Day: October 13, 2022

Gabbard–Choose Your Candidate Wisely

This is a cautionary tale for anyone in search of a candidate to support.

In 2020 when the Dem candidate pool vying for the nomination was a crowded mess—-I threw my support behind Tulsi Gabbard simply because of her strong anti-war position.

Since she pulled out of the nomination process she has made a dark turn….at least in my opinion…..and now she is leaving the Dem Party….but no one is sure where she will go after that…..

Tulsi Gabbard is leaving the Democratic Party once and for all. Per ABC News, the former House rep from Hawaii and presidential candidate made her announcement via Twitter. “I can no longer remain in today’s Democratic Party that’s under the complete control of an elitist cabal of warmongers who are driven by cowardly wokeness, who divide us by racializing every issue and stoking anti-white racism,” she said. Gabbard also accused Democrats of being “hostile to people of faith,” adding that they “weaponize the national security state to go after their political opponents” and “are dragging us ever closer to nuclear war.” Gabbard also took the opportunity to announce the launch of her new YouTube podcast and a 28-minute inaugural episode entitled “Why I’m Leaving the Democratic Party.”

Gabbard did not announce whether she will join the GOP, but as ABC reporters note, she “touted a number of traditionally conservative talking points, repeating right-wing rhetoric like ‘wokeness’ and ‘elites’” in both her announcement and podcast. Such terms are often circulated among GOP leaders and hosts at Fox News, where Gabbard is a regular contributor. Per the Week, Gabbard guest-hosted an episode of Tucker Carlson Tonight following the FBI’s Mar-a-Lago search, which she said “has set our country on a dangerous course, and there’s no turning back.” Gabbard also has a history as an “anti-LGBTQ activist” and is outspoken supporter of what its detractors call Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law, according to Rolling Stone.

Gabbard’s apparent pro-Russia leanings have further isolated her from the Democratic Party. Per NBC News, Hillary Clinton said in 2020 (without mentioning Gabbard by name) that one Democratic presidential candidate was “a favorite of the Russians.” Earlier this year, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Gabbard’s tweet about supposed American-funded biolabs in Ukraine prompted Mitt Romney to accuse her of “parroting false Russian propaganda” that “may well cost lives,” according to Newsweek, which reported in July that Gabbard was included on a Ukrainian government list of Americans who promote Russian propaganda.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/10/11/tulsi-gabbard-announces-that-shes-leaving-the-democratic-party

Her critique of the Dems being warmongers is spot on…..but her other positions smack of homophobia, racism and other far right BS…..a critique of Gabbard’s decision….

https://www.comicsands.com/kenyatta-gabbard-leaving-democratic-party-2658440542.html

This all should make people looking for a candidate to research them well….

You may be supporting a candidate that you do not know.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

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Oh, That Bridge Too Far

By now all your armchair generals are thumping your chest over the damage to the bridge in Crimea….so far there is no factual evidence what actually happened….was it an accident? Did Ukrainian forces attack? Or were there some other forces at work?

It appears that plans were made in April for a similar operation…..

The Grayzone has obtained an April 2022 presentation drawn up for senior British intelligence officers hashing out an elaborate scheme to blow up Crimea’s Kerch Bridge with the involvement of specially trained Ukrainian soldiers. Almost six months after the plan was circulated, Kerch Bridge was attacked in an October 8th suicide bombing apparently overseen by Ukraine’s SBU intelligence services.

Detailed proposals for providing “audacious” support to Kiev’s “maritime raiding operations” were drafted at the request of Chris Donnelly, a senior British Army intelligence operative and veteran high ranking NATO advisor. The wide-ranging plan’s core component was “destruction of the bridge over the Kerch Strait.” 

Documents and correspondence plotting the operation were provided to The Grayzone by an anonymous source. 

The truck bombing of the Kerch Bridge differed operationally from the plot sketched therein. Yet, Britain’s evident interest in planning such an attack underscores the deep involvement of NATO powers in the Ukraine proxy war. At almost precisely the time that London reportedly sabotaged peace talks between Kiev and Moscow in April this year, British military intelligence operatives were drawing up blueprints to destroy a major Russian bridge crossed by thousands of civilians per day.

The roadmap was produced by Hugh Ward, a British military veteran. A number of strategies for helping Ukraine “pose a threat to Russian naval forces” in the Black Sea are outlined. The overriding objectives are stated as aiming to “degrade” Russia’s ability to blockade Kiev, “erode” Moscow’s “warfighting capability”,  and isolate Russian land and maritime forces in Crimea by “denying resupply by sea and overland via Kerch bridge.”

Read the complete blueprint: Support for Maritime Raiding

https://thegrayzone.com/2022/10/10/ukrainian-kerch-bridge/

I am no fan of anonymous sources….but these days that seems to be prevalent source for news.

It does sound like ‘small unit’ tactics…..take that for whatever you like….

We now have word that Russia has made some arrests……

Vladimir Putin seemed determined to find out who blew up a portion of the bridge connecting Crimea to Russia over the weekend, and on Wednesday, his FSB security service announced it had arrested eight individuals in connection with the blast. Officials say five of the arrestees were Russian, while the remaining three were either Ukrainian or Armenian, reports Al Jazeera. Twelve others were identified as accomplices, per Russia’s TASS news agency. The FSB is also still pinning the blame on Ukraine—specifically, Ukraine’s military intel service and its director—and claims the explosives used in the attack, said to have been stored in plastic film rolls, originated in Ukraine’s Odesa in August, then made their way to Russia via Bulgaria, Georgia, and Armenia.

The FSB alleges that attacks were also planned for Moscow and Bryansk, a Russian city about 240 miles southwest of the capital, but claims it staved off those attacks, per Reuters. A large section of the Crimean Bridge was destroyed in the Saturday explosion, as were multiple fuel tankers on a train that were headed for the annexed territory. Putin lashed out at Ukraine after the blast by ordering missile and drone strikes in cities across the nation. The latest apparent act of retaliation came Wednesday, when at least seven people were killed and eight injured in a strike at a crowded market in the eastern Ukrainian city of Avdiivka, the governor of Ukraine’s Donetsk region tells Reuters.

Despite widespread celebration across Ukraine over the bridge attack, a senior Ukrainian official is scoffing at accusations that his country was behind it. “All the activities of the FSB and [Russia’s] Investigative Committee are nonsense,” Andriy Yusov, a rep for the country’s defense intelligence agency, told Ukrainian media, per the BBC. “They are fake structures [that] serve the Putin regime, so we’re definitely not going to comment on their latest announcements.” On Wednesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov says Russia’s mission for its invasion of Ukraine remains “exactly the same” in the wake of the bridge explosion, noting, “These goals only become more relevant against the backdrop of the actions of the Ukrainian regime.”

How long will this news be fodder for the MSM?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”