The Stormer HVM (High-Velocity Missile) is a short-range air defense system. It can be used as for air defense with semi-automatic laser guidance. It is essentially "invisible" to on-board radar sensors mounted on enemy aircraft and helicopters, since there is no radar station on this air defense system.

On Saturday, the Russian Defense Ministry released footage of a British Stormer HVM air defense system which had been supplied to Kiev being destroyed.

The video includes footage from a UAV of an enemy combat vehicle, footage from a loitering munition guidance camera and the destruction of the Stormer HVM air defense system.

Earlier, speaking at the Rage Against the War Machine Rally at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC on 19 February, to protest against the vast funds being funneled into Ukraine, American media personality Jimmy Dore slammed "corrupt" America, claiming that US politicians “want to enrich weapons manufacturers, so they keep donating to them".

American stand-up comedian Jimmy Dore has accused the US of hypocrisy and slammed it as "the world’s biggest terror organization".

Joe Biden on Friday took off for another weekend vacation in Delaware.

Biden has spent over 40% of his presidency – 309 days – on vacation without visitor logs.

This is Biden’s 67th trip to Delaware since being sworn into office in January 2021.

There are no visitor logs at Biden’s Delaware compound so the American people have no idea who Biden is meeting with off-the-record.

We have no idea who is visiting Joe Biden every weekend in Delaware.

When asked who is coming and going to Biden’s Delaware home, the White House said it’s none of our business.

Democratic Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs just vetoed a piece of legislation that would have banned teaching Critical Race Theory (CRT) in schools in Arizona.

The Daily Caller reports that Senate Bill 1305 would have prohibited the teaching of these controversial materials. Still, Governor Hobbs stepped in to protect the learning of these subjects, and some are wondering why their Governor would do such a thing.

Webmaster addition: As a favor to the people who stole the election for her?

Forty-five NGOs have urged US President Joe Biden to reject the remarks made by American ambassador to Israel Tom Nides who had said Washington would back Israel in “whatever action” they take against Iran.

In a letter, the organizations called on Biden to “clarify that these comments do not reflect US policy towards Iran for the sake of regional stability, future diplomacy, and respect for Congress’ constitutional responsibility for war powers.”

The NGOs expressed concern that the Israeli far-right cabinet would “perceive these remarks as tacit approval for military action, even when such action most likely will damage US national security interests, further embroil our military in regional conflict, and prevent future diplomacy.”

The warning comes as the US diplomat had recently said “Israel can and should do whatever they need to deal with [Iran] and we’ve got their back.”

 Iran and the United States have reached an agreement to exchange prisoners, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian told state TV on Sunday, adding that he hoped the exchange would take place soon.

"Regarding the issue of prisoner swaps between Iran and the U.S. we have reached an agreement in the recent days and if everything goes well on the U.S. side, I think we will witness a prisoner exchange in a short period," Amirabdollahian said.

"On our part everything is ready, while the U.S. is currently working on the final technical coordination."

A group of Iraqi legislators plans to repeat calls for disclosure of the results of an investigation into the assassination of top Iranian anti-terror commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani and his Iraqi trenchmate Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, who were killed in a US drone strike near Baghdad airport more than three years ago.

Hassan Salem, a member of the al-Sadiqoun bloc – the political wing of the anti-terror Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq resistance group in the Iraqi legislature, told Iraq's Arabic-language al-Maalomah news agency on Saturday that lawmakers intend to reopen a file into the matter.

He added, “There are domestic and foreign parties involved in the crime, and the offenders hail from the United States, Lebanon, Syria, and even Iraq.”

Tens of thousands hold fresh rallies across several cities throughout the occupied territories for a 10th straight week, blasting so-called "legal reforms" that are planned by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's extremist cabinet.

The biggest demonstration was held in the coastal city of Tel Aviv on Saturday, attracting, what the Israeli regime's media estimated were, around 100,000 people.

Some 50,000 also rallied in the northern city of Haifa and 10,000 in Beersheba in the central part of the occupied territories. Media reports said the populations that gathered for the protests in the cities were the largest ever since early January when the demonstrations began.

The so-called reforms serve as the centerpiece of the policies of the Netanyahu-led cabinet, which he cobbled together late last year by wooing ultra-Orthodox and hard-right parties.

As one might expect, the Judiciary hearing on the "weaponization" of federal agencies, featuring Matt Taibbi and Michael Shellenberger as witnesses was full of fireworks, facts, and ad hominem friction.

Out of the gate, Ranking Member Democratic Del. Stacey E. Plaskett labeled the two "so-called journalists" as dangerous and a "threat" to former Twitter employees.

She claimed that Republicans brought "two of Elon Musk's ‘public scribes'" in "to release cherry-picked out-of-context emails and screenshots designed to promote his chosen narrative - Elon Musk’s chosen narrative - that is now being parroted by the Republicans" for political gain.

“I’m not exaggerating when I say you have called two witnesses who pose a direct threat to people who oppose them,” Plaskett said after the video.

Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, had a simple response to her accusations:

“It’s crazy what you were just saying.”

“You don’t want people to see what happened,” Jordan continued.

“The full video, transparency. You don’t want that, and you don’t want two journalists who have been named personally by the Biden administration, the FTC in a letter. They say they’re here to help and tell their story, and frankly, I think they’re brave individuals for being willing to come after being named in a letter from the Biden FTC.”

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy recently called out California Democrats Eric Swalwell and Adam Schiff as liars, pointing to their time on the House Intelligence Committee.

Last week, a healthy and active 17-year-old girl suddenly suffered a cardiac arrest during a cheer competition, leading to multiple seizures.

Five Texas women are suing the state of Texas for not allowing them to have their abortions in the Lone Star State.

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has proposed renaming Ukraine after notorious Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera. His suggestion came after Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky told his government to consider a proposal to change Russia’s name. 

On Friday, Zelensky instructed authorities to “thoroughly study” the proposal to officially rename Russia to ‘Moscovia.’ He was reacting to an online petition, which argued that the name ‘Russia’ provided grounds for “further encroachment” on the history of Kievan Rus, a medieval state from which both Russia and Ukraine trace their origin. Many Ukrainian nationalists claim that their homeland is the only true heir of Rus. 

The NBA’s uncomfortably sycophantic relationship with China (and its money) has officially drawn the ire of multiple GOP lawmakers — and it’s all thanks to the Lunar New Year.

Tbilisi’s main street, Rustaveli Avenue, was blocked for several days this week as thousands of people chanted anti-government slogans in front of the parliament building and sang the Georgian national anthem. Even more protesters gathered at the square in the evenings. By nightfall, the enraged crowd was throwing firecrackers, stones, and Molotov cocktails at the police, attempting to take down an iron fence and storm the parliament. The police used water cannons to promptly put out the fires and showered the crowds with water, at the same time spraying tear gas to disperse those present.

What led to this violent confrontation is perhaps difficult to understand from the perspective of a Western reader. It wasn’t a “civil society” uprising in the sense you might find, for example, in a country like France. Instead, it was organized by people whose livelihoods were threatened by the proposed legislation. 

In a poor country like Georgia, foreign-funded roles pay multiple times better than local gigs. By taking on the NGO industry, the government went up against a powerful, and relatively well-heeled lobby. 

A trip to Moscow is not impossible, Pope Francis said in an interview with the Argentina’s La Nacion news outlet.

"This is not impossible. We hope we will be able to do that. I would like to bring to the attention that there are no promises. I have not closed this door," the Pontiff said in the interview.

At the same time, the head of the Roman Catholic Church expressed doubt regarding the possibility of a bilateral meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Vladimir Zelensky under auspices of the Vatican. "However, an international meeting on this topic is possible, a meeting of delegates from the whole world," he said. The Vatican is working in this direction, the Pontiff noted. [The Vatican has] no peace formula, the peace service is in place," Pope Francis added.

Webmaster addition: Ignoring that embarrassing part of history where the Vatican supported the Nazis when they made war on Russia, of course!

The founder of the popular ChatGPT tool has responded to criticisms by Twitter owner Elon Musk that his product is “too woke.”

OpenAI co-founder and President Greg Brockman said the company “made a mistake” in its initial tool creation, according to an interview he gave to The Information.

Musk was a co-founder of OpenAI, which created the ChatGPT tool. However, Musk has severed ties with the company in the meantime. He has criticized the tool for having safeguards within it to prevent it from producing responses that the founders have deemed offensive.

Brockman said in his interview: “We made a mistake: The system we implemented did not reflect the values we intended to be in there.” He continued, “And I think we were not fast enough to address that. And so I think that’s a legitimate criticism of us.”

A few days back writer Sammy Roth wrote a piece in the LA Times about a new form of racism in LA.

Roth cited a study from the University of Southern California that states the following:

“Decades of racially-motivated freeway infrastructure planning and residential segregation shape today's disparities in who produces vehicular air pollution and who is exposed to it, but opportunities exist for urban planning and transport policy to mitigate this injustice.

"[LA residents] who drive more tend to be exposed to less air pollution — and Angelenos who drive less tend to be exposed to more pollution.

“It’s a function of the racism that shaped this city and its suburbs, and continues to influence our daily lives — and a stark reminder of the need for climate solutions that benefit everyone." 

Webmaster addition: This is just plain silly! Black people also drive cars and white people also inhale that smog! 

Yossi Engel, a 35-year-old Israeli man who was indicted in absentia in January 2021 for allegedly defrauding investors of at least $47 million, has been arrested in Los Angeles by US authorities. Engel is accused of using his company, iWitness Tech, to target potential investors from Orthodox Jewish communities in Los Angeles and New Jersey between 2018 and 2021, when he fled to Israel. He is facing one count of wire fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison if convicted.

According to the indictment filed by the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Engel deceived investors by portraying himself as a businessman seeking capital to purchase and install security cameras in Los Angeles as anti-Semitic incidents increased in the US. He also promised to use their funds to purchase property in Israel, which he claimed he would renovate and sell for a profit. However, he allegedly used the money to fund a lavish lifestyle, including spending $56,880 at casinos and flying on private jets at least twice. He also wired more than $2.5 million to currency exchangers in Israel and withdrew over $861,000 in cash.

Today Tucker seems to be turning a new leaf. He proclaimed on the popular podcast ‘Redacted’ “…but if you say “What actually happened with Building 7? But if you say something like that on television - they actually flip out!….Do buildings actually collapse like that? No! or maybe they do. I don’t know. But why can’t I ask questions about that?”

The employees of the failed Silicon Valley Bank were given their annual bonuses only hours before the bank failed and was taken over by regulators.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) and Federal Reserve are discussing creating a fund to backstop deposits if more banks fail following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank.

Last week, Kevin O’Leary, an investor and judge on the ABC show “Shark Tank,” slammed Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) for being “great at killing jobs” and making New York City and other liberal states “uninvestable.”

Stanford officials allowed law students to berate and shout down a federal judge who was invited to speak at the university.

U.S. cryptocurrency firm Circle has $3.3 billion of its $40 billion of USD Coin reserves at the collapsed lender Silicon Valley Bank, the company said in a tweet on Friday.

Knowing of Silicon Valley's fondness for "Effective Altruism", and the importance of The Silicon Valley Bank to their industry, I wondered this week if we'd see venture capitalists lined up in front of Silicon Valley Bank branches with $250k cashier's checks in hand to open CDs there, to boost confidence in the bank. Instead, they did the opposite, encouraging the CEOs of their portfolio companies to pull all their assets out of the bank...

And calling for a Federal bailout.

What Happens Next? 

It looks like the damage is going to ripple outward from the collapse of The Silicon Valley Bank. Serial startup founder Brad Hargreaves sketched out some of the mechanics of that in this thread. 

Webmaster addition:

Silicon Valley Bank was closed by the FDIC due to the bank losing over 60% of its value after the company disclosed major losses from security sales.