The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

In The Mailbox: 02.17.23 (Evening Edition)

Posted on | February 18, 2023 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 02.17.23 (Evening Edition)

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Having successfully pimped Son of Silvercon, it’s time to get a good night’s sleep before grabbing some spudnuts and heading west for a wild Saturday night in Elko. Usual weekend deadlines for the usual weekend posts.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: Chicago Politicians Wouldn’t Lie, Would They?
EBL: Ignore the nasty old Nazi Collaborator behind the curtain
Twitchy: Indian-American Pundit Trips Over Own Name While Condemning Nikki Haley For “Name Switch”, also, “Antiracist” SJW Saira Rao Has A Handy Checklist To Help You Figure Out If You’re A Fascist
Louder With Crowder: Here we go: Vanity Fair claims Ron  DeSantis is more ‘dangerous’ than Trump, compares him to…Genghis Khan?, also, Dad Tries to Read Sexually Explicit Children’s Book to School Board, But They Shut Him Down Real Fast
Vox Popoli: China Attacks USD, Mailvox: SSH, Status, and the Sigma, and Gamma Correction
According To Hoyt:  Meme-Hectic, How Beautiful We Were — And How Foolish, and After The Fair
Monster Hunter Nation: WriterDojo S4 E6: Monsters (Round 3)

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: Living in Sodomite World
American Conservative: What To Make Of The Asbury Revival?, also, Fighting a Just War in Washington
American Greatness: Group of Black 6th Graders Allegedly Assaults White Students on School Playground For Not Saying ‘Black Lives Matter’, Democrats Refuse to Attend Congressional Border Hearing, The Case for Defunding a New FBI Headquarters, and White House Bars Several Reporters From Biden Briefing on Chinese Spy Balloon and Aerial Objects
American Thinker: First, They Came for the Confederates, Opposing the Climate Inquisition, and Constant Government Lies Spark Resistance Movements
Animal Magnetism: Rule Five Ukraine Friday
Babalu Blog:  Snapshot from Hell: Young American communists meet with Cuba’s fake president, How the American left helped create Cuba’s communist dictatorship, Cuban dictatorship oppressors now living in the U.S. identified by human rights group, and Looking for a Cabinet Secretary named Pete
BattleSwarm: LinkSwarm for February 17, also, Another Reason To Hate Toast Tab
Behind The Black: SpaceX launches 51 Starlink satellites from Vandenberg, First launch of Japan’s H3 rocket aborts at T-0, China releases data sets from Chang’e-4 lander, and Today’s blacklisted Americans: Rhode Island still pushing racist hiring practices despite civil rights complaint, and Professor sues University of Texas for threatening his job because he criticized it publicly
Cafe Hayek: Dishonorable Woke, also, The Intellectual Weakness Is Abundant and Evident
CDR Salamander: Fullbore Friday
Chicago Boyz: Productivity Problems: Is ‘Shunning Technology’ Really the Main Villain?
Da Tech Guy: The Wuhan Flu pandemic nonsense has polarized the American people in a rather loathsome manner
First Street Journal: Once mayoral candidates wanted to bypass Larry Krasner, The Philadelphia Inquirer leapt to his defense, also, Once again, the Lexington Herald-Leader chooses to break McClatchy policy, and publish photo of a criminal suspect
Gates Of Vienna: More on the Flagpole Controversy, Dismembered in Buttes-Chaumont, Comrade Citizens, Keep Your Family Safe!, Resistance Begins With “I Will Not Comply”, and Two Interviews With Rasmus Paludan
The Geller Report: Obama’s Director of National Intelligence James Clapper Can’t Stop Lying, Biden Regime Rejects Ohio’s Request for Emergency Aid After Environmental Disaster, and Antifa Terrorists Share a Fundraising Platform With the DNC
Hogewash: Team Kimberlin Post of the Day, JWST’s IR View of NGC 1433, and Going By A Middle Name
Hollywood In Toto: Daily Show Ratings Still Embarrassingly Low with Guest Hosts, What You Missed About ‘South Park’s Harry and Meghan Takedown, Marvel Had Evangeline Lilly’s Back Over Vaccine Critiques, and Comics Attack Tucker Carlson for Defending Comedy (Really)
The Lid: Biden’s Lies About Beating The Deficit Were Even Worse Than We Thought
Legal Insurrection: Sen. John Fetterman Checks Into Walter Reed for Severe Depression, Woke New York Times Newsroom Throws Tantrum Over Paper’s Alleged ‘Anti?-?Trans’ Bias (Update: Times Exec. Editor Responds), North Korea Defector Compares ‘Woke’ Education in America to Regime She Escaped, West Virginia Bill Would End DEI Initiatives at Public Universities, Colleges, and Rush Passed Away Two Years Ago Today
Nebraska Energy Observer: Three Women
Outkick: Washington Commanders Hire Eric Bieniemy as Assistant Head Coach, Tiger Woods Unnecessarily Apologizes for His Tampon Joke With Justin Thomas, High School Player Taunts LeBron James After Shot Beats Bronny, Sierra Canyon, Charles Barkley Thinks NBA Is Headed For A Lockout Because Of Players’ Constant Changing Of Teams, Load Management, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Foolishly Rushes To Don Lemon’s Defense After Sexist Comments
Power Line: The Fetterman blues, My Close Encounter With NPR, Do Your Part: Reduce Your Standard of Living!, and Thoughts from the ammo line
Shark Tank: Patronis – “ESG Is Against Capitalism & Job Creation”, also, Donalds Reintroduces Bipartisan DEMOCRACIA Act
Shot In The Dark: Open Letter To Keith Olberman
STUMP: Senate Mortality 2023: Top Ten Old Senators
The Political Hat: Firing Line Friday: The Security of Europe
This Ain’t Hell: Yes. Yes, it is a mental disease, Army Fitness Test may see more changes, Valor Friday, Donations to help Veterans, or to keep companies running?, and Veteran ends his life after VA denies his request related to pain management
Transterrestrial Musings: Saving The Planet, California’s Predicted Fiscal Firestorm, THoughts On Russian CUlture, In Order To Stop The Shooting, and Great British Railway Journeys
Victory Girls: Fetterman Is Depressed, Everyone Knows Why, also, University of Richmond Told To Put Money Where Woke Mouth Is
Volokh Conspiracy: Will Chief Justice Roberts Respond To Senator Wyden’s Attack On Judge Kacsmaryk?
Watts Up With That: We Will Still Need Fossil Fuels In 2050–AEP’s U-Turn, also, Scientists Debunk Alarmist Claim That Vertebrates Declined 69% Since 1970
Weasel Zippers: JD Vance Goes Off On FAA “Inclusive Language” Guidance, “I’m Laughing Because This Has To Be A Joke”, Kamala Harris Word Salad of The Day, Al Sharpton Likens DeSantis’s Education Policies To Slavery, Segregation, and Biden FAA Administrator “Fully Supportive” Of Banning Terms Like “Airmen,” “Unmanned Aircraft”
The Federalist: The Asbury Revival Is A Reminder Of The Blessings And Dangers Of ‘Mountaintop Experiences’, North Dakota Republicans Are One Step Closer To Banning Ranked-Choice Voting In State Elections, Why Is Pete Buttigieg Allowed To Keep Failing Upward?, BBC’s ‘Cunk On Earth’ Mockumentary Is Brilliantly Stupid, and Biden’s Supersized IRS Will Spread Out More Audits For White People, Incoming Commissioner Promises
Mark Steyn: Dropping Like Flies, also, Remembering Rush: Two Years On

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Category: Linkagery

CNN: Making News (Not in a Good Way)

Posted on | February 17, 2023 | 1 Comment

Because you don’t watch CNN — nobody watches CNN — you might not be aware that they employ a person named “Don Lemon,” who is both (a) homosexual and (b) unpopular with cable news audiences. Whether there is any cause-and-effect relationship between (a) and (b), the question of whether a gay man is qualified to speak on when a woman is “in her prime” might arouse curiosity even among the small cohort of people who watch CNN. Really, is this the guy that CNN executives are counting on to revive their last-place network’s dismal ratings?

In the aftermath of that disaster — I mean, it was a disaster even by CNN standards — the unpopular homosexual Don Lemon was absent from the show (that nobody watches) this morning, And as if the hole wasn’t already deep enough, CNN decided to keep digging.

That’s an artful way of phrasing it, eh? Lemon’s comments were “widely viewed as sexist,” as if there was some room for doubt on the matter, so you couldn’t just flatly state that the comments were sexist. Betcha $100 the New York Times wasn’t so weasel-wordy about sexist comments when Donald Trump was involved. Ah, but however unpopular Don Lemon may be, he is a homosexual, so that everybody knows he would never “grab ’em by the [female anatomy],” which might explain why the Times headline writers decided to cut him slack — more slack than Lemon’s boss at the last-place news network was willing to cut him:

CNN’s chairman, Chris Licht, opened his daily 9 a.m. editorial call by saying that the remarks by Mr. Lemon, which were widely viewed as sexist and insensitive, had left him “disappointed.”
“His remarks were upsetting, unacceptable and unfair to his co-hosts, and ultimately a huge distraction to the great work of this organization,” Mr. Licht told his staff, according to a recording of the call obtained by The New York Times.

When your employees are leaking recordings of the morning editorial call to the New York Times, your staff morale may be even lower than your ratings which, I hasten to remind you, are in the toilet. When you’re paying three people to anchor your morning show, and your ratings are lower than Paw Patrol, maybe the problem is more than just a few controversial comments. Maybe the problem is something more fundamental and pervasive, like the mindless partisan loyalty to the Democrats that defines your entire concept of what qualifies as “news.”

Speaking of news, some idiots have decided it’s newsworthy that Nikki Haley goes by her middle name. Yeah, how weird is that?



 

 

Category: CNN

In The Mailbox: 02.17.23 (Morning Edition)

Posted on | February 17, 2023 | 1 Comment

— compiled by Wombat-socho

From the Temporary Field HQ in Provo, Utah.
Silicon Valley delenda est.

Operator-chan knows what you’ve been searching for on the internet, you degenerates.

OVER THE TRANSOM
Twitchy: “Rachel” Levine Emails Reveal Push To Profit On “Gender Clinics” At Childrens’ Hospitals, also, Unhinged Fascist Joy Behar Rants About “These Fascists Out There” And LOL 
Louder With Crowder: CNN co-host storms off after Don Lemon’s “women past their prime” claim, and even Brian Stelter is chirping about it
Vox Popoli: Just Admit it Already, Color Revolution in Hungary, The End of the Three Rules, and Whoring for the NFL

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
American Conservative: David French: Not Woke Enough For The Times?, also, Congress Has the Chance to End Endless Wars
American Greatness: Republican Congressman Introduces Bill to Abolish Department of Education, Idaho State House Passes Ban on Transgender Surgery for Minors, and Destroying Meritocracy Is Deadly
American Power: The Left Has Given Up on Ordinary Americans, also, ‘Every Parent’s Nightmare’
American Thinker: Why is Biden so Oddly Silent about the Ohio Train Disaster?, also, The ‘DeSantis Is Trump Without the Baggage’ Crowd is in for a Rude Awakening
Animal Magnetism: Animal’s Hump Day News, also, Animal’s Daily Balloonery Buffoonery News
Babalu Blog: Harassed Cuban dissident and former political prisoner sews mouth shut in protest, Half of Cuba plunged into darkness as power grid once again collapses, and Medicine shortage in Cuba doesn’t deter dictatorship from selling $84 million in pharmaceuticals to Mexico
BattleSwarm: Would You Believe Austin’s New Interim City Manager Is Soros-Backed DA Jose Garza’s Uncle?
Behind The Black: NASA outlines its expected needs as a space station customer, Roscosmos will launch unmanned Soyuz to ISS on February 21, “What the heck?!” swirls on Mars, and Stop participating in the delusions of the insane
Cafe Hayek: An Economics Pop Quiz
CDR Salamander: We Should be Brave Enough to Say Hard Things, also, Diversity Thursday
Chicago Boyz: The March of Folly
Da Tech Guy:  Nikki Haley for President? “Meh”, also, I Bet They’re all well Trained in multiple Gender Choices
Don Surber: Foolish Right-Wingers, also, How To Win Next Year
First Street Journal: Killadelphia: Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw has a Department in complete disarray, also, Senator Karen Berg thinks that Jack can be Jill . . . and wants the public schools to enforce that
Gates Of Vienna: Idaho House Votes for a Greater Idaho, The Balloon Goes Up, Bloody Marxist Terror Wave Hits Budapest, and Silvio Berlusconi Departs From the Narrative on Ukraine
The Geller Report: Young People Who Died Suddenly This Week, State-Mandated Suicide Proposed for Elderly Population; Hearing Reveals Weaponization of Government, and Abominable Buttigieg Blames (Wait For It…) TRUMP For His Ohio Environmental Disaster
Hogewash: Team Kimberlin Post of the Day, I’m Not Making This Up, You Know, and Pandora’s Cluster
Hollywood In Toto: 15 Love Movies. 15 Laws of Love, Devil’s Peak Serves Up Billy Bob Thornton, Unleashed, and They’re Coming for Your Favorite Podcasts
The Lid: Utah Gov. To Californians—Don’t Move Here!
Legal Insurrection: Betsy DeVos Warns CCP is Attempting Espionage Through ‘America’s Colleges and Universities’, Defense Department DEI Chief Made Disparaging Remarks About White People on Twitter, It “Sucks” That Prof. Amy Wax Still Employed, U Penn Law Dean Declared On Recently Released 2019 Audio, and Cal State U. Monterey Bay Tells Students to Report Profs for Racism if They Don’t Call on Enough Minorities
Nebraska Energy Observer: Video Wednesday, also, I can’t believe this!
Outkick: Brian Flores, Who Is Suing NFL Over Lack Of Opportunities For Minority Coaches, Turned Down Interview For Cardinals Head Coach Job, Stephen A. Blames Andy Reid For Eric Bieniemy Not Being A Head Coach, Damar Hamlin Won’t Say What Doctors Said Caused His Heart To Stop, Jalen Hurts’ Contract Extension Reportedly Demanding Elite Money From Free-Agent-Heavy Eagles Roster, and Deion Sanders Says He Looks For Quarterbacks With ‘Mother, Father’
Power Line: Clapper’s claptrap take 2, “Hate Speech” Fails Again, and A Twitter Files footnote (9)
Shark Tank: Judge Tosses Challenge To DeSantis’ Parental Rights In Education Law
Shot In The Dark: The Experts, also, Ryan Winkler Style
STUMP: Public Finance Spotlight: Public Plans Database
The Political Hat: Why Do Companies Go Woke?
This Ain’t Hell: Raquel Welch, passes at 82. Thanks for the memories and so much more, Army Officer accused of spying on girls, Colonel Paris Davis to receive MoH for Vietnam, and Bill reintroduced to make defrauding veterans a federal crime
Transterrestrial Musings: Should Have Waited For April 1st, Impending Civil-Rights Victory, New Cars, and The Delusions Of The Insane
Victory Girls: Americans Don’t Understand Great Communicator Biden’s Empathy
Volokh Conspiracy: “U.S. State Department Funds a Disinformation Index That Warns Advertisers To Avoid Reason”, also, The Bogus Controversy Over Nikki Haley Checking “White” on Her Voter Registration Card Resurfaces
Watts Up With That: This is Big! DeSantis Takes Aim At ESG: LIVE at Noon CT today, also, Greenpeace Betrays Founders to Peddle Junk Science
Weasel Zippers: Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg Still Nowhere To Be Found Two Weeks After Ohio Train Derailment, SD Democrat: Traditional Two-Parent Families Are “Un-American”, GLAAD Outraged: Super Bowl Commercials Not Gay Enough, and Biden Refers To Maryland’s First Black Governor As “Boy”
The Federalist: Poll: Less Than Half Of Americans Support Shipping Our Weapons To Ukraine, ‘Queer’ Whistleblower Exposes Evils Of The School-To-Scalpel Pipeline, D.C. Public Schools’ New Curriculum Turns Social Studies Into Social Justice, Sexual Perversion, and Congress Should Subpoena MLB’s Rob Manfred To Admit All-Star Georgia Boycott Was A Partisan Pretense
Mark Steyn: Nothing Is Certain but Debt and Crotches, also, The Empire Strikes Out

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Category: Uncategorized

In The Mailbox: 02.16.23 (Punditocalyse Redux)

Posted on | February 17, 2023 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 02.16.23 (Punditocalyse Redux)

— compiled by Wombat-socho

An abbreviated edition, because I just got in from Reno and would love nothing more than to just sleep. However, duty calls, with a shrill, annoying voice. SOTD.
Silicon Valley delenda est.

Sleep tight tonight – the Chief Wombat is awake and linkmongling!

OVER THE TRANSOM
Ninety Miles From Tyranny: The 90 Miles Mystery Box Episode #1994 – Valentine’s Day Edition
357 Magnum: An Australian Knives Out, Or, Who Firebombed Friendlyjordies?
EBL: Death Toll in Turkey and Syria Tops 40,000, Raquel Welch, RIP, Burning of the Philadelphia, and Brian Stelter: Male Potato Prostitute
Twitchy: Watch Governor Hairgel Squirm When Cornered By Ethical Dilemma, Nikki Haley Comments On Don Lemon’s “Apology”, and “Transportation Secretary” Buttigieg Asks Us To Remember That Trains Derail All The Time
Louder With Crowder: Karen demands to speak to Little Caesars manager, has epic meltdown over employee *checks notes* throwing out cardboard, also, Darius Rucker blasts lack of respect shown our National Anthem at the Super Bowl
Vox Popoli: Write More in the Book, Drafting Europe, Inversion in War, and Well, Darn the Luck!
Gab News: Trust – The Currency Of A Parallel Christian Society
Stoic Observations: The Scrub
Don Surber: The Hot Air Of Spy Balloons, also, Fetterman Nation

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Category: Linkagery

More Bad Headlines About CNN

Posted on | February 16, 2023 | Comments Off on More Bad Headlines About CNN

As a news organization, you never want the story to be about you. The saying that “there’s no such thing as bad publicity” doesn’t apply to the news media, which lives or dies by its credibility, and the recent stream of news about CNN’s personnel problems isn’t helping them in that regard:

Chris Cuomo, the former host of Cuomo Prime Time on CNN, claims he was so devastated after his firing that he was “going to kill everybody and myself.”
Cuomo was fired back in 2021 when CNN had to pretend that it cared about journalistic standards in the wake of revelations that Cuomo was giving advice to his brother Andrew Cuomo, the disgraced former governor of New York, who’d been accused of sexual harassment by a number of staffers.
“I had to accept [my firing] because [otherwise] I was going to kill everybody, including myself,” Cuomo told Anthony Scaramucci during an interview on the latter’s podcast.
A few short months after Cuomo was fired, CNN president Jeff Zucker unexpectedly resigned from CNN due to his failure to disclose a consensual relationship with CNN executive vice president and chief marketing officer Allison Gollust. The relationship was reportedly an open secret at CNN, and Cuomo was the one who blew the whistle on the relationship.
CNN anchor Brian Stelter accused his former colleague of trying to “burn the place down,” in reference to CNN.
“He’s not going out quietly. There were reports he was going to get paid the millions of dollars on the remainder of his contract. As a source said earlier today, he was trying to burn the place down,” Stelter added. “He was going to court trying to burn the place down and claiming he had incriminating information. If this is the case, this is a domino effect that begins with Andrew Cuomo and Chris Cuomo being fired. That’s a remarkable domino event I think that’s part of the story.”
Stelter was later fired from the network in August 2022.
Cuomo certainly had an axe to grind — and still does, even though he quickly got hired by NewsNation after CNN booted him. Despite the new gig, he only gets a fraction of the audience he had at CNN, which, coincidentally, is a fraction of the audience that Fox News gets. Cuomo reportedly averages about 63,000 viewers a night at NewsNation.
“I will never be [No. 1] again,” Cuomo conceded. He is now suing CNN for $125 million, claiming the network is guilty of “smearing” his journalistic integrity. It’s cute the way this man-child who used to interview his own brother on CNN claims to have journalistic integrity.

This follows in the immediate aftermath of news that the executive producer of Jake Tapper’s CNN show got fired for a sexual relationship with a subordinate, which was the same thing that got Zucker fired. But beyond the apparent inability of CNN staff to keep their pants on at the office, their much larger problem is their ratings — or lack thereof. It is difficult to exaggerate just how bad CNN’s ratings are. This graphic shows the cable news ratings for Tuesday night:

As you can see, in every hour from 5 p.m.-midnight Eastern, the Fox News audience is between four and six times larger than the CNN audience. CNN isn’t just losing, they’re being humiliated. And it gets worse when you consider how tiny CNN’s audiences are in comparison to some other cable programs:

Yes, you read that chart correctly: There are entire hours of CNN prime-time that get fewer viewers than Paw Patrol on Nickelodeon at 11 a.m.

You may laugh at a kiddie cartoon if you wish, but Paw Patrol never promoted Michael Avenatti or the “Russian collusion” hoax.

As for the 63,000 viewers of Chris Cuomo’s NewsNation show — dear God, that’s a mere fraction of the audience for many YouTubers. “CodyB Fireworks” has 463,000 subscribers and got more than 2 million views on one of their fireworks shows in July. Tim Pool has more than a million YouTube subscribers and routinely gets more than 150,000 views on his videos. Police Activity has more than 4 million YouTube subscribers and frequently gets more than a half-million views on their videos. So not only is Chris Cuomo’s audience smaller than a YouTube commentator like Tim Pool, but he’s also got fewer viewers than either Cody’s fireworks or a YouTube channel that’s just bodycam footage of police shootings.

Chris Cuomo is a complete failure, but as for his lawsuit against CNN, I hope he bankrupts them. They deserve to lose every cent they’ve got.

(Hat-tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.)



 

 

Category: CNN

Report: Jake Tapper’s Executive Producer Fired in Latest CNN Sex Scandal

Posted on | February 15, 2023 | Comments Off on Report: Jake Tapper’s Executive Producer Fired in Latest CNN Sex Scandal

Nobody watches CNN anymore. The network is now permanently mired in third place in cable news ratings, but instead of trying to produce better programming, it seems everybody at CNN is too busy trying to get into the pants of their co-workers, which may be part of the reason why their ratings are so bad:

Reports released Wednesday suggest that Jake Tapper’s executive producer, Federico Quadrani, was fired in early February for an inappropriate relationship with a subordinate.
Sources claimed that Quadrani was released from his position for “hooking up with” a senior producer at the network, PageSix reported. Apparently news of the alleged relationship and firing is spreading rapidly throughout CNN, a source told the PageSix, warning that “it’s going to get out.”
Sources noted that Quadrani was already under a human resources “investigation of sorts,” over the relationship. “There were some complaints. No one had proof, and these things are hard to prove. Jake was aware of the investigation,” another source told PageSix.
Just as Quadrani was about to be cleared in the investigation, Tapper was reportedly “presented with something that he couldn’t ignore” on Feb. 8, and Quadrani was fired by Feb 10, according to PageSix. “Jake was made aware of it and acted quickly. Someone discovered something accidentally, and brought it to Tapper. He delivered it to [human resources], and they were terminated,” one of the sources told the outlet.
Colleagues are reportedly shocked by the situation, with one of the sources saying Quadrani and the producer are “consenting adults and no one’s particularly feeling like this is some big scandal,” according to PageSix
Another CNN insider confirmed the information in PageSix to Fox News Digital, adding that “complaints were made” about Quadrani in the last week. The news comes almost exactly a year after former CNN President Jeff Zucker left the organization following a “consensual relationship with [his] closest colleague.”

Jeffrey Toobin could not be reached for comment.



 

 

Category: CNN

In The Mailbox: 02.14.23

Posted on | February 15, 2023 | 1 Comment

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Silicon Valley delenda est.

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: Woke Hollywood & Mao’s Cultural Revolution
EBL: Michigan State Shooter Suspect Shoots Himself, also, Twitter Tweet Trainwreck
Twitchy: Soledad O’Brien Dragged For Lecturing Reporters That “Woke” Is A Racist Term, also, Ted Cruz Blisters Biden’s Nutjob Commie Appointee To FCC
Louder With Crowder:  Tom Green gets red-pilled, exposes what all this “UFO information” coming out now is distracting us from, also, Chelsea Handler Tries to Brag About Being a Childless Woman, But It’s Actually Incredibly Depressing
Vox Popoli: When Citizens Suddenly Aren’t Citizens, Chernohio, Turks Suspect US Geoweapon, Red China Calls Out Surveillance, and The Paper Americans
Bad Cattitude: Fundamental Humans Rights

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: It’s a Spiritual & a Physical War
American Conservative: Why Won’t the New York Times Say ‘Chiefs’?, State Department ‘Disinformation’?, and Church Of England Crack-Up
American Greatness: Kirby Doubles Down–Insists China’s Spy Balloons Operated During Trump Administration ‘But They Did Not Detect It’, Democrats Increasingly Voice Fears About Biden Cognitive Decline, and Two More Trains Derail in Texas and South Carolina on Monday
American Thinker: Our Little Barbarians, Balloongate – China’s Long Game, and Since When did Ukrainians Become Entitled to the State they Got?
Animal Magnetism: Animal’s Daily Shooting Irons News
Babalu Blog: Cuban dictatorship declares bankruptcy, suspends payments to all providers in tourism industry, A wave of layoffs shakes up state-owned companies in Sancti Spiritus, and AMLO awarding a medal to Cuba’s sock puppet president was bad, but what he said was worse
BattleSwarm: Gun Owners of America Join Forces With Ken Paxton To Sue ATF Over Gun Brace Regulation
Behind The Black: Red China aiming to complete 80 launches in 2023, SpaceX abandons plan to convert floating oil platforms into Starship/Superheavy landing spots, Canadian rocket startup dies because of opposition to noise produced by its engine tests, and Today’s blacklisted Americans: Religious pro-lifers prevented from viewing Bill of Rights because National Archives forbids free speech
Cafe Hayek: In Defense of Steven Koonin, Hygiene Socialism Isn’t “Authoritarian Capitalism”, and Woke Spoofs Itself
CDR Salamander: We Have a Lot of Things to Relearn
Chicago Boyz: A Surprisingly Good Article About Electricity in the MSM
Da Tech Guy: Godwin’s Law needs a revision or a successor, Too Many People Know a Guy, Don’t know much about history, and Another Soon to Be Local Story out of Michigan State or Chris Rock Nods
Dana Loesch: #OhioChernobyl Is Trending – Where Is Secretary Mayor New Mom Poot?
First Street Journal: The credentialed media really, really, really hate being held to account, also, Some of the environmentalists seem to want us to return to nineteenth century living
Gates Of Vienna: Toxic Disaster in East Palestine, Annalena is Beyond Criticism, The Heart of the Matter, and Timeline of Events in East Palestine
The Geller Report: George Soros Buys Up Tesla Stock, Boosting His Stake By 270%, also, MEDIA BLACKOUT: There Were OVER A THOUSAND Train Derailments in 2022
Hogewash: Team Kimberlin Post of the Day, Valentine Flowers, and JUICE
Hollywood In Toto:  Roseanne Barr: Cancel This! Embraces MAGA Nation, Joe Rogan Says Ex-CNN Star Brian Stelter Is ‘Basically a Prostitute’, and Ant Man and the Wasp: Quantumania – Large(r) and In Charge
The Lid: Perjurer Clapper Claims He Didn’t Say Hunter’s Laptop Was Russian Disinformation
Legal Insurrection: Study Launched to Investigate if White Paint is Racist, Nicaragua Regime Sentences Catholic Bishop Rolando Álvarez to 26 Years for Treason, Pro-Life Group Blamed for an Alleged ‘Anti-Gay Hate Crime’ by Black Harvard Democrat, Missouri’s AG Now Probing Whistleblower Claims about Transgender Clinic, and Dianne Feinstein Will Not Run for Reelection in 2024
Nebraska Energy Observer: My tin foil hat
Outkick: MLB’s New Bases Look Like ‘Pizza Box’, Will Lead To Increase In Steals, Says Thievery Expert Alex Cora, Belgian Goalie Arne Espeel, 25, Dies Shortly After Saving Penalty, Super Bowl’s Terrible Grass Situation Blamed On Everything From Paint To Rihanna, Former Eagles DB Chris Maragos Awarded $43.5 Million In Injury Lawsuit, and Bomani Jones Fails To Chart Again, Loses To Midnight Cornhole Re-Air
Power Line: The Daily Chart: About Those Russia Sanctions, Nikki Haley? Meh, and Clapper’s claptrap
Protein Wisdom Reborn: There’s Nothing To Be Gained From Arguing With Anarcho-Communists
Shark Tank: FL Senate Democrats Push Gun Carry Class
Shot In The Dark: Into A Void Of Their Own Creation, also, Clearly They Need One Of Those “In This House” Signs
STUMP: Taxing Tuesday: Be My Valentine, SALT Cap
This Ain’t Hell: Balloony war of words continues, Remote control of U.S. Air Force drone wingmen, and Frankie Cee is a long time contributor
Transterrestrial Musings: The Latest Starship Mystery
Victory Girls: Progressive DA Dismissed Michigan State Shooter’s Felony Gun Charge
Volokh Conspiracy: My New Seven-Monitor Office Workstation, also, FTC Chair’s Activism Prompts a Commissioner to Resign
Watts Up With That: Minnesota Democrats Vote to Freeze in the Dark by 2040, EVs Are Failing To Break Into Mass Market, and Bill Gates: “How will we solve the digital misinformation which is a factor in polarisation? We’ll have to take AI into consideration”
Weasel Zippers: Nikki Haley Announces Presidential Bid, Biden Spews Pure Gibberish, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg Botches Another Crisis, Ignores Ohio Train Derailment, and DeSantis Announces Plan To End “Woke Banking” In Florida
The Federalist: The U.S. Left Has Become So Authoritarian, Even This North Korean Refugee Is Concerned, Conservative News Sites Aren’t ‘Risky,’ A ‘Disinformation Index’ To Censor Speech Is, James Clapper Can’t Stop Lying, Zuckbucks 2.0 Recipients Turn Down Money After Leftist Nonprofit Fails Transparency Test, and After Ranked-Choice Voting Rigged Their Elections, Alaska Conservatives Fight To Reclaim Democracy
Mark Steyn: Fugue for Tinhorns, The Good Guys are the Bad Guys, and The World They’re Building

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Category: Linkagery

What’s Up in Ukraine Lately?

Posted on | February 14, 2023 | 1 Comment

Ukrainian troops barricade streets in Bakhmut

It’s been more than four months since I devoted any attention to the war in Ukraine, mainly because it settled down into a bloody stalemate, with relatively little movement of the front lines. Once the Russians evacuated Kherson and retreated to the south (or east) bank of the Dnieper River, that front stabilized, as the Ukrainians apparently are unwilling and/or unable to mount an offensive across the river. Meanwhile, to the northeast, the Ukrainian offensive east of Kharkiv ground to a halt in October, after driving the Russians back across the Oskil River toward Svatove and Kreminna. At the time, I had hoped that Ukraine would be able to sustain the momentum of its offensive, but once they’d captured Lyman and Kupiansk, they seemed content to hold what they’d gotten, rather than push for a further advance. And thus the situation seemed to settle down into a winter stalemate, as neither the Russians nor the Ukrainians had the wherewithal to mount any major offensives.

Meanwhile, some 35 miles south of Lyman sits the crossroads town of Bakhmut. Last fall, the Russians were about 30 miles east of Bakhmut in Popasna, but by gradual advances westward, they began closing in on Bakhmut and, last month, captured Soledar, about 10 miles northwest of Bakhmut. Russian forces also advanced south of Bakhmut, capturing Opytne. These Russian advances put the Ukrainian defenders of Bakhmut in a vice, with threats to their supply lines as they fight to prevent being encircled and cut off. It has become a desperate fight:

Ukrainian forces have reportedly blown up a bridge near the eastern city of Bakhmut, in a sign they may be planning to retreat from the area, which would give Russia a significant, symbolic boost ahead of the first anniversary of the war.
Troops blew up the bridge on Monday, according to a local Donetsk region news site. Ukraine denies it intends to leave Bakhmut, despite six months of heavy fighting and reportedly dwindling stockpiles.
It appears the Kremlin is concentrating maximum force on capturing Bakhmut before the one-year anniversary of the invasion on 24 February. Ukraine and its western allies have said over the past week that Russia had already begun a new offensive across the contact line in an attempt to gain ground before new western supplies arrived in the spring.
“It is clear that we are in a race of logistics,” Jens Stoltenberg, head of NATO, told reporters in Brussels on Monday. . . .
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner group whose mercenaries have been fighting for months to take Bakhmut, however said the battle was far from over. “Bakhmut will not be taken tomorrow, because there is heavy resistance and grinding, the meat grinder is working,” he said, according to his press service. “We will not be celebrating in the near future,” he added. . . .
White House spokesperson John Kirby said Russian forces have made incremental progress in the last day or two in their assault on Bahkmut but it is unclear if it will fall.
Russian forces now occupy areas to the north and south of Bakhmut and have been attempting to overwhelm Ukrainian forces by ceaselessly throwing streams of infantry soldiers at the Ukrainian frontlines. . . .
The BBC, which visited the town on Sunday, reported street fighting in some areas and that ammunition stockpiles were dwindling. Capt Mykhailo from the 93rd Mechanised brigade told the BBC they had ammunition shortages of “all kinds, especially artillery rounds”, but were managing to hold their positions. . . .
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said in early February that his country was determined to hold Bakhmut, calling it “Fortress Bakhmut”. But, according to the Washington Post, US officials have tried to persuade him to prioritise preparations for a counteroffensive to take back what the US considers more important territory.

This is the crux of the problem, i.e., the lack of a Ukrainian counteroffensive anywhere else in the region, which would force Russia to divert forces to defend its own positions. Ukraine has had a full year to recruit and train new troops, and one might expect that they would now have reserves that could be committed to an offensive, yet the past five months have seen no indication of such a renewed Ukrainian advance. Meanwhile the Russians, having mobilized all the cannon fodder they can grab off the streets, have been slowly building up this relentless attack on Bakhmut. What can we expect in the near future? Well, the report of the bridge west of Bakhmut being blown up certainly would seem to indicate that a Ukrainian retreat may be imminent, despite Zelenskiy’s declared intent to hold the city. But the big question is where and how soon Ukraine can launch its own counteroffensive. Until that happens, the news will be about Russia’s continued advances.



 

 

Category: Military, Russia, Ukraine
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