TheOldGuy @TheOldGuy@qoto.org
I am a Democrat who supports Ukraine in their battle against The Russian 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 2993. The county is 13k people scattered over 713 square miles.
Joined Dec 2022
"I am Moses". So claims Mike Johnson.
The current trajectory of the GOP
https://www.palmerreport.com/analysis/whats-really-going-on-with-the-gop/53497/
Latest statement from the IDF:
"We launched a rapid, powerful, and focused operation, moving from tunnel to tunnel, from house to house"; step by step, this is how the 98th Division is operating in Khan Yunis
The forces of the 98th Division continue to fight in the Khan Yunis area, a main stronghold of the Hamas terrorist organization. The division's troops have eliminated dozens of terrorists, conducted searches, destroyed tunnels and directed precise strikes from the ground and air.
The 7th Brigade began operations to break through Hamas' lines, targeting dozens of anti-aircraft positions and enemy observation points. The soldiers raided the military post of Hamas' 'Dir al-Balah' battalion and located weapons and intelligence.
The Givati Brigade, the 55th Brigade, and the 4th Brigade are encircling the city and conducting operations and raids on the battalions of the Khan Yunis Brigade of the Hamas terrorist organization. In a sustained raid by the forces, many weapons were found in a school, including rocket and mortar launchers, RPGs, explosives, and intelligence materials.
Soldiers of the 4th Brigade secured a Hamas command post inside a mosque where a terrorist cell was hiding. The terrorists were eliminated. Additionally, the forces eliminated a terrorist cell that tried to escape towards an underground tunnel.
Soldiers from the Commando Brigade raided the Hamas strongholds in Khan Yunis. Weapons, artillery launchers and intelligence materials were found in the residence of senior Hamas operatives. In addition, the soldiers are deploying the use of the precise 'Iron Sting' munition and are directing airstrikes and ground operations using accurate and precise fire.
https://t.me/WarriorsUkrainian/16147
One of these four will become Russia's President.
What Russia really wants
🇺🇸 The Biden administration is ready to make concessions to the Republicans in order to unblock aid to Ukraine, – Reuters.
Among their demands are new restrictions on asylum seekers and the expansion of the deportation process. According to the news agency, a bipartisan group of senators is already working on an agreement, but time is running out.
"Republicans have refused to approve more Ukraine funding without additional measures to reduce the record number of migrants attempting to cross the U.S. border illegally, leading to a complex negotiation pairing the largely unrelated issues.", Reuters writes.
White House spokesperson Angelo Fernandez Hernandez said Biden has made it clear "the border is broken" and that Congress should take action to fix it.
"The president has said he is open to compromise," he said in a statement.
Democratic Senator Chris Coons said Thursday the gap between his party and Republicans remains "stubbornly large" but that he remains optimistic they can find common ground.
White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre criticized Republicans during a press briefing on Thursday.
"They are playing chicken with our national security," she said.
"History will remember them harshly."
Republican Senator Thom Tillis, part of the bipartisan group trying to hash out a border security compromise, told reporters on Wednesday that any proposal would have to cut illegal immigration at least by half and that he did not know if a deal could be reached before Christmas.
"We’ve got a lot more work to do," he said.
🗓Congress will go on vacation after December 14, and military aid must be approved by then to avoid funds running out to support Ukraine.
Putin’s buddy Orbán pushes EU to the brink over Ukraine - Politico
This month’s summit will be a decisive test of how far Budapest will go to thwart EU support for Kyiv.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán regularly pushes the EU to the cliff edge, but diplomats are panicking that his hostility to Ukraine is now about to finally kick the bloc over the precipice.
A brewing political crisis is set to boil over at a summit in mid-December when EU leaders are due to make a historic decision on bringing Ukraine into the 27-nation club and seal a key budget deal to throw a €50 billion lifeline to Kyiv’s flailing war economy.
The meeting is supposed to signal to the U.S. that, despite the political distraction over the war in the Middle East, the EU is fully committed to Ukraine.
Those hopes look likely to be knocked off course by Orbán, a strongman who cultivates close ties with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin and who is widely seen as having undermined democracy and rule of law at home. He is demanding the whole political and financial process should be put on ice until leaders agree to a wholesale review of EU support for Kyiv.
That gives EU leaders a massive headache. Although Hungary only represents 2 percent of the EU population, Orbán can hold the bloc hostage as it is supposed to act unanimously on big strategic decisions — and they hardly come bigger than initiating accession talks with Ukraine.
It’s far from the first time Orbán is throwing a spanner in the works of the EU’s sausage making machine. Indeed, he has been the most vocal opponent of sanctions against Russia ever since Putin’s annexation of Crimea in 2014. But this time is different, EU diplomats and officials said.
“We are heading toward a major crisis,” one EU official said, who was granted anonymity to discuss confidential deliberations. One senior EU diplomat warned this could become “one of the most difficult European Councils.”
Some EU diplomats interpret Orbán’s threats as a strategy to raise pressure on the European Commission, which is holding back €13 billion in EU funds for Hungary over concerns that the country is falling foul of the EU’s standards on rule of law.
Others however said it’s a mistake not to look beyond the immediate transactional tactics. Orbán has long been questioning the EU’s Ukraine strategy, but was largely ignored or portrayed as a puppet for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In theory, Brussels could come out with the big guns and use the EU’s so-called Article 7 procedure against Hungary, used when a country is considered at risk of breaching the bloc’s core values.
The procedure is sometimes called the EU’s “nuclear option” as it provides for the most serious political sanction the bloc can impose on a member country — the suspension of the right to vote on EU decisions.
They largely upheld the gag order. So Chump, shut your mouth.
https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/4350071-read-trump-gag-order-appeals-court-ruling/
A woman is less value to the state of Texas than a dead baby.
🏥 From January 1, occupants will not provide medical care to residents with Ukrainian passports in the temporarily occupied territories — National Resistance Center of Ukraine.
A similar practice already exists in Starobilsk (Luhansk region): Ukrainians here are not provided with medical services without Russian documents, and pharmacies do not dispense medicines under social programs.
"In this way, the enemy is pursuing a deliberate genocidal policy to destroy Ukrainians as a nation on their ethnic lands," the National Resistance Center of Ukraine said.
From "The Analyst":
‘THE AMERICANS JUST DIDN’T UNDERSTAND’
In a piece published this morning in the Washington Post, it’s become clear that the Ukrainians felt pressured into attacking in a single spot of the southern front - and didn’t do it, wasting the time the Americans thought they needed.
Americans wanted the offensive to start in April to cut the time the Russians had to prepare defences but didn’t seem to understand the mud problem.
Over and over again the Americans failed to take into consideration how the battlefield was so different to the one their doctrine required for the offensive to work.
They didn’t understand the effect of drones and how fast they were changing the battle space. And for whatever reason, they didn’t seem to fully appreciate the lack of air support was fundamentally going to change the way Ukraine had to operate.
Once the offensive started they tried to second guess every move - failing to grasp the way drones and helicopters were taking out mine clearing equipment and support units. There was lack of appreciation that while trained, Ukrainian troops -70% of them had never seen battle before.
Things got so bad the Ukrainians cut communications with the American Commander in Europe who constantly tried to second guess them.
The Americans didn’t understand the land, the drones and the way the Russians operate in defence. In the end Ukraine had to do it its own way.
The problem as we have seen is that by starting it one way, getting badly mauled and then doing it a different way, it alerted the Russians and concentrated their resistance.
The failure to give Ukraine enough of what was needed quickly enough is now understood, if reluctantly.
The failure to supply aircraft the biggest mistake of all.
On the frontlines little of much consequence happened yesterday because the weather is dire and movement limited. However the Russians appear close to regaining the trench network at the top of the hills overlooking Klieshievka. If they take these then Ukrainian gains east of that point - everything the achieved in the summer months- will be lost, their positions untenable.
The situations I’ve written about in the past couple of days as to how the summer went down are enough to make me cry. When you are ‘retired’ and merely consulted ad hoc and don’t say what they want to hear, they just ignore it even when they should know better. Younger minds with less experience are always listened to because they have ‘new’ ideas.
There are no new principles in war only new machines and technologies by which to wage it. There may be new tactics and new obstacles but the environments and the principles are not new.
Yet somehow those facts are ignored.
It’s a good job the Americans were not using their own forces. It would have been a messy lesson in adapting to a new environment. They learned they got it wrong in Vietnam. They learned they got it right after the Yom Kippur lessons and Iraq.
But this is not that war.
Give Ukraine what it needs and let them win. They can and they will. Give them the tools and they will finish the job.
Slava Ukraini🇺🇦!
🇦🇺Australia will hand over a batch of Bushmaster armored personnel carriers to Ukraine by December 25, according to Australian Ambassador to Ukraine Bruce Edwards.
“Not much says Merry Christmas to a close friend far across the seas quite as well as saving lives. Proud to see the role of Bushmasters recognised among key military assistance provided to Ukraine. And more are on their way! Do feel very free to open them before December 25 !” he wrote on December 7 on X (Twitter).
After a long pause of 79 days, the enemy resumed strikes with cruise missiles
Earlier, this morning, about 10 Tu-95MS missile-carrying bombers fired cruise missiles of the X-101/555/55 type from the area of the city of Engels, Saratov region.
None of the missiles aimed for Kyiv reached the target. Air defense forces shot down all the missiles used to attack Kyiv on the approach to the city, Serhiy Popko, the head of the KMVA, reports.
"As you can see, the enemy bided his time and began to use strategic aviation again for attacks on peaceful cities. Therefore, protect yourself and your loved ones, do not ignore air warning signals," he emphasized.
In total, the Russians fired 19 missiles from the Saratov region, 14 of which were destroyed over Dnipropetrovsk region and the Kyiv region.
Some of them were aimed at infrastructure facilities in the Dnipropetrovsk region. Another group, having reached the Dnipro, changed the direction of movement towards Kyiv.
In the Dnipropetrovsk region, "Unfortunately, one person is dead. Preliminarily, four people are wounded. They are all in hospital. Two people are in severe condition," Dnipropetrovsk's regional governor Serhiy Lysak said.
The missile count. Killed 14 out of 19.
Venezuela wishes to emulate Russia. GREED.
https://t.me/liveukraine_media/16075
Russia has deported 19k children from Ukraine
https://t.me/liveukraine_media/16078
Russia hides bodies to avoid paying compensation
https://t.me/WarriorsUkrainian/16099
The Ukrainian St, Nicolas does not crawl down chimneys.
https://t.me/WarriorsUkrainian/16107
I am a Democrat who supports Ukraine in their battle against The Russian 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 2993. The county is 13k people scattered over 713 square miles.
Joined Dec 2022
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