Another roundup
(1) Hat tip: AesopFan.
The wheels of justice keep up their extremely slow grind:
A Politico report this week confirmed that investigations are underway after researcher Mark Glaeser began crossing-checking Florida voter lists against lists of the state’s convicted sex offenders and felons still in the Alachua County, Florida, jail.
In one such case, an election official in Alachua County is accused of registering felons to vote at the county jail despite their being ineligible…
Aside from felons, the Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) has been uncovering records showing foreign nationals on state voter rolls in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas, New Jersey, and California.
Most recently, PILF reached a settlement with North Carolina election officials to disclose the number of foreign nationals on the state’s voter rolls.
As of 2018, there were nearly 250 counties across the United States with more registered voters on the voter rolls than eligible American citizen voters. There were also nearly three million individuals who are registered to vote in more than one state.
(2) The Taliban prohibit girls attending school beyond sixth grade. And some supposedly intelligent people seem “baffled” by this?:
Aid groups and many others remained baffled.
The Taliban have so far refused to explain their sudden decision to renege on the pledge to allow girls to go to school beyond sixth grade. Schools were supposed to reopen to older girls on Wednesday, the start of the new school year.
The ban caught even the Taliban-appointed Education Ministry unprepared. In many places across Afghanistan, some girls in higher grades returned to schools, only to be told to go home.
I’m baffled as to why anyone would be baffled.
(3) Joe Manchin announces he will be voting to confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson for SCOTUS justice. This is also not a surprise; Manchin will go only so far to the right and no further.
(4) A Maryland court rules against some recent Democrat gerrymandering in Maryland. Maryland is a very blue state anyway, but:
The 30,000-foot view of this ruling is that the judge said the legislature’s map violated the state constitution, which has some provisions in it requiring districts to be compact, while giving some eye toward political subdivisions (i.e. if 35 percent of voters are Republicans, they shouldn’t be getting only 12 percent of the districts). From there, the judge then ruled the map, because it violated the state’s constitution, also violated the free speech and equal protection clauses.
There is no doubt the ruling will be appealed, but because of Gov. Larry Hogan’s judicial appointments over the last several years, the chance this ruling is overturned is slim. Maryland’s appeals court and supreme court lean heavily Republican at this point.
(5) Some “cautious optimism” from Ukraine on negotiations between Ukraine and Russia. Accent on the “cautious”:
The first sticky point is the definition of Ukraine’s position with the West. This seems to be steadily gravitating towards a neutral Ukraine that can be an economic member of the European Union, but not an alliance member of NATO. Think Casablanca the size of Texas. This is probably something that everyone will soon buy into.
The second sticky point is the withdrawal of Russian forces: where’s the line?… It may require both sides to agree to make disputed territories like Crimea and Donbas the world’s next security guarantee protectorate, where neither party takes claim for some time…
This brings up the third sticky point in the negotiations. Wherever the lines are drawn, who guarantees that both parties honor the line after the shooting stops?
It’s quite simple to generate a satisfactory district map in Maryland which respects settlement patterns and minimizes cuts across county boundaries. They undertook all kinds of crustacean contrivances to prevent the 82 year old Steny Hoyer from being bounced in a primary by an impatient black pol and to break up the western Maryland counties between surrounding territories. With a map which respects settlement patterns, you have two (of eight) districts with a Republican advantage and two others which might be competitive in certain circumstances. This they cannot tolerate.
Putin will guarantee the boundaries. Any bets as to when, if that happens, he will say there are still Nazis that need to be rooted out.
I don’t think Russia will agree to anything that requires them to give up Sevastopol. They need that port for the Black Sea Fleet.
Senator Manchin and most of his party apparently favor letting the wokeness malignancy run its course. That seems extremely foolish. Smoke more, maybe the lung cancer will go away.
It looks like Putin’s climb down has begun. Reparations will be another sticking point.
Democrats are very good at enforcing discipline. That is why Nancy Pelosi is still Speaker. She has a hand on the money tap from Silicon Valley. Manchin might get a primary contest as the state is pretty red. Sinema is a puzzle. She wants to be reelected and Arizona is trending red again. The California money might be enough. I think Kelly is toast unless the GOP has a weak candidate.
Apropos of negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, the gaffemeister in the White House just told the 82nd Airborne Division in Poland that they’re going to Ukraine. While speaking to the troops in Poland, JoJo apprently thought he was in Ukraine: “So what’s at stake — not just in what we’re doing here in Ukraine to try to help the Ukrainian people and keep the massacre from continuing — but beyond that, what’s at stake is: What’s — what’s — what are your kids and grandkids going to look like in terms of their — their freedom? What’s happening? The last 10 years, there have been fewer democracies that have been formed than we’ve lost in the world.”
Videos at the link: https://legalinsurrection.com/2022/03/biden-tells-82nd-airborne-division-in-poland-theyre-going-to-ukraine/
No wonder one of the commenters over at Legal Insurrection refers to our pathetic excuse for a CiC as “America’s Potemkin President.”
My dad served in the 82nd in WWII; I’m so glad he isn’t around to see what his old division has to put up with now.
I had the question a while back on another Blog. Where is the Spetsnaz? I thought they were the Russian equivalent to Seal Team Six and US Special Forces.
SHIREHOME:
You mean the “little green men”?
That is a very good question. Have they been over hyped?
SHIREHOME:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_green_men_(Russo-Ukrainian_War)
Biden apparently had a gaffe-fest with the 82nd. The White House has been walking back most of what he said. My fear is that Republicans will jump on the bandwagon for Ukraine intervention, ie war, and the midterms will be a rally round the flag election. The Democrats may have found the issue that saves them. Vietnam, here we come. No draft, of course. The left stays home.
1) it’s a “vast right wing conspiracy” to destroy democracy!
2) “Aid groups and many others remained baffled.”
The bafflement is entirely understandable. A refusal to accept that Islam itself is the sole source of jihadist terrorism, results in a failure to grasp that devout Muslims do not consider any agreement that violates Islamic tenets to be binding upon Muslims.
3) Though it would be portrayed as a step too far to the right, a refusal to confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson for SCOTUS justice by Manchin would be putting the Constitution ahead of his political survival.
Presumably he doesn’t need the money and to help preserve the Constitution, he could throw his support behind a conservative replacement in the next election, which would probably keep his Senate seat out of the hands of a democrat wolf in sheeps clothing. Instead, he assists in the laying of another straw upon the camels back.
ambisinistral,
What leads you to think that Putin is now prepared to back down?
PA+Cat,
My dad served in WWII as well. So many of the Greatest Generation’s children and grandchildren have revealed themselves to be unworthy inheritors of the freedoms their forefathers sacrificed so much to bequeath to them.
Geoffrey Britain,
Apparently Moscow has dropped the denazification talk and claims they’re going to occupy Kiev. Their saying they only intended to pacify the Donbas region and they’ve been successful at that.
Who knows, maybe tomorrow they’ll change their tune again, but it is starting to look like they’re trying to set-up a declare victory and go home scenario. Of course there are a lot of things to be worked out if that’s the case.
It’s all hard to say. The Ukraine War is like a black box with nothing but streams of propaganda flowing into and out of it. Impossible to know what’s really going on inside of that box.
Mike K,
“My fear is that Republicans will jump on the bandwagon for Ukraine intervention, ie war, and the midterms will be a rally round the flag election. The Democrats may have found the issue that saves them.”
The Republicans may have found the issue that saves them as well. Gaining too big a majority would make it much more difficult to spin a lack of real opposition to the democrats.
However problematic, gaining a sufficient majority to override Presidential vetoes would reveal any unwillingness to do anything about the border, massive overspending, CRT in public schools, the political weaponization of federal agencies and removing the Section 230 protection for social media companies to censor the right.
ambisinistral,
The Russians have destroyed the Azov Battalion’s base of operations in Mariupol. I suspect that’s why Putin is dropping the denazification talk.
Zelensky has in principle already agreed to the Ukraine remaining permanently neutral. That precludes heavy remilitarization of the Ukraine in the future.
If he agrees to the independence of the Donbas region and the permanent incorporation of the Crimea into Russia, then Zelensky has met the conditions Putin has laid down for an end to the fighting.
IF both sides honor it, (unlikely) then Putin no longer has any rational basis for future aggression other than the expansion of Russia as his sole motivation.
If Vlad honors it, unlikely as all is needed is opportunity and pretext. Then it is game on again. Something about despots and honor don’t go together.
Only 14 Senate seats currently held by Democrats are up for election in 2022, so by my calculations – even if the GOP gained every one (exceedingly unlikely) and held every one of its 20 seats up for election – it would be mathematically impossible to get the required 2/3 of the Senate to override a veto, without help from some Democrats.
Geoffrey Britain on March 25, 2022 at 10:38 pm
“Zelensky has in principle already agreed to the Ukraine remaining permanently neutral. That precludes heavy remilitarization of the Ukraine in the future.”
The 2019 video by Alexey Arestovich, @ 2.5 to 4.0, suggests if they remain “neutral” they will have to be fully militarized, a very expensive option, with or without help from Europe/US: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xNHmHpERH8
And now the Ukrainians presumably really hate their Slavic Russian brothers, so they may now be more resistant to accommodation, … or bend the knee because they have a view of their reality that has not been prominent in the media reporting.
Clearly still an open question — I wonder if either side has read The Art of the Deal?
Once the current conflict in the Ukraine is (for the time being) ‘settled’, I do expect tensions between the West and Russia to continue to escalate.
I think it unlikely that Putin plans on next seizing western Ukraine because that would put NATO’s Poland right on his border and that would be likely to result in a much more heavily militarized Poland.
That would be for Putin an undesirable and predictable consequence of next seizing western Ukraine. Nor will Putin attack a NATO member State. He’s many things but neither stupid nor a suicidal risk taker. He takes calculated risks, he’s a chess player not a thrower of dice in a game of craps.
The increase in tensions will result from the continued economic sanctions by the West on Russia. The sanctions will be increased as needed for as long as Putin remains, the WEF’s implementation of its New World Order is obstructed from further advancement into Eastern Europe. WEF’s Davos Agenda is a global agenda and it requires global governance. Any analysis that doesn’t take into account the West’s Global Elite’s goals is not considering the whole picture.
R2L,
The opinions expressed in the video you link to are the commonly accepted ones promoted in the Western media and accepted by the great majority in the West.
I strongly disagree with the gentleman’s analysis of Putin’s goals and mindset. Basically he claims that Putin shares Stalin’s territorial ambitions and leaves the West no other recourse than Putin’s removal. I think that Putin’s removal has since 2014 been seen by the West’s leadership as an absolute neccessity. But not because of fear of Putin’s expansionist ambitions and hostile intentions toward the West. Rather Putin stands in the way of their global agenda.
If Ukraine’s remilitarization is limited to defensive armaments and weapon systems it can credibly claim to be staying neutral. If it rearms with offensive weapon systems, then it cannot.
I think this was mentioned somewhere else, but it never hurts to give Karma some advertising.
What did Brandeau (aka Castreau) think they were going to say in East Europe about his enlightened views on Putin’s tyranny?
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/stacey-lennox/2022/03/24/justin-trudeau-gets-wrecked-after-daring-to-lecture-the-eu-parliament-about-democracy-n1583896
Romanian MEP Cristian Terhes issued a statement announcing his decision not to attend Trudeau’s speech. It was just as brutal as Kolakusic’s comments: “You can’t come and teach democracy lessons to Putin from the European Parliament when you trample with horse hooves your own citizens who are demanding that their fundamental rights be respected.”
More good zingers at the link.
I think that Putin’s removal has since 2014 been seen by the West’s leadership as an absolute neccessity.
By whom?
AesopFan, outstanding to see representatives of countries which have suffered heavily under leftist boots (Croatia, Romania) call Trudeau what he is.
(3) Joe Manchin announces he will be voting to confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson for SCOTUS justice. This is also not a surprise; Manchin will go only so far to the right and no further.
This is why you can’t vote for any Democrat no matter how good they are on other issues. They will vote for bad SCOTUS picks and they will put Democrats in charge of the legislative agenda.
Islam is Islam, the rules don’t change.
Joe isn’t the isle crossed you think he is
Any light on the voting fraud is welcome but we haven’t hit the big time yet
“Putin is a war criminal – and so was Madeleine Albright”
https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/putin-war-criminal-madeleine-albright-no-less
I don’t entirely agree with the above article but it does expose the hypocrisy. It also fails to reach the obvious conclusion, if Madeleine Albright was a war criminal, then so is Bill Clinton, her boss.
“I think that Putin’s removal has since 2014 been seen by the West’s leadership as an absolute neccessity.”GB
“By whom?” Art Deco
To be a bit more specific, those among the Global Elite and West’s political and bureaucratic leadership and ‘alphabet agencies’ who support the WEF’s implementation of its New World Order.
One would have to be a moron to believe that Russia will adhere to any agreement with Ukraine.
If Ukraine agrees to neutrality in return for Russian respect of Ukraine’s borders (there is no way in hell Russia will not demand to keep Crimea and the Donbas region) Russia will wait about 15 minutes before beginning efforts to politically (for starters) destabilize the Ukraine govt.
You can expect massive protest demonstrations, political figures “accidentally” falling from 10th floor building balconies, arrests of those plotting “treasonous” activities, and a bizarre upsurge in folks dropping dead due to ricin poisoning, etc. etc.
It will all end with some sort of coup d’etat or the “election” of a Putin clone as the president of Ukraine.
This president will then be assigned president for life.
Russia will maintain these efforts until the Ukraine govt. resembles that of Belarus- a Russian lackey / puppet state controlled by …..drum roll please…..Putin.
Surprise surprise.
When this occurs, we can expect all those useful idiots that blamed NATO policies for having “FORCED” Putin to invade Ukraine to declare;
“see, it was always a forgone conclusion that Ukraine would become another Russian vassal state and if not for NATO, the deaths of tens of thousands would have been avoided.”
By the way, the planet Mars has been experiencing global warming ( I am not making this up) over the last 30 years or so. Over 90% of all scientists believe that NATO policies are the cause.
JohnTyler,
To date, Putin has made Zelensky’s agreement that Russia will keep the Crimea and recognize the Donbas region’s independence, two of his four part peace terms. Personally, this useful idiot thinks that to be a nonnegotiable demand of Putins’.
So far, the only massive protest demonstrations happened during the Western backed Orange revolution. Closure of opposition party’s media outlets and arrests of those plotting “treasonous” activities have all been initiated by Zelensky’s government. Which started before Putin’s invasion.
That you dismiss Russia’s legitimate strategic security concerns regarding NATO’s admitted intention to plant itself mere minutes from Moscow reveals in this useful idiot’s opinion, an unwillingness to objectively view the conflict.
PS: link please to Mars reportedly experiencing global warming…
The mantle of objectivity is never more than mere minutes away when needed.
A force field of essential infallibly.
Vlad the Valiant, beset by NGOs and muckety mucks. He may have to nuke them next time they are in Davos? Existential threats he is totally defenseless against demand a just response?
So NATO will have an annex or enclave kilometers away from the Kremlin? Or is it the dreaded 13 minute missile, the awesome hyperbolic (as in hyperbole) device of doom?
Mockery is the last resort of the dishonest when facts and reason argue otherwise.
The mantle of objectivity, infallibility, honesty, puppies, and apple pie is deployed.
I think, I can never earn over which I paid by my precedent employer, but I was wrong, world is so large to try their fate.but now I am making $52/hr even more,and easily earn minimum $1300/week, on the experience everyone must try to do work online, easy way to earn, here’s an example.This is what I do,
more here…….>>> https://onlineworkweb01.blogspot.com/
Darlen is a spambot.
I have never claimed to be infallible, strawman attacks are inherently dishonest.
I strive for objectivity with my feet of clay. I deeply believe in “This above all, to thine own self be true”…
I confess to loving puppies and apple pie à la Mode.
I don’t entirely agree with the above article
Thank goodness for small favors.
He’s a journalist of a very common and disreputable type. He’s British, so his favorite target is the Joos. You notice he never quotes her in context, never cites any source for his demographic claims, and makes no reference whatsoever to the reason for the sanctions, and offers no alternative. He’s a swinish, worthless word merchant.
Art Deco,
However common and disreputable, swinish and worthless he may be, that doesn’t in and of itself invalidate all of his claims.
I’ve seen the video of Allbright stating that the killing of those children was “worth it” and she did not qualify that assertion in any way, not even disputing the claim of half a million children’s deaths. Had she claimed it to be a horrible necessity, that would be a legitimate if questionable argument to make. Had she stated that Saddam was responsible for the deaths, that would also be a legitimate argument. She did none of that and instead agreed that it was… worth it.
NATO’s bombing of Serbia in a religious civil war was, arguably an indefensible interference and supports his claim of NATO becoming the European arm of the U.S. global police force.
@ Geoffrey & Art Deco – looks like it’s hard to fight just one war at a time.
Cook’s bias is pretty clear from the thumbnails at his blog.
https://www.jonathan-cook.net/
Geoffrey is right that a generally biased source can be correct about some things.
Hence my comment on the “Russian military” thread also applies here, with a bit of editing.
* * *
Fog of war, competing stories with no trusted arbiter, and the bias of all sources make it hard from this [much longer] distance to decide who to believe. Particularly since any given story or source can be mixing (A) objectively true statements (even if we can’t verify them ourselves) with (B) possibly true statements (no one really knows) with (C) false claims.
I do NOT accept “leaked stories from the Pentagon” [or Jonathan Cook or pretty much anyone else with a known ax to grind] as anything other than (B) because of their history [depending on said source] of promoting what are now known to be (C).
GB: “Never said or even implied that [your choice of villain du jour] is a good guy. Just that he’s not the only bad guy leading the unwitting.”
I do agree with this, but it’s very, very unclear who the other bad guys are [were], what they are [were] “leading” with and why, and who (if any) are [were] the good guys.
….
Beyond [a minimum amount of objectively verified physical facts, like dead people and destroyed buildings] lies speculation, much of it rivaling the plot lines of Game of Thrones, of which I have been posting my fair share.
…Romanian MEP Cristian Terhes issued a statement announcing his decision not to attend Trudeau’s speech. It was just as brutal as Kolakusic’s comments…
I made this comment on another blog, but I’ll repeat it here. Whether or not Trudeau deserves it, the MEPs are badmouthing an outsider. Think they’d do that to one of their own?
Farage is the only example I can think of, and he’s hardly typical.
@ sonny > “Think they’d do that to one of their own?”
Depends on what they could gain by it.
However, I think the East European disgust with Trudeau is authentic.
Possibly because of genuine recoil from tyranny (been there, done that) OR because he was so blatant and heavy-handed that he spooked the plebes.