Tracker

Armed Intruders Sped Through Joint Base Andrews Military Checkpoint as VP Harris Landed There A major security scare sent Joint Base Andrews into lockdown late Sunday. Just as Vice President Kamala Harris and four Cabinet members were touching down at the Maryland military base, two suspects, at least one of whom was armed, got through a security checkpoint. In a statement, the base said the pair “failed to adhere to commands of security personnel” at the main gate, and both fled when their vehicle was stopped by barriers. Only one of them had been caught and that individual was found to be armed, but no shots were fired, according to the statement. Later Monday, the Air Force Times reported that the apprehended suspect is 17 years old, and the second suspect is still at large but a search determined they were not on the base. The New York Times reports that Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, left the base on Marine Two after the incident.

Trump Floats Idea That U.S. Bomb Russia With Jets Covered In China Flags, Then 'Sit Back And Watch' Former President Donald Trump on Saturday floated a horrifying scenario during a speech to some 250 elite Republican donors: He said the U.S. could bomb Russia with jets disguised with Chinese flags, then sit back and watch those nations go to war. Specifically, Trump said the U.S. could “put the Chinese flag” on F-22 fighter jets and use them to “bomb the **** out of Russia,” according to a recording of his speech that was obtained by The Washington Post. “And then we say, China did it, we didn’t do it, China did it, and then they start fighting with each other and we sit back and watch,” Trump said. The audience laughed at the comment, which seemingly was made in jest, a source told CBS News. The Post noted it would be highly unlikely that Russia would believe a distinctive F-22 had been sent by China. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-putin-bomb-russia-chinese-flags-gop-donors_n_62252fa1e4b03bc49a9cc339

Unvaccinated Child Tests Positive for Polio in Israel’s First Case in 3 Decades A four-year-old in Jerusalem was diagnosed with polio, marking the first known case in Israel since 1989, according to the country’s health ministry. The boy was not vaccinated against the disease, according to the ministry’s Sunday statement. It was unclear what symptoms he might have been experiencing, but authorities said he had not yet been hospitalized, according to Haaretz. A regional health administration in the city has opened an epidemiological investigation to keep tabs on the child’s health. Polio, a highly infectious virus that can be life-threatening, has no cure, but is easily prevented through vaccination. It has been eradicated in many regions, but remains endemic in places like Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Pakistan. https://www.thedailybeast.com/first-polio-case-in-israel-in-three-decades-as-unvaccinated-4-year-old-child-tests-positive?ref=home?ref=home

Update: The Pro-Putin truckers have decided not to go to DC today. A trucker convoy that has embraced a pro-Putin conspiracy theory is heading for Washington, D.C. and the White House. NBC News reported: While some group members have admonished Russian President Vladimir Putin for the invasion, QAnon and anti-vaccine contingents within the groups have seized on a false conspiracy theory that the war is a cover for a military operation backed by former President Donald Trump in Ukraine. The conspiracy theory, which is baseless and has roots in QAnon mythology, alleges that Trump and Putin are secretly working together to stop bioweapons from being made by Dr. Anthony Fauci in Ukraine and that shelling in Ukraine has targeted the secret laboratories. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has emerged in the past year as a main target for far-right conspiracy theories. In the conspiracy theory, Trump and Putin are the good guys who are trying to stop the secret bioweapons being made by 80 something-year-old Dr. Fauci. These truckers are not patriots, and they are tools of Putin’s propaganda. People are not dying in Ukraine for a cover story. The people in this protest are pro-Putin, and they are coming to America’s Capitol because they are angry about everything, especially their old-white messiah getting trounced in 2020, and they want everyone to know about their white rage. Putin fits perfectly with their mentality. Jason Easley

The total to date is three confirmed Russian/Chechnyan generals killed. The last one was killed by a Ukrainian sniper from a distance of 1500 meters. Good to see a capital piece taken off the board instead of just pawns.

Pence Will Try To Break Up Trump And The GOP Via: The AP: In a speech Friday evening to the party’s top donors in New Orleans, Pence will take on those in his party who have failed to forcefully condemn Russian President Vladimir Putin for his unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. “Where would Russian tanks be today if NATO had not expanded the borders of freedom? There is no room in this party for apologists for Putin,” Pence will say, according to excerpts from the speech. “There is only room for champions of freedom.” Pence thinks that he can pull evangelicals, activist conservatives, and establishment conservatives away from Trump. It is impossible to see evangelicals leaving Trump as many of them have convinced themselves that Trump comes before faith. Establishment conservatives are probably Pence’s best chance, but they are a small minority in Trump’s party. Trump supporters think that Mike Pence is the anti-Christ because he would not illegally overturn the election, so it is mindboggling that Pence would think that members of the same party that tried to hang him a year ago would stand with him to kick Trump out of the party. There is no chance of that happening, as Mike Pence is more likely to be kicked out of Trump’s GOP.

Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters Two commanders participating in Russia’s globally condemned invasion of Ukraine were killed Friday, according to Western officials cited by The Independent. Since the war began nine days ago, three senior officers in the Russian military have so far lost their lives to fierce resistance on the Ukrainian side. Yesterday, it was confirmed that Maj. Gen. Andrei Sukhovetsky, deputy commander of the 41st Combined Arms Army of the Central District, died in combat. Russian troops have reportedly been sticking with tactics that proved unsuccessful, rather than cutting their losses and trying something new. “In this campaign, it’s been remarkable that they have continued to reinforce failure,” an unidentified Western official told The Independent. “That lack of operational agility I find surprising.” Russians Are Tipping Off Ukraine To Putin’s Plots To Kill Zelensky Russian spies who oppose the invasion of Ukraine have tipped off the Ukrainians three times to plots to kill Zelensky. Russian double agents have stopped plots to kill Zelensky, “Ukrainian national security chief Oleksiy Danilov told a Ukrainian television network that double agents from Russia’s Federal Security Service or FSB warned them of the attempts. “I can say that we have received information from the FSB, who do not want to take part in this bloody war, and thanks to this, the Kadyrov elite group was destroyed, which came here to eliminate our president.” Zelensky’s status as a global cult hero has to be driving Putin crazy, which is why he is using one of his favorite tactics of assassinating his opposition. There are many Russians who don’t want the war with Ukraine, and Americans have seen similar lower-stakes situations play out during the Trump administration, as people within the government worked to stop Trump from within. Putin is not only fighting Ukraine. He is battling his own people. Internationally, President Biden has been making sure that Ukraine gets US intelligence within minutes, as there are people worldwide, including in Russia, who are working to stop Putin and his deadly invasion. Even Russians are fighting against Putin in Ukraine.

According to Ukrainian news, there are some 17,000 Ukrainian women fighting now, including the current Miss Ukraine. I seem to recall that the Diefenbaker government lost an election when they were poised to spend many millions of dollars of Canadian taxpayer money to build a pipeline to carry petroleum to the US.

Why? So we can subsidize and ship a valuable non-renewable resource to the US?

But the John Deere logo is outstanding in its field.

Assassination of foreign leaders has long been a policy of the US, among other countries. The US tried its damnedest to kill Castro and probably succeeded in killing Yasser Arafat.

The best answer may be in Venezuela, which has been suffering from US embargoes for years. The oil production has been cut back drastically but is capable of being upscaled quickly and is light crude. The US may see this as the lesser of evils, even though they would love to continue punishing Venezuela.

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The military materiel and humanitarian supplied to Ukraine has been of great help to them. Had it not been for this help, the invasion would have rolled over Ukraine already. The resistance has been much greater than Putin anticipated- over 4,000 Russian casualties, and two Russian generals dead. Even though Putin claims things are going according to plan, as of today contradicting government reports or criticizing Putin's war is is punishable by 20 years imprisonment, all independent media has been shut down and there are reports that Russian conscription of troops is imminent. None of this ensures Ukrainian victory but analysts have estimated that if Ukrainian resistance is not crushed in the next 7-10 days, Putin will be in trouble. Third Assassination Attempt on Zelensky Fails as Putin Sparks ‘Nuclear Terror’ An aide to the Ukrainian president credits “Russian spies” for tipping them off to at least three assassination attempts. Comic-turned-hero Volodymyr Zelensky has survived at least three precision assassination attempts by elite hit squads since Russia’s week old war began, according to Ukrainian officials who say his survival was all thanks to tip-offs from Russian spies. Both the the Kremlin-funded Wagner group mercenaries and Chechen Republic leader Ramzan Akhmadovich Kadyrov’s kill teams have allegedly tried to kill the Ukrainian president, who is hiding out in various bunkers deep below the capital Kyiv, according to the Washington Post. The Wagner mercenaries—run by Yevgeny Prigozhin A.K.A. “Putin’s chef” —reportedly have a kill list of 24 names, including Zelensky, but were waylaid by the stalled military convoy outside of Kyiv that made it difficult for Russian special forces to secure an escape route, according to the Times of London.

Yet he would be the one most likely to win a majority. Not loony enough to win the hearts and minds of the cretins.

I would imagine that the behind-the-scenes stuff will closely resemble the "Succession" TV series.

Kentucky Pol Apologizes for Sick Rant About Jewish Women’s Sex Lives A Kentucky state representative has apologized for bizarrely and offensively discussing the sex lives of Jewish women and the Holocaust while debating an anti-abortion bill. Republican Danny Bentley began his fallacious argument by claiming that a pill taken to induce abortions, RU-486, was developed by a Jew during WWII. He then bizarrely implied that the substance was used as a gas in death chambers. And while discussing whether or not Jewish women could be exempt from the proposed anti-abortion legislation, Bentley said, “Did you know that a Jewish woman has less cancer of the cervix than any other race in this country or this world?... And why is that? Because the Jewish women only have one sex partner… They don’t have multiple sex partners.” After Jewish leaders, including the only Jewish member of the state’s legislature, denounced the comments, Bentley—who happens to be a pharmacist—said, “I meant absolutely no harm in my comments today and sincerely apologize for any they caused...I clearly should have been more sensitive with my comments.” https://www.thedailybeast.com/kentucky-lawmaker-danny-bentley-apologizes-for-rant-on-jewish-womens-sex-lives-during-abortion-debate

The talks will go nowhere. Nothing short of complete capitulation will be acceptable to Putin. Meanwhile, a second Russian general has been killed on the battlefield: Top Russian General Killed in Combat -Getty An officers’ organization in southern Russia has confirmed that a Russian general was killed in combat this week in Ukraine. General Andrei Sukhovetsky led the Russian 7th Airborne Division and was a deputy commander of the 41st Combined Arms Army. The organization did not confirm how Sukhovetsky died. Christo Grozev, executive director of investigative journalism website Bellingcat, wrote on Twitter that the death would be a “major demotivator” for the Russian army.

Faux News racist? Say it isn't so.

It would be very appropriate to have the protesters pay for the cleanup.

I believe this is the 600 million dollar yacht that was impounded in a French port yesterday. The intent is to sell the boat and donate the money for Ukrainian war effort and/or rebuilding.