UPDATE: Wednesday, Dec 7, 2022 · 6:35:25 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner
In just the time it took to write this article, The Washington Post has update their source article. The new headline on that update: “Items with classified markings found at Trump storage unit in Florida.”
At least two more items marked with some level of classification have been found in a storage unit outside of West Palm Beach.
UPDATE: Thursday, Dec 8, 2022 · 12:58:40 AM +00:00
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Mark Sumner
Unbelievable footage of Russian incendiary munitions being used in Avdiivka, Donetsk this evening. pic.twitter.com/Q0OM6n5c3X— Kyle Glen (@KyleJGlen) December 7, 2022
Ukrainian sources are reporting heavy fighting in this area. Russia may have used the incendiary munitions in hopes of easing their advance.
Last week, it became clear that under new CEO Elon Musk, Twitter had stopped enforcing a policy against spreading disinformation related to COVID-19 and vaccinations. They didn’t make a big announcement about this. It wasn’t until people began wondering why so much outright anti-vax nonsense was suddenly floating around, that it was discovered that Twitter had stopped trying to block such propaganda back in mid-November.
UPDATE: Friday, Dec 2, 2022 · 8:41:01 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner
On the “it’s all one front” front, here’s what’s happening down near Donetsk. Russian forces engaged in small scale assaults against Ukrainian troops in a number of towns, with the biggest push apparently along the highway to Pervomaiske. None of these attacks was successful.
Russia launched multiple attacks out of Donetsk on Friday. None appear to have any success.
On this date three years ago, a man walked into Hubei Provincial Hospital in Wuhan, China, reporting flu-like symptoms. Within two weeks, there were 27 cases showing similar symptoms. Then, just four days before the end of the year, the head of the hospital’s respiratory department, Dr. Zhang Jixian, made a report to state health officials that the cases were caused by “a novel coronavirus.” At that point, the number of known infections was approaching 180.
Dec.
As Russia began positioning forces for an unprovoked invasion of Ukraine at the end of 2021, oil speculators did what oil speculators do in every potentially difficult situation: They drove oil future prices up. A week before the invasion began on Feb. 24, 2022, prices for West Texas crude had already been elevated by $20 a barrel to over $90.
UPDATE: Thursday, Dec 1, 2022 · 8:07:55 PM +00:00
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Mark Sumner
Christmas is coming. Don’t forget to set aside some cash for the guys who make life tolerable — and are more important to your day-to-day life than every athlete, celebrity, and social media influencer in existence.
City workers in frontline #Bakhmut continuing to collect garbage even under shelling. https://t.
OnX is an app that’s intended to help hunters find public land so they can go after deer, elk, or whatever they happen to be hunting. At first glance, that may not seem like news, but users of that app get an invaluable view of just who owns the property around them, which is critical when trying to reach public lands where hunting is legal.
UPDATE: Wednesday, Nov 30, 2022 · 10:05:21 PM +00:00
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Mark Sumner
There are reports in the last few hours that Russia has managed to capture both Kurdyumivka and Ozarianivka south of Bakhmut.
Bakhmut Area. Open in another tab for a closer look.
If confirmed, this would be a significant advance for Russia.
When people hear the term “hypothermia,” they tend to picture travelers trapped in endless snowdrifts, or huddling on some high ridge of a mountain whipped by raging gales. But it doesn’t take extreme conditions to put people into extreme duress.
UPDATE: Saturday, Nov 26, 2022 · 6:18:32 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner
This footage shows at least two Russian BMPs with infantry trying to storm Kamyanke near Avdiivka from Novoselivka Druha. But the whole unit gets wiped out in a matter of minutes, leaving both BMPs destroyed in the ditch. #Avdiivka #Donetsk #Ukraine https://t.co/K8w857Yjt7 pic.twitter.
The very first episode of the latest Star Trek series, Strange New Worlds, does something extremely clever. In the midst of one of those bog-standard Star Trek speeches, as the captain of this particular Enterprise is talking down an alien culture from the brink of disaster, he explains to them why the Federation is the way that it is.
Rev. Rob Schenck has written a letter to Chief Justice John Roberts informing him that Justice Samuel Alito leaked the outcome of a critical 2014 Supreme Court ruling that gifted corporations with religious rights and allowed them to deny health care to employees. The revelation of Alito’s leak in that case adds weight to the likelihood that he also leaked the draft text of the decision destroying the right to abortion under Roe v. Wade.
UPDATE: Saturday, Nov 19, 2022 · 9:44:45 PM +00:00
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Mark Sumner
Bakhmut. When I say heavy shelling, this is what I mean. pic.twitter.com/A0FFHQuMne— Andrew Perpetua (@AndrewPerpetua) November 19, 2022
UPDATE: Saturday, Nov 19, 2022 · 7:59:25 PM +00:00
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Mark Sumner
A quick update on where things reportedly stand in the Svatove area.
UPDATE: Saturday, Nov 12, 2022 · 8:43:21 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner
A lot of that Russian equipment at Chornobaivka, apparently never left Chornobaivka.
Chornobaivka, Russian leftovers pic.twitter.com/FjnXOKCoMt— Special Kherson Cat 🐈🇺🇦 (@bayraktar_1love) November 12, 2022
UPDATE: Saturday, Nov 12, 2022 · 7:32:27 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner
Sad news on this otherwise joyous day.
UPDATE: Friday, Nov 11, 2022 · 8:12:34 PM +00:00
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Mark Sumner
Here’s a highlight for the captured equipment reel.
“Some capture tanks – but we focus more on helicopters!” Hey, @MoD_Russia! You forgot something! #RussianArmy #RussiaIsLosing pic.twitter.
UPDATE: Friday, Nov 11, 2022 · 7:40:04 AM +00:00
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Mark Sumner
Borozens’ke, Kherson region. Liberation 🥰 pic.twitter.
UPDATE: Thursday, Nov 10, 2022 · 12:58:59 AM +00:00
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Mark Sumner
NEW – Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, estimates well over 100,000 Russian soldiers killed and wounded in Ukraine conflict, says “probably” the same on the Ukrainian side. Speaking now.
It can definitely be confusing trying to keep up with all the various ways that Donald Trump is in legal trouble. There’s the investigation in Georgia looking into intimidation of state officials and selection of false electors. There’s the investigation in New York that’s focused primarily on the Trump Organization’s tax fraud schemes.
You’re getting something a little different this morning. We’ll catch up with events on the ground through updates, and if there is a big change along one of the fronts today, there will be a second Ukraine update, so that this one doesn’t smack up against the limit on how long a single story can be (yes, there is one).
According to the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, 840 Russians died in combat on November 3. They took with them 16 tanks, 28 armored vehicles, and 17 artillery pieces. It’s an absolutely astounding tally for a single day’s combat. Only a day earlier, they recorded 730 deaths, 20 tanks, 27 vehicles, and 22 big guns.
Tell me if you’ve heard this story before. On Thursday morning in Ukraine, there are claims that Russia is packing up to leave the right bank (west side) of the Dnipro River in Kherson Oblast, including the city of Kherson. On both Telegram and Twitter, there are reports that the majority of Russian forces have already been shifted to the opposite bank.
On Wednesday evening at 7PM ET, President Joe Biden is set to deliver a speech on the continuing threat to American democracy. Excerpts from the speech have already been released, showing that Biden will warn against candidates for office who have already committed to thwarting the outcomes of democratic elections. Biden will reportedly make the speech from the DNC, not the White House.
Overnight, the news out of the area around Svatove was decidedly … weird. While Russian sources appeared in a near panic about new Ukrainian advances and seemed ready to write off the whole area, one of the most trusted Ukrainian sources was reporting an advance by Russian forces that caused Ukrainian troops to withdraw from two key towns. All of that might have been easier to sort out if the reports had not been for the exact same area.
On Halloween, Russia lost three helicopters. Minimum. That included an Mi-8 transport helicopter shot down near Berestove, close to the Bakhmut front lines and a pair of Ka-52 attack helicopters that came too near Ukrainian positions in Kherson oblast. In addition, a widely-circulated video reportedly shows a Russian dissident sabotaging Russian helicopters at Veretye Air Base inside Russia on October 30. At that air base, three helicopters were reportedly lost on Monday.
Spoiler alert: The committee went right ahead and read them.
Last week, a federal judge ordered former Trump attorney John Eastman to turn over a series of documents in response to a subpoena from the House select committee investigating Jan. 6. Eastman did so, coming in just under the wire on Sunday afternoon.
On Friday night, Ukraine launched an attack on the Crimean port of Sevastopol. Russian sources have reported that this attack included at least nine UAVs (drones) and seven UMV (automated boats). Ukrainian sources have called these claims ridiculous. But however it was achieved, there are reports of damage to a number of Russian naval vessels, including the Frigate Admiral Makarov.
UPDATE: Friday, Oct 28, 2022 · 9:00:54 PM +00:00
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Mark Sumner
Depape had more than one blog page.
Posts on one of David Wayne Depape’s blogs show he was into QAnon conspiracy theories like Hilary Clinton eating babies and adrenchrome, as well as many conspiracy theories about Jewish people, black people and the Ukraine war. Some of them are so extreme I can’t really share. pic.twitter.
It may be the oldest story in warfare. It’s certainly among the oldest that anyone ever bothered to record in songs, poems, or prose. Someone holds control over a city. Someone else wants it. Now what?
For a few days last week, hope was so thick you could practically walk on it. When word came of evacuations in Kherson, it really did look as if Russia meant to not just move out its officials and quislings, but its military.
The chief judge of the District Court in Washington, D.C., is considering making documents concerning Donald Trump’s connections to Jan. 6 open to the public. In this case, the documents relate to how Trump has attempted to prevent former advisors and staff members from testifying before a grand jury hearing evidence related to Jan. 6.
When it comes to Trump and court battles, it can be difficult to keep up.