Russia reveals battle casualties

Defense Minister Shoigu has spoken about Russian and Ukrainian losses in a 3-day clash

Ukrainian forces lost over 3,700 men and more than 50 tanks in a futile attempt to break through on several fronts, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said on Tuesday. He also revealed Russian casualties during the three days of heavy fighting.

“Over a three-day period, the Ukrainian regime began the long-promised offensive on multiple sections of the front, concentrating a large amount of men and materiel for that purpose,” Shoigu said in a video address.

The losses of Ukraine’s armed forces since June 4 include 3,715 personnel, 52 tanks, 207 armored vehicles, 134 cars, five airplanes, two helicopters, 48 field artillery pieces and 53 drones, Shoigu said in a video message.

“Unfortunately, this was not without casualties of our own,” the defense minister added. While defeating the adversary’s attempt to advance, the Russian military suffered 71 dead, 210 wounded, and the destruction of 15 tanks, nine armored vehicles, two cars and nine artillery pieces, according to Shoigu.

The heaviest fighting took place Monday, with five Ukrainian brigades attacking on seven sections of the frontline. In these clashes, the Ukrainians suffered more than 1,600 casualties and the loss of 136 vehicles, 79 of which were of foreign origin, Shoigu explained. Of the 28 destroyed tanks, eight were German-made ‘Leopards’ and three more the French wheeled AMX-10.

Ukraine “suffered significant and incomparable losses” and did not achieve any of its objectives, the Russian defense minister noted.

Shoigu accused the Ukrainian government of destroying the Kakhovka dam in order to cover its flank along the Dnieper River and prevent a Russian advance, while freeing up troops from that part of the front to redeploy in order to make up the losses elsewhere.

As proof that Ukraine was behind what he called a terrorist act, Shoigu noted that the Dnepropetrovsk hydroelectric plant – under Ukrainian control, further up the river – significantly increased the water flow and contributed to the flooding. Kiev has blamed Moscow and denied any responsibility for the disaster.

Shoigu seldom comments on the course of operations personally, usually leaving the combat reports to the department spokesman, Lt. Gen. Igor Konashenkov. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian defense ministry has urged everyone to keep quiet.

Fighting continued on Tuesday, with the Ukrainian forces suffering 260 more casualties, five tanks, four armored vehicles, and nine artillery pieces – including a French Cesar and an American M777 – the Russian Defense Ministry said in an evening update.

https://www.rt.com/russia/577595-shoigu-offensive-casualties-report/

New York City installs free crack pipe dispensers – media

The street-corner boxes also offer the overdose reversal drug Narcan, condoms, and - soon - syringes

New York City’s first “public health” vending machine, stocked with free drug paraphernalia and unveiled on a corner of Brooklyn’s drug-infested Brownsville neighborhood on Monday, had already been cleaned out of almost all its contents 24 hours later, the New York Post reported on Tuesday.

Well-stocked with “safer smoking” kits containing free crack pipes, “safer sniffing” kits, fentanyl testing strips, overdose-reversing Narcan nasal sprays, nicotine gum and condoms on Monday morning, the big blue box contained just one overdose-reversal kit and a pair of testing strips the next day.

The city plans to install three more of the street corner smoke shops, each costing $11,000, in neighborhoods suffering the most from the opioid overdose crisis. The contents will remain free to anyone who enters their zip code on the keypad, and nonprofit Services for the Underserved will maintain them.

“We are in the midst of an overdose crisis in our city, which is taking a fellow New Yorker from us every three hours and is a major cause of falling life expectancy in NYC,” New York Health Commissioner Ashwin Vasan said in a statement announcing the vending machine rollout.

“We will continue to fight to keep our neighbors and loved ones alive with care, compassion and action,” he declared, emphasizing the dispensing of “life-saving tools like [overdose reverser] Naloxone” over the distribution of “safer use” kits. There are reportedly plans to stock syringes in the machines as well.

Perry Perlmutter, CEO of Services for the Underserved, described the initiative as “a game-changer for this part of East Brooklyn,” noting that the machines’ contents would “prevent overdoses, infections, and other health risks associated with substance use” in addition to “essential items that can improve the quality of life of all New Yorkers, regardless of their income, insurance or housing status.”

Overdoses in New York City are at an all-time high, with 2022 on track to break the 2021 record of 2,668 overdose deaths. In the first half of 2022 alone, 1,370 overdose deaths were recorded.

Like New York’s controversial “safe” drug injection sites, whose number is set to expand from two to five by 2025, the paraphernalia vending machines appear to be inspired by the drug-infested Canadian city of Vancouver, which has been selling crack pipes - and some actual narcotics - out of vending machines for nearly a decade in the name of “harm reduction.”

While New York appears to be the first US city to offer a full range of drug paraphernalia for free out of vending machines, other cities like Los Angeles have also begun handing out “smoking kits” in addition to Narcan and testing strips and the needle exchanges that have existed for decades.

https://www.rt.com/news/577597-nyc-drug-paraphernalia-dispensers-crackpipes/

Media Smears Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. For "Conspiracy Theories" Even As Many Come True

Yesterday, Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. appeared on a Twitter Spaces panel co-hosted by Elon Musk, Tulsi Gabbard, and venture capitalist David Sacks. He spoke for over two hours on a range of issues, including the war in Ukraine, energy policy, gun control, and the origin of SARS-CoV-2. And Kennedy deplored the corporate takeover of the Democratic Party, excoriated President Biden’s pro-war instincts, decried the domination of US foreign policy by neo-cons and promoted renewable energy.

And yet, according to the New York Times and CNN, it was an orgy of right-wing conspiracy theorizing. “Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a scion of one of the country’s most famous Democratic families,” wrote three New York Times reporters, “dived into the full embrace of a host of conservative figures who eagerly promoted his long-shot primary challenge to President Biden….On Monday, he sounded like a candidate far more at ease in the mushrooming Republican presidential contest.”

In pre-Trump America, Kennedy, an anti-war, pro-free speech environmentalist and fierce critic of corporate power, would have been universally regarded as a far-left candidate in the mold of Ralph Nader or his current campaign manager, Dennis Kucinich. He once called for the Koch Brothers to be criminally prosecuted. Kennedy believes that the war in Ukraine is being fueled by “the neo-cons in the White House” who want “regime change with the Russians.” In his campaign announcement speech, he described his mission as ending “the corrupt merger of state and corporate power” that is threatening “to impose a new kind of corporate feudalism in our country.”

But a dizzying political realignment has scrambled all of the traditional categories and left in its wake just two sides: not left and right, but insider and outsider. And no matter the substance of one’s beliefs, to the media, “outsider” means, by default, “right-wing conspiracy theorist.”

On yesterday’s Twitter spaces conversation, the shift was lost on nobody, including Kennedy. “The Democrats slowly became pro-corporate, pro-war, and pro-censorship,” said Kennedy, and “Republicans became anti-censorship, pro-civil liberties, and anti-war. There's been this tremendous realignment.”

Kennedy’s rising profile ignited a media backlash yesterday that felt almost orchestrated. Kennedy’s “crackpot claims” and “outlandish views” have won him “favor on the right,” Vanity Fair moaned. “Mr. Kennedy has found another benefactor who seems to enjoy deluging the press with excrement: Elon Musk,” snarled The Independent. “Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Spends an Hour Sucking Up to Elon Musk in Twitter Space,” blared a New Republic headline.

Business Insider called the conversation on Twitter “a bizarre Twitter Spaces conversation littered with falsehoods and conspiracy theories” and dismissed Kennedy’s “odd and occasionally incoherent policy positions.” Rolling Stone sneered at his “outlandish and pseudoscientific ideas” and labeled Kennedy a “fringe candidate” with “crank beliefs.” Esquire called him a “raving anti-vaxxer” and lambasted the very idea of having a contested Democratic primary.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/media-smears-robert-f-kennedy-jr-conspiracy-theories-even-many-come-true

Ex-FBI Agent Suggests Need For New Domestic Terror Laws To Target Critics Of Gender Ideology

A former FBI agent stressed the need for new laws to target conservatives critical of gender ideology during a Tuesday MSNBC appearance, citing a Southern Poverty Law Center report.

“Does law enforcement have the tools to know exactly where the fault line is between the projected sort of laundered free political speech targeting the trans community coming from behind podiums, televised debates and town halls and the rhetoric and conduct and organizing that threatens people especially families of trans kids and LGBTQ+ kids?” MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace asked former FBI agent Frank Figliuzzi.

Figliuzzi argued for the need for comprehensive laws regarding domestic terrorism to address such matters, saying that “far-right extremists” have characterized domestic terror laws as attempts by the government to “police our thoughts” when the government is in fact trying to prevent violence.

“I know you’ve heard me say this to a point where you may be tired of hearing me say it, we still don’t have a law in the federal books against domestic terrorism, and that deprives law enforcement of the ability to get out ahead of violence,” Figliuzzi said.

The Justice Department has come under fire over allegations that the Department of Justice targeted parents who spoke out at school board meetings.

The Southern Poverty Law Center added parental rights groups to its online “hate map,” the Daily Signal reported, declaring them part of the “antigovernment movement.” The SPLC hate map was used by a would-be mass shooter who targeted the Family Research Council in 2012.

“Let me give kudos to the SPLC for an extremely comprehensive, well written, well-packaged report,” Figliuzzi said. “I recommend everyone reading this that wants to become more familiar with what’s happening all around us now, because the overall take away is that hate is becoming more entrenched. Hate has gone local, and the more local it goes, the more mainstream it becomes.”

Among the groups the SPLC claimed were “hate groups” were Parents Defending Education, Moms for Liberty and Parental Rights in Education, Daily Signal Managing Editor Tyler O’Neil tweeted.

“This is disgraceful,” Nicki Neily, founder and president of Parents Defending Education posted on Twitter. “We at @DefendingEd have successfully fought to end government-sponsored segregation in schools. Extreme and hateful indeed.”

https://dailycaller.com/2023/06/06/ex-fbi-agent-domestic-terror-gender-ideology/

Joe Biden bribery allegations involve Ukraine, first raised with FBI in 2017, key investigator says

Informant was deemed reliable enough to be paid $200,000 by bureau over several years.

Allegations that Joe Biden partook in a $5 million bribery scheme involve Ukraine where his son scored a lucrative energy job and were first presented to the FBI by a reliable and well-paid informant back in 2017, House Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer told Just the News on Tuesday evening.

Comer made the bombshell revelation just a day after reviewing an FBI FD-1023 form that memorialized the informant’s allegations, and two days before he plans to hold a vote in Congress to hold FBI Director Christopher Wray in contempt for failing to provide a copy to his committee as demanded by a subpoena. He said the version of the informant report he was allowed to review by Wray had about 10% of information redacted and made clear the allegations were first reported to the FBI back in 2017 as Donald Trump was beginning his term as president.

“Yes, it is Ukraine,” Comer told the Just the News, No Noise television show when asked what country the alleged bribery involved. “This form 1023 involves a business person from Ukraine, who allegedly sent a bribe, a substantial bribe to then Vice President Joe Biden.”

Asked whether the allegation involved the Ukrainian oligarch Mykola Zlochevsky, whose Burisma Holdings energy firm first hired Hunter Biden into a lucrative board and consulting job in 2014 when Joe Biden was vice president, Comer carefully demurred. “I probably better punt on that question. The name was redacted,” the powerful House committee chairman answered.

But Comer said markings on the document he was shown – including footnotes – made clear the informant first provided the bribery allegations to the FBI in 2017 and then again one more time before he raised them a third time in the June 2020 informant report

“This first started in 2017,” he said, citing footnotes in the informant report he reviewed that listed two prior reports. “There are two notes, or footnotes, whatever you want to call them. They listed them as notes. I will say footnotes for better explanation, that reference 2017. And it was either 2018 or 2019. So this wasn't the first time that the informant had mentioned a bribery scheme pertaining to Joe Biden to the FBI.

Comer’s disclosures came the same day that his colleague in the Senate, Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, revealed the FBI informant who provided the intelligence was deemed so credible and valuable that he was paid $200,000 by the bureau over several years. The comments by the two GOP lawmakers pushed back on Democrat claims that the allegations were old, disproven or tied to an effort by attorney Rudy Giuliani to investigate the Bidens’ Ukraine ties that led to Trump’s first impeachment in 2019.

“Partisan media, most likely in conjunction with the Biden FBI, have misleadingly reported the 1023 is from a tranche of information provided by Rudy Giuliani. News reports last week dispel that notion and make clear the 1023 information that we request is independent of Giuliani,” Grassley stated in a speech given on the Senate floor.

https://justthenews.com/accountability/russia-and-ukraine-scandals/joe-biden-bribery-allegations-involve-ukraine-first

House Conservatives Launch “Extraordinary Rebellion” Against Kevin McCarthy on House Floor Over Debt Deal Anger and Derail Key Leadership Priority – Leadership Threatened to Sink GOP Debt Ceiling Opponent’s Bill to Stop Biden Gun Ban

Is this the beginning of the conservative revolt over Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s leadership?

Politico reported that House conservatives livid over McCarthy’s handling of the debt ceiling bill launched an “extraordinary rebellion” on the House floor Tuesday. House Republican leadership was caught completely off-guard.

In the process, the rebels ended up derailing a key leadership priority: the House was set to vote on legislation barring the Biden regime from unleashing its scheme to ban gas stoves.

The Congressional Research Center revealed the last time the House defeated a procedural rule for debate on legislation was 2002.

Beyond the surrender to Biden, conservatives were piqued by the Uniparty leadership allegedly retaliating against a Georgia congressman over his brave opposition. Rep. Andrew Clyde said they threatened to sink his bill to stop a gun regulation banning pistol braces if he voted against the debt ceiling bill (which he ultimately did).

Multiple conservatives cited this as the primary incentive for their rebellion.

“We’re not going to live in a system where our members are subject to this type of petty punishment,” said Matt Gaetz.

“It was an issue dealing with a member who was being threatened,” said Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.), another of the conservative no votes on Tuesday, in a reference to Clyde. “So I sent a clear message.”

This unprecedented uprising naturally raises the possibility over whether there will be a motion to “vacate the chair” and force a vote to remove McCarthy as Speaker. Under new House rules, it only takes one member of Congress, from either party, to bring a “motion to vacate” which forces a vote on removing the Speaker of the House.

But despite the righteous fury, members at this point appear reluctant to invoke the nuclear option and remove McCarthy.

Rep. Dan Bishop (R-NC), who was the first Republican to express his openness to removing McCarthy, told reporters “no decision has been made.” Bishop says his preference is to enforce the accord House conservatives brokered with McCarthy back in January.

He thinks today’s maneuver will force McCarthy to eventually bend.

“As you’re seeing right now. the majority cannot function without unity. So to pull a pin from the grenade, and roll it under the tent of the Republican unity as was done last week on the debt ceiling is untenable for leadership.”

Clyde also is not enthusiastic about removal despite leadership threatening him.

“I think we’re not there … the discussions haven’t occurred. It’s always an option. Right now I think we need to work on the issues in the Republican conference before we deal with motion to vacate,” Clyde said. “I would much prefer to see us work things out.”

Rep. Matt Gaetz and Rep. Lauren Boebert later went on The War Room to describe their extraordinary rebellion on the House floor earlier today.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/06/house-conservatives-launch-extraordinary-rebellion-against-kevin-mccarthy/

>>18963811

We know

See he does good things then pushes UFO narrative