MBW - 3/3/2022
Good morning guys. It’s Thursday. Here is your daily digest.
Russia has been shelling Ukrainian cities during the past 24 hours. Russian forces have seized control of the key port city of Kherson. In the port city of Mariupol, hundreds of people are feared dead following hours of sustained bombardment.
Ukraine has seized Russian military plans concerning the war. According to this information, the plans for the war with Ukraine were approved on 18 January 2022. The plans anticipated that the capture of Ukraine must be executed within 15 days, from 20 February to 6 March. More about this here.
In the meantime, German authorities have seized Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov’s 512-foot mega-yacht. More about it here.
The Russian foreign minister Lavrov addressed via video the Geneva Disarmament meeting. He said Russia invaded Ukraine seeking nuclear weapons. "Ukraine still has Soviet nuclear technologies and the means of delivery of such weapons," Lavrov said. This rhetoric is eerily similar to the one US used to justify the invasion of Iraq. The only thing missing for Lavrov is the “irrefutable evidence” of this guy (may he rest in peace):
EU agreed to move to next step in Ukraine's membership bid, and at the same time someone found out that the clip below exists. And yes, it’s Zelensky pretending to be the president of Ukraine:
And here’s a Russian tank for sale on Ebay:
(continued) Why Putin did not anticipate the unfolding of the Ukrainian intervention?
Second reason: Putin does not know how to fight a war. Since the beginning of the invasion he called it “special operation” and in his mind that what he was really thinking. For all of his life he’s been organizing and launching the special operations. First as a KGB officer, then as St Petersburg city councilor for foreign affairs. Putin worked with violent entrepreneurs used to killing, but he had always had the upper hand. Federal and regional governments were very much stronger than these criminal bosses who were very much replaceable.
Putin waged special operations when he was in a much stronger position than his opponents. And he got used to that. Later Yeltsin chose him as a successor and in this capacity Putin launched a bunch of special operations to consolidate power.
Later he initiated conflicts to boost his popularity and tough image, but none of them was a war: Chechnya, Georgia, Syria. Every conflict was a special operation waged for political goals and against a small force which had no chance to win against Russia. (to be continued)
After all the international backlash at the Russian invasion of Ukraine, there is a sense that some entities may be taking things a bit too far. Ok, hear me out before starting throwing stones. This university in Italy wanted to ban Dostoyevsky because he was Russian. They did postpone the course but eventually backtracked after the reaction it caused. Looks like a social media frenzy of virtue signaling is affecting the way these types of conflicts are to be resolved. We’ve been here before. Cooler heads need to prevail for the sake of us all. Below is a mini-series that unfolded in three episodes:
Anyways, here’s a great video that puts things into perspective. Highly recommend:
Let’s talk a bit about San Francisco. Once one of the most successful and richest cities in the US, but suffering from a homelessness epidemic, drug epidemic, brain drain epidemic and crime epidemic as of the recent few years. What happened? Long story short, San Francisco became some sort of a wokeist utopia. The city leadership stopped prosecuting crime, fighting addiction and homelessness. With a yearly budget of 11 billion dollars they could afford all these luxury policies which created an unprecedented mess. The Covid pandemic and working from home allowed many tech jobs to move away from the city. So much so that the Silicon Valley is now more a virtual place than a geographical one. After the looting of the main Louis Vuitton store in the middle of the day a few weeks back something seemed to crack among the city elite. Mayor London Breed a long time proponent of all the failed policies broke ranks. Below her now famous press conference:
Now her biggest opponent is the city’s District Attorney Chesa Boudin. This guy is quite a character. Raised by two anarchist parents (his father is still in jail) he holds some extreme beliefs when it comes to crime which has flourished under his supervision. California has this special law that allows the recall of elected officials before the end of their term. The recall election for Chesa Boudin is scheduled for June 7, 2022. Some days back he gave an interview to the NYT. This is very interesting one and I am linking it here.
We will be keeping a close eye as future events unfold.
And lastly, the usual pics and memes from around the web:
Holy shit, when did that happen?
This is the longest continuous path you can walk in the world.
The feud between Elon Musk and Joe Biden continues.
And continues.
Ok, no more Swedes, Finnish Ukrainians from now on.
That was it for today folks. Enjoy the rest of your day. Until tomorrow, peace.