They say history doesn’t repeat it rhymes and something about this reminds me of Stalin’s purges in the 30s. Putin has surrounded himself with obsequious Yes Men all of whom want a piece of the pie including military leaders. Anyone who pushes back falls out of favor or is arrested. And all these guys are milking the government including the military personnel. Some of the generals have properties and cars and dachas way outside their pay grade. Whether it’s selling fuel on the black market or procuring substandard rations and equipment for the military the end result is that they werent as prepared as they thought for war. They believed their own propaganda. Soldiers were kept in the dark. The Russian public is still kept in the dark, but the funerals for soldiers will keep coming. Putin has really upset his stabile regime. He is not going get exactly what he wants even if Russia crushes Ukraine.
It might be politically effective:
Instead, while Republicans are mostly siding with Biden on imposing sanctions on Russia and on banning Russian oil imports, they are simultaneously telegraphing that they will exploit the situation for political gain in any way they can.
Fighting Russian aggression while avoiding World War III is hard enough. With Republicans acting in bad faith, it’s that much harder.
Even debunked on Fox. (And what a thankless job that must be! “Hey! I just debunked in here! Could you try to keep it clean for five minutes Swanson!”)
Hello Google Play Developer,
Due to payment system disruption, we will be pausing Google Play’s billing system for users in Russia in the coming days. This means users will not be able to purchase apps and games, make subscription payments or conduct any in-app purchases of digital goods using Google Play in Russia.
Users will still be able to access Google Play and download free apps and games.
Whenever I see him I just think “chyme”, not chime
The shutdown of payment systems (Visa/Mastercard) has had a lot for knock on effects to services in Russia. For example, Sony has not come out with a statement, but PlayStation store purchasing is down in Russia because credit cards are not working
We went from this
Back to this
As much as I am pained by the destruction of cultural heritage, and as much as I know that it is deliberate, to break the will of the people, it is something that can be rebuilt. After this, Ukraine will have access to and the goodwill of a whole continent with the best historic building professionals in the world. But first we need to end this and focus on the people.
The outline of Vladimir Putin’s long war against the West has been brought into stark, almost apocalyptic relief by his brutal invasion of Ukraine, and his mass bombardment of Ukrainian civilians. The Kremlin’s plan to recreate a new Russian Empire has been noted for years in various think tanks and publications, though very few believed it.
Thanks to Observer journalist Carole Cadwalladr we know this is partly due to a ‘Great Information War’, using the fifth battlespace of propaganda and non-linear lies to deceive and distract. But after FBI investigations, congressional intelligence reports and dozens of journalistic investigations, we have confirmation from the US Army itself that Brexit was the first step in Putin’s ‘information blitzkrieg’.
But why has it taken so long to realise we were under attack? Why was there so little preparation for the biggest war in Europe in 77 years? And why did Britain do so little to counter it? The failure to do so will be seen as a bigger intelligence failure than 9/11. But was there more than wilful blindness in our (in)ability to see and predict the plans of the Kremlin?
Like say, Tory pockets lined with Russian money?
Yup. I got an email about it from my mother this morning… 
My city (Barcelona) has been pouring money in helping refugees for the past 20+ years, via setting apart entire buildings for housing refugees, to helping rebuild other cities. And we’ve faced quite our share of criticism, the most common being “not putting our people first”.
The thing has changed now, is that right wing is seeing this situation as beneficial for them, and have been tooting their own horn saying how much OUR work will save the lives of refugees.
I don’t know the rest of the world but here they are not putting (much) more money or resources to help the refugees, they are simply stealing our work and labeling. And media is not helping by putting forward this kind of articles.
Scratching my head over this poll:
ETA: OK, I looked Cygnal up, they pretty much only poll for the GOP and right wing groups. So probably these numbers are the product of partisan fantasy.
That’s a lot of people who have no idea who Xi Jinping is.
