Bill Collins

NC Native, UNC fan, Environmentalist who likes diverse public schools, Labor, Indigenous culture. SLAVA Ukraini!! Free Palestine!!🇵🇸

[Bill Collins @BCollinsSignMan]

That’s me, on PBS’s #AmericanExperience last night re: 1898 Wilmington Massacre.

1 of my grandfather’s uncles or 2nd cousins signed white man’s manifesto of 11/09/1898 calling on Black Wilmington City Councilmen and police to resign. ⁦@SheryllCashin⁩ ⁦@jeffreysms⁩

[Bill Collins @BCollinsSignMan]

@keithdorejel Love the glasses, and love ABBA!

[Bill Collins @BCollinsSignMan]

@neeratanden Doesn’t seem complicated. She launched her political career in HI by the time GOP brand had become toxic there. So she chose the winning brand.

Happens all the time. It’s the nature of duopoly politics and that’s Yvwe need proportional representation and multi-member districts.

[Bill Collins @BCollinsSignMan]

@ccc_jeffreys City’s location along southern edge of OH gave state the excuse to avoid enforcing traffic law on the 71/75 freeways.
State’s now taking it to the next level by attacking CPS funding.
I encourage you to read Eve Bolton’s Xlent FB statement this AM on state/federal skul funding.

[Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський @ZelenskyyUa]

Our Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine has obtained new Russian documents assessing the aggressor state’s losses from the war. Importantly, this is specifically a Russian internal assessment – one they are trying to conceal both from the world and from their own domestic audience.

The first major indicator is a reduction in active oil wells. Just a single Russian oil company – and not even the largest one – has already been forced to shut down around 400 wells. Given the specifics of Russian oil production, these are significant losses, as restarting wells in Russia is far more difficult than in other oil-producing countries.

The second indicator is a reduction in oil refining of at least 10% in just a few months this year alone. We see that our Ukrainian long-range sanctions are truly effective, and we will continue to scale up this line of our active actions. The data on the banking crisis in Russia is also quite convincing: 11 financial institutions are preparing for full liquidation due to problems that cannot be resolved by other means, while another eight banks have accumulated critical issues that cannot be addressed without external resources. This year’s federal budget deficit figures also look encouraging for us, standing at almost $80 billion by the fifth month of this year, alongside the bankruptcy of a significant number of Russian regional budgets.

I have also instructed the Head of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine, Oleh Luhovskyi, to share, in a format that does not compromise our sources, the obtained information on Russia’s attempts to involve global companies in resolving its financial hardship and in sanction-evasion schemes. In particular, we have recorded attempts to organize the export of grain from the temporarily occupied territory of Crimea – and, regrettably, other forms of economic exploitation of the peninsula involving entities from the United States. We will inform our partners. We are also recording attempts to bring investment and technology from democratic countries into Russia’s Arctic oil and gas projects. We know how to counter this. Thank you to everyone who helps us. Thank you to all our Ukrainian intelligence officers.

[Bill Collins @BCollinsSignMan]

@ChrisCinciBiz Plattner’s NYT interview showed a deep thinker and effective strategist, in other words, a veteran who can provide effective leadership in the Senate.

When I lived in Cincinnnati, I was struck by how many native Mainers I found who had moved to Cincy for work. Many were P&Gers.

[Olena Rohoza @OlenaRohoza]

Stephen King: ‘Putin thought he was dealing with a lapdog, but it turned out he was facing a wolverine. Glory to Ukraine!’

[Radu Hossu 🇹🇩🇺🇦 @RaduHossu]

The largest attack on Moscow since World War II took place last night.

As far as I can tell, since I’ve been following the war, there has never been such a large number of drones reaching the Moscow Region, nor causing such disruption.

The Moscow Oil Refinery was struck for the third time since the start of the war (it happened once in 2024 and once in 2025), but the success of last night’s attack is surprising even to me. Why do I say this:

To protect the May 9 parade, the Moscow region and the capital itself had four rings of air defense, consisting of over 300 air defense systems of all types (Pantsir, Buk, Tor, S-300, S-400) along with hundreds of radars, acoustic detection systems, mobile teams in vehicles, and russian spy satellites used for detection—you get the picture: Moscow was the best-protected against air attack location on the planet. There was no longer comparable to 2024 or 2025. The russians have adapted. They understood the danger and adapted. However:

Eight days later, today, multiple waves of Ukrainian drones and cruise missiles breached the russian multi-layered defense (part of which had been dispersed to other regions after the parade) and struck several targets that were considered nearly impossible to hit. Surprising even to me.

At the beginning of the year, I said that Moscow would be hit by Ukrainian ballistic missiles. That hasn’t happened yet (because the FP-7 and FP-9 missile projects are still in development, though I stand by my prediction), but Moscow is already in flames. The Ukrainians are returning the war to the russians, sending it back to their own doorstep.

No, this is not revenge for the 24 people (including 3 children) killed by the Russians two days ago in Kyiv. The Ukrainians are not using these attacks for revenge, but for military and political (read: diplomatic) gain. The russians’ crimes must be avenged through fair justice, and for that, we need the support and pressure of every European citizen on national and European politicians.

The war is returning home, and that is setting Moscow ablaze.

Slava Ukraini!

[Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський @ZelenskyyUa]

Our responses to Russia’s prolongation of the war and its attacks on our cities and communities are entirely justified. This time, Ukrainian long-range sanctions reached the Moscow region, and we are clearly telling the Russians: their state must end its war. Ukrainian drone and missile manufacturers continue their work. I am grateful to the Security Service of Ukraine and all the Defense Forces of Ukraine for their precision. The distance from Ukraine’s state border is over 500 km. The concentration of Russian air defense in the Moscow region is the highest. But we are overcoming it. Glory to Ukraine!

[Bill Collins @BCollinsSignMan]

@jeffreysms The Substack is Xlent. When my wife and I at 36 moved to the City as newlyweds in 1988, ppl our parents age described the highly social environment of the City’s communities before 1960-1963.

By 1988 Cincy was cheap, hence the draw for us, but it felt like a lonely dying city.

[Bill Collins @BCollinsSignMan]

@OlenaRohoza Putin looks old&afraid.
He produced a rolling, accelerating disaster of imperial overreach and now 🇺🇦 blowback.

This mobster is hitting the wall with his war at the same time that his mobster pal Trump (and Trump’s mobster pal Bibi) are hitting the wall,
Let freedom ring!

[Bill Collins @BCollinsSignMan]

@ccc_jeffreys Thx 4 your work w OKI and HCTID. Moving west, paved trail crossing over or under the 75 freeway is daunting.
But moving north, there is a cheap low-hanging fruit opportunity along the banks of Mill Creek where the creek passes under the 75 freeway in Roselawn by the old JCC.

[Bill Collins @BCollinsSignMan]

@ChrisCinciBiz Poor Poor Pitiful Me …

[Bill Collins @BCollinsSignMan]

@ccc_jeffreys @TriStateTrails Note that entire active E/W RR line passing thru Downtown Madisonville, behind Medpace, with overpasses over RBX, Ridge and Madison roads in Oakley to the Oakley rail yard is a 2-track configuration with only one RR track in use. Like Wasson, it has few level-grade crossings. 5/

[Bill Collins @BCollinsSignMan]

@ccc_jeffreys @TriStateTrails As 4 the basics of planned Red Bank trail to Wasson and Murray to serve Medpace workers:
• crossing RBX is the challenge
• RR overpass over RBX is built for 2 tracks but only 1 is used
• rail WITH trail on this RBX overpass solves that prob for Medpace employees
4/

[Bill Collins @BCollinsSignMan]

@ccc_jeffreys @TriStateTrails This corridor following low-traffic Upper Red Bank ROAD (not Red Bank Xway) northward under 71 Frey is 🔑 to connecting Wasson & Little Miami trails to both Mill Creek 🔺 and Mill Creek Greenway trails. The low-traffic underpass on Upper Red Bank under 71 is low-hanging fruit. 2/

[Bill Collins @BCollinsSignMan]

@ccc_jeffreys @CROWNcincinnati Don’t get me wrong. I think the development of Ault Park at the City’s old water tower site in 1917 was a good idea. But decision to cut off the Red Bank community was a hyper gentrification move accelerated by the rapid rise of auto-oriented culture on the East Side.4/

[Bill Collins @BCollinsSignMan]

@ccc_jeffreys @CROWNcincinnati Both are examples of how the City, County and State made the upscale suburban development of Mount Lookout and Mariemont a priority during the 20th Century while working to marginalize or destroy Red Bank as well as Madisonville with its now-defunct Amy and Dunbar communities. 3/