PAY CASH: Credit Card Companies Will Now Categorize Gun Store Sales Separately.

MATT MARGOLIS: 9/11 and Biden’s Destruction of America’s Soul. “America no longer stands united. We are two different countries repeatedly proving we can’t coexist peacefully.”

HMM: Five Local Deputies Arrested After Proposing Putin Be Arrested on Treason Charges.

MATT MARGOLIS: If This Is True, Democrats Are in Real Trouble for Years to Come. “Democrats’ virtual monopoly on the minority vote is collapsing.”

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY (RUSSIA EDITION): Russia Routed in Kharkiv Counteroffensive. “Kyiv was somehow able to achieve operational-level surprise, sucker-punching Russia in the north (and even the east) while feinting to the south. The historical masters of deception were completely deceived. Books will be written about how Ukraine managed to pull that off.”

P.S. I told you that missiles hadn’t made tanks obsolete.

PUTIN’S WAR: In Major Advance, Ukraine Drives Russians Out of Key Eastern City.

Ukrainian forces seized most of a strategically vital city in northeastern Ukraine on Saturday, cutting the main supply line to thousands of Russian troops near the eastern city of Izyum and marking the biggest strategic gain Ukraine has made since the start of an offensive this week.

Photos from Russian and Ukrainian channels on Telegram showed Ukrainian soldiers holding the country’s flag in front of the city hall in Kupyansk, and Kremlin-loyal Russian military correspondents said Moscow’s forces had pulled back across the Oskil River to the eastern part of the city.

The Kupyansk rail and road hub located in the western half of the city was the last artery connecting Russia with thousands of troops on territory that represented the bulk of Russia’s gains in May and June. Ukraine’s control of the road network also threatens Russia’s hold on Izyum, a city Moscow had planned to use to launch further attacks on Ukrainian-controlled parts of the Donetsk region in the country’s east.

VodkaPundit readers got a heads-up yesterday on the importance of Kupyansk.

FLORIDA MAN FRIDAY: The Florida Trip, the Georgia Cop, His White Claw, and the Prostitution Sting. “This week we have the worst sword fight ever, the worst Mother Theresa ever, and the unluckiest Colorado fake cop ever.”

UKRAINE WAR: Moscow, We Have a Problem. “Ukraine’s unexpected and rapid advances in the north — as documented by these Russian sources — have engendered a palpable frustration from writers usually known for their pro-Moscow drumbeating.”

FALLOUT: Poland, Baltics Agree EU Visa Ban Plan for Russians.

Poland and the three Baltic states said Thursday they would temporarily restrict access for Russian citizens holding EU visas by Sept. 19 to address “public policy and security threats.”

The prime ministers of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland said in a statement they were concerned “about the substantial and growing influx of Russian citizens” into the EU.

“We believe that this is becoming a serious threat to our public security and to the overall shared Schengen area,” they said.

The statement said the four “agreed on a common regional approach and hereby express their political will and firm intention to introduce national temporary measures for Russian citizens holding visas.”

The measures would “restrict the entry into the Schengen area for Russian citizens traveling for tourism, culture, sport and business purposes.”

Exceptions will be made for various categories, including “dissidents,” “humanitarian cases,” family members and holders of residence permits in EU countries.

Given how the Poles and Balts were treated by Moscow until 1989, I’m surprised this took so long.

STOP THE COVER UP OF THE FRAME-UP: Trump’s Reason for Having Russiagate Docs Makes Sense. Here’s Why.

LIFE MOVES PRETTY FAST. Then: Commercial Investors Are Sucking Up All American Housing! Now: They’re Losing Their Shirts!

SAY ANYTHING: Democrats Are Hoping We Forget They Brought Us Record Levels of Murders, Overdose Deaths, and Teen Suicides.

LAUGHING WOLF CONTINUES HIS NUCLEAR WAR PRIMER WITH Nuclear 201: Policy, SIOP, and Escalation.

It was long the position of the United States that anyone using any type of WMD (CBRNE, MNOPQRS, or whatever) was effectively using a nuke and would be responded to as if they HAD used a nuke. The policy had the desired effect in that it made rogue states (and others) think twice and at least openly avoid using any type of WMD. It also gave the Soviet Union some pause in regards its doctrines calling for the use of various WMD in military operations. That it may also have helped to lead to some treaties limiting biological and other bits of nastiness is a plus in my book.

However, back in the Obama administration we got the famous “red line in the sand” incident involving Syria and Russia. If you are not familiar with what happened, you do need to look it up. From where I sit, it turns out the lines weren’t red and were indeed written in the sand as there was no real response to the (alleged) use of chemical weapons by Syria and/or Russia.

Which does put the Biden administration in a bit of a bind. If Russia uses WMD in the Ukraine, does it hold to the stated policy or, once again, let it slide? If chemical or other, there is undoubtably going to be a LOT of pressure to let it slide. But, what if it is nuclear? My bet is lots of pressures from a lot of different directions, including from Vladimir with his “escalate to de-escalate” idiocy. Given that Biden reportedly told Vladimir well before the invasion of the Ukraine of his terror at the thought of a nuclear exchange, much less a nuclear war, who knows how either will react.

Not a happy-fun read, but an important read.

EVERYTHING IS RACIST: Not Masking Is Now Racist… Because… of Something.

THE FIX IS IN, IN SO MANY WAYS: Snap Let Democratic Campaign Groups Scoop Up GOP Voter Data. “Several prominent Democratic campaign groups accessed Republican voter data as a result of what Snap, the owner of Snapchat, called an unintentional data leak, allowing those groups to optimize midterm ads.”

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Not Gonna Lie, Queen Elizabeth Was Kinda Cool. “Elizabeth’s greatest accomplishment was being more than the mere figurehead that she was supposed to be. I will never understand the Brits, but I do know that she mattered to the many I’ve met. It’s a safe bet that none of the King Olafs floating around in the Scandanavian countries are as important to their people.”

THERE’S OUTSOURCING AND THEN THERE’S STUPID-SELF-DESTRUCTIVE-SOURCING: F-35 Deliveries Halted Over a Chinese Alloy, Pentagon Says.

HMM: Former FBI Agent: A Law Enforcement ‘Shift’ Is Needed to End the Opioid Crisis.

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: ‘I am telling you people that the situation in Europe is much worse than many understand.’

DRAMA QUEEN: AOC Is Afraid She Won’t Live Through September Because You Hate Women.

BLUE CITY BLUES: ‘Soft-touch’ San Francisco leaders now call for ‘IDEAS’ to be given to them within 90 days to end open-air drug markets ‘without anyone going to jail’: Overdose deaths hit 1,700 since 2020 as users run rampant across the city.

San Francisco is willing to try anything to stop crime — except make arrests.

LIVE AT 4PM EASTERN: ‘Five O’Clock Somewhere’ with Kruiser, VodkaPundit, Special Guest Larry O’Connor.

KIRA DAVIS: CA Parents Sue School District After ‘Nonbinary’ Male Counselors Allegedly Slept in Girls’ Cabins at Science Camp.

Reminder: Kira is running for her Orange County school board to put a stop to this stuff.

IT’S GOOD TO BE THE NOMENKLATURA: How a Hochul donor received $637M in state payments. “Digital Gadgets was paid an average of $12.25 per COVID-19 test. Other companies charged no more than $7.80, and some were paid $5.”

MATT MARGOLIS: Barack Obama’s Official White House Portrait Is the Perfect Metaphor for His Narcissism. “Pretty much the only thing this bland portrait accomplishes is that it makes the weird Smithsonian portrait look better by comparison.”

Well, I wouldn’t go that far.

Obama and Homer…#obamaportrait #BarackObama #HomerSimpson #TheSimpsons pic.twitter.com/XIMbmzl7JP

— Joel Contreras (@Contreras68Joel) February 13, 2018