War for Ukraine Day 818

 

Tucker Carlson now has a show on “Russia 24.”

Kharkiv is being pummeled by missiles. Ukraine’s soldiers tell me that they cannot adequately fight back without striking inside Russia.” US refuses to permit Ukraine to strike targets inside Russia. We’re essentially asking Ukraine to fight with one hand tied behind its back.

Zelenskyy is getting impatient. Says weapons are arriving, but too late.

Small weapons deliveries have allowed the Russian foe to adapt to Western aid.

The Russian advance toward Kharkiv has slowed down. Detailed summation of what the advance has been able to achieve.

“Here is Tatarigami’s take on The Economist reporting above” What Russian strategy suggests is that they wanted to get within artillery rance of Kharkiv and to reduce the city.

Short film clip demonstrating effect of glide bombs.

Woo hoo! Another Russian ship, a Corvette, converted to a submarine!

Ukrainian naval drone launching unguided missiles in the direction of Russian positions on the Kinburn Peninsula, Mykolaiv/Kherson region.

Russian authorities have made a unilateral decision to change the sea borders of Russia with Lithuania and Finland in the Baltic Sea.

Now we wait to see what Lithuania and Finland do.

https://balloon-juice.com/2024/05/21/war-for-ukraine-day-818-kharkiv-is-bombarded-while-the-biden-administration-equivocates/

War in Ukraine 18Apr2024

 

Ukrainian anti-aircraft gunner defending against drones.

Russian missile strike on Chernihiv.

It’s great that the Ukraine aid bill is FINALLY going to pass, but instead of simply passing the Senate bill, Speaker Johnson is making a number of very unhelpful changes to it. It’s completely unnecessary to be frugal and to try and save money. That’s the very LEAST of our concerns!

A Ukrainian explains that US aid is a matter of life and death.

CIA Director warns that Ukraine is in a very bad position.

Representative Greene wants the US to withdraw from NATO. Makes a number of other utterly bizarre proposals.

Poland causing trouble again.

Assassination plot foiled.

Czech President urges help for Ukraine.

““The West’s emphasis on escalation management has prolonged the war in Ukraine” permitting Russia to exercise a veto over NATO actions.

The alliance to protect Israel from Iranian air assault did not go unnoticed by Ukrainians. “This pattern of delays and half-measures shows no signs of changing.”

Elon Musk comes in for some deserved scorn. Starlink Is being used by Russians, though not through official, recognized methods.

After Russia launches a big June offensive, they’ll concentrate on the US elections.

Russia ramps up disinformation, falsely claiming Kharkiv faces Russian encirclement, urging residents to flee.

https://balloon-juice.com/2024/04/18/war-for-ukraine-day-786-the-butchers-bill-for-chernihiv/

The MAL case - records seized from Mar-a-Lago

Judge Cannon, who is overseeing the MAL case, wrote the following as part of a guide on how lawyers for both sides can instruct juries:

 

I’m not a lawyer, but I was a History major in college and have done quite a bit of independent reading in it. President Reagan’s records were the first to be stored under the 1978 Presidential Records Act (PRA). This Act held that the records that were to be stored by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) were:

any records generated during a Presidential administration documenting the constitutional, statutory or ceremonial duties of the Presidency are the property of the United States.

Note that this description includes absolutely nothing about the President having any discretion to designate any records as “personal.” The Clinton Sock Drawer case did not help matters because it held that NARA had no authority to seize records that it deemed to be official. This is why Special Counsel Smith has not pursued charges using the PRA. Nevertheless, the former National Archives litigation director Jason Baron, who is now a professor at the University of Maryland and Bradley Moss of the Mark S. Zaid law firm hold that the audiotapes that Clinton produced with historian Taylor Branch were clearly personal records as they “were in the nature of a diary or journal in recorded form.” The records seized at Mar-a-Lago, OTOH, Judicial Watch’s Tom Fitton (Not a lawyer, BTW) testified to a grand jury that “shows Trump had unfettered power to designate documents as personal records outside of the reach of the National Archives.”

The piece above explains that this theory has never been tested, but the obvious problem is, if this interpretation were accurate, then in theory, if Trump were to get back into office for a second term, he could order Seal Team Six to kill the former President Biden and then designate the official communications whereby he transmitted that order as private, personal records.

Also, please note the sloppy and insecure manner in which the ex-President Trump stored records at his jazzed-up country club, Mar-a-Lago. Many empty folders were found among the records that were retrieved. Trump himself may have removed the contents. My own theory is that persons unknown rifled through the unsecured boxes, pulled out classified documents and stashed them in a shopping bag, backpack, briefcase, whatever. Classified documents are written on standard office paper where folders are made of card stock. It was simply inconvenient and unnecessary for our document thieves to carry folders with them. Of course, how many classified documents stored in folders, were simply taken wholesale, we would only know by looking a what documents are still not recovered. If records are collected by NARA, they are carefully sorted, packed up and then organized under secure conditions.

And again, giving the President the authority to arbitrarily decide whether a record was private and personal or official, that is, whether the President could store it on his own or needed to turn it over to NARA means he can simply hide records of misdeeds.

How credible is Seymour Hersh?

 

Okay, had a problem with the reporting of Seymour Hersh. He said that the Navy doesn't have to report covert ops whereas the CIA does. The language from 50 USC 3093 states:

The President may not authorize the conduct of a covert action by departments, agencies, or entities of the United States Government unless the President determines such an action is necessary to support identifiable foreign policy objectives of the United States and is important to the national security of the United States, which determination shall be set forth in a finding that shall meet each of the following conditions:…" (emphasis mine)

In other words, Hersh is wrong on that. At the very least, the "Gang of Eight" would have to be notified. Yes, Congress must be told if ANY branch of the government carries out the kind of operation that Hersh describes.

Hersh tells us what his political view is by suggesting that the war will end when Zelenskyy is tired of causing the deaths of fellow Ukrainians.

Daily Kos has taken a look at Hersh’s claims (the story begins several paragraphs and tweets down). They note that the long-time and highly reliable fact-checking site Snopes has also examined those claims. An OSINT fellow (Open Source INTelligence) pursues Hersh’s claims in detail. Sorry, but I think Hersh has just lost it.