Putin and Russia aren't godless, they just pay lipservice to the Russian Orthodox Church,

which, under its current patriarch for life, Kirill, is as bloodthirsty, warmongering, Putin-loyalist and revolting as the rest of the regime, and thinks God is on their side.

Russia's activities in Ukraine, from plundering and destroying historical sites and artefacts to abducting thousands of children and trying to turn them into good Russians, along with atrocities against people in general and razing cities and towns to the ground, are unarguably genocide, and in some quarters are seen as a religious war, or at least one with strong religious undertones, with numerous clergy in the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine having been found to be treasonous.

Some background:

The Monkees sing the Spanish carol "Riu Chiu" live, acapella in close harmony

Ex-Wagner officer says Kremlin ordered 'atrocities' in Ukraine

If you've read my past posts on this forum about Mone, you'll know that this scandal among scandals

has been simmering for quite a while.

It pisses off a lot of us in Scotland because Mone was a leading Scottish light in the NO campaign on Scottish independence - for which role she was given a seat in the Lords - and the media and police treatment of her so far has contrasted starkly with that suffered by others.

For instance, several high-ups in the SNP hierarchy have had a cloud cast over their reputations by a long-running police investigation that the MSM has made much of. That complaint, about an internal party accounting issue concerning some £600,000 raised by donations for the independence campaign, was levelled by a guy who's a notorious pro-independence troublemaker who already has a police record for wasting police time on another issue.

It led to the arrest of Sturgeon, her husband and the party treasurer (not as much of a big deal in itself as some in the media tried to claim, as in Scotland the police have to arrest you if they want to formally question you about anything, so in terms used in the rest of the UK, they were "helping police with their inquiries" ), and the spectacle of the police gathering en masse at Sturgeon's house for a dawn raid, extravagantly ransacking the place, and erecting forensics tents on her lawn while they unsubtly rifled through the house and garden - given how police numbers have dwindled in Scotland, it was impressive they could muster so many in one place, and many of them seemed to have nothing to do except put on a show for the many assembled cameras.

The allegations in that investigation have ranged from suspicions about (a) a camper van the SNP bought (with the intention of using it as a campaign battle bus - they purchased it in the late stages of COVID countermeasures, and I think the idea was that it could double as safe accommodation if they had to campaign while restrictions were still in place - the Lib Dems have a similar vehicle) that was parked outside Sturgeon's mother's house (I guess they had to park it somewhere) to (z) pens the party bought that may be a bit more flashy than your standard BICs.

Now Mone is finally facing the music for her and her husband's role in allegedly embezzling vast sums from the country in a time of crisis. She's been using her Twitter account to allege that Sunak and others in the Tory Party hierarchy were well aware of what she was doing and had no problem with it, with the implication that loads of them were at it in a big way. That may be one of the few truths she's come out with, and it looks like she figures if she's going down, she's not going down alone.

Yesterday, it was made known that Mone was no longer a Tory Party member. Today, they're looking into whether she ever joined it in the first place (Twitter link)!

It's going to be a bumpy ride. It hope it takes down a whole bunch of the conniving, greedy, overprivileged bastards.

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Threads is also pretty heinous in its own way.

Threads is not for news coverage:

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Seasonal Venn diagrams

The Grayzone, which Max Blumenthal edits, is not a credible source on conflict in Ukraine or elsewhere

even as "some sources".

A minute's Googling will show what the Grayzone's been up to during various conflicts. For example:

The Monkees sing the Spanish carol "Riu Chiu" acapella in close harmony

They called Orban's bluff and won.

It's more symbolic than concrete at the moment, but what a symbol!

There's probably no better time to revisit this clip from Zelenzky's satirical show Servant of the People, aired not long after the events of the Euromaidan revolution, except this time I don't think the rug's going to be pulled out from under him by reality:

Mark Drakeford to stand down as Labour first minister of Wales