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​​“Well, I tell you what, I would do things, but the last thing I want to do is say it right now.”

Yeah, because telling the American people how he would join Putin in attacking Ukraine (he actually thought it was the US that was planning an amphibious landing at Odessa) and admitting he's a traitor won't work for him past the 30% of drooling deplorable morons who are too stupid to realize he's even dumber than they are.

Right now, Trump is literally the only American politician still supporting Putin, as he did in his speech at the Conservative Pricks & Asswipes Convention tonight. If he keeps it up (please do, you motherfucking piece of shit), he'll sink the GOP this fall.

Putin needs to read Roman history: Caligula wasn't murdered by his many enemies; he was assassinated by his Praetorian Guard.

And then we can flush Trump down the same toilet we flush Putin.

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The world is witnessing an historic, epic struggle. And we must throw everything we can to the Ukrainians to help them defend their country.

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"That we here highly resolve these dead shall not have died in vain; that the nation shall have a new birth of freedom and that the government of the people, by the people and for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” Ukraine, you have given the world a renewed inspiration for democracy.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/02/volodymyr-zelensky-ukraine-president/622938/

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I can add nothing to what HCR has written. She has the situation here exactly right. The Russian troops are running out of food and fuel and are held everywhere. Fierce battles in Kharkiv and Kyiv. I am so proud of our Ukrainian president, the man of the hour. My adopted country is solidly united in opposition.

Many people in Russia are refusing to believe what the are hearing from Ukraine according to my friend Artur. His daughter whom I have known since she was 7 moved with her cat to the Maternity hospital she works at, delivers babies in the day time and then she and her patients move to the bomb shelter at night.

My granddaughter and her friend are still in the lineup at the Polish border. They had caught a ride with a woman and her kids from L'viv. the woman was exhausted so Masha drove the whole way. The woman went back and the girls are looking after the kids.

We are totally safe as there is no way the Russians will get here.

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Feb 27, 2022·edited Feb 27, 2022

Thank you Heather for continuing to put the face of the people to this war. The open communication means the world is witnessing Putin’s heinous crimes in real time. And every lie from critics in USA is heard around the world. We can’t make up the upsurd claims that President Biden is weak, especially by those who are party to supporting Putin’s tyranny, TFG and Rudy, FOxies and repubs who aren’t yet sure which side to take. The world will remember.

I’m from USA, have walked The Camino de Santiago Pilgrimage six times, different routes in France, Spain and Portugal with people from all over the world. Even when we don’t speak the same languages, we walk together and share our lives, our hopes and dreams. And fears. This post was on the American Pilgrims Facebook page posted by a young Camino Pilgrim from Kiev in real time. I’ve removed her name and picture for privacy. 02/25/22:

“MESSAGES FROM A UKRAINIAN PILGRIM 🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦

Xxxxx has recently walked the Camino de Santiago and lives in Kiev. Here are her most recent posts on Instagram:

02/24/2022

I woke up at 5am with explosions and couldn't believe it wasn't a nightmare. How can an independent country be attacked in this way?

I would like to write that I am strong and not afraid, but I am very scared and I cried all day. Tears of helplessness in the face of such brutality. I packed my backpack, but I'm staying home for now. I don't want to run anywhere. THIS IS MY HOMELAND!!! 🇺🇦This is my home and we don't owe anyone anything. I speak Russian, but I don't want to speak this language anymore.

I am very grateful for all the support we are receiving and especially for our brave soldiers who are fighting for our Ukraine, for our freedom and sovereignty.

It's all very scary. I am praying for my family and for my country. 🇺🇦🙏02/25/2022

I am immensely grateful to those people who in these days of war have found strength and courage and are working: doctors, railroad workers, firefighters, drivers, bakers. They are soldiers on an invisible front. All these people keep the city and country alive.

And despite some interruptions, life goes on. There is water, gas, electricity, food. There are loved ones around. There is confidence that Good will prevail over Evil. WE WILL ENDURE, SURVIVE AND WIN. I never thought I'd be so excited to be able to buy bread. 🇺🇦🙏

#Ukraine #Camino #CaminoDeSantiago”

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Trump proves himself increasingly more absurd, increasingly more delusional. His claim that were he in office, Putin would not have invaded, is ludicrous . . . laughable. It is no wonder he has nothing to reveal at this time -- or ever. No one leapt higher than Vladimir Putin when Trump became President of the Electoral College. He knew from the get-go, before a single vote was cast how incompetent Trump would be and how divisive his presidency would prove. He knew well the Trump Effect would be to render us asunder and that thanks to whatever hold he has over Trump - psychological, financial - he would be able to manipulate the puppet strings to a fare-thee-well. Trump would have seen the invasion as payback -- as retribution -- for Zelensky's refusal to be blackmailed. He would have simply bought into Putin's flimsy and bizarre "de-Nazi-fy Ukraine" scenario and let this all happen, in grand obeisance to the wishes of his bromance boyfriend. Thank whatever powers that may be that Joe Biden, in his quiet way, demonstrates strength and leadership.

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From the World's Finest Fishwrap (aka the NYT):

President Vladimir V. Putin has ushered in a crisis for his country — in its economy and identity.

The Kremlin is hiding the reality of the country’s attack on Ukraine from its own people, even cracking down on news outlets that call it a “war.”

But the economic carnage and societal turmoil wrought by Mr. Putin’s invasion is becoming increasingly difficult to obscure.

Airlines canceled once-ubiquitous flights to Europe. The Central Bank scrambled to deliver ruble bills as the demand for cash spiked 58-fold. Economists warned of more inflation, greater capital flight and slower growth; and the S&P credit rating agency downgraded Russia to “junk” status.

The emphasis on hiding the war’s true extent was a sign that the Kremlin fears that Russians would disapprove of a violent, full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a country where many millions of Russians have relatives and friends.

Even so, more public figures with ties to the state spoke out against the war, including a lawmaker in Russia’s rubber-stamp Parliament. Business owners tried to assess the consequences of an economic crisis that appeared already to be beginning, even before sanctions were fully in place.

Russians have been stunned at how quickly the economic impact of the war was being felt. The ruble hit its lowest level ever against the dollar, which traded at about 84 rubles on Saturday compared to 74 a few weeks ago. That sent prices for imports surging, while sanctions on Russia’s largest banks wreaked havoc in the financial markets and new export restrictions promised to scramble supply chains.

“Those who shout that Putin is great and bravo to him are no longer shouting as loud,” said Lalya Sadykova, the owner of a chain of beauty salons in St. Petersburg. “They’re in shock from what is happening, from how quickly prices are changing and how suppliers are stopping deliveries.”

The chief executive of one of Russia’s biggest electronics retailers, DNS, said on Thursday that a supply crunch had forced his chain to raise prices some 30 percent. Days earlier, the chief executive, Dmitri Alekseyev, had posted on Facebook: “For the life of me I can’t understand why Russia needs a war.”

S7, Russia’s second-largest airline, suspended all of its flights to Europe because of airspace closures to Russian companies, an early sign that the cheap and easy travel to the West that middle-class Russians had grown used to could become a thing of the past. Photos of retailers changing or removing their price tags went viral on social media.

“We’re all waiting for what happens next,” said Anastasia Baranova, describing a wave of cancellations on Friday at the hotel she runs in St. Petersburg. “It’s as though the whole country is on pause.”

Even as a vicious battle for Kyiv unfolded on Saturday morning, a Russian Defense Ministry statement about the situation in Ukraine made no mention of the Ukrainian capital or any Russian casualties. The ministry, which typically releases sleek and copious footage daily of the Russian military in action, published no videos of its combat operations in Ukraine.

A hint of the potential opposition came on Saturday when Mikhail Matveyev, a Communist lawmaker who had voted to endorse Mr. Putin’s recognition of the Russian-backed separatist territories, wrote on Twitter that he had been tricked.

“I was voting for peace, and not for war,” he wrote, “and not for Kyiv to be bombed.”

It was a rare crack in the firmament of the Parliament, where dissent over Mr. Putin’s key foreign policy decisions has been virtually nonexistent in recent years. Tatyana Yumasheva, the daughter of former President Boris N. Yeltsin who helped bring Mr. Putin to power, posted an antiwar message on Facebook.

The main determining factor for what comes next, of course, will be what happens on the battlefield in Ukraine — the longer the war lasts and the greater the loss of life and destruction, the more difficult it will be for the Kremlin to cast the war as a limited operation not directed against the Ukrainian people.

Andrei Kortunov, director general of the Russian International Affairs Council, a research organization close to the Russian government, said he believed that the Kremlin expected the fighting to last no more than two weeks.

But if the war does not go according to plan, Mr. Kortunov cautioned, the country could see “serious political consequences and consequences for the popularity of the leadership.”

And beyond the economic impact of the war, many Russians could not yet imagine coming to terms with living in a country that had launched an unprovoked assault on its neighbor. A steady stream of people came to the Ukrainian embassy in Moscow on Friday, bringing flowers. A police officer prevented a woman from also leaving a small sign that said: “Yes to peace.”

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Please Please can't we impeach that dumb bastard one more time and put him and Guiliani behind bars for the traitors they are.

Or just deport them to Russia

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Thinking Biden was weak might have been Putin’s biggest mistake. He certainly underestimated Ukrainian popular resistance and President Zelensky’s courage.

“I don’t need a ride, I need ammunition!”

The NRA et al should be all over that statement in vociferous support of Zelensky and the Ukrainian people’s struggle.

I haven’t heard a word.

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Raging Rudy and despicable Donnie the idjt— you have a heck of a nerve to open your mouths after what you did to Ukraine to try to win re-election. That was your first impeachment. 🇺🇸

Of the many books written about what crooks you are, is AMERICAN OLIGARCHS: THE KUSHNERS AND TRUMPS AND THE MARRIAGE OF MONEY AND POWER by Andrea Bernstein.

The idjt called his buddy a genius. Republican legislators who agreed with him should quit now. Pack up and leave Washington. Your lies have become a joke and you are all traitors.

https://wapo.st/3M9hE0o idjt on Putin as a Genius for Invading Ukraine. Free to read.

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I always feel grateful for the elegance and sparce power of your words. 🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻

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Morale of Russian soldiers can’t be very high at this point. Not likely to the point of mutiny, but perhaps enough to make ordinary troops less enthusiastic about killing ethnic and linguistic cousins.

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As elevated by HCR, Fiona Hill's perspective on the history of Russia and NATO starts about 10 minutes into this panel on Feb. 22, the eve of Putin's invasion into Ukraine:

https://twitter.com/PomBella/status/1497676146841821187?s=20&t=VTcRPbjQFfZ95blafJn80w

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ICYMI, here's the SNL cold open last night, grab some Kleenex.

https://youtu.be/IjE4_h0t7qI

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We are all Ukrainians now.

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“I have not yet begun to fight.” -John Paul Jones 1779

“Nuts!” -Gen McAuliffe, 101st Airborne 1944

“Russian Warship, go f_ _k yourself!” -Doomed Ukrainian soldier 2022

“I need ammunition, not a ride.” -President Zelensky 2022

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