Notices by Mark Kraft (krafttea@mastodon.social), page 3

Journalist Ken Klippenstein was suspended from X for posting this.
Ergo, I'm sharing it.

https://www.kenklippenstein.com/p/read-the-jd-vance-dossier

Looks like Biden is dishing up $5.8B in arms for Ukraine, PLUS $2.4B for additional training, equipment, and advisory efforts PLUS the $375M military aid effort.

Worth noting:
Biden and the Democrats played Trump, in a HUUUUGE kind of way here.

House Spkr. Johnson was put in the position of either approving the already granted $6B for Ukr. in a temp. funding bill to avoid a govt. shutdown, angering the far right / Trump / MAGA crowd, or dropping it from the legislation.

Now the Democrats can say that the speaker played politics with a govt. shut down and caved to Trump & Putin, while Trump, impotent and raving, is left twisting in the wind.

A chart shared by Prune602, tracking Russian fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) prices over the past few years. This largely tracks the inflation in prices of vegetables, fruit, and dairy.

What it shows, predictably over the years, is a drop in prices as the harvests come in.

This year, of course, is the line at the top of the chart. And, as you can see, it's gone up over harvest time, and shows no sign of falling.

Poor harvests should, in fact, drive up prices significantly by the holidays.

Y'know... I'm actually pretty cool with the idea of Russians paying more for smuggled luxury items.

I think of where their money could be going, instead of on an overpriced Mercedes - even as their own auto industry struggles - and smile.

@gabrielesvelto @anderspuck Russia has been moving the crews of its Navy, in many cases, clear across the continent, to die in Ukraine. They have also been doing ridiculous things, such as using drone pilots and tank crews as storm infantry.

In a very real sense, they are burning through expertise and borrowing from units they have no obvious plans to rebuild anytime soon.

People talk about increased Russian military spending, as if that means proportionately more troops, weapons, etc. Not so.

@NeonPurpleStar There appears to be no functionality on mastodon.social that would do something similarly useful.

Increased Russian defense spending sounds impressive, until you factor in Russian inflation & currency devaluation.

Speaking of which:
84.87 rubles to the dollar on August 5th, around the time of the Kursk offensive.
Currently at 92.98. A change of nearly 10%.
The yuan vs. ruble rate has been looking just as bad.

Also, keep in mind that Russia now has huge, rapidly increasing expenses related to soldiers who have been killed and wounded, that are, in many cases, recurring debt / overhead.

Forbes.ru mentions a Russian government-linked economic research group, predicting recurring, huge budget deficits in the upcoming years... hahahahahahaha!

"**The deficit may grow to 3 trillion rubles in 2025 and to 3.7 trillion in 2026. However, even this level of deficit does not threaten the security of the financial system of the country, experts emphasize."**

hahahahahahaha! <snort!>
These mofos aren't even right about the numbers, much less their implications!

https://www.forbes.ru/finansy/521327-institut-veba-sprognoziroval-rost-deficita-budzeta-v-blizajsie-gody

Zelensky's interview with the New Yorker is pretty significant as to its implications. It shows Zelensky's peace plan to be decisive before January as to what his partners give or promise Ukraine to deter Putin, defanging Trump's threats.

It shows Zelensky telling Trump this, directly. It implies a political and potentially a criminal trap, should Trump & the GOP interfere.

It has Zelensky visiting Scranton, too Something he wouldn't do w/o Biden's implicit support.
https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-new-yorker-interview/volodymyr-zelensky-has-a-plan-for-ukraines-victory

You know what we've NEVER seen before, AFAIK?

The toppling of a democratic system of government that doesn't revert to something closer to totalitarianism, rather than reform.

Presumably, we're just supposed to repeatedly fall into tyranny, war, and, most likely, a healthy dollop of genocide, until we luck out on our roll and get a utopia?!

Or, alternately, maybe we can get closer over time, through intent, while still maintaining that which does work?!

I'm no huge fan of capitalism, but if your argument is that capitalism hasn't fully gotten rid of poverty & inequality, and needs to be replaced - with something undefined - that, to me, is essentially the argument that the rightwing uses against, say, public health care.

It doesn't matter that capitalism has observably and repeatedly reduced poverty & hunger in most situations, because something, systematically, is still imperfect.

New systems grow out of old ones. Capitalism can be changed.

Those KABs are no joke, but the Ukrainian soldiers are there to protect Sumy from an anticipated attack.
Here's hoping the Ukrainian defenders are well dug in.

Progressives, in general, NEED TO THINK STRATEGICALLY & GLOBALLY.

Do you think Elon Musk only advances his political goals in the US?
DO you think Steve Bannon was focused on America, when he toured Europe and started mainstreaming and directing Republican $$ to European fascists like Viktor Orban?!

Hell no!

I want the U.S. left to work strategically with the European left to register & turn out voters & stand up to neonazis & Putin's lackeys, no matter which country they're in!

Russian dva_majors admit it:

"One of the targets... was an ammunition depot... north of the village of Kamenny in Krasnodar Krai... the media shows footage of a powerful explosion with the sounds of secondary detonations. A nearby settlement was evacuated...

The latest raids... clearly demonstrate that one of the targets of the attacks... has become large ammunition depots... given the high volumes of production of enemy drones... it is worth expecting that such raids will only intensify."

Thermal image of another strike on a 2nd ammo depot near Toropets.
Looks like it hit in the dark area in the center and burned outwards... currently in the process of taking out most everything they had. The storage for this ordnance not being as protected as the other depot.

Big Russian attempt to charge the line with troop transports near Donetsk...
followed by big slaughter of Russians by Ukraine's 33rd Brigade.

Russian ammo storage in Tikhoretsk hit badly... still very toasty.

Widespread flooding in Budapest, as Viktor Orban focuses on fashy stuff.

Russia, with a bit of help from Putin, Alexander Dugin and his religious / nationalist friends, is reportedly about to crack down on birth control, divorce, and being single.

Emergent Handmaid's Tale creepiness.
Source: https://ria-m.tv/news/360422/v-okkupirovannom-melitopole-budut-prodavat-prezervativyi-tolko-po-pasportu.html