Tuesday, April 12, 2022

Ukraine at the time of Maidan

I think Western leadership, regardless the person be it government or the private sector, needs to remember where Ukraine’s national military was at the time of the Maidan. There was no Ukrainian military at the time of the Maidan.

The then president of Ukraine was a puppet for Russia and completely disarmed Ukraine. The national military was in name only. In place of the national military for Ukraine, Yanukovych established militias with the Ukraine oligarchs. Those oligarchs serve at the pleasure of the president, therefore, the Pro-Russia militias were in place to control the people during any armed insurrection.

What occurred at the Maidan was an extension of that oligarch directive. 

When I hear President Zelenskyy speak about returning Ukraine to it’s sovereign borders including Crimea and eastern Ukraine I hear someone who has not only felt the oppression that Putin is trying to exert now, but, also a man who watched a disarmed Ukraine lose pieces of itself against it’s will.

What the West needs to understand about this, is the sheer will and determination the Ukraine military has conducted to reconstitute it’s strength and capabilities to civil fight a war after 2014, and to date repel an attack to annihilate any Ukrainian that was alive and breathing. That is a people to admire and realize the strength of people to demand a government where democracy and the Rule of Law matter.

Ukraine deserves every advantage the world can give it. They are a magnificent country to live through decades of disappoint and attempted oppression at a time when authoritarianism and dictatorial heads of state are raising their ugly heads in attacking democracy. Ukraine is literally telling the world that freedom and self-governance is the only path for civilized people.

The GOP can't hide from this. Evidently, "Stop the Steal" has an organizer.

The organization has not submitted reports to the Federal Election Commission. The movement to end the USA Constitution has money behind it.

April 12, 2022
By Zuch Everson

Women Vote Smart PAC (click here) and its treasurer Any Kremer now owe the Federal Election Commission at least $49,000 in past-due fines for failing to submit financial reports. The FEC disclosed the latest fine, $11,800 for not filing the 2021 mid-year report, on Friday.

In October, the agency referred a fine of $6,500 to the Treasury Department for collections, which was first reported by Rantt Media.

Through the nonprofit Women for America First, Kremer and her daughter Kylie organized the January 6 rally that preceded the riot at the Capitol. In September, the House select committee investigating the attack issued subpoenas to both Kremers for their records and communications regarding the rally.

Women Vote Smart violated FEC rules from its launch. Founded in May 2016 as Women Vote Trump, it changed names the following month after the FEC pointed out that using a candidate’s name violated campaign-finance rules.

In a February 2019 filing, just before Kremer became the PAC’s treasurer, Women Vote Smart reported owing Trump’s D.C. hotel $40,000. The debt was not listed in the PAC’s next report—nor was an explanation for how it was wiped out.

Another fine may be in the works: Women Vote Smart’s 2021 year-end report is a couple months past due.

Kremer did not respond to an inquiry.

OMG, "Moscow Mitch" is fired!

A tamer Trump? (click here) 

McConnell confident GOP can retake Senate with 'restrained' former president

Phillip M. Bailey, USA TODAY
Tue, April 12, 2022, 5:00 AM

Louisville - If Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell is worried about former President Donald Trump meddling in the 2022 midterm elections, he hid it well beneath his notorious stoicism in a recent USA TODAY interview.

Many political observers argue Trump cost the GOP its Senate majority leading up to the January 2021 runoff races in Georgia when he regularly made false assertions about the state's election integrity that reportedly hurt turnout among conservative voters.

Asked if the former president could once again jeopardize the GOP chances in retaking the chamber this year, the Kentucky Republican now sees a much tamer Trump.

"So far this cycle, he's been rather restrained in his nominations," McConnell told USA TODAY in a one-on-one interview....

The GOP hasn't even begun to address the tragedy of January 6th or the legal decisions of it's particpants and this is what "Moscow" has to say? Mitch McConnell is just about the most crase human being I have ever witnessed in power. He is anti-American. Trump is a Putin puppet. There isn't anything good or decent about him.

The Democrats don't have this problem. If any party in the USA has the right to be flag wavers, the Democrat Party does. 

With McConnell, a friend in need is a friend in deed, whether it be a Russian oligarch or a Putin puppet, if it bring McConnell the word "majority" instead of "minority" in front of his name he will do anything to this country to achieve it.

McConnell cannot possibly love the USA for it's democracy because he has absolutely no respect for the USA Consitution and the Rule of Law. To state he is making Supreme Court nominations a rally cry is to be anti-demoncracy. 

January 7, 2021
Melissa Brown, Kirsten Fiscus and Emily Enfinger

A north Alabama man (click here) who family said was a supporter of President Donald Trump has been identified as one of four fatalities in Wednesday's pro-Trump rally and subsequent riot. 

Kevin Greeson, of Athens, Alabama, died due to a heart attack, according to a statement from his family Thursday provided by his wife. 

"Kevin was an advocate of President Trump and attended the event on Jan. 6, 2021 to show his support," the statement reads. "He was excited to be there to experience this event. He was not there to participate in violence or rioting, nor did he condone such actions."

But social media comments apparently made by Greeson on Parler advocated for "a war" and frequently referred to armed insurrections, including a call to "storm" the U.S. Supreme Court....

He jumped off the train when it stopped and got away in the chaos.

How does it feel to be a subway communter today?

Bicycle.

It is most likely a man. With a gas mask on, who knows?

Five foot, five. That is a tough one.

 (click here)

FBI joins NYPD in frantic search for 5ft 5 gas mask gunman who shot ten NYC commuters on rush hour train before dumping his JAMMED .380 automatic, three extended round magazines and backpack in Brooklyn subway: One victim was 14-years-old

Kurt Cobain was loved. I guess it is up to everyone to understand why he was loved.

April 11, 2022
By Matt Owen

A portion of the proceeds from the sale of the guitar (click here) – which featured in the iconic 1991 music video – will go towards supporting mental health charity, Kicking The Stigma

Kurt Cobain’s iconic Fender Competition Mustang electric guitar, which appeared in the 1991 music video for Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit, is set to go up for auction for the first time in history.

The Lake Placid Blue six-string will feature in Julien’s Auctions’ three-day Music Icons event, which takes place during Mental Health Awareness Month on May 20, 21 and 22.

A portion of the proceeds from the sale of the guitar – and from other Cobain items up for sale – will go towards supporting mental health charity Kicking The Stigma(opens in new tab), which was founded by Indianapolis Colts owner, Jim Irsay....

With the lack of gun control in the USA, I am taking out stock in Yellow Police Tap.


When I was a child I remember seeing the "Do Not Cross" yellow tape at a house that burned down. It was rarely seen back then. But, with the steady flow of gun violence in the USA, I figured Yellow Police Tape and Evidence Bags were a good investment.

I can't quite bring myself to buy stock in body bags yet.


April 12, 2022
By Ryan W. Miller, Kevin McCoy, Gabriela Miranda and Eduardo Cuevas

New York - At least 10 people (click here) were shot and a gunman remains at large after an attack on a Brooklyn subway train left riders in panic Tuesday morning, city officials said....

It is a heinous premeditated crime. The gunman waited until the subway doors were closed and there was no escape. People would have been killed if they had jumped.

12 April 2022
By James Gant

This is the harrowing moment (click here) terrified passengers banged on a subway car door as they desperately tried to flee a rampaging gunman in Brooklyn this morning.

Shocking footage showed one of the travelers repeatedly launching his body against the metal frame and tugging at the handle in a bid to escape the hail of bullets.

Others recorded themselves yanking on the handgrip several times to prove it was locked, while the shooter loomed nearby.

It comes as terrified witnesses told how the shooting on the packed train triggered a horror stampede - with children trampled on as commuters ran for their lives.

Passengers revealed there was a huge surge towards the exit of the subway carriages as people screamed 'gun' and 'bomb' while the sound of shots rang out.

Cemile Toseglu, 17, a student at Brooklyn Tech who was on her way to school, said other riders jumped over her in panic while the gunman continued to cause carnage....

      

I think Lavrov is still the Foreign Minister of Russia. It seems to be a life time assignment under Putin.

Foreign Minister Lavrov gave an interview or wrote something and stated the reason Russia invaded Ukraine was to stop a USA hegamony along with NATO. He accused basically The West of genocide.

I am certain Lavrov is referring to the invasion of Iraq. We know Russia was with us when Osama bin Laden crashed jets occupied by people into New York skyscrapers and the Pentagon. So, as to Iraq. I am confident the World Courts heard from others about the atrocitiess of the USA military in Iraq. Entering that country was not an issue and very little Saddam Hussein tried to counter with his military worked.

In the course of the early war into Iraq, there were casualties on both sides, including civilians. No American ever consented to the deaths of civilians and yet it went on. I was screaming for someone to help when Bush aimed the tanks at Najaf and the Imām 'Alī Mosque. Gratefully, the Grand Ayatollah Sistani was listening and ordered civilians to bravely walk the path of their saviors and the advance of the tanks stopped. They would have slaughtered nearly 1000 or more if they continued.

Anyone in the world that understood the facts could have filed a case with the World Court, yet I remember nothing about any of that. There is a reason I believe and it is because Saddam Hussein, the man that dug mass graves for his people over and over again, was taken out of power. That more than likely ended any doubt and at the same time the American people were disapproving of the invasion into Iraq. It has been seen in history as an illegal war, but, there is always Saddam and his hate crimes to justify that invasion. 

In the case of Ukraine, Putin has tried to MODEL his invasion the same as the invasion into Iraq making President Zelensky in the image of Saddam. It is all a lie. Nothing Bush stated about Saddam was a lie. There is proof of the mass graves Saddam dug and the skeletons in them.

President Zelensky is one of the most decent men Ukraine ever put into power. He is amazing in this war he has to face. He loves the people of Ukriane and obviously Putin does not. 

Russia never had anything to be afraid of from NATO. Putin was brought on board the G8 to help Russia and not hurt it. Yet, even being a member of the G8, people affiliated with the Russian press and American business became victims to the Putin regime. Do I have to refer to The Magnitsky Act? 

The USA is a powerful country and it's very mission is to make the world a good place for Americans and in understanding that mission as a democracy, all the countries the USA considers allies and trading partners are included in that mission. Russia was in the G8 until it invaded Ukraine and stole Crimea with Eastern Ukraine locked in a civil war backed and funded by Russia. There is no way the USA could ever back such an insult to a sovereign country simply trying to self-govern while attempting to remove Russian corruption from it's banking and government structures.

Ukraine was invaded by Russia in an implusive act by a Russian president that may as well be czar. There are more than 10,000 people dead in Mariupol. That is not a war, that is genocide. 

Vladimir Putin hates Ukrainians so deeply he is sacrificing his youngest soldiers on a battlefield that is contested in it's manifestation. There is a lot wrong here. This invasion into Ukraine is nothing like the USA has done or PAID REPARATIONS to fix what was destroyed. The USA worked 20 years, an entire generation, in Afghanistan only to have extremists backed by Pakistan take over, destroy everything the USA built and oppress the people once again. That is hardly genocide by the USA. It might be by the Taliban, but, not The West.

April 12, 2022

Kyiv, Ukraine - The mayor of the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol (click here) said Monday that more than 10,000 civilians have died in the Russian siege of his city, and that the death toll could surpass 20,000, as weeks of attacks and privation leave the bodies of Mariupol’s people “carpeted through the streets.”

Speaking by phone Monday with The Associated Press, Mayor Vadym Boychenko also accused Russian forces of having blocked weeks of thwarted humanitarian convoys into the city in an attempt to conceal the carnage there from the outside world.

Mariupol has been cut off by Russian attacks that began soon after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched the invasion of Ukraine in late February, and has suffered some of the most brutal assaults of the war. Boychenko gave new details of recent allegations by Ukrainian officials that Russian forces have brought mobile cremation equipment to Mariupol to dispose of the corpses of victims of the siege....

It is about time! Putin has publicly pledged to continue the invasion into Ukraine until all his directives are met.

12 April 2022
By David Averre

Ukrainian prosecutors(click here) are expanding their war crimes investigations into the northeastern suburbs of Kyiv after Russian forces withdrew.

Investigations into civilian massacres carried out by Russian troops have primarily focused so far on the northwestern suburbs such as Bucha, Makariv and Borodyanka, but the Prosecutor-General's Office said Tuesday it was also looking into events in the Brovary district, which lies to the northeast.

Russian trooops advanced into that area last month before retreating to focus on fighting in Eastern Ukraine....