Ukrainians will kill the invaders when necessary, but I feel like this is what really embodies the indomitable spirit of the Ukrainian people:
It’s also very telling that the Russians laughed at his troll job instead of shooting him dead on the spot. As much as I’m rooting for a humiliating Russian defeat, I can’t help but have some compassion for young conscripts thrown into a meat grinder for no reason other than Vladmir Putin’s nationalist fantasies.
And is a humiliating Russian defeat actually kind of plausible? It’s still early, and I am getting most of my news about the war from pro-Ukrainian sources, so maybe the Russian advances are going better than I’ve been led to believe.
But it sure looks like they’ve underperformed, at the very least, and that this is turning into a major military, economic and diplomatic disaster for Putin:
Vladimir Putin was facing growing international isolation and the prospect of pariah status on Saturday night as long-term allies dramatically turned against him following the invasion of Ukraine, and western nations planned further decisive military and financial action against Moscow.
As his hopes of a quick victory evaporated in the face of fierce resistance by Ukrainian soldiers and armies of citizen volunteers, Russia’s president was deserted by his key ally, China, and had his ultimatum demanding Kyiv’s surrender defiantly brushed aside by Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
In perhaps the most striking development, Germany announced on Saturday night that it would supply Ukrainian troops with 1,000 anti-tank weapons as well as 500 Stinger missiles from its own military reserves.
“The Russian assault on Ukraine marks a turning point,” Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said, signalling a major shift in his country’s postwar military stance. “It threatens our entire postwar order. In this situation it is our duty to support Ukraine to the best of our ability in its defence against the invasive army of Vladimir Putin. Germany stands closely on the side of Ukraine.”
Significantly, the German government was also said to be bowing to intense pressure from Britain, the US and Canada to ban Russia from the crucial Swift banking payments system after repeated appeals from Kyiv for the west to do so. Sources in Berlin said German ministers’ views were shifting on the issue and they were actively discussing measures that “would hit the right people”, having previously resisted, partly because of fears that a ban would affect the flow of funds to aid agencies in Russia.
In further blows to Putin, Hungary’s leader, Viktor Orbán, long seen as friendly towards Moscow, abandoned his support, saying he would back all EU sanctions against Russia, while Turkey was reported to be considering blocking the passage of Russian naval vessels into the Black Sea.
[…]
On Saturday, Russian advances on major cities, including Kyiv, appeared to have slowed or ground to a halt. Ukraine’s defence ministry claimed Russia had suffered more than 3,000 casualties and that many other soldiers had been captured.
UK and other diplomats said a decision by China to abstain rather than back its ally Russia in a UN resolution on the invasion was being viewed as a huge victory for the west. Beijing called on both Moscow and Kyiv to find a negotiated settlement.
When normally pro-Russian leaders like Orban are turning against against you, Sweden and Finland making noises about joining NATO, and even China is basically telling the Russians they’re on their own this time, you know you’ve screwed up massively.
This is the kind of thing that happens when you’ve consolidated absolutely power, purged and poisoned everyone who’s stood up to you and will not tolerate being told you might be making a mistake. God knows the United States and Western countries have made some catastrophic military moves, but when all dissent is stifled and the leader’s word is the law, the odds of making catastrophic mistakes become that much stronger.
That’s why no one could or would stop Hitler from invading the Soviet Union, although that doomed campaign actually might not have gotten as far as it did had Stalin not purged many of his most competent military officers because reasons.
Even before the invasion, it was already clear that Putin was not a man willing to listen to constructive criticism:
Like I said, we’re only a few days into this, much of what we thought we knew has turned out to be untrue (the legendary Snake Island defenders, martyrs for Ukrainian independence and resistance, might actually still be alive) and we haven’t really seen the Russian armed forces do what they did in Chechnya and Syria. It’s possible Putin has been holding back somewhat.
But he apparently believed Ukrainians would surrender on the spot, and that Western democracies were too divided and malaise-ridden to effectively stand up to him. Anyone who told him otherwise might have gotten some extra polonium in their tea that morning. And now he’s learning the hard way.
In the meantime, I can’t wait until the spring thaw so I can plant some sunflowers.
When I said MTG would eventually move on to Holocaust denial, I was only being half-serious.
But now it only seems like a matter of time:
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) spoke at the America First Political Action Conference on Friday.
AFPAC is led by white nationalist Nick Fuentes, who told the crowd, “Our secret sauce here – it’s these young, White men.”
The Anti-Defamation League has described Fuentes as “a white supremacist leader and organizer and podcaster who seeks to forge a white nationalist alternative to the mainstream GOP.”
Fuentes’ line about young White men received hoots and hollers of approval.
“America and the world has forgotten about them, but not us,” he continued. “You know, they say about America, diversity is our strength, you know? And I look at China, I look at Russia, who – can we give a round of applause for Russia?”
The crowd obliged and raucously cheered the nuclear power that launched an unprovoked invasion of Ukraine this week. Some in the audience began chanting, “Putin, Putin,” to which Fuentes replied, “Absolutely, absolutely.”
This was a bridge too far even for the Republican National Committee, which has issued a statement likely to be scrubbed from their website once Greene is confirmed as the 2024 Presidential nominee.
The QAnon Queen is now saying she doesn’t know what Nick Fuentes and AFPAC are all about, suggesting that she’s lying or just really stupid.
Actually…I guess either or both could be true, right?
OK. Both these video clips are keepers and then some, the first just for its unbelievable chutzpah, and the second for its in-you-face F**k You courage.
Watching and listening to the woman (I emphasize here woman) in the second one, all I could think of was how many macho Minuteman militia wannabe types down here would runaway crying like little girls in similar circumstances, leaving a trail of AR's and pricey tac gear in their wakes?
Sunflower seeds as a weapon and symbol of courage. Who'd have thought?