"Refugees For Thee, But Not For Me", or Demented Donnie's Ethnic Cleansing Plus Even More Ass-Kissing

President Donald Trump said he would like to see Jordan, Egypt and other Arab nations increase the number of Palestinian refugees they are accepting from the Gaza Strip, potentially moving out enough of the population to “just clean out” the war-torn area to create a virtual clean slate.

That's ethnic cleansing, which is a war crime. But there's no point in trying to make that point to the Diminished Orange Felon, as he's always been of the mindset that obeying laws is for the little people.

Meanwhile, the CIA has gotten into the business of kissing the Old Corrupt Crook's ass, but you can read the story yourself. It's too early in the day for me to be throwing up into my mouth.

And as for the inspector generals that the Wannabee Dictator has said he's fired, they're not going anywhere, as the firing attempt is illegal as fuck.

The War Crimes Database

This one is of American alleged war crimes in the Wars of the Chimperor.

Israel Steps On Its Crank, Again

Some of Israel’s closest allies on Tuesday condemned the deaths of seven aid workers who were killed by airstrikes in Gaza — a loss that prompted multiple charities to suspend food deliveries to Palestinians on the brink of starvation.

The deaths of the World Central Kitchen workers threatened to set back efforts by the U.S. and other countries to open a maritime corridor for aid from Cyprus to help ease the desperate conditions in northern Gaza.
...
World Central Kitchen said it had coordinated with the Israeli military over the movement of its cars. Three vehicles moving at large distances apart were hit in succession. They were left incinerated and mangled, indicating multiple targeted strikes.

I get the fog of war, but damn! That's some Russian-grade murderous bullshit.

Hamas's strategy in this war has been to use their people as human shields and dare the Israelis to come after them. Israel took them up on that. The blowback has been fierce and predictable.

Putin's Poodles in the House At Work

So the House passed a resolution condemning Russia's abductions of Urainian children.

Nine Republicans stood up for Russia. They are:

Biggs, AZ;
Burlison, MO;
Davidson, OH;
Greene, GA;
Higgins, LA;
Massie, KY;
Rosendale, MT;
Roy, TX; and
Tiffany, WI

No doubt that some of those assholes are going to quibble about the wording of the resolution or whine about supporting transgendered kids or some other meaningless bullshit.

But the truth of the matter is that, when offered an easy way to indicate that they are not in Putin's corner on this war, nine of them couldn't bring themselves to do that.

News That Doesn't Fit the Narrative

Following a 17-day visit to Israel, the UN Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict reported on Monday that she and a team of experts had found “clear and convincing information” of rape, and sexualized torture being committed against hostages seized during the 7 October terror attacks.

Pramila Patten added in a press release issued along with the report, that there are also reasonable grounds to believe that such violence, which includes other “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment”, may be continuing against those still being held by Hamas and other extremists in the Gaza Strip.

The report from her Office, arose from an official visit to Israel at the invitation of the Government, which included a visit to the occupied West Bank, between 29 January and 14 February.

In the context of the coordinated attack by Hamas and others of 7 October, the UN mission team found that there are reasonable grounds to believe that conflict-related sexual violence occurred in multiple locations, including rape and gang rape in at least three locations in southern Israel.

The team also found a pattern of victims, mostly women, found fully or partially naked, bound and shot across multiple locations which “may be indicative of some forms of sexual violence”.

I am not minimizing what Israel is has done and is doing in Gaza. Far from it.

Americans, though, should keep this in mind. Following 9-11, we invaded and occupied a country that had nothing to do with 9-11. A completely fictitious case was made to support that invasion. A million people in that country, give or take, were killed. Several million were displaced from their homes. Instability still goes on there. Terrorists took over part of the country, for a time.

Americans committed war crimes, large and small. And has anybody been held to account for that? No one, other than some junior enlisted prison guards. All of the architects of that invasion have been enjoying their cushy retirements.

When adjusted for the relative sizes of the two countries, Israel took a far harder punch on 10-7 than America did on 9-11, to which was added the lagniappe of sexual violence perpetrated by the terrorists. Americans who can't understand why Israel may have lost its collective mind after October 7th are demonstrating blatant hypocrisy. (And so are those countries who sent troops to help America trash the aforementioned country, including, but by no means limited to, Great Britain, Australia, Italy, Poland, Spain, Holland, and so on.)

Israel's Reaction to the Hamas Attack of 10/7/2023 and A Look Back to 9/11/2001

I have read and seen a lot of stuff in the paper, on the TV and online decrying Israel's pummeling of Gaza. So let's take a short trip down memory lane, shall we?

2,977 people were killed in the 9/11 attack. Many more died as a result of cleaning up the debris of the World Trade Center.[1] In the aftermath, we not only drove the Taliban out of Afghanistan,[2] we invaded and defeated another country that had nothing to do with 9/11.[3]

The casualty figures of that misbegotten invasion are disputed. But it is safe to say that hundreds of thousands of civilians were killed. When "excess deaths" are computed, the butcher's bill is likely around a million or so.

A million people, all innocent, who were killed because we invaded a country based on no good goddamn reason, other than Darth and Chimpy wanted to do it. Besides that. two million or so people fled the country as refugees. Two million more were displaced internally, "internal refugees" if you will.

Not to mention that more Americans were killed there than who died on 9/11/01. The arrogance of American mercenaries resulted in a brutal battle that levelled a city.[4] The actions of soldiers guarding a prison became a further stain on American honor.[5]

A country that was a counterweight to Iran became, more or less, an Iranian puppet state. Terrorists took over a portion of the country, necessitating even more military involvement.[6]

All of that, the entire parade of horribles, came from American overreaction to 9/11. The reverberations from that overreaction will persist for decades to come. The consequences of that overreaction have been largely met with a collective shrug by the American people.[7], [8] So it's not as though we are standing on high ground when we criticize Israel's war against Gaza.
________________
[1] Most of those because of their own obstinacy. Though advised to wear respiratory protection, most refused. While at the Pentagon cleanup, which was a military project, the workers were ordered to wear respiratory protection and, as a result, the incidence of respiratory problems was very low.
[2] Temporarily.
[3] Iraq.
[4] The Battle of Mosul.
[5] Abu Ghraib Prison.
[6] ISIS.
[7] Though the senior members of the Bush Administration have since been scrupulously avoiding foreign travel in order to avoid being arrested on war crimes charges.
[8] A number of other countries also participated for their own reasons. So they own a piece of this, too.

Let the Wheels Grind

The international criminal court in The Hague has issued arrest warrants for Vladimir Putin and his children’s rights commissioner, Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, for the “unlawful deportation” of Ukrainian children.

The court’s pre-trial judges assessed there were “reasonable grounds to believe that each suspect bears responsibility for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population and that of unlawful transfer of population from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation, in prejudice of Ukrainian children”.

Of all of Putin's war crimes, this one is probably the easiest to prove.

Generations of Hate Are Being Baked Into the Cake of Europe

The people of Ukraine know that "ordinary Russians want us to freeze to death."

The people in other eastern European countries have never let up on their distrust, if not outright hatred, of Russia. The politicians in western Europe feel less threatened, because most of them have had no first-hand experience with Russian brutality. So they think that they can deal with the bear that seeks to devour Europe.

And then, in this country, we have Russian sycophants such as the Asset, Tuckyo Rose and Russia's favorite American girl, Tulsi Gabbard. Whether they were bought, bribed, or just hate democracy is open to question.

The brutality and inhumanity of Russians will be told and retold by those with first-hand experience into the 22nd Century.

2022 Made It Obvious that Russia is a Nation Run by War Criminals and Lunatics

Abducting tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of children, an act of barbarity larger in scale that what the Agentinians did to their own people. Torturing people, including children. Legalized looting. Summary executions. These are ways that the Russians are treating people they say are their brothers.

Russia, in its actions, is not terribly different from Nazi Germany. That is not a point worthy of debate. It is factual.

Russia, for weeks, has been engaged in aerial terrorism, hitting non-military targets, in an attempt to break the will of the Ukranian people. It has failed, but the Russians keep doubling down on failure.

Strategic bombing to break the will of the opposing population is a military theory that has been around for over a century. The basic problem with the theory has been that in practice, it does not work. The only country that, in a general war, threw in the towel because they were being bombed was Japan, and that was after two atomic bombings. The massive fireraids by General LeMay's B-29s, an action that LeMay himself recognized as a war crime, didn't break the Japanese. Putler should well know this; his family comes from Leningrad. German bombing, shelling, and besieging the city did not break the people of Leningrad (something that they take pride in to this day).

The Russians are crossing the line between criminality and madness. If anything, they are going to make it even harder for their fellow travelers in the GOP to align with them. Oh, they'll try, they'll pretend to care for the people of Ukraine and say that appeasing the Russians will end the suffering of the Ukrainian people. They'll blame Ukraine for not recognizing reality in their goal of expelling the Russian invaders. But it would be a sellout on a historic level, everyone will know that.

The Ukrainians are not asking for us to fight their war for them, They are only asking for our support. Only craven fellow-travelers of Putin will not see the justice of helping the Ukrainians fight for their own freedom.

Edited to add:

In an address on his Telegram channel, Mr Zelensky said those who carried out Saturday's attacks were inhuman and they would "lose".

Switching from Ukrainian to Russian, he then attacked Mr Putin.

"Your leader wants to show you that he's leading from the front, and his military is behind him," he said.

"But in fact he is hiding. He's hiding behind his military, his missiles, the walls of his residences and palaces.

"He's hiding behind you, and he's burning your country and your future. No-one will forgive you for terror. No-one in the world will forgive you for that. Ukraine will not forgive."

Naming a Russian War Criminal

Lt. Col. Artyom Gorodilov was the commander of the 234th Air Assault Regiment, which carried out the masssacres in Bucha, Ukraine.

Murdering civilians is Russian state policy. That is not a debatable point. That is a fact.

The Landing Zone for Murderous Dictators?

It seems to be Venezuela, according to two stories sent to me by a regular reader.

I suppose that's a more attractive option for them than swallowing cyanide and eating a bullet from a gold-plated pistol. But it's going to take a lot of money to do that. Once their money runs out and they can't afford to pay graft anymore, they'll be stuffed on a plane and sent off for either life in prison or a quick execution. And after they leave, the Venezuelans may rethink the attractiveness of being the country that hosts retired mass-murderers and war criminals.

The problem may be worse for one clown, as if the rumors are correct, most of his money is held for him, in trust, by others, so it can't be traced to him. But if he's deposed, those former friends can suffer an convenient attack of forgetfulness and take his cash for themselves.

Is there any truth to this? That's unknown.

Truth That the Appeasers (and Putinist Republicans) Will Never Understand

After Hitler invaded the USSR, were the Soviet people wrong to fight to liberate their country? No. Should they instead have tried (& failed) to swap "land for peace"? No. So after being invaded by Russia, why are so many people coaching Ukrainians to give "land for peace" today?

— Michael McFaul (@McFaul) November 20, 2022

Putin has not given up on taking all of Ukraine. Any peace or cease-fire, now, will only enable him to rebuild his army and try again. Land for peace has a piss-poor record of success with appeasing the territorial appetites of aggressors. It seems that those arguing that the Ukrainians should agree, now, to a cease-fire are people from countries with little to no risk of having Russian soldiers crossing their borders in the near-term. The Appeasement Caucus is not from nations that border Russia. It is certainly not filled with Ukrainians, who, by a very large majority, want to expel the neo-Tsarist invaders.

When you see self-styled deep-tinkers argue for negotiating a land-for-peace deal, know that they have either argued themselves into a corner or they are getting something for their stances.

Is There Any War Crime That the Russians Won't Commit?

The Russians are kidnapping Ukrainian children and adopting them out to Russian families.

The forced transfer of children, when intended to destroy a national group, is an act of genocide under international law. And that is just what the Russians are trying to do. They are trying to erase Ukraine as a nation, as a people.

In that, the Russians' final solution to the existence of Ukraine may be a little more gentler than that chosen by Putin's spiritual German grandfather, but it is no less evil.

Meanwhile, Mike Pence has called out Putin's Poodles in his party:

“Now, I know there is a rising chorus in our party, including some new voices to our movement, who would have us disengaged with the wider world,” Pence said. “But appeasement has never worked, ever, in history. And now more than ever, we need a conservative movement committed to America’s role as leader of the free world and as a vanguard of American values.”

“As Russia continues its unconscionable war of aggression to Ukraine, I believe that conservatives must make it clear that Putin must stop and Putin will pay,” he added. “There can be no room in the conservative movement for apologists to Putin. There is only room in this movement for champions of freedom.”

Good luck with that, Mikey. You're swimming against the tide of Tuckyo Rose, his fellow-travelers on his despicable network, and the radio/Internet pundits that make up the American verison of Radio Rwanda. You're now in the Party of Appeasement. Your party agrees with Putin on almost everything, because fascists stick together. Republicans might as well sing the Russian national anthem at their conventions.

Russia Is Not a "State Sponsor of Terrorism", It Is a "State Practitioner of Terrorism".

The irony is rich here. For a country that claimed to want to "de-Nazify Ukraine," Russia has proven itself to be the closest thing we have seen recently to a nation run on Nazi principles: Invade a neighbring nation, treat the locals as sub-humans and slaughter them. The only difference seems to be that the Russians haven't, as yet, industrialized their machinery of death.

The Institute for the Study of War, which does not routinely cover Russian atrocities because there are lots of other sources for that information, said this:

The revelations of mass graves of civilians and torture chambers in newly liberated Izyum confirm ISW’s previous assessments that the Bucha atrocities were not isolated war crimes but rather a microcosm of Russian atrocities throughout Russian-occupied areas.

Or, in Geekish: Russian atrocities aren't a bug, they're a feature.

The age-old saying has been proven to be true: Scratch a Russian and you'll find a Tartar.

President Zelenskyy is Right About That

The Russians, in hitting power stations across Ukraine in retaliation for their own troops throwing down their guns and fleeing, are practicing terrorism:

Even through impenetrable darkness Ukraine and the civilized world see these acts of terrorism clearly. Deliberate, cynical missile strikes on civilian critical infrastructure. No military targets. The Kharkiv and Donetsk regions are without power. In Zaporizhia, Dnipropetrovsk, and Sumy there are issues with food supply.

Do you still believe that we are one people? Do you still think that you can frighten, crush, and bend us into submission? You really understand nothing? You don’t realize who we are? What we are for? What we are about? Read my lips: No gas or no you? No you. No lights or no you? No you. Cold, hunger, darkness, and thirst – for us these are less frightening and less deadly than your friendship and brotherhood. But history will arrange everything. And we will have gas, electricity, water, and food – and we won’t have you.

Another example of Russian terrorism was the deliberate destruction of a century's old rare-seed bank by Russian shelling. Putin's Russia is a terrorist nation. We may not be able to designate them as such, for geopolitical reasons, but other than Tuckyo Rose and his traitorous ilk, we all know that they are.

A Nation of War Criminals

Tens of thousands of cases of war crimes committed by Russian soldiers have been identified in Putler's war. Over three thousand were committed in Bucha, alone.

Russia: A Nation of War Criminals

ISW assesses that Russian forces were responsible for the killing of 53 Ukrainian POWs in an explosion at a Russian-controlled prison in Olenivka, Donetsk Oblast on July 28. Two US officials anonymously confirmed to Politico on August 1 that no traces of US-provided High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), Ukraine’s most precise artillery system, were found at the prison site.[4] The Kremlin alleges that Ukraine fired HIMARS and precision-guided rockets to kill Ukrainian POWs and deter Ukrainian defectors. Satellite and other imagery from the site indicate that the attack only damaged one building, did not collapse the walls of that building, and did not leave any shell craters in the vicinity, very strongly suggesting that the destruction of the prison was the result of either a precision strike or an internally planted incendiary or explosive.[5] One US official told Politico that “the evidence showed the attack was not conducted by Kyiv.” If Ukraine had used something other than HIMARS to conduct the strike, the attack would almost certainly have left collateral damage around the facility, including craters and other damaged buildings. Given the US assessment that HIMARS were not used in the attack, ISW assesses that Russia was responsible for this attack on Ukrainian POWs in violation of the Geneva Conventions. (Footnotes are in the origal

It was apparently planned by the Russians.

At a background briefing for journalists in the capital, Kyiv, senior Ukrainian officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity outlined evidence to suggest that Russian forces appeared to be preparing for mass casualties in the days before the July 29 explosion.

Satellite images taken before the explosion, they said, show what appear to be freshly dug graves within the prison complex. A New York Times analysis of images from Maxar Technologies and Planet Labs confirms that some time after July 18 and before July 21, about 15 to 20 ground disturbances appeared on the southern side of the complex, roughly 6 to 7 feet wide and 10 to 16 feet long at first; some later appeared to have been lengthened and merged with each other. Whether they were graves is unclear.

The tell, for me, is that there has not been a single report of any Russian casualties. A purported missile strike hits a Russian POW prison and not a single Russian guard or staff member was killed or wounded? That defies logic.

On another note, StrategyPage has noted that word that the Russians are the Nazis in this particular war has been making its way back to the Rodina.

Sad to See an Old War Criminal Suffering From Dain Bramage (Not Really)

Henry Kissinger said that Ukraine must concede territory to Russia to end the war, and warned the West that a humiliating defeat for Russia could result in wider destabilisation.

The legendary statesman, now 98, made the comments in a conference at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland Monday, reported The Daily Telegraph.
...
"Negotiations need to begin in the next two months before it creates upheavals and tensions that will not be easily overcome. Ideally, the dividing line should be a return to the status quo ante," Kissinger said.

I think Kissinger is smoking crack if he truly believes that.

First off, going back to the front line as it existed before the Russian invasion of 2022 is, no matter how you slice it, a Russian defeat. That cannot be sold by Putler to the Russian people as a win. "My Glorious Countrymen, we invaded to conquer and "de-nazify" Ukraine, but after laying waste to some of their cities and much of their infrastructure, taking tens of thousands of casualties and losing maybe half of our armored forces and one of our largest warships, we've gone back to the jumping-off point because we've taught them not to fuck with Mother Russia."

Right.

Second, even if that were possible, the Russians would insist on a demilitarized Ukraine, so as to make their next invasion easier. The Ukrainians would never agree to that. Conversely, the Ukrainians would more likely adopt a Swiss-style system, with every possible resident trained and with their mustering kit, including weapons and sealed tins of ammunition, kept to hand. AGTMs and MANPADs would also be widely distributed.

Third, as I understand things, nobody can join the EU if there is a border dispute. Ceding territory to Russia resolves that and, other than the Parisian Surrender Monkey and Putler's Hungarian Poodle, there will be a lot of interest in immediately integrating Ukraine into the EU. Having several prospering EU members next door is not what Putler wants.

Fourth, one of the causes of this war is the fact that Putler doesn't believe that Ukraine has a right to exist. Losing this war won't change that belief for him. Worse, he will tell his people, over and over, that Russia would have easily won but for the meddling of the glabalists, the West, and, yes, the Jews.

Fifth, if Ukraine indeed had a weak national identity, that problem was resolved on February 24th. I'm not sure what the Ukrainian word for "quisling" is, but it will apply to all of those criminals who are helping the Russians. It is not beyond the realm of possibility that the Ukrainians will attempt to make things "interesting" for the collaborators.

We've been down this road before, in Europe. It didn't end well then and it won't end well, now. There is only one solution that I see that will not result in another war once the Russians rebuild their army, and that is a solution that only the Russians can implement.

State Terrorism

A missile hit a train station in eastern Ukraine where thousands had gathered Friday, killing at least 52 and wounding dozens more in an attack on a crowd of mostly women and children trying to flee a new, looming Russian offensive, Ukrainian authorities said.

The idea that the Russians didn't know that they were attacking is simply not credible. Russia is like an abusive husband or father: When he beats or kills someone, it's the fault of the victim for not submitting.

This is how the Nazis justified slaughtering civilians--it was the fault of thise being invaded for resisting the invading armies. Everything was right and proper if the Germans were doing it and immoral if it was done to them.

I have been reading Berlin Diary by William Shirer. The parallels between the Nazi regime and the Putin regime are striking, including the propaganda used to justify their wars. It's pretty ckear who are pkaying the roles of the Nazis this time around.

If you do business with Russia, you would have done business with Nazi Germany. We all know who you are.

Russia Proclaims Itself to be the Victim, Here, and Asserts That the Ukrainians Intended to Conquer the World

No, Gentle Reader, that is not hyperbole. That is what the Russians are telling their own people. The Russians are telling their people that Ukraine intended to conquer the world. Their plan for Ukraine was to stamp out any hint of Ukrainian identity, essentially put most of the population into forced labor camps and execute anyone who even looked up in protest. They are telling their people that Russia is doing the world a great favor and willingly shouldering the entire cost of eliminiating the Ukrainians as a people.

The Russians believe that the remaining people in Ukraine will be grateful to be incorporated into a kleptocratic, authoritarian Russian state, rather than live in a nation that is part of a free and prosperous European Union.

Don't believe me? Go read their justification for yourself.

Nobody believed the Nazis when they said what they intended to do. The politicians of other nations (now known as "the appeasers") all said that the ravings of Hitler and his cronies were all for domestic consumption, that the Nazi state would be reasonable in its dealings with other nations because it was in their economic interests to do so.

We should believe the Russians when they say what they will do. If you believe that the article is the opinion of only one person, think again. Nothing like that would be published in Russia without the approval of the government.

Actions in Russian-occupied territory in Ukraine, territory that has been liberated by Ukrainians, has shown that the Russian article is pretty accurate as to what the Russians intend to do: Level the country and kill almost everyone in it.

Almost every resource that can be supplied to the Ukrainians should be supplied.