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A country in the shape of a puddle, on the map.
Any country is an easy target in March,
in June, July, August, September, October,
as long as it rains
and maps litter the street.
Stop, who goes there, General Oaken Knees.
The Red Square of his naked chest shines the way.
And behind him, a half-shadow, half-man,
half-orphan, half-exile, whose mouth is as coarse
as his land —
double-land where every cave is at war.
Do you say there won’t be a war? I say nothing.
A small gray person cancels
this twenty-first century,
adjusts his country’s clocks
for the winter war.
LYUDMYLA KHERSONSKA
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Artistic expressions
Let's recall that Mo Brooks was the first congressman to object to the election certification on Jan 6th. Brooks wore a bulletproof vest on Jan 6th in anticipation of shooting on that day and was the first to speak at Trump's "Stop the Steal" rally and cheered on the insurrectionists from his congressional hiding place. After the coup failed, Brooks blamed Antifa for the attacks on the Capitol until today. Now, Brooks says that Trump asked Brooks for his help in forcing Biden out of office and placing Trump in office illegally.
Trump pulled his endorsement of Brooks for the Arkansas Senate race today after Brooks correctly stated that there is no legal method available for placing Trump in office before the 2024 elections. Trump called that simple, constitutional fact "woke" and pulled his support from one of his most devoted henchmen. Seems like now would be a good time to get Brooks on record under oath regarding Trump's marching orders on Jan 6th. This also suggests that Trump is willing to do his own cause real harm in order to defend his claim to the presidency by illegal or opportunistic acts.
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Current events
By Ilia Krasilshchik
TBILISI, Georgia — “Wake up, Sonya, the war has started.” These were the first words I said to my girlfriend on the morning of Feb. 24, as Russian missiles rained down on Ukraine. The words I’d never thought I’d have to say.
No one in Moscow believed there could be a war, even though it’s painfully clear now that the Kremlin had been gearing up for it for years. Were we, the millions of Russians who were openly or secretly opposed to President Vladimir Putin’s regime, merely silent witnesses to what was happening? Even worse, did we endorse it?
No. In 2011, when it was announced that Mr. Putin would return to the Kremlin as president, tens of thousands took to the streets in protest. In 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea and fomented war in the Donbas, we held huge antiwar rallies. And in 2021 we took to the streets once more throughout the country when Russia’s main opposition figure, Aleksei Navalny, was arrested after his return to Moscow.
I want to believe we did everything in our power to rein in Mr. Putin. But it’s not true. Though we protested, organized, lobbied, spread information and built honest lives in the shadow of a corrupt regime, we must accept the truth: We failed. We failed to prevent a catastrophe, and we failed to change the country for the better. And now we must bear that failure.
No one in Moscow believed there could be a war, even though it’s painfully clear now that the Kremlin had been gearing up for it for years. Were we, the millions of Russians who were openly or secretly opposed to President Vladimir Putin’s regime, merely silent witnesses to what was happening? Even worse, did we endorse it?
No. In 2011, when it was announced that Mr. Putin would return to the Kremlin as president, tens of thousands took to the streets in protest. In 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea and fomented war in the Donbas, we held huge antiwar rallies. And in 2021 we took to the streets once more throughout the country when Russia’s main opposition figure, Aleksei Navalny, was arrested after his return to Moscow.
I want to believe we did everything in our power to rein in Mr. Putin. But it’s not true. Though we protested, organized, lobbied, spread information and built honest lives in the shadow of a corrupt regime, we must accept the truth: We failed. We failed to prevent a catastrophe, and we failed to change the country for the better. And now we must bear that failure.
The Russians who oppose the war now find themselves in a terrible state. It’s not just that we couldn’t stop this senseless and illegal war — we can’t even protest against it. A law passed on March 4 makes the expression of antiwar sentiment in Russia punishable by up to 15 years in prison. (Already, about 15,000 people have been detained for antiwar actions since the invasion began.) Facing an intolerable future, thousands have fled the country. Those who stayed have lost much of what remained of their freedom. After Mastercard and Visa suspended operations in Russia, many can’t even pay for a VPN service to get independent media.
It is as if we’re being viewed as criminals not only by our own state but also by the rest of the world. Yet we are not criminals. We did not start this war, and we did not vote for the people who did. We did not work for the state that is now bombing Ukrainian cities. Time and again, we raised our voices against the government’s policies, even as it became ever more dangerous to do so.
It wasn’t easy. Over the past decade, a plethora of repressive legislation cracked down on public protest, decimated the free press, censored the internet and suppressed free speech. Independent outlets were blocked, journalists were labeled “foreign agents” and human rights organizations were shut down. Thousands were detained and beaten. Prominent critics were driven to exile or killed. Mr. Navalny was imprisoned and could remain in jail for many years. We paid for our defiance.
Even so, it is up to us to start the conversation about what has happened. The invasion of Ukraine marks the end, definitively, of Russia’s postwar era. During the 77 years since World War II, Russia was regarded — no matter what other perceptions it carried — as the country that helped to save humanity from the greatest evil the world has ever known. Russia was the heroic country that defeated fascism, even if that victory forced 45 years of Communism on half of Europe. Not anymore. Russia is now the nation that unleashed a new evil, and unlike the old one, it’s armed with nuclear weapons.
The primary responsibility for this evil lies squarely at the feet of Mr. Putin and his entourage. But for those who opposed the regime, in ways big and small, the responsibility is also ours to bear. How did it happen? What did we do wrong? How do we prevent this from happening again? These are the questions we’re facing. No matter where we are — in Moscow, Tbilisi, Yerevan, Riga, Istanbul, Tel Aviv or New York — and no matter what we do.
Responsibility is the key. There was a lot of good in the country I grew up in, the one that stopped existing two weeks ago. But responsibility was what we lacked. Russia is a very individualistic society, in which people, to quote the cultural historian Andrei Zorin, live with a “Leave me alone” mind-set. We like to isolate ourselves from one another, from the state, from the world. This allowed many of us to build vibrant, hopeful, energetic lives against a grim backdrop of arrests and prison. But in the process, we became insular and lost sight of everyone else’s interests.
We must now put aside our individual concerns and accept our common responsibility for the war. Such an act is, first and foremost, a moral necessity. But it could also be the first step toward a new Russian nation — a nation that could talk to the world in a language other than wars and threats, a nation that others will learn not to fear. It is toward creating this Russia that we, outcast and exiled and persecuted, should bend our efforts.
Mediazona, an independent website that covers criminal proceedings and the penal system, has a haunting slogan: “It will get worse.” For the past decade, that’s been a grimly accurate prediction. As Russia bombards Ukraine, it’s hard to imagine things could be anything other than awful. But we must.
We must now put aside our individual concerns and accept our common responsibility for the war. Such an act is, first and foremost, a moral necessity. But it could also be the first step toward a new Russian nation — a nation that could talk to the world in a language other than wars and threats, a nation that others will learn not to fear. It is toward creating this Russia that we, outcast and exiled and persecuted, should bend our efforts.
Mediazona, an independent website that covers criminal proceedings and the penal system, has a haunting slogan: “It will get worse.” For the past decade, that’s been a grimly accurate prediction. As Russia bombards Ukraine, it’s hard to imagine things could be anything other than awful. But we must.
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Politics
People of Russia, now is the time to overthrow your tyrants and oligarchs, your spies and watchdogs, your cruel bosses and greedy captains. Putin is invading your brothers and sisters to the east and killing your brave soldiers needlessly- what possible profit is to be discovered in slaughtering your Slavic brothers and sisters- people who share much of your culture and language and religion, except to glorify Putin's Putin rages against Ukraine because Ukraine has proved that democracy brings increased freedom and prosperity and he knows that such an example must be extinguished before the spirit of democracy reignites in Russia.
Now is the time. Do not wait for next winter when the sanctions and waste of war starve your people and darken your cities. Putin will be hiding behind the fortifications of his Black Sea palace then and the oligarchs will be hiding on yachts clutching their billions and trusting in your docility. Trade no longer your liberty for a little security and a meager increase in salary only to improve the fortunes of the world's richest man.
The age of fossil fuel is over and the age of climatic cataclysm is at hand. Few nations are as well poised to take advantage of the population shifts northward and inland than Russia with its vast steppes and thawing tundra and harborages on the ice free polar sea. These advantages can redound to few cruel and greedy men or to the free market for all citizens, if the commonwealth will but take back control of their economy.
Now is the time. Your tyrant poisoner-in-chief is isolated and hated and in failing health. If the majority rise up together, then the sacrifices necessary will be smaller and shorter then if a minority must confront tyranny individually and staggered over time. If the Russian people rise now and end this costly unnecessary war with Europe you will enjoy the support and approbation of free people everywhere.
Turn on
The television
Open the papers
The headlines
Shout it out
We're on our knees
The end
Is really nigh
That ain't enough
To make me cry, no
The return
Of inspiration
The return
Of inspiration
Little big man
Workin' the city
He plays for money
Plays for women
He must think
He's so tall
Maybe
No one's told him
That he's small
Ten fingers piggy
Counting the pennies
Well that old meanie's
Only happy
When he's
Draggin' you down
That ain't enough
To make me frown
-"St. Petersburg" Supergrass
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Current events
I'm seeing a number of people on this site refer to the Steele Dossier's reports that Russia possessed a tape of Trump consorting with prostitutes and requesting a "golden shower" display.
Let's recall that nobody claims that this allegation is proven by the evidence. Obviously, any claim that takes place behind closed doors is difficult to prove or disprove and any event in Moscow that is of interest to the Russian dictator is tightly controlled. Steele himself estimates the testimonies he gathered are only likely to prove 70-90% factual. Unless and until an authentic pee tape surfaces, the allegation will be remain unproven. Likewise, unless and until Putin's storehouses of compromat are made entirely available, the allegations can't be disproved.
As FOX News puts it: "Some of the assertions in the dossier have been confirmed. Other parts are unconfirmed. None of the dossier, to Fox News's knowledge, has been disproven."
The claim is that Trump hired five prostitutes to piss on a bed in the Ritz-Carlton Moscow because the Obamas had slept in that bed when Obama gave his New Economic School address and that Russian Intelligence had videotape of the event.
Supporting evidence:
- Seven sources reported the event independent of each other
- Trump is known more making rather elaborate displays of his hatred for Obama
- Trump is known for hiring prostitutes when he is travelling without his wife and family
- Prostitutes are readily, famously available from the lobby of the Ritz-Carlton.
- Russian Intelligence has demonstrated control over operations, including pimping, in the Ritz-Carlton Moscow.
- Earlier the same year, Trump visited "The Act," a Las Vegas strip club owned by Russian friends of Putin, along with those friends and several close associates including his lawyer, Michael Cohen. Cohen has testified under oath that Trump delighted in a staged display of golden showers
- The Act was closed later the same year for violating Las Vegas' decency and sanitation regulations and was well known for a golden showers act
- Paparazzi confirm that Trump and his Russian friends closed the club and remained inside for several hours
- The same Russian friends were staying at the Ritz-Carlton Moscow on the night of the alleged pee tape
- On Oct 30, 2016- the day before the Steele Dossier went public, Trump's real estate agent in Moscow working on the Trump Tower deal texts Michael Cohen:
- "stopped flow of tapes from Russia but not sure if there's anything else. Just so you know .."
- Cohen has testified that he discussed the tapes with Trump long before any public information emerged although Cohen mostly asserts attorney/client privilege regarding details
- Trump's bodyguard Keith Schiller has confirmed that Russian business associates offered Trump the company of five prostitutes on the night in question. Schiller claims to have rejected the offer on Trump's behalf but this corroborates the dossier's number of prostitutes.
- James Comey relates in his book that Trump was obsessed with the pee tape and asked him to publicly refute that specific event on at least four different occasions during Comey's short tenure. Comey notes that Trump was in possession of several details regarding the event that were not pubic knowledge..
- The Mueller Report confirms that all through 2016, Trump's people were highly interested in an incriminating tape possessed by Russia, long before any public allegation of a tape emerged but offers no insight towards the content of that tape
- Israeli and Australian Intelligence agencies confirm they were tracking the same allegation before the Steele Dossier emerged
- Trump himself keeps talking about the event in public and unprompted, indeed in highly inappropriate settings- evidence of a guilty conscience
- Trump's frequent denials are suspiciously off-point
- Before it was confirmed that Trump paid Stormy Daniels hush money just before the election, Trump's go-to denial was "Do I look like a man who needs to buy a prostitute?" Not a denial.
- After Stormy, Trump switched to "I'm a germaphobe, I wouldn't let anybody pee on me" Since the Dossier in no way suggests that Trump was anything but a spectator, this is also not a denial.
- Trump has never directly denied the accusation
What evidence disproves this item discussed in Steele's dossier?
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People
Just a reminder to all those members of DebateArt advocating for Putin's invasion of Ukraine that debate is an invention and an instrument of DEMOCRACY.
Dictators, by definition, can never permit entirely free speech and without free speech the pretense of fair debate is cruelly mocked.
Vladimir Putin specifically is the sworn enemy of fair political debate, poisoning to death those who out argue him, and the greatest contemporary threat to free speech globally, interfering by unlawful subterfuge with democratic processes worldwide. Ukraine won its freedom from Russia in 1991 after suffering the calamity of Chernobyl- a disaster who's root cause was discovered to be in the absence of free speech and the fear of reprisals that prevented engineers from speaking out about known system failures. The result of that suppression of free speech was 4,000 dead and the collapse of the Soviet Empire.
Unlike Russia, Ukraine has fought hard to preserve her democracy through the Orange Revolution in 2004 and the Euromaidan Revolution of 2014. Ukraine has earned her freedom of speech and independence from Russia.
You can endorse the free and fair practice of debating or you can endorse Putin's unlawful invasion of the democratic Republic of Ukraine but you can't do both and remain ideologically consistent.
If you believe that debaters and debating should be free and fair throughout the world then you oppose that belief's most potent enemy Putin, plain and simple.
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DebateArt.com