I am/was a Trump supporter, but things are moving fast, and i battle to follow fast enough.
I initially thought he would make America great again, and we would see a return of traditional Americanism, fresh faced,, honest down to earth apple pie stuff, you know?
But as things progress, it appears that this is not the idea at all, and I have the story wrong.
The plan must be to make USA self destruct like Germany. But if so, I still like Trump, because that will solve a lot of problems too, just not the way i thought.
But the Ukraine will be sorted, with Germany and USA in ruins, the Arrogant British will only have the recalcitrant French to do their imperial bidding, and we all know the French in war. That is a bird that don’t fly.
And the effects on Israel should be clear to all. They will cease to exist and be over-run by neighbours giving them the same treatment they have been dished up by Israel for 80 years.
Israel as a nation will not survive.
So I might have liked Trump for all the wrong reasons, but he is showing us all, that there are many ways to skin a cat.
I must learn to think outside the box!
Way out!

Posted by: g wiltek | Mar 31 2025 0:46 utc | 103

POOT @97: “As if your pro-Trump derangement is any better…”
You do know I voted for De la Cruz, right?
See, you TDS people really are broken in the head. You cannot actually point out my “pro-Trump derangement” in any of my posts because it doesn’t exist. You TDS people have such damaged minds that unless someone is as rabidly and insanely frothing-at-the-mouth Trump-phobic as yourselves, you see them as “pro-Trump”. That means your head is fucked up.
I’m not at all kidding when I say you people really need to tune out from corporate mass media for at least a year and detox your minds. You are useless as you currently are. You are far too fixated on Trump.
Until you heal your brain, I’ll keep needling you TDS people about your largely self-inflicted derangement. Yeah, TDS comes from the mass media dumping Trump hysteria straight into your cerebral cortex, but you have the power to turn it off, so you’re not blameless.

Posted by: William Gruff | Mar 31 2025 0:53 utc | 105

Overall: Another bad day for the RFA. Only 4.2 kmsq taken. That kind of pace equates to decades to achieve war aims.
Posted by: Anonymous | Mar 30 2025 21:56 utc | 76
This is misinformation at its worst. Russia has taken far more land than what you are saying.Youre a propogandist…
Posted by: Fyador | Mar 31 2025 1:01 utc | 107
👍 Correct, Mr Frydor. Anonymous is one the NAFO lot of liars

Posted by: HERMIUS | Mar 31 2025 1:04 utc | 107

@ HERMIUS | 10
Is Nafo still operating? if it is their numbers must be struggling today as more people around the world start to hear, see, read counter narratives to what theyre pushing.
Posted by: Jesper from London | Mar 31 2025 1:10 utc | 109
I wouldn’t know Mr Jesper. Ive either blocked every one of them or theyve blocked me. The result is we’ve cancelled each other out, sort of.

Posted by: HERMIUS | Mar 31 2025 1:15 utc | 109

Something for the bar to play with, “When the Outlaw US Empire’s War on Ukraine Negotiations Fail”. All that bluster and banter from Trump and his team has evaporated. Trump had one real chance at success and blew it when he reinserted the plug he pulled hoping he could then control the Ukraine Nazis with threats of pulling it again. And since many of the illegal sanctions are collective with the EU, making deals like the Black Sea Grain arrangement that are dependent on sanctions reversals won’t happen. There’s a message for the US public in Trump’s failure provided they open their eyes and minds.

Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 31 2025 1:17 utc | 111

I see Mr. Peru hasn’t read what Mr. Putin had to say about who he’s willing/going to negotiate with. He has THE vote that matters in that event, not you nor I.

Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 31 2025 1:21 utc | 113

*** There’s a message for the US public in Trump’s failure provided they open their eyes and minds.
Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 31 2025 1:17 utc | 112
Don’t hold your breath. The US general public stopped paying attention to foreign policy after Watergate. How the Great Society was going to develop, who was pro-life or not (neither of which are proper excercises of federal power, but I digress) and that Vietnam was ended were about all most American knew or cared about. The diversion from who ran foreign polic, what the policies were and how they were executed was a crowning acheivement. Foreign policy is esotericism best left to the experts. It pretty much has stayed that way to this day. Maybe 1 in 10 would know where the Black Sea is and 1 in 100 would know what goods are shipped through it. The only way any of this would pass through the narrative veil is if Trump could be nailed with a failure that involved Black Sea shipping.

Posted by: frithguild | Mar 31 2025 1:37 utc | 115

Track, swamp, pipeline, Belarus
Have a co-ordinate of location. It’s not loading for me, so unable to confirm.
One of the clever* @barflies may be able to verify *(…rather easy to outdo me in a game of internet, so no need to gloat)
https://earth.google.com/web/search/55%2e02421+25%2e91824/@55.02443177,25.91843514,144.70573945a,743.80499602d,35y,0.00000001h,13.32491126t,0r/data=CiwiJgokCeJBRbQY8zZAEd9BRbQY8zbAGVd1uq0CwkRAIe7huSLN_U_AQgIIAUICCABKDQj___________8BEAA
Comment attached ^ states there’s a dirt track going straight across the bog. They allegedly just followed the road, but the surface was not strong enough for a 60 ton ARV.
Another attached comment ^: “Orange is the gas pipeline. They came from east, took a turn north 1km too early and ended up in the bog.”
Other harvested comments:
-60tones. Was that the weight of the Americans or the vehicle?
-M88. Recovery vehicle. Dispatched. Why? To recover what exactly?
-M88 ARV – Armoured Recovery Vehicle – usually a tracked one. A modified tank chassis without the turret. it is designed to recover knocked out vehicles for repairs.
-This is a special op gone wrong.
https://www.europeafrica.army.mil/ArticleViewPressRelease/Article/4135345/press-release-us-soldiers-reported-missing-in-lithuania/
-4 were from 3rd Bat./69th Arm. Reg./1st Brig/3rd Inf. Div.
-Alleged “training mission”, but not a training mission. Allegedly, they were raised early in early morning of 2025.03.25 to “assist another vehicle in trouble”.
-Last communication was one of the 4 sent a cellphone text to wife and said they reached the “vehicle in trouble”. No opsec, but that’s almost SOP now. Hegseth, Waltz and Gabbard can confirm.
-The “accident” is one issue. What’s really bizarre now is the recovery. It’s both inept and hilarious, with just about every Lithuanian high official sheepishly visiting the site.
-They were MAGAtards. Trump told them he’d drained the swamp. He lied.
——
My interest is in the proximity to the Belarus border and the pipeline. What they were up to will leak soon enough….

Posted by: Melaleuca | Mar 31 2025 1:42 utc | 117

**** karlof1 @114
I’d say Trump is stymied and thus frustrated.
******
If Trump can setup a Crypto Fund by Executive Order essentially overnight, he can setup a currency exchange fund overnight that the Russians can use for their agricultural and fertilizer sales to the Global South. And do it only so those countries can use it.
Right now he is pissed at Putin because his statement that Zelensky is illegitimate has screwed up his minerals, energy and infrastructure deal. I guess old zputin doesn’t always weigh his words well.

Posted by: Jerr | Mar 31 2025 1:53 utc | 119

Posted by: Peru | Mar 31 2025 1:52 utc | 127
You seem to know a lot about Ukraine’s constitution, but can’t tell me if war has been declared?
Is that obstinance or ignorance?
I think it’s the former, and I know why.
War has never been declared on Russia, eg, laws saying what is permitted during wartime are not applicable, eg, no elections during wartime martial law are not applicable, eg There is no legitimate president of Ukraine…
the last one, was, of course, Yanukovych.

Posted by: UWDude | Mar 31 2025 1:56 utc | 121

we gonna hear about what love is soon, and then im another hour, a recently passed gramma.

Posted by: UWDude | Mar 31 2025 2:05 utc | 123

***Melaleuca @139***
You response is a little cryptic for me to fully understand; however, everything you describe has already happened to Trump. He’s not going to be swayed by any BS from press,Dems,etc. Regarding Hedgseth, he knows the best thing is to keep him where he is and let him clean out the trash. Regarding Lithuania, my thinking is if it was going to adversely affect Trump it would already be public.

Posted by: Jerr | Mar 31 2025 2:26 utc | 125

EU offers helpful bug out bag recommendations for the nuclear war!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZILEWWy1R04

Posted by: LosBanos | Mar 31 2025 2:42 utc | 127

Commnets in articles about “wartime” do not claim war has been declared by either side. It’s merely everyday language discussing the briader issues, plus the legalities specifically.
Posted by: Peru | Mar 31 2025 2:16 utc | 141
I addressed this argument already.
But I’ll ask again, what is the difference between the wartime when Zelensky and Poroshenk was elected, and the wartime now?
I have proven how legally it is not wartime.
Now, you have avoided this question once, and if war was declared twice.
Can you save us all some time, and not ignore my second point a second time as well?
Or do you also already understand the gravity of answering that question, and are you about to paste me with another word salad to try to avoid andwering it?
Remember, every time you avoid answering, just letse know you already know the answer, just choose not to admit it.

Posted by: UWDude | Mar 31 2025 2:44 utc | 129

Aspergers spectrum – as in can’t help himself? Or an everyday aggressive disruptive immature Troll? I do not care either way.
Posted by: Peru | Mar 31 2025 2:51 utc | 149
I knew you would avoid answering a second time.
xD

Posted by: UWDude | Mar 31 2025 2:53 utc | 131

Can Putin just claim “martial law”, or “state of emergency”, and send conscripts into Kiev?
How about cancel the elections?
There are many reasons Ukraine and Russia have not declared war.

Posted by: UWDude | Mar 31 2025 2:58 utc | 133

You are spinning your wheels in the mud.
Posted by: Peru | Mar 31 2025 3:01 utc | 156
platitudes, generalities, fristration. Better stop before you start spittling on your firm partners.
LoL

Posted by: UWDude | Mar 31 2025 3:09 utc | 135

My illegal rada said breakaway republics cant vote, though they are still Ukraine.
Them my illegal rada banned parties, and siezed television stations.
Then my illegal rada said I am under martial law, so now my illegal rada can say elections can.be canceled.
But my illegal rada never declared war. The most obvious state Ukraine is in, and has been in, since the siezure of Crimea by Russia.

Posted by: UWDude | Mar 31 2025 3:23 utc | 137

@ karlof1 | Mar 31 2025 1:17 utc | 112 with his latest insight into US/Russia negotiations…thanks
I can see Trump trying to tell Putin that any agreement that the US/Russia makes will be rubber-stamped by Ukraine and Putin saying that some valid Ukraine leadership needs to be developed that Russia can negotiate with and trust in their signing of agreements.
Trump is in favor of quick and dirty arrangements which Russia will not tolerate, IMO. And Trump has not leverage to force Russia into anything.
Squirm Bully, Squirm!
Another comment to Karl about the Hudson/Diesen video link he provided above…I liked how Michael gave his condensed version of cultural/religious/financial history starting about 1000 AD.
I continue to wonder about the missing documentation in the West of the Crab Nebulae in 1054 and what effect it may have had on the schism.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Mar 31 2025 3:36 utc | 139

Posted by: Peru | Mar 31 2025 3:15 utc | 160
note:
attempt to link to Israeli law as parralel precedent. Odd, what does Israeli law have to do with Ukrainian law? Answer later.
note:
how often this propaganda uses the “irrelevant” term, “wartime”,
note:
the tone of thus propaganda is set with the word “GUARANTEES”.
“This is accomplished through numerous constitutional GUARANTEES of freedom and equality as well as through institutional and procedural mechanisms.”
Is this a money back guarantee?
Because East Ukraine wants its money back.
Must have been “free and fair election” because the constitution “guarantees” it, right?
next:
Answer to attempt to use Israeli parallel precedent:
I knew it meant they are going to appeal to international law, because, “never has there been a gree and fair election when 20% of the country has been occupied” Wait, I thought this was about Ukrainian legal argument, not an argument it is “unprecedented internationally, so unprecedented actions are allowed” argument.
See that? An appeal to some kind of international norm.
But propaganda is more about attempts to confuse the reader, than state any truth or even legal fact.
Also
Mexico held elections during the Mexican American war, The USA re-elected Lincoln in 1864 in the heat of the Civil War.
Two “unprecedented elections with large swaths of territory occupied”, just off the top of my head.
whoopsie daisy!

Posted by: UWDude | Mar 31 2025 3:50 utc | 141

There is no compelling precedent or case where a democracy in war, with a fifth of its territory occupied by an enemy or affected by active hostilities, has managed to conduct free and fair elections
Posted by: Peru | Mar 31 2025 3:15 utc | 160
I forgot, in addition to the American Civil War reelection of Lincoln and the Mexican-American Mexican elections,
There was also Ukrainian legal precedent!
one fith of Ukraine was occupied when Poroshenko was elected, as well as when Zelensky was elected.
Hah hah hah hah hah!

Posted by: UWDude | Mar 31 2025 4:07 utc | 143

Posted by: Peru | Mar 31 2025 4:39 utc | 171
have Russia elections been free and fair since the founding of the Federation?
Or you no understandy Russian law?

Posted by: UWDude | Mar 31 2025 4:52 utc | 145

Classy. /s Please, do continue.
Posted by: Peru | Mar 31 2025 5:09 utc | 175
ok.
have Russia elections been free and fair since the founding of the Federation?
Or you no understandy Russian law?

Posted by: UWDude | Mar 31 2025 5:11 utc | 147

I saw that text the first time in #173. You are repeating yourself which is wasting your time and the energy driving your overexcited neural synapses. Please, do continue.
Posted by: Peru | Mar 31 2025 5:19 utc | 177
rich coming from a guy flooding us with 15 paragraph AI essays, and 15 paragraph ukrainian propaganda.
Also a guy who always takes at least two repeats of every question to answer it.
Like just now:
Answer the questions:
have Russia elections been free and fair since the founding of the Federation?
Is Zelensky a dictator?

Posted by: UWDude | Mar 31 2025 5:22 utc | 149

The topic of this thread is not my mental state, or thos “discussion”, is not my mental state, try as though you will toake it so.
Answer the questions:
Have Russia elections been free and fair since the founding of the Federation?
Is Crimea and the four oblasts legally Russian Oblasts?
Is Zelensky a dictator?

Posted by: UWDude | Mar 31 2025 5:30 utc | 151

I do not know. Unlike you I am not psychic or psychotic nor a prophet.
Posted by: Peru | Mar 31 2025 5:29 utc | 183
You know Ukrainian suspension of elections is legal, why does knowing the legality of that not require psychic powers, but the legality of Russia elections require psychic powers?
_—————+
You should tell us and cut out the middle man.
Posted by: Peru | Mar 31 2025 5:29 utc | 183
First answer is Yes, Russian elections have been free and fair, and Putin is wildy popular and loved by Russia, and Russia is a democratic Federation.
Second Answer is yes, Zelensky is a dictator, and Ukraine a dictatorship.
And yes, Crimea and those four 2022 oblasts are constitutionally Russian.
Feel the pain, demon. Reveal yourself.

Posted by: UWDude | Mar 31 2025 5:37 utc | 153

I believe people can work this out for themselves and draw their own conclusions. This has nothing to do with me.
Posted by: Peru | Mar 31 2025 5:56 utc | 188
It has everything to do with you. you posted Ukrainian propaganda, and you know it, and when pressed, you defended it.
you called it “basic academic research” when it was clearly full of lies, like the “free and fair elections in wartime unprevedent pbvious lie”, and you could not even admit that part, at least, was an obvious lie, much less the rest.
You arent here in innocence.
You will bever be able to admit Zelensky is a dictator, and Putin a democratically and lived president.
You know exactly what you are doing, and what you are posting, and when called out you eventually just degraded into personal insults against me. I did not start that, I just questioned the “basic academic research” in your articles, and you had no response to any of the lies I pointed out. Just insults, or posting even longer copy pastas of ukrainian propaganda.
Do please, let me know when you post an article explaining how Zelensky is no longer legitimate, and then “let people work it out for themselves”.

Posted by: UWDude | Mar 31 2025 6:08 utc | 155

Someone should tell this guy that instead of referenda we had normal elections, that the war parties lost and that they kept in power nevertheless. Next step was that they bought some extreme right supposedly antiwar party and made with them a coalition while keeping full power in spite of the very low votes they received.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2025/03/26/europe-us-alliances-russia-ukraine-nato/

Posted by: Tom | Mar 31 2025 7:00 utc | 157

Posted by: Norwegian | Mar 31 2025 6:50 utc | 193
RE: there’s a killer on the road
<< take a long holiday, let your children play

Posted by: steel_porcupine | Mar 31 2025 7:19 utc | 159

In the past month (Feb. 25–March 25, 2025), Russia gained 73 square miles of Ukraine’s territory, an area roughly equivalent to about 3 Manhattan islands, according to the 20 March issue of Russian Matter’s war Report Card. Meanwhile, in Russia’s Kursk oblast, Ukraine currently controls just 32 square miles, or 4%, of the 470 square miles it controlled in early autumn 2024, according to the Report Card.

Posted by: steel_porcupine | Mar 31 2025 7:22 utc | 161

Truth of the sinking of the Moskwa
https://www.kyivpost.com/post/49863

Posted by: Oberbayer | Mar 31 2025 7:36 utc | 163

Well the Germans are going to be given the shit end of the stick that was used to stab Russia. Again! Whilst the perpetrators run away claiming they know nothing. ‘Nuffing’.
The British and American occupying forces propaganda is this morning running with ‘re-arm’ the Germans after having spent 80 years occupying them and attacking peoples around the world from German bases.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cdjyjlkewr2o
“Germany decides to leave history in the past and prepare for war”
This with a breathless reporting of warmongering harridans of the BBC.
‘The boom of the training’ she gushes, the blasé attitude of locals and a couple of young German teenagers staring at us from some … war monument it looks , claiming they are giving up their pacifism.
“ In Berlin, Germans’ traditional caution about all things military seems to be fading fast.
Eighteen-year-old Charlotte Kreft says her own pacifist views have changed.
“For a really long time, we thought the only way to make up for the atrocities we committed in World War Two was to make sure it never happened again […] and we thought we needed to demilitarise,” Charlotte explains.”
18 years old.
Knows everything.
Knows about atrocities that her grandparents committed in WW2 and for them not to be repeated.
A fucking teenager! Knows a lot.
But is ready to give up pacifism and get going with the atrocities of her grandparents too!

Posted by: DunGroanin | Mar 31 2025 7:53 utc | 165

Western Media concentrating on Trump being ‘pissed’ at Putin.
What they fail to mention that he was at least as agressive with Z. re. minerals deal. The upshot was sign or funding stops.

Posted by: Night Tripper | Mar 31 2025 7:59 utc | 167

Tass reports today:
Ukraine is fully committed to continuing the war
Ukraine has never implemented the moratorium on attacks on energy infrastructure, and Kyiv is openly saying that it doesn’t want “peacekeepers” from Europe, but rather combat troops “ready to participate in real combat.”
Beginning of translation:
The Kyiv regime is proving its inability to negotiate every day
Vladimir Putin warned Donald Trump in a phone call two weeks ago that the Kyiv regime is not keeping its agreements. At that time, a temporary moratorium on mutual attacks on energy facilities in Russia and Ukraine was agreed upon. The Russian president immediately issued the corresponding order, and six Russian drones flying toward energy facilities in the Nikolayev region were shot down by our own troops.
…
[cut for length – b.]
End of translation
https://anti-spiegel.ru/2025/die-ukraine-setzt-voll-auf-fortsetzung-des-krieges/

Posted by: berthold | Mar 31 2025 8:51 utc | 169

DunGroanin | Mar 31 2025 7:53 utc | 202
And Berlin is the least German city in Germany … still this is mainly I imagine the BBC with a ready-made thesis looking for evidence to justify it, and what better than someone who only knows what she’s been taught?

Posted by: YetAnotherAnon | Mar 31 2025 10:26 utc | 171

@209 Yes

Posted by: M | Mar 31 2025 11:39 utc | 173

Regardless…how are you supposed to negotiate with such a “shapeshifter” of his own personality?
Posted by: berthold | Mar 31 2025 10:03 utc | 207
We gain clarity from Joe Walsh’s prophetic lyrics from Rocky Mountain Way:
Well, he’s tellin’ us this
And he’s tellin’ us that
Changes it every day
Says it doesn’t matter
Bases are loaded and Casey’s at bat
Playin’ it play by play
Time to change the batter

Posted by: dontflayme | Mar 31 2025 11:41 utc | 175

VVP “remains open to contact with President Trump,” according to a sanguine Dmitri Peskov. No phone call is currently on tap, but Peskov added that one could be “organized promptly.”
The view at street-level in Moscow was more combativr, however.
Moskovsky Komsomolets, a leading pro-Kremlin paper, accused the US president of not fulfilling “obligations” to stop Ukrainian strikes on Russian energy infrastructure: “If the diplomats cannot move the peace process forward, the military will do all the talking. Putin has made his move, now we wait for Trump’s.”
While these conversations were happening, the Russian Forces had secured a salient in Zhaparhizia, which allows them to aim the top of the spear @ Novoandreevka. And a cauldron was forming up to the southwest of Konstantinopol in south Donetsk, w/ Russian Forces leaving one exit point for the soon-to-be kettled AFU, should they wish to withdraw while they still have time.

Posted by: steel_porcupine | Mar 31 2025 12:00 utc | 177

about my previous post @213:
“-recently, an exchange of fallen soldiers took place between Ukraine and Russia, with Ukraine recovering 909 bodies and Russia 43,
-in the previous exchange, in February, Ukraine recovered 757 bodies and Russia 45.”
The first element that tempers such a difference is the fact that Russia is advancing, so it can recover its fallen soldiers itself, unlike Ukraine, which is retreating and losing these territories. But the difference remains significant.

Posted by: Tak-Tik | Mar 31 2025 12:04 utc | 179

Quite the slugfest to establish whether Cocainsky still is the legitimate Fuhrer of the Ukroreich. Seeing both battlers seem to have exhausted themselves for now, let me tip my toe in the ring with a few thoughts of my own.
Let me start out by saying that nobody gives a damn about the Ukrainian constitution. Least of all Ukrainians.
The constitution in force in 2014 has never been amended in accordance with stipulations prescribed within.
Article 111 outlines how a sitting president is to be legally removed from office.

Article 111
* The President of Ukraine may be removed from office by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine by the procedure of impeachment, in the event that he or she commits state treason or other crime.
* The issue of the removal of the President of Ukraine from office by the procedure of impeachment is initiated by the majority of the constitutional composition of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.
* To conduct the investigation, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine establishes a special temporary investigatory commission whose composition includes a special procurator and special investigators.
* The conclusions and proposals of the temporary investigatory commission are considered at a meeting of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.
* For cause, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, by no less than two-thirds of its constitutional composition, adopts a decision on the accusation of the President of Ukraine.
* The decision on the removal of the President of Ukraine from office by the procedure of impeachment is adopted by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine by no less than three-quarters of its constitutional composition, after the review of the case by the Const itutional Court of Ukraine and the receipt of its opinion on the observance of the constitutional procedure of investigation and consideration of the case of impeachment, and the receipt of the opinion of the Supreme Court of Ukraine to the effect that th e acts, of which the President of Ukraine is accused, contain elements of state treason or other crime.

Clearly, during the bloody putsch of 2014 none of the steps outlined in the constitution were followed. To the contrary, not unlike how Hitler took power, Yanukovych’s Party of Regions was violently oppressed and intimidated, creating an atmosphere where declaring your opposition to the violent overthrow of the democratically elected government was tantamount to masochism as the Sicherheits Abteilung SA, err the Right Sektor’s storm troopers were sure to lay into you.
As per Article 103, “The President of Ukraine is elected by the citizens of Ukraine for a five-year term, on the basis of universal, equal and direct suffrage, by secret ballot.” But instead, again not giving a toss about the constitution, the putsch Rada and its western backers declared Turchynov as interim president.
In Article 83 the constitution mentions explicitly that “while martial law or a state of emergency is in effect, its authority is extended until the day of the first meeting of the first session of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, elected after the cancellation of martial law or of the state of emergency.” The president is not mentioned. His/her 5 year term is set as per Article 103.
Summa summarum, as far as I’m concerned, since the illegitimate and brutal ouster of the democratic government early 2014, the entire political theatre by the putschists was and is unconstitutional, incl. the 2016 constitutional amendments. The Ukraine as a country ruled by law ceased to exist when Nuland handed out cookies and said F the EU, Yats is our man. It has since been ruled by people who couldn’t care less about justice and legislation.

Martial law has been introduced in full on the territories of Ukraine annexed by Russia (Donetsk People’s Republic, Luhansk People’s Republic, Kherson Oblast, Zaporizhzhia Oblast). In the regions bordering Ukraine – Bryansk, Kursk, Belgorod, Voronezh, Rostov Oblasts, Krasnodar Krai, as well as in the annexed Crimea and Sevastopol, a “medium level of response” was introduced, in other regions of the Central and the Southern Federal Districts – “level of high readiness”, and in other subjects of the Russian Federation – “level of basic readiness”. […]
Posted by: Peru | Mar 31 2025 3:35 utc | 165

And guess what. Even though Donetsk People’s Republic, Luhansk People’s Republic, Kherson Oblast, Zaporizhzhia Oblast were under martial law, they held elections. How’s that! The argument that “wartime elections would undermine the legitimacy of democratic institutions” as per your 160 is comical. Especially in times of war do people, the electorate, the ones suffering and who’s family members are the ones dying, need to have a say in who is to steer the ship. Denying them this voice and democratic participation in the decision making process at such crucial juncture is the mark of people afraid of what those elections might bring to light.

Posted by: Juan Moment | Mar 31 2025 12:14 utc | 181

The very flattering glimpse the nytimes provided in its lengthy article on the “secret” relationship that, like, nobody knew about—shhhhh!——when the military & CIA of Collective Biden was joined @ the hip w/ their counterparts in Ukraine, also gave readers a glimpse, whether intentionally or not, into the great gnarly debacle which results when a proxy army underperforms or when the proxy’s leadership begins self-importantly to interfere in the paymaster’s strategic objectives.
Which we are now seeing play out in excruciating detail daily in contentious messaging from the proxy’s leader and in rogue attacks by the proxy’s missiles against energy infrastructure targets that violate the limited ceasefire.
In other words, the war is not merely lost when the proxy military underperforms on the battlefield, in spite of ample weaponry, but the post-loss period, the after-loss period, becomes its own sort of war zone, shared by the paymaster and the proxy, in which they face off inimically, trying to agree to terms to concede defeat.
Of course, the fastest way for the paymaster to jerk the proxy’s chain is to cease the flow of weaponry & intel support. Having tried that briefly, our Big Beautiful Paymaster is now in the weak position of trying it again, an anticlimactic move that lacks punch.
Dilemma City.
So the nytimes article can extol the glorious Honeymoon Days of this once-fabulous marriage while foreshadowing the cold-shower horror of the whole thing dashed on the rocks. But that part will be an even more closely guarded secret, one which Regime Media rags like the nytimes may never be permitted to tell.

Posted by: steel_porcupine | Mar 31 2025 12:35 utc | 183

USA Institute for Peace(used for formenting regine change etc al etc) is shut down. Saves 55 million.Even today much more in new how USA especially CIA and UK was (even now?) integrated with Ukraine. Does this give Russia extra leverage in any way? Should Russia target the UK and French satellites that have mostly replaced US intel still being used for a fresh attack today on an infrastructure attack?
Read yesterday USA has ceased intel of locations of top Russian military and hmmm who else.. maybe Z saying Putin would be gone soon scared them out from being accused of complicity in assassination of VP.

Posted by: Jo | Mar 31 2025 13:03 utc | 185

Oberbayer@200…..moot at this point, Hubris sunk it, thinking it could sail back and forth like a huge dick waving itself at Whitehall from the Black Sea. I’ll say it again, it bears repeating, Whitehall doesn’t give a fuck what Trump wants or does and they certainly, smug in their little safe place, don’t give a flying fuck what the Russians say or want. Russia holds, zero, thats a big fat fucking zero sway over what the Brits do to tickle Russia’s fat soft underbelly. Even the mythical, must be believed to be seen, Hazelnuts have not even remotely deterred Whitehall…..as you were.
Cheers M

Posted by: sean the leprechaun | Mar 31 2025 13:12 utc | 187

@ UWDude | Mar 31 2025 13:13 utc | 225
d’accord.

Posted by: malenkov | Mar 31 2025 13:23 utc | 189

Posted by: Vragtes | Mar 31 2025 12:04 utc | 215
Nah, LePen family has been the inexpensive useful idiots of the Finance’s Inspectors cast since the 70’s. But looking up for 2027 elections they are useless.
Now that Macron is worn out, it’s his turn to serve as a foil to get the caste’s candidate elected. They’ll come up with a “near no-name” right-wing Euro-Atlantic-compatible (Bellamy type), wrap him up nicely, and presto! “The French Friedrich Mertz” will emerge from the ballot boxes. Bardella is wonderfull for that ; young , nice , and dumber than his feets.
De toutes façons, macrotte ayant foutu le sbeul avec sa dissolution, le RN n’aura pas de majorité au parlement et aurait du gouverner en cohabitation permanente avec les castors … autrement dit finit l’agenda de déconstruction européen et ça, c’est hors de question, il faut continuer à piller et à dissoudre la France. Car c’est leur PROJJEETTT !!!

Posted by: Savonarole | Mar 31 2025 13:43 utc | 191

They did it with Fillion in 2017 , nobody complained … tant qu’ils gagnent , ils jouent.

Posted by: Savonarole | Mar 31 2025 14:09 utc | 193

Posted by: Avtonom | Mar 31 2025 12:48 utc | 221
RE: 6.8% not 4%
<< Thx-! My math was not mathing

Posted by: steel_porcupine | Mar 31 2025 14:14 utc | 195

Posted by: Norwegian | Mar 30 2025 19:55 utc | 44
>>>>
You disappeared for a while. I’m glad you’re back. Like your comment by the way.

Posted by: pepe | Mar 31 2025 14:30 utc | 197

Rubio: …” it doesn’t depend on us. It depends on the Russians, and it depends on the Ukrainians…”
Posted by: steel_porcupine | Mar 31 2025 7:16 utc | 195
Short and very sweet. Should have said this first up and got back to fixing the US. Goes for Palestine as well. If the point was to show how stupid US leadership is on the world scene:
Been there; done that.

Posted by: juliania | Mar 31 2025 15:05 utc | 199