops.

“The term ‘crisis actors,’ used by Sandy Hook fabulists to mean people pretending to be victims or survivors of the massacre, was used after the Sandy Hook shooting by James Tracy, a Florida Atlantic University professor and Infowars guest whose side hustle as a conspiracy blogger cost him his job,” Williamson notes. “Some believers of Infowars’ lies about Sandy Hook have tormented the relatives of the victims ever since.”

Similarly, Williamson observes, Kremlin propagandists have been claiming that reports of atrocities in Ukraine are “fake news.”

“After being condemned around the world for bombing a maternity hospital in Mariupol, Ukraine,” Williamson explains, “Russia advanced a bogus conspiracy theory last month that was chillingly familiar to me. Using unrelated images from social media, dodgy ‘reports’ and constant repetition, the Russian Defense Ministry falsely claimed the airstrike was a ‘staged provocation’ by Ukraine. The hospital, Russian officials falsely said, was nonoperational and a base for Ukrainian fighters. Moscow’s ambassador to the United Nations dismissed Associated Press photographs of the aftermath as ‘fake news,’ and the Foreign Ministry alleged that bloodied, pregnant women evacuated from the rubble were crisis actors.”

In the U.S., Williamson observes, far-right conspiracy theorists have also downplayed the violence that occurred when Donald Trump supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol Building on January 6, 2021.

“In my recent book, ‘Sandy Hook: An American Tragedy and the Battle for Truth,’ I wrote that the Sandy Hook conspiracy theories — once believed to be true by one-quarter of Americans — foretold the world of delusion that we live in today,” Williamson writes. “Through my reporting, I traced the through line from Sandy Hook to Pizzagate; to QAnon, and its claims that Democrats were trafficking children; to anti-Semitic tropes invoked by neo-Nazi marchers in Charlottesville; to coronavirus myths; and to the 2020 election lie that fomented the January 6 Capitol riot. And now, to the war in Ukraine.”

Williamson wraps up her article by noting that as a reporter, her “first close experience with wartime disinformation” came “during the Balkan wars of the 1990s.”

:{:{}:

“In Belgrade,” Williamson recalls, “a Serbian foreign ministry official gave me an armload of books, all of them falsely claiming that victims of the region’s genocidal wars had fabricated evidence of atrocities or committed the crimes themselves. But today, as I watch Russia spread disinformation about the war in Ukraine with terms that developed in America, and then American conspiracy theorists regurgitating that disinformation, I’ve realized that those books are not the discredited relics I imagined they would be.”

===

ukraine fail

https://www.alternet.org/2022/04/michael-flynn-russia-overtake-ukraine/

===

an 422 no lmx twet

the New York Times just discovered that Fox News has a Russia problem

Fox News' Tucker Carlson speaking with attendees at the 2020 Student Action Summit hosted by Turning Point USA at the Palm Beach County Convention Center in West Palm Beach, Florida, Gage Skidmore]

Dartagnan and Daily Kos April 17, 2022

You have to credit the Gray Lady: this is really quite the scoop. And I hesitate even to point it out, lest my mild criticism that follows be misinterpreted. So let me be clear, I’m all for American media outlets policing each other. I think it’s perfectly OK for one media outlet to call out another for bias or dissimulation. That’s what makes journalism such an integral part of our democracy, so much that its inherent value is literally enshrined in the Constitution. “Keeping them honest” should be the watchword governing all journalism.

That being said, you may wish to remain seated, because this is guaranteed to make you faint with shock. Hold onto your hats — here it comes.

As reported by the New York Times’ Stuart A. Thompson:

The narratives advanced by the Kremlin and by parts of conservative American media have converged in recent months, reinforcing and feeding each other. Along the way, Russian media has increasingly seized on Fox News’s prime-time segments, its opinion pieces and even the network’s active online comments section — all of which often find fault with the Biden administration — to paint a critical portrait of the United States and depict America’s foreign policy as a threat to Russia’s interests.

When I read that I was stone-cold flummoxed. Who could have possibly imagined? Oh, wait!

And it seems that Tucker Carlson is a Kremlin favorite. Can you believe that? They even cite examples!

“The U.S. baselessly accused Russia of spreading disinformation about biolabs in Ukraine because they later actually confirmed their existence, TV presenter Tucker Carlson told Fox News,” Radio Sputnik wrote in an article summarizing Mr. Tucker’s lengthy segment for a Russian audience.

But there’s more!

Mentions of Fox News in Russian-language media grew 217 percent during the first quarter of this year compared with the final quarter of last year, as news coverage of Ukraine increased, according to an analysis by Zignal Labs, a media tracking company that reviewed social media posts, broadcast media and online websites. CNN, which has about three times the global viewership of Fox News, according to the tracking company Similarweb, was mentioned more often but grew less, by 71 percent.

And the Times really put their nose to the grindstone to break this, having “reviewed nearly 500 Russian-language articles mentioning Fox News between July and late March, sourced from the two largest state news agencies in the country — RIA Novosti and TASS — along with dozens of articles from other Russian-language media.” Talk about due diligence!

The Times has even broken it down by category! They’ve determined that Russia now highlights Fox News stories that tend to “Blame NATO expansion,” “Buttress Conspiracy Theories” (can you imagine???) “Question the West’s goals,” and — get this — “Criticize President Biden.”

I am shocked, shocked, I tell you.

In all seriousness, we didn’t have to wait nearly two months into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to be told they were making use of Fox News for propaganda purposes. That fact has been a staple in the media for well over a month, if not longer.More importantly, as this article, one of literally dozens from Media Matters, gamely points out, the relationship between Fox and Vladimir Putin has long been a two-way street, going back well into the Trump administration, with Fox echoing Putin’s policy on a fairly repeated basis.

But you won’t find a single word about that in the Times article. No, it’s as if Russia just suddenly discovered it had its own propaganda outlet all along.

And probably even more importantly, Mr. Thompson, for all his analytical skill, doesn’t devote a single sentence to asking why that is. Why did Fox News spend the last five years amplifying Putin talking points?

Exploring that question would be serious journalism. Exploring the uncomfortable question of why the Times ignored something this important, and obvious, for so long, letting relatively small, niche outlets like Media Matters do all the heavy lifting, would be even more serious journalism.

But simply reporting the data without context -- which is all the Times article really does — is not.

===

https://www.mediamatters.org/russias-invasion-ukraine/far-right-influencers-push-russian-propaganda-claim-reported-potential-war

no lnx vid

far-right influencers push Russian propaganda to claim the reported potential war crimes in Bucha are a false flag

WRITTEN BY SOPHIE LAWTON

RESEARCH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM DANIL CUFFE, ZACHARY PLEAT, NATALIE MATHES & MADELINE PELTZ

PUBLISHED 04/08/22

Right-wing media influencers have spread narratives denying the Russian military’s involvement in reported war crimes committed in the town of Bucha, a suburb of Kyiv, Ukraine.

Following the withdrawal of Russian troops from the region, mainstream media outlets have reported on satellite images from the region that show mass graves, bodies that show signs of execution, and streets of the once-quiet town “littered with burned-out tanks and corpses.”PBS and The Associated Press have identified four potential war crimes committed by the Russian military since April 3, and their collaborative War Crimes Watch Ukraine resource has verified 113 potential war crimes overall.

The Russian government has denied responsibility for these atrocities. An official Russian Telegram channel denied accusations that Russian soldiers killed Ukrainians in Bucha and claimed that “the photos and video footage from Bucha are another hoax, a staged production and provocation by the Kiev regime for the Western media.”

Far-right influencers took to podcasts, interviews, and social media to boost the Russians’ denial that the massacre was staged or faked, blaming a number of different countries and global organizations.

Conspiracy theory siteInfowars has been a hotbed of conspiracy theories related to the atrocities in Bucha. On April 5, Alex Jones took to the show to promote articles on the Infowars site that “clearly show a lot of this was fake.”

Video From the April 5, 2022, edition of InfoWars' The Alex Jones Show

The next day guest host Robert Barnes continued to spout similar claims. Barnes asserted that the Russian forces did not control Bucha while they stayed in the city and did not “cut off any civilian infrastructure.” He then repeated assertions that atrocities in the area were not reported until days after Russian forces exited, claiming that fact showed the massacre was a false flag.

Video From the April 6, 2022, edition of Infowars' Alex Jones Show

On its website, Infowars touted remarks by Tucker Carlson foreign policy muse Douglas Macgregor. Macgregor told a YouTube podcast that he was “extremely suspicious” at the “brilliant timing” and unanimous condemnation in the media of Russia's actions in Bucha, likening the condemnation to the lies used to sell the Iraq War. In the same podcast, Macgregor later said of the Bucha massacre that “it’s hard for me to believe that this was a deliberate act done by the Russian military” and that “I looked at both sides of this and I couldn't come away with a certain conclusion one way or the other. There were things that didn't make a lot of sense.”

During the April 4 broadcast of Human Events Daily with Jack Posobiec, the Pizzagate conspiracy theorist claimed “we can’t tell what happened” in Bucha and “both sides have their grievances.” The comments were boosted by The Post Millennial, a right-wing blog. Posobiec has a history of boosting Russian-backed conspiracy theories about the war in Ukraine.

Video From the April 4, 2022 edition of Turning Point USA's Human Events Daily with Jack Posobiec

Former presidential candidate Ron Paul claimed on the April 5 edition of the Ron Paul Liberty Report that he’s “very suspicious of what we're hearing, just who has been doing what.” His co-host Daniel McAdams repeated denial narratives, saying, “We do not know what happened in this small town,” and went on to describe a timeline of events that implied Russian forces were not behind the massacre.

During a livestream on Rumble, the right-wing alternative toYouTube, militia-linked radio host Pete Santilliclaimed the massacre was faked and the CIA was behind it. The episode also included a video sourced from Infowars that supposedly proved the massacre was faked.

On CrossTalk, a Christian nationalist show hosted by QAnon conspiracy theorist Lauren Witzkeand Edward Szall, the co-hosts claimed Russian forces in Bucha were “helping the Ukrainians; they weren’t abusing them, they weren’t doing terrible things to them,” as evidenced by images of food packaging alongside the dead.

Witzke also claimed to have heard rumors Ukrainians are accepting help from Russian forces and said she has “nothing but respect for Putin. And you know what, it’s a daggum shame that they’re doing this crap to people, that they’re murdering people, just so they can paint him as this horrible leader, this tyrant.” The episode, which was cross-posted to the “Stew Peters Network” page on Rumble, is titled “Ukrainian War Crimes in Bucha Exposed: Zelensky’s MI6 Nazi False Flag Murdered Kids.”

Video From the April 5, 2022 edition of CrossTalk

The Russian-backed misinformation problem extends beyond far-right media in the English language. The Venezuelen-owned TV outlet Telesurshared a video to its 1.5 million YouTube subscribers on April 4, that called the events in Bucha a farce and included the claims the images were taken following the exit of Russian forces as proof of the falsehood.

In right-leaning private Facebook groups, users have both expressed skepticism about the atrocities in Bucha, suggesting that they have been staged by the “Kiev regime” or “a Liberal faction.” Some posts linked to Infowars and Summit News (an affiliated project of Infowars), while others linked directly to Russian state media sites RT and TASS. We found only one instance where Facebook flagged such posts as “False Information.”

Far-right communities on fringe social media platforms have also spread Russian denial.

Gab CEO Andrew Torba posted to his platform a video from RT that implied the images and videos coming from Bucha were faked. The post amassed over 1,800 likes, comments, and reposts. Another post shared to Gab, known as a haven for white nationalists, on April 5 by @Corvid1984 also questioned the reality of the massacre based on the images and videos coming out of the region. The post received over 1,500 engagements.

A post on the QAnon forum GreatAwakening.winclaims, “The National Guard of Ukraine filmed its entering into the town north of Kiev where the alleged massacre took place. They were first in the town after the withdrawal of Russian troops. The video clearly shows no dead bodies on the streets.”

Messaging platform Telegram was also rife with the narrative that reports of potential war crimes in Bucha were Ukrainian propaganda. QAnon-affiliated Telegram channel We The Media reposted a different video originally published byIntel Slava Z, a Russian Telegram news aggregator, and claimed it shows “staged footage of the Ukrainian psyop unit from Bucha.”

On April 4, holocaust denier and leader of the fascist “America First” movement Nick Fuentes posted a link to his cozy.tv livestream decrying the “Fake ‘Bucha’ massacre.” During the stream, Fuentes also said the West “needs an excuse to escalate the war just as much as the Ukrainians, and how do they do that? Well they do a handshake deal, and the Ukrainians fake the massacre and the Western media eats it up, they feed that to the population.”

Video From the April 4, 2022 edition of Cozy.tv's America First with Nick Fuentes

And white supremacist Joseph Jordan, known online as Eric Striker, shared a post to his Telegram claiming, “Evidence mounting that the civilians dead in Bucha are pro Russian ‘collaborators’ who were massacred by irregular Ukrainian militias.”

IN THIS ARTICLE

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

Douglas Macgregor

Jack Posobiec

Infowars is broadcasting on Twitch (updated)

04/07/22 1:51 PM EDT

Alex Jones complains about “Sandy Hook charade” and claims the lawsuit against him is part of a “one-world government” plot

04/06/22 3:00 PM EDT

Anti-choice outlet LifeSiteNews peddles Ukrainian biolab conspiracy theory stemming from a Russian misinformation campaign

04/05/22

===

pow disinfo:

mma 4 22

The far-right, conspiracy theorist website The Gateway Pundit has spent the weeks following Russia's invasion of Ukraine pumping out the Kremlin’s propaganda materials and narratives.

Founded in 2004 by Jim Hoft, Gateway Pundit is a voraciously pro-Trump blog that has spread conspiracy theories about everything from the 2018 Parkland school shooting and former President Barack Obama’s birth certificate, to the Las Vegas mass shooting and the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Most recently, the blog has served as a promotional platform for Russian propaganda in the month after the country’s invasion of Ukraine.

Between March 6 and March 9, Hoft published three articles promoting the repeatedly debunked — and Russia-created — conspiracy theory that the U.S. was funding biological weapons in Ukraine.Two of those articles relied on Russian state media. The conspiracy theory quickly spread through the right-wing media ecosystem.

In the second half of March alone, the blog has based its coverage of the war in Ukraine on Russian propaganda at least four times:

In a March 29 article, Gateway Pundit questioned “Western media outlets” and their portrayal of Russia’s position in the war in Ukraine. The site also said that Russia managed to destroy a “Ukrainian neo-Nazi entity that controlled Mariupol,” a claim that originally came from a Russian colonel-general and was reported by the Russian state media outlet TASS. Russia justified its invasion of Ukraine by promising to “denazify” the country and has seized on the existence of a far-right movement as proof. But the movement, which was active in Mariupol between 2014 and 2015, separated its political and military wings in 2016. Its military wing has since been integrated into the Ukrainian National Guard.
In the same March 29 article, Gateway Pundit also attempted to throw cold water on reports that Russia was suffering “massive losses” in Ukraine. While the article didn’t mention hard numbers, on March 25 the Russian Defense Ministry told RT that the country lost 1,351 servicemen, a far cry from the western and Ukrainian estimates of anywhere between 7,000 and 15,000.
On March 14, a Gateway Pundit article embedded a video of the Russian representative to the United Nations telling the UN Security Council that a U.S. program of biological research in Ukraine resulted in the spread of dangerous pathogens. In addition to the video, the article included a transcript but, naturally, no mention that the entire narrative around nefarious biological research labs and weaponizing pathogens has been debunked.
On March 29, a Gateway Pundit article linked to a timeline from a Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson alleging to show about 30 years’ worth of “US-Ukraine bioresearch.” The existence of the research labs was never a secret, but including the timeline implied a type of discovery. And the piece includes pro-Russian language that characterizes the 2014 “Revolution of Dignity” in Ukraine as an “anti-constitutional coup d’etat in Ukraine.” The article did include a warning to view the information with “extreme caution,” before reprinting the entire timeline with no additional information.

In addition to relying on Russian disinformation and state media, Gateway Pundit has published several articles that advance Russian interests, including referring to Ukraine as a “former Soviet satellite,” claiming that the situation in Ukraine is “desperate” and “getting worse,” saying that President Joe Biden is in a state of cognitive decline, and claiming that Ukrainian refugees at the U.S. southern border are being turned away because of COVID-19. (Russia has been running an anti-vaccine campaign in Ukraine.)

This is not the first time the website has repeated Russian propaganda. In 2016, articles promoted misinformation about supposed voter fraud by the Democratic Party that originated from the Russian troll farm the Internet Research Agency.

The Gateway Pundit has long been a far-right cesspool of conspiracy theories and hoaxes. The site has called for violence against Democrats, endorsed white nationalists, and celebrated the insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol on January 6. And now it’s actively aiding an unprovoked, unwarranted, and inhumane invasion by giving a platform to Russian propaganda and spin.

===

an 3 22 no lx

The Atlantic’s Anne Applebaum is great at writing “big picture” essays and think pieces that tie one subject or event in the news into a broader theme. And in an article published on March 31, the 57-year-old journalist, author and historian links Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to the broader attack on democracy that is occurring everywhere from Latin America to the Middle East.

Applebaum, author of the2020 book “Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism,” recalls that after the fall of communism in Eastern Europe in the early 1990s, the “liberal world order relied on the mantra of ‘Never again’” just as it did after the end of World War 2 in 1945.

Applebaum writes, “Never again would there be genocide. Never again would large nations erase smaller nations from the map. Never again would we be taken in by dictators who used the language of mass murder. At least in Europe, we would know how to react when we heard it. But while we were happily living under the illusion that ‘Never again’ meant something real, the leaders of Russia — owners of the world’s largest nuclear arsenal — were reconstructing an army and a propaganda machine designed to facilitate mass murder, as well as a mafia state controlled by a tiny number of men and bearing no resemblance to western capitalism.”

Now, in 2022, Applebaum adds, Russia is carrying out a “brutal invasion of Ukraine” in which President Vladimir Putin’s military has targeted “civilians, hospitals and schools” — and “never again” is being “exposed as an empty slogan.”

“There is no natural liberal world order, and there are no rules without someone to enforce them,” Applebaum warns. “Unless democracies defend themselves together, the forces of autocracy will destroy them.”

More than once in her Atlantic essay, Applebaum stresses that the “liberal world order” isn’t something that occurs naturally — democracies have to promote it. And if the United States and its democratic allies don’t make a concerted and aggressive effort to promote democracy, she writes, authoritarians will continue to make advances.

“Take democracy seriously,” Applebaum advises. “Teach it, debate it, improve it, defend it. Maybe there is no natural liberal world order, but there are liberal societies — open and free countries that offer a better chance for people to live useful lives than closed dictatorships do. They are hardly perfect; our own has deep flaws, profound divisions, terrible historical scars…. Perhaps, in the aftermath of this crisis, we can learn something from the Ukrainians.”

Applebaum continues, “For decades now, we’ve been fighting a culture war between liberal values on the one hand and muscular forms of patriotism on the other. The Ukrainians are showing us a way to have both. As soon as the attacks began, they overcame their many political divisions — which are no less bitter than ours — and they picked up weapons to fight for their sovereignty and their democracy. They demonstrated that it is possible to be a patriot and a believer in an open society, that a democracy can be stronger and fiercer than its opponents. Precisely because there is no liberal world order, no norms and no rules, we must fight ferociously for the values and the hopes of liberalism if we want our open societies to continue to exist.”

===

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/03/29/us-oil-companies-set-reap-126-billion-extra-profits-amid-war-ukraine

new analysis released Tuesday estimates that U.S. oil and gas corporations are poised to rake in windfall profits of up to $126 billion this year as they exploit Russia's deadly assault on Ukraine to raise prices at the pump.

Conducted by Oil Change International, Greenpeace USA, and Global Witness, the analysis uses a database that tracks the fossil fuel industry's production economics to assess how much money the industry is set to make as a result of high global oil prices.

The higher-end profit estimate is dependent on oil prices spiking to $120 per barrel this summer and remaining elevated as the West moves to restrict Russian oil imports—a major opportunity for U.S. fossil fuel companies, particularly as the Biden administration looks to ramp up gas exports to Europe. "Under conservative estimates, we find the U.S. upstream oil and gas industry will collect a windfall of $37 to $126 billion in 2022 alone," the groups' report states.

If oil prices average $88 per barrel, the new analysis finds, the U.S. oil and gas industry would reap $37 billion in additional profits in 2022.

The report notes that the top beneficiaries of the windfall would be industry giants ConocoPhillips, Chevron, Occidental Petroleum, and ExxonMobil.

"It is unconscionable that U.S. upstream companies like Chevron, Occidental, and ExxonMobil, who receive federal tax subsidies totaling millions of dollars every year, are now set to make billions of dollars more from these high wartime gas prices," Tim Donaghy, the research manager at Greenpeace USA, said in a statement Tuesday.

"American consumers don't get a break from high prices just because we drill more here at home," added Donaghy. "Instead, we get more air and water pollution and higher public health risks. The only way to achieve true energy independence is to cut our ties with fossil fuels entirely."

Collin Rees, the U.S. program manager at Oil Change International, argued that the new findings bolster the case for a windfall profits tax of the kind congressional Democrats introduced earlier this month.

"From lobbying against climate solutions to actively spreading misinformation, the oil and gas industry has spent decades doing everything in its power to deepen our dependence on dirty fossil fuels," said Rees. "Now, Big Oil and Gas executives are rolling in cash while working families suffer."

"It's high time for Congress to pass a windfall profits tax and prevent the fossil fuel industry from harnessing a war to make billions," Rees continued. "This can be a clear step toward a fossil-free future if paired with real investments in a renewable energy future."

The Big Oil Windfall Profits Tax, led by Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) in the House and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) in the Senate, would hit large fossil fuel companies with a quarterly tax equal to 50% of the difference between the current per-barrel price of oil and the average pre-pandemic price between 2015 and 2019.

"At $120 per barrel of oil, the levy would raise approximately $45 billion per year," according to a summary released by Khanna's office. The bill would use the new revenue to pay out a quarterly rebate to consumers.

A recent survey by the League of Conservation Voters found that 80% of U.S. voters—including 73% of Republicans—would support "placing a windfall profits tax on the extra profits oil companies are making from the higher gasoline prices they are charging because of the Russia-Ukraine situation."

Cassidy DiPaola, a spokesperson for the Stop the Oil Profiteering campaign at Fossil Free Media, said Tuesday that "while Americans are struggling to keep up with high prices at the pump and on their utility bills, Big Oil is profiting off of the war in Ukraine, driving up gas prices and raking in record profits."

"Fortunately, there's a simple way to stop this profiteering: put a tax on the excess profits oil companies are making because of this crisis and use the money to send a check to the people who need it," said DiPaola. "Making Big Oil pay for their greedy war profiteering is a win-win for our families and the climate."

===

gR briefly took high road ~ putin?

no lnx twt

Geraldo Rivera lashes out after conservative journalist slams Fox News’ Ukraine commentary

Alex Henderson March 22, 2022

Fox News’ Geraldo Rivera lashed out at Never Trump conservative David Frum after the journalist posted a tweet slamming the Kremlin talking points that have come from some opinion hosts at the right-wing cable news outlet.

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On March 21, Frum tweeted, “I'm trying to recall a single instance of a resignation of conscience at Fox News over the network's support for Putin's war. Marina Ovsyannikova risked life and liberty to tell her viewers the truth. Is there one wealthy Fox director or employee willing to forgo a single check?”

After seeing Frum’s tweet, Rivera angrily posted, “Fuck you. You don’t know me. Do you even have a job?”

Frum, a right-wing conservative who has been a scathing critic of former President Donald Trump, regularly appears in The Atlantic and other major publications.

The disparity between Fox News’ hard news division and far-right opinion host Tucker Carlson has been evident during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. While Carlson has been an apologist for Russian President Vladimir Putin and been more than happy to push Kremlin talking points, Fox News’ hard news division has had plenty of boots-on-the-ground reporting from Ukraine during the conflict — and some Fox correspondents have been killed in Ukraine, including cameraman Pierre Zakrzewski and Ukrainian correspondent Oleksandra Kuvshynova.

Mother Jones’ David Corn recently reported that Carlson’s commentary has been so pro-Putin that a Kremlin memo urged state-owned Russian television to feature him more prominently.

Frum, in his March 21 tweet, obviously wasn’t referring to Zakrzewski or Kuvshynova, but to all the pro-Putin comments that Carlson has drawn so much criticism for.

Mediaite’s [hmmn, what did they say when?] Michael Luciano, reporting on Rivera’s anti-Frum tweet, commented that it is false to say that Fox News universally supports Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Luciano wrote, “Numerous Fox News hosts, including Rivera, Jesse Watters, and Sean Hannity, have vocally supported sending military aid to Ukraine.”

he's good w/ metaphor

https://www.alternet.org/2022/03/limiting-climate-change-life-support/

"The 1.5-degree goal is on life support. It is in intensive care."

So said United Nations Secretary-General António Guterreson Monday, as he stressed that a swift and just transition to clean energy is necessary to meet the Paris agreement's objective of limiting global temperature rise to 1.5°C above preindustrial levels—andwarned against using Russia's deadly assault on Ukraine as an excuse to ramp up fossil fuel production worldwide.

"The science is clear. So is the math," the U.N. leader said during a speech delivered at a Sustainability Summit hosted by The Economist. "Keeping 1.5 alive requires a 45% reduction in global emissions by 2030 and carbon neutrality by mid-century." And yet, "according to present national commitments, global emissions are set to increase by almost 14% in the 2020s."

"We are sleepwalking to climate catastrophe," Guterres continued. "Our planet has already warmed by as much as 1.2 degrees—and we see the devastating consequences everywhere. In 2020, climate disasters forced 30 million people to flee their homes—three times more than those displaced by war and violence."

Just this past weekend, scientists conveyed shock and alarm in response to reports that temperatures at both of Earth's poles reached more than 50°F above average last week.Peer-reviewed research published on Friday found that increasingly frequent and intense wildfires around the globe are exacerbating Arctic warming, which is worsening the conditions that make future blazes more likely.

"Two weeks ago," said Guterres, citing part two of the U.N.'s landmark climate assessment, "the IPCC confirmed that half of humanity is already living in the danger zone. Small island nations, least developed countries, and poor and vulnerable people everywhere areone climate shock away from doomsday. In our globally connected world, no country and no corporation can insulate itself from these levels of chaos."

"If we continue with more of the same, we can kiss 1.5 goodbye," he added. "Even 2 degrees may be out of reach. And that would be catastrophe."

Making matters worse, said Guterres, "the fallout from Russia's war in Ukraine risks upending global food and energy markets—with major implications for the global climate agenda."

The United States, United Kingdom, and European Union have moved to restrict imports of Russian fossil fuels in response to Moscow's military offensive. Although progressives have emphasized that the ongoing invasion should lead to an intensification of efforts to move away from dirty energy,profit-hungry proponents of oil, gas, and coal have seized on surging prices to push for boosting extraction and exports.

Guterres warned that "as major economies pursue an 'all-of-the-above' strategy to replace Russian fossil fuels, short-term measures might create long-term fossil fuel dependence and close the window to 1.5 degrees."

"Countries could become so consumed by the immediate fossil fuel supply gap that they neglect or knee-cap policies to cut fossil fuel use," he said. "This is madness. Addiction to fossil fuels ismutually assured destruction."

"As current events make all too clear, our continued reliance on fossil fuels puts the global economy and energy security at the mercy of geopolitical shocks and crises," added Guterres. "We need to fix the broken global energy mix."

Noting that "the timeline to cut emissions by 45% is extremely tight," the U.N. leader stressed that "instead of hitting the brakes on the decarbonization of the global economy, now is the time to put the pedal to the metal towards a renewable energy future."

His remarks came just hours before the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) kicked off a two-week meeting to validate part three of its report, which focuses on the need to drastically slash carbon pollution to avoid the most disastrous outcomes.

Guterres argued that cooperation between the developed and emerging economies of the G20—responsible for 80% of global emissions—is essential to addressing the planetary emergency.

"Accelerating the phase-out of coal and all fossil fuels and implementing a rapid, just, and sustainable energy transition," he said, is "the only true pathway to energy security."

===

https://www.mediamatters.org/lara-logan/pizzagate-january-6-moron-zelensky-and-aliens-foxs-lara-logan-goes-conspiracy-theory

https://www.mediamatters.org/russias-invasion-ukraine/kremlin-celebrating:{-fox-nation-host-lara-logans-pro-russian-propaganda:(style="background-color:#ffff66;"):}:

===

an no twt lnx

Corporate media accused of 'cheerleading' US escalation in Ukraine

Jake Johnson and Common Dreams March 20, 2022

In the run-up to and during the Bush administration's catastrophic invasion of Iraq, corporate media outlets were accused of acting as stenographers for the White House, amplifying official justifications for the attack—which were lies—while stifling dissenting voices.

Today, having apparently learned no lessons—or the wrong ones—from Iraq, reporters for corporate newspapers and cable TV programs are yet again facing criticism for their coverage of a war, this time one in which the White House has vowed not to involve U.S. troops.

During briefings held at the White House over the past week as Russia ramped up its assault on Ukraine, correspondents have incessantly pushed Press Secretary Jen Psaki on President Joe Biden's refusal to escalate U.S. involvement in the war even further, questioning the administration's refusal to impose a no-fly zone and send MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine.

By contrast, very few questions have centered on the diplomatic talks between Russia and Ukraine and what the U.S. is doing to facilitate the ongoing negotiations.

"Even with this additional aid that you're providing today, it seems there are still other options on the table," ABC News correspondent Mary Bruce said during a press briefing Wednesday after President Joe Biden authorized another $800 million worth of weaponry for Ukraine, including drones and anti-aircraft systems.

"So why hold back?" Bruce asked. "Why not use every tool at your disposal now to spare additional lives?"

When Psaki outlined the slew of measures the U.S. has taken in concert with Western allies to cripple Russia's economy and bolster Ukraine's defenses—and noted there are additional steps the administration could take in the future—Bruce was not assuaged.

"But what are you waiting for?" she asked.

That line of questioning—highlighted by The Intercept in one of two video compilations of recent press briefings—encapsulated the approach much of the White House press corps has taken during the first three weeks of Russia's deadly assault on Ukraine.

In one exchange on Monday, a reporter suggested to Psaki that by refusing to send American troops into Ukraine and impose a no-fly zone—which experts agree would likely spark a full-blown war between the U.S. and Russia—the Biden administration is effectively "pushing these guys [Ukrainian soldiers] to commit suicide."

"Can you imagine if the press covered climate change like this?" The Intercept's Ryan Grim asked during a HillTV segment on Thursday. "Or the expiration of the child tax credit? Or the Saudi and UAE war on Yemen that has led to hundreds of thousands of deaths? Or the seizure of Afghanistan's central bank reserves?"

In his HillTV segment, Grim pointed to a striking back-and-forth in which Gray Television's White House correspondent Jon Decker pressed Psaki on why the Biden administration is not providing "more offensive weapons" to the Ukrainian military."If a Ukrainian military officer or someone who is enlisted has one of these weapons," said Decker, "they can take out a Russian military official of some sort with these weapons."

The White House press corps is hardly alone in its hawkish coverage of Russia's assault, which has killed at least 816 civilians and sparked a massive humanitarian crisis.

As Gideon Taaffe and Chloe Simon of Media Matters noted last week, "Both right-wing and mainstream cable news have featured commentary from hosts and guests pushing the idea of a NATO-imposed 'no-fly zone' over Ukraine, sometimes without providing important context about the possibility of escalation into a hot war with Russia."

"On March 4, Fox News contributor and retired Gen. Keith Kellogg pushed for a no-fly zone during an appearance on Fox News' America Reports, claiming that 'no plans are perfect, but there is a way to do and we should at least explore it,'" Taaffe and Simon observed. "On the March 6 edition of Meet the Press, NBC anchor Chuck Todd pressed Secretary of State Anthony Blinken on his hesitancy to execute a no-fly zone, saying, 'Why rule out the no-fly zone? Why not make Putin think it's possible?'"

"This eagerness to get into a war with Russia," the pair wrote, "seems to ignore the potentially devastating consequences of the U.S. initiating that escalation, which could include nuclear fallout."

In a Twitter post earlier this week, Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo expressed a similar sentiment.

"Hopefully this will remain a matter of academic and media studies interest only," he wrote. "But it is worth considering why much of cable news has become nonstop cheerleading for the U.S. to declare war on Russia, often via a 'no-fly zone.'"

===

no lnx twt

Sean Hannity echoed dangerous Kremlin claim pointing figured about the Russian-Ukrainian war

Meaghan Ellis March 19, 2022

Fox News' Sean Hannity added to the conservative misinformation dumpster fire when he attempted to criticize President Joe Biden by echoing claims similar to Russian government officials.

On Friday, March 18, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov spoke to a group of reporters where he appeared to share his reaction Biden describing Russian President Vladamir Putin as a "war criminal." Peskov argued that the description is a "personal insult" to the Russian authoritarian.

"We hear and see statements that are actually personal insults to President Putin," Peskov told reporters.

"Given such irritability from Mr. Biden, his fatigue and sometimes forgetfulness ... fatigue that leads to aggressive statements, we will not make harsh assessments, so as not to cause more aggression,” Peskov added.

Later that evening, Hannity highlighted Peskov's words on the screen as he echoed similar sentiments saying, “Like I’ve been saying, Biden’s weakness on the world stage is emboldening bad actors all across the globe."

Hannity's segment also came hours after Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov actually praised Fox News for echoing Russian propaganda. According to Lavrov, Fox News is the only television network focused on presenting an "alternative point of view."

“We know the manners and the tricks that are being used by the Western countries to manipulate media,” said Lavrov. “If you take the United States, only Fox News is trying to present some alternative point of view."

For months now, far-right Republican lawmakers and conservative Fox News hosts have had what is being described as a "lovefest" with Russia. Despite their opposition, the Democrats and Biden administration have made it a point to push back against Putin as his military continues its invasion of Ukraine.

===

https://www.alternet.org/2022/03/marjorie-taylor-greene-russian-propaganda

**U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene**, continuing to move closer and closer to **Russian President Vladimir Putin**, says “real Americans” only care about “open borders,” gas prices, and inflation but not Ukraine. She also declared that “COVID doesn’t exist.”

“What real Americans care about is gas prices they can’t afford, inflation that goes up enough to where grocery bills are unaffordable, and they’re very concerned about our out of control open border,” Greene said on the floor of the House Thursday. “Crime is out of control,” she added, ignoring that major crimes like murder are “out of control” mostly in just red states.

“But yet Washington has completely disconnected and seems to care more about sending our sons and daughters to a potential war where they do not belong,” she claimed, saying “we need to focus on our country first.”

“America first” is a Trump-era “policy” that essentially says America first and only, period.

The extremist Republican Congresswoman from Georgia just yesterday,in what she claimed was an “address to the nation”that was carried only on Facebook Live, inaccurately announced “both sides” – Russia and Ukraine – have violated their treaties.

The Washington Post called her Facebook Live speech a “10-minute riff,” noting she repeatedly called Ukraine defending itself from the harmful and dangerous Russian attacks and slaughter “a war they cannot win.”

“False claims, debunked nonsense, echoes of Russian propaganda,” is how the Post describes her remarks from Wednesday, in its piece titled “A layer cake of misinformation, dishonesty and pro-Russia apologism.”

Watch Greene on the House floor today:

===

no lnx twt

Far-right MAGA media is promoting a debunked Kremlin conspiracy theory

Alex Henderson March 16, 2022

More than 3 million refugees have fled Ukraine because of Russia’s invasion, which has caused thousands of deaths — and the worst may be yet to come. Regardless, some of President Vladimir Putin’s useful idiots in the United States have been apologists for the invasion, promoting a debunked Kremlin conspiracy theory which claims that bioweapons were being manufactured in Ukrainian laboratories. Putin, according to that conspiracy theory, was justified in invading Ukraine.

“Most of the conspiracy theories claim that the U.S. was developing and plotting to release a bioweapon or potentially another coronavirus from ‘biolabs’ throughout Ukraine and that Russia invaded to take over the labs,” journalists Ben Collins and Kevin Collier report in an article published by NBC News’ website on March 14. “Many of the theories implicate people who are often the targets of far-right conspiracy thinking — including Dr. Anthony Fauci and President Joe Biden — as being behind creating the weaponized diseases in the biolabs. Disinformation experts said the biolabs theory echoes other Russian propaganda meant to justify its military efforts, which often makes allegations against other countries and populations that reflect similar attacks it plans to make.”

Collins and Collier note that “PolitiFact has debunked the theories, and no evidence of U.S.-run bioweapons labs in Ukraine has been put forward.”

“Russia’s early struggles to push disinformation and propaganda about Ukraine have picked up momentum in recent days, thanks to a variety of debunked conspiracy theories about biological research labs in Ukraine,” Collins and Collier explain. “Much of the false information is flourishing in Russian social media, far-right online spaces andU.S. conservative media, including Tucker Carlson’s show on Fox News. The theories, which have been boosted by Russian and Chinese officials, come as U.S. officials warn that Russia could be preparing a chemical or biological weapons attack of its own in Ukraine.”

Clint Watts, a senior fellow at the Center for Cyber and Homeland Security at George Washington University, told NBC News, “The ‘biolabs’ are serving as a false justification for why Russia invaded Ukraine. It’s defensive. They create a situation where they go to a populist audience, push out talking points, get the audience primed and make it true later.”

Welton Chang, CEO of the cybersecurity firm Pyrra Technologies, told NBC News that everyone from QAnon to the far-right social media platform Gab has been pushing the Ukrainian biolabs conspiracy theory.

Chang explained, “These communities already know what the rhythm and cadence of COVID conspiracies should be like to get people to buy it,” Chang said. “They had a lot of practice with QAnon. The kinds of things that get people excited, like any time you say ‘secret biolab’ — it gets people’s emotions up.”

===

~ dominance BS:

an 3 22 ukraine

On Monday, March 7, the Republican-controlled Florida State Senate sent House Bill 741 — which removes green energy incentives for Florida homeowners — to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ desk for approval. Because MAGA Republicans are dogmatic in their disdain for green energy and love of fossil fuels, DeSantis is almost certain to sign HB 741 into law. But in an op-ed published by the Miami Herald on March 14, Mark Hertling — an Orlando, Florida resident and retired U.S. Army officer — argues that DeSantis should veto HB 741 because it’s the type of bill that helps Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“(DeSantis) is likely to sign HB 741, which would negatively affect the solar industry and eliminate any incentive for individual Floridians to generate their own power at a time when we should be finding ways to expand homegrown energy,” Hertling explains. “To a degree, Florida’s decision to rapidly curtail available and cheaper domestic energy sources gives Putin money in his pockets and leverage over the West.”

Only a fraction of the oil and gas used in the United States has been coming from Russia. So, when President Joe Biden banned Russian oil/gas imports, it was a symbolic way to take a stand against Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine. But Western Europe gets a lot of oil from Russia, and Hertling argues that European countries have been much too reliant on Russian oil.

“For those of us who spent most of our professional lives in the U.S. Armed Forces, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was not a complete surprise,” Hertling explains. “When I served as the commanding general of the United States Army-Europe, Vladimir Putin’s expansion was something we tracked and reported on daily, given his invasion of Georgia in 2008, his takeover of Crimea and the Donbas in 2014, and his other adventures in Moldova and Azerbaijan. We also understood why the world let Putin get away with it: The Europeans — and to a lesser degree the U.S. — depended on Russian fossil fuel.”

Hertling adds, “In the last three weeks, we have managed to cripple Russia’s economy, which is almost singularly based on its oil and natural gas industry. In the future, many nations, the U.S. included, must find ways to exploit alternative energy sources.”

Hertling goes on to explain why solar panels have been beneficial to Floridians.

“When I retired in Orlando eight years ago,” Hertling notes, “we put solar panels on our new house.… When we put solar panels on our home, our electric bills were cut by two-thirds. With tax exemptions, we paid for the panels in just a few years. And returning power to the grid while we were paying less gave us the knowledge that we were contributing to the community and an improved environment.”

Hertling continues, “In sunny Florida, we always wondered why most of our neighbors didn’t do the same. In all likelihood, HB 741 would significantly reduce the demand for rooftop solar power generation in Florida, taking roughly 1.5 million kilowatt hours of energy offline each year.”

In light of the crisis in Ukraine, Hertling writes, the last thing DeSantis should do is sign HB 741 into law.

“I am not suggesting that HB 741’s proponents support Putin’s criminal actions,” Hertling writes.“I am suggesting that any claim that rooftop solar is regressive — which is a dubious claim, as most Florida rooftop solar users make less than $100,000 a year — is counter-intuitive.Yet impact matters more than intent.… That DeSantis would pick this moment to support this is baffling. If he wants to be on the right side of history, Floridians, and our environment, he must veto HB 741.”

===

...

US Congress passes resolution in support of Ukraine

The US House of Representatives approved a resolution "steadfastly, staunchly, proudly and fervently" in support of Ukraine. Many in Congress urged that more be done to stop Russian President Vladimir Putin's war of aggression against Ukraine.

Only three members of the House voted against the resolution: Republicans Paul Gosar of Arizona, Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Matt Rosendale of Montana.

US Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, is introducing a similar resolution in the Senate, the upper chamber....

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no lnx many twt

How ‘Kremlin-friendly’ MAGA Republicans — and Tulsi Gabbard — became propaganda for Russia’s Ukraine invasion

Alex Henderson March 14, 2022

Some conservative Republicans have been unwavering in their disdain for Russian President Vladimir Putin, including Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah. But in MAGA World, Putin has a long list of apologists — even as thousands of people die during Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine. And Never Trump conservative Amanda Carpenter, in an article published by The Bulwark on March 14, takes a look at some of the “Kremlin-friendly” talking points coming from America’s far right.

:{:{}:

“During the Cold War,” Carpenter explains, “the Soviet Union invested heavily in its global disinformation and propaganda efforts. And back in 2016, the Russians had to go to the trouble of creating a troll farm to push their divisive messages to the American audience. But today, they needn’t go to such lengths: Plenty of prominent right-wing media figures in the United States are pushing out Vladimir Putin’s propaganda for him.”

The media figures and politicians that Carpenter slams as “Kremlin-friendly” in her article include Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, the Daily Wire’s Candace Owens, former President Donald Trump, “War Room” host Steve Bannon and Rep. Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina. Carpenter notes that these are the sort of MAGA Republicans Cheney has dubbed “the Putin wing of the GOP.”

“It’s all the same people: fringe internet figures, Fox News hosts, Steve Bannon and his acolytes, Marjorie Tayor Greene caucus members, and the millions of people who love them,” Carpenter observes. “Most of these people claim to be free-thinking contrarians, but their accusations, questions, and conclusions about the United States, Russia and Ukraine always seem to go one way: The United States and Ukraine are somehow wrong, and the Russians have their reasons for waging war. If you don’t believe that, it’s only because all the Democrats are lying to you. Well, all the Democrats except for 2022 CPAC special guest Tulsi Gabbard, anyway.”

Carpenter notes that Carlson’s commentary on Fox News has been “so Kremlin-friendly” that according to a Kremlin memo obtained by Mother Jones, Kremlin officials have asked government-run media outlets to feature more clips of him.

:{:{}:

Mother Jones’ David Corn reported, “On March 3, as Russian military forces bombed Ukrainian cities as part of Vladimir Putin’s illegal invasion of his neighbor, the Kremlin sent out talking points to state-friendly media outlets with a request: Use more Tucker Carlson.”

Carlson has promoted the conspiracy theory that the Ukrainian government is manufacturing bioweapons in laboratories and that Putin is merely protecting Russia’s safety by invading Ukraine.

Carpenter comments, “One could have guessed that the same people who blamed Dr. Fauci for the coronavirus might try to find some other government bureaucrats to blame for Putin’s war. This time, according to Carlson, ‘Dangerous biological agents remain, thanks to the Biden Administration, unsecured in a chaotic war zone’…. This is the big story in their minds. Not the Russian invasion and the unfolding humanitarian disaster, but the Russian disinformation about bioweapons, which provides a cudgel for whacking the Biden Administration — no matter how bogus the claims.”

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https://www.alternet.org/2022/03/koch/

no lnx

Koch keeps doing business in Russia as top journalist says family fortune came from Hitler: report

David Badash and The New Civil Rights Movement March 14, 2022

Award-winning journalist Jane Mayer, who literally wrote the book on the Koch Brothers and Koch Industries, pointed to a report published Monday stating, “Koch Industries continues doing business in Russia.” Despite major U.S. corporations shutting down operations after Putin’s illegal war on Ukraine, major U.S.-based multinational corporations, from Apple to Disney to McDonald’s, have responded by pulling out of Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

Mayer’s 2016 book “Dark Money” focuses on Charles Koch and (the now late) David Koch, the powerful conservative billionaire Koch Brothers.

Monday morning is his widely-read newsletter Popular Information Judd Legum reported Koch Industries doesn’t seem to be joining the American movement to isolate Putin and Russia – even after his forces have slaughtered thousands of innocent civilians in Ukraine.

“Guardian Industries,” writes Legum, “is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Koch Industries, acquired in 2017. Guardian, a manufacturer of industrial glass and other products, is based in Auburn Hills, Michigan but has production facilities around the world.”

Guardian has two glass production plants that operate in Russia. One facility is in Ryazan, Russia, about 120 miles southeast of Moscow. The company added “a new jumbo laminated glass production line” to that facility in August 2021. Another facility is located in Rostov, Russia, near the border with Ukraine. The Rostov plant, which began operations about a decade ago, cost $220 million to build and produces “Guardian’s high-performance, energy-efficient ClimaGuard(R) (residential) and SunGuard(R) (commercial) glass products for construction of homes, offices, retail, health-care and other facilities.” It is capable of producing “900 tons of glass per day.”

Mayer, an investigative journalist who is a staff writer for The New Yorker, also wrote an article about the Koch Brothers, in 2010: “The billionaire brothers who are waging a war against Obama.”

Mayer’s piece suggests the Koch Brothers had funded and fueled the Tea Party almost since its inception.

A Republican campaign consultant who has done research on behalf of Charles and David Koch said of the Tea Party, “The Koch brothers gave the money that founded it. It’s like they put the seeds in the ground. Then the rainstorm comes, and the frogs come out of the mud—and they’re our candidates!”

And it paid off.

“The anti-government fervor infusing the 2010 elections represents a political triumph for the Kochs. By giving money to ‘educate,’ fund, and organize Tea Party protesters, they have helped turn their private agenda into a mass movement.”

So where did the Koch money originally come from?

Mayer on Monday reminded America:

For those who would like more information, here’s The New York Times on Mayer’s 2016 book:

The father of the billionaires Charles G. and David H. Koch helped construct a major oil refinery in Nazi Germany that was personally approved by Adolf Hitler, according to a new history of the Kochs and other wealthy families.

Mayer’s “book is largely focused on the Koch family, stretching back to its involvement in the far-right John Birch Society and the political and business activities of the father, Fred C. Koch, who found some of his earliest business success overseas in the years leading up to World War II. One venture was a partnership with the American Nazi sympathizer William Rhodes Davis, who, according to Ms. Mayer, hired Mr. Koch to help build the third-largest oil refinery in the Third Reich, a critical industrial cog in Hitler’s war machine.”

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https://www.alternet.org/2022/03/gop-lawmakers-face-barrage-of-questions-over-viral-russian-ad/

[vid]

an 322

Republican Party is being labeled as the "Party of Treason” in a new, scathing political ad chronicling all that has transpired since Russia invaded Ukraine.

According to HuffPost, the ad was released by Really American, a progressive political action committee (PAC). The video highlights Independence Day 2018 when several Republican lawmakers' traveled to Moscow to visit the Kremlin.

With the video, the PAC tweeted, "A day after the Senate Intelligence Committee confirmed Russia interfered in our elections, 8 Republicans flew to Russia for a photo-op. Now they're blaming Biden for the invasion of Ukraine while repeating Kremlin talking points."

Although the trip was reportedly intended to address Russian interference, the video notes that Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), "downplayed said established threat just days later."[twt]

the video's narrator posed a number of compelling questions to Republican lawmakers asking: "why Republicans have 'consistently taken' the side of Russian President Vladimir Putin by, among other things, voting to block election security bills and backing Donald Trump for threatening to withhold military aid to Ukraine in exchange for dirt on Joe Biden, misconduct that led to the first impeachment of the former president."

The narrator concluded by saying, “Putin has shown his goal is to destabilize Western democracy from Ukraine to the U.S. We can’t allow his puppets to sink their claws deeper into our government.”

In just a short period of time, the video has gone viral. Since its release on Thursday, March 10, it has received more than 850,000 views as it continues to circulate on social media.

[ronj, shelby, moran, daines, thune, kay granger, john kennedy hoeven

#partyoftraitors

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ref 2

... GOP is slammed as the “#PartyOfTreason” in a new viral ad from progressive PAC Really American.

The group’s spot recalls the visit to the Kremlin that eight Republican lawmakers controversially made on Independence Day in 2018,

https://www.npr.org/2018/07/06/626664156/gop-senators-spend-july-4-in-moscow no namesa day after the Senate Intelligence Committee confirmed Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

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ref july 2018

mADISON – Republican Sen. Ron Johnson is downplaying the threat Russia poses to U.S. elections, saying “these are not the greatest threats to our democracy.”

Johnson was part of a contingent of senators who met with Russian officials in Russia last week. He told reporters Tuesday that over half of their five-hour discussion focused on Russia’s involvement in the 2016 U.S. elections.

Johnson says Russian interference is “unacceptable” and “serious,” but “when you look at threats to this nation I look at much larger threats.”

He says U.S. elections are very difficult to hack and remain secure, while Russia’s interference on social media in 2016 was minimal.

Johnson has been critical of Senate sanctions against Russia, saying they have been ineffective and don’t leave President Donald Trump with enough negotiating room on other issues.

ukraine war may well be inflection pt between getting off FF and 2x down?!

https://www.alternet.org/2022/03/gop-lawmaker-fact-checked-by-cnn-s-dana-bash-after-blaming-biden-for-oil-companies-not-drilling/

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https://www.alternet.org/2022/03/madison-cawthorn-volodymyr-zelenskyy-thug/

badash

U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn continues to follow the same playbook as what some are calling the “Sedition Caucus,” far-right congressional Republicans who at times seem more aligned with extremists and Vladimir Putin than mainstream America or even the GOP.

The freshman North Carolina GOP congressman was caught on tape declaring over the weekend that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a hero to his own people and much of the world, is a “thug.”

“Remember that Zelenskyy is a thug,” Cawthorn says in video obtained and published by WRAL. “Remember that the Ukrainian government is incredibly corrupt and is incredibly evil and has been pushing woke ideologies.”

Republican strategist and Bush 43 Senior Advisor Karl Rove was the first to attack Cawthorn, in a Wall Street Journal op-ed Wednesday.

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putin/disinfo said pix of ukraine kia refugees were crisis actors, but biden intel was putin wd use FF to excuse (now extend?) invastion, use nukes/chem:

ukraine vol cyber army very good on swatting down putin narratives (except inside russia)

an 3 22

Fox News' National Security Correspondent Jennifer Griffin recently pushed back against conservative primetime host Tucker Carlson for his conspiracy theories and inaccurate reporting on Russia.

On Wednesday, March 9, Griffin appeared on "The SeanHannityShow" where she addressed the Russian misinformation suggesting the United States is allegedly running secret bioweapon laboratories in Ukraine.

“In terms of Ukraine’s biolabs, which have come under scrutiny tonight,” Griffin said, “those are Soviet-era bio-labs that the U.S. has been engaged [with] since 2005 in trying to help Ukraine convert the research facilities safely.”

Griffin also weighed in on the concerns some U.S. officials have about Russia's use of such weaponry amid their invasion of Ukraine. “White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Moscow’s talk today about these biolabs has led to concern by U.S. intelligence,” Griffin said, “that Russia could use chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine to create a false flag operation using them.”[twt

Griffin's latest remarks are distinctly different from Carlson's remarks. According to Yahoo! News, the conservative primetime host, who has been criticized for repeatedly pushing Russian propaganda, "used the admission by Under Secretary of State Victoria Nuland that there are biological research labs in Ukraine as a reason to push the same narrative as Russia."

“Ukraine is the poorest country in Europe,” Carlson said. “It’s hardly a hotbed of biomedical research. We’re assuming these weren’t pharmaceutical labs. Probably not developing new leukemia drugs. From your answer, Victoria Nuland, we would assume, because you all but said it, there’s a military application of this research. They’re working on bioweapons.”

However, Griffin claims that the information about the labs is not considered to [be] a secret or new development. “It is a long program that has existed, where the Pentagon has partnered with these biolabs,” Griffin said, adding, “The U.S. has been very open about its involvement there with that. But what Russia does is they take that information, distort it, turn it around and turn it into disinformation.”

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automagically put in top stories? 3 22 IMI madea b?

AlterNet and Nicolas J. S. Davies May 05, 2014

fiery chaos...

https://www.alternet.org/**2014/**05/fiery-chaos-odessa-42-perish-after-ukrainians-launch-waco-assault/

The death toll in Odessa stands at 42 people killed, most of them burned to death or suffocated by smoke inhalation in the inferno at the Trade Unions House. There is no dispute over who were the victims and who were their killers. The victims were pro-Russian protesters who had occupied the building. The attackers who set fire to it with petrol bombs were members of Right Sector, the ultra-Nationalist strike force of the U.S.-backed coup that overthrew the elected government of Ukraine in February.

Right Sector leader Dmytro Yarosh told Newsweek on March 19th that the Western-backed coup regime in Kiev has organized Right Sector militia members into new paramilitary forces for a "war" to "cleanse the country" of pro-Russian protesters. So it is not clear whether the militiamen responsible for the mass murder in Odessa were in fact newly recruited Ukrainian "National Guard" troops or just "civilian" Right Sector thugs, nor whether they were locals from Odessa or forces sent in from Kiev, Lviv or elsewhere in Western Ukraine.

For Americans, a more serious question hangs over Ukraine's Waco in Odessa and indeed over the entire U.S. role in the crisis in Ukraine. The earliest media reports of Right Sector's existence date only from January 2014 as it took charge of the protests in Kiev, and the earliest article on Right Sector's web site dates from November 25th 2013. Right Sector was created less than six months ago, as theU.S. State Department and the CIA was already laying the groundwork for the coup in Ukraine. So what role has the U.S. played in the recruiting, training and direction of this group that now has so much blood on its hands?

Dmytro Yarosh, Right Sector's leader, joined the Stepan Bandera All-Ukrainian Tryzub (Trident) paramilitary organization in 1994. He became the head of the militia in 2005. Like the neo-Nazi Svoboda Party, one of three parties in the coup government, Tryzub drew inspiration from the World War II-era Ukrainian leader Stepan Bandera and his Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, who massacred tens of thousands of Poles and Jews during World War II and supported German campaigns that killed many more.

Despite his early collaboration with the Nazis, Bandera soon fell foul of the German occupiers in Ukraine and spent most of the war in the Zellenbau prison for political prisoners at Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Like his hero, Yarosh speaks fiercely of Ukrainian independence from both Russia and the West, although most of his venom is directed at Russia and Russians in Ukraine. As in Syria and throughout the world, the violent, dangerous forces the U.S. recruited and deployed to overthrow Ukraine's government are not entirely under U.S. control but are more easily directed toward violence and chaos than toward any constructive purpose.

So, in the wake of Right Sector's inferno in Odessa, we have to ask a second question, "What role is the CIA still playing today in directing or advising Right Sector as it commits mass murder in Odessa and wages war on pro-Russian protesters across the country?"

NATO leaders formally declared in Bucharest on April 3rd 2008 that Ukraine and Georgia "will become members of NATO." U.S. coup manager Victoria Nuland flew back from Kiev to tell the National Press Club in Washington on December 13th 2013 that the U.S. had spent $5 billion to "help Ukraine," and that it had not spent all that money for nothing. Then Mrs. Kagan flew back to Kiev to oversee the transition from the recruitment and movement building phase of the coup to the unleashing of Right Sector street violence in the Hrushevskoho Street riots in Kiev on January 19th. As America's angel of death flew back and forth across the Atlantic in taxpayer-funded comfort, the 42 victims of Ukraine's Waco in Odessa were living their lives and minding their own business, with no inkling of the unfolding scheme that would lead to their horrific deaths.

Routinely omitted from the Western propaganda narrative on Ukraine is the fact that Russia has had a reasonable proposal for the future of Ukraine on the table all along, since before the emergence of Right Sector, before the coup in Kiev and before Russia reclaimed Crimea in response to the coup.

Russia's proposal is for a neutral and federal Ukraine. NATO leaders would abandon their plans to absorb Ukraine into NATO, and the different regions of Ukraine would be granted greater autonomy under a new federal constitution. This offers the hope of ending the back-and-forth all-or-nothing power struggle that has turned the people of Ukraine into pawns of Russian- and Western-backed oligarchs and their foreign allies since 1991.

The main obstacle to the Russian proposal is its reasonableness. It's really the only sensible framework for a solution to the crisis. But the U.S., its NATO allies and the coup government in Kiev have staked out extreme positions, calling pro-Russian Ukrainians "terrorists", threatening them with military force and blaming Russia for everything. This makes it difficult for the U.S. and its allies to accept Russia's proposal without very obviously and publicly backing down.

Former US Ambassador to Moscow Jack Matlock has urged the Obama administration to stop making aggressive public statements and to engage in quiet diplomacy to resolve the crisis, before matters get any worse for the people of Ukraine or for U.S.-Russian relations.Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) has urged the president to ask NATO to formally rescind the 2008 Bucharest declaration that Ukraine will become a member of NATO, and to work in good faith to implement the April 17th Geneva agreement to de-escalate the crisis. Above all, VIPS writes, Obama must "let cooler heads prevail."

However, if Right Sector leaders and the coup government are still getting very different advice and direction from their CIA case officers at the U.S. Embassy in Kiev, none of this will work and we can expect further escalation, more Right Sector atrocities and the rising danger of an unthinkable war between the U.S. and Russia. It will be no comfort to recognize that none of that had to happen.

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tucker fox others scramble on putin post ukraine invasion

cya putin 3 22 nikki h

https://www.alternet.org/2022/03/putin-trump-2656911672

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tv pix of woman bleeding on stretcher

https://www.alternet.org/2022/03/russia-bombs-ukraine-maternity-hospital/

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no lnx twt

https://www.alternet.org/2022/03/fox-news-invasion-expert-and-far-right-putin-propagandist-believes-russia-is-being-too-gentle-toward-ukraine/

Fox News’ invasion expert and far-right Putin propagandist believes Russia is being 'too gentle' toward Ukraine

Meaghan Ellis March 09, 2022

Since Fox News' Tucker Carlson has offered multiple conflicting reports on the chaos unfolding in Ukraine, he recently brought in Fox News invasion expert Douglas MacGregor to offer insight on what's really transpiring overseas.

On Monday, March 7, MacGregor appeared on "Tucker Carlson Tonight" where he weighed in on the madness Russian President Vladamir Putin has caused as he criticized the sanctions being brought against Russia. MacGregor, former U.S. Army colonel and Trump-appointed Putin propagandist with a racist history, described the sanctions as "useless."

"The sanctions … will do a lot of damage to us,” MacGregor told Carlson. “They’re not going to make much difference to Russia. China will stand with Russia. It knows it has to. Russia has an abundance of food and energy. China will take it all.Russia will not suffer as a result of our sanctions. In fact, it may break down the financial system that we have set up to punish everyone in the world we don’t like.”

MacGregor's discussion with Carlson comes just days after his recent appearance on Fox Business where he expressed to Stuart Varney that he believes the Russian military has been "too gentle" with Ukraine during the initial days of the invasion.

At the time, a seemingly surprised Varney pushed back against MacGregor saying, “I’m inclined to disagree with you, Colonel."

However, Rolling Stone notes that MacGregor's remarks shouldn't come as a surprise. In fact, a few days prior to that discussion, Varney reportedly said "that America needs to stop demonizing Putin and refrain from sending any aid to Ukraine."

When asked if he believes the United States should just step aside and let Russia ascend on Ukraine, Macgregor said “absolutely.” He also dismissed the severity of the invasion arguing that it shouldn't be considered a big deal because “the population there is indistinguishable from their own.”

Despite his disturbing remarks, it does not look like MacGregor will lose air time anytime soon.

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https://www.mediamatters.org/russias-invasion-ukraine/tucker-carlsons-history-pro-kremlin-anti-ukraine-propaganda

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https://www.alternet.org/2022/03/greg-gutfeld/

gop trying to use vlad invasion for drill baby drill, disaster capitalism

an 3 22

One Republican lawmaker is facing criticism for his attempt to rewrite the history behind former President Donald Trump's so-called "perfect call."

The latest fact-check is in response to a press conference on Tuesday, March 8 where Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) was asked to recall what transpired during Trump's 2019 phone call to Ukrainian President and "consider what 'rethinking' he had done on Trump withholding of foreign aid in hopes of luring the nation to announce an investigation of the Biden family."

In response to that statement, Scalise said:

"Zelensky had called President Trump to thank him for the leadership that he provided. In fact, when Zelensky got elected, he said he modeled his campaign after President Trump's -- and ultimately he got the relief money he was asking for."

CNN's Chris Cillizza analyzed what actually transpired during the call which the former president described as "perfect," noting the first words during the call were made by Trump, not Zelensky. "Congratulations on a great victory," Trump said to Zelensky at the time. "We all watched from the United States, and you did a terrific job. The way you came from behind, somebody who wasn't given much of a chance, and you ended up winning easily. It's a fantastic achievement. Congratulations."

So, according to Cillizza, Scalise's remarks are flawed. Zelensky did not place a call to Trump to "thank him for the leadership he provided."

During the call, Zelensky also noted that saying, "The first time you called me to congratulate me when I won my presidential election, and the second time you are now calling me when my party won the parliamentary election. I think I should run more often so you can call me more often, and we can talk over the phone more often."

Cillizza also pointed out other notable Trump quotes during the call:

"I will say that we do a lot for Ukraine. We spend a lot of effort and a lot of time. Much more than the European countries are doing, and they should be helping you, more than they are."
"I wouldn't say that it's reciprocal necessarily because things are happening that are not good but the United States has been very, very good to Ukraine."
"There's a lot of talk about Biden's son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you can do with the attorney general would be great. Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you can look into it. ... It sounds horrible to me."

During the call, Trump repeatedly reminded Zelensky of how much the United States has done for Ukraine, and according to Cillizza, "and how little, comparatively -- Ukraine does for the US."Then, Trump went in for the kill asking Zelensky to "look into the Bidens' activities in Ukraine."

Although the call was criticized at the time, Cillizza notes that it is far worse today.

===

does snl have beneficial effect or just rile up trumpistas with eastern elite coastal hollywood liberals are laughing at us real am in flyover country?

putin ass kiss ukraine

https://www.alternet.org/2022/03/snl-russia/

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GREG GUTFELD (CO-HOST): But the left prefers to fuel a war instead of a country. And the absurd is we have been instructed by the media, the Democrats for decades that energy is a moral issue. As far as the planet goes -- coal, fracking, fossil fuels -- these are immoral things. These are crimes against the environment. And yet, it's okay to buy the dirty oil from a war machine. So, it shows you that the moral stances of these people who had been telling us for decades how much better they were than us -- us evil right-wingers in our pickup trucks, in our gas-guzzling SUVs -- they're actually the most immoral people, because they were phonies and they were liars.

But there is an amazing -- Russia played us for the longest time. They love that we denigrated our energy prowess. They loved that we bought the idea that nuclear power was bad and that solar was good, and that Greta was a hero because that made us more reliant on Russian oil, and now,Iran's oilbecause we're sitting -- we were convinced, probably through the help of Russia, that our fuel industry was bad. So, now you look at Ukraine, there are fingerprints there of thehard green movementbecauseRussia used the green movement to play us and preserve their own power by selling oil.

JESSE WATTERS (CO-HOST): Yeah, they funded all those campaigns: "Anti-fracking, anti-nuclear." They did it.

GUTFELD: Yes.

MARTHA MACCALLUM (CO-HOST):Yes.

THE LATEST

Douglas Macgregor, Tucker Carlson’s foreign policy muse, is a coup-curious conspiracy theorist

03/07/22 2:44 PM EST

GOP nominee for Michigan legislature shared material blaming Jewish people for 9/11, presidential assassinations, and subjugation of “white men”

03/07/22 11:52 AM EST

On Fox, Stephen Moore blamed Putin's invasion of Ukraine on “a radical green energy policy by the Biden administration”

03/06/22 11:51 AM EST

Fox News hosts make evidence-free claim that green energy campaigns in America are funded by Russia to increase dependence on foreign oil

03/04/22 6:41 PM EST

Tucker Carlson’s history of pro-Kremlin, anti-Ukraine propaganda

03/04/22 2:02 PM EST

Pagination

Current page1

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IN THIS ARTICLE

Greg Gutfeld

Greg-Gutfeld-MMFA-Tag.png

870 COMMENTS

0 SHARES

Fox News' Greg Gutfeld defends Republicans for heckling Joe Biden as he spoke about his dead son

03/02/22

Fox News host puts blame on Greta Thunberg for the Ukrainian invasion: “Maybe she'll drop solar panels down into Kyiv to save people”

02/28/22

KATIE PAVLICH (CO-HOST): Greg, isn't this the reason we are in this situation in the first place, because they can't get themselves off of Russian oil because European countries and the United States are fine with -- they say we're not gonna drill here, but we'll still get oil from somewhere else.

GREG GUTFELD (CO-HOST): I've been waiting for this segment for days. This is the irony of letting children like Greta Thunberg take up shelf space in your brain. Think about all of the adults that took her opinion over the – over the progress made in fracking or drilling or the necessity of coal in nearly every country. But – you know -- no, no, no no. "How dare you?" Remember that! "How dare you?" We all sat there, oh, maybe she'll drop solar panels down into Kyiv to save people. It's not going to happen.

China and Russia must have been laughing at us when we were allowed to be lectured on world affairs by a 14-year-old. Oil is a world affair, energy is a world affair, fuel's a world affair. We got to wake up, we also got to get back into the nuclear world – the anti-nuke ideology put us in a hole for many decades. It's probably the greenest fuel that we will ever see. The sooner we get back to nuclear, the sooner we – we were almost energy independent, remember the good old days?

Fox News' Gutfeld blames inflation on “wokeism and virtue signaling”

02/11/22 5:43 PM EST

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-news-host-every-one-us-who-uses-oil-russia-complicit-atrocities-committed-ukraine

GERALDO RIVERA (CO-HOST): I'll say this also: Any business person, any company that buys Russian oil is complicit. You are aiding and abetting a monstrous war criminal. You are just as guilty.

JEANINE PIRRO (CO-HOST): Does that include America? That includes America?

RIVERA: It includes every one of us.

PIRRO: America?

RIVERA: Every one of us.

PIRRO: America?

RIVERA: If we buy -- if we buy -- I don't know about the nations -- but, generally, but I'll talk about any business person in America or anywhere else who buys Russian oil, you are complicit. Your hands are -- there's blood in that oil. You may get a bargain on it. It will haunt you forever. Turn your back on it. This -- this has to be seen in the context of what it is. This man is attempting to wipe out the Ukrainian race.

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mma 3 22https://www.mediamatters.org/

Russia's invasion of Ukraine

Putin and Simonyan

Russia’s chief propagandist still has unrestricted access to social media

03/03/22

no lnx many grafx

Russia’s most notorious propagandist retains unrestricted access to social media while Russia invades Ukraine

Major platforms restricted RT and Sputnik in Europe, but their hateful editor-in-chief, Margarita Simonyan, is thriving on them

WRITTEN BY DANIL CUFFE & RHEA BHATNAGAR

PUBLISHED 03/03/22

Despite supposed Big Tech moderation efforts and recent government sanctions by the European Union against Russian state-funded broadcasters RT and Sputnik, RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan still has unrestricted access to spread Russian disinformation to hundreds of thousands of followers during wartime.

In response to Russia’s attack on Ukraine, major social media platforms, including Meta, Google, Twitter, and TikTok, have implemented measures in order to minimize abusive and misleading content on their platforms, including banning RT and Sputnik in the EUper EU sanctions prohibiting these networks’ broadcasts on TV or online. Yet, there are gaps, such as Simonyan – who has accumulated hundreds of thousands of followers across platforms and is verified on most mainstream platforms – retaining unbridled access to her accounts and using them to spread disinformation.

Access to Simonyan’s social media accounts is not even restricted for IP addresses and users based in EU nations and Ukraine, even though the accounts of her media entities are blocked in these nations. Additionally, despite public commitments by platforms such as Meta to implement “more transparency … around state-controlled media outlets,” Simonyan’s accounts on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok do not have labels similar to those on RT and Sputnik indicating that she is linked to Russian state media. And while Twitter has labeled Simonyan’s account for a few years, the platform has failed to restrict access to RT’s accounts in Ukraine.

[RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan's follower count by social media platform as of March 3. In order from most to least, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Telegram, YouTube, Yandex Zen, Facebook, VK, Odnoklassniki

Citation Molly Butler / Media Matters]

Following the February 24 invasion of Ukraine by Russia, the EU sanctioned key Kremlin state broadcasters — including Simonyan — blocking the use of their bank accounts and banning them from traveling within the bloc. U.S. lawmakers have also introduced several bills calling for the RT editor-in-chief, among others, to also be sanctioned.

[Page from the E.U.'s Official Journal of the European Union with a sanction listing for Margarita Simonyan. The document text describing Simonyan's reason for inclusion in the sanction states the following: "Margarita Simonyan is a central figure of the Government propaganda. She is also editor-in-chief of the English language television news network RT (Russia Today). Through her function, she promoted a positive attitude to the annexation of Crimea and the actions of separatists in Donbas."

CitationSource: Official Journal of the European Union

Simonyan has long been considered a key figure in the Kremlin’s media propaganda operations, yet her toxic behavior has been tolerated by Big Tech in the past. Under her leadership, RT and Sputnik have become key vectors of international Russian state disinformation campaigns, including spreading COVID-19 misinformation and far-right narratives. According to independent Russian outlet Znak, Simonyan is typically among the top 15 most quoted journalists in Russia.

[A graphic created by the U.S. State Department depicting the structural organization of RT and Sputnik media ecosystem, in which Simonyan is placed centrally as the editor-in-chief of Rossiya Segodnya and RT

Citation Source: U.S. Department of State]

Since the start of the war, Simonyan has notably called Russian attacks on civilian infrastructure “fake,” and linked to Russian media content accusing the Ukraine military of perpetrating the missile strike against a Kyiv residential building. On the second day of the invasion, Simonyan praised a screenshotted post from RT’s telegram channel quoting Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu, who said that the Russian military would not strike civilian residences in Kyiv. Later on the same day, as anti-war protests in Russia unfolded and thousands were arrested, Simonyan posted a screenshot on Facebook that included threats against “liberals” and “traitors” who should have been “dealt with long ago.”

[Facebook post by Simonyan containing a screenshot of a Telegram post

Citation Translated from Facebook: Our liberals hate Russia and everything Russian more than the Ukrainians. This is difficult to believe, but it is so. The army is completing aspecial operation in order to secure the country, but thousands of traitors are sitting in the rear and dreaming of our quick defeat. This is unbelievable and something should have been dealt with a long time ago.

Additionally, while Meta has promised to work on “demonetizing [Russian state media] accounts” on the platform, Simonyan has made posts on both Twitter and Facebook advertising and promoting merchandise — shirts with the letter Z, a marking that has been used by many Russian military vehicles during the invasion — from RT’s online shop.

[Facebook post by Simonyan sharing a Facebook post by RT na russkom advertising a RT clothing merchandise with the letter Z

Citation Source: Facebook]

Social media platforms’ tolerance of her misinformation and controversial statements has been documented for years prior to the February invasion. Facebook had suspended Simonyan in 2019 for undisclosed reasons before reinstating her account and giving an unwarranted apology.

Simonyan has a history of toxic online behavior, from tweeting in approval of child marriages to sharing harmful and derogatory posts about Black people during the George Floyd protests in June 2020. Additionally, the Kremlin-backed figure has talked about her disapproval of Belarusian and Russian dissidents, praised violence against demonstrators and an illegal plane hijacking, and mocked a hunger striker. This follows Simonyan's long history of calling for Russia’s violent annexation of Ukraine’s eastern territory.

THE LATEST

GOP nominee for Michigan legislature shared material blaming Jewish people for 9/11, presidential assassinations, and subjugation of “white men”

03/07/22 11:52 AM EST

On Fox, Stephen Moore blamed Putin's invasion of Ukraine on “a radical green energy policy by the Biden administration”

03/06/22 11:51 AM EST

Fox News hosts make evidence-free claim that green energy campaigns in America are funded by Russia to increase dependence on foreign oil

03/04/22 6:41 PM EST

Tucker Carlson’s history of pro-Kremlin, anti-Ukraine propaganda

03/04/22 2:02 PM EST

Tucker Carlson justifies his about-face on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine with a misogynist rant about VP Kamala Harris

03/04/22 1:06 PM EST

…

IN THIS ARTICLE

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

Facebook

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Fake News

Kremlin-funded news outlet is mainlining Putin’s falsehoods to Spanish speakers

02/28/22 3:59 PM EST

A Russian disinformation site outed by State Department last year is still on multiple social media platforms

08/30/21 12:52 PM EDT

TikTok is facilitating the spread of misinformation surrounding the Russian invasion of Ukraine

02/25/22 2:13 PM EST

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Tucker Carlson justifies his about-face on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine with a misogynist rant about VP Kamala Harris

03/04/22 1:06 PM EST

Laura Ingraham defends Russian oligarchs from asset seizures

03/03/22 10:50 PM EST

Fox News’ foreign policy pincer attack targets Biden on Ukraine

02/24/22 10:52 AM EST

The face of Russia's Vladimir Putin shaded in red on a red and black background with "Fox News" repeated four times

Conservative media’s love for Putin continues even after his invasion of Ukraine

03/03/22 6:01 PM EST

Flashback: Sean Hannity spent months aggressively defending President Trump for withholding military aid from Ukraine

02/25/22 10:56 AM EST

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apparently not Greta's fault?!:

no lnx twt

These 5 ‘deeply malevolent’ things that Trump did to hurt Ukraine must not be forgotten: journalist

[Donald Trump meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zalensky on September 25, 2019, at the InterContinental New York Barclay in New York City, Wikimedia Commons]

Alex Henderson March 01, 2022

With Ukraine now being invaded by Russian troops on orders from President Vladimir Putin, MAGA messaging on the crisis has ranged from praising Putin to blaming President Joe Biden for the crisis. One of the most ludicrous MAGA talking points is that Putin wouldn’t have invaded Ukraine if Trump were still president.But liberal Washington Post opinion writer Greg Sargent, in a scathing column/listicle published on March 1, stresses that the things Trump did to hurt Ukraine and President Volodymyr Zelensky when he was president must not be forgotten.

“With the Russian invasion of Ukraine getting more horrific,” Sargent writes, “Donald Trump and his allies are frantically erasing the truth about Trump’s relations with Ukraine. Trump absurdly claims that as president, he stood strong behind Ukraine and NATO, even as his spinners comically downplay his corrupt and deeply malevolent betrayal of our ally.”

Sargent continues, “The obvious rejoinder to this spin is that Trump got impeached for withholding military aid to strong-arm Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky into manufacturing propaganda to help Trump’s reelection. This came even as Zelensky pleaded for help against Russian aggression, which the world is now witnessing unfold in all its horror.”

The columnist notes that when Trump was president, he repeatedly “aligned our interests with those of Russian President Vladimir Putin and against those of Ukraine, NATO and the West.” And Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman agrees. Vindman, who testified during House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry against Trump in November 2019, told Sargent, “Trump acted against U.S. interests with the consequence of aiding Russian interests.”

Sargent goes on to list and describe five examples of Trump doing things to hurt Ukraine. Trump, Sargent recalls: (1) “spread propaganda about Ukrainian interference in the 2016 election,” (2) “ousted the well-regarded U.S. ambassador to Ukraine,” Marie Yovanovitch, (3) “froze military assistance to Ukraine,” (4) “withheld a White House meeting from Zelensky,” and (5) “turned Ukraine policy over to (Rudy) Giuliani.”

“All this has important forward-looking implications, now that Trump may run for president again,” Sargent explains. “As president in 2025, he’d be stewarding relations with Russia, Ukraine and NATO, but after this war has unfolded. Right now, we’re seeing extraordinary unity among the United States and its allies as it imposes harsh sanctions on Russia and otherwise tries to dissuade Putin’s invasion. Trump would almost surely rupture that.”

Vindman, during his interview with Sargent, warned that it will be great for Putin if Trump becomes president again.

“With Trump as president in 2025,” Vindman told Sargent, “we’re quite likely looking at a world in which Russia may have achieved its objectives and folded Ukraine back into its sphere of influence.”

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7 yrs for murder, 15 for saying war; alt radio bd TV, only pulitzer prize (last yr) novaya gazetta still running 3/22

https://www.alternet.org/2022/03/russia-facebook-putin/

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kos http://redgreenandblue.org/2022/02/25/fossil-fuel-apologists-blame-everyone-putin-course/

russia invaded Ukraine yesterday, because “President Biden supports transgender rights, canceled the Keystone XL pipeline, and like all world leaders, was bent to the incredible power of international energy and climate overlord Greta Thunberg.” That’s the view from denierland, and we honestly wish we were joking or exaggerating or otherwise misrepresenting the online reactions from climate and general rightwing “experts”

By Climate Denier Roundup

So here’s the roundup of reactions from crazytown:

No quicker than you can say “moment of uncertainty ripe for disinformation,” Tucker Carlson (who’s**been defending Putin**) had :{Marc Morano on his show to:(style="background-color:#ff9900;"):}: –what else – blame Biden and climate concern for the Russian invasion.

Matt Walsh, a comedian of sorts who works at Ben Shaprio’s fracker-funded propaganda shop [DAILY WIRE] and has written a whole “children’s book” attacking trans people, tweeted that he was “so glad that the west (sic) gave up on energy independence because Greta Thunberg yelled at us.” This is of course exactly backwards. If Greta’s calls for replacing fossil fuels with renewables were heeded, then countries would already be providing clean energy for themselves without needing to rely on Russia’s fossil fuels.

And despite what you may expect, Walsh was hardly the only one attributing Putin’s aggression to Greta Thunberg, as though that makes any sense at all.

Similarly nonsensical is tobacco-shill turned fossil fool Steve Milloy, who claimed Putin’s invasion is just like COVID and climate mandates, also quote-tweeted a story about Ukrainian people in traffic leaving Kyiv, with the comment “imagine you were in this and driving an EV”. As though it would be better to be beholden on the fossil fuels imported from Russia while Russia invades your country, than it would be to merely be reliant on the electricity generated by power plants running on Russian fuels.

While we’re imagining though, imagine having an electric car and clean energy grid to power it, so you’re not reliant on Russian fossil fuels for your car or electricity!

Similarly wrong yet Right wasDan Crenshaw, Texan Republican who has received $689,000 from the oil and gas industry for his campaigns for one of the most obviously gerrymandered districts in the country. He suggested that the Keystone XL pipeline could have replaced the fossil fuels we import from Russia, as though that pipeline was for US consumption (and not the global market it’s already reaching anyway). “Relying on Russian oil is a choice.” he added, “And it’s a stupid one.”

And he’s right! It’d be infinitely smarter to not rely on oil at all!

(But we somehow doubt that’s what he meant.)

(Originally appeared at DailyKos)

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