[EmeraldDB3] Fox News has been on a collision course with its own audience since the stolen 2020 election — and you can almost feel the impact coming. The network has made so many dumb bets lately that it’s like watching a busload of trailer park residents get offloaded to play the nickel slots in Reno. All you can do is shake your head as you think: I know they’re all going bankrupt, and they’re already bankrupt. It’s been perfectly obvious for years now that Rupert Murdoch and his feckless sons turned against President Trump and actually helped Joe Biden — which is not just unforgivable. It’s unsustainable.
Why? Because it requires the silence of other prominent conservatives, and the short term memories of GOP voters, to allow Fox News to continue pretending that it’s a conservative news network. Guess what: GOP voters have not forgotten about Fox News calling Arizona early — and prominent conservatives are no longer interested in ignoring Fox’s treachery.
Case in point: Dinesh D’Souza dropped several bombshells on Twitter recently that illustrate that Fox News has nowhere left to hide.
#2
Let's see: They've dropped Shepard Smith, Chris Wallace, Donna Brazile, ....
Addition by subtraction
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/12/2022 6:58 Comments ||
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#3
I stopped watching FauxNews the moment they started treating NeverTrump guests as serious news. Haven't watched it in years.
The reason to go to a news aggregation site like Rantburg is that you get exposed to sources you won't see on any cable news channel and if there's a question about the legitimacy of a given item, it emerges in the comments quickly enough.
None of the cable news channels debunk their own reports in real time.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/12/2022 7:00 Comments ||
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#4
Fox heading towards a disaster? The self-destructive disaster seems like it started at the time of the 2020 election when Fox called the election way early in Arizona. Fox seems to have a company goal of self-destruction. Fox = Never-Trumpers.
#8
/\ #2, "dropped" or the results of a failed palace coup? They already had the scalps of Glen Becks and BOR and were going "all in" for mounting Tucker Carlson's head in their trophy case...
#9
stopped watching TV so long ago I cant remember, its all garbage, pushing someone else's agenda. In the "age of communication" it the individuals responsibility to acquire what knowledge and information there is thats actually true. Rantburg is an excellent source.
#10
The Murdock sons, who took over some years ago, are quite the opposite, politically, of their father. The movement to the left has not dramatic, but inexorable nonetheless.
[MSPOWERUSER] Twitter disclosed through a filing on Monday that less than 5% of its first-quarter monetizable daily active users were made of bots. The number reflects the challenge that will be faced in the near future by Elon Musk, who is very vocal about the removal of the Twitter bots or multiple automated Twitter accounts controlled by bot software on the platform.
There were 229 million users served with advertising during the first quarter on Twitter, but the numbers could face changes if Musk pushes for his plans of cleaning up the platform from bots. In an April 5 reply to a user complaining about the crypto spam bots, Musk said, “Yeah, single most annoying problem on twitter imo.”
It will be a big game-changer for Twitter users who often encounter bots in their daily experiences from advertisements, news, and other propaganda. Twitter bots are known for their autonomous ability to perform actions like tweeting, re-tweeting, liking, following, unfollowing, or direct messaging other accounts.
#5
The support percentages listed are absurd. They seem to be the percentage of the check marks that are given for that question, as if the questions were presidential candidates. and the check marks their proportional support.
Posted by: i forgot it ||
05/12/2022 12:13 Comments ||
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#6
Rantburg doesn't have the "upvote" feature, but I'd like to give #2 Glenmore about 10 million upvotes.
The only thing I'd add is that they would have to be audited by the IRS every year as well.
Posted by: Tom ||
05/12/2022 13:24 Comments ||
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#7
Never do polls, I recall too clearly the adage:
Whenever something is free, you are the product!
[AlAhram] Before Russia's invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, many observers looked at Russia's overwhelming combat power and thought Russia would achieve a quick victory.
Because Russia has a US$62 billion defence budget and holds numerical advantages in weapon systems such as tanks, artillery, attack helicopters and planes, many analysts asked not whether Russia would win but rather how quickly it would do so.
What these observers and less experienced analysts are not taking into account is that wartime performance is influenced by more than how weapon systems function.
Continued on Page 49
#1
Because Russia has a US$62 billion defence budget
Context is everything. It's not a lot of money for us (by way of comparison, the budget for the USAF/USSF alone is $194 billion), and it's even less when you're losing a substantial proportion of that to graft.
I'd love to see the numbers someday - I'm going to guess at least 30% disappears before it ever gets to the troops there.
#2
Benefiting from eight years of fighting in the Donbas and six years of Western trainers and advisers, Ukraine's military in 2022 wasn't the same as it had been in 2014, much to Russia's surprise.
A victorious army is always ready to fight the last war.
#3
Truth is, the Russki are going to start thinking maybe Putin is a western agent and maybe soon considering what a catastrophic error this invasion is.
Russian soldiers have abandoned equipment all over Ukraine. There are reports Ukraine's Army has crossed the Russki frontier flanking the Russian Army in the Belgorod Oblast.
1 More Frigate has been sunk in the Black Sea according to early reports.
This is for Badanov and his fellow lovers of cruelty and evil:
#4
Ukraine is being carved up like a Turkey.
Intel Slava reporting a white flags at Azovstal.
French people outraged after a “French volunteer” reveled the lies of the western media and reveled the truth about war crimes in Ukraine . During the interview Boquet confirmed that the Bucha massacre was staged. He added that a lot of reporters from the US are working in Ukraine, filming the staged scenes
How long till Europeans abandon cia controlled pedo-joe leadership and stick with Russia?!
Posted by: Acapulco Joe ||
05/12/2022 12:35 Comments ||
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#5
You think Vladimir Putin is pure of heart, Acapulco Joe? My dear, I am both gullible and naïve, and even I’d not trust that Russian empire reassembler, KGB Volodya enough to be alone in the same room with him or eat the sushi he offered.
Granted, unlike slow Joe Biden he prefers his fantasies and realities to involve adult females, albeit small and flexible ones, and more importantly he loves his country, but as I am not one of his countrymen I do not benefit from those virtues.Nor has been poor, senile Joe able to lead anyone for years… and looking back on his career, not even before senility kicked in.
But the Europeans you reference, being ever so sophisticated and nonetheless gullible, mostly fell into his pocket back in the Soviet days and never fell out again.
#6
He has his talking points, TW, and he will get them out.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
05/12/2022 15:18 Comments ||
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#7
"He added that a lot of reporters from the US are working in Ukraine, filming the staged scenes"
If that were true Instagram would be filled with selfies of the dolts staging the scenes.
Commentary by Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin.
[ColonelCassad] 1. Mariupol.
The unhurried assault on Azovstal continues. Having lost waste heaps, the enemy continues to hold key buildings on the territory of the plant, which are subjected to heavy air and artillery strikes, which leads to an increase in losses.
2. Zaporozhye.
On the line Kamenskoye-Orekhov-Gulyaipole without changes. There is also no significant progress on the Gulyaipole-Velikaya Novoselovka line.
3. Ugledar.
On the line Novomikhailovka-Ugledar-Velikaya Novoselovka without changes. Heavy fighting is noted in the Novomikhailovka area.
4. Marinka.
There is no significant progress in the village. Fights, as before, are going on in the area of the waste heap.
5. Avdievka.
Fighting continues near the Avdievka-Konstantinovka highway. It is reported about the undermining of the dam by the Armed Forces of Ukraine in order to impede the advance of the advancing troops. There are also battles near Novobakhmutovka and in the Troitsky area.
6. LPR.
After the capture of Popasnaya, the enemy's defenses were probed in the direction of Artemovsk. Fighting continues in the area of Toshkovka and Voevodovka. The enemy continues to be pushed back from Rubizhne. There are also heavy battles in the area of Belogorovka, where there is a threat to the communications of the Severodonetsk group of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Both sides are suffering serious losses. Nevertheless, the risks of encirclement of a part of the Donbass grouping of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are growing.
7. Izyum.
Heavy fighting continues in the area of Kurulka and Pashkovo, as well as at Velikaya Kamyshevakha. Near Yampol, the enemy suffered heavy losses and was forced to withdraw. Troops are approaching Krasny Liman from the northwest. The command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine hastily transfers reserves here to support the sagging front.
8. Kharkov.
The enemy continues to attack in the direction of Liptsy and Kazachya Lopan, intending to push the Russian troops further from Kharkov. There is also an advance from Stary Saltov in the direction of Ternovaya, in the area where fighting is taking place. It is obvious that reinforcement of the grouping is required in the Kharkov direction. The approach of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to the borders increases the threat of shelling of settlements on the territory of the Russian Federation, which will be problematic to suppress without control of the north of the Kharkiv region.
9. Nikolaev.
No significant changes in both the Nikolaevsky and Nikopol directions. Fights are positional in nature.
10. Odessa.
No significant changes. The enemy stopped trying to land on Zmeiny Island, having suffered serious losses. According to some sources, foreign military advisers were among those killed on Zmein. Plans to take Serpentine by May 9 failed.
#1
Azovstal made the turbines for both ships and power plants that were needed by both Ukraine and Russia. What will Russia use to replace those turbine needs after totally destroying the factory? Inferior turbines from China?
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. The writer's questions to his subjects are in bold By Dmitry Steshin
[KP] "Azovites" tell the militias that there are 2,227 of them left in the bunkers. And food - for a week
The best background for any negotiations with the enemy is the explosions of air bombs on enemy positions. According to unofficial information, 40 FAB-500 bombs (high-explosive bomb, 500 kg - corr. note) were to be dropped on Azovstal that day.
I spent a good half of the day on the fourth floor of one of the Azovstal workshops. He put a chair in the back of the room, like a real sniper, attached a camera to some kind of iron table and periodically turned on the recording. From the appearance of the sound of the aircraft to the explosion, it was always exactly 36 seconds.
I counted a dozen or two breaks, then lost my way. Once they hit beautifully - fluttering pieces of a metal roof flew up into the sky, and then Azovstal released multi-colored smoke. In the pauses between the bombings, our artillery batteries standing on the other side of the Kalmius were connected to the aircraft. The Kalmius is a river in Mariupol.
This bombing brings no joy to anyone here. There is an understanding that there are no other ways to smoke out the Nazis, they have not come up with, but more and more often people have an idea: what then, when peace finally comes? The question is difficult, unbearable.
The most disgusting thing is that Ukrainian business was preparing for such a development of events. All knew. I knew that the industrial zone would turn into a battlefield. On the outskirts of "Azovstal," I mistakenly drove to the old command post of the "Vostok" battalion. Our long time ago moved to the very heart of a huge industrial zone and a hangar as high as a 9-story building was abandoned by the military.
Only an elderly man in an oversized checkered shirt wandered around his former workshop and contritely looked at the emptiness. He turned out to be a factory foreman, a specialist in molds. He really wanted to discuss his pain and somehow bring down the confusion. It turns out that quite recently there were expensive German machines for stamping the most complex plastic products:
- We gave such quality! The Germans rewarded us every month!
- Where are the machines?
The man's face turned gray:
- The owners took it to Kyiv. Back in February. As soon as it started, they immediately began to disassemble and take it out. Do you think the machines will be returned? Where can I work? I can’t eat humanitarian food all my life ...
I diplomatically replied:
- It is necessary to reach Kyiv first.
It seems that my interlocutor believed me, I myself believe in what was said, so the man prayed:
- Guys, I have a locker here, with an iron door, there is a unique tool, molds. The gypsies will steal it, hand it over for metal, can I take everything so that it doesn’t disappear? Here are the keys to the supply room, let's open it in front of you.
The master showed me a weighty bunch of keys. But we believed him and so:
- Take it, of course. We will return the machines from Kyiv, it will come in handy.
The man happily fussed and rushed to wind up the decrepit "penny" with a trailer.
I was pleasantly surprised how deep the Vostok battalion of the DPR and its allies climbed into the industrial zone, the noose on the neck of Azov was tightened to the limit - it was no longer possible to stick a finger under the rope. In the dungeons of the plant, everyone already understood well and frantically searched for options. Spoke, informally, with one competent officer involved in the negotiations. He surprised me:
- "Azov" all the time have contact with our people, make contact, willingly communicate, but want something strange.
- ?
- Desires have them change through day. Then they want the wounded to be made non-combatants (civilians. - Corr.) and be sure to be taken to Ukraine. Then they want to go out almost with banners and weapons. Then they demand an agreement that they will immediately be exchanged for our prisoners.
I found only words from the local military jargon:
- Drizzle, toads? How many are there?
- According to them, 2,227, along with the wounded. Food left for a week.
- What about you?
- I'll speak for myself. I would shoot them all, but in such a way that no one would know. Because otherwise they will be made heroes. But you can't shoot them, and you understand why.
I understand that this is a common place in the conversations of fighters - groping and pronouncing the line beyond which the defender of his native land himself turns into an "Azov" and a Nazi.
In parting, the officer advised me to go down under the workshop, from which I monitored Azovstal. Like, there is a typical bomb shelter and you can imagine where the “Azov” people are sitting and in what conditions. By the way, they did not use this shelter - the workshop stands on the outskirts of the industrial zone, on the banks of the Kalmius River, and the Azov line of defense considered the railway junction of the plant and drove hundreds of wagons there. Didn't help, kicked out.
I took a flashlight and went underground. Double hermetic doors, a room with air purification systems, autonomous water supply from a well. Everything is relatively clean, working and dry. Special pantry for food supplies. From the food there was only a box with the inscription "Crackers". At the second exit from the bomb shelter, a ten-meter pool was found, half filled with yellow, but clear water, and a sauna. A young shepherd dog, stunned by the explosions, was hiding in the sauna...
BIRD SORRY
In the afternoon, our reconnaissance group, reinforced by sappers, left for the greenery of the industrial zone. The sappers had two tasks - to remove enemy mines and build roads through fences. Yes, the entire Azovstal is divided into dozens of locations by two-meter concrete fences. Familiar peacetime roads are often shot through, so the attackers are forging new paths through this industrial chaos. For example, through fences.
As the sappers explained to me, there are different fences and fences. There are fences made of slabs reinforced with rebar, and the only thing left is to bring down the entire section. An explosion from such a fence only knocks out the concrete filler, but the steel lattice from the reinforcement remains or turns into such hook-traps. Unexpected subtlety of military affairs.
Our reconnaissance aircraft, as they call themselves, “fighters of the fifth battalion of DPR rangers”, sent a “bird” to help the sappers and scouts. However, the "bird" did not fly long - the machine gun burst scattered, then the amateur anti-aircraft gunner changed the store and began to hit singles. The screen of the tablet in the hands of the pilot of the drone suddenly went out. And immediately the rare silence of the industrial zone was broken by obscenities, curses, bad wishes to the shooter himself and his relatives.
A little later we found out that they hastened to report to the headquarters about the neutralized enemy reconnaissance quadrocopter, but they did not manage to issue the medal “For the Clear Sky of Donbass”. “We have to go, save the remains of the copter,” said the reconnaissance aircraft and took me with them.
The copter was shot down in a cluster of railway cars, not far from the "hump". A bomb was placed in the hill itself with an accuracy of a millimeter, and with another bomb they laid down the building where the dispatchers once were, but the Azov people used it as an observation post.
Between the cars we come across traces of the enemy stampede: equipped stores with tracers, ammunition parts, a knife, medical scissors. I pick up a well-known game console from the grass, press the button, and it turns on, shudders in my hands! The menu is on the “state move”, in the “photos” folder there are almost 300 megabytes of pictures! I hope intelligence finds something interesting there.
A little further, between the tracks, there is an overseas orange stretcher in the form of a boat with a dead "Azov". A shot through plate from his body armor lies on the corpse, and a helmet is at his feet. The stretcher itself was pierced by shrapnel. In general, judging by the number of shell explosions under the cars, between the rails, the trains turned out to be an unsuccessful place to hide from flat artillery fire.
Our drone lies in the grass with its smoking belly up. The bullet hit the lithium battery and it immediately caught fire. But the camera seems to have survived. One of the "DPR rangers" bitterly remarks:
- This copter costs 500 thousand rubles! Good Russian people bought it so that some moron with a machine gun ...
The phrase hangs in the air.
WE LIVE ON THE PAGE OF HISTORY. IT WOULD BE TURNED...
We wander to the car and do not know that we are being watched from a dilapidated building. Finally, they will recognize us as their own. A piece of plywood is pushed away from the broken window. A middle-aged man with a neat beard looks out and waves his hand to us - he invites us to visit. Several dozen reservist fighters settled in the building. Their commander, Sergei, an engineer, shows his farm. For example, an installation made of Ukrainian body armor: it was equipped with a skewer of some unrealistic size and a sickle.
Then Sergei brings a fragment of the "Cossack saber", broken and burned. But it still feels like a thing of respectable times, a museum piece. We are talking about the situation in this area, about the bombing. Rumors are circulating along the front around Azovstal about some crazy “thermobaric bombs” that will be used right tomorrow. Sergey smiles sadly:
“So, we’ll cover ourselves with plaster again ...
I notice that this location is very clean and comfortable. Well, as much as possible. Sergei, with a sly smile, says:
- You come to us at four in the morning ...
I bite my tongue, the building does not have one wall and you can imagine what kind of icy winds from the sea walk through this room. Moreover, it is forbidden to burn the usual apartment fires here, the enemy is too close. Sergei explains:
- THEY climb along the wagons all the time. When? Yes, yesterday afternoon, for example, at this time. And in the evening the sniper worked. Let's go, I'll show you how past guests lived here ...
We go down to the basement. Along the way, Sergey shows a bunch of wires going through a flight of stairs to the roof:
- They had surveillance cameras there, and a radio antenna, and an Internet modem ...
Sergei is envious, me too. On the floor in the dungeon, a pile of burnt bulletproof vests. Our guide explains:
- They generally moved around the plant in overalls. There was a hodgepodge of people sitting here: the Nazis and the coast guard, sailors and border guards, gunners. We found the border guard in the basement, when the house was occupied, he did not want to fight anymore, he thought to sit out and run away.
Sergey shows us the passports found in the building, military tickets, photographs of wives and children. He lays out the pictures like solitaire, swaps them, and suddenly completely withdraws into himself. I ask quietly so that my subordinates do not hear:
- Have you been home for a long time?
- On February 24, they called from work, they say: “go to the military enlistment office.” Here. I went.
Sergei smiles, already well. I tell him:
- And I left on the first of February, my daughter turned three days old, and she is already turning over on her stomach, four months soon!
Nothing soothes like similar problems, I know.
I unfold the cardboard inserted into the window opening and look at the steaming Azovstal. We need to wait until it burns to the ground and then everything will change. Those who are tired will retreat to the rear to rest, the “invaders” will go to where they are supposed to be according to their merits. The workers will return to the factory, and we will finish this page of recent history and turn it over.
#1
Azovstal made (among other things) all the big turbines used for ships and power plants by both the Ukraine and Russia. Now that it is smashed where will Russia get big turbines? I know Ukraine can go to GE or Japan or Korea or RR or Germany but Russia goes to China?
Exactly. The Russians have been ranting about how they're going to get Azovstal up and running, but I'm pretty sure there are two chances of that - fat and slim.
BTW, I lost the link but I saw a story earlier about Russian ships showing up at Med ports with Ukrainian grain. Apparently de-Nazification involves lots of looting and profiteering.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
05/12/2022 10:07 Comments ||
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#6
Badanov can post his made up Russian big lie trash, I can post articles and photos showing Russians are so ungodly at this point they do not give a damn even about other Russians. There have been > 32,000 calls to Ukraine from Russia about missing soldiers FYI.
The Putin state is going to be overthrown soon.
Ukraine cannot get rid of all these dead Russian soldiers.
Ukrainian troll's hysterical because Russia is now in control of the Donbas and the entire southern land bridge to Crimea. Ukraine is completely landlocked. It's the Ukrainians who are panicking, hysterical about running out of supplies, being encircled, the remaining few Azov Battalion fascists starving and dying at AzovStal with barely one week's supply of food left, Odesa being hammered etc.
The US has no dog in this fight. Ukraine is a corrupt, barbarous, incorrigibly backward little shithole of no strategic importance to the US. It's yet another tar baby that our foolish elites and corrupt MIC want to drag us into - for years.
Another trillion-dollar fiasco, the third in a row. Unfucking-believable.
We should get the fuck out and leave these two nations to their own devices.
Not entirely. The Rus do have their land bridge to the Krim and the equally important water canal near Kherson, but the area from Mikolaiv to Odessa is still under Ukrainian control.
Ukraine is a corrupt, barbarous, incorrigibly backward little shithole of no strategic importance to the US
Which is why Ukrainian membership in the EU makes perfect sense. And why the Biden's were doing business there. Fifteen percent for the Big Guy is nothing to sneeze at.
#9
SteveS,
They can't export anything via the Black Sea. They are blockaded now, just like the Confederacy during our own Civil War.
Their exports accounted for more than 1/3 of their GDP. With the rest of the damage done to Ukrainian production, storage, distribution etc facilities, it is a certainty that Ukraine will be a basket-case Gaza-style ruin for another decade at least.
Their GDP has been halved and will fall even further, to fourth world levels. Their population is a fraction of what it was pre-war -- and even then, their smartest and most productive young people had abandoned it. There's no way Ukraine can possibly employ its few remaining people productively.
#12
Which is why Ukrainian membership in the EU makes perfect sense. And why the Biden's were doing business there. Fifteen percent for the Big Guy is nothing to sneeze at.
"15! I thought it was 10, and we could keep some illusion of sovereignty!"
"We are altering the deal; pray we do not alter it any further."
#13
They can't export anything via the Black Sea. They are blockaded now
Certainly not while the war thing is going on. I was thinking about later, when this is over and the boundaries are redrawn. Although, if this goes on long enough, I would be unsurprised if either Russia ended up in control of Odessa or Odessa gets pounded so hard as to be not worth having as a port.
[Daily Beast] In the era of Black Lives Matter, does the Biden administration really want to take on prominent activists like Al Sharpton and Ben Crump—and make lives potentially harder for Black men, all because the government says it’s in their best interest?
There is a cost-benefit analysis to be had between good public health policy and the dynamics of criminal justice reform as Democrats weigh the FDA’s proposed ban on menthol cigarettes, which will disproportionately affect the Black community. What doesn't "disproportionately effect" the black community ?
The question is whether the Biden administration can successfully perform this balancing act—and win over Black Democratic skeptics.
Nearly 85 percent of Black smokers use menthol (as opposed to just 29 percent of white smokers), and its alluring cooling effect attracts more than half of all kids who smoke. The FDA says a menthol ban would save lives—650,000 over the next forty years—with more than a third of them Black people.
#10
/\ P2K, I have always found it fascinating how 'Liberals' can be 'Pro Pot' and 'Anti Tobacco' at the same time, or Pro Abortion and Anti Death Penalty...
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
The following simple poll ask your opinion of current events and the political mess we have.
