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AoSHQ Writers Group
A site for members of the Horde to post their stories seeking beta readers, editing help, brainstorming, and story ideas. Also to share links to potential publishing outlets, writing help sites, and videos posting tips to get published.
Contact OrangeEnt for info: maildrop62 at proton dot me
On Sunday, the State Department issued a Security Alert urging American citizens to leave Russia by commercial means available:
An increasing number of airlines are cancelling flights into and out of Russia, and numerous countries have closed their airspace to Russian airlines. U.S. citizens should consider departing Russia immediately via commercial options still available. The U.S. Embassy reminds U.S. citizens that the Department of State's Travel Advisory level for Russia is at "Level 4: Do Not Travel."
This alert comes several days after Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and follows a January 23 Level 4 Travel Advisory encouraging Americans not to travel to Russia.
The Afghanistan snap decision bug-out caught thousands of Americans in-country by total surprise and to this day we still have no real idea how many may still be trapped there (as thousands of unvetted, unvaccinated, but no doubt fully Islamicized, Afghans continue to be air dropped all over America). However, in this instance, the saber rattling between Russia and Ukraine, as well as Biden's own mush-mouthed mispronunciations and threats have been going on for weeks. And yet they issue this warning now?!
During the best of times with competent leadership (i.e. non-Leftist), governmental bureaucracy is at best ponderous and illogical maybe only 50% of the time. And that's being extremely charitable. With crackpots, Marxists and other denizens of the Ivy League faculty lounge now at the controls, trying desperately to maneuver us out of a disaster of its own making, if you're unlucky enough to still be in Russia or Ukraine, you're shit out of luck.
When asked about Biden's "mental sharpness" to serve as president, 54 percent said they do not think Biden is mentally sharp enough, while only 40 percent said he is. When respondents were asked the same question in May 2020, when Biden was only a candidate, 51 percent said he had the "mental sharpness" needed to serve as president, while 43 percent said he did not.
President Vladimir Putin on Sunday ordered his military's nuclear deterrent forces to be on alert as Russia's invasion of Ukraine met increasing resistance as it enters its fourth day.
Putin told defense chiefs "high alert" status is imperative as the West was accused by Moscow of taking "unfriendly" steps against his country.
NBC News reports the move was in direct response to leading NATO powers making what he called "aggressive statements," according to Tass, the state-owned Russian news agency.
Putin, in giving the nuclear alert directive, cited not only the alleged statements by NATO members but the hard-hitting financial sanctions imposed by the West against Russia, including the Russian leader himself.
"Western countries aren't only taking unfriendly actions against our country in the economic sphere, but top officials from leading NATO members made aggressive statements regarding our country," Putin said in televised comments, AP reports.
I don't think Putin's getting into Gen. Jack Ripper territory, especially since the miscalculations, bumbling and total incompetence of Biden and the fools at Foggy Bottom sent him the signal to roll into Ukraine. Would he toss a nuke on someone if Russia is cut out of the SWIFT system? That would be kind of nuts, no? But perhaps all this talk is because maybe old Vlad bit off more than he could chew.
Putin rolled the dice of war and didn't beat Ukraine. This, in strategic terms, probably means he lost the campaign. In retrospect, the Kremlin's plan consisted of an airborne/airmobile/Spetsnaz descent on Kyiv, the mission of which was to establish an airhead in the capital and capture the Ukrainian government until relieved by mechanized forces racing in from the north. An airmobile assault was attempted at Gostomel to Kyiv's immediate north.
But things went badly wrong. The Russian battalion-sized airmobile force met stiff air defense and was immediately counterattacked by the Ukrainian mobile reserve. Unable to land follow-on forces, the paratroopers could not withstand heavy weapons and were scattered or wiped out. Equally serious for the Russians was the failure of their northern pincer to advance on schedule.
Desperate to "bag" the Ukrainian government, the Russians attempted a large-scale airborne assault for Vasylkiv Airfield to the south of Kyiv to establish a blocking position to catch withdrawing units. But this failed, with two C-17 counterpart IL-76s loaded with paratroops destroyed, and with them, two infantry companies of the Kremlin's finest. Crucially the Russian mechanized elements trickling into Kyiv proved too weak to break through the city defense.
When it was clear Zelensky, and hence the Ukrainian government, could not be bagged and was quite capable of retreating in good order to fallback positions in the West, it was obvious that Putin could not conclude the campaign with the political time and the military forces at hand. At this, the diplomatic floodgates opened, with even China urging a diplomatic solution, and much of the world, scared to death of a third world war, timidly then more forcefully chiming in. . .
. . . The crisis in Ukraine, while not over, is likely to evolve into a crisis in Russia. We shall soon see who is more to be feared: a Putin in Kyiv or a Putin raging in the bunker.
Fog of war indeed. Look, it is doubtless a tragedy that our reputation around the globe is in the shitter, along with our economy and our society right here at home. And the situation is certainly in doubt as to whether we can reclaim any of it in the near term. And it's also a tragedy that innocent people over there have to suffer because a maniac ex-KGB agent is bitter that his shitty, yet massive, country was essentially dismantled thanks to Ronald Reagan. Equally tragic that Reagan's successors (Trump notwithstanding) completely fucked up our hard won foreign policy leadership after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the victory in the Cold War. But whatever happens in Ukraine, not one US soldier's boot should be on the ground in that country. Not when this is going on right here.
Matthew Perna did nothing wrong on January 6, 2021. The Pennsylvania man walked through an open door on the Senate side of the building shortly before 3 p.m. that afternoon. Capitol police, shown in surveillance video, stood by as hundreds of Americans entered the Capitol. Wearing a "Make America Great Again" sweatshirt, Perna, 37, left after about 20 minutes.
Less than two weeks later, Perna was ensnared in what the former top U.S. prosecutor called a "shock and awe" campaign to round up Trump supporters and deter them from demonstrating at Joe Biden's inauguration on January 20, 2021. After he discovered his image on the FBI's most wanted list for January 6, Perna immediately contacted his local FBI office and voluntarily submitted to questioning; on January 18, six FBI agents arrested Perna at his home.
His life from that point turned into a nightmare. Perna was indicted by a grand jury in February 2021 on four counts including obstruction of an official proceeding and trespassing misdemeanors. Despite his nonviolent participation in the events of that day -- he did not assault anyone, carry a weapon, or vandalize property -- Biden's Justice Department and local news media nonetheless made his life pure hell.Whenever his hometown paper, the Sharon Herald, published an article on its social media account about Perna, the majority of replies were "horrible and brutal," his aunt, Geri Perna, told me on the phone Sunday. After more than a year of legal and public torture, Perna saw no way out.
On Friday night, Matthew Perna hung himself in his garage.
"They broke him, they mentally broke him," Geri said through racking sobs as she explained why her loved one ended his life. "He had run out of hope. I know he couldn't take it any more."
When something like this can happen in our own country, I'm not really all that interested in what's going on in Kyiv. And the same propaganda complex of the media and academia that can make people vent their hate at Russia is the same one that made them vent their hate of their fellow citizens and our country itself. And Psaki-Psircling back to Ronald Reagan, it was not that long ago when he was demonized as a senile warmonger even as Teddy Kennedy committed treason by secretly traveling to Moscow to assure Yuri Andropov (at one time Putin's ex-boss at the KGB before he was the premier du jour, IIRC) that he would sabotage SDI.
At his CPAC speech on Saturday, former President Donald Trump could not have been clearer in his denunciation of Vladimir Putin. "The Russian attack on Ukraine is appalling," said Trump. "it's an outrage and an atrocity that should never have been allowed to occur."
Yet the fact that Trump called Putin "smart" and "savvy" is, for the New York Times, prima facie evidence of his affection for Mother Russia. Indeed, the Times had the nerve to run a delusional op-ed on Sunday headlined, "How the American Right Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love Russia."
Earth to the New York Times: No one on the right is pulling for Putin. The Times is pushing this Russia-love narrative both to salvage some political gain from Biden's catastrophic foreign policy and to cover for its own historic indifference to the Ukrainian people.
The truth is that British and American conservatives have long cared about the Ukraine. Most still do. The international left, the New York Times in particular, cared more about the success of Josef Stalin's lethal policies than it did the millions of Ukrainians those policies killed.
The New York Times Moscow correspondent, Walter Duranty, admitted to being "pleased as punch" when Stalin announced his Five-Year Plan in the fall of 1928. Stalin, as Duranty observed in his well-titled book, I Write as I Please, was the world's "greatest living statesman." A pioneer in the art of fake news, Duranty saw signs of greatness in Stalin's plan "to socialize, virtually overnight, a hundred million of the stubbornest and most ignorant peasants in the world. . . "
. . . With the opening of the Soviet archives, scholars now know how Stalin did carry his plan through, During the years of the plan, 1928-1933, as many as five million Ukrainians and three million others died to show just how well communism worked. The story that Duranty missed -- or, more accurately, concealed -- is no longer a matter of speculation. It is a matter of fact. And the fact is that no single western journalist has so profoundly misreported a story as Walter Duranty of the New York Times, no mean feat given the Times Russia coverage of the last five years.
The Black Book of Communism notes, "Recent research in the newly accessible archives has confirmed that the forced collectivization of the countryside was in effect a war declared by the Soviet state on a nation of smallholders." As even recent history suggests, Ukrainians don't roll over easily. In March 1930 alone, there were more than 6500 mass demonstrations centering on the Ukraine and expanding outwards. In all of 1930, some 2.5 million peasants participated in the 14,000 revolts or riots that engulfed the countryside.
During a six-week period including March 1930, the Ukrainian GPU, the justice arm of the Soviet state, sentenced more than 20,000 people to death through its courts for resisting collectivization. Many others were executed without judicial niceties. Somehow, this all seems to have escaped the attention of Duranty. Much worse would escape him in the years ahead.
In 1930, the GPU got serious about deporting the kulaks and other "socially dangerous elements" like priests, nuns, shopkeepers, and rural artisans. By the end of 1930, 700,000 people had been shipped to the nether regions of the Soviet Union. By the end of 1931, that number had swollen to 1.8 million. Many, perhaps most, died en route. . .
. . . "The 'famine' is mostly bunk," Duranty wrote to a friend in June 1933. He used his and the Times' authority to feed the story to a progressive establishment that had already developed a taste for fake news. The Pulitzer Committee awarded him its top prize for news correspondence in 1932. In 1933, his disinformation persuaded newly elected President Franklin Roosevelt to recognize the Soviet Union.
The surprising 2019 film Mr. Jones does an excellent job showcasing both the Ukrainian horror and Jones's social life. Not surprisingly, Duranty was a Satanist and a world-class pervert. From the perspective of the contemporary media, he was simply a man ahead of his time.
Jack Cashill notes in his excellent essay something that I did not know; that there were mass protests of the kulaks against the collectivization which naturally caused Stalin to massively crackdown on them. Sound vaguely familiar? Freedom convoy *cough!* J-6 *cough-cough* Holodomar my beer.
In that light, here's a little ditty from Sting that at the time had everyone misty-eyed as well as stoking the fires of moral equivalency. Long distance def dedication to all you assholes who will disavow they ever liked this song.
Lloyd Billingsley: "DHS and the FBI have no leads in the murder of whistleblower Philip Haney." Department of Homicide Security?
"Biden's 'Commission on the Court' quietly sets the terms for the next power grab." The Court-Packing Coup
"Ubiquitous digital media offer potent rewards -- but at the price of eroding our sensory and social capacities." The Medium Is the Menace
Victor Davis Hanson: "To retain our deterrence abroad, we must tighten our belts at home, pump oil and gas, start to balance our budget, junk wokeism as a nihilist indulgence, and recalibrate our military." (and purge everyone everywhere in and out of government to the left of Calvin Coolidge - jjs) The Crowded Road to Kyiv
Michael Walsh: "Amazing what happens when reality bites. The small stuff, the transient concerns, the self-indulgence in lunacy and cultural suicide suddenly slips away, revealing bedrock truths beneath." "Events, Dear Boy, Events"
BIDEN-CREATED WAG-THE-DOG UKRAINE CRISIS
"NBC News reports the move was in direct response to leading NATO powers making what he called 'aggressive statements,' according to Tass, the state-owned Russian news agency. Russia, like the United States, has thousands of nuclear warheads that it maintains as a deterrent to an attack." "High Alert" -- Vladimir Putin Warns of Nuclear Deterrent Readiness as Ukraine Tensions Rise
"Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday ordered his country’s nuclear weapons to be prepared for heightened readiness to launch because of what he described as 'aggressive statements' by Western adversaries, stoking fears of the possibility of nuclear war. Putin's order comes as Ukraine's outgunned and outnumbered forces have put up a fierce defense across the country, repelling the Russian offensive launched last Wednesday." Kyiv Holds for Another Night Ahead of Talks Between Ukraine and Russian Delegates
Richard Fernandez: "Ukraine has not won, not in the military sense. It has lost territory, suffered significant losses to soldiers and civilians, and endured massive property damage. But crucially, it has not lost -- and that may be enough. Attention is now turning to the possible danger that may attend Putin's fall. While he appears to remain firmly in power, the ex-chekist (member of the original Soviet secret police) cannot but be weakened by the massive failure of his gamble." Putin's Failure
"After speaking with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, Zelensky announced a meeting would occur 'without preconditions' on the Ukrainian-Belarusian border to discuss Russia's invasion of Ukraine. "
"We only remain in NATO and have involved ourselves in the current Ukraine mess because of our quixotic goal of remaining the sole superpower, which is rather ironically making us weaker." Russian Roulette in Ukraine
"He's increasingly unhinged in the way that he talks about the regime. Just yesterday, talking about Zelensky being a neo-Nazi -- let's remind everybody watching, he's Jewish -- and a drug addict. That doesn't sound like somebody that's going to sit down and negotiate a peaceful outcome." Former Russian Amb: Putin "Increasingly Unhinged" in Speaking of "The Regime"
Claudia Rosett: "It's far more compelling right now to muster respect for the late-night comedian turned courageous president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, risking his life in his country's defense, than to trust the career politician turned [so-called quote-unquote "president"] of America, now week-ending in Delaware, having urged us all to wait a month to see what sanctions can do." Ukraine in the Colosseum
"It is heartening to see the great attachment to country and bravery of the Ukrainian military, political, and civilian forces." Ukraine to Putin: Never Again
"Democrats are using this conflict to escape blame for their policies, which are ruining the American economy." Is Biden Colluding with Putin?
"The elite rhetoric about 'democracy' is just a ploy to dupe middle Americans into accepting permanent leftist rule." The Fantasy of Anti-Democratic Threats
"Whatever the case, the willingness to suspend peaceful citizens' liberties so harshly demonstrates the autocratic impulses of the ruling party." Canada: Fascist or Communist?
"CDC recommends males ages 12- to 39-years-old wait eight weeks between the first and second doses of Pfizer's and Moderna's vaccines to 'decrease the small, but potential risk of myocarditis.'" CDC Quietly Revises Booster Recommendations for Young Men
"REVIEW: Unmasked: The Global Failure of [Chinese] COVID Mask Mandates. Hubris Exposed
"Very curious. . . Mr. Worobey sounds far more certain of his conclusions than any of the dozens of scientists and researchers who have been looking at this mystery for years -- and that includes scientists on both sides of the debate." New Studies Point to the Wuhan Market, Not Lab, as Origin Point for Pandemic
"Sarah Bloom Raskin, the wife of outspoken climate change hawk Rep. Jamie Raskin (D., Md.), is up for the role of vice chair for supervision at the Fed, a position created in the aftermath of the Great Recession as part of the Dodd-Frank Act. Raskin's past work indicates she believes fighting climate change should be in the purview of the Fed. Her confirmation would potentially provide opportunities for the Fed to circumvent Congress and force financial institutions to implement sweeping climate change-related reforms." How Biden's Fed Nominee Could Transform Central Banking to Fit the Left's Climate Agenda
"The Coalition for TJ, a parent group for students at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in March sued the Fairfax County School Board after they adopted admissions standards that intentionally reduced Asian-American admittance by 43 percent. Judge Claude Hilton of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Alexandria Division ruled against the district." Federal Judge Rules Virginia School's Race-Driven Admissions Policies Unconstitutional
"The highest-ranked high school in the nation will no longer select students based on academic merit." Don't Go to the Head of the Class
"The best part of his suit is that he is demanding damages from the actual individuals who defamed him, not just the university itself. People who nonchalantly slander others for the purpose of destroying them must be made to realize that this bad behavior will only result in their own destruction. Only then will these blacklisting tactics cease. Kudos to Manco for fighting back." Pushback: Professor Fired for Having an Opinion Sues University
"Americans want, and should be able to find, a great liberal arts education and an education in entrepreneurship and leadership, mastering practical issues regarding business creation and building." Crisis of Higher Education's Old Order
OTHER DEMOCRAT, LEFTIST AND RINO SCANDALS, MESHUGAS, CHUTZPOCRISY
"[Cuomo hench-hag Kathy] Hochul spoke alongside New York City mayor Eric Adams (D.), Delaware governor John Carney (D.), and two Chinese diplomats at the China General Chamber of Commerce's annual gala. The trade group represents the U.S.-based arms of several Chinese state-owned corporations, including more than a dozen that have been sanctioned for helping the Chinese military and aiding Beijing's human rights abuses." New York's Governor Boosts Chinese Companies Under US Sanctions
SUPREME COURT VACANCY
David Horowitz: "A Black Lives Matter director and zealot is now going to be a consultant to help Joe Biden select a black woman for the Supreme Court. That's not a good sign." Black Lives Matter's True Colors
"Trump called on voters to send the Democrats to 'political oblivion, so that they can never do what they have done, again.' Standing ovation." Trump Hits Grand Slam at CPAC
Miranda Devine: "Donald Trump gave his strongest hint yet at a speech to CPAC conservatives Saturday that he plans to run for president in 2024. 'We did it twice, and we'll do it again,' Trump said. 'We're going to be doing it again, a third time.'" It's Lady and the Trump for 2024 Presidential Election
"The poll, which was released only days before the president is slated to give the State of the Union address, showed a majority believe Biden is unfit to serve as president while also revealing the lowest job approval rating (37 percent) from the Washington Post/ABC News poll since becoming president just over a year ago." Poll: Strong Majority Now Think Joe Biden Is Mentally Unfit to Serve
Thad McCotter: "Politically, they have little choice but for their disparate factions to come together, stick with their progressive agenda, recast their communications, and hope to cut their losses." The Democrat Party: A Short-Term Prognosis
"The unions' increased involvement in Republican Party politics follows the state legislature's ban on approaches to teaching that suggest that 'an individual should feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress on account of the individual's race or sex.'" Texas Teachers Unions Spend Big In Republican Primaries For State Legislature
FIRST AMENDMENT ISSUES, CENSORSHIP, FAKE NEWS, MEDIA, BIG BROTHER TECH
"The international left, the New York Times in particular, cared more about the success of Josef Stalin's lethal policies than it did the millions of Ukrainians those policies killed." The New York Times Hasn't Always Cared About Ukrainians
"Chris Licht, formerly of Morning Joe and CBS This Morning, and now the person in charge of kThe Late Show with Stephen Colbert, has been named to succeed Jeff Zucker. Licht has been hired for one purpose: to bring CNN back to ratings credibility. To do that, it appears he's going to cause a lot of liberal heads to explode in the process." (pfft, considering his pedigree, don't bet on it - jjs) Report: New XiNN Chief Will "Dial Down" Rabid Democrat Partisanship
"Berlin needs to let Vladimir Putin know that it can resist his gas supplies and that it is willing to pay more for NATO's military defense." Stand Up, Germany
"While Putin flexes his geo-political muscle in Ukraine, China must be made to understand that the same will not be permitted where Taiwan is concerned. Unanswered, this nuclear and biologically weaponized power couple represents a new and potentially ominous threat to the U.S. and all western democracies." New Sino-Russian Pact Threatens U.S.
"Aeba explained to me that the first priorities of the JCU are to gain true independence for the country of Japan and spread prosperity. The JCU also seeks to spread that prosperity throughout Asia and the whole world. Japanese conservatives seek to build a movement that expands prosperity in much the same way that American conservatives do." Japanese Conservatives Fight for Liberty in the Land of the Rising Sun
DEFENSE, MILITARY, SECURITY AFFAIRS
"Tensions between Russia and the West escalated on Saturday as the United States and its allies moved to block some Russian banks from the SWIFT international payment system and placed curbs on the Russian central bank's international reserves." US Banks Prepare for Cyber Attacks After Latest Russia Sanctions
"A progressive mayoral administration that is more concerned about enforcing severe vaccine and mask mandates than controlling the rampant violent crime in New Orleans." The Nero of New Orleans
"Thanks to the [so-called quote-unquote "president's"] failed 'green' policies. Putin is in a strong position to withstand sanctions." Joe Biden, Putin's Green Patsy
"There's another irony here, in that billions have been earmarked for the creation of new roads, but climate alarmists don't want new roads, because new roads means more cars, which means more emissions. That's the inducement effect in action. This is always how it works. Government tries to solve one problem and creates new ones that make everyone angrier -- and spending our money to do it." 'Climate Change" Pork Coming to a Roadway Near You
FEMINAZISM, TRANSGENDER PSYCHOSIS, HOMOSEXUALIZATION, WAR ON MASCULINITY/NORMALCY
"Genital mutilation of a child through reassignment surgery is child abuse, subject to all rules and procedures pertaining to child abuse. Such mutilation may cause a 'genuine threat of substantial harm from physical injury to the child' [according to Texas law]." Texas to Potentially Prosecute "Sex Change" Surgeries on Minors as Child Abuse
"It's so impressive that so many black soldiers played a role in the founding of our country, but it's also sad that our kids and students don't get enough of an opportunity to learn about them." The Amazing Black History I Learned at CPAC
"Vulture capitalism is a deviant and baseless form of capitalism, totally without virtue. In this fictional account of a debate between [Nazi collaborator] George Soros and the author, we see why." The Problems of Vulture Capitalism
Roger Kimball: "There seems to be some deep connection between the English language and that most uncommon virtue, common sense." "This Happy Breed of Men"
NOTE: The opinions expressed in the links may or may not reflect my own. I include them because of their relevance to the discussion of a particular issue.
ALSO: The Morning Report is cross-posted at CutJibNewsletter.com if you want to continue the conversation all day.