Law, Power, and Justice

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  • UKRAINE UPDATE: CONDITIONS IN RUSSIA

    FRIDAY 14 JULY 2022

    UKRAINE UPDATE: UKRAINECAST, Podcast from BBC (7/13/22)

    • Ukraine has announced it has killed dozens of soldiers in a bombing of a Russian ammunitions’ depot in the southern city of Nova Kakhovka (east of Kherson). This strike is reported to have been carried out by the American supplied HIMARS system. 
    • In Kherson, a Russian-installed official has accused Ukraine of bombings peaceful cities with American arms. 
    • Olga Ivshina, a reporter, notes that the number of Russian soldiers that have been buried in Russia is almost 5,000.  These are the ones reported and whose names are known.  The estimate for how many there actually are is around 10,000.  20% of those killed in Ukraine and buried in Russia were officers.  This is a very high percentage.
    • The high number of officers killed may indicate a struggle by the Russians with communications.  Higher level officers may have to go to the front to command because there is not a well-developed chain of command. 
    • At the beginning of the war, Russia was using a large number of conscripts. Most of them were brought home.  The Russian government has launched a “huge campaign” recruiting contract soldiers.  The Ministry of Defense is giving out lucrative contracts, much more than individuals can make in their territories.  The estimate is that the money is five, eight times higher than they can make. 
    • Life in Russia is so tough for many people in parts of Russia that the risk of dying seems not as serious as it might. 
    • There are stories of those refusing to fight in Ukraine.  Legally, because there is no official war, individuals can refuse to fight, and cannot be prosecuted.  But the reality is much different.  What is legal and what is done are two different things.
    • If an individual decides not to go to fight in Ukraine, all the power of the state is brought to bear on them.
    • These people who are reluctant are intimidated.  They attempt to shame the individuals by publishing their names.
    • Some people seek legal help when they are reluctant to fight.  They go to people like one lawyer who was interviewed.
    • Also, sometimes Russian operatives pose as soldiers who don’t want to go back to catch people (like this attorney) who are trying to help them.
    • People who are helping have to be very careful.  There are laws which restrict not only what the helpers do, but what they say.
    • A month before the invasion, National Guard soldiers in Krasmador were deployed in Crimea for exercises.  A day before the invasion, they were put on buses and transported to the border.  Only then were they told they were going to fight Ukrainians. Twelve of them refused. 
    • They were driven back to Crimea, and all fired.  The trials are currently going on, in a closed secret procedure.  No one is allowed inside the courtroom.
    • The lawyer who was interviewed who is helping the soldiers asks that people remember Russians who are suffering because of the war.  It is also for Russia “a real tragedy.”  Generations in Russia were brought up thinking that whatever else happens, a war should never happen.  “The machine of repression” however, is stronger than the desires for peace.  Whoever speaks out against the war is “brutally suppressed.”
    • “Please remember,” the lawyer continues “…a lot of people in Russia are intimidated.”  “Who ever dares to speak is brutally punished.” 
    • Illya Yashin, a Russian activist, has been detained.  The attorney calls this “very depressing.”  He compares the situation to 1937, the peak of Stalin’s repression.  “It’s a true tragedy that’s going on.” He concluded.
    •  
    •  Olga is asked about the situation and whether she agrees with the attorney.
    • “It’s very hard.”  She notes.  “It’s very uneasy.”  Olga’s mom suffered because of her work in journalism.  “Generations of Russians have been brought up under this repressive apparatus.”  She concludes.  Some people have only seen Putin as a leader and heard his message.
    • It’s not only the threat of being thrown into jail that Russians face, but other threats – losing a space for your child at school or university.  Olga notes: “It is really easy to make your life unbearable in Russia.” 
    • There is a denial in Russia.  At the beginning of the fall of the Soviet Union, there was some accountability.  All this disappeared.  So, now there is a nostalgia about life under the Soviet regime, a feeling that life then was perfect.
    • Olga’s mother is still in Russia.  When Olga was reporting from Crimea, her mother had huge problems at work. She changed her working place. 
    • A lot of Olga’s friends are not speaking to their parents because they are called “traitors” or “enemies of the nation.”
    • Another reporter, Frank Gardner, assesses the state of the war.  Russia is now in a pause.  But they have not stopped pulverizing cities with missiles.  They seem to be preparing for another effort.
    • Ukrainians are pushing back hard.  The long-range weapons from the West are helping.  It’s clear that Putin is not going to give up on this.  If he succeeds in the Donbas, he will push further. 
    • Russians claim they are using high-precision weapons, but they keep hitting civilian targets. 
    • Frank Gardner maintains that Russia is winning the war if you look at it solely as a strategic issue.  They have redefined their aims.  The first phase was a disaster.  There was no unified command. They sent tanks in with support of infantry.  They had a rethink and narrowed the aims. 
    • They don’t seem to care about civilian casualties.  It’s second world war stuff, but they “do it very effectively.”
    • Once they have taken Donbas, where do they go from there?  Will they attempt to seal Ukraine off from the Black Sea.  If so, that involves taking Odesa which will be very difficult.
    •  A lot of people in Russia have lost hope.  There are people whose children were relying on Western medicines.  They can no longer access these medicines.  There were scientists whose work depended on knowledge gained through internationally exchanges.  They no longer have access to this international scientific cooperation.  Many people wonder “…where Russia is going at the moment.”  
    • There is also Ukraine fatigue in the West.
    • Germany is thinking of people freezing to death this winter.  Prices are going higher. Half the middle east is facing starvation.  For the Russian people it is bad news, bad news that is being disguised.
    • On the other side, here are overly optimistic briefings from the British government. 
    • However slowly, the Russians are advancing in the east.
    • Older people in Ukraine, a lot of them, listen to Russian state television.  Russian speaking parts of Ukraine especially the older population listens to this government news.    
    • Among Ukrainians coming out of Russia, there is a marked difference between old and young.   Older people swallow the line that NATO is to blame, that Zelensky is a drug addict and a Nazi.
    • More than 70% get their news from state-controlled media.
    • “They just eat, eat what is fed to them.” Says Olga.
    • There is Ukraine fatigue.  Germany does it want to deplete its own stocks of weapons.  Russia has depleted its stock, especially precision weapons.  Vast stocks of dated equipment (1960s) is now being used.  This out of date group of weapons are no match for Nato supplied weapons. But, the question is how quickly will those new weapons be deployed.
    • Many military people say that Russia’s army is rubbish, but it’s a big rubbish.”
    • Also, in Russia, they are not in the middle of being attacked.  Their factories are working (24/7) and can produce equipment.  This gives them an edge. 
    • An odd circumstance is that the Russians have a tank, considered the most modern tank in the world.  It hasn’t appeared in Ukraine, at all.  Several of the tanks were displayed at the May parade.  There is speculation that these tanks which require high technology chips, can’t be used because the Russians don’t have access to the chips.    
    • OnTwitter at @cjjohns1951

  • Trump’s Enablers: “If they’d never stooped this low before, maybe it’s just because no one ever asked them to.”

    TUESDAY 12 JULY 2022

    @cjjohns1951

    BOOK: “Thank you for your Servitude” by Marc Leibovich

    This book focuses not on Trump, but on the Trump “enablers” who made it all possible. 

    Marc Leibovich, a staff writer for the Atlantic Magazine, described the book in this way in an interview on MSNBC (7/11/22): The book is “about the people who allowed it to happen,” and who keep rehabilitating Trump “at every turn.”  

    Unlike those in the press (Michael Schmidt) who have written excuse-filled books essentially arguing that people like Don McGhan were in a “difficult” position, faced hard decisions, or did a service by remaining because they were the adults in the room, Leibovich is open about his contempt for Republicans who he deems “parasitic suck-ups” “starstruck and desperate to keep their jobs,” on a “thrill ride.”  He describes them as “groveling legions,” “hollowed-out men and women who knew better,” the “most supplicant super-careerists, and finally (my favorite) “lapdogs in Trump’s kennel.”

    As Leibovich notes: “Without the complicity of the Republican Party, Donald Trump would be just a glorified geriatric Fox-watching golfer.”

    Without the complicity of the Republican Party…

    In Lebovich’s previous book about Washington he described a town in which “Democrats and Republicans kept coming to Washington, vowing change, only to get co-opted, get richer, and never leave.”  Then, Donald Trump was nominated, and things got even worse.

    A lot of people could see that Trump was a huckster, a con man, and dangerous for the country.  My partner is a life-long Republican.  When Trump was nominated, he declined to vote for him.  After five years of listening to Trump’s bullshit and learning about the depth of the criminality involved with the administration, he voted Democratic for the first time in his life.

    But, the Kevin McCarthys and the Lindsay Grahams of the world had no problem at all jumping on the Trump bandwagon and taking the system for all it was worth to them. 

    In an article in the Atlantic about the book, Leibovich describes Kevin McCarthy detailing with relish the game of working for Trump.  He quotes McCarthy as saying: “This is the tightest tightrope anyone has to walk.”  Graham (whose excuse for kissing Trump’s ass was that he was only trying to remain “relevant”) also seemed to relish the game.  They were proud of the access, proud of the position proud of the temperamentality of Trump.  “There was always a breathless, racing quality to both men’s voices when they talked about the thrill ride of being one of Trump’s “guys,” writes Leibovich.  “Relevance,” he adds, “casts one hell of a spell.”

    Leibovich also goes into detail describing what a jerk Kevin McCarthy really is.  When Leibovich met with McCarthy to do an interview, McCarthy spent his time scrolling through his phone and showing Leibovitz photographs of himself with celebrities.  (Note: I could not help thinking that this must be what it’s like to interview Ari Melber). 

    “Here’s another of me with Trump on Air Force One,” McCarthy said to Leibovich.  “What did you ask me again?” These are men who have held some of the most powerful positions in the world.  It makes me sick.

    Leibovich describes McCarthy as “sensitive to perceptions that he is a lightweight whose career trajectory is owed purely to his Olympian brownnosing and backslapping capabilities.”  Graham, he wrote, admired Trump because Trump could get away with anything.  Does that sound like a 13-year-old?

    Leibovich stated: “I don’t see how they can live with themselves.”

    But live with themselves they do, and it appears from Leibovich’s own book, they do so quite happily.

    Leibovich concluded: “It’s all a game to them.”

    I haven’t read the book, but the best, the very best quote from Leibovich’s article is: “If they’d never stooped this low before, maybe it’s just because no one ever asked them to.”

    Leibovich’s Atlantic article about the book:

    https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/07/kevin-mccarthy-lindsey-graham-trump-devotion-2024-election/661508/

  • There’s No Good Reason FBI Director Chris Wray Still Has a Job | The Nation

    Wray has a pattern of refusing to pursue powerful men like Brett Kavanaugh and Larry Nassar on behalf of women and people of color.
    — Read on www.thenation.com/article/politics/wray-fbi-nassar/

  • Corporate News is Bad: Joe Scarborough is Worse

    Monday 11 July 2022

    I spent a good deal of the morning watching corporate network news.  I know.  I know, but it’s a habit, a habit people my age (71) have a hard time breaking.  People my age who are interested in politics have spent their entire lives watching the major networks.  It is hard to get it through our heads that the current iteration of network news is utter and complete trash, having little if anything to do with truth, impartiality, or news.

    But, I just can’t stop being at one in the same time, fascinated, amazed, and thoroughly disgusted with the coverage.  And this is not because I have illusions about the corporate media.  I wrote a book in the 90s about media coverage of the invasion of Panama.  The invasion was, within an hour of the beginning, dubbed on all three major networks “Operation Just Cause” (the military’s name for what was happening). That one fact alone tells you a lot about the state of the corporate media. 

    I also know better than, out of all the corporate news, to watch Morning Joe (a show that was terrible to begin with and now runs for four hours, FOUR HOURS, FOUR F…ING HOURS). 

    First of all, there is the clear misogyny on display every morning.

    This program is an insult to every woman.  Scarborough repeatedly, almost daily, yells over and talks over and is disrespectful to (the dreadful) Mika. 

    Now, I have no respect for (the dreadful) Mika.  She has made a fortune hawking this “Know Your Worth” scam to women.  “Know Your Worth” is advice from a woman who had an adulterous affair with her boss and thereby assured herself of a job at least as long as he has one.  She knows her worth.

    And, aside from this cynical scam, she participates in a show where she is clearly the subordinate of Joe Scarborough who is (as Mika’s father once said) stunningly superficial (and that’s a kind way of saying it).

    The (dreadful) Mika sits on national television every day allowing herself to be treated as if she is an imbecilic and annoying addition to the discussion, by her (now) husband who is clearly miserable and most of the time is on a separate set.  So (the dreadful) Mika makes herself into a poster image of women knowing that they are worth so much they will allow themselves to be humiliated on national television with what my partner calls a “shit eating” grin plastered on their faces.  It’s a great role model for women, especially young women.

    O.K. so that’s the verbal abuse of women, every morning.

    Second, Joe Scarborough and (the dreadful) Mika were all over Trump when he ran for office. During the 2016 campaign, every program started off with recorded statements from Donald Trump.  Trump didn’t even have to come into the studio, he just phoned his seditious garbage in.  Scarborough and (the dreadful) Mika were caught on an open mic asking Trump for his permission to ask certain questions. 

    Their break with Donald Trump came hot on the heels of Trump’s outing of their adulterous affair.  I am confident that had Trump not stabbed them in the back about the affair (who couldn’t see this coming) they would both be at Mar-a-Shitgo kissing his ass to this day.

    But, they are not.  And I am willing to bet that this has nothing to do with any conscience or moral qualms.  Neither of them has a speck of morality.  It has to do with being thrown off the train.

    So, even though they are never Trumpers, they are slavish proponents of conservative politics, especially Scarborough.  I don’t think (the dreadful) Mika has any politics, just random utterances.  I sometime wonder whether her father was referring to her instead of Scarborough when he used the “stunningly superficial” label.  Perhaps he thought they were a good match.

    Scarborough never misses an opportunity to disparage what little left there is in the Democratic Party.  This makes him not much different from most of the MSNBC anchors (Joy Reid, Nicolle Wallace, Ari Melber, Andrea Mitchell, Dr. Jason Johnson of “island of misfit black girls” fame). 

    This morning, his rant was about the so-called “progressives” in the Democratic Party who Scarborough accused of being so horrible and unreasonable that they kept criticizing Biden (how dare they?).  This was Scarborough’s way of handling the “fuck you I’m president” statement that came out over the weekend from Biden’s press people about abortion rights. 

    Even though Jonathan Lamire (Morning Joe’s own reporter) pointed out that this statement not only angered the progressives, but people all across the Democratic political spectrum, Scarborough asserted several times that this statement was made because the White House was “fed up” with the carping and complaining of the progressives.  The clear implication was that the White House was justified.

    The Progressives, according to Scarborough, never “liked Biden.”  Why should they?  Biden is not a progressive.  He is not even close to being a progressive.  Why should progressives “like” him?  I understand that the Democratic Party sincerely feels that everybody in the country should not only vote for Biden, but support everything he does and never criticize him because he’s a “nice guy.”  They made that clear in what was a policy free convention.  We were told that we should support Biden because he’s nice, a return to some mythical normal, three members of his family have died and he likes Republicans.  Yep, that’ll do it for me.  Those are the qualifications for President I think will change life for the population.  Besides, Joe Biden doesn’t “like” progressives, as his statement about abortion demonstrates.

    Scarborough also condemned Progressives because they campaigned against Biden.  Who wouldn’t?  Why wouldn’t people who fundamentally disagree with Biden campaign against him?  This is supposed to be what a democracy is about, presenting competing ideas in an election campaign.  But, according to Scarborough, this makes them inconvenient and annoying children (sort of like the dreadful Mika). 

    Progressives also had the audacity to claim that Biden was too old.  He IS TOO OLD.  He can barely string together a sentence.  Fox News plays a seemingly endless loop of Biden repeatedly stumbling up the stairs of Air Force 1.

    Last, but not least, Scarborough claims that Progressives hate Biden because he won the South Carolina primary.  This is a complete and total lie.  Joe Biden did not win the South Carolina primary.  He was given the South Carolina primary in a deal between the DNC and James Clyburn.  All the center candidates as well as the way too ambitious and therefore easily bought off Elizabeth Warren agreed not only to bow out of the campaign, but to endorse Biden in a deal between people who would have burned the country down to prevent Bernie Sanders from winning another primary.

    I’m just getting started….and this is one morning, one program…I hate, loathe, and despise corporate news.

  • UKRAINE UPDATE: Ambassadors for justice

    THURSDAY 7 JULY 2022

    UKRAINE UPDATE

    UKRAINE, THE LATEST. The Daily Telegraph Podcast.

    • Johnson is stepping down.  His support for Ukraine has been very important.
    • He was one of the most proactive leaders in sending weapons to Ukraine.  He was supporting Ukraine with vocal criticism and weapons while Germany was sending 5,000 helmets.
    • There is a wing of the Labor Party that is not supportive of Ukraine.  It is possible this is nostalgic support. This is a long-term concern if Labor was to come to power after a general election.
    •  
    • Dom Nichols, Telegraph Reporter
    • Support for Ukraine is secure with Conservatives at the moment.
    • Russia has not made any territorial gains today.  They have fired missiles and people killed, but there have been no efforts to take ground.
    • Both sides are exhausted.
    • Russian ammunition dumps that have gone up in flames in occupied areas.  This may be the effect of heavy artillery coming into Ukraine.
    •  There is an operational pause from Russia. 
    • The result is lobbing weapons at civilians in a random fashion.
    • A “culmination” is when you are not being pushed backwards but you are exhausted and not able to push forward.  It is thought this characterizes Russia at the moment.
    • If it has taken all this just to gain this bit of territory in Donbas, it is impressive.
    • They’ve taken the northers region of Donbas, but not the South.
    • It should take a few weeks to get going again.  But, all the time, there is an inflow of arms from the West.
    • The Kremlin may push taking territory no matter what the cost.  This may be the best decision rather than waiting and allowing more weapons to arrive.
    • What is important to watch is whether this pause lasts.    

    Human Rights Lawyer Oleksandra Matviichuk, answering questions.

    • She has been documenting war crimes by the Russians.
    • Russia is claiming that 2 million people have experienced forced relocation.  Some of them have left because they have no other alternative.  Stay here and die or go to Russia.
    • Russians do not let humanitarian assistance into occupied territories.
    • There are not enough people or resources to investigate and prosecute these cases.
    • Be ambassadors for the idea that justice matters. 
    • Russians enjoyed impunity for decades.  Troops were not punished for atrocities they committed in other countries.  This is a “circle of impunity.”

  • UKRAINE UPDATE: “WE NEEDED THIS FOR YESTERDAY.”

    MONDAY 4 JULY 2022

    The Spokesman-Review, Spokane, Washington

    https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2022/jul/03/as-ukraine-war-bogs-down-us-assessments-face-scrut/

    • “U.s. officials have downplayed Russian gains…”
    • There are estimates that both sides have lost tens of thousands of soldiers killed and wounded.  The Pentagon has declined to discuss its assessments of deaths and military losses.
    • Some analysts feel uncomfortable with the US reluctance to talk about losses because of years of rosy assessments during the twenty years the country was fighting in Afghanistan.
    • “Successive administrations insisted Afghan forces were “in the lead” even as their performance was often deeply flawed, and their survival depended on U.S. logistical support and air power.”
    • There has been criticism about American military officials patting themselves on the back for the weapons and support sent, while not acknowledging that they could be sent more quickly.
    • As one Ukrainian lawmaker said: “We need a lot of this for yesterday, not even tomorrow.”
    • Conservative analysts (from Defense Priorities) are arguing that Ukraine’s objective to push Russians out of Ukrainian territory seem “increasingly unrealistic.”  They advocate the Biden administration pressing Ukraine to negotiate with Russia and strive for a political settlement.
    • Benjamin Friedman, policy director for Defense Priorities has stated 1) hardly anyone wants Ukraine to cede territory, 2) you have to “assess the situation honestly” and trade peace for territory, 3) more should be done to pressure Ukraine.  Friedman sees himself and his organization as working for the benefit of the Ukrainians and others who are “suffering economic problems because of the war.”
    • Friedman accused the government of “spinning for Ukraine.”
    • Then, Representatives like Ro Khanna (D-Calif) are warning about getting involved in a “prolonged never-ending conflict that is wreaking havoc on the American economy and the global economy.”  (Note: He sounds as if he thinks this involvement is optional.)
    • Khanna has stated that he believes “we should declare victory for the president’s efforts…We should say we won.  The Russians lost.  They did not achieve their fundamental objective.”  People, he said, are not resigned to support Ukraine at all costs.

  • UKRAINE UPDATE: “Nobody is going to break us. We are strong. We are Ukrainians.”

    SUNDAY 3 JULY 2022

    UKRAINE UPDATE

    KYIV INDEPENDENT

    • Russia has seized Lysychansk which brings them close to seizing the entire Donbas.
    • Zelensky says that while the situation in Lysychansk is difficult, it has not fallen.
    • Ukraine’s ambassador to Turkey maintains that Turkish customs has detained a Russian-flagged vessel carrying grain stolen from Ukraine.
    • Russian attacks on Kharkiv.
    • While Belarus is not a “direct participant” in the war it is providing logistical support to Russia.
    • Russian forces attacking Kramatorsk
    • Russian proxies have said that they will hold a referendum on annexing Kherson Oblast to Russia.  They are trying to legitimatize the occupation.
    • The UK Defense Ministry states that the Kremlin is trying to find a pseudo-constitutional solution for the occupation and is prepared to rig the vote in order to show an acceptable result.
    • Some 800,000 Ukrainians have lost homes in the war.
    • Protests in Uzbekistan.
    • Ukrainian forces launch air strikes on Russian-occupied Melitopol.
    • The Russians are claiming a Ukrainian attack was made on Belgorod.
    • Russian websites are full of claims that Ukraine is “overrun by far-right extremeists.”
    • Ukraine announces that Russian missile was fired at a recreational center in Odesa.
    • Voice of America maintains that nearly 16 million Ukrainians need humanitarian aid and protection.
    • UN agencies say that millions of Ukrainians are facing a lack of basic necessities including food, water, and shelter.

    EUROMAIDAN PRESS

    • Ukraine destroys remnants of Russian garrison on Snake Island.
    • Russian shelling of Sloviansk.
    • Lukashenka has accused Ukraine of launching milliles at Belarus.
    • Russian forces have destroyed the administrative buildings in Lysychansk.
    • There are eight Ukrainian mayors in Russian captivity.  Usually, Russia kidnaps “mayors and village heads who refuse to collaborate.”
    • Mariupol teachers are being sent to Russia for “certification.”  (Note: In Florida, De Santis is sending elementary school teachers for indoctrination.)

  • The Hyde Amendment Is Not an Excuse to Do Nothing to Protect Abortion Rights | The Nation

    The federal government still has power to protect abortion rights, and it’s time the Biden administration used it.
    — Read on www.thenation.com/article/politics/hyde-amendment-abortion-biden/

  • 3 Test Cases Progressives Should Bring in a Post-“Roe” World | The Nation

    It’s time to take a page from the conservative playbook and bring a torrent of lawsuits against every state that passes a forced-birth mandate.
    — Read on www.thenation.com/article/society/after-roe-lawsuit/

  • What Can Democrats Do to Fight Texas’s Abortion Ban? Lots. | The Nation

    The only question is how far Democrats are willing to go to defend women’s rights.
    — Read on www.thenation.com/article/politics/texas-abortion-fight/

  • UKRAINE: We are strong. We are Ukrainians

    FRIDAY 1 JULY 2022

    UKRAINE UPDATE

    Podcast: The Kremlin File with Jessikka Aro, Finnish journalist and author of “Putin’s Trolls.”

    ·      

    Jessikka Aro started researching Russian trolls as far back as 2014.  She was subsequently trolled, harassed and eventually had to move out of Finland.

    ·      

    Aro was trying in 2014 to write about the aggressive movements of Russia against Ukraine. 

    ·      

    She discovered places where trolls were employed to influence public narratives.

    ·      

    These troll farms were used as information warfare.  They are snipers who go after individual computer users on the behalf of the Kremlin.

    ·      

    They market ideas to individuals.

    ·      

    The trolls were already attacking Russians inside Russians.  Every morning they would be given themes and have to write posts about these themes.

    ·      

    Recruitment ads for the troll factories, were looking for copywriters who knew English.  These people were recruited to write “political news.”

    ·      

    These trolls were working also in Finland.

    ·      

    They were attacking Ukraine, sending pictures of dead people and blaming Ukraine.

    ·      

    They would go after a blogger and start harassing and calling names and molding their messages.

    ·      

    They monitor what individuals say online and go after them if they don’t like what’s being posted.

    ·      

    After Aro left Finland lived abroad for two years.  When she published her first investigation of the troll farms, she was targeted, and the police warned her that she might be subjected to violence.  Her colleagues were turned against her.  People were brainwashed into believing that she was a mentally ill threat to Finnish security, or a CIA agent, or working for the British. 

    ·      

    She ended up being essentially locked in her own home.  She was told by the police to check for objects under her car. 

    ·      

    These troll farms also worked to get people to hate Ukraine.

    ·      

    Prigozhin, Russian oligarch, runs the IRA based in St. Petersburg.  He also leads the Wagner Group (add information).

    ·      

    They are working in Africa and India as well.

    ·      

    These trolls were active in the international information space.

    ·      

    They would link to Russian government information and narratives.

    ·      

    About Ukraine, the narrative was that the government was filled with fascists and war mongers. 

    ·      

    The trolling was laying the groundwork internationally for the genocide in Ukraine even in 2014.  They were trying to brainwash people that Russians had nothing to do with aggressively intervening in Crimea.

    ·      

    Russian young men have been weaponized with this information.  They think Ukrainians don’t have human rights.  They have been dehumanized.

    ·      

    “They have no problem going to Ukraine and raping and killing.”

    ·      

    This activity started picking up right around the time Yanukovych had to leave.

    ·      

    They operate around the clock.

    ·      

    The cites that had been spreading the anti-Ukraine narratives started distributing pro-Trump and anti-Hillary information.  Hillary was a pedophile.

    ·      

    They are designed to lure different kinds of audiences.

    ·      

    (Note: Look at those western professionals who were on RT).

    ·      

    There is still not enough counter activity by Western intelligence services.  This is a form of warfare.

    ·      

    They unmask people who cooperate with agencies and create conspiracy stories about them.

    ·      

    In an early case, they targeted veterans. 

    ·      

    Early on there was a diplomat targeted in mid-2000s.  Lithuanian foreign affairs, worked in.  Russia was using Belarus as a testing ground.  He was followed for helping the Belarus opposition.  They intercepted his phone line.  His phone conversations, edited, were posted publicly. 2013, eight years after initial targeting.  He was in Hungary, helping Russian activists, and his phones were intercepted, and the conversations put on Utube.  He was disgraced and his career destroyed.  Later, they found that it had been a Russian security service operation.

    ·      

    The operations-built support for far right political groups in Finland.  They put out racist narratives against immigrants and Jewish people.

    ·      

    They are really good at cultivating their targets for decades.  They are playing long term.  They are cultivating individuals and communities.  They want these communities committing violence and protest.  Then, they blame the Western systems. 

    ·      

    There are just not enough resources being directed at countering this form of intellectual warfare.

    ·      

    In the same way the US made public what Russia intended to do right before the invasion of Ukraine, they should have made public what they were doing before the 2016 election, telling people that they were being manipulated by the Russians.

    ·      

    There are heavily trained officers attacking us 24 hours a day and they are not being countered.

    ·      

    It’s too scary and people want to protect themselves from the understanding of the importance of these troll farms.  In 2014, there were even governmental officials who would not believe the existence of the troll farms or their importance.  They thought it was conspiracy theory and was too “sci-fi”. 

    ·      

    Now, the Russians seem to have taken all the masks off. 

    ·      

    There seems to be no plan to do anything about this still-existing threat.  How do you tell people they are being used as useful idiots to Russian security services. 

    ·      

    People don’t understand that what is going on in Ukraine is a security threat.  (Hell, they don’t understand that a coup is a threat to security.)

    ·      

    Russia shifted in 2013 to attack every European election.  Brexit, U.S., French elections.

    ·      

    The language is the same (rapists, immigrants, shit-hold countries).

    ·      

    ·      

    ·      

    Articles:

    ·      

    https://www.propublica.org/article/infamous-russian-troll-farm-appears-to-be-source-of-anti-ukraine-propaganda

    ·      

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/01/troll-factory-spreading-russian-pro-war-lies-online-says-uk

    ·      

    https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-exposes-sick-russian-troll-factory-plaguing-social-media-with-kremlin-propaganda

    ·      

    https://rollcall.com/2021/03/23/russia-outsources-disinformation-efforts-to-foreign-troll-farms/

    ·      

    https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/britain-says-russian-troll-factory-is-spreading-disinformation-social-media-2022-04-30/

    ·      

    https://www.sipa.columbia.edu/news/study-confirms-influence-russian-internet-trolls-2016-election

    ·      

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10771515/Russian-president-set-unleash-troll-farms-fake-news-assault-West.html

    ·      

    https://www.businessinsider.com/tiktok-facebook-facebook-targeted-by-russian-troll-factories-uk-government-2022-5

    ·      

    https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2022/05/02/uncovers-Russian-troll-farm/7711651469976/

    ·      

    Russian-backed trolls target Finnish media in smear campaign

    ·      

    https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-43093390

    ·      

    https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/09/16/1035851/facebook-troll-farms-report-us-2020-election/

  • UKRAINE UPDATE: NATO EXPANDS

    WEDNESDAY 29 JUNE 2022

    UKRAINE UPDATE: UKRAINE, THE LATEST, The Telegraph

    • Boris Johnson was making fun of Putin in public remarks.  He was filmed talking to Macron joking about taking off their tops and riding around on horseback.  When asked about these comments he doubled down on them and called it a “crazy macho war.”
    • Another official, Defense Secretary, was talking about Putin and “small man syndrome.”  Said Putin has a toxic view of the world.
    • Finland and Sweden are joining NATO.  Turkey gave up its opposition to the two countries joining.  Sweden changed its terrorism legislation in response to Turkish problems with the PKK. 
    • There were changes in restrictions on arms to Turkey.  Extradition requests procedure was changed as well.  There would be no support for the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Unit.  This was seen as a key concession.
    •  There were concerns about fighter planes and U.S. approval.  It is thought that perhaps in a phone call between Biden and Erdogan, there may be a deal about fighter jets. 
    • Kaliningrad is now surrounded by NATO.
    • Biden is going to meet with Erdogan on Wednesday. 
    • Francis Dearnley: This may not be quite as much a victory for Turkey as has been suggested, certainly by Turkey.  The language is very bureaucratic.  It has forced Turkey to make a fundamental choice, to be a thorn in the side of NATO unity or become a member of the club.  We have ended up in the later space.  Turkey can no longer be the broker between Russia and the West. 
    • The mayor of Kherson has been detained and taken away.  This is what is happening in the occupied regions.  They had threatened to arrest him if he didn’t go along with their demands.  He refused to go along.  This is another example of the repression of the democratic elements in the occupied areas.  They called him a “poster boy for the Nazi community.”  “Finally, he has been neutralized.”
    •  
    •  
    •  
    • Russians are running out of precision guided missiles.  One of the older missiles is evidently one of those that hit the shopping center.  This means more civilians being killed.  (Note: I don’t see how you could hit more civilians than they are already hitting.)
    • Zelensky posted a video of a missile hitting the shopping center.  The Russians claim that the mall was used to store weaponry. 
    • This weaponry is unethical because it is so out of date.
    •  
    • NATO territory is going to expand.  This would have seemed impossible even a few months ago.  If the intent was to splinter the West and create fear of challenging Russia, it has backfired.  Some still want to bring Russia into the fold. But, after the G7 there is a broad agreement.  This is, however, about future escalation and does little about the present conflict. 

  • UKRAINE UPDATE: This war has changed the world in ways we cannot even imagine.

    TUESDAY 28 JUNE 2022

    UKRAINE UPDATE:

    UKRAINE, THE LATEST, Notes from the PODCAST of the Telegraph

    Day 125

    • There are street battles around Lisichansk (across the river from Sieverodonetsk, which the Russians took a few days ago.)
    • NATO has agreed to increase the number of troops available on high alert.
    • G7 has agreed to explore imposing a ban on transporting Russian oil sold over a certain price. 
    • Macron said the Russian strike on the shopping center was a war crime. 
    • He also stated: “Russia cannot and must not win this war.”  (Note: This is a welcome change from his “Putin must not be humiliated” stance of a few weeks ago).
    • Hacker group claims to have cut off 70% of Lithuanian internet. (Note: Check this for specifics).
    •  
    •  
    • As many as a 1000 people were shopping when attacked at the center in Kremenchuk, Ukraine.  The death toll is now at 18, with 59 wounded.  The Russians claim that the target was a depot with weapons and ammunition from the US.  They claim the bombing sparked a fire at the shopping center and caused the damage.     
    • This city is not on the front lines and the attack seems to be a symbolic statement much like the attacks on Kyiv at the beginning of the G7, that Russia can attack anywhere.
    • Considering the condemnation, there is debate on whether this as a tactic is worth it.  It only hardens the resolve of those defending.
    •  
    • Head of the British Army has likened the current defense situation to the situation Britain was facing in 1937. 
    • Saunders referred to 1937 in a speech and said that Britain must be willing to fight and win. 
    • His comments were summarized as: We must not commit a failure to contain Russian expansion.  Appeasement policy let Hitler get away with seizing parts of Austria, and Czechoslovakia.  We must not allow something similar to happen here.
    • 33,000 Russians are dead, missing or captured.  4,700 civilians are dead.  We can see the destruction now.  Russia is a clear threat.  Our choices will influence our future. 
    • Saunders talked about Russian military capacity.  It is dangerous, he argued, to assume that Ukraine is a limited conflict.  That something can be done to end it and that will be that.  It is, instead, a larger threat.
    • It’s worth remembering that Russia often starts wars badly.  It can suffer and regenerate and ultimately prevail.  We need to think about this in the long term.
    • There was no reference to the nuclear question in Saunders’ statement.  The reporter noted that there is the assumption that there would be a controlled nuclear war if there was a further invasion.
    • The reporter maintained that were it not from the nuclear question, we would probably have gone to war over Ukraine.  The nuclear question completely changed that.  But, Saunders’ statement does not mention this.
    • Saunders argued that war could have been deterred in 1937 if it weren’t for appeasement.  We must not do the same thing here. 
    • The reporter had a conversation with a Western intelligence advisor who argued that history teaches us we cannot “humiliate” the aggressor.  Reporter would challenge this notion.  Even after WWI, the economic implosion was much more important than any “humiliation” of Germany.  The reporter thinks this is a flawed notion.
    •  
    • NATO: What’s on the agenda.
    • This will be the most historic overhaul since the war.  Baltic states fear that Russia could invade.
    • The plan is to increase to 300,000 troops on high-alert in the area.  They will not be on the front lines.  And, they will not be in place until next year.
    • These troops will, in 24 hours – 30 days, be able to react to a strike in Europe. 
    • NATO in general has developed a more hawkish attitude.  There is much tougher language even about China in NATO statements.  There is increased concern about the dependence of Britain and the US on China for technology.
    • There will be pledges of new weapons systems, training missions. 
    • There are discussions about whether Russia run out of munitions this summer, troops?  There are reports that they are using retired military leaders because they have lost so many.
    • There is disagreement about who this attritional war benefits.  Some argue that the Ukrainians have to change to an aggressive war from a defensive war. It seems that even though a few weeks ago, there were question about whether the West would have sufficient morale to go through with this, these doubts have eased.  We have seen a shift to make predictions that NATO moral will hold up. 
    • There were dialogues between Macron and Putin released recently.  Putin batted away an idea proposed by Macron of a summit with Biden.  It would appear that for the moment, G7 has repudiated this “Putin can’t be humiliated” perspective.
    • Others argue that the slow trickle of weapons is creating the stale-mate.  It was proposed that Biden should tell Putin to start pulling out or they would give Ukraine the weapons to attack Russia.
    •  
    • 30 leaders talking about what more they can do to help Ukraine.
    • They could bring Ukrainian army up to NATO standards.
    •  
    • Turkey’s objections to Sweden and Finland.  Relationship with the PKK. 
    •  
    • Britain to announce commitment to Estonia’s defenses.
    •  
    • In Summary:
    • Saunders (British military leader): “If you want to avert conflict, you have to be prepared to fight.”  It is likely that Russia will be more of a threat after Ukraine whatever the outcome.  We will never be in the Europe before this war started.  Russia has taken a part that we cannot extract it from.  The likelihood is that, even if Putin is deposed, it will be another similar style leader.
    • There has been a catalogue of foreign policy errors that have gotten us in this mess.  We must think about those mistakes and also about the “emergent autocratic threats” around the world.  There is, unfortunately, still a mentality of this being a short term war, that if we just stop the tanks and keep Russia contained, things can go back to normal. We can not go back to where things were before the war.  This war against Ukraine has changed the world in ways we cannot even imagine.

  • Russian general warns UK lead target of Moscow’s missiles ‘First to be hit will be London’ | World | News | Express.co.uk

    RUSSIAN general Andrey Gurulyov warned London will be ‘the first to be hit’ should Russia be forced to escalate its ongoing invasion past Ukraine’s borders.
    — Read on www.express.co.uk/news/world/1630673/Russia-Andrey-Gurulyov-London-first-target-world-war-threat-Russia-Putin-ally-vn

  • Ukraine war: Several Russian generals removed by Kremlin over course of conflict – UK defence intelligence says | World News | Sky News

    The commander of Russia’s airborne forces and of another major armed forces group are the latest to lose their positions due to Russian forces’ lack of progress in Ukraine, the MoD’s intelligence arm says in its daily report.
    — Read on news.sky.com/story/ukraine-war-several-russian-generals-removed-by-kremlin-over-course-of-conflict-uk-defence-intelligence-says-12640134