…Nothing in that article says Russia supports the coup government. It doesn’t mention a Russian stance at all; it just says the coup government has asked Wagner for support (which it does not say has been given).

You’ve now ignored for a second time how stupid it is to think Russia engineered this, then simultaneously tried to hide it/paid locals to wave Russian flags around.

I asked you what your theory is on the situation and you responded by putting words in my mouth.

Again, do you think Russia engineered this, only to deny it, only to pay people to waive Russian flags around?

A kinder version of a company town is still a company town, in the same way high-paying wage labor is still wage labor.

This is not Google being charitable and caring about housing prices in the surrounding area. These are the people most able to work remotely; Google is bringing them back to their expensive office to justify its existence and saying “this time I’ll be your landlord, too.”

In response to questions from Congressman Goldman about the [Joe Biden] brand’s alleged impact, Archer said that it appeared to shield Burisma “because people would be intimidated to mess with them…”

Republicans on the committee asked Archer about two dinners, one in 2014 and another in 2015 at a restaurant in Washington, D.C., with Hunter Biden’s foreign business associates, both of which the then-vice president attended…

Archer, according to the transcript, also testified that the elder Biden was put on speaker phone with business contacts, potential business associates including foreign national “maybe 20 times” during the course of Archer’s and Hunter Biden’s business relationship. Joe Biden was put on the phone to sell “the brand,” Archer said.

It looks like a conscious effort to imply favoritism without being stupid enough to say it out loud. It’s not normal to invite your dad to dinner with your business associates, especially when your dad is VP. It’s not normal to loop your dad in on a bunch of business calls, especially when your dad is VP.

Is anyone seriously suggesting Hunter Biden got on the board of a Ukranian energy company on his own merits? There’s one reason you have that guy in a plush job.

On attempting to enter Russia on July 29, the group of Chinese citizens was “repeatedly” questioned for “up to 4 hours,” according to the statement. They had their tourist visas canceled and were refused entry, it said.

Yawn

So your theory is:

1. Russia sponsors a coup, but
2. Denies involvement, only to
3. Supply locals with Russia flags and presumably pay them to wave them around?

Not to mention, the reasoning for the war has changed dramatically

• Refuses to read Russia’s official justification for war
• Claims not only to know Russia’s justification, but that it’s repeatedly changed

Is this sarcasm or an honest question?

Any attempt to overthrow a lawful government must be opposed

A totally ridiculous statement right out of the gate. Either actions against lawful governments are sometimes justified (how many Americans would say they would have opposed rebelling against the lawful British rule of the colonies?), or you redefine “lawful” to support whatever revolutions you want, making this statement empty.

After the U.S. spent the last 20 years indiscriminately killing hundreds of thousands of people (at minimum!) throughout the world under the guise of fighting Islamic extremists, it’s disgusting to trot out concern for lives as a defense of continuing the same failed policies.

Like all elites, we use language and mores as tools to recognize one another and exclude others. Using words like problematic, cisgender, Latinx and intersectional is a sure sign that you’ve got cultural capital coming out of your ears. Meanwhile, members of the less-educated classes have to walk on eggshells, because they never know when we’ve changed the usage rules, so that something that was sayable five years ago now gets you fired.

This is giving reactionaries – who have shown time and time again that they do not deserve the benefit of the doubt – entirely too much credit. These aren’t well-intentioned folks who are anxious about keeping up with changing social norms; they know the norms they like, that of an idealized 50s or 60s white America, and they want to go back. They want to be able to say “Mexicans are a bunch of rapists and drug dealers,” like Trump said, and have everyone around them nod along.

Even the one decent point about people with more education (and from more elite schools) re-shaping the job market is at best half baked. It doesn’t mention how we’ve gutted career options for people with less than a bachelor’s degree. It doesn’t mention how we simultaneously made it impossible for most people to pay off college as they go through it. It doesn’t mention the skyrocketing costs of healthcare and housing.

It of course does not attempt to describe the alliance between these sorts of legitimate working-class grievances and the rest of the reactionary political project, or how actually addressing those grievances could undermine that alliance.

Ukraine has liberated 74,443 km² or 28,743 square miles since the start of the invasion

The front lines have remained basically static since Fall '22.