Russia Invades Ukraine. Again
POSTED BY: captaincrunch
UPDATED: Sunday, September 6, 2026 21:09
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Options to seize Russian assets and funnel them to Ukraine
By Natasha Bertrand | Fri January 12, 2024, 12:00 PM EST
Officials have spent the last year quietly trying to figure out how to divert billions of dollars in frozen Russian money to cash-starved Ukraine.
The proposal the US has hit on, described in detail here for the first time, is based on a novel legal theory to justify seizing and transferring to Ukraine the roughly $300 billion in Russian Central Bank assets.
The legal case is necessary, officials explained, not only so that the US is on solid legal ground in the event that Moscow challenges the seizures in an international forum or in a US court, but also so that the US can convince a critical mass of allies to join in the effort.
The US has put a new twist on the law, however, by arguing that instead of returning the seized assets to Moscow if it comes back into compliance, the West can keep the money as a down payment of sorts toward what Russia will owe Ukraine anyway for its reconstruction.
“It is temporary and reversible insofar as Russia is going to owe Ukraine much more than that ($300 B) for the unbelievable damage Russia has inflicted,” the senior administration official said. “And really, it’s Russia’s obligation to make up the difference in time.” The US would describe these assets as a “credit” towards what Russia will eventually owe, the official added.
Much more at https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/12/politics/us-proposal-russian-assets-ukr
aine/index.html
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Options to seize Russian assets and funnel them to Ukraine
Oh good. We don't have to give any more money from the Social Security fund to child rapist Zelensky now.
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Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.
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Quote:How much would payroll tax need to be increased to keep Social Security solvent?
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Options to seize Russian assets and funnel them to Ukraine
Oh good. We don't have to give any more money from the Social Security fund to child rapist Zelensky now.
An immediate increase in the combined payroll tax rate from 12.4 percent to 14.4 percent would be sufficient to allow full payment of the scheduled benefits for the next 75 years.
https://www.google.com/search?q=how+much+would+payroll+tax+need+to+be+
increased+to+keep+Social+Security+solvent
If you are 6ix, you won't know that SS taxes only pay for SS benefits, nothing else. Certainly not pay for foreign policy decisions.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Quote:
Journalist Gonzalo Lira Reported Dead In Ukrainian Custody
Friday, Jan 12, 2024 - 02:20 PM
Journalist Gonzalo Lira has died while in Ukrainian custody, according to his father.
"Gonzalo Lira, Sr. says his son has died at 55 in a Ukrainian prison, where he was being held for the crime of criticizing the Zelensky and Biden governments," wrote Tucker Carlson on X. "Gonzalo Lira was an American citizen, but the Biden administration clearly supported his imprisonment and torture."
In May, Lira was arrested by Ukrainian authorities because he “publicly justified” the Russian invasion, according to a press release by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU).
The statement from Kiev said that Lira “has the citizenship of one of the countries of Latin America” but omitted that he is also California-born U.S. citizen, as ZeroHedge contributor Space Worm reported at the time.
Following his release, Lira said he was tortured in a Ukrainian prison, explaining that "two thugs held my head and used a toothpick to scratch the whites of my left eye, while asking me if I could still read if I had just one." Lira informed followers that he was making a mad-dash via motorcycle towards the Hungarian border:
According to journalist Alex Rubernstein, Lira said that he had double pneumonia (both lungs), which was ignored by the Ukrainian prison holding him.
"I have had double pneumonia (both lungs) as well as pneumothorax and a very severe case of edema (swelling of the body). All this started in mid-October, but was ignored by the prison. They only admitted I had pneumonia at a Dec. 22 hearing," reads the letter. "I am about to have a procedure to reduce the edema pressure in my lungs, which is causing me extreme shortness of breath, to the point of passing out after minimal activity, or even just talking for 2 minutes."
In response to Lira's reported death, his father allegedly wrote: "I cannot accept the way my son has died. He was tortured, extorted, incommunicado for 8 months and 11 days and the US Embassy did nothing to help my son. The responsibility of this tragedy is the dictator Zelensky with the concurrence of a senile American President, Joe Biden." ,
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/journalist-gonzalo-lira-reported-d
ead-ukrainian-custody-according-father
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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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Who is this guy Signym writes about?
Edward Hunter Christie @EHunterChristie knows who he is:
So, apparently, low-life clown Gonzalo Lira really is dead. His trajectory is well documented. And yet American pro-Moscow agitators such as @TuckerCarlson bent the known facts beyond recognition so as to present Lira as some kind of martyr and so as to demonise Ukraine as it continues to fight a harrowing war for its national survival.
This tells us that Tucker Carlson is a deeply evil and perverted man. A pied piper for calculated callousness in the face of fascism and war.
Quote: So while it's unfortunate that Gonzalo Lira has died, I really can't bring myself to feel any remorse.
As a failed pick-up artist who encouraged and taught men how to sleep with impoverished Eastern European women who turned Russian shill while Russia was attacking Ukraine he was nothing more than a dirt bag.
He was first warned by Ukrainian authorities that his actions were illegal, yet he continued.
He was then placed under house arrest, a very lenient punishment here in Ukraine.
He then violated the conditions of his house arrest by attempting to escape to Hungary.
Ironically he contracted severe pneumonia, something he struggled with and died in a Kharkiv hospital, a city which is constantly attacked by the country he supported.
Honestly, I wouldn't care if the Tate brothers rotted in a Romanian prison either.
3:36 AM · Jan 13, 2024
https://twitter.com/EHunterChristie/status/1746104032341455266
More about Gonzalo Lira at https://www.google.com/search?q=Gonzalo+Lira
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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The War That Neither Ukraine nor the West Can Afford to Lose
By Serhii Plokhy | 12 Jan 2024, 04:09 PM IST ( with inputs from The Wall Street Journal )
https://www.livemint.com/special-report/the-war-that-neither-ukraine-n
or-the-west-can-afford-to-lose-11705055921894.html
The war between Russia and Ukraine can continue indefinitely unless the West realizes that what’s at stake isn’t just the fate of Ukraine but the future of the West itself.
As the New Year arrived in Ukraine with the Russian missile attack on Kyiv on the early morning of Jan. 1, 2023, there were two main questions on the minds of policy makers around the world. The first pertained to the fate of the continuing Russian winter offensive, while the second concerned the results of the planned Ukrainian spring counteroffensive.
The answer to the first question came in May when Yevgeny Prigozhin withdrew his Wagner Group troops from the ruins of Bakhmut. Taking control of Bakhmut had come at a high cost to Wagner, with perhaps 20,000 soldiers killed, most of them convicts recruited by Prigozhin from Russian prisons.
This was the sole significant success of the offensive. Bakhmut was to remain under Russian control, but Prigozhin rebelled when the Kremlin decided it didn’t need his services and ordered to roll his troops into the regular Russian army. The mutiny revealed fissures between the Russian political and military leadership, which didn’t rush to protect the regime. The Kremlin eventually assassinated Prigozhin, but the military brass’s dissatisfaction with Putin’s handling of the war suggested possible trouble in the future.
The counteroffensive
The failure of the Russian offensive opened the door for Ukraine’s June counteroffensive. Despite some optimistic predictions, the destruction of the Russian Army-controlled section of the Kakhovka Dam on the Dnipro River effectively dashed Ukrainian hopes of using the dam as a bridge to cross the Dnipro and sever the supply lines connecting Russian troops in the south of Ukraine with their logistical hubs in Crimea.
As a result, the situation on the mainland reached a stalemate. Less than 200 square miles changed hands since the beginning of the year. Russia managed to stabilize the front line by bringing at least 300,000 additional soldiers and officers into the Russian army. Ukraine, as well as being outnumbered 3 to 1 in terms of manpower, lacked superiority and often even parity in firepower.
While the Ukrainians had received tanks, fighting vehicles and antiaircraft missile batteries, they didn’t receive the F-16 fighters they had requested, nor the U.S. ATACMS long-range guided missiles. Delays in supply were caused by various reasons, including disagreements between NATO commanders and their Ukrainian counterparts on the required weaponry and timing, quarrels between the allies on who should supply what (notably the public dispute between the U.S. and Germany regarding supply of Leopard and Abrams tanks), and White House concerns about crossing Putin’s red lines and provoking a nuclear war.
No end in sight
But efforts to prevent the war from escalating no doubt will contribute to lengthening it, likely through 2024 and beyond.
What’s more, the battles of 2024 will be fought amid a political event—the U.S. presidential election—that will be as important to the future of the war as any individual offensive. The U.S. remains the largest Western supplier of weapons to Ukraine and is second only to the European Union in financial assistance to Kyiv. The political uncertainty in the U.S. will greatly affect the country’s ability to provide Ukraine with crucial military aid.
Ukraine is likely to face a shortage of munitions at some point in the coming year. Yet it takes time for Ukraine’s Western partners to increase the production of munitions. The U.S. has already doubled the production of some artillery shells, but there is long way to go to meet the demands of the Ukrainian front.
Meantime, the European Union is unlikely to meet its pledge to suppl
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Gonzalo Lira
Quote:
In October 1996, Lira made a deal with G. P. Putnam's Sons to publish his first... book called Counterparts. The story is about a strong female FBI agent and her "counterpart," a CIA operative. In 1997, he released a Spanish novel called Tomáh Errázurih. In 1998, he directed a short action film called So Kinky. His second book, Acrobat, came out in 2002. In 2005, he filmed Secuestro in Chile, which did well in the box office during its opening weekend. Between 2010 and 2013, Lira shared his ideas about economics and other topics on his blog. Sometimes, he reposted them on Business Insider and Naked Capitalism. He also contributed to a financial website called Zero Hedge. In that time, he contacted economist Steve Keen to work together on a project, but Keen mentioned that Lira made big promises and didn't deliver, leading to issues with collaborators and employees. Starting in 2017, Lira was active on YouTube using the name Coach Red Pill (CRP). He shared content that was disrespectful towards women and anti-feminist, attracting the attention of a group called incels. Lira's videos gave advice like "never date a woman in her thirties" and claimed that women only want money, a house, and kids. In one video, he suggested people in Western democracies move to a less developed country because of his concerns about COVID-19 vaccines. He posted many videos, gaining subscribers and views. In November 2021, Lira deleted most of his CRP content and started using his real name. He lived in Kharkiv and had a family with a Ukrainian woman, with whom he had one daughter.
I listened to many of his videos from Kharkiv. He rarely spoke DIRECTLY about the war's effect on the city, altho he videoed missile damage from the streets once or twice. He used to host a program called "Roundtable" where he and two or three guests would discuss a variety of political and economic topics.
Of all of the rountable discussions I've heard over the years, IMHO he was THE BEST host and moderator. Conversation flowed from one person to another and one interesting idea to another. Prompted by Lira's questions, following a person's train of thought and either extending it or counterposing it in unexpected ways, and passing that ball to someone else.
The guy was brilliant. DREAMTROVE (on his better days) brilliant. But foolhardy and an attention whore. He knew the SBU was looking for him, and for months every listener expected that video to be his last. And finally, it was.
The American Embassy should have interevened and had Lira deported. No American should die in a foreign jail for expressing an opinion, and nobody should excuse his death by slagging his personality.
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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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So, Russia's largest missile/ drone attacks on Ukraine were on Dec 29, Jan 3, Jan 8, and Jan 13. Anyone besides me notice a pattern?
*****
Russia is still having problems with drones whenever they go on a (local) offensive, which exposes their equipment and soldiers. I think their solution to the problem is to deny drone manufacturing and NATO ISR as much as possible because they haven't been able able to solve the drone problem at the front line.
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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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Quote:Evil is not a once-and-done with Russians. They repeat. For recent examples:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
So, Russia's largest missile/ drone attacks on Ukraine were on Dec 29, Jan 3, Jan 8, and Jan 13. Anyone besides me notice a pattern?
Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, January 13, 2024
Russian forces are reportedly increasingly using chemical weapons in Ukraine in continued apparent violations of the Chemical Weapons Convention, to which Russia is a party. The Ukrainian General Staff reported that Russian forces have used chemical weapons 626 times since the beginning of the full-scale invasion and have used them at least 51 times so far in 2024.[18] The Ukrainian General Staff reported that Russian forces currently launch chemical weapons at Ukrainian positions up to 10 times a day and that Russian forces typically use drones to drop K-51 grenades filled with irritant CS gas (2-Chlorobenzalmalononitrile), a type of tear gas used for riot control (also known as a Riot Control Agent [RCA]), onto Ukrainian positions.[19] The Ukrainian General Staff reported that Russian forces used a new type of special gas grenade containing CS gas against Ukrainian positions on December 14, 2023.[20] The Russian 810th Naval Infantry Brigade previously acknowledged on December 22 that the brigade deliberately uses chemical weapons by dropping K-51 grenades from drones onto Ukrainian positions near Krynky in the east (left) bank of Kherson Oblast.[21] Russia is a party to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), which prohibits the use of RCAs as a method of warfare.[22]
A fire destroyed a large warehouse in St. Petersburg belonging to Russia’s largest online retailer Wildberries on January 12.[23] Russian sources claimed that on the night of January 10 to 11 a mass fight broke out between migrant workers at the facility and that this prompted Russian authorities to conduct a raid on the warehouse, during which several migrants received military summonses.[24] Russian law enforcement recently detained 700 migrants at a Wildberries warehouse in Moscow Oblast and issued some military summonses in November 2023.[25] Russian authorities have consistently conducted raids on migrant communities to issue military summonses to naturalized migrants and coerce other migrants into military service.[26] Wildberries appears to be a notable target for these mobilization raids, and the company has previously admitted that such raids have interrupted their operations.[27]
https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-january-13-2024
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Russian Orthodox priest faces expulsion for refusing to pray for victory over Ukraine
From whom comes the church's motivation to expel the priest? Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, who is a staunch supporter of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and his war in Ukraine.
The priest faces expulsion from the Russian Orthodox church for refusing to read out a prayer asking God to guide Russia to victory over Ukraine.
In a verdict published on Saturday, a church court said Aleksiy Uminsky should be “expelled from holy orders” for violating his priestly oath. The decision was forwarded for approval to Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian church who strongly backs President Vladimir Putin.
The case shows how the church is clamping down on internal dissent as it throws its support behind Putin and his “special military operation” in Ukraine, which is now nearing the end of its second year.
The church court said Uminsky had broken his oath by refusing to read the “Prayer for Holy Rus” – an archaic name for Russia – which Kirill has made compulsory at church services.
“Behold, those who want to fight have taken up arms against Holy Rus, hoping to divide and destroy its united people,” said the prayer first pronounced by Kirill on 25 September 2022, seven months into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Arise, o God, to help your people and grant us victory through your power.”
Dozens of Russian Orthodox priests have been punished for challenging the church’s line on the war – for example, by reading out prayers for peace instead of victory – according to Christians against War, an online group that has documented their cases.
Uminsky was the most prominent casualty so far. He had served for 30 years as senior priest at the church of the life-giving holy trinity in Moscow before being abruptly fired this month, just before Orthodox Christmas, in a move that paved the way for Saturday’s verdict. He was renowned for his hospice work for dying children and adults, and led the funeral for former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev in 2022.
In an interview last November, Uminsky said that the language of war and the “special military operation” was “in no way compatible” with church liturgy.
He encouraged believers to seek out priests who “pray more for peace than for victory and understand that any victory is always a pyrrhic victory in these wars … In modern wars any victory is almost always equivalent to self-destruction.”
Ksenia Luchenko, an expert on the Russian Orthodox church at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said the verdict against Uminsky was unsound because the prayer he was accused of refusing to read had not been considered and approved by the highest body of the church, the Holy Synod.
She said his punishment was “evidence of Patriarch Kirill’s usurpation of power in the Russian Orthodox church and violation of its statutory documents.”
More at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/14/russian-orthodox-priest-
faces-expulsion-for-refusing-to-pray-for-victory-over-ukraine
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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