Mike McCaffree

Democratic candidate for Missouri State Senate District 28.

[Michael McFaul @McFaul]

My latest:

Ukraine Is Winning

This spring, the stalemate on the battlefield has shifted in Ukraine's favor, complementing other Ukrainian victories in the war.

[Devana 🇺🇦 @DevanaUkraine]

⛓️ A young woman describes what life was like under occupation and how the Russian occupiers offered to let civilians return home from Russian captivity if they sang the Russian national anthem. Everyone refused—even the severely ill who had life-saving medicine at home.

The Russians also spoke of killing infants in captivity so as not to hear them crying. The Russian occupiers also played "Russian roulette": they would point assault rifles at people's temples and fire, watching to see which bullet would go off, or they would throw grenades into prison cells under children's beds.

[Kate from Kharkiv @BohuslavskaKate]

FRANCIS: Ukrainians remotely destroying Russian troops on the ground like in video game. They're brilliant technological power. They reinvented war, and Putin cannot win. His only advantage was manpower, and that’s being destroyed daily by drones in kill zone on the battlefield.

[Tymofiy Mylovanov @Mylovanov]

Beevor: The social consequences for Russia after this war will be devastating.

Brutalized, traumatized soldiers will return to civilian life, including criminals recruited from prisons and further dehumanized by war. 6X

[Tymofiy Mylovanov @Mylovanov]

Beevor: The Soviet system romanticized ruthlessness.

Communism turned the idea of crushing the enemy totally into something almost heroic. Innocence did not matter if the state claimed its interests were at stake. 4/

[Tymofiy Mylovanov @Mylovanov]

Beevor: That contempt helped fuel the mass brutality of 1945 in Poland, Hungary and Germany and helps explain cruelty toward Ukrainian prisoners and civilians today.

Russia has not escaped this tradition of inhumanity. 3/

[Tymofiy Mylovanov @Mylovanov]

Beevor: In World War II, Soviet officers could grab civilians to replace casualties without even recording their names.

Names mattered only if someone was suspected of treason, desertion or disloyalty. The individual barely counted. 2/

[Tymofiy Mylovanov @Mylovanov]

Historian Antony Beevor: Westerners are horrified by Russia’s attitude to casualties. The old phrase “meat for the cannon” reflects the belief that sheer numbers can crush any enemy.

But Russia has often treated its own people as badly as the enemy. 1/

[Phillips P. OBrien @PhillipsPOBrien]

The US is reducing its military footprint in Europe to the degree that it will do nothing to defend NATO states against Russia, but enough that the Trump administration will hope that it can still bully democratic Europe. https://t.co/FnlAmASHTk

[Tamara Krawchenko 🌻🍉 @T_Krawchenko]

So back to the bio labs conspiracy theory…. Are we supposed to think that Ukraine has some super secret bio weapon that, in this 12th year of Russia’s invasion, they simply have never once used? Is that the idea?

[Michael McFaul @McFaul]

He knows that Ukraine will soon become one of the most dynamic economies in Europe once Putins barbaric invasion ends. He’s a smart guy.

[Caolan @CaolanReports]

Russia has sent their Kremlin state TV host Chay Bowes from RT to Ireland to defend their refinery. It shows they are genuinely worried about it getting sanctioned.

On the plus side all the signs are in russian so it was easy for them to find the place to make their propaganda

[UAVoyager🇺🇦 @NAFOvoyager]

💔 Mykolaiv. They were just at home.

A husband and wife, and their 18-year-old daughter, were severely injured.

We don't hate russia enough.

[Robert Reich @RBReich]

The DOJ just gave approval to Paramount — owned by the billionaire Trump allies Larry and David Ellison — to buy Warner Bros Discovery.

Trump is advancing his scheme to control the media in broad daylight.

State AGs must step in and block this deal.

[Tymofiy Mylovanov @Mylovanov]

Hill: Iran is not just a theocracy. The religious leadership sits on top of the IRGC, the military and groups that penetrate the economy.

The Iranian people are separate from all this and Washington is missing their perspective completely. 3X

[Tymofiy Mylovanov @Mylovanov]

Hill: Trump weakens his own negotiating position every day because he tells Iran what he is thinking in real time.

Tehran has no incentive to make a deal when there is no certainty, no assurance and no clarity about what the outcome would be. 2/

[Tymofiy Mylovanov @Mylovanov]

Fiona Hill: Trump does not understand the complexity of the Middle East. Lebanon, Iran, Israel, Hezbollah and Ukraine are connected in different ways.

For him, it is simpler: deal with whoever is on top, negotiate with himself, and ignore advice. 1/

[Rep. Don Bacon 🇺🇸✈️🏍️⭐️🎖️ @RepDonBacon]

Today Ronald Reagan would say, “Mr Putin, get the hell out of Ukraine.”

He set the example for a strong “Peace through Strength” policy guided by strong values.

[ABC News @ABC]

Ukraine may be starting to turn the tide against Russia. With Kyiv gaining an edge with drones and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s army’s difficulties on the battlefield mounting, analysts see a potential turning point in the war.

@ReevellP reports. https://t.co/mn2Sj7QYnR

[Tymofiy Mylovanov @Mylovanov]

Applebaum: Trump is not handling the Iran war strategically. He is not asking what is good for Americans, Iranians or the Middle East.

He is asking: how is this good for me? How do I emerge as the winner? He is chasing applause, not solving the problem. 1/