Capitol attack investigators zero in on far-right Oath Keepers and Proud Boys
Panel appears to believe militias coordinated to physically stop certification of Joe Biden’s election victory on 6 January last year
The panel’s working theory – which has not been previously reported though the justice department has indicted some militia group leaders – crystallized this week after obtaining evidence of the coordination in testimony and non-public video, according to two sources familiar with the matter.
Counsel on the select committee’s “gold team” examining Donald Trump, the “red team” examining January 6 rally organizers, and the “purple team” examining the militia groups, are now expected to use the findings to inform the direction for the remainder of the investigation, the sources said.
For more of what these groups were up to, see Daily Kos reporting from Brandi Buchman.
Strategic messaging here. @PressSec says it’s possible @POTUS will get COVID, would still be able to carry out his duties.
Ukraine’s ‘iron general’ is a hero, but he’s no star
Meet Valeriy Zaluzhnyy, the commander in chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, who’s quietly leading the fight against Russia’s invaders.
If a single person can be credited with Ukraine’s surprising military successes so far — protecting Kyiv, the capital, and holding most other major cities amid an onslaught — it is Zaluzhnyy, a round-faced 48-year-old general who was born into a military family, and appointed as his country’s top uniformed commander by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in July 2021. Zaluzhnny and other Ukrainian commanders had been preparing for a full-on war with Russia since 2014.
Unlike, say, “Stormin’” Norman Schwarzkopf, who led U.S. troops in the first Persian Gulf War, or David Petraeus, who presided over the Iraq war and was nicknamed “King David,” Zaluzhnyy has largely avoided the spectacle of a celebrity commander — deferring that role to Zelenskyy, a former actor and comedian who has captured the public’s imagination.
so Finland will be officially applying for NATO membership…full credit goes to master strategist Vladimir Putin who will have managed to increase Russia’s border with NATO with 150%…and thus alleviated Russia’s long-standing security concerns…
Ukraine’s success illuminates a strategy that has allowed a smaller state to—so far—outlast a larger and much more powerful one.
The Ukrainian way of war is a coherent, intelligent, and well-conceived strategy to fight the Russians, one well calibrated to take advantage of specific Russian weaknesses. It has allowed the Ukrainians to maintain mobility, helped force the Russians into static positions for long periods by fouling up their logistics, opened up the Russians to high losses from attrition, and, in the Battle of Kyiv, led to a victory that has completely recast the political endgame of the Russian invasion. The original maximalist Russian attempt to seize all of Ukraine has been drastically scaled back to a far more limited effort aimed at seizing territory in the east and south of the country.
The Ukrainian way of war has a few foundational elements that we have seen in operation around Kyiv and across the country. They are:
Contesting air supremacy over the area of battle;
Denying Russia control of cities, complicating the Russian military’s communications and logistics;
Allowing Russian forces to get strung out along roads in difficult-to-support columns; and
Attacking those columns from all sides.
all the more remarkable for the fact that Graham was wearing a tie at a press conference earlier in the day he took it off
Reports of the Israeli coalition’s demise and Netanyahu’s comeback are greatly exaggerated. For now.
On Wednesday morning, Israel was rocked by a revolt that appeared to reshuffle its political map. A single lawmaker from the governing coalition, Idit Silman, dramatically announced that she would be defecting to the opposition. Why does this move by someone most people have never heard of matter? It’s math. The Israeli parliament, or Knesset, has 120 seats. With Silman’s switch, it is now split 60–60 between coalition and opposition. The anti-Netanyahu government that took office in June 2021 no longer has a majority.
Is this the end of the new Israeli government? Will Netanyahu return to power? How exactly did this happen, and what comes next? Here are five insights that help untangle these questions and explain where Israel is heading.
There is no world in which Democrats could have won in 2022 by being more moderate and working-class friendly.
The child tax credit was the ultimate kitchen-table issue. Then Republicans killed it. They own—lock, stock, and two smoking barrels—the act of taking this money away from working families.
And yet the same voters who benefitted from this program are basically ¯_(ツ)_/¯
So maybe this political moment isn’t actually about kitchen-table issues? Or about Democrats not being friendly to moderate, working-class voters? Maybe outcomes are being wildly overdetermined by environmental factors beyond the control of either party?
Maybe—and I’m just thinking out loud here—Republicans could run a bunch of crazy, violent extremists whose platforms are entirely backward-looking and still do very well in the midterms.
Maybe Democrats could do everything perfecto—could run the administration of Mitt Romney’s moderate, working-class dreams—and still lose both the House and Senate.
We need a lot more straight thinking and honorable senators like @brianschatz to take the truth and the fight right to sedition friendly degenerates like @HawleyMO. Seriously, all the senators who aren’t planting this flag are wasting voters time. Take a moment and watch this. https://t.co/zQkGxZRVo6
A Democrat erupts at Josh Hawley, and a ‘loudness’ gap is revealed
“Democrats need to make more noise,” Sen. Brian Schatz told me. “We have to scream from the rooftops, because this is a battle for the free world now.”
I contacted the Hawaii Democrat to talk about his extraordinary eruption at Sen. Josh Hawley on the Senate floor Thursday. Schatz ripped his Missouri Republican colleague over his hold on a senior staffing nominee to the Defense Department, even as the United States is calibrating its response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
But that was the superficial cause of the eruption. The deeper catalyst was how Hawley is doing this — that his arguments are saturated in almost bottomless levels of bad faith. That’s the real topic of Schatz’s tirade, and you should watch all of it…
This raises some questions: Why don’t Democrats create moments like this more often? Are there other ways of getting loud, as Schatz did here, that don’t degrade our politics and are substantively and politically productive?
Germany is an interest exception (as usual, I suppose), where AfD support is strongest among voters aged 35-44.
LGBTQ issues are at center stage. What does the public think?
What polls say on Florida’s ’Don’t Say Gay’ law, transgender athletes and other issues
We have had a very limited — and often unclear and even contradictory — picture of where Americans stand on these issues, thanks to a paucity of public polling. That is beginning to change, though. Below are some takeaways from, and analysis of, the recent polling.
Legitimately stunning to watch Disney transform practically overnight into a supervillain for conservatives. It’s hard to overstate just how important Disney was to the project of conservatism – culturally, socially, even economically – for nearly a century.
Hello, Friday folks! It was a week that continued to stress us out, but also one filled with the kinds of moments that remind us all of how far we have come toward achieving a greater union. It is a reminder of what can be achieved in our country, and why we must all continue to be dedicated to the unfinished work.
Will Donald Trump ever go away? Probably not as soon as most of us would like, which would have been about seven decades ago. Right now, hearing Donald Trump’s name almost exclusively tied to legal actions doesn’t bug one nearly as much as hearing the droning dirge of bigotries from people like Marjorie Taylor Greene or Paul Gosar. And there is good news this week, as Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson was confirmed and becomes the first Black woman on the Supreme Court in the history of our country. That is a historic moment worth being alive for.
The GOP’s crack team of doctors (sorry, “quack” team—damn you, spellcheck!) includes such luminaries as Mehmet Oz, Ben Carson, Scott Atlas, and Ronny Jackson, the dude who turned a slovenly heap of fly-pocked Crisco into a Greek Adonis through the magic of barmy bullsh*t.
Now Jackson, who leveraged his unique proximity to Donald Trump’s eminently unkissable bum into a congressional seat, is under investigation by the House Ethics Committee. We don’t exactly know why yet, but if his past assessments of Trump’s “health” are any indication, it likely has to do with rank dishonesty.
The committee’s chairman, Rep. Ted Deutch (D-Fla.), and top Republican, Rep. Jackie Walorski (Ind.), said in a statement that the panel has extended its review of Jackson after receiving a referral from the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE), an independent watchdog, in late December.
The statement from the House Ethics Committee did not detail the allegations against Jackson.
But a spokesperson for Jackson said that the review concerns his campaign finance activities and that the former White House physician-turned-lawmaker has cooperated with the investigation.
You’ll recall Jackson’s North Korean-like spin from his days as Trump’s personal physician, when he issued a bizarre, fawning report on his health—saying, among other things, “He has incredibly good genes, and it’s just the way God made him. … I told the President that if he had a healthier diet over the last 20 years he might live to be 200 years old.”
Okay, the only way Trump lives to be 200 is if he’s literally sucking the life energy out of me, instead of—as I’ve assumed all along—merely sapping my will to live. The guy is more milkshake than man, for fuck’s sake. My intestinal fluke, Skippy, has a more refined palate. I’m actually a little surprised Trump never gave the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Mayor McCheese.
But there Jackson was, spewing a hagiographic profile of Trump that likely bore little relation to reality. And “good genes”? I did Nazi that coming.
Of course, this isn’t the first time Jackson has been accused of sketchy behavior. A March 2021 Department of Defense inspector general report raised red flags about the rear admiral’s (RDML) conduct while he served as White House physician.
Allegations about his explosive temper and creating a hostile work environment are consistent throughout his time in both the Obama and Trump administrations as an “overwhelming majority of witnesses (56) … who worked with RDML Jackson from 2012 through 2018 told us they personally experienced, saw, or heard about him yelling, screaming, cursing, or belittling subordinates,” the report says.
“Many of these witnesses described RDML Jackson’s behavior with words and phrases such as ‘meltdowns,’ ‘yells’ for no reason,’ ‘rages,’ ‘tantrums,’ ‘lashes out,’ and ‘aggressive.’ These witnesses also described RDML Jackson’s leadership style with terms such as ‘tyrant,’ ‘dictator,’ ‘control freak,’ ‘hallmarks of fear and intimidation,’ ‘crappy manager,’ and ‘not a leader at all,'” it adds.
On a presidential trip to Manila from April 22, 2014, to April 29, 2014, four witnesses who traveled with then-President Barack Obama and Jackson said that Jackson became intoxicated and made inappropriate comments about a female medical subordinate.
Gee, is it any wonder why Jackson loves Trump so much?
We’ll see where this goes, but this investigation couldn’t happen to a nicer guy. As The Independent notes, “Mr. Jackson frequently alleges without evidence that [President Biden] is ‘senile’ and has accused Democrats of weaponising new variants of the coronavirus to assist in this year’s midterm elections.”
In other words, Jackson’s gone full MAGA—he’s dishonest and corrupt to the core. Godspeed, investigators. Godspeed.
Famed civil rights activist and author Ruby Bridges testified before Congress in a hearing Thursday titled “Free Speech Under Attack: Book Bans and Academic Censorship.”
The panel included Bridges along with three high school students, a parent, a teacher, a librarian, and vice president of academic affairs at the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, Dr. Jonathan W. Pidluzny.
Last year, a Tennessee group called Moms for Liberty turned their book-banning ire to Bridges’ book, Ruby Bridges Goes to School: My True Story, focusing particularly on the photos that showed the hordes of outraged white parents protesting Bridges’ integration into the school, the Orlando Sun-Sentinel reported.
Bridges testified that when she first learned about the banning of her books, her instinct was to avoid responding altogether.
“However, as these bans have gained even more momentum,” she testified, “I feel it is now more important to speak up. … My books are written to bring people together. Why would they be banned? But the real question is, why are we banning any books at all? Surely we are better than this. We are the United States of America with freedom of speech.”
Bridges talked about her own books (she has written five), saying that she has “purposely highlighted and lifted up those human beings as Americans who were seeking the best version of our country.” She specifically mentioned Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, who helped to win the landmark case “that set me on this journey.”
Bridges is best known as the first Black student to integrate an all-white elementary school in Louisiana in 1960. She was famously escorted daily by four federal marshals and sat alone in a classroom all year with Barbara Henry, notably the only teacher willing to accept her.
“When I share my experiences, my story in these books, I share our shared history—good, bad, and ugly,” she says.
Bridges said when she was growing up, there was no Black History Month, and textbooks left out the stories of Black Americans. She says she didn’t learn the full context of her own history until she was 17 years old—when a reporter showed up at her home with the Norman Rockwell painting depicting her famous walk into the school.
“Until that moment, I thought my experience in 1960 was contained to my own neighborhood, in my own community, or on my own street. I questioned if it really even mattered at all,” she said.
But it was seeing the painting helped Bridges realize how monumental her integration into the school was. She emphasized to the fact that the knowledge didn’t come from a textbook.
“The truth is rarely do children of color see themselves in these textbooks we are forced to use. I write because I want them to understand the contributions their ancestors have made to our great country—whether that contribution was made as slaves or volunteers. My books are written to inspire a generation and to continue to build this great country, because indeed there is much work to be done.”
Bridges ended by saying that if there’s going to be a conversation about banning books, then “Let’s have it.” But she adds that it must “include all books. … If we are to ban books for being too truthful, then surely we must ban those books that distort or omit the truth.”
Below are Bridges’ full remarks:
“The real question is, why are we banning books at all? Surely, we are better than this. We are the United States of America.” —Ruby Bridges speaking at today’s hearing on #bannedbooks and academic censorhip pic.twitter.com/TvoxiTb4bR
— Oversight Committee (@OversightDems) April 7, 2022
Rep. Jamie Raskin, chairman of the Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, held the hearing to investigate efforts across the nation by parents, school boards, and lawmakers to ban books in public libraries and schools.
“The First Amendment, I used to tell my constitutional law students, is like Abe Lincoln’s golden apple of liberty. Everybody just wants to take one bite out of it,” Raskin said in his opening remarks. “Someone wants to censor Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn because it uses the n-word and someone else wants to censor Ibram Kendi’s Antiracist Baby because they think it means babies can be racists. Everybody wants to take a bite out of the apple, and if we allow all those bites, there will simply be no apple left,” Raskin said.
According to the American Library Association (ALA), in 2021 there were 729 challenges for the banning or removal of nearly 1,600 books in the country’s libraries and schools, “with most books written by or about Black or LGBTQIA+ persons.”
ALA President Patricia “Patty” Wong said it was “the highest number of attempted book bans since we began compiling these lists 20 years ago.”
Tina Peters is the MAGA-supporting Mesa County, Colorado, elections clerk who along with her deputy, Belinda Knisley, was recently indicted on charges connected to breaching election security, allowing the Dominion voting machines under their care be tampered with by a third party—a man named Gerald Wood. During that time she reportedly flew around on pillow hawker Mike Lindell’s private jet, was bunked up in one of the MyPillow CEO’s “safe houses,” and appeared to make baseless election fraud claims at Lindell’s marathon-of-nothingness “Cyber Symposium” imagination-dumborium.
On Tuesday, Lindell and others appeared at a so-called “Election Truth Rally” at the Colorado Capitol. Lindell might be ridiculous but besides Peters, the Colorado Sun reports that “Republicans, including state Reps. Dave Williams, Ron Hanks, Richard Holtorf and Mark Baisley,” were all at an event that is promoting the idea the 2020 elections were stolen from just Donald Trump—and no other candidates. During the rally, Lindell boasted that Tina Peters’ shady legal defense fund (which is already being investigated) got a big boost from Lindell himself. “I probably put in three, four or five, maybe $800,000, of my own money,” he said.
That would likely be an ethics violation.
According to the Sun, “Colorado’s Constitution prohibits elected officials from accepting a gift greater than $65, including for travel.” You can see the law here. During all of this time, Peters has remained an elected official, albeit with virtually everyone asking her to resign. In fact, after being arrested twice in one week, Peters announced she would be leaving her post to run for Colorado secretary of state—a position that would put her in charge of all the Centennial State’s election security. Meanwhile, Colorado’s actual Secretary of State Jena Griswold has successfully been able to keep Peters and Knisley banned from any participation in the state’s elections since 2020, and has continued to pursue legal avenues that would have Peters permanently banned from overseeing elections.
When pressed on this reported $800,000, Peters’ defense is that he’s dumb as a brick. She has no knowledge of Lindell paying for her defense. Who is this “defense”? What is money? Where am I? Of course, as Colorado NBC affiliate 9 News reports, Peters’ amnesia contradicts her previous stance of telling her supporters to “send money to Lindell for her legal defense.” Peters’ full statement:
“Mike Lindell, is the CEO of My Pillow and while speaking to reporters at the rally, Lindell guessed that he had invested hundreds of thousands of dollars into legally defending election integrity efforts. Tina Peters is focused on running a race to become the next Secretary of State of Colorado and has no knowledge of Lindell’s spending.”
MyPillow guy Mike Lindell is either going broke, or he’s flush with money, or he’s a conman—or he’s all three. The rabid intensity with which he has gone after promoting (while producing nothing in support of) the conspiracy theory that the 2020 elections were stolen from Donald Trump by “globalists” is anxiety-producing. Known as the “Big Lie,” the theory is elastic and stretches to meet the expectations of whomever asks a simple question piercing the logic behind it.
Peters has not maintained her innocence in all of this, since she seems to have clearly broken laws and abused the power and privilege of her position as Mesa County Clerk and Recorder. Instead, like any good Trump-loving MAGA person, Peters has cried and cried about how she is being persecuted. You know, like Jesus. During Tuesday’s rally, Peters told the people assembled that she isn’t running for secretary of state for herself; she’s doing it for humanity. “I went, ‘I got to stand up.’ I said, ‘I’m running into the fire for you.’” I can’t remember which gospel it’s in, probably Luke because of how eloquent it is, but we all remember the story of Jesus and his multiplying for the masses:
“Late in the afternoon on Election Day, the Twelve came to him and said, “Send the crowd away so they can go to the surrounding villages and countryside and find comfort and lodging, because we are in a remote place here.”
He replied, “You give them some more vague conspiracies to ponder. But first turn off the security cameras.”
They answered, “We have only five half-baked conspiracy ideas and two fundraisers.”
But he said to his disciples, “Have them sit down in groups of about 50 each.” The disciples did so, and everyone sat down. Taking the half-baked conspiracy ideas and two fundraisers and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke election security by having some random guy download secured software and data, as well as giving him passwords to access elections equipment he was not vetted for. Then he gave them to the disciples to distribute to the people. They all chattered and heard and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up 12 basketfuls of donated dark money and broken dreams that were left over.”
Across the country, teachers and school board officials are facing constant threats due to GOP leaders and voters spreading consistent hate. From accusing school officials of taking away the parents’ rights to making fusses over masks in schools, conservatives are causing chaos. In some states, Republican officials are taking it even further by banning school teachers from teaching critical race theory and also allowing them not to use the correct pronouns for students.
Most recently, a Missouri school board voted not to renew a teacher’s contract after parents accused her of using critical race theory (CRT). According to the Springfield News-Leader, the vote came after Kim Morrison, an English teacher at Greenfield High School, was targeted for a worksheet she used as part of teaching the book Dear Martin.
Morrison told the outlet that it was her second year teaching the award-winning novel in a contemporary literature elective. The difference this time around was that students were assigned a 15-question worksheet titled “How Racially Privileged Are You?”
After the sheets were distributed, Morrison said she was asked to meet with the school’s principal Jennifer Roberts, who told her there had been complaints from parents.
“That first meeting, when she showed me she had a copy of the document and wanted to know the background, she said the people she was hearing from had said it was CRT,” Morrison told the Springfield News-Leader. “I said ‘Well, it’s not CRT. I don’t know what CRT is because I didn’t go to law school and we didn’t cover that in graduate school. It’s not that.” She added: “I said discussing racism is not CRT and she said she understood but that this is what she is hearing.”
While critical race theory was developed decades ago by legal scholars to argue that race is a social construct and racism is a part of U.S. policies and legal systems, many officials have now taken to targeting it, claiming it fuels racism and “undermines academic freedom,” the Springfield News-Leader reported.
As a result, GOP officials have banned the theory from being taught in schools. Speaking of these bans, Morrison said she explained the worksheet to Roberts, noting that she purchased it from a database of instructional materials that intended to help students examine their own experiences. She said the worksheet was not meant to prompt class discussion on racism.
”It was to prepare students for the conversation that was going to happen between two characters that we were about to read,” she said.
But despite her conversation with Roberts in February, Morrison was called to the office again in March, a couple of days before the school board meeting during which officials decided not to renew her contract.
When Morrison asked why her contract was not renewed, the school district’s superintendent responded in a letter on March 23, speaking on behalf of the board.
The letter obtained by the News-Leader confirmed the board’s decision not to rehire Morrison for the 2022-23 year, citing ”your decision to incorporate the worksheet associated with the novel ‘Dear Martin,’ due to the content and subject matter,” it read.
When contacted and asked if they would reconsider their decision, the board gave a hard no, claiming they wanted to have a district “everybody can be proud of.”
According to an APA study, due to these “culture wars,” 49% of teachers, 34% of school psychologists, 31% of administrators, and 29% of staff have expressed the desire or plan to quit their jobs or transfer. Decisions and lessons involving race have not only led teachers to lose their jobs, but also to be threatened and harassed.
Mariupol should have been taken on the first day of the war. Situated in Ukraine’s far southeastern corner, distant from other major urban centers and supply lines, directly south of the rebel-occupied Donbas separatist region, mostly Russian speaking, and just across the Azov Sea from Russia itself, it never should’ve been competitive.
Day 1 of the war, Mariupol should’ve been swallowed up in that first wave.
Yet after six weeks of full blockade and unimaginable devastation, Mariupol continues to resist. How is that possible? We won’t know the full story until after the war, but what we know (and can guess at) paints an incredible picture.
The city was defended by two main forces. The first was Ukrainian marines. But the more (in)famous was the Azov Battalion, a paramilitary force of far-right extremist neo-Nazis who were founded in 2014. What else happened in 2014? Russia’s annexation of the Crimean peninsula and the start of the separatist war in Eastern Ukraine. In fact, it was the Azov Battalion that retook Mariupol after pro-Russian forces (and likely Russians themselves) occupied the city. It is estimated that at the start of the Russian invasion, Azov had around 900 members, though those numbers have swelled since. Ironically, Russia’s war has proven a boon to far-right militants, even as it uses Azov’s existence as justification for its entire war.
Ukraine, led by a Jewish president, clearly decided that the enemy of their enemy is their friend—for now—and formally incorporated the Azov Battalion into its army structure about a week into the war. The result is that less than 1,000 Azov fighters have held off mighty Russia in Mariupol, even as Ukrainian marines surrendered by the hundreds just a few days ago.
Russia claims it controls Mariupol’s center and that it is merely mopping up resistance, but Azov Battalion released several videos over the past couple of days that show otherwise. Here’s one of them taking out a Russian armored personnel carrier:
#Ukraine: An Azov fighter hitting a Russian BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicle with a RPO-A Shmel rocket-assisted flamethrower at close range in #Mariupol. The BMP appears to be damaged and crew, as claimed, were killed. This is an unusual weapon choice, however it works, as seen. pic.twitter.com/SUwvFN267o
— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) April 8, 2022
A follow-up video, which I won’t link to, shows that the troops inside—one wearing the flag of the Russian client territory of Ossetia (a breakaway region of Georgia)—survived the missile attack that destroyed their vehicle, but were subsequently ambushed and killed. I counted seven dead Russian-aligned troops. Rather than showing desperate Ukrainian defenders holding out behind rubble in ever-shrinking pockets, the video suggests that its defenders can roam the city at will. Even more striking, the Azov Ukrainians sounded light-hearted and relaxed. Not the picture of a starving, besieged defender you’d imagine.
Aside from the destruction of another Russian armored vehicle (will anything be left to send up north for their hoped-for pincer movement if they ever take Mariupol?), take notice of the surroundings. This isn’t central Mariupol. Azov is operating on the outskirts of the city. Russia has claimed it was pushing the city’s defenders into a few final pockets of resistance, and here we have Azov outside that supposed ring, behind enemy lines.
But of all the videos they’ve released these last few days, this one is the most dramatic:
A Ukrainian Azov armored personnel carrier ambushes two Russian tanks from the rear, where their armor is weakest, destroying at least one. The laser-looking shots are tracer rounds, which fire every five regular rounds to help guide the cannon’s aim. They have a pyrotechnic base that lights up by the flame of the propellant, creating the laser-like effect. Note the greening grass, as warming temperatures, melting snow, and spring rains wake the area’s vegetation. This isn’t an old video.
But even more dramatic than the video and the results was the fact that Azov still has operational armor in Mariupol, that they need to hide, rearm, and fuel. And the location was a surprise to many:
Location of Azov BTR-4 ambushing Russian armor southwest of Mariupol city center.
Once again, that Azov armor was nowhere near the city center. Which means that as focused as Russia has been on pressing the attack in the city’s urban core, there are Azov forces marauding their rear lines, wreaking havoc. And seriously, how are they fueling that vehicle? How have these forces survived as long as they have, cut off from supplies? Maybe because they’re not cut off. At least not fully.
On April 5, two Ukrainian helicopters were shot down over Mariupol while attempting to evacuate wounded warriors. But rather than signifying a failed Ukrainian rescue effort, Russia realized that they simply had lucked into patrolling an oft-used helicopter route. Here’s Kamil Galeev citing Russian sources:
“They could bring up to 12 tons of ammo when going to Mariupol and evacuate up to 60 wounded soldiers on a way back. We don’t know how many times did they repeat it. This time they were unlucky to accidentally meet a patrol with a man-portable air-defence system on a way back”
(“Above sea” is typo for Azov sea.) Like the daring helicopter raid in Belgorod, Russia, it looks like Ukraine had found a hole in Russia’s coverage of the city, and then used it for regular resupply and medical evacuation. Not only does that show just how clever Ukraine is in prosecuting the war, it also demonstrates extreme confidence in the continued resistance in the city—it could’ve used those helicopter flights to evacuate the city’s defenders. But why? They are tying up a significant part of Russia’s military assets, freezing the southern front, and bleeding Russia dry from supremely defensible positions. Eventually, even Ukraine admitted that Mariupol was being resupplied:
Presidential adviser O. Arestovych about #Mariupol: We provide direct and indirect support. Our helicopters successfully delivered ammo and evacuated wounded from the city. Our SF units work behind enemy lines, recently damaged a railway connecting Crimea and Melitopol.
Then there are the persistent rumors of tunnels/catacombs under the city itself. Here is a posting from Russian social media site VK that claims they exist. The rumors are that Ukrainian defenders knew Russia would eventually return to the city, so they stocked the tunnels with food, water, and ammunition for its defense, while also allowing defenders to move around unimpeded underneath Russian forces above. True or not, we likely won’t find out until after the war is over, but it makes sense that at the very least, defenders would’ve stashed a significant number of weapons and ammo throughout key locations in the city. There was no surprise attack, as Mariupol sits just outside the front lines of a simmering war since 2014. It makes sense it would’ve prepared extensively for a long fight.
Thus, as of now, Russia still has a long way to go to take the city.
Russia claims a lot of territory (the yellow), yet none of their videos have been geolocated in those areas. And as the graphic above shows, the ambush of the two Russian tanks was in a red zone previously thought to be controlled by Russia.
But in the end, territory doesn’t matter. In a city hellscape littered with infinite hiding locations, Ukrainian forces can operate an indefinite guerrilla campaign to continue pinning down Russian forces, preventing them from being redeployed elsewhere. If Russia doesn’t have the forces in the city to prevent loud-ass helicopters from making regular supply runs, what makes anyone think they can actually prevent several thousand motivated defenders from continuing to wreak havoc?
According to UAWarData, an open-source project tracking the movement of Russian units, there are six known Russian BTGs in Mariupol; that’s, at best, around 6,000 Russian troops. (And remember, soldiers doing the fighting make up a small percent of any BTG.) That’s supposed to pacify a city of 446,000 (pre-war)? To compare, in the Second Battle of Fallujah during the Iraq War, the U.S. and allies sent in 13,500 troops in a city with nearly half the population, 275,000, and one in which a smaller percentage of the population was resisting (an estimated 1,500 insurgents).
The end result? The United States lost 95 KIA, with another 560 wounded. Iraq government forces lost 8 and 43 wounded, and the United Kingdom lost 4, with another 10 wounded. The city was taken in six weeks, and it wasn’t fully razed to the ground. Around 600 to 800 civilians died, but they weren’t directly targeted. That’s a Russian speciality.
By all indications, Mariupol shouldn’t be standing. And yet there it is, with Ukraine both holding territory and attacking behind Russian front lines. At some point, Russia will declare Mariupol defeated, but it doesn’t seem as if the fighting will die down anytime soon.
People across the country, many of whom have too rarely themselves reflected at the highest levels of the government and the courts, are rejoicing over the confirmation of Ketanji Brown Jackson as a Supreme Court justice. It is absolutely the time for that, a glorious time to honor this exceptionally qualified, exceptionally gracious and thoughtful Black woman, even as our rejoicing is shaped by the knowledge of how much harder it was for her to get to this point than it should have been.
But we also need to get to the next Black woman Supreme Court justice or the next former public defender Supreme Court justice or a labor lawyer Supreme Court justice or an openly LGBT Supreme Court justice or any of dozens of other groups that have not had representation on a court that has been dominated by white men and corporate interests. And we don’t get there if Democrats don’t lay the groundwork to win wherever possible, so it’s good news that they’re preparing to capitalize on making history.
“Democrats are launching a print, digital and television paid media campaign to highlight Ketanji Brown Jackson’s historic confirmation to the Supreme Court,” The Hill reports. But NBC News reports that the current concrete plans are extremely limited: a very small buy running homepage takeover ads on Black media websites including The Atlanta Voicein Georgia,The Jacksonville Free Press in Florida, The Triangle Tribune in North Carolina, The Philadelphia Tribune inPennsylvania,and the Milwaukee Courierin Wisconsin.
”Senate Republicans tried to stop her. We must defend the Democratic Senate,” the ad says.
Very true. That calls for the more substantial buy implied by The Hill than the very small one reported by NBC News.
There is widespread recognition among Democrats that part of what stood out about Jackson’s confirmation, and will motivate voters, is the racist abuse she endured from Republican senators like Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley.
“What has escalated even the normal political capital is the nasty and rude way the Republicans questioned her,” the Rev. Al Sharpton told The Hill.
Democratic strategist Karen Finney said, “Those images are seared in our minds of the disrespect she faced. Those are soul wounds for so many of us.”
Republicans have ridden the politics of grievance into more power than their popular support merits, pouring money into communicating that bitterness and rage, using it to mobilize their base at exactly the right times. As much as Democrats need to not “let anybody in the Senate steal my joy,” as Sen. Cory Booker put it during Jackson’s confirmation hearing, they also need to get in touch with the righteousness of the anger at seeing such an exemplary judge and human being barraged with such racist abuse. It’s worth planning to push that message—and the message of Republican extremism more generally.
“Congratulations to Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who didn’t need to tell us what the definition of a woman is, but instead showed us: by breaking down barriers and achieving your goals, all while having to pretend Ted Cruz doesn’t exist.” —Samantha Bee
“Big news from the United Nations. This afternoon the U.N. General Assembly voted to suspend Russia’s membership in the Human Rights Council. Okay, that sounds right. You know what sounds wrong? Russia was on the Human Rights Council.” —Stephen Colbert
Continued…
You are now below the fold, where the mushrooms are all fluent in 16 languages.
“Former President Barack Obama today visited the White House, and out of habit Jeanine Pirro called for his impeachment.” —Seth Meyers
“That’s really got to bother Trump. All the lies and schemes and lawsuits to get back to the White House, and Obama just strolls right in there.” —Jimmy Kimmel
Ukrainians are leaving notes behind for Russians who are coming into their homes to loot. They say the same thing as Russia’s most popular board game. pic.twitter.com/OtwBLdmR5p
“Republican congressman Madison Cawthorn said in a recent interview that 70-year-old Republicans invited him to an orgy and did cocaine in front of him. Wait…so you went to the old-man orgy? And you thought the weird part was drugs?” —Colin Jost, SNL
“This guy’s head is stuffed with more crap than his pillows. And by the way, I was told not to say this, but I will: his stuff is crap. I mean, it’s absolute crap. You only find that kind of stuff in the Trump Hotel.” —New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu on MyPillow grifter Mike Lindell, at the Gridiron Dinner
“Republicans in Ohio are busy with the important business of trying to pass their own version of that ‘don’t say gay’ Florida law. This is the controversial bill that prevents schools from teaching students about LGBTQ and gender-related issues. Imagine stealing your horrible ideas from Florida, a state that leads the world in murders on pontoon boats.” —Jimmy Kimmel
And now, our feature presentation…
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Cheers and Jeers for Friday, April 8, 2022
Note: Due to a clerical error, the United States now belongs to the government of Denmark. We regret the inconvenience, but at least now we’ll get some decent shit done. —Mgt.
Minimum number of witnesses who have testified before the House Jan. 6 special committee:800
Percent of men and women, respectively, ages 50-79 and surveyed by AARP who say their mental health is very good or excellent:70%, 54%
Increase in marijuana potency between 1975 and 2017, according to JAMA:24%
Estimated number of chocolate Easter bunnies that will be sold this year, thanks to President Biden making a dent in our supply chain issues because he loves his country and wants what’s best for us and our children, unlike the Republicans who are all pedophile enablers:92 million
CHEERS to April 7. On that auspicious day in the Year of Our Flying Spaghetti Monster 2022, history was carved into America’s soul the way the Ten Commandments (or, as the GOP calls them, “suggestions”) were carved into solid rock by furious lightning, the Republic’s beating heart once again rejuvenated by the defibrillator paddles of progress, Liberty’s beacon shining like a giant, throbbing energy-efficient-yet-still-aesthetically-pleasing floodlight of freedom, a rebellion against the status quo having successfully raged into a bonfire that BURNED THE BRUSH OF TYRANNY TO ASHES FROM WHICH THE GREEN SPROUTS OF JUDICIAL DESTINY NOW SPROING!!!!!! [Ahem.] Judge Jackson‘s in.
Nice to have a justice who, unlike the last three confirmed, doesn’t look like Satan when she smiles.
I predict her first words to Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan will be: “Sam Alito: big jerk…or biggest jerk ever?” (The answer will not shock you.)
JEERS to ominous signs. Speaking of justice, what the ever-loving eff yoo see kay is going on over in the mancave of the attorney general—or should we start calling Him Stonewall Garland?
House Oversight Committee Chair Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., is alleging that the Department of Justice is “obstructing” the panel’s investigation into former President Donald Trump by blocking the National Archives from handing over relevant documents.
Maybe he’s just working on something big. Really big!
In a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland Thursday, Maloney said the DOJ is “preventing” the National Archives from cooperating with the committee’s request for documents and information, “including an inventory of 15 boxes of documents recovered from the former president’s Mar-a-Lago residence.”
[…]
She asked Garland to confirm by April 14 whether the DOJ will tell the Archives that it may fully cooperate, including by giving Congress the inventory of the documents recovered from Mar-a-Lago.
If Garland delivers his response while wearing a shiny new red baseball cap, we may need to have a little talk with the president about delivering us a new attorney general.
CHEERS to a fine FLOTUS. Happy Birthday to the late Betty Ford on what would be her 104th birthday. She gained fame in an era that many Americans can vaguely remember—namely, a time when the GOP had a smattering of class. But even then, she was a persistent thorn in her party’s side:
Throughout her husband’s term in office, she maintained high approval ratings, though some on the far-right of her own Republican Party strongly opposed her on more liberal social issues.
Happy Birthday, Betty. Regards to Gerald.
Betty Ford was noted for raising breast cancer awareness with her 1974 mastectomy and was a passionate supporter for the Equal Rights Amendment.
Pro-choice on abortion and a leader in the Women’s Movement, she gained fame as one of the most candid first ladies in history, commenting on every hot button issue of the time from sex to drugs.
Her most enduring legacy, of course, is the Betty Ford Center. Sadly, the center doesn’t have a wing for candy corn addicts like me. But I’m happy to say my self-administered Charms Blow Pop replacement therapy seems to be holding. One day at a time.
— Mack & Becky Comedy (@MackBeckyComedy) April 2, 2022
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END BRIEF SANITY BREAK
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CHEERS to a civil end to a most uncivil war. Big anniversary tomorrow—in fact, it oughtta be a federal holiday. On April 9, 1865, following his final late-night cocaine orgy, Robert E. Lee called it quits and surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House in Virginia, effectively ending the southern traitors’ War for the Preservation of Owning Humans for Forced Labor.
Give the racist a purple nurple, Ulysses.
Several years ago a demographic historian concluded that the death toll of the war was much higher than originally thought—750,000 versus the original 620,000. Sadly, another number has also been extended far beyond its original estimate: the number of years it’s taking too many white people in the South to admit they lost and put away that damn confederate battle flag. As Congressman James Clyburn (D-SC) reminded them a few years back, even slave owner and avowed racist treason-monger Lee had at least enough self-awareness to concern himself with post-war optics:
“When Robert E. Lee surrendered he asked all of his followers to furl this flag. Stow it away, he said. Put it in your attics,” Clyburn continued. “He refused to be buried in his Confederate uniform. His family refused to allow anyone dressed in the confederate uniform to attend his funeral. “Why? Because Robert E. Lee said he considered this emblem to be a symbol of treason.”
He also didn’t want any statues of him put up, a request that fell on deaf ears as groups like the Daughters of the Confederacy erected hundreds of them (of Lee and other CSA icons, including a fresh batch in the 1960s to remind the civil rights movement to remember “their place”) as a way of living in denial of their treason. I’ll give the ‘em credit for one thing: they sure picked the right theme song. “Look away, DixieLand.” Mission accomplished.
CHEERS to home vegetation. The elephant in the room on TV this weekend is the 52nd annual pre-Easter airing of Cecil B. DeMille’s bladder buster The Fifteen Ten Commandments tomorrow night—for FIVE freaking hours—on ABC, featuring the mom from The Munsters as Moses’ wife and music by the guy who also scored Airplane! and Ghostbusters. (Spoiler Alert: Ramses fails to defeat Moses when his chariot army gets stopped by an Evergreen container ship stuck in the Suez Canal.) Remember: if you get up from your couch to pee at any time between 7pm and midnight, you’re going straight to Hell.
Moses gets busy (again) tomorrow night.
Meanwhile the most popular movies and home videos, new and old, are all reviewed here at Rotten Tomatoes. The NHL schedule is here, the NBA schedule is here, and hooray we can add the Major League Baseball schedule back again. Also this weekend we have The Masters (tomorrow and Sunday afternoon on CBS), during which PGA golfers will compete to see who can commit the most egregious fashion violation in pursuits of the coveted “Puke Green Jacket.”
Tomorrow night Jake Gyllenhaal hosts SNL.
Sunday evening, Scott Pelley interviews badass Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy from Kyiv on 60 Minutes. Lisa meets the son of musician Bleeding Gums Murphy on The Simpsons. And John Oliver wraps up the weekend with another edition of Last Week Tonight at 11 on HBO.
Now here’s your Sunday morning lineup. Please hold your applause until forever:
Meet the Press: National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan; Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba; economic weird guy Larry Summers.
Face the Nation: National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan; Ukrainian Ambassador to the U.S. Oksana Markarova; former DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson; Cleveland Fed president Lorretta Mester.
The ghost of Henry Clay will show up to talk about the exciting prospects for the Whigs in the midterms.
CNN’s State of the Union: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau; Jan. 6 committee co-chair Liz Cheney (R-WY); Global Citizen CEO Hugh Evans; European Union President Ursela von der Leyen.
This Week: TBA
Fox GOP Talking Points Sunday: Senator Mitch “I have no red lines when it comes to ethics or morals and you can quote me on that” McConnell (The Cult-KY).
Happy viewing!
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Ten years ago in C&J: April 8, 2012
JEERS to Caterpillargate. Hey, ladies, you might be interested to know that, in addition to sluts, prostitutes and freeloaders, Republicans now think you’relike squirmy insects:
“If the Democrats said we had a war on caterpillars, and every mainstream media outlet talked about the fact that Republicans have a war on caterpillars, then we have problems with caterpillars,” [Republican National Committee Chairman Reince] Priebus said. “The fact of the matter is it’s a fiction.”
And to support his contention that there is no war on women, Priebus’s home state governor, Scott Walker, repealed a law making women’s paycheck equal to men’s. Even the caterpillars did a facepalm. (Which is really tough for them to do because, y’know…no palms.)
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And just one more…
CHEERS to Kodak moments. If Donald Trump’s presidential photographer—who he recently stiffed because that’s his prime directive on Planet Earth—had ever gotten a shot like this, it would be framed and hanging on every Republican’s living room wall as a totally-real example of their divine awesomeness. Instead, a different president’s photographer (the great Pete Souza) snapped it six years ago this week, and Republicans lost their collective shit. In the hopes that it might make them chew through a few more inches of sheet metal in their survival bunkers, here’s a replay for nostalgia’s sake:
And, by contrast, here’s Obama’s one-term successor:
Mother Nature. Definitely a Democrat.
Have a great weekend. Floor’s open…What are you cheering and jeering about today?
I don’t know about you, but I clearly remember former President Trump claiming that he was going to build a wall and Mexico was going to pay for it. Right?
Well, I’m not sure what happened, but in 2018, Brian Kolfage took it upon himself to raise money for the wall via a “We Build the Wall” Go Fund Me page. And he did raise money—more than $25 million, in fact. The problem was that not much wall got built, and now Kolfage is pleading guilty to fraud charges after ripping off his donors, BuzzFeed News reports.
Kolfage, a veteran who earned a Purple Heart after losing both of his legs and right arm while serving in Iraq in 2014, faces charges of attempt and conspiracy to commit wire fraud, along with federal charges of falsifying his income on his 2019 taxes, according to BuzzFeed.
“As alleged, the defendants defrauded hundreds of thousands of donors, capitalizing on their interest in funding a border wall to raise millions of dollars, under the false pretense that all of that money would be spent on construction,” Acting U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss wrote in a statement in 2020. “While repeatedly assuring donors that Brian Kolfage, the founder and public face of We Build the Wall, would not be paid a cent, the defendants secretly schemed to pass hundreds of thousands of dollars to Kolfage, which he used to fund his lavish lifestyle.”
The Department of Justice’s Southern District of New York (SDNY) indictment lists the defendants as Kolfage, Stephen Bannon, Andrew Badolato, and Timothy Shea. They all are charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.
The indictment says that Bannon collected $1 million “through a non-profit organization under his control,” while Kolfage and the others funneled the money through nonprofits and a shell company. The indictment reads:
“They did so by using fake invoices and sham ‘vendor’” arrangements, among other ways, to ensure, as KOLFAGE noted in a text message to BADOLATO, that his pay arrangement remained “confidential” and kept on a “need to know” basis”
Kolfage did manage to put some money toward a wall. According to BuzzFeed, in Sunland Park, New Mexico, a wall about a half-mile long was built—with a gate. The result is a structure that is inconvenient but not impossible to simply walk around. And much of the building happened without proper permits and through hotly contested federal land, BuzzFeed reports.
In February, the sanctuary was forced to close after it became the target of a false conspiracy alleging the site was being used for child trafficking the Los Angeles Times reports.
“The defendants allegedly engaged in fraud when they misrepresented the true use of donated funds,” Inspector-in-Charge Philip R. Bartlett wrote in the SDNY’s indictment.
“As alleged, not only did they lie to donors, they schemed to hide their misappropriation of funds by creating sham invoices and accounts to launder donations and cover up their crimes, showing no regard for the law or the truth. This case should serve as a warning to other fraudsters that no one is above the law, not even a disabled war veteran or a millionaire political strategist.”
