This is to announce that results to text searches here now feature Googlesque contextual sampling. Whatever did we do before regular expressions.
I had been trying to write down something I saw on Saturday, something unsettling, in the cold foggy drizzle at Petrivka as waves of elderly white-complected men surged through and past to flex the saleability of Soviet memorabilia from makeshift stands on the curb – then the next, then the next – but I couldn’t seem to do it. I couldn’t seem to do it right.
So I decided to drop it, and offer instead the following, which I did do.
Ukraine-tagged stuff abounds this morning.
Sure, whatever. Anywho, Mike – typically unable to establish any sort of authoritative voice before flinging together a few thoughts about awaiting the new commander-in-chief’s instructions – takes the lead in the steeplechase of sycophants making hay out of unspeakable tragedy.
I did not listen to to end of Petro’s monologue, which is in English.
Yuriy’s report, in Ukrainian, titled “The Chaos of Donetsk’s Operational and Tactical Group,” should be pumped into the brains of the dozens of military experts and analysts opining on our military predicament from whereever.
Nine policy recommendations from Michagan caught my eye, as did a story on the wire.
BRUSSELS. Dec 4 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukraine has to make hard decisions about further mobilization of its citizens to repel Russian aggression, but these measures are critical, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said.
"Mobilization. This is critical, because even with the money, even with the munitions, there have to be people on the front lines to deal with the Russian aggression. Ukraine has hard decisions to make about further mobilization, but these are necessary decisions," he told a press conference in Brussels on Wednesday.
Blinken added that [NATO] allies have a commitment.
"For every person, every soldier that Ukraine mobilizes, we are committed to making sure that they have the training and the equipment they need to effectively defend the country," he said.
Mobilization, or forced conscription, is the responsibility of Ukraine’s president, the country’s Supreme Commander-in-Chief. His name is Z. He and his potent managers are the reason forced conscription has been an abject failure.
Lots has been written about it.
The above report pre-dates meta-tagged scandals involving schemes by regional authorities who doled out conscription waivers locally. A quick search for MSEK Ukraine on Google images will give you the picture: large stacks of 100-dollar bills.