A sweeping clampdown on antiwar protests was instituted, but that didn’t stop them. More than 15,000 people were detained for demonstrating against the war, according to the OVD-Info rights group that tracks political arrests.
A photo circulating through social media on Tuesday showed a protestor in Moscow holding up a sign with no words, just two lines of asterisks.
The man, Dmitry Reznikov, was arrested on March 13. He has been fined 50,000 rubles (approximately $480 USD) for “discrediting” the Russian Armed Forces, according to a Telegram post from OVD-Info, an independent protest monitoring group.
The photo was also shared on Twitter by Kevin Rothrock, an editor for the English edition of the independent news outlet Meduza. He said the asterisks could allude to the phrase, “F**k war!”
[…]
On March 12, a Russian woman was arrested for protesting with a blank sign, Newsweek previously reported. Video captured her detainment by police officers in Nizhny Novgorod, a city in central Russia. Another woman holding a blank sheet of paper was arrested in the city of Rostov-on-Don, in southern Russia, shortly after the war began.
Russian authorities also arrested a woman in Moscow who wrote “two words” on a poster on March 13 according to multiple outlets, along with another woman who actually appeared to support the Russian invasion. A video of the arrests was filmed and shared by Russian activist group Activatica.
[…]
Russia has just strengthened the censorship law even further by making it illegal to “discredit” the actions of all government bodies abroad, not just the military.
“‘Deportation’ is a euphemism. It’s been used as a fairly innocuous term for what happened to these people, which was effectively enslavement and starvation. is shipping off the women, the children, the people that you want to remove from societies in order to neutralize them,” Giles said.
“They are generally met with pretty horrific fates. If they survived at all, they did not return for years or decades.”
Someone needs to take out Vlad. Russia will be destroyed by his actions, eventually, but in the meantime, innocent lives are being taken. We need a hero.
I watched Cotton and the washed out ex cheerleader from Tennessee try to dismantle Ketanji Brown Jackson. They did not do themselves or their party proud. Someone needs to wring Cotton’s scrawny little neck and one of the remaining Dems needs to systematically dismantle the idiot from Tennessee’s sophomoric gotcha questions. Just ask the same questions without the false premises and let Judge Jackson shine.
Almost 100,000 people remain trapped in the ruined city of Mariupol, facing starvation amid “constant” Russian bombardment, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said, as he appealed for the release of a convoy he said had been captured by Russian forces.
In a video address late on Tuesday, he renewed his calls for Russia to allow safe humanitarian corridors, and said civilians faced “inhumane conditions. In a total siege. Without food, water, medication, under constant shelling and under constant bombing.”
More than 7,000 people had escaped the city in the past 24 hours, he said. However one humanitarian convoy travelling on an agreed route west of the city had been “captured by the occupiers”.
The convoy near Mangush consisted of bus drivers and emergency service personnel. “We are doing everything we can to free out people and unblock the movement of humanitarian aid.” he said.
[…]
In other developments:
Russian forces “looted and destroyed” a laboratory at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, Ukrainian officials said. “Russian occupiers illegally seized the newest laboratory,” Ukrainian authorities said in a statement late on Tuesday. The laboratory processes radioactive waste and contains “highly active samples” which are now in the hands of Russian forces, the agency added.
The deputy head of Kyiv’s police force accused Russia of using white phosphorous munitions in the city of Kramatorsk in Donetsk. Oleksiy Biloshytskiy shared online footage, which could not be independently verified, of material burning fiercely underneath a pile of aggregate. “Another use of phosphorus ammunitions in Kramatorsk,” he said.
The UN secretary general, Antonio Guterres, has said it is time for Russia to end its “absurd” and “unwinnable” war in Ukraine, as the EU prepared to set up a “trust fund” aimed at helping Kyiv repel the invasion and rebuild afterwards. “Even if Mariupol falls, Ukraine cannot be conquered city by city, street by street, house by house,” Guterres said.
Russia plans to unleash a “great terror” on Kherson by kidnapping residents and taking them across the Russian border, an FSB whistleblower has claimed. The Kremlin was no longer willing to “play nicely” with protesters in the Ukrainian city, a letter said. About 300,000 people in the occupied southern city of Kherson are running out of food and medical supplies, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s foreign ministry said.
Russian forces have “kidnapped” 2,389 children from the Russian-controlled areas of Luhansk and Donetsk, the US embassy in Kyiv has said, citing figures by Ukraine’s foreign ministry. The embassy said: “This is not assistance. It is kidnapping.”
“Putin perceived weakness and disunity,” McMaster, a retired Army lieutenant general, told CNN in a phone interview. “But what he got instead was an extremely high degree of unity.”
Sanctions levied on Russia have left the country’s economy in tatters. The ruble is barely worth a penny, the Russian stock market has been shut for a month and Moscow is at risk of its first international default in more than a century.”
“The Biden administration needs credit for the degree with which they fostered international unity against Russia, especially in economic and diplomatic realms,” said McMaster, now a senior fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution.”
Just saw a two line “article” stating that one of the gqp Justices has missed another day while hanging ’round in the hospital. For someone who was supposed to be perking up and watching the goings on at work while sitting around the house he seems to not be too active. Is it time to start the office pool on who President Biden will nominate for the next Justice?
BB, just think what conniptions and contortions lindsey would have to go thru if biden nominated SC judge childs. also be nice to have women in the majority for once on the court not only that it would insure keeping 2 persons of color.
Fox News host Tucker Carlson wants to know: If Supreme Court Justice nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson really represents Black women, then why doesn’t she think like a street rapper?
After the Senate finished its first day of questioning in Jackson’s confirmation hearings on Tuesday, Carlson complained on his show that the nominee’s views “really seem like those of every affluent white liberal I’ve ever met.”
“If you want a Black candidate – I’m serious, I think the country would get better representation from…,” the Fox News host trailed off before saying, “She’s just a carbon copy of everyone in the neighborhood I spent my life in,” referring to La Jolla in San Diego.
Then Carlson threw in an extra helping of racism when his guest, right-wing commentator Clay Travis, claimed that Democrats were angling for “cosmetic diversity” with Jackson’s nomination.
“If you picked a rap star off the street, that person’s views would more likely be closer to the views of the average American than the views of this woman, I would argue,” Carlson said
Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) on Wednesday issued a blistering response to former President Trump‘s decision to unendorse him in the Alabama Senate race, accusing Trump of asking him to remove President Biden from the White House following the 2020 election despite his protests.
“President Trump asked me to rescind the 2020 elections, immediately remove Joe Biden from the White House, immediately put President Trump back in the White House, and hold a new special election for the presidency,” Brooks said in a statement. “As a lawyer, I’ve repeatedly advised President Trump that January 6 was the final election contest verdict and neither the U.S. Constitution nor the U.S. Code permit what President Trump asks. Period.”
Brooks’s statement comes hours after Trump pulled his endorsement of the lawmaker as he runs for an open Senate seat in the state’s Republican primary this year.
[…]
Brooks responded that when Trump asked him to help him overturn the election he knew “full well that it might cause President Trump to rescind his endorsement.”
“But I took a sworn oath to defend and protect the U.S. Constitution. I honor my oath. That is the way I am. I break my sworn oath for no man,” Brooks said. “I’m still the most conservative candidate in the race.”
pogo, a great loss indeed. the invasion of ukraine must have been a terrible thing for her to hear about in her last days given all she had done in that part of the world.
After six years of transatlantic diplomacy, Dr. Albright helped convince Russia and a skeptical U.S. Senate to allow Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic to join NATO. It may have been her greatest diplomatic achievement.
A “catastrophically incorrect assessment”, former Russian security official says. NYTimes: As Russia Stalls in Ukraine, Dissent Brews Over Putin’s Leadership
Craig – from what I understand. is those generals are no longer working. One is in “house arrest” and the other is out of public eye suffering from heart conditions, which might mean it is no longer beating.
Intercepted call between Russian soldier and his Mom: “half of my regiment are dead. – Dead?… – Well, it’s a war. Our commander was blown up. – I cry every fucking day. – I signed a contract. Will make some money.”
Goddamn server error…
I watched Ted Cruz show that no one can make a bigger ass out of Ted Cruz than Ted Cruz. Dick Durbin helped him along, but Ted did all the heavy lifting.
I think we are going to see Ukraine switch from defense to offense.
This bit from BBC, note the “longer range targeting” support.
Britain has already given Ukraine 4,000 anti-tank weapons. These portable bazookas – fired from the shoulder – have proven highly effective.
Now, among the latest promised tranche of weapons the UK will send, a further 3,000 of these will be going to Ukraine, along with a similar number of what Downing Street described as “high explosive missiles”.
These could include anti-aircraft weapons. But crucially, No 10 said the UK would also now help Ukraine with intelligence and longer range targeting.
That suggests – potentially – other uses for the missiles.
hard to imagine this bunch even fighting for truth and justice let alone democracy and their country
forget how many of the “us” in USA would take up arms to fight, how many here would even take up a protest sign risking jail or fine?
Amid Russia’s new crackdowns, small signs of defiance emerge | AP News
Russian Protestor Arrested, Fined for Sign Showing Only Asterisks (newsweek.com)
https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/23/europe/ukraine-war-scenarios-cmd-intl/index.html
“‘Deportation’ is a euphemism. It’s been used as a fairly innocuous term for what happened to these people, which was effectively enslavement and starvation. is shipping off the women, the children, the people that you want to remove from societies in order to neutralize them,” Giles said.
“They are generally met with pretty horrific fates. If they survived at all, they did not return for years or decades.”
Someone needs to take out Vlad. Russia will be destroyed by his actions, eventually, but in the meantime, innocent lives are being taken. We need a hero.
U? Us? You kidding?
I watched Cotton and the washed out ex cheerleader from Tennessee try to dismantle Ketanji Brown Jackson. They did not do themselves or their party proud. Someone needs to wring Cotton’s scrawny little neck and one of the remaining Dems needs to systematically dismantle the idiot from Tennessee’s sophomoric gotcha questions. Just ask the same questions without the false premises and let Judge Jackson shine.
the guardian:
https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/23/business/russia-sanctions-ukraine-biden-mcmaster/index.html
“Putin perceived weakness and disunity,” McMaster, a retired Army lieutenant general, told CNN in a phone interview. “But what he got instead was an extremely high degree of unity.”
Sanctions levied on Russia have left the country’s economy in tatters. The ruble is barely worth a penny, the Russian stock market has been shut for a month and Moscow is at risk of its first international default in more than a century.”
“The Biden administration needs credit for the degree with which they fostered international unity against Russia, especially in economic and diplomatic realms,” said McMaster, now a senior fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution.”
Just saw a two line “article” stating that one of the gqp Justices has missed another day while hanging ’round in the hospital. For someone who was supposed to be perking up and watching the goings on at work while sitting around the house he seems to not be too active. Is it time to start the office pool on who President Biden will nominate for the next Justice?
BB, just think what conniptions and contortions lindsey would have to go thru if biden nominated SC judge childs. also be nice to have women in the majority for once on the court not only that it would insure keeping 2 persons of color.
Just heard that Madeline Albright died. A great loss. RIP
Tucker Carlson Argues Black SCOTUS Noms Should Think Like Rappers, And I Can’t Make This Headline Sound Less Awful (talkingpointsmemo.com)
the chickens are coming home to roost
the hill:
pogo, a great loss indeed. the invasion of ukraine must have been a terrible thing for her to hear about in her last days given all she had done in that part of the world.
Madeleine Albright dies; first female secretary of state was 84 – The Washington Post
SCOTUS not saying whether Thomas still in hospital, was supposed to be released yesterday..
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/supreme-court-justice-clarence-thomas-hospitalization_n_623b3598e4b009ab930090e4?utm_campaign=share_twitter&ncid=engmodushpmg00000004#
So sorry to hear about Albright. A long, productive life but someone who will be missed.
RIP Ms. Albright.
as for Thomas…. Thoughts and prayers… or as Patsi would’ve said… bless his little heart…
The repubs are doing themselves proud – if their goal is to show their asses to America. They are out there for all to see.
CNN: During recent meeting in Moscow Russian general asked about family in Ukraine.
Answer: “”tragic and I am very depressed over it”
RR – I tend to look at the lack of response from the Supremes to make me go for $1 on Thursday, $5 on Friday and $10 on Saturday.
That is pretend money since we do not wager.
A “catastrophically incorrect assessment”, former Russian security official says. NYTimes: As Russia Stalls in Ukraine, Dissent Brews Over Putin’s Leadership
https://nyti.ms/3qr6ESW
Craig – from what I understand. is those generals are no longer working. One is in “house arrest” and the other is out of public eye suffering from heart conditions, which might mean it is no longer beating.
NEW: Adviser to Russian President Putin becomes the first senior Kremlin official to quit since the invasion of Ukraine.
If Putin taken down it’s the generals who’ll do it. So many clues they hate him and he hates them
Intercepted call between Russian soldier and his Mom: “half of my regiment are dead. – Dead?… – Well, it’s a war. Our commander was blown up. – I cry every fucking day. – I signed a contract. Will make some money.”
Goddamn server error…
I watched Ted Cruz show that no one can make a bigger ass out of Ted Cruz than Ted Cruz. Dick Durbin helped him along, but Ted did all the heavy lifting.
I think we are going to see Ukraine switch from defense to offense.
This bit from BBC, note the “longer range targeting” support.
Casualty numbers for Russia, 7000 dead and 30,000 killed and wounded. if real that is a big chunk of the 190000, that Russia sent in.
Jack
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