More to ignore, Book 95....
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Putin is admitting his previous threats were hollow by saying ‘this is not a bluff’ | Keir Giles
The Russian leader’s fantastical speech shows he recognises that his country is losing its war on Ukraine, says Keir Giles of the Russia programme at Chatham House
The Russian president Vladimir Putin’s speech this morning, announcing partial mobilisation and warning of possible retaliation for western actions against Russia, will renew fears of reckless nuclear blackmail. But overall, it should be seen as more reassuring than troubling.
The good news here is that Putin’s announcement of emergency measures shows he recognises Russia is losing in its war of imperial expansion. The less good news is that if he believes even a tiny fraction of the lies and fantasies he reeled off during the speech, his grip on reality is even shakier than we previously suspected.
Russia says it plans to mobilise an additional 300,000 soldiers. That raises the question of whether Putin is fully aware that his army is already unable to train and equip the much smaller numbers of reinforcements it has received to date. Coming as Russia’s parliament passes laws for severe prison sentences for those evading military service, the new measures seem likely to set up a comical game of musical chairs: thrown into prison for not going to war, Russian prisoners can then be recruited to go and fight with the promise of their sentence being annulled.....
NY AG James Sues Donald, Donald Jr, Eric, and Ivanka Trump, Trump Organization for Fraud
Elwood Dowd
New York attorney general files civil fraud lawsuit against Trump, some of his children and his business
The New York state attorney general filed a sweeping lawsuit Wednesday against former President Donald Trump, three of his adult children and the Trump Organization, alleging they were involved in an expansive fraud lasting over a decade that the former President used to enrich himself.
www.cnn.com
....In the more than 200-page lawsuit, Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, alleges the fraud touched all aspects of the Trump business, including its properties and golf courses. According to the lawsuit, the Trump Organization deceived lenders, insurers and tax authorities by inflating the value of his properties using misleading appraisals.
“These acts of fraud and misrepresentation were similar in nature, were committed by upper management at the Trump Organization as part of a common endeavor for each annual Statement, and were approved at the highest levels of the Trump Organization – including by Mr. Trump himself,” the lawsuit states......
Trump’s overinflated real estate empire, massive fraud end in civil suit from New York AG James
Joan McCarterNYVegan
Sep 21, 2022 at 03:09:18 PM
It is brutal. From pp. 189-90:
Indeed, the fraudulent scheme was integral to the business of the Trump Organization and
required the participation of Mr. Trump and his children.
....As Executive Vice Presidents, the three children were intimately involved in the operation of the Trump Organization’s business. They were aware of the true financial performance of the company, whether through Donald Trump Jr.’s work on commercial leasing, Ivanka Trump’s work on Doral, Trump Chicago and OPO, or Eric Trump’s work on the golf course portfolio.
722. Indeed, the Trump Organization took extensive steps to keep them all up to date on the company’s operations. For example, the Trump Organization maintained a “Master Office Calendar” for Mr. Trump, Donald Trump, Jr., Ivanka Trump and Eric Trump.....
7 causes of action.
Ukraine update: 'Russia has shamelessly violated the core tenets of the United Nations charter'
Mark Sumner
President Joe Biden speaks during the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Sept. 21, 2022.
On Wednesday, President Joe Biden stepped to the podium at the United Nations General Council and took both Russia and Vladimir Putin to task. Biden pulled no punches in going after Russia for its "brutal, needless war" in Ukraine, for overt threats of nuclear war, and for violating the most basic principles of the United Nations.
Biden spoke directly to the increased threat created on Tuesday by Putin’s “partial mobilization” that would allow them to draft hundreds of thousands into the Ukraine invasion. He also addressed the “sham referendums to try and annex parts of Ukraine,” which Biden described as “an extremely significant violation of the U.N. charter.”
In response to Russian claims that they had to invade Ukraine because they were threatened, Biden said “no one threatened Russia, and no one other than Russia sought conflict.”
“Every victory won in the battlefield belongs to the courageous Ukrainian soldiers, but this past year, the world was tested as well.”
Biden spoke to Russia’s position on the Security Council and how that allows them to hold veto power over any action the United Nations might take. He then called for reforms to how the security council is constituted and operates, so that no single member of that council can use their position to avoid the consequences of actions like those now underway in Ukraine. Among other things, Biden called for increasing the number of both permanent and nonpermanent seats on the council, for bringing in more nations from Africa and South America, and for taking steps to make the use of the veto “extraordinarily rare.”All of this drove to Biden’s central theme: “If nations can pursue their imperial ambitions without consequence, then we put at risk everything this very institution stands for. Everything. Every victory won in the battlefield belongs to the courageous Ukrainian soldiers, but this past year, the world was tested as well. We did not hesitate. We chose liberty. We chose sovereignty. We stood with Ukraine.”
Biden went on to speak to his belief that the defense of democracy is the greatest role of the United States, to talk to the basic purpose of the United Nations as an instrument of global peace, and to speak to the “basic principles” that are enshrined in the charter. He spent time on climate change, including the recently passed legislation in the United States, addressed global health crises, and announced more U.S. aid to global food programs. “In every country in the world, no matter what else divides us,” said Biden, “If parents cannot feed their children, nothing else matters.”
On a day when the conflict initiated by Russia was the principle theme, Biden also spoke to the situation between the United States and China, saying that “the United States will conduct itself a reasonable leader. We do not seek conflict. We do not seek a Cold War. We do not ask any nation to choose between the United States and any other partner.”
Biden went on to discuss conflicts in other areas, then addressed the issue of nuclear war. “A nuclear war cannot be won,” Biden said emphatically, “and must never be fought.” He stated that the United States would be open to arms control agreements no matter what else is going on around the world. Biden was forceful in saying that the United States would not allow Iran to obtain nuclear weapons, but also insisted that diplomacy was the best method to make that happen.
“And today, we stand with the brave citizens, and the brave women of Iran, who are fighting to secure their basic rights.” Biden declared that those nations that dedicate themselves to protecting the rights of women, all races, and LGBTQ communities will be the nations that succeed.
Biden left the stage to sustained applause. Honestly, if you listen to nothing else, go to the 26:30 timestamp on the video above and listen to Biden’s closing remarks.
“We are not passive witnesses to history. We are the authors of history.”
What started with the murder of one woman has turned into protests that threaten to overturn Iran
Mark Sumner
A poster of Mahsa Amini at a protest outside the U.N., Sept. 21, 2022.
On Sept. 13, Mahsa Amini, a Kurdish woman from northern Iran, was in Tehran to visit with her brother. She was walking with him near the entrance to a metro station when members of a “guidance patrol,” also known as the morality police, surrounded them. The religious police complained that Amini wasn’t properly wearing her hijab—a head covering women are required to wear under Iran’s strict religious dress codes. Even though her brother tried to stop them, the members of the patrol arrested Amini and took her away. Three days later, still in detention for the crime of not properly wearing her head scarf, she was dead.
The Iranian government insists that Amini, who was 22 years old and healthy, had a heart attack during that period. Her family, who buried the young woman back in her home town of Saqez on Saturday, were certain they saw signs that she had been beaten.
That evening, protests broke out in Saqez and in towns across Kurdistan. Those protests were put down quickly and forcefully by Iranian police. But instead of stopping, the protests continued to grow. Five days later, they have spread to all areas of the country and turned into a movement that may be the biggest threat to Iran’s brutal religious dictatorship since the Iranian Revolution of 1979.
.......
News of Mahsa Amini’s death seems to have acted like spark in the highly taut society of Iran; a final straw that has snapped the already strained tolerance of people—and especially women—who have come to see their own government as a constant, and demeaning, threat.
While there have been protests in Iran before, including a series of large protests in 2011-2012 that coincided with the “Arab Spring” movement elsewhere, the current protests are notable both for the rapid way they have grown and for the open, sometimes violent, opposition to the government. This isn’t a protest against a particular party or a particular official. It’s a protest that has snowballed into a threat to the entire structure of the theocratic Iranian state. It’s also a threat to the leadership of Sayyid Ali Hosseini Khamenei, who has been “Supreme Leader” of Iran since 1989 when the original religious leader of the revolution, Ruhollah Khomeini, died.
At 83, Khamenei is now the longest serving head of state in the Middle East, and the second-longest-serving leader of Iran in modern history. Most of those protesting in the streets of the Iranian cities have never lived in a nation where Khamenei was not the head of both church and state.
But the level of tension and resentment that has been building among Iranians, and especially among highly repressed Iranian women, seems to have found an outlet, with many now openly expressing their disdain for Khamenei and an urgent need to reform the nation. Both men and women are gathering, marching, and in some instances fighting, in an effort to bring change to the rigid structure of Iran.
Protests in some areas have been joyous, with women symbolically removing and burning their hijabs, while dancing, singing, and applauding each other in what have become public ceremonies of freedom. Others are cutting off their hair and posting images online, making clear their identities as they show their disdain for Khamenei. Protests have also turned violent in many areas, with police firing into crowds. And when police have pushed in to break up ceremonies protesters, men and women alike, have pushed back. At least seven people are known to have been killed by police so far. The actual number is likely much higher.
But with each day, and especially each night, the number of cities where protests are being held seems to grow. The movement that began following the death of Mahsa Amini has touched a deep well of resentment, and a great desire for something better, that is proving very hard for the Iranian leadership to extinguish.
Whether it will continue to grow into something that sweeps aside over four decades of a brutally repressive religious regime, or whether it will be put down by that regime and turn into another footnote among all the protests for freedom that failed, can’t be known at this moment. But in this moment … women are dancing, shouting, marching, and fighting for their freedom at the risk of their lives. Iranian men are supporting them and joining them. And that’s something that seems very much worth noticing.
Wednesday, Sep 21, 2022 · 10:19:52 PM EDT · Mark Sumner
Details on the big prisoner swap in the next update.
Russia-Ukraine War: Over 1,000 Russian Protesters Arrested After Putin Mobilizes More Troops
Over 200 Ukrainian fighters, including commanders of the Azov Battalion that fought in Mariupol, were released in an exchange with Russia, the war’s largest. Two U.S. military veterans were also released.
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