Category: Veterans – Patriotism

On a dead-end street in north Denver, migrants are surviving winter with the help of an army of volunteers

Colorado Sun – News, Immigration

On a dead-end street in north Denver, migrants are surviving winter with the help of an army of volunteers

As the city reinstates time limits on hotel stays, volunteers are making plans to help hundreds more migrants in camps

Jennifer Brown – January 22, 2024

Dusk falls over a migrant encampment of about 10 as Juan Carlos Pioltelli, of Peru, walks into the community warming tent in subzero temperatures in Denver on Jan. 15, 2024. An American flag hangs upside down after migrants, in a hurry and out of excitement for being in the U.S., accidentally put it up upside down. (Eli Imadali, Special to The Colorado Sun)

Footprints in the snow lead from the sidewalk to a path through the weeds, opening to a field that is almost invisible from the road. 

North of Interstate 70, in a part of Denver filled mostly with warehouses and gas stations, the tents are flapping relentlessly in the wind. About 10 migrants from South America hunkered down here during four days of subzero temperatures, and the volunteers who brought them heaters and propane, hot meals and fresh water, are prepared to help hundreds more as Denver pushes migrants out of their city-provided hotel rooms in the coming weeks. 

The dozen or so brightly colored tents were mostly concealed from view by the field’s dirt mounds, despite that they were just across the South Platte River from the National Western Stock Show, one of Denver’s biggest events of the year. As the city stayed home during last week’s deep freeze, the Venezuelans and other South Americans in the encampment zipped into sleeping bags and gathered in a “warming tent” to play dominoes and eat a pot of homemade noodle soup. 

The camp lasted about two weeks, until Friday, when crews from Denver Parks & Recreation arrived and helped the migrants bag up their belongings and dismantle the tents.

They moved a couple of blocks away, out of the field and at the dead end of a street to nowhere.

The men in the encampment, near Washington Street and East 50th Avenue, are among the few migrants who are still living outside after the city’s massive effort to get migrants indoors before the January freeze and snowfall. Because of the cold, Denver paused time limits on stays in the seven hotels it has rented out for migrants, but that pause is ending Feb. 5 after the number of people staying in hotels has surpassed 4,300. 

Hundreds of people — including families with children — will have to leave their hotel rooms in the coming weeks. 

Jose Giovanis, left, leaves his tent as he and other South American migrants get ready to take showers in Denver on Jan. 15. Giovanis and about nine other migrants lived in the encampment with heated tents and other provisions through January’s deep freeze. (Eli Imadali, Special to The Colorado Sun)

They were offered mats in city shelters, hotel rooms and even to go home with some of the volunteers who stop by to make sure they survived another frigid night. But they chose to stay outside for various reasons — because sleeping mat to mat makes them anxious, because they didn’t want to leave their belongings or lose their campsite, because they would rather try to make it on their own, no matter how cold. 

“The snow makes you shiver so much you can’t talk or anything,” said Kevin Bolaño, who is from Colombia. “Sometimes we go out to shake the tents around and remove the snow.” 

Bolaño, 33, arrived in Denver just over a month ago, one of 37,600 migrants, mostly Venezuelans, who have come through the city in the past year. He spent his allotted 14 days in a hotel room, then camped outside the Quality Inn in northwestern Denver until earlier this month, when city crews bused more than 200 people in that sprawling camp to shelters and scooped left-behind tents, mattresses and furniture into garbage bins.  

Bolaño, a chef who specializes in Chinese dishes, wants to work in a restaurant or for a construction company, but he has struggled so far because he does not have a work permit. “If we were working for a company, we would not be here in the cold,” he said.

He left his home in Colombia, where he lived with his parents and children, because of terrorism and poverty, he said. “The government wanted all of a person’s salary. The food went up, the services and the houses went up and nothing was enough,” Bolaño said in Spanish. “It makes a person want to leave their own country in order to be able to help the family they left behind.” 

Jose Giovanis, nicknamed Valencia after the Venezuelan city he’s from, sits on his phone as he shows his heated tent in a migrant encampment where he and about nine other migrants are living, despite the frigid weather, in Denver Jan. 15. (Eli Imadali, Special to The Colorado Sun)

On a blustery day last week, Bolaño smoked a cigarette in his tent with Elis Aponte, 47, who left Venezuela to escape discrimination he felt as part of the LGBTQ community. “Here, people don’t bully me,” said Aponte, who arrived in Denver four months ago and is now living in a house with a friend after weeks in a hotel and then an encampment along the sidewalk. 

In Venezuela, Aponte studied radiology and forensic anthropology, and worked in a morgue. But like many migrants, he has struggled to find work here without the required legal documents. Still, Aponte said he is glad he made the journey to the United States. 

“There is a lot of good stuff here,” he said in Spanish. “The only bad thing was that we arrived in a season when the snow was coming. I wear one, two, three sweaters and a jacket here, and even with all that, it’s cold. But I like Denver.”

They likely would not attempt surviving a Colorado winter outside, though, if it weren’t for the local army of volunteers who drive them to get showers and bring the propane needed to keep the heaters running in every sleeping tent and community warming tent. 

Food and other cooking and eating supplies are stored in their designated tent at a Denver migrant encampment of 10 people. (Eli Imadali, Special to The Colorado Sun)
Denver locals mobilize to help via social media

The calls to help Hugo, the lone man left in an encampment under a north Denver bridge near West 48th Avenue and Fox Street, went out daily. 

“We need someone to bring Hugo a hot meal for dinner tonight after he gets home from work,” volunteer Chelsey Baker-Hauck posted on a migrant support Facebook page. “He may also need drinking water and some additional propane for tonight. He has a thermos you can also fill with hot water so he can make coffee/cocoa.”

Not long after her post, another Denver resident who is part of the “mutual aid” network responded that he would bring Hugo dinner and fresh water as soon as he finished work.

The Facebook page has 1,200 members and counting, hundreds of whom are actively helping, Baker-Hauck said. She and others started the page as an encampment began to spread under a bridge in their north Denver neighborhood. For weeks, they were delivering hot food and blankets, helping migrants find apartments and taking them into their homes. 

“If they choose to stay outside,” she said, “we try to help them stay alive.”

Mutual aid volunteer Chelsey Baker-Hauck, right, and David Amdahl, a volunteer with the Denver Friends Church, organize, salvage and save items left behind at a migrant encampment on Jan. 16 near 48th Avenue and Fox Street in Denver, ahead of a city cleanup. (Eli Imadali, Special to The Colorado Sun)

It was devastating, Baker-Hauck said, when the city posted notice that crews would clean up the camp last Thursday. Ahead of the cold snap, the city offered bus rides to shelters and hotels. But Hugo, who has no vehicle and found steady work in construction within walking distance of the bridge, refused to go. 

For a week, volunteers packed up tents, gathered and washed coats and clothing, and saved paperwork left behind as the migrants — all but Hugo — rushed to take buses to shelters. The volunteers want to return it to the people who left the camp or save it for other migrants who end up on the street when their hotel stays expire, Baker-Hauck said. Either way, they didn’t want the city to stuff it all in the trash. 

“When the city does it, everything goes in the garbage,” she said. “It’s a lot of waste.” 

The tents and winter gear will likely go to other encampments, including the one near the Denver Coliseum, Baker-Hauck said. 

The group operates under the “mutual aid” concept, meaning no one is in charge and everyone pitches in when they can. Baker-Hauck posts the needs of the day, and people respond. When the deep freeze began, a volunteer called the mayor’s office and said she had 15 people who were freezing at a camp near Tower Road and East 56th Avenue. The mayor’s staff made room inside a city building near Civic Center park that was opened as a migrant shelter a couple of weeks ago. 

Then Baker-Hauck asked the volunteer group if anyone could pick up the migrants and drive them to shelter. Nine drivers went out in the subzero temperatures. 

“They responded within minutes,” she said. “It was amazing.” 

As for Hugo, he finally agreed to stay with Baker-Hauck as the city crews were coming to clean up what was left of the camp. His first night in her home, Hugo took a hot shower, called his family in Ecuador and asked if she had any books in Spanish that would teach him about Colorado history.

He insisted on walking to work, an hour each way. 

Families will get 42 days in hotel rooms

The camp near the Stock Show has its own set of volunteers, including Amy Beck, a Denver resident who for years has been helping the city’s homeless population through her group, Together Denver. She focused her efforts on migrants in the past few months because they were so unprepared for the cold weather and it was so upsetting to her to see children in tents.

Beck chose the vacant field in the weeds, then helped coordinate efforts to gather tents and propane deliveries. She spent the past weekend helping set up the new camp in a culdesac that backs up to the field after city officials cleared the first one. Each sleeping tent has a Little Buddy propane heater, and the community tent — with a table in the center for meals and games — has a 20-pound propane tank that keeps it surprisingly warm. 

“It’s so warm, you have to take your coat off,” she said.

Still, Beck and fellow volunteers say they have done everything they can to persuade people to move indoors. At the encampment, she pulled out her phone to show the men photos of unhoused friends she brought to the hospital for amputations last spring because of frostbite. One man lost both of his feet; another lost all of his toes. 

The volunteers offer bus tickets to warmer cities, rooms in their homes, calls to Denver Human Services to find housing. 

“As a last resort, we set them up in a tent,” Beck said. 

Amy Beck, part of Together Denver and a volunteer working to help newly arrived migrants, stands for a portrait at a migrant encampment of 10 people in Denver on Jan. 15. Upset after seeing children in tents, Beck coordinated donations and volunteers to help migrants survive January’s deep freeze. (Eli Imadali, Special to The Colorado Sun)

She helped set up the encampment as the city dismantled the one outside the Quality Inn, which had stretched multiple blocks in the Highland neighborhood, across Interstate 25 from downtown. That camp, Beck said, was “complete mayhem,” with tents lining the sidewalk and blocking traffic, and dozens of nonprofits and volunteers coming by daily with breakfast burritos, medicines and boxes of snow boots. 

“Having children in tents, that crosses the line for me,” she said. “I can’t bring myself to go through a city sweep with children present. Children are not criminals, but that’s the law of Denver.” 

Beck liked the new encampment because it was so out of the way. Volunteers have collected 200 tents, which they expect to fill in the coming weeks as people time out of hotels. They said they will squeeze more into the encampment near the Stock Show and look for other spots as needed. Individuals get 14 days, while families get 42 days. 

They are going to exit everyone who queued up during the severe weather. That is going to be disastrous.

— Amy Beck, volunteer

“They are going to exit everyone who queued up during the severe weather,” Beck said. “That is going to be disastrous. That said, we are prepared. It’s not going to be super comfortable but we will be able to make a very good attempt to keep everyone safe.” 

She wants the city, since the Stock Show ended Sunday, to turn the Denver Coliseum into a shelter as it did during the height of the COVID pandemic. “We’re hoping the city is going to make some humane decisions,” Beck said. 

The city has no plans for that, as of now.

“All options are on the table, but there’s nothing happening with that space at the moment,” said Jon Ewing, spokesman for the Denver Department of Human Services.

Denver Parks & Recreation said they provided 48 hours notice that they would clear the camp in the field Friday. “Park rules do not allow individuals to set up tents or structures of any kind so as to ensure that public parks remain open for all,” spokesperson Yolanda Quesada said via email.

In November and December, Denver was receiving multiple busloads and 100-200 migrants per day, mostly from Texas. The buses keep coming, though the pace is now from 20-100 people per day. 

“I’m getting the sense that this is not going to be resolved any time soon,” Beck said. 

The outhouse sits under a tree as the sun sets and temperatures remain below zero at a migrant encampment of 10 people in Denver. (Eli Imadali, Special to The Colorado Sun)
Migrants in apartments facing steep rent after initial aid runs out

Volunteers are also helping hundreds of migrants who have moved into apartments in the Denver area, many of them with help from the city and nonprofits to pay their deposit and first month’s rent.

Shari Spooner, who runs a marketing agency in Denver and has family in Venezuela, started volunteering with an organization called Para Ti Mujer when migrants began arriving in Colorado. “It pulls at my heartstrings, obviously,” she said. 

Spooner delivers donated clothes and gift cards to Venezuelans around the metro area, and helps navigate bureaucracy to help people get information about unpaid wages and health care. She recently directed a pregnant woman to Denver Health, after explaining to her that she could receive care without insurance or citizenship. 

The woman lives with her husband and children in an apartment that costs $2,400 per month, though the first two months have been covered by the city and a foundation. Spooner worries about how they will make rent when the third month is due, especially after the woman’s husband was cheated out of his wages for construction work. 

“The vast majority of the people I’ve met and helped are looking for jobs,” Spooner said. “They are looking to be part of Colorado and build their life here in a positive way. They just need that first step. I think it’s important for people to know that.”

Snow rests atop a tent at a migrant encampment of about 10 people as temperatures dip to minus 6 degrees in Denver on Jan. 15. (Eli Imadali, Special to The Colorado Sun)

Some of the men in the encampment near the Stock Show are hoping to share apartments once they earn enough money. For now, they say they are content staying put. 

Daniel Escalona, 21, said he does not want to sleep in a shelter where there are wall-to-wall mats on the floor and regular outbursts among people crowded into the room. And the heaters at the encampment are keeping him warm enough. 

“We don’t want to sleep here,” said Escalona, who traveled from Venezuela on his own. “With a job, I can rent an apartment. But if I don’t get a job, I cannot.”

Jennifer Brown writes about mental health, the child welfare system, the disability community and homelessness for The Colorado Sun. As a former Montana 4-H kid, she also loves writing about agriculture and ranching. Brown previously worked at the Hungry Horse News in Montana, the Tyler Morning Telegraph in Texas, The Associated Press in Oklahoma City, and The Denver Post before helping found The Sun in 2018.

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What’s Going On With Brett Kavanaugh?

Slate

What’s Going On With Brett Kavanaugh?

Mark Joseph Stern – January 23, 2024

On Monday, the Supreme Court affirmed the federal government’s supremacy over the states, a principle established explicitly in the Constitution, enshrined by centuries of precedent, and etched into history by the Civil War. The vote was 5–4. Four dissenting justices would have allowed the state of Texas to nullify laws enacted by Congress, pursuant to its express constitutional authority over immigration, that direct federal law enforcement to intercept migrants crossing the border. These justices would have allowed Texas to edge ever closer to a violent clash between state and federal forces, deploying armed guardsmen and razor wire to block the president from faithfully executing the law.

It was no surprise that three of these dissenters—Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch—sided with Texas, given their overt hostility to the Biden administration’s immigration policies, which verges on rejecting the president’s legitimate right to govern. It was, however, deeply alarming to see who joined them: Brett Kavanaugh, the justice who expends tremendous energy assuring the nation that he is reasonable, moderate, and inclined toward compromise. Kavanaugh’s vote on Monday was none of those things; it was, rather, an endorsement of a state’s rebellion against federal supremacy.

Really, though, should we be shocked that Kavanaugh sided with the Texas rebels over the U.S. president? Maybe not. After spending his first few years on the bench role-playing as a sometimes-centrist, Kavanaugh appears to be veering to the right: His votes over the past several months have been increasingly aligned with Alito and Thomas rather than his previous ally, Chief Justice John Roberts. This shift is still nascent, but it grows more visible with each passing month. And it bodes poorly for the country as we careen toward an election that Donald Trump openly seems to hope the Supreme Court may rig for him.

Start with that jaw-dropping vote on Monday. It’s difficult to overstate how dire the situation had become in Eagle Pass, Texas, where Gov. Greg Abbott mounted his insurgency against the federal government. Migrants frequently cross over at Eagle Pass, so Border Patrol has a major presence in the area. Federal law grants border agents the right to access all land within 25 miles of the border and requires these agents to inspect and detain unauthorized migrants. Yet Abbott defied these statutes: He ordered the Texas National Guard to erect razor wire at the border, a barrier that ensnared migrants (to the point of near death) and excluded Border Patrol. Federal law enforcement was thus physically unable to perform the duties assigned to it by Congress, or to rescue migrants drowning in the Rio Grande. In response, border agents began cutting through the wire, prompting Texas to sue. The far-right U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit dutifully issued an injunction prohibiting any federal destruction of the wire fencing.

The 5th Circuit’s injunction effectively allowed Texas to nullify federal law, in direct contradiction of the Constitution’s supremacy clause. Some of the oldest, most entrenched Supreme Court precedents forbid states from interfering with the lawful exercise of federal authority. It should have been easy for SCOTUS to grant the Biden administration’s emergency request by shooting down the 5th Circuit. Instead, the justices spent a baffling 20 days mulling the case—and, presumably, debating it behind the scenes. In the end, all the court could muster was a 5–4 order halting the 5th Circuit’s injunction, with Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett joining the liberals. There were zero written opinions. The dissenters, including Kavanaugh, felt no obligation to explain their votes.

In a sense, Kavanaugh’s silence makes his vote even worse: Having lodged a protest against the single most important principle governing the relationship between the federal government and the states, the justice kept mum, forcing us to guess why he voted in support of nullification. Kavanaugh evidently felt that he owed us no explanation, no reasoning behind his desire to subvert executive authority in favor of a Confederate-flavored conception of state supremacy. His extremism was therefore compounded by an arrogant refusal to justify power with reason, an attitude fit more for a king than a judge.

And not for the first time: Just last month, Kavanaugh cast another silent, startling vote that aligned him with Alito and Thomas. On Dec. 11, the court refused to take up a challenge to Washington state’s ban on LGBTQ+ “conversion therapy” for minors, dodging a case that imperiled similar bans in nearly half the states. Even Gorsuch, Barrett, and Roberts wouldn’t take the bait—perhaps because the case was entirely bogus, cooked up by anti-LGBTQ+ activists despite the absence of a live controversy. But there was Kavanaugh, dissenting from the court’s rejection of the case, telegraphing his hunger to shoot down conversion therapy bans without even the fig leaf of a genuine dispute. Thomas and Alito each wrote angry dissents arguing that the court should’ve taken the case, while Kavanaugh stood alone in his reticence to explain himself. It seems the justice wants to establish a constitutional right to “convert” LGBTQ+ kids, an act that can amount to torture, but lacks the courage to even describe why.

Kavanaugh’s hard-right turn arguably began earlier, in an Aug. 8 order that flew under the radar. It emerged out of a conflict between the Biden administration and gun advocates over a new federal rule that restricts the sale of “ghost guns.” A ghost gun comes in a “kit” that’s almost fully assembled, and a buyer can easily finish putting it together with the help of a YouTube tutorial. Once completed, the gun fires like a semi-automatic firearm. To buy a regular handgun, you have to prove your identity, undergo a background check, and satisfy other federal requirements. To buy a ghost gun, you need only place an anonymous order online. These guns lack a serial number—which are mandatory for regular guns—rendering them untraceable by law enforcement. For this reason, ghost guns are overwhelmingly favored by criminals.

Federal law regulates the sale of “firearms,” the definition of which includes any weapon that “may readily be converted” to shoot a bullet. In 2022 the Biden administration issued a regulation clarifying that ghost guns fit this definition and may therefore be sold only by licensed dealers. This limitation neatly fit the federal statute, which, after all, encompassed partially assembled firearms. Yet, a federal judge halted the rule nationwide, and the 5th Circuit backed him up. The Biden administration sought relief at the Supreme Court, which granted it—by a 5-to-4 vote: Roberts and Barrett joined the liberals, while Kavanaugh joined Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch in dissent.

Once again, Kavanaugh gave no explanation for his vote. Had he prevailed, the justice would have freed criminals to anonymously purchase untraceable, almost-finished guns online and use them to maim and kill Americans without consequence. Doesn’t such a radical outcome cry out for an explanation? Apparently not to Kavanaugh, who likes to depict himself as a commonsense conciliator on firearms, except when it actually counts.

What’s going on here? One possibility is that Kavanaugh moderated himself during his early years on the bench in the hopes of salvaging his public image after furiously assailing Democrats during his confirmation hearing. After latching himself to the chief justice for half a decade, Kavanaugh may now be showing his true colors, breaking away from the chief’s tactical restraint to chart his own rightward course. Or maybe the justice is being pushed toward the MAGA fringe by contempt for Biden, whose policies he has routinely struck down. Kavanaugh was, after all, a Republican political operative in his past life; it has always been doubtful that he truly slipped his partisan moorings when donning the robe. (Trump’s lawyers put this less subtly, saying that Kavanaugh will soon “step up” for the man who appointed him.)

If partisan discontentment is driving Kavanaugh’s growing alliance with the hard-right bloc, the development has ominous implications for the 2024 election. Already, one major Trump case has hit the court, forcing the justices to decide whether the candidate’s incitement of an insurrection disqualifies him from running for president. Another one is hurtling toward the court, asking whether the Constitution somehow grants Trump absolute immunity from prosecution for his involvement in that insurrection. More election cases will arise as the election draws nearer (presuming Trump is the nominee), many involving access to the ballot. And during the 2020 election, at Trump’s behest, Kavanaugh cast several dubious votes attempting to void valid mail ballots in swing states.

It is encouraging that Barrett has stepped up as an unexpected voice of reason when Kavanaugh defects to the MAGA wing of the court. But Barrett herself is also very conservative, and certainly not a reliable vote for democracy. If a principle as fundamental as federal supremacy can only squeak by on a 5–4 vote, no law is settled and everything is up for grabs. And that, of course, is exactly how Trump wants it.

Russian parliament examines plan to seize dissidents’ assets

Reuters

Russian parliament examines plan to seize dissidents’ assets

Reuters – January 22, 2024

Victory Day Parade in Moscow

(Reuters) – Russia’s parliament began considering a draft bill on Monday which would give the state the power to seize the property of people convicted for defamation of the armed forces or for calling publicly for actions that undermine state security.

The move has drawn comparisons with the witch hunts of the 1930s under Soviet dictator Josef Stalin with their “enemy of the state” rhetoric, and could affect thousands of Russians who have spoken out against Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

Criticising what Moscow calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine has effectively been a crime in Russia from the day it began almost two years ago, but the new bill aims to make penalties for that even tougher.

It would allow the state for example, to seize the property of Russians who have left the country and have criticised the war but who continue to rely on revenue from renting out their houses or apartments in Russia.

The speaker of the State Duma lower house of parliament, Vyacheslav Volodin, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, has dubbed the new bill “the scoundrel law”.

“Everyone who tries to destroy Russia, betrays it, must be pubished accordingly and repay the damage to the country in the form of their property,” he said at the weekend while announcing the submission of the bill.

(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Gareth Jones)

Trump Chooses Absolutely Baffling New Topic For Latest Rambling Aside

HuffPost

Trump Chooses Absolutely Baffling New Topic For Latest Rambling Aside

Ed Mazza – January 22, 2024

Embedded video

Donald Trump’s speech on Sunday took an unexpected turn when he went on a tangent about the names of U.S. military installations.

“We won world wars out of forts,” he said at an event in Rochester, New Hampshire. “Fort Benning, Fort This, Fort That, many forts. They changed the name, we won wars out of these forts, they changed the name, they changed the name of the forts. A lot of people aren’t too happy about that.”

Trump then essentially repeated what he’d just said.

“They changed the name of a lot of our forts. We won two world wars out of a lot of these forts and they changed the name,” he said. “It’s unbelievable.”

Nine U.S. military installations named for Confederate generals have been renamed to honor people who didn’t fight against the United States.

The Fort Benning that Trump mentioned was named for Henry L. Benning, who NPR noted was not just a Confederate general but a “virulent white supremacist.”

The Georgia installation was renamed Fort Moore last year in honor of Lt. Gen. Hal Moore and his wife, Julia Compton Moore, whom Military.com called “one of the Army’s most influential couples.”

Trump’s critics on X, the former Twitter, noted the strange digression:

Paul Waldman: Understand that Trump is mad because military facilities named for treasonous white supremacist slavery advocates who waged war against the United States were renamed to honor actual American heroes. That’s what he and his audience are pissed about.

Sophie Persists: We can’t forget the brave soldiers stationed at Fort This.

Chris Taylor: I was stationed at Fort This in 2009. They wanted to transfer me to Fort That. Lol a commander in chief that can’t even remember the names of the bases, yet he’s so upset the names were changed.

Bryan: I know by now I shouldn’t be surprised at his ignorance. Yet here we are…

Rick Wilson: Grandpa Ranty’s Ahistorical Ignorance Tour, 2024 edition.

Ron Filipkowski: Attached to this post is an excerpt from the speech Henry Benning made at the Virginia convention with his reasons for secession. Trump is bemoaning not having a base named after him. https://t.co/c6HaYsrGa9

Wu Tank is for the Children: Stay in school kids…there is so much insanity in this clip

Pro Lib: “Where were you stationed?” “Fort This, you?” “Fort That!” “Oh weird!”

Sue Z: Good God. And you MAGA people still love him. He’s an incoherent buffoon.

Keith Edwards: Trump is experiencing huge mental decline. The media has to start taking this seriously.

Desperate Russian soldiers near Kherson post video from Krynky imploring Minister Shoigu for relief

The New Voice of Ukraine

Desperate Russian soldiers near Kherson post video from Krynky imploring Minister Shoigu for relief

The New Voice of Ukraine – January 22, 2024

The Russian invaders whine that the command has left them to their own devices
The Russian invaders whine that the command has left them to their own devices

Against the backdrop of the expansion of the Ukrainian bridgehead on the east bank of the Dnipro in Kherson Oblast, Russian units stationed near Krynky issued a direct appeal to Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu in violation of the chain of command, according to a video shared on Telegram on Jan. 20.

The video depicted the soldiers describing the dire conditions they are enduring and criticizing the leadership of the Russian Armed Forces.

Read also: Prominent Russian drone operator ‘Moisei’ neutralized in Krynky

According to the soldiers’ appeal, the Russian command refuses to recognize its failures in the sector.

“We are asking Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to deal with the catastrophe that is playing out in the village of Krynky,” the soldiers said.

Read also: Russian invaders escalate combat in Tavria operational zone – Tarnavskyi

“We have been here since Aug. 2, 2023. It is now Jan. 20, 2024. In these almost seven months, we have not had a single day off, not a single rotation. Since Aug. 2, we have been under constant shelling … There are a lot of enemy drones in the sky… Many of our brothers in arms left Krynky among the 300 wounded, and those who were less lucky – among the 200 killed in action. Many of the wounded die while being evacuated.”

Fatigue among Russian troops near Krynky is “growing every day,” they claim.

“However, our command does not rotate people, does not let us go on well-deserved leave, does not even provide us with winter uniforms. We buy generators with our own money. Food and gasoline are delivered in minimal quantities. Because of this, we have to go to the store, 7.5 kilometers from our location. The road to the store is exposed to fire. Some of us are killed along the way.

Meanwhile, British intelligence writes that the Russians are unable to drive out the Ukrainian military from the east bank, despite their numerical superiority.

North Korean Missiles Face Reality Check in Putin’s Battles

Bloomberg

North Korean Missiles Face Reality Check in Putin’s Battles

Jon Herskovitz – January 22, 2024

(Bloomberg) — North Korea’s new arsenal of ballistic missiles is set for their first real-world test on the battlefield in Ukraine. But based on the success of US interceptor systems in that conflict, Kim Jong Un may be worried.

Burning through his stockpiles as the war in Ukraine nears the two-year mark, Russian President Vladimir Putin has turned to Kim to provide short-range ballistic missiles and more than 1 million rounds of artillery. The North Korean missiles sent so far are similar in size and flight dynamics to Russia’s Iskander series, weapons experts have said.

A report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies showed that the US Patriot air defense system has so far been largely effective in countering Russia’s missiles. In June, when Russia tried to take out a Patriot battery protecting Kyiv, the system shot down all of the 34 Iskander and Kinzhal missiles Russia fired, CSIS said.

That’s a warning to Putin about the KN-23 and KN-24 missiles Kim is believed to be supplying. The systems are designed to be deployed quickly, maneuverable in flight and reliably hit targets with a degree of precision. That might not be enough.

“The Patriot missile defense system should be able to intercept North Korea’s short-range ballistic missiles, given its effectiveness against Russian Iskanders,” said Shaan Shaikh, a fellow in the Missile Defense Project at CSIS, a Washington-based think tank.

Read more: Ghost Ships at Reawakened North Korea Port Put Ukraine in Peril

Kim’s military has fired off about 120 of its missiles in tests since 2019 and is likely aiming to build an arsenal that could eventually run into the thousands. North Korea’s missiles are priced at about $5 million each, according to data compiled by the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses and released in 2022 by South Korean lawmaker Shin Won-sik, but the costs to Kim have likely dropped since then as he ramped up production.

That makes sales of the weapons a potentially significant driver of foreign revenue or crucial goods from abroad, something the sanctions-hit North Korean economy badly needs. Yet Kim’s isolated regime, which has long used suspect activity to generate hard cash, isn’t just providing the missiles to Putin for commercial reasons.

The use of the North Korean missiles appears to be quite new, and data is likely sparse on their performance. Any information Kim can glean about his weaponry’s performance in real-world combat could also help his regime refine future designs and attack strategies.

“Russia’s use of DPRK ballistic missiles in Ukraine also provides valuable technical and military insights to the DPRK,” the US State Department said in a joint statement this month that included about 50 countries, referring to North Korea by its formal name.

Wreckage thought to be from North Korean missiles was in the debris from strikes in Kharkiv in early January, when it wasn’t likely under Patriot protection. Dmytro Chubenko, a spokesperson for the Kharkiv prosecutor’s office, told reporters the missiles were different in key aspects from Russian models, and he believed they were from North Korea, the Associated Press reported.

The transfer of such missiles from North Korea, with ranges of about 400-800 kilometers (250-500 miles), increases the pool of weapons the Kremlin can draw upon to attack Ukraine as the war grinds on.

“North Korea’s transfer of several dozen SRBMs (short-range ballistic missiles) will be welcomed by Moscow, which has depleted its prewar stockpile despite efforts to increase missile production,” the International Institute for Strategic Studies said in a recent report.

Kim, meanwhile, is trying to modernize his arsenal even more. His regime started the year by firing off a new type of warhead it said moves at high speeds and turns in the air, which is mounted on an intermediate-range missile designed to hit all of Japan and US bases in Guam.

Missile Barrage

South Korea and Japan both deploy Patriot batteries to protect key areas from the likes of North Korea. South Korean forces operate 8 PAC-2 and PAC-3 batteries around Seoul and US forces operate PAC-3 systems in Japan at US military bases, particularly Okinawa, according to a report from the Arms Control Association.

The Patriot system has a powerful radar that is able to track up to 100 targets including cruise missiles, ballistic missiles and aircraft, according to a report from the Congressional Research Service.

Nevertheless, Russia has used heavy barrages of missiles to overwhelm Ukraine’s defenses. In late December, Russia ramped up its bombardment campaign, firing hundreds of missiles at cities across Ukraine, killing dozens. The US determined Russia probably used North Korean missiles in that attack.

The influx from North Korea will likely draw down the stocks of missiles for Patriot batteries and other air defense systems in Ukraine, in a strategy of attrition that could increase the changes for successful strikes.

As a result, NATO members pledged in January to ramp up production and procurement of 1,000 Patriot missiles to bolster Ukraine’s air defenses, at a cost of $5.5 billion.

“Patriot is the only system that can deal with all types of Russian missiles,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in October when Germany pledged to provide a Patriot battery to protect Ukraine. Now he’ll see if that includes the newer North Korean varieties as well.

America is hitting “peak 65” in 2024, breaking retirement records

CBS News

America is hitting “peak 65” in 2024, breaking retirement records

Anne Marie Lee – January 22, 2024

2024 will be a record-breaking year for retirement in the U.S., with an average of 11,000 Americans a day expected to celebrate their 65th birthday from now until December.

Approximately 4.1 million Americans are poised to turn 65 this year and every year through 2027, according to a report from the Alliance for Lifetime Income. Dubbed by experts as “peak 65” or the “silver tsunami,” the figure represents the largest surge of retirement-age Americans in history.

If you’re one of the many riding the retirement wave this year or next, here’s what you should know, according to one expert.

Enrolling in Medicare

The age of 65 is “a critical year,” Elizabeth O’Brien, senior personal finance reporter for Barron’s, told CBS News.

“That’s the year you become eligible for Medicare, so most people when they care 65 can sign up for that, unless you’re still working and still in a job with health insurance,” she said.

Asked whether everyone who turns 65 should enroll in Medicare, even if they receive health care through their employer, O’Brien says in part, yes, but full enrollment also depends on the situation.

“First of all, Medicare has two parts: Part A [hospital insurance] and Part B. Even if you are working, you should enroll in Part A because you don’t pay premiums for that,” she said.

Medicare Part B covers medical services including certain doctor’s appointments, outpatient care and preventive services. For those who already receive health coverage through an employer, Medicare may be your “secondary payer,” that is, the secondary insurance plan that covers costs not paid for by the primary insurance plan, or “primary payer.”

Whether or not Medicare is your primary or secondary payer depends on coordination of benefits rules which decide which insurance plan pays first.

“Part B is a different story,” O’Brien said. “If you’re still working, and if your company has 20 people or more, then that is primary. If you’re working for a very small company, Medicare does become primary so there’s a little bit of nuance there, but basically, you want to avoid late-enrollment penalties if you miss your sign-up window which is right around your 65th birthday.”

While late enrollment penalties exist for both Medicare parts A and B, those for Part B are an even more serious issue. For each full year you delay enrollment once you reach eligibility at the age of 65, an additional 10% is added to your Medicare Part B premium. Unlike late enrollment penalties for Medicare Part A, which are temporary, late penalties for Medicare Part B are permanent.

Retirement savings

In addition to health care decisions, there are also financial decisions that must be made at the pivotal age of 65, beginning with choosing whether or not to retire, O’Brien said.

“You’ve got to think about what you’re gonna do with your 401(k). If you’re still working and you’re retiring, are you gonna roll that over into an individual retirement account? Are you gonna leave that where it is with your company?” she said, adding that there are emotional factors to consider when deciding what’s right for you.

“If you leave your job, what are you going to be doing all day — it’s good to think of that before you get there,” she said.

“If you love what you do, there is no reason to stop at 65. You know there are financial benefits and cognitive benefits for continuing to work, so I would say absolutely keep working,” she added.

A recent Pew Research Center analysis finds that 1 in 5 people over 65 choose to continue working. And the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that Americans over 65 will continue to rise in labor force participation over the next decade.

For those who have “had enough” of the daily grind, she suggests semi-retirement. “Maybe you’re ready to retire but you still want to do something, there’s a lot to be said about downshifting into a part-time job.”

Never too early to prepare

And to those for whom retirement still seems eons away, O’Brien says there are many advantages to starting on your savings sooner than later.

“One of the biggest mistakes is simply just to not start to save for retirement. And, you know, it’s understandable. When you are young there’s not a lot of extra money in your budget, you’re paying student loans, your rent is too high,” she said. “But that’s precisely when it’s important to start, because you really get more bang for your buck if you start young, do the compound interest.”

What’s more, while O’Brien assures young people that Social Security will most likely be around for them, she notes that it may pay out significantly less. That’s because the program’s trust funds are on track to be depleted in 2033, unless lawmakers shore up the program before then, and which could lead to benefits getting shaved by about 20%.

But that forecast is another reason for younger generations to get an early start on savings, O’Brien said.

“You’re going to be able to count on Social Security, but probably less than today’s retirees do,” she said.

McCarthy: Freedom Caucus has ‘stopped Republicans from being able to govern’

The Hill

McCarthy: Freedom Caucus has ‘stopped Republicans from being able to govern’

Emily Brooks – January 22, 2024

McCarthy: Freedom Caucus has ‘stopped Republicans from being able to govern’

Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) accused the House Freedom Caucus of preventing the Republican majority from governing.

Speaking to Fox Business’s Maria Bartiromo Monday morning, McCarthy the ousted former Speaker who resigned from Congress at the end of December, said questions about why Republicans opted to “kick the can down the road” and avert a government shutdown should be directed at the hard-line conservative group.

The stopgap funding measure passed last week extends government funding levels originally set under Democratic control until March 1 and March 8.

“You really should be asking the Freedom Caucus. They are the ones who have stopped the Republicans from being able to govern,” McCarthy said.

The Freedom Caucus opposed the continuing resolution (CR) to extend government funding last week, which Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said was necessary to complete work on regular full-year spending bills.

But McCarthy’s comment was an apparent reference to members of the group and their allies opposing full-year funding deals that House GOP leadership struck with Democrats — such as a debt ceiling deal McCarthy struck last year — and blocking several funding measures from coming to the House floor over the past year, preventing the slim House GOP majority from approving some funding measures sooner.

“What they are doing is they’re locking in the Democratic policies,” McCarthy said. “They’re actually spending more money now than if we go to the debt ceiling numbers. That would mean government would spend less, we could put Republican policies in. But they continue to stymie this majority to be able to do anything.”

The Freedom Caucus opposes the top-line spending number that Johnson struck with Democrats and the White House, which is largely in line with the debt ceiling deal that McCarthy struck with Democrats that they did not think was low enough.

The top-line agreement includes a $1.59 trillion base top line, a number Johnson and McCarthy have highlighted. But it also includes around $69 billion in budget tweaks to plus-up nondefense dollars for most of fiscal 2024, which enraged the Freedom Caucus. Johnson, meanwhile, has touted additional funding clawbacks he secured beyond the original McCarthy agreement.

Freedom Caucus leadership had also made a last-minute pitch to Johnson last week to try to attach border and migration policies to the stopgap measure, which he rejected.

Just more than half of House Republicans voted with Democrats last week to extend part of government funding to March 1 and the rest until March 8. McCarthy, notably, was forced out of the Speakership after pushing through a continuing resolution at the end of September.

“It really comes down to, what’s a true conservative? And I look for Ronald Reagan. A conservative is one that can actually govern in a conservative way,” McCarthy said. “But what you’re finding now is, what they’re doing is doing nothing but locks in Democratic Pelosi policies.”

“I don’t think they should continue to move to CRs. They should actually follow the numbers that was in the debt ceiling, which is lower than what they’re spending today. You get to reform it with Republican policies, because you’re in the majority now in the House. You get to move forward and layout and show the American public why they should give you more seats in the House and actually capture the Senate,” McCarthy said.

GOP Hugs Trump In 2024 After He Cost Them Control Of White House, Congress

HuffPost

GOP Hugs Trump In 2024 After He Cost Them Control Of White House, Congress

The alarm bells are ringing in some corners of the Republican Party, but it’s likely already too late to stop his march to the nomination.

By Igor Bobic – January 20, 2023

Thanks in large part to Donald Trump, Republicans lost control of the White House and both chambers of Congress. In 2022, due to his meddling in key primaries, they failed to retake the Senate. Now the GOP is rushing to embrace him as their standard-bearer once more in the hopes that this time will be different and he will carry them to victory.

Only this time, Trump is heading into a general election campaign with 91 criminal charges and potential jail time awaiting him, an unprecedented situation that threatens to drag his campaign down and repel independents and even some Republican voters who are tired of the constant chaos he creates.

The alarm bells are ringing in some corners of the GOP, but it’s likely already too late to stop his march to the nomination with the Iowa caucuses firmly under his belt and a sizable lead in polls of the New Hampshire and South Carolina primaries.

“If Donald Trump is the nominee, the election will revolve around all these legal issues — his trials, perhaps convictions if he goes to trial and loses there, and about things like Jan. 6,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Trump’s 2024 primary rival, said during a CNN town hall earlier this week.

“We’re going to lose if that’s the decision voters are making based on that. We don’t want it to be a referendum on those issues,” added DeSantis, who placed second in Iowa on Monday and seems to be on the cusp of defeat.

Ever since winning the White House in 2016, Trump has delivered nothing but electoral losses for the GOP. In 2018, Democrats won the House by more than 40 seats thanks to a wave of anti-Trump sentiment unlocking congressional maps once thought to be perfect GOP gerrymanders. Then, two years later, Democrats swept to power in Washington, making Trump a one-term president and also winning control of the Senate with two surprise victories in Georgia, a state that had long been GOP. In 2022, Trump again dragged the GOP down, elevating far-right candidates who failed to take back the Senate.

“He consistently loses. In fact, he has a habit of losing not just his own elections but losing elections for others,” as Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.) aptly put it last year. “We know he’s the shortest path to losing.”

Over the summer, a trio of anti-Trump GOP organizations ― the Koch network of conservative donors, the Club for Growth and the Republican Accountability Project ― all aired millions of dollars worth of advertising aimed at convincing voters that Trump was unelectable, to almost no effect.

Today, only the Koch network, which is now explicitly backing former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, is still pushing the message. The Club for Growth is instead seeking rapprochement with Trump.

And yet Trump crossed a notable milestone this week by winning the endorsement of a majority of Young’s Republican Senate colleagues. Somewhat ironically, the 25th senator to back Trump was none other than Ted Cruz of Texas, who, during his 2016 presidential campaign, called Trump a fake conservative, “amoral” and a “pathological liar.”

Cruz said he is proud to “enthusiastically” support Trump’s 2024 bid, adding that “now is the time for us to unite to oust Joe Biden and save our country from the Democrats’ destructive agenda.” Like Cruz, many Republicans have framed the election as a “binary choice” between Trump and Biden, even though there are still other candidates in the GOP primary contest, including DeSantis and Haley.

On Friday, Trump got even more good news: Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), a former 2024 rival, got off the sidelines and announced his support for the ex-president over Haley, who had appointed him to the Senate in 2012 when she was the governor of South Carolina.

“We need a president who doesn’t see Black or white. We need a president who sees Americans as one American family,” Scott, the only Black Republican in the Senate, said while standing alongside Trump at a rally in New Hampshire.

Last October, when he was still in the presidential race, Scott said he didn’t believe Trump could win back the White House. “You have to be able to win in Georgia. I don’t think he can win in Georgia.”

Trump won by a historic margin in the Iowa caucuses, but weak voter turnout could signal broader problems for the GOP. About 108,000 people turned out to vote, far short of the nearly 187,000 who participated in 2016, though some of that could be attributed to record-breaking cold weather. DeSantis, though, told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on Thursday that weather can’t account for all of the “abysmal” drop-off in participation, calling it “a warning sign for the party going forward into the fall.”

Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who suspended his long-shot 2024 campaign this week after repeatedly urging the GOP to move past Trump, made a similar argument.

“We’re headed toward a cliff, and we’re going to go off that cliff because Donald Trump cannot attract independent voters,” Hutchinson told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “It’s very clear he’s not going to expand the base with the rhetoric that he has.”

But Trump has been making the opposite case to New Hampshire voters, saying at a campaign event on Wednesday that Haley as a GOP nominee “wouldn’t just lose the White House, she’d lose us the House and Senate.” Trump lost all three.

If the election were held today, though, Trump could very well win. Biden’s approval rating continues to hover under 40% in recent polls as voters cite concerns about the economy, the border, Biden’s foreign policy and his age. But the economic picture suddenly looks quite rosy for 2024, with consumer confidence way up and inflation way down. Facing off against Trump on the ballot again could give Democrats who aren’t excited about Biden a reason to head to the polls amid warnings about what a second Trump presidency would mean for democracy.

In New Hampshire, for example, Biden’s approval rating is just 38%, according to a Marist poll released Friday. Yet voters still choose Biden for president over Trump by 7 percentage points, indicating why many Democrats think they can win if the race is a choice between Trump and Biden rather than a referendum on the incumbent from Delaware.

Trump has been sued in New York and indicted in Georgia, Florida, New York and Washington, D.C. The charges against him include allegations that he plotted to reverse the 2020 election results, that he was involved in a hush-money scheme ahead of his 2016 election, that he mishandled classified documents and obstructed federal authorities’ efforts to recover them, and that he fraudulently inflated his business assets by billions.

But to Republicans backing Trump, none of that is concerning. In fact, some of them think it’ll help Trump in the general election.

“His legal challenges are making the public so angry because the lawsuits look punitive rather than legitimate,” Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) said. “It just looks so fake, so contrived that people are disgusted with it.”

“The American people are not going to stand for that. All heck would break loose if that would happen,” added Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) about the prospect of Trump being convicted.

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), meanwhile, said he has “a hard time understanding” why Trump’s legal issues don’t “seem to be moving the needle” with more voters.

“A lot of people in this country are out of touch with reality and will accept anything Donald Trump tells them,” Romney told reporters on Wednesday.

Russia is likely using Ukraine’s freezing winter to ramp up its front-line assaults — but its losses are soaring, British intelligence says

Business Insider

Russia is likely using Ukraine’s freezing winter to ramp up its front-line assaults — but its losses are soaring, British intelligence says

Nathan Rennolds – January 21, 2024

  • Russia is ramping up its offensive operations on the front lines in Ukraine, per the UK MoD.
  • It’s likely taking advantage of the “freezing ground conditions” to move armored vehicles.
  • Data from the Ukrainian General Staff suggests these attacks result in huge losses.

Russia is ramping up its front-line offensives against Ukraine, likely taking advantage of the “freezing ground conditions” to move armored vehicles around the country, the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) said in an update on the conflict on Sunday.

In the military intelligence update, the MoD said that data from the Ukrainian General Staff pointed “toward a steady increase in the intensity of Russian offensive activity across the front over the last two weeks.”

But Russia’s mounting attacks are leading to huge losses to its military vehicles and personnel, the MoD said, citing data from the Ukrainian General Staff.

From January 14 to January 18, it said the data suggested that Russian military vehicle losses had climbed 88%, while tank losses had soared 95%. The number of Russian casualties over the period had also increased by 15%, it added.

For example, Russian forces are repeatedly carrying out large-scale infantry “meat assaults” on the city of Avdiivka, a Ukrainian commander said, CNN reported.

“Assault after assault, non-stop. If we kill 40 to 70 of them with drones in a day, the next day they renew their forces and continue to attack,” “Teren,” an artillery reconnaissance commander of Ukraine’s 110th Mechanized Brigade, told CNN.

Russia has become increasingly reliant on high-risk frontal assaults, or “human-wave attacks,” which attempt to overwhelm Ukrainian positions.

‘When roads stop existing’
A military vehicle in Bakhmut, February 2023.
A military vehicle in Bakhmut, February 2023.Marek M. Berezowski/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Russian forces may be attempting to make the most of the hard, frozen grounds left by Ukraine’s harsh winter before the spring thaw and mud season, which caught Russia out at the outbreak of the war in February 2022, set in again.

The rapid melting of snow and ice in parts of eastern Europe in spring gives way to thick mud that makes travel extremely difficult. Russians call the period “Rasputitsa,” translated as “when roads stop existing,” The Guardian reported.

The mud season causes problems for Russia and Ukraine, with artillery and military vehicles trapped in the sodden, heavy clay soil.

Butm experts previously told Business Insider that Ukraine’s US-provided Abrams tanks could be key during the mud season fighting.

“The Abrams was made for this environment,” Robert Greenway, a former adjunct fellow at the Hudson Institute think tank, said.

“The mud could become impassable for almost any vehicle,” Greenway said, “but the reality is that the Abrams is best equipped to deal with that environment, far better than any other tracked vehicle in existence.”