1. Dirty

Charlie took Pramila Jayapal to the woodshed already for the progressives’ irresponsible piece of wool-headed grandstanding, so I don’t want to belabor the point, except to say that Putin understands that his best path to victory is severing Ukraine’s ties to the West. Rob Lee has this exactly correct:

Rob Lee @RALee85

As long as Kyiv continues to receive enough ammunition, Russia will not achieve serious gains on the battlefield. Consequently, Russia's strategy is focused on deterring further aid from the US/NATO. This letter will likely reinforce Moscow's view that it has the right strategy.

🕷Dante Atkins🕷 @DanteAtkins

2/x far from shortening the war, I view it as a certainty that this letter will make its way to Russian state media within the next day or two as evidence of fracturing solidarity among politicians in Biden's own party for his support of Ukraine.

1:39 AM ∙ Oct 25, 2022

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The real news from Ukraine is that Putin seems to be considering the use of a dirty bomb.

How do we know this? Because Moscow is saying that the Ukrainians are about to detonate a dirty bomb:

The top diplomats in France, Britain and the United States, three of Ukraine’s strongest allies, issued a rare joint statement that rejected Russia’s allegation that Kyiv is preparing to use a so-called dirty bomb on its own territory, calling it a pretext Moscow has concocted for escalating the war.

And this wasn’t a one-off threat. The Russians are carefully running the “Ukraine is