Tracker

Terrified Draftees Expose Russia’s New Scheme to Cover Up Cannon Fodder Deaths -Reuters Hundreds of Russian draftees reportedly fear they have been sent on a suicide mission by top military officials who are planning to conceal their deaths through an inventive new scheme: changing records to show they are part of a regiment that doesn’t exist. “They assigned us to regiment 228–such a regiment does not exist,” one of the men told the independent news outlet Sota. “They want to send us to a hot spot tomorrow with machine guns [to go] against tanks, drones, and mortars on minefields. We’re just cannon fodder.” Sota reports that they’ve obtained an audio message recorded by some of the draftees, appealing for help on behalf of the 400 men who hail from the Altai Republic. In it they say they’re being sent to storm an area near Svatove in Ukraine’s Luhansk region. “Please help in any way you can. We’ve already been given drugs, [the opioid analgesic] Promedol, in case of serious injuries,” the message said. The men described manipulation of their official paperwork that effectively rendered them lost without a trace. “Some colonel-generals came here, I don’t know, they couldn’t find us. We were tossed on the very front, we’re under the artillery.” The move suggests Russian officials are desperate for some manpower after military analysts noted Ukrainian troops had gained more ground on the Svatove-Kremenna line in recent days. Draftees from Russia’s Tomsk region had also publicly appealed to the governor in November for help with a “difficult situation” near Svatove.

White House: Classified Documents Found At Joe Biden's Delaware Home WASHINGTON (AP) — Documents with classified markings from President Joe Biden’s time as vice president were found at his home in Wilmington, Delaware, the White House said Thursday, days after it was disclosed that sensitive documents were also found at the office of his former Washington institute. Richard Sauber, a special counsel to the president, said after the initial documents were found by Biden’s personal lawyers, they examined other locations where records might have been shipped after Biden left the vice presidency in 2017. Sauber said a “small number” of documents with classified markings were found in a storage space in Biden’s garage in Wilmington, with one document being located in an adjacent room. The White House did not say when the subsequent search began or when the additional documents were found, only that the search was completed on Wednesday evening. Sauber said the Department of Justice was “immediately notified” after the documents were located and that department lawyers took custody of the records. Regardless of the Justice Department review, the revelation that Biden potentially mishandled classified or presidential records is proving to be a political headache for Biden, who said former President Donald Trump was “irresponsible” for keeping hundreds of such records at his private club in Florida. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/joe-biden-classified-documents-delaware-home_n_63c028e2e4b0b2e1506ef4ac

Now if the variant caused male impotence, the clinics would be swamped.

'You brought this to the floor, lady': Passions ignite in Missouri House over GOP bill to control women's clothes Legislators in the Missouri House of Representatives sparred on Wednesday over a Republican amendment to regulate what types of clothing women lawmakers should be permitted to wear while at work. House Resolution 11 was cleared by the GOP-dominated Consent and House Procedure Committee. And while it has not yet been submitted to the Missouri State Senate, passionate arguments have burbled from assembly members on both sides of the political aisle. https://www.alternet.org/you-brought-this-floor-lady/

They wouldn't recognize what it is.

“It’s always about the obstruction”: New TrumpWorld subpoenas target effort to "influence" witnesses A" wide-ranging" subpoena sent to Trump campaign officials last month shows that special counsel Jack Smith's Jan. 6 investigation is increasingly focused on new areas of interest, including fundraising efforts and potential efforts to influence witness testimony, according to The Washington Post. The DOJ issued the four-page subpoena to multiple Trump campaign officials in early December, seeking more than "two dozen categories of information," according to the report. One part of the subpoena asks Trump campaign officials if anyone paid for their legal representation and paperwork related to any such agreement. The subpoena also seeks "all documents and communications" related to Trump's fundraising activities for a litany of groups outside of his Save America PAC, which has already come under scrutiny. The new subpoenas seek documents related to the Make America Great Again PAC, the Save America Joint Fundraising Committee and the Trump Make America Great Again Committee, including documents related to the "formation, funding and/or use of money" of the groups. https://www.salon.com/2023/01/12/its-always-about-the-obstruction-new-trumpworld-subpoenas-target-effort-to-influence-witnesses/

If you are superstitious, the is is an omen of great event(s) to come soon.

Brazil Rioters Plotted Openly Online, Pitched Huge 'Party' MIAMI (AP) — The map was called “Beach Trip” and was blasted out to more than 18,000 members of a public Telegram channel called, in Portuguese, “Hunting and Fishing.” But instead of outdoor recreation tips, the 43 pins spread across the map of Brazil pointed to cities where bus transportation to the capital could be found for what promoters promised would a huge “party” on Jan. 8. “Children and the elderly aren’t invited,” according to the post circulated on the Telegram channel, which has since been removed. “Only adults willing to participate in all the games, including target shooting of police and robbers, musical chairs, indigenous dancing, tag, and others.” The post was one of several thinly coded messages circulating on social media ahead of Sunday’s violent attack on the capital by supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro looking to restore the far-right leader to power. It’s also now a potentially vital lead in a fledgling criminal investigation about how the rampage was organized and how officials missed clues to a conspiracy that, like the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol two years ago, appears to have been organized and carried out in plain view. And like the attack in the U.S., the Brazilian riots demonstrate how social media makes it easier than ever for anti-democratic groups to recruit followers and transform online rhetoric into offline action. On YouTube, rioters livestreaming the mayhem racked up hundreds of thousands of views before a Brazilian judge ordered social media platforms to remove such content. Misleading claims about the election and the uprising also could be found on Twitter, Facebook and other platforms. But even before Sunday’s riot, social media and private messaging networks in Brazil were being flooded with calls for one final push to overturn the October election of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva — something authorities appear to have inexplicably missed or ignored. Most of the online chatter referred to the planned gathering at Brasilia’s Three Powers Plaza as “Selma’s party” — a play on the Portuguese word for “selva,” a battle cry used by Brazil’s military. Participants were told to bring their own mask to protect against “pepper pie in the face” — or pepper spray fired by security forces. They also were told to dress in the green and yellow of Brazil’s flag — and not the red preferred by Lula’s Workers’ Party. “Get ready, guests, the party will be a blast,” the widely-circulated post said. “It was all in the open,” said David Nemer, a Brazil native and University of Virginia professor who studies social media. “They listed the people responsible for buses, with their full names and contact information. They weren’t trying to hide anything.”

Arkansas is safe now.

for anyone who cares, the stars and husbands of "The Real Housewives" of New jersey, LA and Salt Lake City have been arrested and charged with fraud in bilking fan-viewers of millions of dollars. This will leave only 47 other Real Housewives shows.

These are cowards. Once one is convicted or cuts a deal, the rest will stampede and spill all.

That would offend their base, or a good part of it who see laws as suggestions only. Donald Trump goes on conspiracy theory binge claiming to be a victim of the FBI and 'deep state' Former President Donald Trump released a video on Wednesday filled with conspiracy theories about President Joe Biden, Biden's son Hunter, COVID-19, and purported infiltration of social media platforms by undercover agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. First up was the so-called "Twitter files," a trove of documents that conservatives incorrectly claimed would expose collusion between liberals and Twitter to silence right-wing voices. Trump falsely alleged that the FBI helped Biden and the Democrats steal the 2020 election: "The now famous Twitter files have proven beyond all doubt that the corrupt officials at the FBI have been coordinating a massive censorship, surveillance, and propaganda campaign against the American people and frankly, against me. In the most recent and notorious example, the FBI worked to stop the truth from being told about the Biden family's criminality. They worked so hard to stop it from coming out. And the corruption prior to the 2020 election. They didn't want any bad information to come out about the Biden family. The fix was in. The election was rigged. But the censorship of the laptop from Hell is only the beginning of the story about the weaponization of government against free speech. We must have free speech in our country. We must have a fair and free press. As recent reporting shows, the FBI and other rogue agencies have been systematically colluding with former national security officials placed in high positions at Twitter and very likely other companies to advance their censorship regime, which is really in this case, to steal an election." Next, Trump complained about the blowback that anti-vaxxers faced for proffering bogus medical advice during the COVID-19 pandemic. Trump also railed against actions that were taken at the height of the crisis to protect the public – most of which occurred while he was the commander-in-chief: "This anti-American effort, and a very illegal effort at that, has been working to silence dissenting opinions on COVID and crucial issues on public health and on the election and elections in the future. They suppressed doctors and health experts who dared to question approved public health narratives. They censored voices who criticized school closures, lockdowns, and mandates, and they even banned people simply for stating proven scientific facts. And anything bad about China, they didn't want out." Trump accused Biden and the media of covering up his son Hunter's laptop, which Republicans insist contains evidence of corruption: "But anything bad about Biden and the Biden crime family, and that's what it was, just look at the laptop from Hell, they didn't want that coming out under any circumstances. What they wanted coming out was anything bad about your favorite president, me. Anything bad about Trump, put it out, even if it's not true. But this all had nothing to do with science. This had nothing to do with saving lives. It had everything to do with politics or a sick ideology." Trump then asserted that the "government" is scheming with "powerful corporations" to strip American citizens of their rights, and claimed that he had to be convinced about the existence of a sinister "deep state." Trump has, however, used that term to deflect from the numerous criminal investigations looming over him: "This was about government working with powerful corporations to seize power over you, the American people. And we can't let that continue. The Twitter files prove that we urgently need my plan to dismantle the illegal censorship regime – a regime like nobody's ever seen in the history of our country, or most other countries for that matter – to prosecute the perpetrators for their crimes and to restore free speech for all Americans."

Ironically, it was -22 in Moscow this morning. God has a sense of humour.

This is just an agreement for a tryout anyways. And probably a bit of money up front.

Here are 5 'key right-wing media takeaways' from Kevin McCarthy’s House speaker battle: report The new GOP-controlled U.S. House of Representatives got off to a chaotic start when Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California was rejected as House speaker in no less than 14 roll-call votes before he finally closed the deal with the 15th vote on Friday night, January 6. It was an uphill battle, but McCarthy now has the House speaker position he has spent years hoping for. Media Matters’ Matt Gertz, in a listicle published by Media Matters on January 10, offers five “key takeaways” on the role that right-wing media played when McCarthy was struggling to get the far-right “Never Kevin” holdouts to support him as House speaker. “After a historic week of messy party infighting,” Gertz observes, “the Republican-led House of Representatives has finally selected a speaker, passed a rules package, and gotten to work on its agenda of making the country safer for wealthy tax cheats. There are important lessons to learn from the chaos given the likelihood of future interparty rifts over the next two years — and the centrality of the right-wing media to the GOP.” The “takeaways” that Gertz offers in his listicle are: (1) “The GOP’s leaders are fueled by right-wing media,” (2) “Fox (News) is now the GOP establishment,” (3) The narratives of the right-wing press will form the core of the GOP agenda,” (4) “Fox’s competitors will use party fights to gun for the network’s market share,” and (5) “Tucker Carlson is the most influential right-wing media figure.” “Gaining prominence in the modern Republican Party virtually requires a willingness to rub elbows with the right-wing press,” Gertz explains. “New House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) spent the last several years cozying up to Fox hosts…. He also benefited from the backing of Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), the congresswoman from QAnon and an ally of Steve Bannon, and Jim Jordan (R-OH), whose regular Fox appearances helped him ascend from back-bencher to incoming House Judiciary chair.” Gertz adds, “Meanwhile, McCarthy’s most prominent opponents included Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), who has gained prominence entirely on the basis of his courting of the right-wing media and reportedly sought jobs at Fox and its competitors, and Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), another favorite of the fringe-right press. The right-wing media will be the key battleground for future fights between those sides.”

‘Putin’s Chef’ Humiliated by His Own Side After Bragging of Wagner Victory -Reuters The Kremlin finally seems to be trying to take Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin down a notch after the businessman has spent months using his band of mercenaries and ex-convicts to steal the spotlight in Russia’s war against Ukraine. A simmering feud between Prigozhin’s outfit and the regular Russian army spilled out into the open Wednesday, as Russia’s Defense Ministry publicly rebuffed claims made by “Putin’s chef” about a Wagner win in Ukraine’s Donetsk region. In an announcement late Tuesday, Prigozhin gleefully claimed his men had taken control of a salt mine town that Russian forces are hoping to use as a stepping stone to gain control of the highly coveted city of Bakhmut, a Ukrainian stronghold for months. “Wagner units have taken control of all the territory of Soledar,” Prigozhin said through his press service. “I want to emphasize that no units other than the Wagner fighters took part in the assault on Soledar,” he said. While Ukrainian authorities denied Prigozhin’s claim and said battles were still underway in the town—and that the selfie the Wagner boss posted supposedly from Soledar was not even in Soledar—Russia’s two dueling armies devolved into their own war within a war. Russia’s Defense Ministry shot down Prigozhin’s boast that his own men had single-handedly brought Putin a win, instead confirming Ukraine’s announcement that fighting was still underway in the town. Moreover, defense officials suggested Russian airborne units and assault teams are leading the charge. The Defense Ministry made no mention of Wagner whatsoever. The rebuff comes as praise for Prigozhin’s outfit hit a fever pitch among pro-Kremlin figures, and the notorious mercenary group threatened to outshine Putin’s regular soldiers on the battlefield. “Why is Wagner so successful, more successful than even the Russian army?” pro-Kremlin political analyst Sergei Markov wrote on Telegram early Wednesday. He went on to praise Prigozhin personally, calling him “very creative,” a “workaholic,” and someone who “comes up with bright, novel solutions.” “Prigozhin’s criminal past is a plus now, because world politics is criminalized,” he said, calling Prigozhin and Wagner “a national treasure.” Speculation about Prigozhin possibly vying for an official post in Russia’s government has mounted in recent months as his PR campaign for Wagner has gone into overdrive, with many wondering if he’s made it his personal mission to “win the damn war” for Putin so he could demand something in return. Despite Prigozhin butting heads with top defense officials and government officials, the Kremlin has largely allowed him to do as he pleases—but they seem to have fired their first warning shot this week in a sign of things to come. Putin’s appointment on Tuesday of a controversial colonel-general as the new ground forces chief was done “as a snub to Prigozhin,” a source close to Russia’s General Staff told the outlet iStories.

Ford will have to walk on water to be offered a contract. He oozes potential but so do a lot of others with a more extensive CV.

And break with long-standing tradition?