Sunday, March 27, 2022
Putin can purge as many officials as he wants and fill up the Gulag. USA intelligence is not dependent on Russians.
Demonstrations continue in Slavutych.
Saturday, March 26, 2022
The global community MUST begin this dialogue.
By Ashley Parker and Tyler Pager
There is no mistake, this is planned genocide of the Ukraine people.
March 19, 2022
By Meg Kelly and Karly Domb Sadof
New satellite imagery (click here) collected Saturday morning shows the damage done to Ukraine’s stately Mariupol Drama Theater during Russian shelling this week. The image, which was provided to The Washington Post by Maxar Technologies, shows more than half the roof collapsed. The remaining portion is mangled, buckling inward. Rubble is visible on both sides of the building, and portions of the interior appear to be burned.
Mariupol, a southern Ukrainian port on the Sea of Azov, had been cut off from the outside world for more than two weeks when a Russian airstrike hit the theater Wednesday.
Hundreds of women, families with young children and the elderly had sought shelter in the theater this week, according to local officials. The Post was not able to verify that account. Little independent reporting is available from the besieged city. Internet access is scarce, if available at all, and many reporters and photographers covering Mariupol have left the city because of safety concerns....
True to form, The West sees hypersonic as a means to profit.
The BOLT II (click here) hypersonic flight experiment will launch Monday night from NASA’s Wallops Test Flight Facility in Virginia.
Hypersonic vehicles, which can fly much faster than passenger jets, would allow passengers to go from Sydney to Los Angeles, for instance, in just a couple of hours.
They could also offer more flexible options for launching payloads into space than conventional rockets and their speed and maneuverability mean they have a range of potential tactical military uses too.
Russia and China already claim to have operating hypersonic missiles, but hypersonic passenger aviation is still a dream rather than reality.
Nevertheless, several types of hypersonic vehicles already exist, including rockets, planetary entry vehicles such as SpaceX’s Dragon capsule and intercontinental ballistic missiles....
Putin needs to be humble. China already is.
By Kyle Mizokami
The United States and Australia (click here) conducted a joint missile test earlier this month of a hypersonic missile capable of traveling faster than six thousand miles an hour. The test of the HiFiRE vehicle paves the way for a new generation of hypersonic weapons that can strike enemies with a minimum of reaction time.
The test, first reported by Flightglobal, was conducted jointly by Australia's Defence Science and Technology Group and the U.S. Air Force Research Lab at the Woomera Test Range in Australia. According to the site, the tests involved the HiFiRE scramjet vehicle. Here's a very short video of the launch:
Australia's News.com later linked the test to an unexplained fireball that was seen that night over much of the southern Australian outback.
The HiFiRE program has been ongoing since 2009, when the first test involving the scramjet engine took place. Previous tests have involved HiFiRE being lofted upward on an Orion sounding rocket with an S-30 rocket as a first stage....
Liars.
Russia's military goals in Ukraine (click here) have been hazy since it began its invasion more than a month ago, and new statements suggest Moscow may consider claiming victory without completely overthrowing the Ukrainian government or capturing Kyiv.
Western analysts and leaders were skeptical of the Friday statements, where the deputy chief of the Russian general staff said his forces had largely achieved the "main objectives" of a first phase of the conflict. The power of the Ukrainian military has been "considerably reduced," freeing up troops to "focus on the main efforts to achieve the main goal, liberation of Donbas," said Col. Gen. Sergei Rudskoi.
The implications of the statement are difficult to determine, according to Stephen Biddle, a professor of international and public affairs at Columbia University who has studied U.S. wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere....
Friday, March 25, 2022
There is movement in the Flint, Michigan poisoning of residents.
By Courtney Bennett
It has been 15-months (click here) since the Michigan Solicitor General announced charges against nine people in connection to the Flint water crisis.
Through a one-man grand jury, these nine were indicted.
Now, two defendants say want a preliminary exam because their lawyers say a one-man grand jury is not constitutional under Michigan law.
In eight years no one connected to the Flint water crisis has been convicted of any wrongdoing.
Defense attorneys for Nick Lyon and nancy peeler argue the one-man grand jury is causing harm to these defendants.
“The question that the court really has to ask is, does it have a sufficient set of facts?," said Wayne State Law professor Peter Hammer....
By Murjani Rawls
U.S. District Judge Judith Levy (click here) ruled that former Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder and four other officials must testify in the Flint water crisis civil trial against several engineering firms, Detroit Free Press reports.
Lockwood, Andrews & Newman, and Veolia North America are being sued on behalf of children harmed by the contaminated drinking water. The companies were not a part of the $626.5 million settlement agreement granted in 2021. Attorneys representing the children allege the companies were negligent in not doing more to get the city to properly treat water that was being pulled from the Flint River in 2014-15....
Missiles and petroleum infrastructure don't mix.
Footage shows (click here) flames billowing from a gas pipeline that was hit by a Russian strike. Firefighters also raced to put out a fire at a nearby market that was struck by Russian shells.
This was caused by 3 to 4 Russian missiles hitting a gas pipeline in Ukraine.
While in Saudi Arabia, Houthi rebels fired a single missile at Jeddah.
There are many, many established organizations involved with the refugee efforts.
CORE (click here) and UNICEF (click here) are only two currently providing help and housing to displaced Ukrainians.
It is an entire country of more than 44 million people. It creates enormous demands on the global community.
There are agreements and treaties regarding chemical and biological weapons.
The focus has always been to eliminate them and not propagate them. Why? Because these weapons do not only concentrate on military installations and results in large number of dead and sick civilians. Wars are not suppose to wipe out entire populations of people.
If Russia believes the USA was involved inappropriately and violated a treaty, there are methods to stop it. This propaganda strategy by Russia is to ignite the right wing media in the USA to bring sympathy for Russia and a degree of loyalty.
Many of the Soviet-era (click here) chemical and biological weapon programs date from an 17 August 1967 decree of the CPSU Central Committee and the USSR Council of Ministers, which directed preparations for chemical-biological war. This marked the beginnings of the secret "F" programs, which included the "Flute," "Fouette," and "Fagot" biological weapon programs, as well as the the "Flask," "Ferment," and "Factor" efforts. The "Flora" program was established by a 5 January 1973 decree of the CPSU Central Committee and the USSR Council of Ministers.
The Russian Federation is the home of the former Soviet stockpile of chemical weapons – consisting of a declared stockpile of nearly 40,000 metric tons of chemical nerve, blister and choking agents. According to some reports, the total stockpile exceeds 50,000 tons, with an additional 32,300 ton stockpile of phosphorus agents.
During World War II, production of all types of chemical agents increased dramatically. Yperite alone was produced by 30 plants with a total capacity of 35,000 tons/year, and Lewisite was produced by 13 plants. Industrial production of sarin began in 1958-1959, production of soman began in 1967, and industrial production of V-agents began in 1972. In the early 1980's special storage facilities were built at industrial sites in Volgograd, Novocheboksarsk, Zaporozhye, Pavlodar, Volsk, and a number of other cities.
Production of chemical weapons was discontinued in Russia in 1987. Russia has officially stated its commitment to destroy, and not replace, its declared CW stocks. The Russian Duma, on December 27, 1996, passed a law on the destruction of CW; however, the Federation Council voted it down on January 23, 1997, on the grounds that it did not provide sufficient guarantees for ecological safety.
On 23 September 1989 Secretary of State James Baker and Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze signed the Wyoming Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), which called for a bilateral exchange of information and verification inspections for chemical weapons. Two phases comprise the Wyoming MOU.
Phase I consisted of a data exchange data pertaining to CW capabilities, including the aggregate quantity of CW, types of chemicals in CW, percentage of chemicals in munitions and storage containers, and locations of CW storage, production and destruction facilities. Moscow declared some 20 former chemical weapon production facilities and filling plants that were operational after January 1, 1946, including multiple buildings within the large chemical production complexes at Chapayevsk, Dzerzinsk, Volgograd, and Novocheboksarsk. Each side visited CW storage, production, destruction and industrial chemical production facilities from June-August 1990. Phase I concluded with expert visits during January-February 1991 to five U.S. and one Soviet facility....
Metabiota is an American company.
Metabiota’s team includes global leaders in epidemiology, veterinary medicine, laboratory science, data science, actuarial science, social science, and political economics, and serves some of the most respected customers in the corporate, insurance, government, and multilateral sectors.
Beside Putin, there are three Russian generals now known responsible for genocide.
Regardless the actual number of Russian soldiers killed the reporting to the Russian people have been vastly under reported. There is a reason for that. It is far easier to lie to the Russian people if Putin's generals admit there were losses. There is no official number in Russia. There is no counter reporting of facts. So, the statements of Russian military generals will be considered accurate. The families and friends of those lost in combat are talking to each other about the invasion of Ukraine. The Russian people in most cities know of losses the city is seeing, but, without accurate official accounting every city can believe their war dead are the highest in number.
Moscow will consider their sacrifice the greatest while other Russian cities consider their sacrifice the greatest. Without comparison of the number of soldiers now considered dead in any one city, there is only the understanding that the losses were greatest in certain cities.
It is easy for Russian propaganda to create misinformation through isolation of any other truth.
Virginia Thomas, wife of Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, rather a dictatorship to democracy.
By Bob Woodward and Robert Costa
Virginia Thomas, (click here) a conservative activist married to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, repeatedly pressed White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to pursue unrelenting efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election in a series of urgent text exchanges in the critical weeks after the vote, according to copies of the messages obtained by The Washington Post and CBS News.
The messages — 29 in all — reveal an extraordinary pipeline between Virginia Thomas, who goes by Ginni, and President Donald Trump’s top aide during a period when Trump and his allies were vowing to go to the Supreme Court in an effort to negate the election results.
On Nov. 10, after news organizations had projected Joe Biden the winner based on state vote totals, Thomas wrote to Meadows: “Help This Great President stand firm, Mark!!!...You are the leader, with him, who is standing for America’s constitutional governance at the precipice. The majority knows Biden and the Left is attempting the greatest Heist of our History.”...
Carlson allies Putin in USA propaganda campaign.
Practice hard-hitting journalism with confidence (click here)
The Craig Newmark Center for Ethics and Leadership takes a practical approach to the ever-changing pressures on journalism and democracy. We are an authoritative voice for journalists, citizens and everyone interested in elevating discourse and fact-based expression while battling disinformation and bias. Through the work of the Center, journalism can evolve its values and the public will better understand how those values impact their everyday lives, building practices of mutual trust and transparency.
By: Jeff Cercone and Jon Greenberg
Russia, China and right-wing American media (click here) have been spreading false stories about U.S.-backed bioweapon labs in Ukraine.”We confirm facts, unearthed as part of the special military operations, which testify to an emergency attempt to erase evidence of military biological programs,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said March 9.
China’s Foreign Ministry tweeted March 8, “The US has 336 labs in 30 countries under its control, including 26 in Ukraine alone. It should give a full account of its biological military activities at home and abroad and subject itself to multilateral verification.”
Fox News’ Tucker Carlson joined in March 9, saying, “We never imagined Ukraine would have biological weapons.”
But as Carlson described it, his eyes were opened when Victoria Nuland, U.S. undersecretary of state, had this exchange with Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla....
The United Nations has been assessing the violence in Ukrine by Russia.
UNDP (United Nations Development Program) (click here) works in more than 170 countries and territories, helping to achieve the eradication of poverty and the reduction of inequalities and exclusion. We help countries develop policies, leadership skills, partnering abilities, institutional capabilities and build resilience in order to sustain development results.
16 March 2022
War in Ukraine risks seeing 90 per cent of the country “freefall into poverty” and extreme vulnerability, nearly three weeks since Russia invaded its neighbour, a new UN report said on Wednesday.
UNDP warned )click here) that if the conflict drags on – and if more support to the country is not forthcoming quickly – it could wreck almost two decades of economic progress.
In addition to dire development setbacks, the UN agency explained that the environment is expected to suffer, while societal inequalities are likely increase....
March 16, 2022
The immediate humanitarian assistance (click here) to the people of Ukraine is of utmost importance and at the center of global attention. Early estimates by the Humanitarian Country Team indicate that nearly 30 percent of the population are likely to require life-saving humanitarian assistance. In its current scale and direction, 18 million people are projected to become affected and more than 7 million people internally displaced.
The development impacts of the war in Ukraine remain too much below the waterline of public visibility, in Ukraine, regionally and globally. Early UNDP projections suggest that already in the short- to medium term, the development setbacks for Ukraine will be significant. Poverty and inequalities will rise; the country’s economy, its social fabric, and the environment will suffer....
President Joe Biden is the one most qualified person to be president of the USA in this time in history.
The U.S. has announced (click here) new sanctions against Russia and said it would welcome 100,000 refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine as President Joe Biden met with world leaders for a series of emergency summits.
Biden said Thursday that Russia should be removed from the G-20, the group that represents 20 of the world's largest economies, as Western allies gathered in Europe to discuss new support for Kyiv.
That includes imposing further punishment on Moscow one month after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched Europe's biggest conflict since World War II....
Elite Chechen squads were also reportedly recruited for failed attempts to assassinate key Ukrainian leaders in the first 48 hours of the invasion, western intelligence said....
By Rachael Bunyan
...Concerns have been raised of a nuclear disaster (click here) after Russian troops began shelling the Ukrainian town where staff working at the Chernobyl plant live.
The continued Russian shelling of Ukrainian checkpoints in the city of Slavutych, home to many Chernobyl nuclear workers, is preventing worker rotations in and out of the plant.
The bombing comes just a few days after Ukrainian technicians who were being held by Russian forces to maintain the defunct nuclear plant for nearly four weeks without being rotated were finally able to go back to their homes in Slavutych....
There is a report of mutiny (click here) in protest of Russian soldiers dying. The tank driver ran over his colonel for having killed his friends. Some Russian soldiers are defecting. Assassins invoked by Putin to enforce loyalty aren't going to work against tanks.
The Russian soldiers never bargained for this. They went on maniveurs that turned into an attack on Ukraine. There were not prepared for war.
Heroes are erupting in Europe.
...Fluri (click here) has so far rescued more than 300 Ukrainians so far. He says it is an “obligation” for him. When you are fortunate later in life, you have to learn to take responsibility for people who are suffering, says Fluri...
There are reports stating Russia has prevailed in Mariupol with 400,000 taken hostage including 84,000 children. The hostages have been moved inside Russia. Evidently, a general is emerging at the face of the new directive by Putin called "Butcher of Mariupol" (click here). With tactics deployed resembling the same used in Syria, there is reason to believe it is the same leadership.
China is engaging in diplomacy.
March 25, 2022By Krishna N. Das and Sanjeev Miglani
Both nations have deployed thousands of troops on the high-altitude border since hand-to-hand fights killed 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers northern Himalayan region of Ladakh in June 2020. Talks between senior military officers have made little progress....
China’s foreign minister (click here) made a surprise stop on Thursday in Afghanistan’s capital to meet with the country’s new Taliban rulers — even as the international community fumes over the former insurgents’ broken promise to reopen schools to girls beyond the sixth grade.
The official Bakhtar News Agency announced that Wang Yi will meet with Taliban leaders “to discuss various issues, including the extension of political relations, economic, and transit cooperation.”
The Taliban, who seized power in August 2021 during the last, chaotic weeks of the withdrawal of U.S. and NATO forces from Afghanistan after 20 years of war, have been seeking international recognition in order to open up the country’s economy, which has been in free fall since their takeover.
China has not shown any inclination to recognize the Taliban government but has avoided criticizing the new rulers despite their repressive rules directed particularly at women, who are denied the right to work and full access to education....
Wednesday, March 23, 2022
I will be traveling for a few days.
I think it is time Russia leave Ukraine. It has been a disasterous and unprovoked war. The deaths will only escalate. There is no reason for this to continue. This entire mess is a travesty.
March 22, 2022By Dominic Nicholls
Ukraine's peace negotiators (click here) may not be prepared for the belligerent KGB tactics of their Russian counterparts, a senior government adviser has warned.
Luliia Osmolovska, an adviser to the Ukraine government, said Moscow's team was taught to belittle opponents and would not engage constructively in talks with Kyiv until there was a “moment of ripeness”.
She told The Telegraph: “This moment appears when both parties understand the status quo is intolerable for both of them and they can't resolve issues unilaterally without communicating and engaging in cooperation with the other side.
“The Russians still don't feel this sense of ripeness for them, despite the fact that they are obviously underperforming heavily on the battlefield.”
Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin's spokesman, said on Tuesday that the negotiations were "going a lot slower" than Moscow hoped. Putting the results before a referendum, as Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, has promised, would only "undermine the process", he said....