Protect Democracy

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Politically Independent

[Protect Democracy @RestoreDemos]

THREAD: "34 years ago, a KGB defector chillingly predicted modern America." Read the following thread with Fox News, Trump, & COVID on your mind. Below are excerpts from a 1984 interview of a former KGB agent. Reminder, Putin was a KGB officer.
Source: https://t.co/OWSZ716tGw

[Kyle Griffin @kylegriffin1]

Let's do this (for however long it lasts). https://t.co/vVDyCkErf8

[Aaron Rupar @atrupar]

the unemployment rate was 6.3 percent in January 2021, when Biden took office. It's 3.7 percent now

[Kyle Griffin @kylegriffin1]

President Biden just announced his 35th round of nominees for federal judicial positions — bringing the number of announced federal judicial nominees to 176.

[Kyle Griffin @kylegriffin1]

NEW YORK (AP) - Leaders of entity that funded Trump's social media company face insider trader charges in federal case filed in New York.

[Kyle Griffin @kylegriffin1]

The Ukrainian oligarch Republicans claim bribed Joe Biden said he never actually talked to Biden, according to an interview transcript made public by Rep. Jamie Raskin. https://t.co/E8yKi6ugN1

[Kyle Griffin @kylegriffin1]

The Ron DeSantis administration steered $92 million last year in leftover federal coronavirus stimulus money to a controversial highway interchange project that directly benefits a top political donor. https://t.co/NMbIq8Am50

[Kyle Griffin @kylegriffin1]

NBC News: About half a dozen Secret Service agents have testified before the grand jury that will decide whether to indict Donald Trump for his role on Jan. 6. @NBCNews

[Kyle Griffin @kylegriffin1]

The Trump 2021 audio recording obtained by CNN:

Trump: "See as president I could have declassified it."

Staffer: "Yeah." [Laughter]

Trump: "Now I can't, you know, but this is still a secret."

Staffer: "Yeah. [Laughter] Now we have a problem."

[Kyle Griffin @kylegriffin1]

Yes, if you store classified documents next to a toilet and then refuse to give them back when asked, you, too, can face federal charges.

[Mikhail Khodorkovsky @khodorkovsky_en]

Wagner PMC chief Yevgeny Prigozhin’s attempted military coup was one of the most serious political events to take place in Russia in the last 20 years. Why did it happen, what does it mean and what lessons can be learned from it? 🧵

[Anton Gerashchenko @Gerashchenko_en]

Some possible outcomes of yesterday's events:

1. In Wagner PMC, a split has reportedly started between those who felt used and those who remained loyal to Prigozhin after the failed rebellion.

2. Combat pilots reportedly quit Wagner PMC due to their disagreement with the way planes and helicopters of the Russian Aerospace Forces were destroyed yesterday.

3. A vertical of power has collapsed.
No one in Russia can feel safe anymore. Neither officials, nor oligarchs, nor FSB officers who used to think they were the rulers of life. Putin stopped holding a monopoly on violence in Russia yesterday. It was proven that factions with more weapons and determination decide everything.

4. Russia might be facing a bloody war, not a civil war, but a war of clans, armed groups and private armies: Chechens, Prigozhin's supporters, armed mercenaries, who will separate from Prigozhin or other PMCs and be hired by local clans for protection from invading outsiders.
All large business and oligarchs will probably create (if they haven't already) private armies, as Gazprom has already done to protect itself.
Conflicts and redistribution of property will be resolved by force. It will be the new 90s but far worse - Resembling the Mad Max style and genre of an anti-utopia action movie.

5. The Russian army, it seems, has de facto ceased to exist as a united structure. Soldiers and officers sitting in trenches in the massacre unleashed by Putin, probably finally realized yesterday the utter pointlessness of the war against Ukraine, against the background of the fact that a group of criminals in the rear can pass 600km in a day, sweeping away everything in their path and then be amnestied after killing pilots and civilians.

6. Ukraine is a few steps closer to fully restoring its territorial integrity, including Crimea.

7. What a pity that this circus did not end with the self-destruction of Putin's regime and Prigozhin faction.
But I believe it will happen again with even larger scale!

[Mark Hertling @MarkHertling]

It hit me we're thinking of Prigozhin in the wrong way.

His actions have confused us these last 48 hours (and beyond) because we see him as the leader of a large mercenary body, fighting for pay (or freedom from jail) instead of what soldiers fight to defend (the state). 1/4

[Aric Toler @AricToler]

@KevinRothrock There's no gigantic Wagner column going into Russia right now.
The majority of Wagner fighters are convicts without real loyalty to Prigozhin.
There won't be a civil war.

It's great theater, but this may all be resolved way faster than many expect and hope.

[Illia Ponomarenko 🇺🇦 @IAPonomarenko]

I know it’s impossible for a sane mind to try and understand it, but yeah - just as a mercenary army unfolds an armed rebellion and takes over a key city, the Russian military still finds it necessary to fire a few missiles at residential houses in Kyiv in the dead of night.

[Aric Toler @AricToler]

Hard to understate how insane this is. Rostov has over a million people, Russia's 11th most populated city and a military hub. It's like disgruntled Blackwater vets seizing San Diego against little to no resistance.

[Mark Hertling @MarkHertling]

Here’s my thoughts, for all those asking: I’d put a lot of money on the @WhiteHouse & @POTUS knowing more of what is happening in Russia than Putin does.

[Colin P. Clarke, Ph.D. @ColinPClarke]

Can we finally stop mentioning #Russia in the phrase "great power competition"?

Yes, Russia has nukes & energy reserves but it can hardly be considered a great power based on its military performance in Ukraine & now it's being overrun by a hot dog vendor turned mercenary chief

[Illia Ponomarenko 🇺🇦 @IAPonomarenko]

The Battle of Moscow 2023 is about to begin.
Never in my sorry-ass life did I think I’d ever write such a tweet.

[Christo Grozev @christogrozev]

Russian air force have been bombing Russian bridges today...to prevent Wagner's march on to Moscow

[Christo Grozev @christogrozev]

(I am still flabbergasted by all the people, both here on Twitter and on TV, suggesting that all this is for show. To what end? How does Putin benefit? Why invent intricate, implausible conspiracies when basic human psychology is enough to explain everything).