Midterms Just Bump in the Road for Mainstream Propagandists

No correction is in the cards.

by J. Peder Zane for American Greatness

The great paradox—and shame—of the New York Times, Washington Post, and many other prestigious news outlets is that they are brimming with top-notch reporters and editors who consistently produce stellar work. Yet, that distinguished journalism stands as a stark indictment of their political coverage, which insistently betrays the best traditions of the profession. It’s not a bug, it’s a feature.

They know that Hillary Clinton’s campaign manufactured the false claim, embraced and amplified by the highest levels of the Department of Justice and the FBI, that Donald Trump conspired with the Russians to steal the 2016 race. Instead of working to expose this massive effort at election denial, they advanced the conspiracy theory for years before working to cover up the truth as it emerged.

They know that significant questions surround the business dealings of Joe Biden’s son Hunter and his brother James—including evidence from their former business partner that the president himself lied about and profited from these deals. Instead of using their vast resources and talent to probe this alleged malfeasance, they have largely ignored the mounting evidence of corruption.

Instead of shining a light, they have intentionally kept their audiences in the dark regarding stories of the greatest consequence. (No doubt those readers were surprised to learn this week about record early voting in Georgia since the state’s new voting law had been described to them as “Jim Crow 2.0.” Likewise, they were probably shocked to learn that despite the plague of “systemic racism” in the U.S. healthcare system, whites are now more likely to die from COVID than blacks.)

One can only wonder how those readers are responding to the polls which increasingly suggest big Republican victories in next month’s elections. Yes, the out-of-power party usually thrives in off-year midterms. But this anticipated red wave is taking place after most mainstream news sources have relentlessly cast the GOP as the second coming of the Third Reich.

For months, Democrats and their powerful media allies have been treating January 6 as if it were Pearl Harbor or 9/11, issuing thousands of fearsome reports across their homepages and airwaves. The president created a bogeyman label—MAGA Republicans—which mainstream reporters have echoed to frame the coming midterms as a battle to save democracy.

No rational American who believes what he reads and hears in the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Associated Press, NPR, NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, the far-left Atlantic, the New Yorker (and on and on and on) could possibly support the GOP. “If you care about the future of America, democracy and your own rights” USA Today columnist Jill Lawrence declared, “don’t vote for Republicans. Any of them.”

Their house-on-fire coverage bludgeons Americans with the message that fascism and white supremacy are the real ballot measures at stake in the midterms and that our nation will become an authoritarian hellhole if Democrats do not prevail. In their telling, no decent person could vote for these monsters.

This message is not just false, it is despicable. It reflects a deep contempt for the American people. We are not a nation of haters. The vast majority of us hold sacred the rule of law under the Constitution. The mob who attacked the Capitol on January 6 are a fringe minority. Those who argue otherwise, which includes most Democratic leaders and their lackeys at prestigious news outlets, are the greater danger. They insistently demonize their opponents and divide the nation. Their constant alarms about a brewing Civil War sound more like a desire for conflict than a warning.

If the polls are correct, the looming midterms may prove to be a reaffirmation of the wisdom of the crowd. Despite the relentless propaganda spewed by elite news organizations, the American people can still identify the issues that matter: runaway inflation and high interest rates, violent crime, an insecure border, and the excesses of woke ideology. The challenges they face in their daily lives define reality far more than the ideological fantasies they are told to believe.

Unfortunately, this repudiation of their false narratives will have no effect on mainstream news outlets. No correction is in the cards. What is most likely is that they will redouble their efforts to shape the national discourse, which helps explain why Hillary Clinton and the FBI have not been held to account for their Russiagate perfidy and why the president remains unscathed by his family’s suspect business dealings. Election results are just a bump in the road on their long march.

Their business model does not depend on providing the nation with accurate and fearless coverage. They serve a hardcore of true believers who don’t know, don’t care, or even desire to be misled. James Bennet, who was forced from his job as editorial page editor of the New York Times for running an op-ed which offended woke sensibilities, said subscribers expect that the so-called paper of record “will be Mother Jones on steroids.”

That is the present danger.

And we Know, On the Fringe, and more- Oct 29

 

Man, that was a nice long nap! Here's tonight's news:

America, World War III, and Space-Based Missile Defense

America needs an immediate, robust program for space-based missile and hypersonic weapons defense before our enemies exploit our weakness.

by Brandon J. Weichert for American Greatness

The United States is staring down the barrel of another world war. Like previous world wars, the coming conflict will be fought using weapons and tactics with which we are currently unfamiliar—and it will require strategic thinking unlike the kind that dominated the previous century’s conflicts. 

Nuclear weapons, used with great effect in World War II to end that terrible conflict, will likely be used to initiate the next. The likeliest use of these terrible weapons will be by Russia in their unjust war against Ukraine. But, even if Ukraine is not where the atomic devastation occurs, China is very near the point of initiating an invasion against democratic Taiwan. And the mad mullahs of Iran appear on the brink of nuclear weapons breakout—as does the North Korean tinpot dictator, Kim Jong-un. 

It is a question of “when” rather than “if” the nuclear genie is loosed from its bottle.

Nuclear weapons have been with us for decades. We have perfected the murderous science behind these ghastly weapons to the point that great powers, like the United States, Russia, and China, all possess the ability to visit nuclear Armageddon upon each other (and the world). Despite having lived through the harrowing days of the Cold War, the United States never seriously invested in a reliable defense against nuclear weapons. In fact, most American leaders scorned the very concept of building reliable defenses against nuclear weapons as “destabilizing.”

After squandering precious time to develop a viable defense against nuclear weapons, Washington should immediately redirect as many resources as possible to the creation and deployment of space-based defenses as well as other ballistic missile defense systems. 

During the Cold War, the bureaucracy resisted Ronald Reagan’s calls for space-based missile defense on the grounds that the technology to create such a revolutionary system was not yet available (none other than legendary Hungarian-American Dr. Edward Teller, father of the neutron bomb, disagreed with the skeptics). Plus, the naysayers complained, deploying a defensive system into orbit to render nuclear arms obsolete would precipitate the very sort of nuclear attack the defensive system was designed to protect against. 

The Soviet Union—now the Russian Federation—was assumed incapable of competing with America’s high-tech innovation. Moscow, meanwhile, determined that only a large arsenal of nuclear weapons could withstand the American threat. Mutual assured destruction (MAD), or so the argument went, prevented either the Russians or the Americans from using nuclear weapons against one another in war. 

Deterrence Is Dead

Even if this interpretation of Cold War history and modern Russo-American nuclear weapons policies were accurate (and there’s plenty of evidence suggesting that even during the Cold War, Moscow believed it could win a nuclear war), the fact that Moscow today is threatening to use nuclear weapons in a “special military operation” in Ukraine indicates that the purported stabilizing aspect of MAD is dead.

Deterrence as we’ve understood the term is dead for the simple reason that America’s foes have cracked the code on how to use military force or even the threat of military action to deter the United States from deploying its own defensive measures against those aggressive actions. In Ukraine, where the Russians are clearly the aggressors, the United States understandably worries about escalation. We fear escalation because our leaders, while they may not admit this publicly, have rendered America vulnerable to nuclear blackmail and escalation. 

All of this could have been avoided—and can still be overcome today—with the right mixture of political will, massive infusion of tax dollars, and a belief in U.S. know-how to overcome the grave situation.

Today, America finally has the capabilities to build a space-based missile defense system. It will be costly; but nothing could be costlier than the lives lost and destruction wrought from a nuclear attack on the United States or its allies. 

Hypersonic Weapons Needed

Similarly, hypersonic weapons have been stuck in development hell for 20 years. Sadly, America’s enemies—both China and, to a lesser extent, Russia—have developed and are perfecting the technology. The United States has its own arsenal under construction. Here again, America is “leading from behind.” Russia has already attempted to deploy a hypersonic missile in Ukraine with mixed results. The mere deployment, even if unsuccessful, of such an experimental weapon in combat allows for Russia’s military scientists to make modifications and learn more about the potential of the weapon. 

China’s hypersonic program is much more sophisticated than Russia’s and is designed to directly threaten the continental United States. What’s more, the United States lacks the kind of early warning and air defense systems needed to detect and destroy hypersonic weapons that may be heading toward the American mainland.

Most defense experts believe that the United States government should invest in a layered network of sophisticated satellites that would be capable of tracking incoming hypersonic weapons and deploying effective countermeasures against those weapons as they approach their American targets. 

The United States is facing a potential world war that it might lose because it has failed to make investments into the systems it needs to protect itself. We are now beholden to the violent whims and irrational threats of our rivals when, given America’s high-tech capabilities, no country should have the means to threaten us as Russia and China—even Iran and North Korea—possess. 

America’s elite fear embracing new technology at the start of this new, possibly nuclear, world war for fear that they could upset whatever balance they believe still exists in the world. In order to catch up to reality, however, American leaders will have to fundamentally reorder their standard operating procedures. America needs to adapt to the demands of 21st-century warfare. After two failed wars in the Middle East, a little strategic innovation is just what history has ordered. 

Failure to adapt to the changing environment will lead to our country’s ruin, just as it destroyed the Austro-Hungary or Ottoman Empires in World War I. 

The crisis we now face is also an opportunity. It is the chance for us to completely end-run the nefarious plans of our enemies before they can engage in the horrific strikes that may precipitate another, devastating world war. The arrival of this revolutionary defensive technology would immediately restore deterrence and remove the risk of nuclear world war. American leaders should demand an immediate, robust program for space-based missile and hypersonic weapons defense before our enemies decide to exploit the weaknesses we’ve allowed to form in our national defense. 

Just Because We Can Tweet Doesn’t Mean We’re Free

Reclaiming our freedom is going to be much more complicated than Elon Musk acquiring Twitter.

by Samuel Mangold Lenett for The Federalist

Marking an end to one of the most annoying “will they, won’t they” phases in recent memory, Elon Musk finally became the owner of Twitter on Thursday. 

The renegade billionaire’s acquisition of the American left’s favorite outlet for both social networking and disseminating regime propaganda raises serious questions about the future of free speech in an era when it was all but a foregone conclusion that it would be mostly relegated to digital ghettos and political echo chambers. 

For too long, Twitter has been an outlet that shuns the average user as it bent over backward to accommodate Democrat politicians, the corrupt American bureaucracy, and genocidal regimes abroad. It participated in some of the most egregious censorship and political interference, so when news broke that Musk had finally sealed the deal and kicked the former high-ranking censor-happy executives Parag Agrawal, Ned Segal, and Vijaya Gadde to the curb, the platform broke out in what could only be described as a chaotic celebration as users began to post their hottest takes. 

In many ways, it was reminiscent of the Great Meme War of 2016 that may or may not — depending on whom you ask — have had a role in the election of President Donald Trump. For a brief moment, the internet was fun again, but this joy — at least for me — was short-lived. People were posting about how happy they were to “be free” and to “have their freedom back,” fully convinced that one man’s purchase would save our nation.  

Yes, Musk bought Twitter and has pledged to end censorship and the suppression of speech on one of the most important digital platforms and, in doing so, caused all the right people (left-wing apparatchiks posing as neutral journalists, entrenched federal bureaucrats, and the global elite in general) to experience a healthy dose of existential dread as they realized their grasp on power isn’t as total as they thought it was, but this does not mean we have reclaimed — or been given back — our freedom. 

The faceless blob composed of the managerial elite, the people who really run the United States — to borrow a phrase from Michael Anton — still have near complete control over every other institution that affects our lives. Sure, they probably can’t ban you on Twitter anymore for saying boys and girls are different, but they will, undoubtedly, find their way into a similar role in some other company that is just as influential. 

The people who censored you on Twitter will find their way into Meta Platforms (the company formerly known as Facebook, Inc.), where they can work not just to suppress your speech but also to throttle your access to your preference of news sources and limit your participation in local online community groups. If they don’t stay in the private sector, maybe they’ll become federal bureaucrats who work to withhold funding from school systems that won’t affirm the gender delusions of young children.

That said, pessimism is for fools, and it ought to be acknowledged that Musk’s acquisition of Twitter is a good thing that should be celebrated. This purchase marks the first substantive win for free speech and intellectual freedom in entirely too long. Alternative tech platforms have existed for some time now, but they simply don’t provide the reach or have the legitimacy that a platform such as Twitter does. Musk’s ownership of Twitter can offer much-needed neutrality for a marketplace of ideas with runaway left-wing inflation. 

But reclaiming our freedom is going to be much more complicated. It requires identifying the ne’er-do-wells in our midst — giving a face to the faceless armchair-activist blob — and ensuring they are prevented from doing further damage while we simultaneously undo the damage they and their ilk have already caused.

Until the people who made Twitter an unusable hellscape are too afraid to censor us, shut down our churches, indoctrinate our children, or interfere with our elections again, we won’t have regained our freedom. 

Hypocritical Politico Hack Warns Republicans Not to 'Overreach' After Midterms

Mike Miller reporting for RedState 

And so it begins. And by “it,” I mean several Democrat things have begun to happen, with the midterm elections just 11 days away, as I write. One, the Democrats and lapdog media have all but thrown in the towel publicly and, two: the left’s amnesia-like hypocrisy has already reached “knows no bounds” territory.

During a Thursday segment on MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports, Politico White House bureau chief Jonathan Lemire told guest host Lindsey Reiser that the Republican Party shouldn’t “be guilty” of overreach” if they regain control of Congress in the midterms, as reported by NewsBusters. And here’s my favorite part: Lemire said that if the GOP does overreach, “the public would turn against them.”

Um… Jonathan? Where have you been the last 19 months? Joe Biden and the Democrats mistakenly took the 2020 election results as a mandate to enact radical leftist legislation and their use of executive overreach to fundamentally change America as we know it.

And, Jonathan? Have you, by chance, seen survey results of likely voters who overwhelmingly believe America is headed in the wrong direction — and who they blame? You might want to check that out before you embarrass yourself on national TV, again.

The festivities began after Reiser referenced an article in The Atlantic titled The Impeachment of Joe Biden, and asked Lemire, with good cause:

All right, Jonathan, even Republicans who were interviewed in this article mention the Hunter issue, saying things got really vague when pressed for wrongdoing by the president. And the article mentions border security, the withdrawal from Afghanistan. How much pressure is [Kevin] McCarthy under to potentially follow through with this?

Lemire wasted zero time, hilariously going full-metal hypocrite:

An extraordinary amount. We hear frequently from members of the Republican House who say that if they take back the majority, we’ve heard this from Matt Gaetz, we’ve heard this from Marjorie Taylor Greene, and the like, they want to begin these investigations and potentially impeachment proceedings almost immediately.

We should be clear, there’s never evidence of a link between President Biden and any wrongdoing that Hunter Biden may have committed, nor has he been charged with any wrongdoing just yet either, but this is something that does loom over this White House and I have some reporting this week about their feelings about the upcoming midterms, it’s some growing anxiety.

Au contraire, re: never evidence of a link between President Biden and any wrongdoing that Hunter Biden may have committed. As I reported on October 24, a federal lawsuit filed by the attorneys general of Missouri and Louisiana, in partnership with red-pilled lawyer Jenin Younes of the New Civil Liberties Alliance, uncovered “astonishing evidence” that top-ranking Biden administration officials colluded with Big Tech to suppress speech about the Hunter Biden laptop scandal.

Nonetheless, Lemire suggested, on a wing and prayer, that Democrats still cling to hope:

They do believe, though publically they still say they have hope, privately, the White House and a lot of Democratic allies do think the House is slipping away. It will be very difficult to retain control of the body and there’s a possibility the Senate could as well. That’s, sort of, deemed as a coin flip right now, a true 50-50 toss up, but all it takes is the House.

If Republicans grab control of that body of Congress, they will have the subpoena power. They’ll be able to carry out a number of investigations and they could slow things down for this White House, trying to move forward.

The risk, though, for Republicans, it could be guilty of overreach. It’s possible the public would turn against them.

I don’t know what Lemire’s background is — other than as a hack for left-wing rag Politico — but dude, are you serious?

Why on earth would the voting public — fed up to its eyeballs with the disastrous results of the most intentionally destructive presidential administration in history — turn against Republicans as they begin to save the Ship of State that Joe Biden and the Democrats have done their damnedest to sink for nearly two years?

While the sheer hypocrisy is hilarious, the complete Democrat lack of self-awareness is the best part.

'De Facto' Candidate Gisele Fetterman Thinks You're an Idiot

Bonchie reporting for RedState 

Democrat John Fetterman’s Pennsylvania senate campaign is reeling following his debate performance, which was legitimately surreal to watch. If you missed it, I can’t possibly describe it in words in a way that would impress upon you just how bad it was, so be sure to click here to see for yourself.

Never fear, though. Fetterman’s overly ambitious wife, described as the “de facto” candidate by Rolling Stone, is doing media appearances in an attempt to save the day. On Thursday, she appeared on something called “Politicon” to share deep thoughts on supposed ableism and racism in swimming pools. You know, real down-to-earth stuff that voters are desperately looking for answers on.

Notice how the narrative has changed. A few months ago, the narrative the Fetterman campaign spun was that he was recovering and would be fine later during the election cycle. In fact, they would attack anyone who suggested he was in worse shape than was being revealed. Even as video clips of Fetterman at rallies began to paint a bleak picture, the insistence that he was just missing a few words due to “auditory processing” issues was the talking point.

After a disastrous MSNBC interview blew that claim up, Fetterman’s campaign (and his wife) quickly shifted to claiming “ableism” about anyone who would dare point out his dire condition. The debate only cemented that strategy because there was just no way to hide what was going on anymore.

I shouldn’t have to say this, but being unable to mentally process one’s own thoughts and speak them is not the same as needing to brighten up an iPhone. To suggest that is insane, and Gisele Fetterman knows it’s insane. Unfortunately, her blind ambition is so great that she’s willing to push her husband past his limits in order to be near the seat of power.

And to be clear, that’s not just idle speculation. This is a woman who has constantly described herself as the “brains of the operation.” She also has a habit of posting pictures of herself leading rallies or with important people without even a hint of her husband being found. Starting out as an illegal immigrant political activist, her lust for power is obvious, and she wants this so badly that she’s apparently willing to do just about anything to get it. That’s not laudable, it’s sad.

Of course, wanting political power and being good at politics are two different things. That was on display when she decided to hit the topic of racist swimming pools.

In a vacuum, you might be able to claim that she’s right because swimming pools were segregated half a century ago during Jim Crow. But the context is what makes her statement so hilarious. Apparently, she was talking about racism in swimming as a way to defend the fact that she and her husband bought a mansion for $1.00.

Imagine making this argument. Imagine anyone believing it. pic.twitter.com/6mV6X91MNj

— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) October 28, 2022

Let me get this straight. Gisele Fetterman, who is part of a campaign that has lambasted Oz for owning mansions, wants you to believe that her mansion is fine because she only accepted it with the dream of turning it into a bastion of racial equality in swimming. I mean, come on.

This woman thinks you are an idiot. She’s so insulated within her leftwing bubble that she truly believes she can say anything and receive plaudits. And while she might be right in terms of the mainstream media, I’m thinking voters might have a different idea. We’ll find out soon enough. 

Elon Musk’s Twitter Buy Is The First Real Accountability Big Tech Censors Face For Their 2020 Election Meddling

Musk’s Twitter firings are the first time any Big Tech censors have faced true accountability for their efforts to stop Trump’s re-election.

Jordan Boyd reporting for The Federalist

Nearly two years after the chaotic, shenanigan-plagued 2020 election, Tesla CEO and new Twitter owner Elon Musk is making the first attempt to hold Big Tech censors responsible for their disgraceful election manipulation tactics.

After a long battle, the mega-billionaire officially acquired his stake in Twitter on Thursday night. His top priority? Firing four of the company’s top executives: CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, legal and safety executive Vijaya Gadde, and General Counsel Sean Edgett.

By the gnashing of teeth and wailing from Twitter employees, corporate media mouthpieces, and other leftist elites who are quick to defend Big Tech censors, a stranger might think these Twitter heads were unjustly ousted. In reality, Agrawal, Segal, Gadde, and Edgett got what should have come to them two years ago when they knowingly interfered with the 2020 election to help install Joe Biden in the White House.

Twitter doesn’t like to admit who on its staff is ultimately responsible for the suppression of information that makes ruling elites and Democrats look bad, especially ahead of key elections, but it was under the now-fired leadership’s watch that Twitter banned and censored conservatives, Covid-19 jab skeptics, election-integrity supporters, legitimate reporting, and those who told the truth about the sexes.

Oftentimes, Twitter executed this censorship with undeniable arrogance and no remorse. That’s why when Agrawal openly admitted that he believed Twitter’s “role is not to be bound by the First Amendment, but our role is to serve a healthy public conversation,” he wasn’t chided for contradicting the social media company’s supposed commitment to advancing free speech. Instead, he was rewarded with a short-lived spot as CEO and congratulated by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey for his “transformational” work. Agrawal quickly used that power to usher in a new era of partisan crackdowns.

Gadde, who handed down the decision to ban the sitting president, wasn’t criticized for unjustly removing the sitting president and world’s biggest critic of Big Tech. Instead, her attempts to keep Trump and his campaign off of the internet were hailed as heroic, necessary, and moral.

Big Tech censors like Agrawal and Gadde don’t deny that they manipulated the flow of information in the months leading up to the 2020 election. Instead, they wear their partisan censorship like a badge of pride. That’s why Mark Zuckerberg had no problem publicly admitting that Facebook was ready to censor whatever information necessary to preserve the elite establishment’s desired outcome for the 2020 presidential race.

“The FBI basically came to us and spoke to some folks on our team and was like, ‘Hey, just so you know, you should be on high alert. We thought that there was a lot of Russian propaganda in the 2016 election. We have it on notice that basically there’s about to be some kind of dump similar to that,’” Zuckerberg said.

The biggest example of that online tampering came in October 2020, weeks before the election, when the New York Post published a series of reports containing key information about the Biden family business as discovered on Hunter Biden’s personal laptop that he had abandoned.

A story documenting how Hunter leveraged his dad’s position as vice president to broker deals that would financially benefit the Biden family could have changed election outcomes had it been given a chance in the public square, but it wasn’t.

Instead, Big Tech censors (including Twitter execs), likely at the behest of the FBI, blocked the New York Post’s scandalous reporting from spreading and sicced their fake fact-checkers to stomp out every nugget of truth about the Biden family’s corruption.

Taking cues from Twitter and Facebook, corporate media outlets refused to cover the abandoned laptop, which exposed Biden’s lie that he never spoke about business with his son. Emails also demonstrated that Biden likely profited from deals Hunter struck with allies of the Chinese Communist Party.

Musk’s decision to clean house is the first time any of the Big Tech censors have faced true accountability for their perversion of power and abuse of influence to keep Trump from getting re-elected (something tech overlords planned to do since Trump was first elected in 2016).

The likelihood that Twitter’s former executives will stay out of Silicon Valley jobs where they can continue their meddling is low. After all, there are plenty of other Big Tech companies out there that would likely welcome such effective opponents of free speech.

Musk’s commitment to rooting out these opponents, however, is a great example of how to expose and eradicate corruption that taints our nation’s most important democratic process. Musk should continue his quest to punish those who mar Americans’ trust in “free and fair” elections. There are many more offenders worth pursuing.

Dozens in cardiac arrest in Halloween crowds in South Korea

 

Dozens of people are reported to be in cardiac arrest in a popular night spot in South Korea's capital, Seoul.

President Yoon Suk-Yeol ordered a disaster response team to Itaewon, Yongsan-gu district.

The fire department said there had been 81 reports of "shortness of breath" amid reports of a crush.

There were reportedly 100,000 night revellers in the area celebrating the first outdoor no-mask Halloween event since the pandemic.

Video footage shows a number of people being treated on the street by emergency services, surrounded by large crowds.

The streets of Seoul were full of people celebrating Halloween.

Social media messages posted earlier in the evening show some people remarking that the Itaewon area was so crowded that it felt unsafe.  

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-63440849   

'Massive' drone attack on Black Sea Fleet - Russia

 

Ukraine has carried out a "massive" drone attack on the Black Sea Fleet in the Crimean port city of Sevastopol, damaging one warship, Russia says.

Nine drones were used, a top official said. Ukraine has not commented.

Without providing evidence, Russia accused British troops of being involved in Saturday's attack - and in blowing up gas pipelines last month.

In its response, the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) said Russia was "peddling false claims of an epic scale".

Russia said the ships targeted in Saturday's attack were involved in the internationally-brokered deal to allow grain exports from Ukrainian ports and hours later announced that it was suspending its participation in it.

The attack comes as Ukrainian troops successfully retake territory occupied by Russian troops since they launched their invasion on 24 February.

Russia has replied by launching large-scale attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure, particularly on the country's energy grid.

Crimea was annexed by Russia from Ukraine in 2014 and is extremely symbolic for Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

In recent weeks, several attacks have hit the peninsula, where the Russian army has built up a large presence.

Sevastopol is the largest city in the region and home to Russia's Black Sea fleet.

Mikhail Razvozhaev, the Russian-installed governor of the city, said Russia's navy had repelled the latest attack - the "most massive" on the city since February.

He said that all unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) had been shot down and no "civilian infrastructure" had been damaged.

At least one vessel sustained minor damage, the Russian ministry of defence said.

"In the course of repelling a terrorist attack on the outer roadstead of Sevastopol, the use of naval weapons and naval aviation of the Black Sea Fleet destroyed four marine unmanned vehicles, three more devices were destroyed on the internal roadstead," a statement from the ministry read.

The Ukrainian government rarely comments on claims made by Russian authorities in Crimea, although senior officials often celebrate incidents in the peninsula. 

 

Ukraine has vowed to recapture all territory that is under Russian occupation, including Crimea, which has been a key base for President Putin's forces during the invasion of Ukraine.

Without providing any evidence, the Russian defence ministry also accused British navy specialists of helping Ukrainian forces prepare the attack on Saturday morning.

It also said the same unit was "involved in plotting, organising, and implementation of the terrorist attack in the Baltic Sea on 26 September this year to blow up the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines".

In its reply, the MoD said: "To detract from their disastrous handling of the illegal invasion of Ukraine, the Russian Ministry of Defence is resorting to peddling false claims of an epic scale.  

"This invented story, says more about arguments going on inside the Russian Government than it does about the west."

In recent days, Russia has been engaged in what US and Ukrainian officials describe as a disinformation campaign, with unsubstantiated claims that Kyiv is preparing to use a radioactive dirty bomb, or even biological mosquitoes.

Russia has also claimed that the ships targeted on Saturday morning were involved in ensuring the "grain corridor" as part of the international initiative to export agricultural products from Ukrainian ports.

The agreement, brokered by the UN and Turkey, allowed Ukraine to resume its Black Sea grain exports, which had been blocked when Russia invaded the country. It was personally negotiated by the UN secretary general and celebrated as a major diplomatic victory that helped ease a global food crisis.

But Russia complains that its own exports are still hindered, and had previously suggested it might not renew the deal.

In recent days, Kyiv has accused Moscow of deliberately delaying the passage of ships, creating a queue of more than 170 vessels.

Russia's Black Sea Fleet was previously targeted in April this year by Ukrainian forces when its flagship, the cruiser Moskva, was sunk. The 510-crew missile cruiser had led Russia's naval assault on Ukraine, and its sinking was a major symbolic and military blow.

Earlier this month, a blast occurred on the Crimean bridge - a pivotal symbol of Russia's annexation of Crimea.

The blast killed three people, Russian investigators said.  

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-63437212   

Joe Biden is a lying sack of crap

Why lie about something every sentient 

human being knows is a lie?

posted by Dianny at Patriot Retort

For all the screeching about how often Donald Trump lied, he can’t hold a candle to that lying sack of crap Joe Biden.

You know, it’s one thing for Joe Biden to exaggerate his life story. But this sack of crap doesn’t just spin fanciful tales about his acts of derring-do. No, not Joe Biden. He also makes provably, demonstrably false statements about the very economy we are all currently living through.

Yesterday, the decrepit old codger was in my neck of the woods speaking at Onondaga Community College, which could explain why I witnessed mothers frantically rushing their pre-pubescent daughters to safety.

And during his speech, Joe stood on that stage and told the audience that the price of gas when he took office was over $5 a gallon.

Can you believe this asshole?

I just checked the White House website to see if they edited his remarks the way they usually do to correct that flagrant lie.

They haven’t. It still says gas was over $5 a gallon when he took office.

Gas didn’t exceed $5 a gallon until this summer, a good 18 months after Joe Biden took office.

Oddly enough, the Washington Post’s resident fact-checker Glenn Kessler, who kept a running tally of all of Trump’s lies and exaggerations, hasn’t said a word about this latest monstrous lie from that sack of crap Biden.

Not that we need a supposed fact-checker to do that. Everybody who either buys gas or drives past a gas station is fully aware that gas prices were far lower when Joe took office than they are today. We all sure as hell know gas wasn’t over $5 a gallon.

Why lie about something every sentient human being knows is a lie?

Joe can spin his fanciful tales of getting arrested while trying to see Nelson Mandela or brokering peace between Egypt and Israel during the 6-Day War. And those lies take some time and research to fact-check.

But lying about the price of gas to people who have to pay for gas isn’t just idiotic. It also shows a craven and cynical disregard for reality.

It wasn’t the only thing he lied about yesterday.

In addition to boasting about the price of gas, Biden also claimed inflation is down and real incomes are up.

In the absence of fact-checkers, media reporter Joe Concha noted the facts on Twitter:

“Inflation when taking office: 1.4%; Now: 8.3%; Wages not keeping up with inflation; Price of gas when taking office: $2.39, currently $3.84. The audacity is truly something to behold as fact-checkers continue their 22-month Spring Break.”

And it is audacious, isn’t it?

This sack of crap burps out such mendacious lies, it’s a wonder he doesn’t get struck by lightning every time he opens his mouth.

Is it that Joe’s brain has dissolved into mush to the point where he doesn’t know what’s going on in the world around him?

National Review writer Dan McLaughlin observed, “It’s hard by now to tell Biden’s lies from Biden’s inability to know what he’s talking about.”

As I said in my column “Fiction Creep,” Joe Biden is an inveterate liar.

He’s been bullshitting his way through public life since he arrived in Washington a half-century ago.

But to lie about what Americans are experiencing daily in his bungled economy? Good heavens, that beggars belief.