bolverk

Wordle 1,238 3/6 ⬛⬛🟩⬛🟨 ⬛🟩🟩🟨🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Rough start but got there. Connections Puzzle #516 🟪🟪🟩🟩 🟦🟨🟨🟨 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟪🟪🟪🟪 🙂 Daily Quordle 1019 4️⃣8️⃣ 5️⃣6️⃣ m-w.com/games/quordle/ ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜ ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜ ⬜🟨⬜⬜🟨 ⬜🟨⬜🟨⬜ 🟩⬜⬜⬜🟩 ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬜⬜🟨🟩⬜ ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬜⬜🟨🟩⬜ ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜ ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬜🟩🟨🟩🟩 ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬜⬜🟨⬜🟩 🟩⬜🟩⬜🟨 ⬜🟨🟨⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜ ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜ ⬜⬜🟩🟩⬜ ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟨⬜⬜🟨🟨 ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

I'm only posting a portion of the article because if I posted more, it would be seen by some as CR and not news. Click the free link for more: https://archive.is/KokUH Ukraine Now Faces a Nuclear Decision (original article: https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/11/07/ukraine-now-faces-a-nuclear-decision/) Last month, with little fanfare, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made the stakes of the ongoing war in Ukraine as clear as possible. With Russian troops bearing down on Ukraine’s east, and with Western support continuing to flag, Zelensky clarified the potential outcomes of the war. “Either Ukraine will have nuclear weapons and that will be our protection or we should have some sort of alliance,” he said. “Apart from NATO, today we do not know any effective alliances.” It was the first time the Ukrainian president had revealed an outcome that has become, for the war’s observers, increasingly inescapable. In this war for Ukraine’s survival, with Kyiv facing both declining men and materiel, the only surefire way of preventing Ukraine’s ongoing destruction is NATO membership—a reality that has gained more supporters since the war’s beginning but still remains years away. Barring such an outcome, as Zelensky outlined, only one option remains: developing Ukraine’s own nuclear arsenal and returning it to the role of a nuclear power that it gave up some three decades ago. For Western interlocutors, Zelensky’s revelation may have come as a shock. But for anyone paying attention to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s accelerating designs, the revelation that Kyiv may pursue its own nuclear arsenal is anything but. Putin, after all, has only grown increasingly messianic and monomaniacal in his efforts to shatter Ukraine. Previous designs on simply toppling Kyiv have given way to outright efforts to “destroy Ukrainian statehood,” especially following Ukraine’s successful occupation in Russia’s Kursk region, as the Moscow Times recently reported. With Ukrainian statehood—and even Ukrainian identity, given Russia’s genocidal efforts—at stake, any nation would understandably pursue any option available for survival. Perhaps more importantly, Zelensky is resurfacing an important part of Ukrainian history that many in the West seem to have forgotten but that the West bears significant responsibility for. In the aftermath of the Soviet collapse, Ukraine emerged as one of a handful of nations to claim a segment of the Soviet nuclear arsenal. And almost immediately, the United States and Russia led a joint effort to strip Ukraine of its new weapons, succeeding in 1994 via the now infamous Budapest Memorandum. It was a move that, at the time, resulted in rounds of condescending self-congratulation around Washington—and that, in time, set the stage for Russia’s later invasion of Ukraine. Now, as Zelensky has made clear, that bill is coming due—and the West now faces the option of finally welcoming Ukraine into NATO’s ranks or risking it becoming a nuclear power once more.

Russian Army Major General Klimenko Killed in Ukraine Russian Army Major General Pavel Klimenko, who commanded the 5th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade, was killed in Ukraine. The death of 47-year-old Klymenko was first reported by the Russsian pro-war bloggers. The Russian online media Vazhnye Istorii managed to confirm the identities of his sisters, who commented on Klimenko’s death on social media. The General’s sister, Kateryna Klymenko, also confirmed in a conversation with Russian media ASTRA that he had died. Sister Iryna left condolences in the comments to the post. Klymenko was accused of organizing torture and collecting money from his subordinates for sending them to the rear. The circumstances of his death are unknown. According to ASTRA’s investigation, Klymenko organized the torture of Russian military servicemen on the territory of an abandoned mine in occupied Donetsk. They were forced to agree to participate in assault groups, and money was extorted from them. Some Russian bloggers criticized Klimenko for the high casualties. There were claims that soldiers in his unit could pay a bribe to be reassigned to the rear. In the comments on a post about his death in a social media group, dozens of messages—likely from relatives of other deceased Russian soldiers—criticized the general. The post has since been deleted. Russia has confirmed the deaths of seven generals in Ukraine over the two years of full-scale war. In fact, the Russian army’s losses among generals may be higher. In 2023, it became known that Russian Major General Sergei Goryachev was eliminated as a result of successful actions by the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

He's Icono, which should tell you all you need to know about his dicksucking.

Yeah, he actually thought he could change his username, lie about it on multiple occasions, and convince us he's not Icono. Unfortunately for him, his consistent batshittery is too easy to see through.

How Russia Openly Escalated Its Election Interference Efforts The Kremlin did not bother to hide its efforts to influence the 2024 presidential election, as it did in the past. In the final days before Tuesday’s vote, Russia abandoned any pretense that it was not trying to interfere in the American presidential election. The Kremlin’s information warriors not only produced a late wave of fabricated videos that targeted the electoral process and the Democratic presidential ticket but also no longer bothered to hide their role in producing them. A fabricated interview claiming election fraud in Arizona was conducted by the director of a Kremlin think tank, Mira Terada, who returned to Russia in 2021 after serving a prison sentence in the United States for money laundering. Another video on Rumble, the video-sharing platform, targeted the Democratic vice-presidential nominee and featured John Mark Dougan, a former deputy sheriff from Florida who had previously denied working for the Kremlin’s propaganda apparatus. What impact Russia’s information campaign had on the outcome of this year’s race, if any, remains uncertain. There is no doubt, though, that it reflected an increasingly brazen effort by the Kremlin, one that has left the American government with little to do to except to rebut the falsehoods as they gain popularity. More than one official compared it to the arcade game Whac-a-Mole. “That’s the thing — it feels so impotent,” said David Salvo, a former State Department official who is now managing the Alliance for Securing Democracy at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. “I mean, all we can do at the moment really is call it out.” This year’s election underlined how much foreign interference — and disinformation generally — has become baked into American politics. Increasingly unfettered social media platforms like X and Telegram, along with the country’s constitutional protections of free speech, have opened the door for foreign influence, even if American law prohibits it. “The flood of disinformation from Russian troll farms is just seemingly part of the overarching information environment,” said Chris Krebs, who served as the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency during President-elect Donald J. Trump’s first term, only to be fired when he called the last election fairly run. cont'd:

***crickets*** It was mentioned in another thread how Trump supporters posting in the CR often go silent when confronted with facts that go against them. This is another example.

This finally answered my question.

As a 53-year-old lifelong Texan who grew up in the Southern Baptist church in a deeply conservative, rural part of the state, I know very well that most people of that faith wholeheartedly support the GOP. Within that context, it's clear that your religious beliefs hold a great deal of sway over how you think about this topic. I'm probing you because I want to understand your stand on the issue, which you've so far failed to clarify.

That's not how the GOP abortion ban is going in Texas. Women are dying because they're not getting the treatment they need during botched pregnancies.

Can I get you to expound upon these thoughts? Are you saying that women should just resign themselves to death instead of seeking medical help when things go awry during pregnancy? Like, yes, I know that this pregnancy is going to kill me, but "C'est la vie!" or "God works in mysterious ways."

Yep. One quick example is the question I posed to the Turtle Pond guy about Trump using Nazi language. It was totally ignored. How am I to hold a truce with someone who refuses to repudiate that language?

Let me ask you, how do you feel about Trump echoing the language of Nazis by calling his political opponents "vermin" and saying that immigrants are "poisoning the blood" of America?

No discussion of the massive protests going on within Israel over the firing of Gallant? Huh.

And who have declared political loyalty to a blustering and irrational autocrat.

What you should be concerned about the incoming administration actually fires 75,000 lifetime, professional civil servants who will be replaced by people who have to pass a loyalty test to Trump, as outlined in Project 2025.

...their concern is not really about abortion. It's always been about controlling women.

Muslim ban

Wordle 1,237 4/6 ⬛⬛⬛🟨🟨 🟨⬛⬛🟨⬛ ⬛⬛🟨🟨🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Connections Puzzle #515 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟪🟪🟪🟪 🙂 Daily Quordle 1018 4️⃣5️⃣ 6️⃣7️⃣ m-w.com/games/quordle/ ⬜⬜🟨⬜🟨 🟩⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨 ⬜⬜🟨🟨⬜ ⬜⬜⬜🟨🟩 🟨⬜⬜⬜🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨 ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬜🟨🟩⬜⬜ ⬜🟨⬜🟨⬜ ⬜🟨🟨⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜🟨🟩 ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜ ⬜⬜🟨⬜🟩 ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜ ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬜⬜⬜🟨🟨 ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

CNN exit poll of independents in Georgia shows an almost 20-point swing toward Trump.

Jesus Christ

I was about to make this same comment. In Kentucky, there's also Franklin County, where she's winning right now but it went for Trump last time.

Studies show that the world events that occur during your coming of age have a lasting impact on voting behavior for the rest of your life. If you're a liberal/progressive and vote Democratic in your early 20s, you're more than likely going to continue to vote Democratic in perpetuity. I posted an article from the Houston Chronicle yesterday that demonstrates, yes, Californians who move to Texas are more likely to be registered as Republicans. They, however, are not arriving in sufficient numbers to change the voting behavior of the counties they move to. For example, Williamson County has received more Californians than any other county, and it still turned blue. Population growth through natural increase (births minus deaths) and those children becoming voting adults have far more influence over the timing of when Texas will turn blue.

Does that Russian Morris Code translate into English? I'm asking because the number of times that woman blinks makes it look like she's in distress. And, to be clear, I hold absolutely zero sympathy for her if she's under any sort of duress.