TheOldGuy @TheOldGuy@qoto.org
I am a Democrat who supports Ukraine in their battle against The Russian Z fascist invaders.
I am a 73 year old Covid hermit who
lives on 10 acres in a sparsely populated area of the Ozarks. I heat with wood that is leftover by the lumber industry. When cutting oak for lumber only the trunk is used.
The largest town is population 2992. The county is 13k people scattered over 713 square miles.
Joined Dec 2022
The attacks on russian distilleries in the Tula and Tambov regions have caused much irony, but there is a strategic goal behind them.
Aviation expert Anatoly Khrapchinsky explains the important role of alcohol in aviation.
The targeted strikes by the Ukrainian Defense Forces on distilleries directly affect the activity of russian tactical aviation, which uses Crimean airfields to attack Ukrainian cities.
Destruction of distillery products can significantly limit the frequency of sorties and the effectiveness of air strikes, especially during the winter period.
🤝 Special thanks to UJ member Kelly for translation.
@ukrainejournal
Concerns Grow Over Potential Biological Weapons Production Near moscow
According to The Washington Post, russia may resume producing biological weapons that pose significant risks to humanity near moscow. Satellite images reveal unusual activity at a closed facility northeast of the city, showing construction equipment renovating the old laboratory and laying the foundations for ten new buildings.
This construction at Sergiy Posad-6 is under the watchful eye of American intelligence and bioweapons experts due to rising concerns about moscow's intentions.
@ukrainejournal
The in T shirt for the month
https://www.ebay.com/itm/356187307933
The President of Georgia, Salome Zurabishvili, refused to recognize the results of the parliamentary elections in the country
Zurabishvili noted that "Russian elections" were held in Georgia and announced an opposition rally to be held on October 28 at 7:00 p.m. Previously, the opposition parties and coalitions also did not recognize the results of the parliamentary elections
Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili has called on citizens to take to the streets in protest, saying the ruling party used widespread fraud to win Saturday’s nationwide election.
In a speech alongside opposition leaders on Sunday, she said: “I do not accept this election. It cannot be accepted, accepting it would be accepting Russia into this country, the acceptance of Georgia’s subordination to Russia,” she said, inviting supporters to gather outside the country’s parliament at 7.00 p.m. on Monday to oppose the result, which she said had been rigged.
“We became witnesses and victims of a Russia special operation,” added Zourabichvili, who has become one of the most prominent critics of the ruling Georgian Dream party. “They stole our right to choice, they carried out a Russian election.”
Opposition parties cried foul after preliminary results showed a lead for the ruling Georgian Dream party, which took 53 percent of the vote compared the opposition bloc’s 38 percent.
The opposition Coalition for Change said their MPs would not take up their parliamentary mandates because the election results were rigged.
Violence erupted at multiple polling stations in Georgia on Saturday as voters cast their ballots. Observer organizations, such as the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), reported concerns over vote-buying, “imbalances in financial resources, a divisive campaign atmosphere, and recent legislative amendments.”
The National Democratic Institute’s international observer mission noted that the pre-election period was compromised by widespread threats, harassment and in some cases violence, affecting voters, activists and political actors.
The election is widely regarded as a pivotal for Georgia’s prospects of joining the European Union. Critics have slammed the government’s increasingly authoritarian trajectory and close ties with Russia.
Georgia’s EU membership prospects were stalled after the Georgian government adopted a controversial Russian-style “foreign agents” law, despite warnings that it could jeopardize Georgia’s bid to join the bloc.
In the lead-up to the election, the ruling party had also pledged to ban virtually all opposition parties, and has passed a string of Russian-style laws branding Western-backed human rights groups and media outlets as ‘foreign agents'.
A joint statement declaring the vote was “neither free nor fair” was signed by more than a dozen European and Canadian politicians, including the chairs of parliamentary foreign affairs committees in Germany, Lithuania, Ireland and Ukraine. “Against this background, the European Union cannot recognise the result,” it reads.
However, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán moved to quickly congratulate Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze and the Georgian Dream party “on their overwhelming victory at the parliamentary elections.” Orbán will visit Tbilisi on Oct. 28, the Georgian government announced, in a move likely to rile follow EU leaders.
European Council President Charles Michel decried the alleged intimidation and interference, and said “these alleged irregularities must be seriously clarified and addressed.”
“What a disgrace,” wrote Latvian Foreign Minister Baiba Braže on X, commenting on the reports from the OSCE. “I applaud the Georgian people who came out to vote en masse despite intimidation. Their wish for a European future must be respected by any Georgian government,” Braže said.
Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna also expressed his concerns over “reports of irregularities,” writing on X: “Closely following the evaluations of international & local observers.”
Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen says EU countries need to exceed the 2% of GDP NATO military spending goal to deter Russia: “It’s time to grow up. Putin is a dictator, who only understands the language of power.”
In an interview with German media, Ms. Valtonen also mentioned that Russia is waging a hybrid war in Europe already, with France and Germany as its main targets, and cautioned against falling into the trap of the Kremlin’s disinformation: “If anyone thinks that war can be stopped by halting arms deliveries to Ukraine, I can only say one thing: this will not lead to the end of the war, it can only lead to the end of Ukraine.”
Continued (2/2)
Our role has been pivotal because — as President Zelensky has told me more than once — without Britain there might not have been a still largely free Ukraine today. We cajoled, led by example and embarrassed other nations into joining us.
This is the existential test for the West. We said it was unacceptable for democratic Ukraine to be invaded by a larger autocratic neighbour. We pledged support, introduced sanctions and provided weapons and training. Our intelligence reveals that few pay greater attention than the administration in Beijing.
Make no mistake: China and other authoritarian states want us to fail. Such countries show little regard for democracy or the rights of their own citizens. Their purpose is to change the world order to benefit their own totalitarian regimes. Yet the West doesn’t appear as unsettled as it should be.
If we now fail to do everything that is required to ensure Putin loses, then we will suffer the consequences not only here in Europe, but in the Indo-Pacific and the wider world.
The cost of allowing the use of our weapons, even inside Russia if Putin attacks from there, would be minimal compared with the consequences of Putin winning — and thereby allowing others to believe that you can time out the West’s interest. Now is therefore the time not only to provide long-range permission for our Storm Shadow missiles but to do so without awaiting a decision from Washington. That was the approach I took last year in Crimea — it worked then and it will work again now.
We should go further by doubling our defence support to Ukraine, despite the expense of restocking ammunition, while challenging the rest of Nato and other civilised countries to follow.
The cost is nothing compared with the potentially ruinous impact of a full-scale conflict between China and Taiwan.
The most cost-effective way to persuade the Chinese leadership to stand down is through peaceful political discussion and by ensuring that when the West says force will not prevail, we don’t just mean until we grow bored with supporting freedom.
Redoubling our support for Ukraine today would not only be doing the right thing but would also make an invasion of Taiwan much less likely, thereby protecting us from a recession or even depression.
Our work in the National Security Council led us to estimate the eye-watering cost of a Taiwanese blockade that lasted for, say, six months. But you don’t need me to spell out this cost because, thanks to open-source intelligence, you can find an estimate in a few clicks. I suggest that this time we act on that Osint.
If we let Ukraine fall, Taiwan’s next — then we really will be at war - Grant Shapps, Former Secretary of State for Defence of the United Kingdom
Each day as defence secretary I would review top secret briefings. These highly classified documents, some of which are only otherwise shared with the prime minister, contained the latest intelligence from our global analysts, military strategists and foreign policy advisers.
The quality of British intelligence is outstanding. I read these papers with considerable interest, frequently calling for more information, sometimes summoning an intelligence officer to elaborate on a specific point, perhaps to better appreciate how much weight to attach to a particular nugget of information.
We get our intelligence from a variety of sources. Each has its own acronym. There’s signals intelligence (or Sigint) — data collected by intercepting communications. Human intelligence (or Humint) is the approach often taken by Bond and Smiley in your favourite spy novels. And then there’s open-source intelligence (or Osint). This is intelligence gathered from publicly available sources like newspapers, social media, academic papers and speeches.
There are many others, but if I had to rely on just one, it would definitely be the last. Why? Because historically it has proved incredibly reliable.
Need 14 years’ notice of Hitler’s desire to invade the rest of Europe? No problem: he openly set out his plans in Mein Kampf, published in 1925. That’s classic Osint.
Looking for a heads-up a year before Vladimir Putin’s full-scale Ukraine invasion? Easy: read the dictator’s 2021 essay in which he asserts that Ukraine is an inseparable part of Russia. A black-and-white example of Osint, in case you missed his earlier invasion of Crimea.
Or perhaps you want to understand China’s plan to take over Taiwan. Simple. The People’s Republic of China has made its position clear hundreds of times with speeches, documents and policy declarations in which President Xi has made “reunification” a central tenet of his leadership. Unsurprisingly, democratic Taiwan is deeply uneasy about being absorbed by its giant authoritarian neighbour.
And yet, despite this mass of available intelligence, the world is somehow failing to grasp the importance of this coming Indo-Pacific war. If you are wondering whether a conflict on a small island 6,000 miles away matters to you, and thinking Britain should not get involved, that is a monumental mistake. Sadly not everyone gets the privilege of booting out their government when things aren’t working.
Avoiding a physical conflict between China and Taiwan is not just about defending principles of freedom and democracy; it is also about the global economic impact. A Chinese blockade of Taiwan would create a worldwide shortage of the semiconductors that power everyday essentials like smartphones, laptops, washing machines and your car. Inflation would soar; jobs would be cut. The world could be thrown into a deep recession, costing trillions and disrupting sectors from technology to defence — probably dwarfing the financial toll of Covid and the war in Ukraine combined.
It is clearly in the world’s interest that Taiwan is not blockaded. Fortunately, we have the opportunity to send a clear message to the Chinese leadership that subjugating the neighbouring democracy by force will never be acceptable. We must send this message by acting much closer to home, here in Europe.
Nearly 1,000 days ago, after that clear open-source signalling, Putin marched on Kyiv. He hoped to wrap up his control in a few days. Yet brave Ukrainians were not prepared to see their democracy crushed by their large neighbour.
Britain was the first of Ukraine’s allies to rise to the challenge, delivering weapons, training and intelligence to help resist Putin’s illegal war. Time and again — whether through the supply of tanks or long-range missiles — we helped ensure that this tyrant must be confronted, never appeased.
Continues (1/2)
🇬🇪In Georgia, opposition MPs from the “Coalition for Change” have renounced their seats, announced coalition member Nana Malashkhia.
“We collectively declare that these elections are fraudulent and the results illegitimate. We will not legitimize the stolen votes of the Georgian people and are renouncing our parliamentary seats,” Malashkhia stated.
According to Georgia’s Central Election Commission, the “Coalition for Change” secured 11% of the vote, equating to around 20 seats in the new parliament. Meanwhile, the ruling “Georgian Dream” party holds 53.9%, though independent exit polls indicated no more than 42% support for them.
🪐 Subscribe to Live: Ukraine
Soldiers of the 95th brigade liquidated the entire navigator group of the ruzzian 155th brigade of marines and the special unit "Akhmat" who were preparing to seize Ukrainian positions in the Kursk region of russia.
Everyone was killed, only two sheep herders decided to surrender.
❗️Earlier, bastards from this brigade beheaded a Ukrainian prisoner. They are believed to have executed at least 9 Ukrainian POWs.
This killing of Ukrainian POWs comes back to haunt them.
"Kamala Harris Serves Satan": Putin's Propagandist Dugin "Reveals" the Reason for the US Presidential Candidate's Infectious Laughter
"She is not a woman. She is a post-human entity from the race of Gog and Magog," wrote the crazy "philosopher" on X, quoting the excommunicated former Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, Bishop Viganò.
Whatever Dugin takes for mental stability, he needs much stronger things.
It does seem like the ruzzians don't like Kamala Harris for some reason and are trying to discredit her. Maybe Putin would prefer the other candidate to win the US Presidential elections?
🟡🔥 Epic footage of the unsuccessful attempt by Russians to storm Ukrainian positions in a passenger car
Kind of makes you wonder if any of their officers even has an 80 IQ
At some point in the coming weeks contractors will start laying down a €2.3 billion line of fortifications, arms depots and reconnaissance posts along Poland’s eastern frontiers.
The border with Belarus is already bristling with steel fence posts erected to deter “weaponised” migration. A few hundred miles away to the northeast, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania are building bunkers and tank traps of their own.
For President Duda of Poland, this thousand-mile wall of metal and concrete is nothing less than a second Iron Curtain that the West’s borderlands have been forced to devise as protection against the insatiable imperialist designs of Russia.
“Some politicians in the West look at this with horror,” Duda, 52, told The Sunday Times in an interview at his presidential palace.
“The last thing they want to see is the Iron Curtain being rebuilt. I will say this: if the security of my compatriots is to be safeguarded by the Iron Curtain being put up again, then OK, there will be an Iron Curtain as long as we are on the free side of it.”
🇺🇦@ukraine_report 🇺🇦 Admin Team 🔱
The Bulwark will stream tonight from Madison Square Garden.
https://open.substack.com/pub/thebulwark/p/join-us-tonight-from-madison-square?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=70k1h
Israeli strike cripples Iran's missile production, knocking out a key component of Iran's ballistic missile program. Recovery could take at least a year, Axios
Israel is also reported to have damaged UAV production in Iran.
The attacks on the air defenses caused “deep alarm” in Iran, The New York Times reported citing three unnamed Iranian officials — one from the country’s oil ministry — since it rendered defenseless Khuzestan Province’s Abadan oil refinery, Bandar Imam Khomeini petrochemical complex and an adjacent major port, as well as the Tange Bijar gas field in the Ilam Province.
Further information on this :
https://www.timesofisrael.com/iran-said-alarmed-as-idf-cripples-its-missile-production-disables-key-air-defenses/
🇺🇦@ukraine_report 🇺🇦🔱
Is Russia building up to an invasion of Poland? What a mistake that would be.
"Poles have captured the Kursk region" - Russians are told on Russian TV.
"Polish AFU mercenaries occupied the houses of the residents of Sudzha, and those residents who stayed were hanged right under the bridge and shot."
Russian propagandists are switching to Poland?
Gerashchenko.
🇺🇦@ukraine_report 🇺🇦 Liz
On 24 October 1956, Soviet russia began “liberating” Hungary.
The Hungarian people sought freedom from Soviet oppression. Moscow claimed it was a “fascist revolution financed by the imperialist West.”
Inspired by anti-Soviet demonstrations in Poland on October 19, Hungary began protesting on October 23, tearing down an 8-meter-high, nearly 6-ton statue of Stalin on the edge of Budapest’s City Park. Only the boots remained.
Protests continued. On October 25, the Soviets and the secret police opened fire on roughly 6,000 peaceful demonstrators in Kossuth Square. The number of casualties is estimated to be close to 1,000.
But the protests persisted. The Hungarian government eventually had to concede. A new government was formed, and the prime minister ordered the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Hungary. This meant independence.
The Soviet government didn’t want to lose Hungary and decided to crush the revolution by military force. On November 2, 12 new military divisions arrived in Hungary in addition to the existing 5. The rebellion was crushed.
In the next three years, about 400 people were executed for participating in the revolution, more than 21,668 were imprisoned, and 18,000 were deported.
Since 1957, the October events were taught as a “fascist counter-revolution,” and many Hungarians still believe this propaganda today.
Hungary only regained independence when the Soviet Empire collapsed.
~ Soviet Union = russian Federation = same narrative
@ukrainejournal
I am a Democrat who supports Ukraine in their battle against The Russian Z fascist invaders.
I am a 73 year old Covid hermit who
lives on 10 acres in a sparsely populated area of the Ozarks. I heat with wood that is leftover by the lumber industry. When cutting oak for lumber only the trunk is used.
The largest town is population 2992. The county is 13k people scattered over 713 square miles.
Joined Dec 2022
TheOldGuy's choices:
