Monday, September 26, 2022

The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

 

The good:

The Russian air force reportedly has had a very bad day. The Ukrainian defense ministry on Saturday claimed its forces shot down four Russian warplanes in 24 hours: an Su-34, two Su-30s and an Su-25.

Videos circulating online seem to confirm at least two of the shoot-downs. “Today is a good day,” the Ukrainian defense ministry tweeted.

The aerial losses come nearly a month after the Ukrainian army launched twin counteroffensives in the south and east. The eastern counteroffensive broke through Russian lines outside Kharkiv and triggered a rapid collapse in the Russian army in the area... 

 

 

The bad:

Brothers of Italy leader Giorgia Meloni has claimed victory in a general election that seems set to install her as Italy's first female prime minister, leading the most far-right government since the fascist era of Benito Mussolini.

Addressing the media and supporters in the early hours of Monday morning, Meloni said it was "a night of pride for many and a night of redemption."
 
"It's a victory I want to dedicate to everyone who is no longer with us and wanted this night," she said. "Starting tomorrow we have to show our value ... Italians chose us, and we will not betray it, as we never have," she said.
 
Preliminary results put an alliance of far-right parties, led by Meloni's ultraconservative Brothers of Italy party, on track to win at least 44% of the vote, according to the Italian Interior Ministry.  [snip]

Sunday's results come as other far-right parties in other European countries have marked recent gains, including the rise in Sweden's anti-immigration party, Sweden Democrats -- a party with neo-Nazi roots -- who are expected to play a major role in the new government after winning the second largest share of seats at a general election earlier this month.
 
And in France, while far-right ideologue Marine Le Pen lost the French presidential election to Emmanuel Macron in April, her share of the popular vote shifted France's political center dramatically to the right.

The ugly:

Michael Daino smiled as he unloaded folding chairs from a car and lugged them up the Pennsylvania capitol building steps. “One of the sharks!” he said when I told him I was a journalist. “Circling the waters looking for bait.”

The activist from Delaware County was excited. He’d met Doug Mastriano at a 2020 COVID denial rally ― a “reopen” rally, he called it — in the early days of the pandemic, when Mastriano was just a state senator. Now, two years later, Daino was organizing this get-out-the-vote event on Saturday for Mastriano, the Republican nominee for Pennsylvania governor. How far they’d come together. Up to 2,000 people were expected here. Mastriano had posted a video urging folks to come to the “big rally.” He was going to give a speech. 

But only 50 or so people turned up to hear Mastriano speak. An embarrassing showing...

Embarrassing and sad! 


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