Chit Chat

By Ted Belman

From now on comments on every post must relate to the content of the post.

Comments that don’t relate to the post must go here.

Any person who contravenes this demand will be put on moderation. Also their offending comment will be trashed.

The reason for this demand is so that people who want to read comments which pertain to the post, don’t have to wade through the chatter.

Everyone will be happier.

April 16, 2020 | 7,625 Comments »

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  1. @Laura

    Another one of Trump’s lackeys he’s thrown under the bus.

    Trump didn’t throw McDaniels off the bus, as she is the bus which ran over every interest which her party had in maintaining power or reclaiming power after it had been stolen from her and her colleagues.

    Indeed, McDaniel failed every aspect of her duty as head of the party which resulted in election losses over and over again. Notably, you have charged Trump with the loss of election after election (only by ignoring the fraud upon which elections are now won), while selectively forgetting the fact that it was McDaniels who was the head of the party during those elections. Not only did she fail to overturn election results in elections which were clearly characterized by fraud, she failed to put a single dollar towards such challenges. She also failed to make any effort to prevent such fraud in any election. She also failed to promote any grass roots campaign to provide the dominance of Republican registered supporters, even while people such as Scott Priesler has done that work in her place while McDaniels withheld a single penny in support of Priesler’s efforts.

    In fact, McDaniels isn’t resigning because of Trump, she is resigning because of the people. She only maintained her position as head of the party because of her ability to scam the public into sending donations to the Rep party rather than to the candidates of their choice. Fortunately, the public has finally connected the dots and withheld their financial support from the Rep Party, thus undermining McDaniels in the only achievement which she can boast of her time at the head of the party – bringing in the money. Indeed, while routinely failing to win elections is not a fatal flaw, it would appear that not filling the party coffers is a fatal flaw.

    It may not be to your liking, but the people are taking control of the party, and the choice to ignore the establishment candidates in the primary and defunding the party leadership are but the beginning of this process.

  2. Another one of Trump’s lackeys he’s thrown under the bus. He uses people, then throws them away. Nice guy! You’d have to be crazy to work for Trump in any way.

    RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel Resigning
    Glad to finally see you go! You have done so much damage to the country which you failed to serve.

  3. Hi, Sebastien

    @Laura investigated for treason just for interviewing Putin? Seriously?

    Of course, she’s serious! 😀 And considering that you’re talking about Laura, she’s F$#*^$ ?%$$$! serious! She’s making Felix look like a moderate!

    I don’t give Tucker much credit, for what is (to me) obviously a publicity stunt. For “factual” information about Putin, the closest I can come is GZERO

    https://youtu.be/rLYmT93QNlM

  4. @Laura investigated for treason just for interviewing Putin? Seriously? Should he be like Anna Louise Strong and just repeat U.S. government (in her case Soviet and Chinese Communist) or Ukrainian press statements like everybody else? We don’t know what kind of an interview it will be. Hold your fire. At least “wait until you see the whites of their eyes”, as the saying goes.

  5. “Americans have a right to know about a war they are implicated in and journalists (like Tucker) have a right to tell Americans about it”

    From a Hollywood Report (placing it above a Taylor Swift report) and very justified in doing so.

    Only people who want to squash the Great American Revolution and the historical First Amendment (Biden Democrats and RINOs) would oppose the Tucker Putin interview.

    Given the context Jews have a big interest here and especially in the Free Speech angle.
    “Americans have a right to know about a war they are implicated in and journalists (like Tucker) have a right to tell Americans about it”

    From a Hollywood Report (placing it above a Taylor Swift report) and very justified in doing so.

    Only people who want to squash the Great American Revolution and the historical First Amendment (Biden Democrats and RINOs) would oppose the Tucker Putin interview.

    Given the context Jews have a big interest here and especially in the Free Speech angle.

    https://youtu.be/WZL5B2lR5Is?si=aLR-q15MFWgAQo7L

  6. I wonder what kind of financial interests that anti-American pig fucker Carlson has in Russia or whether he is being bought and paid for outright by the Kremlin. There’s your real Russia collusion scandal. He ought to be investigated for treason. He’s no better than Hunter Biden. In fact, he probably learned from him since they were buddies at one time.

    I got through 3 minutes of Carlson’s rant and gave up. I should have started counting the number of times he insulted Americans. We only aren’t on Putin’s side because we’re clinging to our guns and bibles, or something. All I’ve ever wanted from war coverage is real information, it seems unlikely I’ll get it from Carlson. I will watch, of course. Before I watch, I’ll try to get cleaned up from the tap I share with the pigs, and I’ll ask my social worker to help me turn on this here computer. Why is his voice so squeaky, though? Stress from a bad conscience?

  7. “Police Find ‘No Evidence’ of Anti-Semitic Chants During Sydney Opera House Protests
    Instead, the analysis found the phrase chanted was ‘Where’s the Jews,’ police said.”

    https://www.theepochtimes.com/world/police-find-no-evidence-of-anti-semitic-chants-used-at-sydney-opera-house-5578916

    “…But the Deputy Commissioner said there was evidence that other “offensive phrases” were chanted during the protest, including “[expletive] the Jews.”

    ‘…On Nov. 21, 2023, the NSW Minns government proposed changes to Section 93Z of the NSW Crimes Act which would remove the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) from approving a prosecution before it was commenced by police.
    This would “improve the prosecution process” for an offence of publicly threatening or inciting violence against a person or group based on race and religion.The phrase “gas the Jews” would likely meet the threshold for criminal prosecution under the proposal…”

    https://www.theepochtimes.com/world/police-find-no-evidence-of-anti-semitic-chants-used-at-sydney-opera-house-5578916

    Gee, ya think?

    “Where’s the Jews?” Seriously????

    Have these Keystone cops been watching too much Woody Allen?

    “Jew Eat?”

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaPBhxXhprg

    “…Both Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton also voiced their support for the Jewish community.

    “Our country is better than that—and our country is a better place because of you and your community, and my government is committed to keeping the community safe,” Mr. Albanese said on Oct. 11…”

    Really? How? It didn’t take much to lock people in their homes during Covid and lock up anybody who complained about it but they just don’t know what to do about Jew-hating homicidal Muslim maniacs roaming free and shouting out their intentions.

    Reminds me of:

    Caroline Glick’s “Latma TV – “The Boston Marathon Bomber – the FBI investigates”

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgTmGIXT8ow

  8. I got through 3 minutes of Carlson’s rant and gave up. I should have started counting the number of times he insulted Americans. We only aren’t on Putin’s side because we’re clinging to our guns and bibles, or something. All I’ve ever wanted from war coverage is real information, it seems unlikely I’ll get it from Carlson. I will watch, of course. Before I watch, I’ll try to get cleaned up from the tap I share with the pigs, and I’ll ask my social worker to help me turn on this here computer. Why is his voice so squeaky, though? Stress from a bad conscience?

  9. @Adam

    Who is this Byrne guy.

    That is an interesting question, to be certain, the answer is a bit of a long tale to be honest. Byrne has been the source of much controversy, some mystery and a great deal of good work. Byrne, who was the owner of Overstock.com was a venture capitalist who was curiously asked by the Senate Judiciary Committee to seek out corruption in the US govt and expose it for the benefit of the nation. This sounds to be a nutty claim to be made by anyone, but him being approached by the SJC was confirmed during an interview with a former US Attorney during a Sean Hannity program after Byrne reported his role in the Maria Butina scandal which the FBI weaponized against Trump. He was also involved in exposing the 2008 crash 18 months before the crash, facilitating a $15M bribe to Hillary Clinton on behalf of the FBI, publicly raising the alert that the 2020 election was going to be stolen before the election, helping to sneak Gen. Flynn and Sidney Powell into the White House on Dec. 18 2020, that the vaccines are toxic and many other very important, and revealing matters in recent events.

    Here is his story:
    DHS Domestic Extremist #1 Patrick Byrne Comes Clean

    This is long telling, but it reads quickly to be honest – it took me a couple of hours to read as I recall. In any event, this provides the best answer to the question you raised as to who Byre might be, in which Gen. Flynn notably wrote the introduction. Byrne is a strong advocate for the restoration of the Republic in the US, and has spent billions of his own money in pursuit of doing just that. His most recent work involves having assisted, financially and in person, a whistleblower complaint against Jack Smith – one of the out of control US prosecutors/persecutors acting against Trump.

    You can follow him on his Locals.com acct, his X account, his telegram acct, and his own website at DeepCapture.com. He also has TruthSocial account, but I don’t go there much so I don’t have the link handy. Do be aware that there are many many fake social accounts claiming to be Byrne, but the links I provided are the only ones which are actually associated with Byrne. His best work can be found on his site DeepCapture.com, and he provides livestreaming on his Locals.com account, and posts random comments on both Telegram and X – he has a strange fascination with people getting into street fights on which he adds his own commentary.

    The one thing which I would warn you to completely distrust about Byrne is his ability to accurately report when things will take place, as I mentioned in my conversation with ketzel2. The matters which Byrne is financing and on which he is reporting are to a large part not under his control, and of course, the opposition often has a role to play as well, so his claims of when to expect a given news story breaking is almost uniformly wrong. Just FYI.

  10. @ketzel2 @peloni1986. Who is this Byrne guy. I never heard of him. But he sounds interesting from your discussion of him. Where can I find his work on the web?

  11. “Yevgeny Yevtushenko on ‘Babi Yar,’ Shostakovich & the birth of a symphony
    February 25, 2022 — 10 min read
    Yevgeny Yevtushenko
    “Babi Yar” was one of five poems by Yevgeny Yevtushenko (above) that Dmitri Shostakovich set to music in his Symphony No. 13, which Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra recorded in 2018.

    Wikimedia

    The poetry of Yevgeny Yevtushenko inspired one of the greatest works by Dmitri Shostakovich: his Symphony No. 13 (Babi Yar). This work anchors the opening program of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s 2018-19 season, which is dedicated to the themes of peace and reflection. With Riccardo Muti on the podium, the CSO will be joined by the men of the Chicago Symphony Chorus and bass Alexey Tikhomirov.

    In 1961, Yevtushenko polarized Soviet society with the publication of his poem “Babi Yar,” prompted by a visit to the ravine just outside Kiev where the Nazis had carried out a mass execution of Jews in 1941. The poem was a bold attack on the enduring anti-Semitism in Soviet society. “Babi Yar” was one of five Yevtushenko poems that Shostakovich (1906-1975) set to music in his Symphony No. 13, composed in 1962. Thirty years later, Yevtushenko sat for an interview with program annotator and scholar Harlow Robinson, ahead of a Babi Yar engagement in the United States. When the CSO performed Babi Yar in 1995, under Sir Georg Solti, the interview was published in the orchestra’s program book. The following is a reprint of that article.

    Born in Zima Junction in the Irkutsk region of Siberia in 1933, Yevgeny Yevtushenko was one of the best-known contemporary Russian poets. (He died in Tulsa, Okla., on April 1, 2017.) Yevtushenko came of artistic age during “The Thaw,” an exciting, turbulent but short-lived period of cultural and political liberalization that followed Stalin’s death in 1953. In the late 1950s and early ’60s, Yevtushenko was a prominent spokesman for a new, more idealistic generation eager to end Russia’s long tradition of isolation and secrecy.

    As the youngest member of the powerful Soviet Writers Union, Yevtushenko helped to revive the oral tradition of Russian poetry. In fact, his public readings frequently filled huge athletic stadiums, and they were surrounded by the kind of hysteria associated in the West with rock concerts. Although his work remained within the bounds of the ideologically permissible, and he never crossed the line into dissidence, Yevtushenko frequently tested the limits of censorship.

    With the appearance of the poem “Babi Yar” in 1961, the controversy that had always surrounded Yevtushenko reached its height. Although many Communist Party officials were disturbed that the poem focused on Russian racism, it was approved for publication in the authoritative Literaturnaia Gazeta, becoming the first poem attacking anti-Semitism to be published in the Soviet press for decades.

    The triumphant premiere of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 13 occurred in Moscow on Dec. 18, 1962, in a tense and uncertain atmosphere: the volatile Nikita Khrushchev had just launched a new campaign against Formalist trends in Soviet art. Repeated two days later, the symphony was then abruptly removed from circulation upon orders from the Kremlin.

    Harlow Robinson: How did you come to write “Babi Yar”? How do people react to the poem today [in 1992]?

    Yevgeny Yevtushenko: When I heard the word zhid (“yid”) for the first time in Moscow, I asked what it meant. No one believed me — they thought I was pretending not to know. But my mother and father detested anti-Semites, and such bigots weren’t allowed to cross the threshold of our home. My own ancestry is very mixed: Russian, Ukrainian, Belorussian, Polish, Tartar, German, Lithuanian — but not a single drop of Jewish blood. A Jew could not have written the poem “Babi Yar” — nor a person of any other nationality. This is a poem by a Russian about the shame he feels at the history of anti-Semitism in our country and all over the world.

    Anti-Semites can never understand why I so often (and not only in “Babi Yar”) attack anti-Semitism. They simply can’t fathom that a person can feel the pain of another. That’s why they have attacked me for “Babi Yar,” accusing me of glorifying the Jewish tradition while neglecting the sufferings of my own Russian people. Last winter [in 1991], they even burned my effigy, with the words “An Agent of International Zionism” written on it. During its recent 80th anniversary, the members of the anti-Semitic political organization Pamyat even insulted my mother, an elderly newspaper kiosk vendor. They came up to her and shouted: “When are you going to kick off, you old kike, along with your offspring?”

    What is the history of your poem “Babi Yar”?

    I read “Babi Yar” for the first time publicly in Kiev in 1961. Since then, I have read it everywhere around the world, even in Franco’s Spain and in Salazar’s Portugal. But Kiev was closed to me for 28 years afterward. Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 13 was performed in Kiev only in 1991, on the 40th anniversary of the Nazi massacre.

    After the poem was published in Literaturnaia Gazeta, I received several thousand letters, mostly from Russians who supported me. But there were also threats. For 22 years after its first publication, the Soviet censors consistently refused to allow the poem to be included in any of my subsequent collections. But everybody knew the poem, anyway, and it was translated into 72 foreign languages.

    How did Shostakovich come to use your poem for his Symphony No. 13?

    We were not acquainted at the time. He telephoned me and asked, as he put it, for my “kind permission” to write music to my poem “Babi Yar.” I was stunned by his call, and answered, “But of course, please.” He replied joyfully, “Wonderful. The music is already written. Come and hear it.”

    The most thrilling performance was the very first one, when Shostakovich himself sang it for me, sitting at the piano. He played and sang all the parts: the soloist, the chorus and the orchestra. His eyes were filled with tears. He decided all by himself to set the text to music. The way he had done it amazed me. If I had been able to write music, this is exactly the music I would have written for this poem. For he had combined seemingly incompatible things: requiem, satire and sad lyricism.

    When people heard the symphony, they cried, became indignant, and — which happens very rarely — they laughed. After we met, I began to visit him often at home. We became friends.

    Could you describe your impressions of Shostakovich?

    He was a great man in a badly gilded cage. Could he have loved his cage? Of course not. He hated it, and broke his teeth and fingernails on its bars. But the roaring of this big hunted beast inside his cage was worth more, much more, than the carefree twittering of many so-called free birds. Why didn’t he emigrate? Because a monument cannot emigrate. And if he had emigrated, not only the members of his family, but all of Russian music would have been taken hostage.

    He was like the doctors in Camus’ novel The Plague, who remained and worked as well as they could in a city infected by an epidemic, wanting to save at least somebody. But Shostakovich paid with compromises for this victory of “non-emigration,” for the right to keep his homeland. And yet if you consider his “compromises” on the one hand and all his great music on the other, then the great obviously outweighs what he was forced to do.

    Describe the controversy surrounding the premiere of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 13.

    Bowing to official pressure, both the Leningrad conductor Yevgeny Mravinsky and the Ukrainian singer Boris Gmyrya had refused Shostakovich’s invitation to participate in the premiere. At the very last minute, the singer Vitaly Gromadsky agreed to fill in, and Kirill Kondrashin conducted. But the clouds that had been gathering over the Symphony before the premiere and afterward turned into a thunderstorm.

    Kondrashin was summoned by the Party Secretary for Ideology and told that “the public was disturbed” because my text didn’t contain any reference to the fact that Russians and Ukrainians died together with Jews at Babi Yar. He gave us an ultimatum: if the text wasn’t altered in some way to include this information, then the symphony would not be allowed to be performed, recorded or published. Kondrashin asked me to save the symphony. I understood what he was saying. Shostakovich never asked me about this personally — he was too subtle for that.

    But Kondrashin came to see me immediately after visiting Shostakovich. A great work might have been hidden away, and for how long, none of us could begin to predict. And so I wrote the additional lines. Kondrashin and I brought the lines to Shostakovich. He sighed and wrote them into his piano score. All the other rumors and inventions about how I wrote an entirely different version of “Babi Yar” are false, the product of those who like to take advantage of the frailty of human memory.

    Is the message of “Babi Yar” still relevant today?

    I would be happy if my poem “Babi Yar” would become irrelevant — the sooner the better. But that will happen only when anti-Semitism disappears. For the moment I don’t see that happening. But I’m hopeful that reason and kindness will in the end overcome racial hatred. At the moment, we are seeing filthy new outbreaks of anti-Semitism in both Russia and Germany. That makes it all the more appropriate and symbolic that the German conductor Kurt Masur and [I] are now going to perform together at Avery Fisher Hall, like brothers, united by the tragic shadow of Shostakovich, who summons humankind to ensure that such terrible crimes will never be repeated.

    Harlow Robinson is an author, lecturer and professor emeritus of history at Northeastern University. His books include Sergei Prokofiev: A Biography and Russians in Hollywood, Hollywood’s Russians. He is a frequent annotator and lecturer for the Boston Symphony, Lincoln Center, Metropolitan Opera Guild and Aspen Music Festival. ”

    https://cso.org/experience/article/8972/yevgeny-yevtushenko-on-babi-yar-shostakovich

  12. Everything else aside, As a 2nd generation Holocaust survivor, I find this offensive beyond words and it certainly sounds echoes of the late and unlamented Soviet empire that tried to cover up the Holocaust and nearly perpetrated its own. Just because I don’t want to fund this civil war between two evil entities that were in the same country five minutes ago and which empowers Iran anymore doesn’t mean I don’t utterly loathe Russia, which I do. Especially, now that Russia is providing Iran with its own super spy plane. Fuck Russia.

    “Statements that the Holocaust was the extermination of Jewish people alone contradict the resolution of the U.N. General Assembly,” the ministry said.’


    I’m not aware of any such U.N. General Assembly resolution but I wouldn’t put it past that corrupt, antisemitic cesspool of despots. Fuck the U.N.

    https://www.jns.org/russia-summons-israel-envoy-over-unacceptable-public-statements/

  13. @ketzel2
    Yes, buyer beware. Always a wise stratagem to follow, always.

    Regarding Byrne, he actually does bring the goods, but he is never accurate about the timing of when the goods will actually arrive – sometimes being off by months due to the fact that much of what he telegraphs is based on legal and strategic considerations which he does not control. Nonetheless, when the revelations finally do take place, it often changes the entire nature of things, such as was the case with the Halderman Report as well as the Mesa County Forensic Report #3. Even the details surrounding those matters which turn out to be less than startling also result in identifying more of the enemies inside the wire as happened in AZ on a number of occasions. So I do share your frustration, but still follow Byrne’s reports in great detail.

  14. Laura

    I would just emphasize how dangerous it is…as a proxy of Biden armed with nukes. I am perturbed at prisoner plane being shot down by Zelensky. We know how well Russia treats these prisoners. Why would they not be turned against Fascism.

    Tucker is going to explore that history which is of vital interest to Jews going back to the 1918 to 1920 Pogroms as well as the Holocaust.

    Must be central.

  15. @Peloni, you are correct, I lumped in Byrne with the rest of the Q gang, and that was unfair. However, I used to follow Byrne and stopped because I got the impression that he’s a self promoter and doesn’t come up with the goods. So not Q, but has some issues. I got bored with his screaming headlines and promises.

    I will not discount any good info from Tucker, Byrne or Putin himself. I’m only referring to the chronic problem of conservatives who dislike the fegeles so much, Putin has convinced them that he is the savior of the West. Putin plays to that crowd. To me, neutrality means knowing that all heads of state and famous journalists are not on my side, and let the buyer beware.

  16. @ketzel2
    Interesting that you call for people to listen from a neutral place and then discount what might be heard as being propaganda. Neutrality would require us to first listen, then judge based upon the merits of what is actually stated, right??? Or does neutrality require the proper bias just to be neutral?

    Speaking of neutrality and listening, you seem to have failed both tests in regards to your characterization of Byrne.

    First of all, you say that

    That’s what the 90% in Byrne’s twitter post refers to. 90% Russian and CIA and Q propaganda.

    Speaking as someone who reads everything Byrne has written over the past four and half years (it is a lot), and watched every one of his many interviews til very recently(it is also a lot), I can state with full knowledge that Byrne is quite dismissive of Q, and actually qualifies Q as being a psyop. He doesn’t follow Q, doesn’t read or quote the Q drops, and has been quite pronounced that people should recognize the fact that they will not be saved by waiting for the Q cavalry to save them, but only by actually getting out and becoming politically active.

    Also, in the same moment that you mischaracterize Byrne as a Q propagandist, you suggest that Byrne is also both a Russian or CIA propagandist. These latter two titles would appear to be rather contradictory, unless you believe that the CIA is working for the Russians.

    To be certain, Byrne has a knack of being involved in some very dodgy, very important aspects of recent history. The role he has played, however is not supportive of the CIA indoctrination nor the counter influence which would lead Americans towards abandoning their future to the totalitarians in the US govt. Instead, he has been and continues to be a very important source of financial backing and advocacy against the Washington neocons who stole the election and are currently running the US govt. He advocates against the J-6 hoax, the vaccine hoax, the election fraud and most recently what he believes led to October 7 – none of this is typical fare of the CIA or the Russians. He is very supportive of Israel, and very dismissive of the Israeli Left, another distinction to be made about claims that he is a CIA propagandist.

    In any event, I would be interested to see some of the Russian-CIA-Q propaganda, which you claim to fill 90% of what Byrne posts in his twitter feed. After all, if 90% of what Byrne posts is such enemy propaganda as you suggest, we should be able to look at nearly anything he writes…but I’ll wait for you to share what you find objectionable.

    Notably, Byrne’s twitter account is only one of four major publications which Byrne has produced over the past few years – the others being his account on Locals.com, his telegram channel and his own news sight, DeepCapture.com. Each of the other sources are far more extensive than Byrne’s twitter account because he was actually banned by Twitter, presumably by request of the CIA or one of her sister agencies, and was only freed from Twitter jail by Musks move to end the censorship, to the level he has actually ended it.

    Nonetheless, I do agree with this much of what you stated:

    I’m interested in the Putin interview, but I hope people can listen from a neutral place

    but I am not counting on much neutrality in how people might weigh what is reported, and I think you made the case for why that might be.

  17. I’m interested in the Putin interview, but I hope people can listen from a neutral place, and not automatically believe everything they hear, just because Putin is a master propagandist. Both Carlson and Byrne have markers for being CIA shills, so be prepared to sift through the kitty litter. That’s what the 90% in Byrne’s twitter post refers to. 90% Russian and CIA and Q propaganda.

  18. @Laura

    We don’t need lectures on patriotism from a Putin propagandist such as fucker carlson.

    We also should not be afraid to hear Putin answer some hard questions. Perhaps Carlson will fail to ask such hard questions, but I for one am quite interested to see what Putin has to say, particularly in light of the qualifying remarks by Patrick Byrne on the subject.

  19. The self-proclaimed “America firster” doesn’t want us to help Israel and questions the patriotism of those of us who do. We don’t need lectures on patriotism from a Putin propagandist such as fucker carlson. I hope he croaks along with putin.

    As Carlson shows up in Russia, many are speculating that he is there for more than the Opera. So who might he possibly be interviewing next?

  20. STFU Felix, you old commie.

    At every point Putin wished to avoid this war. But surely we can say that the NeoCon ideology cannot be talked to

  21. From Patrick Byrne, in anticipation that Carlson will be interviewing Putin:

    I know what Putin is going to tell Tucker (a month ago they invited me over to break it, but Tucker is a much better solution).

    It is going to change history.

  22. @Honeybee I once knew a French leftist friend who quipped, “The U.S. went straight from barbarism to decadence without going through the intervening stage of civilization.” 😀

  23. Edgar

    I had no idea Michael was so erudite but, yes, now that you mention it, it really does seem at times as though he must spend a not insignificant amount of time in the library looking for a Punch, doesn’t it?

  24. “Pot belly, beaky nose, glasses, bandy legs etc” You also “look
    Jewish”…….. According to 19th cent Punch cartoons..

  25. Putin’s Top Generals Have Gone Missing

    Feb 02, 2024

    The disappearance of top Russian generals dating back to September has sparked questions about their whereabouts amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.

    Russian and Ukrainian forces have presented different public findings since the purported death of Russian Admiral Viktor Sokolov, who Kyiv said was one of 34 Russian officers killed in late September by a missile strike executed against the headquarters of the Russian Navy’s Black Sea fleet in annexed Crimea. Sokolov was viewed by Ukrainian forces as a high-value target.

    The lack of visibility by Russia’s top general, Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov, has additionally caused wonderment regarding whether he was killed as part of a Ukrainian strike at the beginning of this year on a Russian military command post. The attack occurred near Sevastopol and in proximity to a military unit near the city of Yevpatoria, in separate strikes on the Black Sea peninsula…

    https://ukrainetoday.org/putins-top-generals-have-gone-missing/

  26. As Carlson shows up in Russia, many are speculating that he is there for more than the Opera. So who might he possibly be interviewing next?

  27. “Anti-Defamation League, Jewish Agency announce partnership to combat antisemitism
    Initiatives carried out by this partnership are to strengthen Jewish identity and its connection to Israel.”

    My comment: “strengthen Jewish identity and it’s connection to Israel” under Greenblatt? A 180 degree shift and welcome news if true.

    https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/antisemitism/article-784942?fbclid=IwAR05UkzK-jvOjDtfTxYFL7L-qd8YDS0XWrBdLUDLOYu76KDdhZUREfpjCT4

  28. At every point Putin wished to avoid this war. But surely we can say that the NeoCon ideology cannot be talked to

    Zelensky to show how smashed he is considered bringing in women and the refugees returning

    So he is beaten

    He remains only for the western government’s need to save face

    And by Putin rightly fear of the west going nuclear

    Maybe Zelensky fears his own people now a great deal and shot down his own soldiers.

  29. @Felix
    The one thing which Sleboda misses in his conversation as it relates to Zel’s war with Zal which bears noting is that in the NYT and elsewhere, an emphasis is placed upon the military being subordinate to the civilian authority in a democracy, but nowhere have i noted it being recalled that the civilian authority in a democracy only bears its authority over the military and the people due to the consent of the governed. Notably, Zel ignored the need to regain the support of his country, just as Zal ignored the need to accept the authority of Zel. Perhaps things will change, but as things stand currently, Zal isn’t going anywhere anymore than is Zel. Hence Ukraine is being governed by a rogue govt just as its military being managed by a rogue commander does seem somewhat fitting.

    One more point to raise in this conversation which was ignored was the fact that Budonov, who had no command experience, was intended to be the face of command in the army if Zel had his way, but that the real orders were likely to have come from Syrsky. Notably, Syrsky split the Ukrainian force during the infamously failed Summer Offensive in an attempt to retake Bakhmut and for his role in doing so, he received a great deal of criticism for having weakened the main focus of the offensive which was intended to be the drive to the Caspian Sea. Initially, it was believed that the Ukrainian attempt to retake Bakhmut was to only be a diversion, but this was clearly not the case as a greater portion of the forces which were to be used in the drive to the sea were chewed up in the Bakhmut, thus ending any hope of the drive to the sea being achieved. In the end Russian control of Bakhmut held, and the drive to the sea was crushed to within earshot of where it began.

    The failure of Ukrainian forces to gain any benefits in that offensive was catastrophic, and the fact that Zel and Zal are each still in their respective roles is due largely to the fact that neither of them respect the authority which placed them in these roles. For Zal, it is due to a lack of respect for the president of a non-democratic regime, and for Zel it is due to a lack of respect for the people of Ukraine and the constitution from which his authority is intended to be derived. Hence, the Rump is being led by pair of rogues, even as Ukraine’s need of more men than are now mustered on the battlefield is more evident than ever.

    Regarding Krinky, which is the beachhead on the far side of the Dnipre River being held by Ukraine, I disagree with Slobada’s assessment. In recent weeks, Ukraine has been increasingly losing control of their position in Krinky, and to be honest if they simply withdrew it would probably have been for the best given Ukraine’s inability to exploit their control of this salient. In any event, it is being reported by pro-Russian sources, albeit not Russian govt sources, that Ukraine has opened a second opening near their initial position in Krinky. If this is true, it will actually be the first point of achievement by Ukraine in some time, albeit the benefit of this second beachhead would require a Ukrainian army and logistical support to break out of this beachhead which is dubious at best currently. It is however a change in trajectory for what was Ukraine’s collapsing control over the Krinky foothold, even as the strategic import of this change is rather moot.

    In any event, time will tell if Ukraine holds onto either Krynky or Zal.

  30. Mark Sleboda…Zelensky Blocked from Firing Zaluzhny By His Own Military & the West. Has He Lost Control & Power in the Kiev Regime?
    Zelensky abandoned plan to fire his top general – NYT — RT Russia & Former Soviet Union
    Zelensky to fire top general this week – CNN — RT Russia & Former Soviet Union

    Russia Confirms US Patriot Interceptor Missiles Used to Shoot Down Russian Il-76 Full of Kiev Regime POWS Over Belgorod
    US-supplied missile shot down plane carrying Ukrainian POWs – investigators (VIDEO) — RT Russia & Former Soviet Union

  31. @Michael

    “No cigar”

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