Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on the Oscar Slap

"When Will Smith stormed onto the Oscar stage to strike Chris Rock for making a joke about his wife’s short hair, he did a lot more damage than just to Rock’s face. With a single petulant blow, he advocated violence, diminished women, insulted the entertainment industry, and perpetuated stereotypes about the Black community. 

Smith’s slap was also a slap to women. If Rock had physically attacked Pinkett Smith, Smith’s intervention would have been welcome. Or if he’d remained in his seat and yelled his post-slap threat, that would have been unnecessary, but understandable. But by hitting Rock, he announced that his wife was incapable of defending herself—against words.

This patronizing, paternal attitude infantilizes women and reduces them to helpless damsels needing a Big Strong Man to defend their honor least they swoon from the vapors.  This “women need men to defend them” is the same justification currently being proclaimed by conservatives passing laws to restrict abortion and the LGBTQ+ community. 

Worse than the slap was Smith’s tearful, self-serving acceptance speech in which he rambled on about all the women in the movie King Richard that he’s protected. By using these women to virtue signal, he was in fact exploiting them to benefit himself. But, of course, the speech was about justifying his violence. Apparently, so many people need Smith’s protection that occasionally it gets too much and someone needs to be smacked.

The Black community also takes a direct hit from Smith. One of the main talking points from those supporting the systemic racism in America is characterizing Blacks as more prone to violence and less able to control their emotions. Smith just gave comfort to the enemy by providing them with the perfect optics they were dreaming of.  

Read the full post here.

 

Yet Another Chapter in the Omichronicles

Ukrainian Hero Whose Defiance Went Viral Gets Medal

Roman Hrybov, the Ukrainian sailor whose response to a Russian warship quickly became a symbol of the bloody conflict, has returned home and been awarded a medal for his service, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said Tuesday.

Hrybov was part of a group of border guards stationed on Snake Island off the country’s southwestern coast that refused to surrender to approaching Russian forces on the first day of the invasion in late February.  “Russian warship, go fuck yourself,” Hrybov could be heard flatly telling the Russians in audio of the interaction released by the Ukrainian military.

Supporters of Ukrainian democracy swiftly turned Hrybov’s phrase into an anti-war rallying cry, spreading it on protest signs, stickers and T-shirts.   Ukrposhta, the Ukrainian postal service, held a design contest and released a stamp two weeks ago commemorating the defiant moment in Russia’s monthlong war.

At the time, Ukrainian officials believed that the warship had bombed the sailors, killing all 19 of them, but the country’s navy later said that the group had been taken captive. The Snake Island garrison was released last week as part of a prisoner exchange between Ukraine and Russia.

“I want to say a huge thank you to the Ukrainian people for such support,” Hrybov says, according to a translation from Business Insider. “We feel this support very much. It inspires us. The strength, the justice are on our side.”

Meanwhile at work. . .

Challenging the Power of the Supernatural in Nigeria

24-year-old Gbenga Adewoyin has recently emerged as a rebel publicly contesting the powers of the supernatural in the deeply religious country of Nigeria.  Belief in African traditional religions and its juju components are widespread in Nigeria, with many combining them with either Christianity or Islam, according to a 2010 report by the Pew Research Centre.

Many Nigerians believe that magic charms can allow humans to morph into cats, protect bare skins from sharp blades and make money appear in a clay pot.These beliefs  are not just held by the uneducated, they exist even at the highest level of Nigeria's academia.

Dr Olaleye Kayode, a senior lecturer in African Indigenous Religions at the University of Ibadan, told the BBC that money-making juju rituals - where human body parts mixed with charms makes money spew out of a pot - really work.  The curency that supposedly appear "are gotten by spirits from existing banks", he told the BBC.

Jude Akanbi, a lecturer at the Crowther Graduate Theological Seminary in Abẹ́òkúta, is also unequivocal about juju.  "This ability to be able to transform yourself to [a] cat, to disappear and reappear, these things are possible within the dynamics of traditional African religion.  "Although [it] sounds illogical, like old wives' tales, however from what we have seen and heard, these things are possible," he said.

Such beliefs, especially that human body parts and charms can produce money from a clay pot, have led to a recent wave of gruesome murders in the country, with single women often the victims.  "I feel horrible to see young people engage in these ritual killings," said Adewovin. "If money ritual worked, we would have seen a massive inflation in the economy for the decades that we have believed in it."

Questioning the existence of supernatural powers is considered taboo in much of Nigerian society.  To be openly expressing such thoughts, as Adewoyin is doing, could easily result in an arrest for blasphemy or a lynching by an angry mob.

The killing of humans to use their body parts for magic purposes gripped Nigeria in the mid-90s and led to riots in the eastern city of Owerri after the kidnap and murder of an 11-year-old boy in 1996.  Now, with social media, hardly a day passes without reports of a missing person and pictures of mutilated corpses linked to juju.

There was widespread outrage last month after three men allegedly killed a 17-year-old girl in Ogun state to use her body parts in a ritual they believed would make them rich. They confessed to the killing after they were arrested by the police and have been charged in court.  The oldest killer was 21, sparking the Twitter hashtag #At21, where users described what they were doing at that stage in life and bemoaning what they saw as societal pressures on young people to get rich quick.

The outrage over the girl's death made federal lawmakers debate juju in parliament and consider the "declaration of a state of emergency on ritual killings in the country."  While the debate rages about who is to blame for the killings, a much broader conversation is to be had about Nigeria's educational system that fails to persuade people that juju and the supernatural are not real, says Adewoyin.  He is hoping that his efforts can expose those he calls tricksters, claiming the supernatural powers of juju, and help put an end to the spate of ritual killings.  "For a reasonable human being to believe that a human with all his biological components can turn to yam or banana is illogical, and worrisome," he said.

 

This Week in Ukraine: 3/26/22

Russia bombed an art school sheltering some 400 people in the embattled port city of Mariupol, where Ukraine’s president said an unrelenting Russian siege would be remembered for centuries to come.  It was the second time in less than a week that a public building where residents had taken shelter came under attack. Ten days ago, a bomb hit a Mariupol theater with more than 1,300 inside.

Federal Security Service (FSB) Col. Gen. Sergei Beseda, the Russian commander in charge of the FSB’s Ukraine operation, was placed under house arrest amid upheaval and infighting among officials as Putin fumed over the botched Ukraine invasion. Bickering broke out between the FSB and the Russian Ministry of Defense, the two key government agencies planning the invasion. 

Russian security and military forces of kidnapped a Ukrainian journalist covering the Russian offensive in the east and the south of Ukraine. The FSB, and the Russian military abducted a journalist from the  Ukrainian news outlet Hromadske in Berdyansk, an occupied port city in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region.

Ukraine also says that Russian forces are taking Ukrainian civilians to Russia against their will. Russians are accused of taking Ukrainians’ passports and sending them to distant, economically depressed areas in Russia. Ukraine believes some may be used as “hostages” to pressure Kyiv to give up. Lyudmyla Denisova, Ukraine’s ombudsman, said 402,000 people, including 84,000 children, have been taken against their will to Russia, and some have reported shortages of food and water there.

As Russia's attack on Ukraine devolved into stalemate, capturing and repurposing abandoned Russian vehicles is one of the few ways Ukrainian defense forces have been replenishing their own supply of armor. NATO countries have been steadily shipping food, ammunition, and all-important drones and anti-armor missiles, but for Ukrainian forces wanting new Soviet-designed armor themselves, the best place is getting it from Russia's own supply lines.  CNN published an intriguing look inside a Ukrainian depot responsible for repainting, repairing and refitting captured Russian armor. And it's not just armor that was borrowed; a Ukrainian deputy commander boasted of the 24 captured Russian missiles his team delivered to the Ukrainian defense.

Ukrainian intelligence also claims that a Russian tank regiment commander killed himself after finding out 90% of tanks held in reserve were unusable because parts had been stolen. Kyiv's Ministry of Defence said the commander of the '13th tank regiment' within the '4th tank division of the Russian Federation' shot himself due to the dire situation after learning the condition of the unit's reserve tanks.

The Ukrainian military says it has killed Lt Gen Yakov Rezantsev in a strike near the southern city of Kherson. Rezantsev was the commander of Russia's 49th combined army. A western official said he was the seventh general to die in Ukraine,  It is thought that low morale among Russian troops has forced senior officers closer to the front line.

 

Bryan Adams - Never Gonna Rain

Russian Brain Drain

Tens of thousands of Russians have moved to Georgia since the invasion of Ukraine, and are struggling to find affordable accommodation in all the major cities. Many can be seen wandering around the capital, Tbilisi, with their suitcases and often even their pets.

A blue-and-yellow ribbon is attached to the lapel of Yevgeny's trench-coat - the colors of the Ukrainian flag. It was these ribbons that got him arrested at an anti-war protest in Russia, a day after it launched its war on Ukraine.  "I understood the best way to act against Putin's regime would be my emigration from Russia," says the 23-year old politics graduate. "It's my responsibility to do anything I can to help the Ukrainians."

The exodus does not stop at Georgia. When the EU, US, UK and Canada closed their airspace to Russian flights, they began heading for countries where flights are still permitted and where visas are not required, such as Turkey, Central Asia and the South Caucasus. Many have fled to Armenia.  According to a Russian economist, over 200,000 Russians have left their country since the start of the war.

Belarusians are on the move too, fleeing repression and the Western sanctions imposed on authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko's government for collaborating with Russia's Vladimir Putin.

That has prompted prices to surge on last-minute flights and rental accommodations in the main host cities, such as Istanbul and Armenia's capital, Yerevan.  "A one-way flight to Istanbul cost me and my husband more than our combined monthly income," said Anya, who did not want to give her surname.

For her, the moment of decision came with a new "state betrayal" law that has come into force in Russia. Anyone expressing support for Ukraine could face jail sentences of up to 20 years and Anya believed she could be a target.  "Fear of closed borders, political repression and forced military service is in our DNA. I remember my grandmother telling me stories about the state of fear they lived in during Stalin's time, and now we are experiencing it," she said.

Many of the new emigres are tech industry professionals who can work remotely. A video games developer who talked to the BBC said that he and most people he knew disagreed with Russian policy and they knew now that any protest would be violently suppressed.  "The only way we can protest is to leave the country, take our skills and money with us. Almost everyone in our circle has made a similar decision," said Igor (not his real name). He plans to leave the Georgian capital, because he does not feel welcome here.

However, there have been numerous reports of Airbnb hosts refusing to let their properties to Russian and Belarusian citizens.  "I do not accept Russian and Belarus people" one host told a Belarusian couple. "You do not have time for vacations - revolt against your corrupt governments."

"They think we are running away from Russia because Apple Pay no longer works there," Igor complained. "We are not running for comfort, we've lost everything there, we are basically refugees. Putin's geopolitics has destroyed our lives."

Many Georgians are uneasy about this dramatic influx of Russians, as it is less than 14 years since Russia's leader invaded Georgia. Some fear President Putin might claim Russian citizens abroad need protection, because that was his excuse to justify sending troops into the breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia in 2008. To date, 20% of Georgian territory remains under Russian occupation. 

 

The Never-ending Omichronicles

Putin is a Joke

Ukrainians Kidnapped and Taken Back to Russia

The cruelty of Putin seems to have no limits.  Residents of Mariupol, Ukraine, are being kidnapped and taken to Russian territory against their will by Russian forces, according to a statement from the Mariupol City Council.

"Over the past week, several thousand Mariupol residents have been taken to Russian territory. The occupiers illegally took people from the Livoberezhny district and from the shelter in the sports club building, where more than a thousand people (mostly women and children) were hiding from the constant bombing,” the statement read.

Captured Mariupol residents were taken to camps where Russian forces checked their phones and documents, the city council said, and then were redirected to remote Russian cities.  The besieged city is under almost constant bombardment, according to a major in Ukraine's army, and residents are rationing food and water as bodies are left in the streets. There are also conflicting reports over the status of Mariupol's Azov steel plant, one of Ukraine’s key industrial facilities. 

New satellite imagery shows the destruction of the city's bombed theater, with the word "children" clearly visible on the outside of the building.  The statement quoted Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boichenko, who said, "What the occupiers are doing today is familiar to the older generation, who saw the horrific events of World War II, when the Nazis forcibly captured people.”

 

What a Jerkules

Former TV star Kevin Sorbo became the laughingstock of Twitter with one of his most ridiculous tweets in recent memory.  “Remember when we treated the flu with tea, soup, and saltines instead of communism,” wrote the conservative ’90s-era actor, who has been more known in recent years for his equally awful takes on COVID-19 vaccines and right-wing conspiracy theories.  The heckling from the Twitterverse was swift and merciless:

What's Been Happening in Putin's War: 3/19/22

Russian forces continue to struggle to maintain their offensive in Ukraine.  "Logistical problems continue to best Russia's faltering invasion of Ukraine," according to UK intelligence.  Soldiers are not able to effectively resupply their forward troops with basic essentials such as food and fuel, due to their limited mobility and lack of air superiority.  Incessant Ukrainian counterattacks are forcing Russia to divert large numbers of troops to defend their own supply lines-- which is severely limiting Russia's offensive potential.

As many as 53 civilians were killed by Russian forces in the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv on Wednesday, according to its regional governor, Vyacheslav Chaus. "The enemy continues systemic artillery and air strikes on the regional center. They are destroying civilian infrastructure," he reported on Telegram.  "We are suffering huge losses. Fifty-three bodies of our citizens were delivered to the city morgues over the past day alone." 13 people waiting in a queue for bread were reportedly killed by Russian shelling.   Local authorities worked to restore power, water and gas supplies to parts of the city despite continued shelling. The governor entered into talks with Russian troops in order to organize a humanitarian corridor to evacuate civilians from the city.

Life in Kyiv goes on. The city was put under a 35-hour lockdown this week due to the threat of attacks.  Citizens are still able to buy all the essentials – meat, bread and milk – and the phone network is still working normally.  Only portions of the subway are operating, so some are now using the unused tunnels as a means of getting around.  The operating portions run only during daylight hours, with people moving underground overnight for protection. Life is definitely not as bad as other cities in the south and east.

Mariupol and Kharkiv-- two very pro-Russian cities where most citizens speak in Russian instead of Ukrainian-- are still being heavily bombarded by Putin's missiles.  What will be achieved by Russia after the cities are laid to waste is a mystery.   Despite the shells raining down on Kharkiv, Ukraine's army stands firm   Unable to take control of the city, Putin seems intent on destroying it. “Kharkiv is not yet completely destroyed, but we hear constant shelling, constant bombing,” said Natalka Zubar, a 57-year-old IT professional who has remained in the city. “It’s a place of constant airborne terror.”

A charity worker who managed to escape Mariupol described the "hell" and "horror" of that besieged port city. Elderly residents are dying in their homes, with nobody able to reach them because of constant shelling.  He said the city is unrecognizable, with high-rise buildings destroyed, others on fire, and huge craters in the roads from aerial bombardments.  There is no electricity, heating or water, and even the well was hit, he says.  "I can't find the words to describe the horror, the atmosphere, the darkness that reigned over the city of Mariupol - or, to be more precise, the ruins that are left of the city."  Authorities have said that up to 90% of buildings in Mariupol have been destroyed by Russian forces in their daily bombardment of the city.  The mayor of Mariupol is now saying that street fighting in the city center is hampering efforts to rescue hundreds of people trapped inside the basement of a theater was bombed by Russia. 130 people managed to escape initially, with more than 1,000 still in the basement, which withstood the attack.

The mayor of Melitopol (who had been kidnapped by the Russian after the southeastern town fell to Russian forces) was freed after Ukraine agreed to exchange nine captured Russian soldiers to get him back.

The New York Times reported this week on how high numbers of war dead can destroy the will to continue fighting. One recent U.S. intelligence report focused on low morale among Russian troops and described how Russian soldiers are parking their vehicles, abandoning the fight and walking away into the woods.  According to Belarusian media outlet NEXTA, an intercepted Russian forces conversation suggests that desperate Russian troops are "looking for Ukrainian ammunition in order to shoot themselves in the legs and go to hospital". In another intercepted conversation, a Russian soldier is heard saying: "They've been shooting at us for 14 days. We're scared. We're stealing food, breaking into houses. We're killing civilians.

Russian commanders have had to relocate closer to the front lines recently, due to the breakdown in their command and control structure.  This has not been without consequence, as the command staff is now exposed to Ukranian fire.  General Vitaliy Gerasimov, is the third Russian General killed by the Ukrainians since the conflict began.  The other two are  Maj. Gen. Andrei Sukhovetsky and General Magomed Tushaye. Maj Gen Andrei Kolesnikov, the commander of the Eastern Military District was also killed in the invasion. In addition, five Russian Colonels have also been killed.  American military officials have said that many Russian generals have now resorted to communicating on unsecured phones and radios-- leading to Ukrainian personnel intercepting a call, geolocating it, and attacking his location.  Another General-- Roman Gavrilov, deputy chief of the Rosgvardia force-- was detained amid claims he had 'leaked information' and 'squandered' much-needed fuel.

The southern city of Kherson has been under Russian occupation for two weeks, but residents are still holding daily public protests, despite the warning shots fired at them. Yet despite the citizens' defiance, the city is facing very real problems, as food and medicine run out - "a real humanitarian catastrophe", as the deputy mayor puts it.  In Odessa, the city's elegant boulevards, with their cafes, trams, and theaters, now stand mostly empty and littered with tank traps, while protective sandbags crowd around some of the most famous monuments.

Back in Russia, there are reports that two security generals are now under house arrest. A Russian spy chief (Sergey Beseda) and his deputy (Anatoly Bolyukh) have been placed under house arrest by Putin as the president blames his security services for the resistance met in the Russian invasion.

At a meeting held by a Russian governor at a paramilitary base in Novokuznetsk, mothers of OMON riot police officers angrily confronted the governor, asking whether their sons were “lied to” and were being used as “cannon fodder” in Ukraine. In the meeting, audience members said that everyone was “deceived” about the invasion, and that “our boys” were unprepared and “didn’t know their objective”.  One woman asked where Gov. Tsivilyov’s son was-- he responded, “My son is studying at a university.”When G  ov. Tsivilyov said the military operation “will end soon” a woman interjected, “[You mean] when everyone dies?”

Putin’s henchmen are also complaining about getting constantly trolled with ‘endless photos’ of dead Russian troops.  Even popular state TV pundit Karen Shakhnazarov conceded that, “It seems to me that we’re losing the information war."   There are signs that Russian journalists are getting fed up with Putin's bullshit.  A slew of resignations in recent weeks suggests that some are no longer content to say nothing.  Hours after Russian TV editor Marina Ovsyannikova ran into frame on live TV carrying an anti-war sign, three other resignations came to light. Russian prima ballerina Olga Smirnova resigned from the Bolshoi Ballet, denounced the invasion and left Russia to head the Dutch National Ballet.

Putin is even beginning to lash out of ordinary Russians who are questioning his propaganda,  railing against Russians he said were being provoked by the West into civil unrest, urging loyal Russians to "spit out" those he labeled as traitors among the populace.  He went on to say, "Of course they will try to bet on the so-called fifth column, on traitors - on those who earn their money here, but live over there. Live, not in the geographical sense, but in the sense of their thoughts, their slavish thinking." 

Despite those words, Russians who can’t afford their own jets continue to fight for airline seats to Turkey, Uzbekistan, and other locations still flying to Moscow or St. Petersburg. Airlines still serving Russia have put on extra flights in response to the demand.

The Blood of Ukraine is On Their Hands

Incredibly, there are still some American companies that continue to operate in Russia, and thus support war criminal Vladimir Putin.  These evil-enriching brands  are:

• Brooks Brothers
• Eddie Bauer
• Forever 21
• Izod
• Lucky Brand Jeans
• Nautica
• Sports Illustrated
• Thomasville
• Van Heusen
  
• Reebok
• Cinnabon
• Carvel Ice Cream
• Halliburton (Iraq war corruption, Deepwater Horizon disaster, Nigerian bribes)
  
• International Paper
• LG Electronics
• Subway
• Koch Industries

That's right-- those asshole Koch brothers are more interested in keeping their blood-soaked profits flowing.  For those not in the know, Koch industries produces Brawny paper towels, Angel Soft toilet paper, Sparkle paper towels, Dixie Cups, Quilted Northern toilet paper & Vanity Fair napkins.  News of the Koch brothers still operating in Putin's Russia shouldn't come as a surprise, as the Koch family fortune started by building refineries for Stalin and Hitler.

Dolly Parton - Woman Up (and Take it Like a Man)

Tesla Plant Under Fire for Rampant Racism

According to a recently filed lawsuit, Tesla’s California plant was a hotbed of brutal racism. Black workers were pummeled with slurs daily from managers and supervisors alike.  The California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH), alleges that thousands of Black workers at Tesla’s Fremont factory were segregated into the most physically demanding positions and forced into the lowest-level contract roles. 

The segregated areas where they worked were called the “porch monkey station,” “the slave ship,” and “the plantation,” and that’s not the worst of it. When Black workers complained, they were retaliated against, ignored, denied bonuses, promotions, and other opportunities, the lawsuit reads. 

Black workers say many of those who hurled the slurs openly wore racially incendiary tattoos, such as the Confederate flag, and use racial slurs as often as 50-100 times a day,” the suit reads. The suit claims supervisors and managers constantly use the N-word and other racial slurs to refer to them and that swastikas, “KKK,” the N-word, and other racist epithets were etched onto restroom stalls doors, lunch tables, and even factory machinery—which Tesla removed, but at a glacial pace. The workers also said they were paid less, and more often terminated, than other workers. 

One worker said supervisors complained about where Black workers were assigned, saying, ‘Monkeys work outside,’ and ‘Monkeys need a coat in cold weather.’ A supervisor pointedly asked one Black worker, ‘Do most Africans have bones through their noses?’ While another worker reported that a group of production leads often laughed at her whenever she walked by them. These leads muttered ‘N****r' or ‘Shut up, N****r’ to her at first. When she started getting awards for her work performance, these leads openly called her these racial slurs.”

Tesla’s billionaire CEO Elon Musk (who is planning to move the company’s headquarters from Palo Alto to Austin, Texas), allegedly advised that Tesla workers should be ‘thick-skinned’ about race harassment. The lawsuit is the largest ever brought by the state for racial discrimination, and claims that the company is moving to Texas to “avoid accountability.”

This latest lawsuit is not the only one. A federal jury in San Francisco ordered Tesla to pay $137 million to one Tesla employee over racial discrimination claims.  in 2017, the California Civil Rights Law Group, a Bay Area firm, filed a class-action lawsuit against Tesla on behalf of 1,000 Black workers. The suit is starkly similar to the current DFEH suit.  Musk, who grew up in South Africa, requires workers directly hired to sign arbitration agreements in order to keep complaints secret and without an ability to appeal. After the 2017 class-action suit, it also required workers employed hired through its staffing agency to sign agreements waiving their rights to go to court.

 

The Continuing Saga of the Omichronicles

Texas Ramps Up Hostility Against LGBTQ Youth

Texas authorities continue finding new ways to harm LGBTQ youth. The eagle-eyed Jo Yurcaba at NBC News found that the state’s Department of Health website quietly removed LGBTQ suicide prevention resources from its website. Instead of listing the phone number, website, and text line for the Trevor Project, as it did at the beginning of February, the website no longer includes any links for LGBTQ youth.  When reached by Yurcaba, Trevor Project director of advocacy and government affairs Sam Ames condemned the Texas Department of Health’s decision to remove the Trevor Project from its list of suicide prevention resources on its suicide prevention page. “[Removing the resource] because they are specific to LGBTQ youth is not only offensive and wrong, it’s dangerous,” Ames said. 

This isn’t the first time LGBTQ resources have been removed from Texas state government websites. According to NBC News, a resources portal for LGBTQ youth was removed from the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services website in August. Officials claim the webpage is under review but it has yet to come back online.

Seemingly transphobic Gov. Greg Abbott recently directed the state to investigate any parents of transgender children.  Luckily, investigations tied to gender-affirming health care were blocked by a judge. Indiana is awaiting Gov. Eric Holcomb’s signature on an anti-trans athlete bill that passed the state Senate earlier this week. And Iowa most recently not only enacted an anti-trans athlete law but took measures to see that the discriminatory legislation goes into effect immediately.

 

Dontcha Know It?

Update on Ukraine

Russian forces continue to be entrenched in incompetence.  Some of it is due to extraordinary bad planning that was made on the assumption that Russia would simply roll into Kyiv and enjoy the parades. Russian intelligence was bad, their logistics were miserable, and the performance of their military overall has just been staggeringly poor. YetRussia enjoys a large numerical edge over Ukraine, but so far the quantity factor hasn’t made up for a military that seems intent on doing everything wrong.

March 8: An elderly woman in a metro station turned bomb shelter beneath Kyiv

 As of Saturday, the Ukrainian military of defense reported that they had captured, destroyed, or disabled 2,550 Russian vehicles and aircraft. Oryx has definitively identified at least 1,164 of these vehicles  using photographs and videos of captured or destroyed equipment. This includes an amazing 108 T-72 tanks—the definitive thing you do not want to drive down a Ukrainian roadway. 

March 10: Strollers on a destroyed bridge outside Irpin

 It was also reported that the mayor of Melitopol (in southern Ukraine) was kidnapped by Russia and replaced with a puppet official.  Ivan Fedorov was last seen on Friday evening being dragged away from the city's crisis center by Russian soldiers with a bag over his head.  Ukrainian officials shared a video of the incident.  The prosecutor's office of the Russian-backed breakaway eastern Ukrainian region of Luhansk has reportedly accused him of "terrorist activities".

On the heels of that incident, the Russian military abducted another mayor-- Yevhen Matveyev was seized in the southern town of Dniprorudne, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted, accusing Russia of "terror" tactics.

 In Kyiv, there is not much change, as the Russians continue to “regroup.” They were silent on the northwest approach (though Ukraine claims to have been quite active), and engaged only in “limited” incursion on the northeastern approach.   Russians don’t seem to have manpower to mount a serious assault, and their goal may simply be to get artillery close enough to indiscriminately shell the civilians in an attempt to terrorize Ukraine into submission.

March 10: The bodies of civilians killed by Russian shelling in the central park of Irpin

Not much has changed in Kharkiv/Sumy (northeast).  Russian forces did not secure any new territory in northeastern Ukraine and may be redeploying forces to attack eastern Kyiv.  In Donbas (east), Mariupol is surrounded, under massive bombardment, running out of food, no electricity, and it’s still holding on. Russia did make a move on the city’s western edge. 

In the Crimea/Kherson (south) region, Russian advanced from Crimea toward Mykolayiv and Zaporizhya and in the east around Donetsk and Luhansk made no progress in the last 24 hours.  More updates here.

March 12: Deribasovskaya, Odessa's main drag, as the city prepares for a Russian assault

And this morning, came reports that Brent Renaud, an award-winning US film-maker whose work has appeared in the New York Times and other outlets, has been killed by Russian forces in the flashpoint town of Irpin, outside Kyiv. A US photographer, Juan Arredondo, was wounded. Renaud, 51, was hit in the neck and died after coming under Russian fire while working, according to local police officials and multiple Ukrainian sources.

The Kremlin continues to issue talking points to state-owned media. “It is essential to use as much as possible fragments of broadcasts of the popular Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who sharply criticizes the actions of the United States [and] NATO, their negative role in unleashing the conflict in Ukraine, [and] the defiantly provocative behavior from the leadership of the Western countries and NATO towards the Russian Federation and towards President Putin, personally.” advises the 12-page document written in Russian. 

Son of a Rich Pakistani Family Conicted of Murdering Girl Who Wouldn't Marry Him

A court in Pakistan sentenced a man to death for raping and murdering the daughter of a former diplomat who refused his offer of marriage.  27-year-old Noor Muqaddam was beaten, raped and beheaded by Zahir Jaffer, the son of one of Pakistan's richest families.

The murder caused nationwide revulsion and prompted demands for more to be done to ensure women's safety.  It brought calls for an overhaul of Pakistan's criminal justice system, which has very low conviction rates, particularly for crimes against women.  Hundreds of women are killed in the country each year, and thousands suffer violence. Many cases go unreported.

Jaffer held Noor Muqaddam hostage for two days at his family home in a posh district of the capital after she refused to marry him.  Security footage showed Muqaddam trying in vain to escape.  At one of the hearings Jaffer told journalists: "I was angry, I killed Noor with a knife."  Two of Jaffer's household employees were sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for abetting the murder, while his parents were acquitted of trying to cover it up. 

Noor's father, Shaukat Muqaddam, called the verdict a victory for justice and said he wanted to ensure abusers and killers of women in Pakistan no longer got away with their crimes. "I am happy that justice has been served," he said.  "I've been saying that this is not just my daughter's case, it is a case for all the daughters of my country."  He pledged to challenge the acquittal of Jaffer's parents.

Ben Rector - Living My Best Life

"People's Convoy" Not Even a Blip on the Radar

I postponed blogging about the "people's convoy", expecting it to turn into a significant story at some point-- but it looks like it came and went without anything more than a whimper.

Day one of the great Washington, D.C., trucker convoy went great … for regular drivers, that is.  Motorists on the Capital Beltway hardly noticed that anything was happening.  For the truckers (some of whom were actually SUV or minivan drivers), the whole affair was kind of embarrassing. After a day of confusion last Saturday, they changed things up and decided instead to go out on Sunday and circle the Beltway twice at 40 miles per hour, making a show of strength that would be a “huge pain” for regular traffic. At most, they managed to be a minor irritation in a region already accustomed to  heavy traffic.

According to reports, the convoy was unable to stay together as soon as it encountered normal Beltway traffic.  Some bailed after a single lap. And the whole group got so stretched out and broken up that Virginia State police were not even sure they could call it a convoy anymore, according to spokeswoman Corinne Geller.

Nevertheless, the rabid Trump supporters retreated once again to a raceway parking lot in the suburbs of Maryland and vowed to keep doing loops around the Capital Beltway every day until their “message” is heard—though it’s hard to tell exactly what that message is.   During their downtime, the "truckers" have been getting each other all riled up and directing their frustrations at journalists who try to report on them, indulging their bigotry in the process. One reporter from an ABC News affiliate, a Black man, was heckled out by the crowd. An observer named Terry Bouton posted about the scene, telling about a worrisome moment when a crowd surrounded a black reporter for DC's ABC affiliate. They asked why the black reporter was sent. They demanded he say, "Truckers are heroes!" on air. When he refused, a man repeatedly shouted "LEAVE!" in his face.  The reporter left, visibly shaken.

The whole thing started weeks ago when Fox news started reporting on similar protests in Canada (which were quickly put down without much effort).  The American "people's convoy" was supposed to be all about doing away with COVID-19 pandemic restrictions and mandates. But the problem is that way before the convoy got under way, most of the restrictions had already been rescinded or blocked in the courts on the federal level, and on the local and state levels were already ending.  So along the way to DC, the protesters changed their tune, saying what they’re really about is “taking back our freedom,” Maybe these privileged jerks should stay home and read a little bit about Ukrainians-- people who are actually losing their freedoms.

The reality is that nobody really knows what to expect from this unpredictable, nonsensical bunch of assholes. They say they’re protesting until their demands are met, but they don't really have any coherent demands. They say they’ve come to the nation’s capital to protest public health restrictions-- but they have fallen away all over the nation for weeks before they set out on their journey.  Some of them are talking about high gas prices-- yet those prices don't seem to be high enough to prevent them from spending hundreds of dollars in gas in an attempt to disrupt other people’s lives.   Some flew Confederate battle flags-- well, because they could get away with it.  There doesn't seem to really be any rationale at this point, beyond the far right asserting its media-given right to attention.

Thousands of people have donated to the cause, but the Washington Post reported that the primary fundraising operation for the convoy is run by a woman convicted in 2020 of felony fraud and exploitation.  Uninformed media sources like to say that these folks represent the working class-- but I don't know anyone with a job that could afford to take off for weeks and weeks and spend thousands of dollars on something that isn't even grounded in reality and have a practical end goal in sight.

 

More of the Ongoing Omi-chronicles

Putin is Lying When He Says He Isn't Targeting Civilians

A mother and her two children were killed as they tried to flee along a known civilian evacuation route from Irpin to Kyiv.

This a video taken of the Russian attack that took the lives of the mother and children in the photo above as they evacuated from Irpin to Kyiv.

 Footage of a Russian attack on a residential area in Chernihiv (northern Ukraine)

Texas Trans-gressions

No More Free Speech or Independent Journalism in Russia

There is a widespread consensus in the free world that Russian media is now dead.  Russia has now passed a law under which anyone who publicly calls Putin’s war on Ukraine a “war” or "invasion" can be jailed for up to 15 years, The New York Times reports. The new law, passed by the Russian parliament, applies to not only news articles and broadcast news but even social media.  The law made it a crime to spread any information that is deemed by false by Russian authorities.

All the major news networks have stopped broadcast operations in Russia.  The BBC said the law "appears to criminalize the process of independent journalism."  Bloomberg said the new law "seems designed to turn any independent reporter into a criminal purely by association [and] makes it impossible to continue any semblance of normal journalism inside the country."  CNN is stopping any live broadcasts from Russia, as well as ending its broadcasts into Russia.   Digital media have also stopped putting reporters' names and locations on their stories, in a bid to protect them from retaliation and prison time.

TV Rain, the last independent news channel in Russia stopped broadcasting as well, with its last report shared on YouTube:

Liberal radio station Echo on Moscow was also forced off the air by Russian authorities last week, due to its coverage of the Ukraine invasion.  The station, which has been on the air since 1990,  gained attention during the unsuccessful coup against Gorbachev by Russian hardliners.  It was one of the few news outlets that spoke out against the group of eight communist and KGB hardliners behind the overthrow plot.

Nearly 4,000 people have been detained at anti-war protests across 53 Russian cities today, rights groups and Russian authorities say.   Some 1,700 people were detained in Moscow alone.  Although protests have become increasingly restricted in recent years, numerous rallies have taken place across Russia since the invasion.  In the last 11 days, more than 10,000 people have been detained at protests, OVD-Info says.  Of course, none of this will now be reported inside Russia, due to the dictatorial censorship from Putin.

Before and After in Ukraine

Kyiv apartment block hit by a Russian missile on February 26

Kharkiv's Svobody Square now littered with destruction and debris

Council building in central Kharkiv was bombed out on March 2

Air strikes in Irpin left the housing area above completely destroyed.

Residential areas of Chernihiv were heavily shelled on March 3

Attack on Chernihiv high-rise apartment resulted in casualties.

Florida Governor Bullies Students Who Wanted to Wear Masks

Florida governor Ron DeSantis looked more petulant than presidential as he walked up to the podium for a press conference at the University of South Florida.  It wasn’t a big surprise when he bullied seven high school students standing on stage wearing masks. 

“You do not have to wear those masks,” the governor said in front of a large group of reporters. “I mean, please take them off.  Honestly, it’s not doing anything and we’ve gotta stop with this COVID theater. So if you want to wear it, fine, but this is ridiculous.”  He sighed heavily as he began his remarks:

Dawn Marshall’s son Eric was one of the students who removed his mask after DeSantis’ comments.  She told CBS17 in Tampa, Florida, that her son felt pressured because the governor is an authority figure, so he removed his mask.  Marshall added that she’s still angry about it.  “He pretty much said, ‘Take off your mask, it’s stupid. Take off your mask, your parents don’t matter.’ Even though I’m telling you parents matter and he’s telling my minor child to take off his mask. He’s putting us at risk. Oh yeah, I was upset. Very upset,” she said

Kevin Brown Sr., whose son was among the seven students standing on stage, says that despite the fact that the governor’s message was to "stop bullying kids,” that’s exactly what he himself did.   "His mother tells him to wear the mask," he told WFLA. "I tell him it's his choice, so he made that choice and the governor has no right to tell no kid or no one that they can or can't wear a mask. He doesn't have that right."

DeSantis is the one who said he was "taking a stand against critical race theory” in Florida schools and in the workplace by enacting the “Stop Wrongs Against Our Kids and Employees Act," or the “Stop W.O.K.E. Act.”  He also touted his support for the Parental Rights in Education proposal, colloquially known as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.

In addition to suppressing LGNTQ youth in the classroom, the goofy governor seems to be all about preventing people from speaking the truth—from banning American history under the guise of banning critical race theory (CRT), to voter suppression in Black and brown communities, to peddling misinformation about vaccines and masks as mitigation for COVID-19, to ignoring racist Nazi rallies in his state.

 

A Great Big World - Mama

Racism Even at the Height of a Crisis

We are now getting confirmation of racist treatment by Ukrainian border patrols accused of blocking people of color from accessing safe passage amid the Russian offensive into Ukraine. Filippo Grandi, commissioner of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, acknowledged “reports in the media that there are different treatments with Ukrainians and non-Ukrainians” during a news conference  on Tuesday.

Rachel Onyegbule, a Nigerian student in Lviv for her first year of medical school, told CNN she was stranded in Shehyni, a town about 400 miles from Ukraine's capital city of Kyiv. "More than 10 buses came and we were watching everyone leave," she told the news network. "We thought after they took all the Ukrainians they would take us, but they told us we had to walk, that there were no more buses and told us to walk.  “My body was numb from the cold and we haven't slept in about 4 days now. Ukrainians have been prioritized over Africans -- men and women -- at every point,” Onyegbule added. “There's no need for us to ask why. We know why. I just want to get home."

Saakshi Ijantkar, a medical student in her fourth year from Mumbai, India, shared a similar experience in an interview with CNN. "There are three check posts we need to go through to get to the border. A lot of people are stranded there. They don't allow Indians to go through," Ijantkar said. She said border authorities allow 30 Indians in only after 500 Ukranians are allowed in. Ijantkar talked to CNN from a phone in Lviv, which is in western Ukraine. "To get to this border you need to walk 4 to 5 kilometers from the first checkpoint to the second one," she said. “Ukrainians are given taxis and buses to travel, all other nationalities have to walk. They were very racist to Indians and other nationalities."

Nigerian student Jessica Orakpo told BBC News Africa she was “begging” and even lied that she was pregnant to sway an official to allow her a ride. “The official literally looked me in my eye and said in his language, ‘Only Ukrainians. That’s all, that if you are Black, you should walk,’” Orakpo said. She told BBC she did eventually get out of Ukraine, arriving in Debrecen, Hungary, at about 10 AM on Monday.

Her journey, however, wasn’t easy. She said it started when she tried to take a commercial taxi to Poland. “The taxi couldn’t stay in the line of cars ‘cuz literally cars had been there for two days,” Orakpo said.

So she decided to walk the rest of the way. A traffic warden who saw her recommended she go to a shelter to sleep, and the next day she received word that a bus would take those at the shelter straight to Poland, Orakpo said. When the bus arrived, however, she said she was told it was only for Ukrainians. She walked an additional eight hours, she said.  “The problem isn’t at the Polish border,” Orakpo said. “It is at the Ukrainian border because you have to step out at the Ukrainian border to get on the Polish side, and the Ukrainians are only prioritizing their citizens. They don’t care. They will push you. They will beat you. If you can make it, you make it. If you don’t, you don’t.” 

All people have the "right to cross international borders during conflict," African Union chairpersons stated. "Reports that Africans are singled out for unacceptable dissimilar treatment would be shockingly racist and in breach of international law," the African Union said in its statement.