Tracker

Zingers-plural? I thought he was allowed only one per season.

Well, its nearly pothole season again....

Prigozhin Says Jealous Kremlin Deliberately Stopped Wagner Taking Bakhmut -Reuters Wagner Group founder Yevgeny Prigozhin has stepped up his angry attacks on the Russian Defense Ministry, accusing Kremlin officials of deliberately preventing his fighters capturing Bakhmut out of sheer jealousy at his military successes. The mercenary boss dubbed “Putin’s Chef” said authorities are choosing to deprive Wagner of ammunition which has slowed progress in the blood-soaked battle to take Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine. “The objective is simple,” Prigozhin said: “PMC Wagner should not take Bakhmut.” His comments, which were made during an interview with several Russian media outlets on Wednesday, are the latest development in an escalating war of words between Prigozhin and the official armed forces of Russia. “Our actions today of course cause envy,” Prigozhin said, referring to jealousy among Russia’s military establishment. “So because we have successes, while in other places successes are not what they’d like to be, then instead of—remember what grandpa Lenin said: we all thought we were all meant to live well, but instead, they made it so that everyone lived the same but poorly.” Prigozhin went on to say all of Russia “supported” Wagner after the fall of Soledar—a salt mining town near Bakhmut—a victory which he previously claimed was “solely” achieved by his mercenaries despite statements to the contrary by Russia’s Defense Ministry. After that success, Prigozhin claimed, the Kremlin’s attitude became: “Wagner should not be capturing Bakhmut under any circumstances.” He said that his mercenaries have since been deprived of ammunition bringing “shell hunger” to the fight, but that “Wagner will take Bakhmut anyway.” He said this will be done “not because Prigozhin wants it,” but: “*****, we must prove to the whole world that the Russians can!”

Chinese Sugar Daddy Arrested For $1 Billion Fraud Steve Bannon’s Chinese money man, who also has ties to other Trump figures like Jason Miller, has been arrested in New York on fraud charges. The AP reported: A business tycoon long sought by the government of China and known for cultivating ties to Trump administration figures including Steve Bannon was arrested Wednesday in New York on charges that he oversaw a $1 billion fraud conspiracy. Guo Wengui, 54, and his financier, Kin Ming Je, faced an indictment in federal court in Manhattan charging them with various crimes, including wire, securities and bank fraud. Guo was charged first in court papers under the name Ho Wan Kwok. Guo was also using a vast social media network to spread COVID misinformation, election fraud lies, and QAnon conspiracies. Wengui bought his way into Trump’s orbit and spent money on Trump figures like Mike Flynn, Bannon, and Jason Miller. If it seems like roof is starting to cave in on Trump’s criminal political venture, that’s because it is. There is always shady money ready to flow into sketchy places like Trump world because people like Guo are always looking for access to power. Steve Bannon is facing his own legal problem including New York state criminal charges for stealing from Trump supporters for his Build The Wall scam. Guo is a reminder that whatever MAGA accuses Joe Biden of doing is usually what they are doing themselves.

The number of sarcastic, creative people on this forum is remarkable.

The GOP continues to cover themselves with excrement and their followers continue to applaud and shower them with money. The rich, like Koch and Thiel see them as useful idiots and the unwashed masses see them as messiahs.

This is the crux of the problem. Putin's KGB/FSB background allowed him to build a network of informants and executioners that have kept him in power by constraining or killing of anyone who might pose an opposition, so it really comes down to whoever can enforce their agendas most effectively.

'Had to borrow $10 million': MyPillow CEO complains company in debt due to pushing Trump 2020 election lies Right-wing extremist and MyPillow CEO, Mike Lindell, said during an interview with former President Donald Trump strategist, Steve Bannon, his successful company is in debt thanks to "voting machine companies." Bannon and Lindell have both "repeatedly pushed Trump's baseless claims that the 2020 election was 'stolen' through an unprecedented, nationwide voter fraud conspiracy" — one Fox News has admitted was false. Former federal prosecutor and Republican Ron Filipkowski shared a clip from the interview via Twitter, writing, "Mike Lindell reveals that MyPillow is going broke because of his battle to prove Trump won, and he had to borrow $10 million to keep things going." READ MORE: 'Like a cover-up': Mike Lindell says he will sue Kevin McCarthy for sharing January 6th footage with Fox News Bannon asked the multi-millionaire, "The loan you took out at MyPillow — people were all over you about this?" Lindell replied, "Yeah, last year, actually there were three separate loans, as the machine companies continue to sue us for billions of dollars." The CEO continued, "we had to borrow almost $10 million dollars. We're an employee owned company. It just baffles me, Steve, you've got all these machine companies — these voting machine companies, that nobody even knew their name before, but everybody protects them. And yet you attack a USA company, MyPillow, and my employees, and it's just disgusting. https://www.alternet.org/mypillow-ceo-10-million-debt/

Tennessee GOP congressman pocketed $25,000 donated for his stillborn son's memorial: report Freshman Congressman Andy Ogles (R-TN) appears to have pocketed $25,000 he crowdfunded to build a memorial for his stillborn son, reportedThe New Republic on Wednesday. "An investigation by NewsChannel5 found that Ogles set up a GoFundMe in 2014 after his son was stillborn. Ogles said he wanted to build a garden where families could bury their stillborn children and sit on benches by the gravestones. The GoFundMe raised almost $25,000, but the garden was never built," said the report. "GoFundMe confirmed that Ogles received the money. He declined to answer any of NewsChannel5’s questions about what happened to the funds." https://www.alternet.org/tennessee-republican-25000-sons-memorial/

Putin is a psychopath from all reports- he will not respond to any logic and, like Hitler may not be attached to reality.

Whew! I was expecting a Hilti gun.

You forgot the classic "Having A Spine Is Overrated" by Craig Dickenson.

I am ecstatic (I think) to announce that I received a call from the orthopod surgeon's office this morning to advise me that I am booked for my knee replacement sometime in May- date to be announced. Even though I have worked in the healthcare field for some 40 years, I am experiencing some trepidation. I have never had the end of my femur and tibia sawed off before, Gotta be better than 33 months of chronic pain, though.

They are doing that already. Trump and DeSantis are at each other's throats, as are Taylor-Green and Boebert as they jockey for position to become Trump's footstool, and the Republican PAC is suing Trump for siphoning off money. This is just the beginning- as the GOP sinks further and further in the polls and donations dry up, it will be down to axes in a trench warfare as each seeks to save their own skins and find someone else to blame. Besides the usual suspects- socialists, Jews, Muslims, gays, Asians and so forth.

Russian media report that schoolchildren in the equivalent of grade 6 are being trained on how to handle, maintain and use assault weapons.

Credit Suisse worth over $750Bn USD could go down and become Debit Suisse. Lehman Brothers in 2008 was $600Bn. Silicon Valley Bank was $200Bn.

Now I feel really, really ancient.

Looks like a Pizza Pocket on steroids.

And it isn't Mel Gibson.

The Peter Principle at work.

We’re One Step Closer to Putin’s Crimea Nightmare Since the outset of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year, Western leaders have privately been warning Kyiv against kicking Russia out of Crimea, the peninsula Russian President Vladimir Putin seized from Ukraine in 2014, out of a fear of triggering a nuclear flashpoint. But now, over one year into the invasion, the tide appears to be turning—at least from Kyiv’s perspective. Western leaders have started warming to the idea that Ukraine can take back Crimea in spite of Russian nuclear threats, Tamila Tasheva, the Ukrainian government official in charge of Crimea, told The Daily Beast in an exclusive interview. “We heard from Western leaders that… if we come back to Crimea, that there would be an unavoidable escalation, that might even provoke a nuclear conflict,” Tasheva said, noting that those warnings have faded in recent weeks. “The rhetoric has been changing since we explain more and more what Crimea is, what it means for Russia, and how things are connected around Crimea,” she said referring to the way Russia has been using Crimea as a launchpad and key supply route for the war. In the fall, The Daily Beast reported that Western officials were privately urging Ukraine’s government to back away from the idea of taking back Crimea. At the time, they expressed concerns to Tasheva that Putin, who had derived huge domestic support from seizing the Ukrainian peninsula in 2014, would view a Ukrainian campaign to take it back as an attack on Russia proper and respond with massive escalation. Tasheva believes that concern has started melting away now that Ukraine is arguing that Crimea is key to a victory against Putin both because Russia continues to use it as a launchpad for the war, and because Putin views it as key to his political legitimacy in Russia. Ukraine hopes its plan to kick Russia out of Crimea—as well as the other territory it has stolen—is finally gaining momentum. It’s a dramatic shift from the early days of the war, when Ukraine’s goals were focused on defending against Russia’s invasion and forcing Russia out of Ukrainian land captured in 2022. As Ukraine’s forces have staged successful counteroffensives, though, Kyiv has gained confidence it might be able to push Russia out of territory it stole in 2014, including Crimea. Now, with a Ukrainian counteroffensive likely targeted at southern Ukraine looming, the path to Crimea is becoming clearer. https://www.thedailybeast.com/were-one-step-closer-to-putins-crimea-nightmare?ref=home

The Sellinger NDP government imploded due to Sellinger's autocratic leadership style which caused all manner of internal conflict. There were viable candidates to replace him but he would not go, even when the majority of MLAs and NDP supporters wanted him to. Internal polling indicated that with a new leader, the NDP would have stood a chance to retain power, but Sellinger's ego would not allow that. It is said that governments are not defeated by the oppositions, but by internal collapse.

“They’re still doing his bidding”: GOP caught working with Trump lawyer to kill tax probe, Dems say. GOP and Trump's team "appear to have acted in coordination to bury evidence," Rep. Jamie Raskin says The House Oversight Committee quietly dropped an investigation into whether former President Donald Trump improperly profited while in the White House. House Oversight Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., told The New York Times on Tuesday that the committee won't enforce a court-supervised settlement that required Trump's former accounting firm Mazars USA to turn over his financial records to Congress. "I honestly didn't even know who or what Mazars was," Comer, who spent years in the minority on the committee as it investigated Trump's finances, claimed in a statement to the outlet. "What exactly are they looking for? They've been 'investigating' Trump for six years. I know exactly what I'm investigating: money the Bidens received from China." Documents produced by Mazars while the House was controlled by Democrats indicated that foreign governments spent large sums on visits to Trump's Washington hotel in efforts to sway the former president's foreign policy dealings, Forbes reported. Comer's statement came after Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., the top Democrat on the committee, in a letter to Comer sounded the alarm over the move and accused the Republicans of acting "in league with attorneys for former President Donald Trump to block the committee from receiving documents subpoenaed in its investigation of unauthorized, unreported and unlawful payments by foreign governments and others to then-President Trump." Raskin added that he had reviewed correspondence between a lawyer for Mazars and Patrick Strawbridge, a Trump attorney, detailing how Strawbridge was aware that House GOP members were to cease procuring further document production. "In the face of mounting evidence that foreign governments sought to influence the Trump administration by playing to President Trump's financial interests, you and President Trump's representatives appear to have acted in coordination to bury evidence of such misconduct," Raskin wrote. https://www.salon.com/2023/03/14/theyre-still-doing-his-bidding-caught-working-with-lawyer-to-probe-dems-say/