"And as the scale of what happened comes into sharper focus, the disaster appears to be breaking through the Kremlin’s tightly controlled information bubble."
"Russian battlefield failure is resonating w/ a stable of pro-Russian war bloggers...
“The commentary by these widely read milbloggers may fuel burgeoning doubts in Russia about Russia’s prospects in this war & the competence of Russia’s military leaders” nytimes.com/2022/05/15/wor…
"Russian command reportedly sent about 550 troops... to cross the Donets River at Bilohorivka...
Satellite images reveal that Ukrainian artillery destroyed several Russian pontoon bridges and laid waste to a tight concentration of Russian troops and equipment around the river."
"As the news of the [Russian] losses at the river crossing in Bilohorivka started to spread, some Russian bloggers did not appear to hold back in their criticism of what they said was incompetent leadership."
“The last straw that overwhelmed my patience was the events around Bilohorivka, where due to stupidity — I emphasize, because of the stupidity of the Russian command — at least one battalion tactical group was burned, possibly two.”
"Another popular [pro-Russian] blogger, who goes by Starshe Eddy on Telegram, wrote that the fact that commanders left so much of their force exposed amounted to “not idiocy, but direct sabotage.”"
And a third pro-Russian military blogger, Vladlen Tatarski, posted:
“Until we get the last name of the military genius who laid down a B.T.G. by the river and he answers for it publicly, we won’t have had any military reforms”
"The study, released on Friday by ... a decades-old group that tracks right-wing extremism, found that more than 1 in 5 Republican state legislators in the United States were affiliated with far-right groups."
"thanks to a paranoid, delusional and potentially violent new strain in our nation’s politics, Americans may not be able to count on future elections being conducted fairly — or the results of fair elections being accepted."
"Journalists often quote his incendiary language from the speech: “Fight like hell”; “We will not take it anymore.” But Trump also laid out a precise plan of action for the crowd:"
"Trump promised the crowd that if they did as he urged—if they marched on Congress, if they showed strength—they could force a change of the election result."
Jan. 6 White House logs given to House show 7-hour gap in Trump calls
The House select committee is investigating whether it has the full record and whether Trump communicated that day through backchannels, phones of aides or personal disposable phones
"Internal White House records from the day of the attack on the US Capitol... show a gap in Trump’s phone logs of seven hours and 37 minutes, including the period when the building was being violently assaulted"
"The seven-hour gap also stands in stark contrast to the extensive public reporting about phone conversations he [Trump] had with allies during the attack..."
"To the dismay of many Democrats, Biden remains wedded to the futile goals of “bipartisanship” and “lowering the temperature.” Frustrated Democrats make the point that there can be no real bipartisanship with a party that plays to QAnon ..."
"By remaining so studiously above the fray and refusing to identify Republicans as the threat to our democracy, he has sapped his own base of energy and allowed Republicans free rein to light up their voters."
~@JRubinBlogger
"Biden and the rest of the party must paint an accurate picture of what a Republican-led Congress would look like. Chaos. Vicious partisanship. Gridlock."
"They [journalists] are supposed to invoke neither fear nor favor. How do they navigate the sticky wicket of a two-party system in which only one party seems to value the truth?"
"this coming election will include many state-level positions, and that many of those candidates are running on the Big Lie.
...
Hard to treat a person as a normal candidate when one of his main positions is undermining democracy."
“The mainstream press (the reality-based press, to distinguish them from the right-wing press) should focus on what's good for citizens and not the horse race aspect of the midterms, and they should call out lies clearly.”
~@Sulliview