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2022-05-22 Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
771 Azov Battalion troops surrendered to Russian-led forces in Mariupol
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Posted by Fred 2022-05-22 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11124 views ]  Top
 File under: Tin Hat Dictators, Presidents for Life, & Kleptocrats 

#1 What’s the over/under line for the percentage who are executed.
Posted by Greater the Anonymous5721 2022-05-22 02:23||   2022-05-22 02:23|| Front Page Top

#2 What’s the over/under line for the percentage who are executed.

Russians have made it clear: no executions.
Posted by badanov 2022-05-22 07:37||   2022-05-22 07:37|| Front Page Top

#3 And we believe that why, badanov?
Posted by Mullah Richard 2022-05-22 07:51||   2022-05-22 07:51|| Front Page Top

#4 And we believe that why?

Because, if they go back on that assurance, it leaves everyone else in the field with the understanding that for each of them it may be a fight to the death.
Posted by M. Murcek 2022-05-22 08:06||   2022-05-22 08:06|| Front Page Top

#5 Ooo, bad news. These Nazis were some of Ukraine's best fighters. Oh well, they have more.
Posted by Bertie Lumumba1577 2022-05-22 08:30||   2022-05-22 08:30|| Front Page Top

#6 Interesting that the US and British press are no longer featuring Ukrainian developments at the top of the news. Instead of leading with Ukraine, The New York Times screams "How Donald Trump's 2020 Election Lies Have Gripped State Legislatures" - that's an old leftover story. Why is it such big news now?

The second story beneath the warmed-over story from 2020 is a series of five articles (!) about historical crimes and conquest in Haiti. Yes, Haiti. Why Haitian history? Why now?

The mystery becomes clear when, below the gold, we see the top story from that forgotten conflict in what's-its-name... oh Ukraine. That one. The story is that Russia, fresh off its huge victory in Mariupol, has almost entirely cut off some 20,000 Ukrainian troops in the crucial supply and communications hub of Severodonetsk. There's just one supply road left I captured and the Russian forces, 3km away, are now pounding it with artillery barrages. So Russia's on the brink of another hugely important, decisive victory in the Donbas.

And no more news from Kharkiv. No mention either of the Ukrainian harvest that's down 50% from last year, or the destroyed transportation and fuel infrastructure that's needed to being what's left to market, or the blockade that prevents anything leaving Ikraine's remaining ports...

Now we know why the Times is suddenly talking Trump! and Haitian History. We know now why Austin's so desperate to talk to Shoigu, why the Europeans are rushing forward with peace plans and why suddenly we're seeing editorials and opinion pieces urging Biden to de-escalate and get the Ukrainians to settle: this turnaround is because the Russians are winning.
Posted by Billy Budd 2022-05-22 13:54||   2022-05-22 13:54|| Front Page Top

#7 So, up until now the Russians have been losing. Duly noted.
Posted by Matt 2022-05-22 14:12||   2022-05-22 14:12|| Front Page Top

#8 The New York Times is definitely the place to go for propaganda and hysteria, Mr. Budd. Well spotted!
Posted by trailing wife 2022-05-22 14:21||   2022-05-22 14:21|| Front Page Top

#9 Yes, seeing the same phenom across the London press. Top stories are about cost-of-living increases, covid, monkeypox. Nothing at all in the Sunday Times' lead articles about Ukraine. Mail's only Ukraine story, far down from the top, is "Russian special forces' Belgian Malinous dog switches sides."

They're desperate to change the subject because Mariupol's unconditional surrender is a disastrous defeat that changes the course of the war.

An entire unit wiped out and its commanders killed or taken prisoner. The biggest haul of prisoners by any side in 8 years of fighting. Let's talk fuel prices, monkeypox, Johnny and Amber. Anything but Ukraine.
Posted by Astaire 2022-05-22 14:28||   2022-05-22 14:28|| Front Page Top

#10 So, up until now the Russians have been losing.

What a stupid comment. No one was winning, but now the balance appears to have shifted decisively on one direction.

You baited us the other day with nonstop repetition of the same question. Are you just trolling us? If so, I'll just ignore you.
Posted by Astaire 2022-05-22 14:34||   2022-05-22 14:34|| Front Page Top

#11 Please feel entirely free to ignore me. I can deal with it.

Posted by Matt 2022-05-22 14:43||   2022-05-22 14:43|| Front Page Top

#12  So, up until now the Russians have been losing.

I think it is important to draw a distinction between the media battlespace where the Russians have been getting their asses kicked and the actual kinetic battlespace where they seem to be grinding on towards achieving their objectives. Don't take my word for it, look at a map.

The fall of Asovstal/Mariupol is not a sudden dramatic change. That was a foregone conclusion ever since the Russians took control of the region. It has prompted a noticeable shift in the media coverage of the war as noted upstream.
Posted by SteveS 2022-05-22 15:04||   2022-05-22 15:04|| Front Page Top

#13 The Russians just used Kalibr missiles to destroy a huge batch of NATO weaponry and materiel cached near the Malin railway station in the Zhytomyr region. No mention whatsoever of that breaking story either.

Biden's $15 billion in new materiel is not just too little too late. The Russians are showing they can locate the shipments and destroy them before they reach the battlefield. The MIC will collect their loot, however.
Posted by Billy Budd 2022-05-22 15:11||   2022-05-22 15:11|| Front Page Top

#14 Russia now has complete military control of Luhansk, one of the two breakaway republics. Final push underway to cut off the 20,000 or so Ukrainian troops that are encircled and trapped now in Severodonetsk. They're shelling the sole remaining supply route.
Posted by Palmerston 2022-05-22 15:29||   2022-05-22 15:29|| Front Page Top

#15 Let me conspiracy guess: Billy Budd (1962 movie), Fred Astiare, and Palmerston (still trying to figure that one out): Hmmmm
Posted by Frank G 2022-05-22 15:41||   2022-05-22 15:41|| Front Page Top

#16 https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/scandal-lusty-lord-palmerston-who-14300168
Posted by NoMoreBS 2022-05-22 15:46||   2022-05-22 15:46|| Front Page Top

#17 Much of the civilian aid to Ukraine is going to pay the Ukrainian civil servants' salaries. This recalls the civilian aid to Afghanistan (also to the Republic of South Vietnam in the 1960s).

Uncle Sam has taken over as the Ukrainians' paymaster, just like in Afghanistan. This is implicit recognition that the Ukrainian economy like the Afghan economy before it has collapsed.
Posted by GAO Gaijin 2022-05-22 15:51||   2022-05-22 15:51|| Front Page Top

#18 Thx NoMoreBS
Posted by Frank G 2022-05-22 16:01||   2022-05-22 16:01|| Front Page Top

#19 The officers will be staying in the Katyn Woods Motel.
Posted by Super Hose 2022-05-22 16:02||   2022-05-22 16:02|| Front Page Top

#20 ^ Ouch
Posted by Frank G 2022-05-22 16:03||   2022-05-22 16:03|| Front Page Top

#21 the Katyn Woods Motel.

You can check out anytime, but you can never leave.
Posted by SteveS 2022-05-22 16:37||   2022-05-22 16:37|| Front Page Top

#22 "What's that area behind the hotel? Smells like a burn pit"
Posted by Frank G 2022-05-22 16:58||   2022-05-22 16:58|| Front Page Top

#23 The Ukraine adventure isn't Russia's Afghanistan; it's America's Afghan War all over. Bidens taking on all the obligations of the bankrupt Afghan er Ukrainian government. Another $2-3 trillion down the tubes.
Posted by GAO Gaijin 2022-05-22 17:52||   2022-05-22 17:52|| Front Page Top

#24 #19 and #21 for Snark O' Day™
The repeated calls for "We Kill (neo-)Nazis Lots!" has me expecting War Crimes.
Posted by magpie 2022-05-22 18:25||   2022-05-22 18:25|| Front Page Top

#25 /\ ...and farces like the War Crimes Trial of Erich Hartmann, WW2 German fighter pilot.
*Not* that I think any side in this mess is pure as driven now...
Posted by magpie 2022-05-22 18:29||   2022-05-22 18:29|| Front Page Top

#26 it's America's Afghan War all over.

The talk in DC is that Obama was the one pushing the line behind the other day's NY Times editorial grilling Biden, questioning every aspect of his strategy and urging Ukraine to recognize reality and make "significant territorial concessions."

Word is that the Kalorama crowd is distancing itself (and fellow colored girl Harris) from Biden's fiasco.

That sounds right. Obama hated the Brits and doesn't give a damn about Ukraine ("blankets," anyone?) or Europe. Obama and his wife have more sympathy for Africa than for Europe. And we know whose side the Africans are on.

Veiled racist sentiments are not our style. Please refrain from using them.

Posted by  Billy Budd 2022-05-22 18:43||   2022-05-22 18:43|| Front Page Top

#27 Wordis that the Kalorama crowd is distancing itself (and fellow colored girl Harris) from Biden's fiasco.

You ain't from around here, are you? Begone
Posted by Frank G 2022-05-22 19:01||   2022-05-22 19:01|| Front Page Top

#28 /.\ No, no, Frank. He's providing entertainment for us all.
Posted by Canuckistan sniper 2022-05-22 20:14||   2022-05-22 20:14|| Front Page Top

#29 Troll bait to blame us for accepting it, CS
Posted by Frank G 2022-05-22 20:54||   2022-05-22 20:54|| Front Page Top

#30 The talk in DC is that Obama was the one pushing the line behind the other day's NY Times editorial grilling Biden, questioning every aspect of his strategy and urging Ukraine to recognize reality and make "significant territorial concessions."

Some say it was Obama; others are pointing at the Clintons. It's clear that either way, the Democrats are preparing to stick Biden with the blame for this fiasco when the shit hits the fan.
Posted by GAO Gaijin 2022-05-22 21:15||   2022-05-22 21:15|| Front Page Top

#31 My money's on Obama. There's huge resentment of Ukraine within the Black community for pushing the racism issue off the front burner. Look at all the stories whining about the Europeans' disparate treatment of Ukrainian and non-white refugees.
Posted by Patrocles 2022-05-22 21:19||   2022-05-22 21:19|| Front Page Top

#32 Obama is more likely. The Clintons have more urgent issues to worry about now.
Posted by Billy Budd 2022-05-22 21:24||   2022-05-22 21:24|| Front Page Top

#33 One more reason Obama's likely behind the anti-Biden anti-Ukraine NY Times Editorial piece: he and Ben Rhodes have always resented the influence of what Rhodes called the foreign-policy Blob: the Pentagon and the neo-cons. They're anti-interventionists. They resented being stuck with the Iraq and Afghanistan hot messes and they don't want Biden's successor, whoever she may be, to be stuck with the next hot mess.

The Democrats' progressive wing sees that the world is splitting into two camps, Western Europe vs the Global South (and China), and they want to make sure that the USA is not pitted against the Global South. They have a strong argument actually...Eisenhower and Kennedy would have agreed.
Posted by Billy Budd 2022-05-22 22:10||   2022-05-22 22:10|| Front Page Top

#34 Good points. Ben Rhodes is probably doing lots of whispering at the NYTimes HQ these days
Posted by GAO Gaijin 2022-05-22 22:15||   2022-05-22 22:15|| Front Page Top

#35  Obama and his wife have more sympathy for Africa than for Europe.

Not really, no. Former President Obama only really cares about the Muslim world, and of them, the Muslim Brotherhooders, Iran (Shiite version of the Muslim Brotherhood), and the Palestinians (because they’re a knife at the throat of Jewish Israel).
Posted by trailing wife 2022-05-22 22:37||   2022-05-22 22:37|| Front Page Top

#36 Looking at the top two stories in the Times today, the warning shot to Biden from the Times seems like, "Stay on message: Trump + Racism. Ukraine is distracting from the message. Wrap it up, bro"
Posted by Oye Como Va 2022-05-22 22:44||   2022-05-22 22:44|| Front Page Top

#37 trailingwife, Iran's allied with Russia. Obama told the Russians he'd "have more flexibility after the election." He's arguing for flexibility toward Russia. He's no friend of Ukraine ("blankets," LOL)
Posted by Oye Como Va 2022-05-22 23:03||   2022-05-22 23:03|| Front Page Top

#38 Stay on message: Trump + Racism

Exactly.
Look at tomorrow's (Monday's) lead stories in the NYTimes:

Trump: Kushner’s and Mnuchin’s Quick Pivots to Business With the Gulf

Racism: Haiti's Lost Billions

Ukraine's below the fold, again.
Posted by Billy Budd 2022-05-22 23:14||   2022-05-22 23:14|| Front Page Top

#39  He's arguing for flexibility toward Russia. He's no friend of Ukraine ("blankets," LOL)

A palpable point, Oye Como Va. So very many reasons not to have voted for him, back in the day.
Posted by trailing wife 2022-05-22 23:19||   2022-05-22 23:19|| Front Page Top

#40 Ukraine's below the fold, again.

Wow. Two days in a row, right after the editorial, Ukraine elbowed out by Haitian history, Jared Kushner and tales from the 2020 election. That was really fast. Someone's got Dean Basquet's ear.

Sucks for the Ukrainians.
Posted by Patrocles 2022-05-22 23:23||   2022-05-22 23:23|| Front Page Top

#41 Sucks for the Ukrainians.

Great for the MIC - they've got their loot. $15 billion of it, booked and billed. Regardless of when Biden cuts and runs.
Posted by Billy Budd 2022-05-22 23:27||   2022-05-22 23:27|| Front Page Top

#42 Makes you feel sorry for Biden. He's too far gone mentally to realize he got stuck with a bag of shit, and the wiser and more cynical elements in his party are preparing to ditch him.
Posted by Patrocles 2022-05-22 23:36||   2022-05-22 23:36|| Front Page Top

#43 Biden... got stuck with a bag of shit, and the wiser and more cynical elements in his party are preparing to ditch him

Couldn't happen to a nicer nastier guy
Posted by Oye Como Va 2022-05-22 23:43||   2022-05-22 23:43|| Front Page Top

23:59 Slomble Clolush4564
23:58 Slomble Clolush4564
23:43 Oye Como Va
23:36 Patrocles
23:27 Billy Budd
23:23 Patrocles
23:19 trailing wife
23:14 Billy Budd
23:07 Billy Budd
23:03 Oye Como Va
22:44 Oye Como Va
22:37 trailing wife
22:15 GAO Gaijin
22:10 Billy Budd
21:24 Billy Budd
21:19 Patrocles
21:15 GAO Gaijin
20:54 Frank G
20:42 DarthVader
20:31 AlmostAnonymous5839
20:14 Canuckistan sniper
20:05 Super Hose
19:45 Raj
19:02 M. Murcek









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