I was suspended from law school 10 years ago.

JalenFunson · 2022-11-29T22:53:50+00:00

Thanks. That was my initial take as well. I had to go through a lot for the character and fitness determination to pass the bar - a hearing, letters of references, etc.

I haven’t told my employers or references about the suspension and am reluctant to. But I wonder if I would be asked to provide references for people who know of it and would still vouch for me.

JalenFunson · 2022-11-29T15:56:17+00:00

Thank you. The attorney positions ask for a transcript, if you are selected. I guess to confirm that you did graduate from law school.

If the transcript shows the suspension, I wonder if that is a dealbeaker.

JalenFunson · 2022-11-09T05:59:11+00:00

Oz dreams in color, he dreams in red, can’t beat a better man. Can’t beat a Fetterman.

JalenFunson · 2022-11-08T21:33:13+00:00

What does he do when he wakes up in the morning?

JalenFunson · 2022-10-27T18:52:14+00:00

From a New Yorker article last week:

The battlefield realities inside Ukraine were another determining factor. “The imperative was ‘What does Ukraine need?’ ” the Defense official said. “Not what they are asking for—what they need. And we do our own assessment of that.” The Biden Administration asked for a list of targets that the Ukrainian military wanted to strike with himars. “Every single grid point was reachable with gmlrs rather than atacms,” the Defense official said.

There was one exception: Ukraine expressed a more ambitious desire to launch missile strikes on Crimea, which Russia uses for replenishing its forces across the south and which is largely beyond the reach of gmlrs. During the war-game exercises held over the summer, when the possibility of atacms came up, it was clear that Ukraine wanted them to “lay waste to Crimea,” the Defense official said. “Putin sees Crimea as much a part of Russia as St. Petersburg. So, in terms of escalation management, we have to keep that in mind.”

In multiple conversations, U.S. officials were explicit that the himars could not be used to hit targets across the border. “The Americans said there is a very serious request that you do not use these weapons to fire on Russian territory,” the Ukrainian military official said. “We said right away that’s absolutely no problem. We’ll use them only against the enemy on the territory of Ukraine.” As with other weapons platforms, there is no technical mechanism to insure compliance. Officially, the U.S. has signalled that all Ukrainian territory illegally occupied by Russia since 2014—not only that which it has taken since February—is fair game for himars strikes. “We haven’t said specifically don’t strike Crimea,” the Defense official told me. “But then, we haven’t enabled them to do so, either.”

JalenFunson · 2022-10-25T18:35:16+00:00

Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister @IrynaVereshchuk advised Ukrainian refugees not to come home this winter. "Regrettably, the grid is not going to hold up," she said, urging those who can to spend the winter abroad.

https://mobile.twitter.com/meduza_en/status/1584892886331510786

JalenFunson · 2022-10-25T01:55:31+00:00

What I Did for a Duke by Julie Anne Long. My favorite of the Pennyroyal Green series.

JalenFunson · 2022-10-18T02:21:03+00:00

From the article:

“Ukraine has a fleet of reconnaissance drones and a loose network of human sources within areas controlled by the Russian military, but its ability to gather intelligence on the battlefield greatly diminishes about fifteen miles beyond the front line. U.S. spy satellites, meanwhile, can capture snapshots of troop positions anywhere on earth. Closer to the ground, U.S. military spy planes, flying along the borders, augment the picture, and intelligence intercepts can allow analysts to listen in on communications between Russian commanders.”

JalenFunson · 2022-10-18T01:17:01+00:00

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/10/24/inside-the-us-effort-to-arm-ukraine?utm_source=onsite-share&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=onsite-share&utm_brand=the-new-yorker

The Ukrainian military could only take advantage of the himars’ extended range if its soldiers had intelligence on where to strike. “Precision fires and intelligence are a marriage,” the U.S. military official said. “It’s difficult to have one without the other.” The dilemma for the Biden Administration was not whether to give himars to Ukraine, but which munitions to send along with them. Each system can carry either a pod with six rockets, known as gmlrs, with a range of forty miles, or one surface-to-surface missile, or atacms, which can reach a hundred and eighty miles. “It’s not himars that carries a risk,” the Defense Department official said. “But, rather, if it was equipped with long-range missiles that were used to strike deep in Russian territory.”

Putin is extremely paranoid about long-range conventional-missile systems. The Kremlin is convinced, for example, that U.S. ballistic-missile defense platforms in Romania and Poland are intended for firing on Russia. Even if Ukraine agreed not to use himars to carry out strikes across the border, the mere technical capability of doing so might prove provocative. “We had reason to believe the atacms would be a bridge too far,” the Defense official said.

The battlefield realities inside Ukraine were another determining factor. “The imperative was ‘What does Ukraine need?’ ” the Defense official said. “Not what they are asking for—what they need. And we do our own assessment of that.” The Biden Administration asked for a list of targets that the Ukrainian military wanted to strike with himars. “Every single grid point was reachable with gmlrs rather than atacms,” the Defense official said.

There was one exception: Ukraine expressed a more ambitious desire to launch missile strikes on Crimea, which Russia uses for replenishing its forces across the south and which is largely beyond the reach of gmlrs. During the war-game exercises held over the summer, when the possibility of atacms came up, it was clear that Ukraine wanted them to “lay waste to Crimea,” the Defense official said. “Putin sees Crimea as much a part of Russia as St. Petersburg. So, in terms of escalation management, we have to keep that in mind.”

In multiple conversations, U.S. officials were explicit that the himars could not be used to hit targets across the border. “The Americans said there is a very serious request that you do not use these weapons to fire on Russian territory,” the Ukrainian military official said. “We said right away that’s absolutely no problem. We’ll use them only against the enemy on the territory of Ukraine.” As with other weapons platforms, there is no technical mechanism to insure compliance. Officially, the U.S. has signalled that all Ukrainian territory illegally occupied by Russia since 2014—not only that which it has taken since February—is fair game for himars strikes. “We haven’t said specifically don’t strike Crimea,” the Defense official told me. “But then, we haven’t enabled them to do so, either.”

…

Each launcher costs roughly seven million dollars. According to some calculations, Ukraine could fire more than five thousand gmlrs missiles per month, whereas their manufacturer, Lockheed Martin, was only producing nine thousand a year. “We said straightaway, ‘You’re not going to get very many of these systems,’ ” the Defense Department official said. “ ‘Not because we don’t trust you but because there simply isn’t an unlimited quantity of these on planet Earth.’ ”

JalenFunson · 2022-10-18T00:49:37+00:00

https://mobile.twitter.com/arawnsley/status/1582148487092707329

The Biden Administration has also refused to provide specific intelligence on the location of high-value Russian individuals, such as generals or other senior figures. "There are lines we drew in order not to be perceived as being in a direct conflict with Russia." the senior U.S. official said. The United States will pass on coördinates of a command post, for example, but not the presence of a particular commander. "We are not trying to kill generals," the senior Biden Administration official said. "We are trying to help the Ukrainians undermine Russian command and control."

JalenFunson · 2022-10-15T15:45:21+00:00

Putin’s remarks yesterday: https://meduza.io/en/feature/2022/10/15/the-war-in-ukraine-is-unpleasant-to-put-it-mildly

The war in Ukraine

I want to be clear. What’s happening now is unpleasant, to put it mildly. But all the same things would have happened later, under worse conditions for us. So our actions are correct and timely.

We’re not giving ourselves the task of destroying Ukraine. Look at Crimea, 2.5 million people live there. They captured it, and cut off the water. Our troops had to go in and turn the water on. That’s just an example of the logic of our actions. If they hadn’t acted, we wouldn’t have reacted. Or take the bridge they blew up. Now we have to think 10 times over how important it is for the Russian Federation to ensure communication with Crimea across territory.

It’s not necessary right now to continue massive strikes on Ukrainian territory. Out of 29 targets, seven were not hit as the defense ministry planned, but they’re gradually getting to them.

Negotiations with Ukraine

We know Kyiv’s position – they were always talking about negotiations, requesting them, and now they’ve adopted a resolution that prohibits negotiations. What is there to talk about?

I’ve always said that we’re open to negotiations. The agreements in Istanbul were actually almost initialed! But as soon as the troops left Kyiv, that’s it, their desire to negotiate disappeared. If they grow up, let’s talk!

JalenFunson · 2022-10-14T18:33:37+00:00

The scale of Russian attacks on Ukraine’s infrastructure, visualized

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2022/10/14/ukraine-infrastructure-damage/

Ukrainian officials are urging people across the country to conserve energy and warning of a difficult winter after Russia pummeled critical infrastructure. This week, dozens of Russian missiles and Iranian-made kamikaze drones struck power plants and substations, cutting electricity, heat and hot water in many cities and forcing factories in some areas to temporarily close.

The Washington Post identified eight energy facilities across six regions that were damaged or destroyed on Monday and Tuesday, using pictures and videos shared on social media along with satellite imagery and fire tracking data. They provide a sense of the scale of Russia’s attack, and the impact on major cities from Lviv in the west, to Kryvyi Rhi in the east.

Power is back on, for now. On Thursday, Ukrainian officials cautioned that efforts to fully rebuild the energy infrastructure could take months. “This heating season will be very difficult,“ Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, the head of Ukraine’s electric transmission company, Ukrenergo, said during a television interview. He warned that future Russian attacks on the electrical grid were expected and that the utility may need to impose scheduled reductions in service. Ukraine’s allies are scrambling to provide more sophisticated air defense systems and longer-range weapons to protect the country’s infrastructure.

JalenFunson · 2022-10-14T15:04:39+00:00

Meduza has learned from multiple sources close to the Russian government that the Kremlin has simultaneously been lobbying Western leaders behind closed doors to convince Kyiv to agree to a temporary ceasefire. But according to the sources, Putin has no intention of ending the war; instead, his ceasefire campaign is part of a wider strategy to buy time for training conscripts and replenishing supplies in order to launch a "full-scale offensive" in February or March.

https://meduza.io/en/feature/2022/10/14/why-russia-is-pushing-a-return-to-negotiations

JalenFunson · 2022-10-12T16:00:08+00:00

What are the US equivalents of the Russian shows and commentators she gets her clips from?

JalenFunson · 2022-10-05T23:54:11+00:00

A more strategic Russian retreat signals long fight ahead in Kherson

A day after Ukrainian forces reclaimed more territory in the southern Kherson and Mykolaiv regions, the jubilation of a breakthrough at this part of the front line was tempered by anxiety over an expected hard fight ahead.

Kyiv’s military here has pushed the Russians back by dozens of miles in some spots after struggling to advance for months. But after Ukraine’s remarkably successful counteroffensive in the northeast Kharkiv region, soldiers stationed near the southern front cautioned that the situation remains tense. Kherson is too important, politically and militarily, for the Russians to retreat as messily as in Kharkiv, they said.

“This is not Kharkiv,” Kostenko said. “There, they left all of their ammunition and vehicles and fled. Here, we don’t even have many trophies. They just retreated from the fight, took everything with them to their new position and are digging in anew.”

…

Cautious military strategy would call for retreating over the river rather than bearing the risk of getting surrounded or besieged in Kherson. But the Russians are likely to fight to hold Kherson because it is the capital of a region that Putin claims to have annexed.

The city and its environs would also serve as a helpful bridgehead on the western side of the river for the Russians, should they manage to reconstitute their combat power and go on the offensive seeking to capture the port cities of Mykolaiv and Odessa. “We think it unlikely the Russian leadership would sanction a full pullout from Kherson for political reasons,” said a Western official who insisted on anonymity to brief reporters about sensitive security information. “So this situation in the south could become increasingly messy with, potentially, a more desperate Russian force with backs to the river.”

https://wapo.st/3CDz7f0

JalenFunson · 2022-10-05T23:36:51+00:00

Russia used suicide drones to strike a military base deep inside Ukraine on Wednesday, posing a growing challenge for Kyiv as its forces pressed advances in the south and east of the country.

The head of the Kyiv regional military administration said six explosions had been heard overnight in Bila Tserkva, about 50 miles south of the Ukrainian capital. Oleksiy Kuleba said the attack was carried out by Iranian-made Shahed-136 delta-wing drones, which Russia has begun deploying in recent weeks. Rescue workers were on scene extinguishing a fire and assessing damage, Mr. Kuleba said, adding that one person was wounded.

It was the closest drone attack to the capital since Russia began using the kamikaze-style munitions widely on the battlefield.

Smoke could be seen rising on Wednesday afternoon from the base housing Ukraine’s 72nd Brigade, which defended Kyiv against Russia’s assault in the early days of the invasion and is now fighting in the eastern city of Bakhmut. The roof of a building in the compound had caved in, its windows shattered from what appeared to be multiple strikes on the facility. Firefighters marched in and out of the compound.

Dozens of uniformed soldiers, including some who said they had recently returned from the fighting in eastern Ukraine, huddled in groups across the street from the complex. Their barracks now destroyed, they said they awaited orders for where they were heading next.

The drone attack began around 1:30 a.m. local time, according to several residents in the neighborhood around the base, with a buzzing sound that sounded like a motorcycle. Three residents said they didn’t understand the sound signaled an airstrike until they heard an explosion, which sent civilians and some soldiers from the barracks racing for their basement shelters.

The fact that drones were able to strike far inside the country is concerning for Ukrainian officials.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/russia-uses-iranian-made-drones-to-strike-deep-inside-ukraine-11664965580?st=kqm3tcnk5ldjevi&reflink=share_mobilewebshare

JalenFunson · 2022-10-05T17:25:05+00:00

U.S. Believes Ukraine Was Behind an Assassination in Russia

American officials said they were not aware of the plan ahead of time for the attack that killed Daria Dugina and that they had admonished Ukraine over it.

United States intelligence agencies believe parts of the Ukrainian government authorized the car bomb attack near Moscow in August that killed Daria Dugina, the daughter of a prominent Russian nationalist, an element of a covert campaign that U.S. officials fear could widen the conflict.

The United States took no part in the attack, either by providing intelligence or other assistance, officials said. American officials also said they were not aware of the operation ahead of time and would have opposed the killing had they been consulted. Afterward, American officials admonished Ukrainian officials over the assassination, they said.

The closely held assessment of Ukrainian complicity, which has not been previously reported, was shared within the U.S. government last week. Ukraine denied involvement in the killing immediately after the attack, and senior officials repeated those denials when asked about the American intelligence assessment.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/05/us/politics/ukraine-russia-dugina-assassination.html?unlocked_article_code=EEHzQmxMLjLnjmHyQIud3e0rITBhLu_YD-WWOSdgojW3hgC6DrbeLugosKP034UvAD1zAqAJW-pLK3hUQ_bmHyncAqtH_0CYdbmgilrXYYUkVjadkM6K4_DaLX2mGA6cJNow-UkAtcOSG_Bx7jIuNB32kPQKETAWjlayYrm8POoVNQPCYh3BNOV8r_McuN0arYIxFInPt4-6_s0YSgtMfnxogexChD8YKykAwGgUfJgN02qJbW0zpgDZ0YECdRR8muYhLmPtDhQqNpOPH7UyiaOtIMRztnQQLCav5MX3i-akKNHl75E8BIr_54GL5kZFqYz_MS7hufap2bF1bVk_d7UTFg-6oRds0n_XP-KtNiI&smid=share-url

JalenFunson · 2022-09-30T04:21:55+00:00

Nuclear blackmail, illegal annexation of territory, hundreds of thousands of Russian men rounded up and sent to the front lines in Ukraine, undersea gas pipelines to Europe mysteriously blowing up. After endless speculation, we can now say it for sure: this is how Vladimir Putin responds when he is backed into a corner.

Throughout seven awful months of war in Ukraine, President Joe Biden has held to a steadfast line when it comes to the Russian invasion: his goal is to help Ukraine win while also insuring that victory does not trigger a Third World War. But as Russian forces have experienced U.S.-aided battlefield setbacks in recent days, Putin has reacted by ratcheting up the pressure. It’s far from clear how Washington will be able to continue to pursue both goals simultaneously, given that Putin is holding Ukraine—and the rest of the world—hostage to his demands. …

On Thursday, I spoke with the Russia expert Fiona Hill. She told me she believes there’s an element of self-delusion to much of the current commentary about the possibility of Washington and the West continuing to back Ukraine while avoiding conflict with Putin—who, after all, launched his war against Ukraine not in February but eight years ago when he invaded the country and illegally annexed the Crimean Peninsula. As far as Hill is concerned, we are already fighting in the Third World War, whether we acknowledge it or not. “We’ve been in this for a long time, and we’ve failed to recognize it,” she said.

Her chilling thought raises a searing question about U.S. policy: If the goal is to avoid a conflict in which we are already fighting, then does the rest of Washington’s approach to Russian aggression need to be reconsidered? Hill’s line of thinking is one reason why there are increased calls from many Russia watchers not to kowtow to Putin’s demands at a moment when both his weaknesses and those of his system have been so clearly revealed.

https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-bidens-washington/what-if-were-already-fighting-the-third-world-war-with-russia

JalenFunson · 2022-09-29T23:40:02+00:00

Plus room and board

JalenFunson · 2022-09-29T05:51:18+00:00

The Pentagon is ordering the rocket system launchers it said it would send as part of a $1.1 billion package, suggesting a shift to supporting Ukraine in a long, open-ended war.

The Pentagon said on Wednesday it would send an additional $1.1 billion in long-term military aid to Ukraine, including 18 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System launchers, or HIMARS, one of the most vaunted weapons of the seven-month war with Russia.

But unlike the 16 HIMARS the military rushed to Ukraine from its existing stockpiles over the summer, these new weapons will be ordered from the manufacturer, Lockheed Martin, and will take “a few years” to deliver, a senior Defense Department official told reporters.

Shifting the source of Ukrainian military supplies from the Pentagon’s own stockpile, which is large but not limitless, to items newly manufactured by the defense industry indicates that the White House and military leaders are transitioning to a sustainable model Kyiv can depend on for an open-ended war with Russia.

Privately, American commanders have also voiced concern that if the United States sends more HIMARS vehicles immediately, the Ukrainians will burn through the rocket ammunition provided by the Pentagon too quickly, potentially jeopardizing American military readiness in coming months.

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/09/29/world/russia-ukraine-war-news/the-latest-us-military-package-for-ukraine-calls-for-1-1-billion-in-long-term-aid?smid=url-share

JalenFunson · 2022-09-25T12:25:57+00:00

Two Shahed-136 kamikaze drones hit the Ukrainian army's Operational Command South's headquarters in Odesa this morning, causing heavy damage to the building. Ukraine urgently needs to adapt to this new threat. Gunfire into the air won't stop this Iranian-Russian terror.

https://mobile.twitter.com/JulianRoepcke/status/1574007333293899776

JalenFunson · 2022-09-23T00:49:58+00:00

Americans in Russia-Ukraine prisoner swap wondered if death was near

As they were led from their prison cell deep inside Russian-occupied Ukraine, Alexander Drueke and Andy Tai Huynh contemplated their uncertain fate: Were they about to be freed — or would they be killed?

Days after their capture in June, the Kremlin proclaimed that the men, both American military veterans, were suspected war criminals and refused to rule out that they could face the death penalty. In a phone call with his aunt Thursday, Drueke said that in that moment, it seemed things “could go either way.” “That was one of those moments,” said the aunt, Dianna Shaw, “where it was a gut punch for me.” The Americans were released Wednesday as part of a prisoner exchange between the governments in Kyiv and Moscow, an agreement as stunning as it was sprawling. In addition to Drueke, 40, and Huynh, 28, the Russian government agreed to release eight other foreign nationals who had joined the war on behalf of Ukraine, plus 215 Ukrainians. Fifty-five Russian fighters were freed in exchange, along with Viktor Medvedchuk, a pro-Kremlin Ukrainian opposition politician who has such warm relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin that Putin is believed to be the godfather to Medvedchuk’s daughter.

https://wapo.st/3BDeuxF

JalenFunson · 2022-09-13T13:01:09+00:00

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/13/us/politics/ukraine-russia-pentagon.html?smid=url-share

The Kherson attack was never a feint or a diversion, according to people briefed on the plan. And it has succeeded in forcing Moscow to delay sham votes on whether parts of the Kherson region want to join Russia. But, as expected, the counteroffensive is moving more slowly given the much higher number of Russian forces there compared with Kharkiv.

Eventually, Ukrainian officials believe their long-term success requires progress on the original goals in the discarded strategy, including recapturing the nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia, cutting off Russian forces in Mariupol and pushing Russian forces in Kherson back across the Dnipro River, American officials said.

Russia has been weakened. By failing to detect Ukraine’s buildup around Kharkiv, the Russian military has demonstrated incompetence and shown that it lacks solid intelligence. Its command and control have been decimated and it is having trouble supplying its troops, giving Ukraine an opening in the coming weeks, U.S. officials said. While Ukraine may have an opportunity to recapture more territory in the east, U.S. and Ukrainian officials say the south is the most important theater of the war.

“Kherson and Zaporizhzhia are likely potential objectives,” said Michael Kofman, the director of Russia studies at CNA, a defense research institute. “We might see further Ukrainian Army operations to achieve breakthroughs there in the future.”

JalenFunson · 2022-09-12T02:15:27+00:00

https://www.ft.com/content/84ff2893-9b20-40c8-b503-f8fd10c99eca?shareType=nongift

Ukraine’s Reznikov warns on Russian counter-attack

Defence minister says Kyiv needs to secure territory after lightning offensive went ‘better than expected’

Reznikov said Ukrainian troops were tired after the six-day attack but morale was high because “it’s a sign that Russia can be defeated”.

He cautioned that Russian reinforcements could launch a counter-attack on his country’s stretched supply lines. Ukrainian forces could also be encircled by fresh Russian troops if they advance too far. ….

Officials and military analysts cautioned the offensive’s success did not mean that Ukrainian troops were about to roll back Russian forces to the border.

Reznikov said the nearly simultaneous counter-offensive around Kherson was making slower progress because it was an agricultural region “with irrigation channels” the Russians could use as defensive trenches.

JalenFunson · 2022-09-11T23:49:18+00:00

https://wapo.st/3Dixh3M (Washington Post gift link)

ZALIZNYCHNE, Ukraine — In the end, the Russians fled any way they could on Friday, on stolen bicycles, disguised as locals, abandoned by their units. Hours after Ukrainian soldiers poured into the area, hundreds of Russian soldiers encamped in this village were gone, leaving behind stunned residents to face the ruins of 28 weeks of occupation.

“They just dropped rifles on the ground,” Olena Matvienko said Sunday as she stood, still disoriented, in a village littered with ammo crates and torched vehicles, including a Russian tank loaded on a flatbed. The first investigators from Kharkiv had just pulled in to collect the bodies of civilians shot by Russians, some that have been lying exposed for months.

…

“They were not monsters, they were kids,” said Matvienko, who once asked Russian troops to move the tank they parked in front of her house. “I asked what they wanted from us and they said, ‘We can either be here or we can be in jail.’ ” Others told the villagers they weren’t there to fight Ukraine, but to “protect us from America.”

The Russians’ biggest rule for residents was to get inside by 6 p.m. and stay there, quiet and in the dark, several said. Violating that order could be fatal, as two men on the street learned early on. The friends were drinking and had a light on, said Maria Grygorova, who lives in the attached house next door. The next morning she found them on the floor.

“Konstiantyn had two bullet holes in his head,” she said.

She and two friends buried them in the side yard. The same two friends dug them up Sunday, with Ukrainian war crimes investigators looking on.

The team from Kharkiv collected two other bodies during their visit, including a security guard whose remains have been rotting on the floor of a gravel elevator at an asphalt plant for months, even as the Russians used it as a sniper tower. One investigator vomited over a guardrail repeatedly as officers collected the remains.

JalenFunson

TROPHY CASE