jakee

They’re completely different guys. Again - not voting for anyone who was alive 160 years ago.

Reminder, you keep telling us not to believe what the government says. Putin is the Russian government. See if you can finish that thought.

No great surprise, you’ve never really given the impression that you’re actually paying attention.

That's not exactly right. Russia has had precisely one legitimate election result ever, which was Yeltsin's first. Even Yeltsin's re-election was heavily stage managed at best, and by the time he installed Putin as his handpicked successor Russian democracy was dead and buried. What Putin has done is become more and more confortable with dropping the pretense.

An election at the point of a gun? I don’t know, where have you heard that before? An election after you’ve killed or captured all of the opposition leaders and activists? I don’t know, where have you heard that before? An election after everyone who doesn’t support your cause has fled from the destruction caused by your army? I don’t know, where have you heard that before? Funnily enough I did hear about Ukrainian elections in 2014. Putin didn’t like those results, so he invaded. Is that the Democratic way you’ve heard about?

I don’t know about you, but I’m never going to vote for someone who was alive 160 years ago.

I’m not bothered. But if you really want to help, maybe just post while sober?

Threatening nuclear war if we do not allow Ukraine to be subjugated by Russia is page one of Putin’s playbook - so as I said, it’s conquest that you’re after, not peace. You want Putin’s barbaric war of aggression to be successful and for Russia to keep the land it has seized. But it’s a play that Putin has made far too many times before. He’s set red line after red line in this conflict over what we should not give Ukraine or else… and nothing has happened. And nothing will happen. Putin is out to do what’s best for Putin, and dying in a nuclear holocaust isn’t good for him.

No, he meant homophily. It's ok to admit you don't know what that means. We should all be comfortable saying what we don't know. After all, without first acknowledging that, we'll never learn anything new. See, as an example, I'm perfectly happy saying I have no idea what any of that means.

You don't seek peace. You seek conquest. Time and time and time again you refuse to call for Russia to leave Ukraine, which anyone with half a braincell knows is the only possible foundation for real peace.

The only problem with Storm Shadow / SCALP is that we don't have enough of them and can't replenish them very quickly. Same with the cruise missiles Germany is planning to supply. So they have to be used extremely carefully. So while they've been incredibly useful they can't be used to directly support an offensive, just to reduce the Russian's overall capabilities. There was an interview with a retired US General though who did suggest what you mention above. His view was that, since it's now obvious that Kyiv is off the table, Crimea is the only thing that really matters to Putin. Supply of sufficent numbers of ATACMs and full permission to use them could effectively make all of Crimea unuseable to the Russian military. Sevastopol and other ports and airfields could be bombarded to the point that the Russian Navy and Air Force simply can't risk basing useful, high value ships and warplanes there. And at that point, maybe Putin accepts that there is no benefit left at all in continuing the war. I think he's being a little optimistic with that, but it's a course of action that would be sure to pile a lot of internal pressure on a man who's already faced one rebellion.

Right. Problem is the election challenges were insanely obviously frivolous and accepting them would have been outrageous and unprecedented. This is much more of a judgement call, and accepting it would be unprecedented and cause outrageous among their cohorts.

Great - but it’ll only disqualify him if the Supreme Court says it does, right? And, spoiler alert…

Just explain the logic on that one, would ya?

Although the Tories are going all in on trying to import the "illegal" part into our national psyche. Back to alien, interesting that the original English word meant 'foreign, strange'.

Yep. While this is a huge step forwards, it’s crazy how this is seen as the endgame win for the Ukrainians, when the USAF would never, ever countenance sending F16s into combat on their own without cover from F15 and/or F22 heavy fighters. Worth keeping in mind for expectations that while they will be getting some western fighters they really aren’t getting the western air power that we’re used to. Which is understandable in this case, but it is something that’s repeated a lot. We’re teaching Ukrainian commanders all about modern NATO tactics that have developed alongside and rely on a combined arms approach with technological superiority at every level… then we’re sending them back to fight an infantry war with a bit of artillery support.

Also, has Truth Social removed the posts doxxing the Georgia Grand Jurors, and the following posts threatening them with extreme violence? So he didn’t say it himself, but he let people shout it through his megaphone…

From the BBC: “When federal agents visited Ms Shry's home in the Houston suburb of Alvin three days later she said she had harboured no intention of going to Washington DC to carry out her threats, according to the court filing.“ Ok, so far so good. “But she allegedly added that "if Sheila Jackson Lee comes to Alvin, then we need to worry".” Oh Karen, you really shouldn’t have told the FBI you wanted to try that in a small town.

I read an excellent article this morning explaining the unfair treatment that Trump is getting from the Justice system. Trump's time in Fulton County Jail will be brief. Others die waiting In the coming days, Donald Trump will turn himself in to police in Georgia. His initial brush with the local criminal justice system is expected to last just hours - most other defendants are not so lucky... Hundreds of people were held at Fulton County Jail for more than 90 days because they had yet to be formally charged or could not afford to pay the bail bond required for their release, according to a September 2022 report from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). The report also found 117 people had waited in jail for more than a year because they had not been indicted; 12 had been held for two years for the same reason.... Noni Battiste-Kosoko was just 19 when she died in Fulton County Jail custody in July after being arrested on a less serious misdemeanour charge. Deputies found her unresponsive in her cell in the Atlanta City Detention Center, an additional space the county is leasing to alleviate overcrowding at the main jail.... Ms McClure said a number of factors have led to overcrowding in the Fulton County Jail system. For one, people charged with misdemeanours in the county are arrested and taken into custody, unlike some other Georgia jurisdictions, where defendants are generally released and given a future court date for minor offences, she said.... The contrast in experiences rankled some defence attorneys who have worked in Fulton County for years. "He's gonna be treated with kid gloves because he's a former president," said Keisha Steed, an Atlanta-area criminal defence attorney who once worked as a public defender. "And our clients are going to be kicked in the teeth." Innocent until proven guilty... but 2 years in jail just for having been arrested - not even charged, let alone convicted. Mandatory time in custody for a misdemeanor arrest. The criminalisation of poverty in the US is really on another level.

Trump must really think this one is serious - he appears to have chosen a defence lawyer on the basis of competency instead of sycophancy! Drew Findling, 64, has represented Cardi B, Migos and Gucci Mane in court, and now he is adding Donald Trump to his list of clients. His politics don’t align with Trump's - Findling once called the former president "racist" and "pathetic" on social media. But Findling says his professional life is separate from his personal tweets. “We do not choose or exclude our clients based on their political beliefs,” he told VICE News.

Is this the first case that has made people like Eastman and Meadows indicted co-conspirators?

But, like, for any reason other than 'he knows too much'?

Yeah - because just like you, a bunch of us over here are apparently stupid enough to think that the government trying not to spend money on anything more than the absolute bare minimum level of service is better than committing to spending sufficient money on a wide enough range of services in the first place. Thanks for pointing out just how catastrophic those policies can be.

It’s a good thing that’s not what I said then, isn’t it? You are a constitutional republic, you are also a democracy. A rudimentary understanding of what those words mean would clear things up for you.

Which is a democracy.