Russia, Russia, Russia Again

Stalin Redux: As Presidents Days go yesterday was fairly dreadful.  Vladimir Putin went ahead and started his much anticipated invasion of Ukraine.  For now he has “only” recognized the independence of Donetsk and Luhansk, eastern regions of Ukraine with large Russian separatist populations that he is now referring to as People’s Republics.  He’s sent in troops to “protect” them from the Ukrainian forces he claims are attacking them but aren’t.  It’s clear that this is only his starting point.  We know that because he’s not hiding his intention as he also delivered a speech in which he questioned Ukraine’s right to exist as an independent nation saying everyone, at least everyone he listens to, to the extent the COVID isolated Stalinesque autocrat listens to anyone, believes that all of Ukraine rightfully belongs to Russia. Putin’s long game is to return Eastern Europe to where it was before the break-up of the Soviet Union and the loss of its sphere of influence, Ukraine is just his latest move, and a big one at that. In response, President Biden who had cancelled plans to go to Delaware for the weekend to meet with his security advisors imposed a few new sanctions last night with more expected today. Still it’s not clear how effective those sanctions will be and how far he and our allies will go especially since some of them are spooked about losing access to Russian gas. Kudos to Germany who this morning took steps to halt the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline, that’s big and won’t make Putin happy .  And of course the blame game has begun. Though many on both sides of the aisle have praised President Biden’s intense attempts to find a diplomatic solution and some at Fox get that Putin’s aggressive behavior is a threat to democracy and the post-World War II world order, a number on the right are saying that Putin’s predatory actions are Biden’s fault because that’s what they do.  Apparently they’ve conveniently forgotten that the Former Guy wanted out of NATO, wanted to reduce US forces in Europe, hid and possibly destroyed the translations of his private calls and meetings with Putin and tried to hold Ukraine hostage to get dirt on Hunter Biden. We’re in for a bumpy ride which will include shaky markets, more inflation, and higher energy costs but Ukraine faces far worse  like large battle field losses, jailing and torturing of “dissidents” as in anyone  who is not pro-Putin and years of oppression and dictatorship which isn’t to say that Putin is going to have an easy time of it, though he can beat the Ukrainians on the battle field he probably can’t win over their hearts and minds.  

Not so Grand:  While the Ukraine situation was the big story of the day, the GOP, no longer a serious party and far from grand, celebrated Presidents Day with a tweet that showed a collage of images of past Republican presidents including Lincoln, Nixon(!) and the Former Guy, wishing them a happy Presidents Day. The tweet also included a masked photo of Biden with the words “NOT YOU” in red under his picture.  As to the Former Guy, his new Truth Social “twitter” copycat platform launched in the Apple App store.  The launch process was full of bugs, it doesn’t appear that the platform is ready for use but signing up does send your personal data to the FG for his fundraising purposes. One time Congressman, current CEO of the Truth Social company Devin Nunes says no worry, he’ll have the platform working by the end of March assuming he hasn’t been fired by them as in addition to wonky technology the company’s new logo appears to infringe on one already in use by a British company which is now looking at its legal options.  In other FG news, on Friday US District Court Judge Amit Mehta rejected the FG’s claim that he has “absolute immunity” from legal liability for inciting the January 6 riot because his public statements contesting the election fell within his presidential responsibilities.  The Judge found the FG’s legal argument “misleading and wrong as a matter of law,” ruling there was sufficient evidence that his speech at a rally prior to the attack could constitute a “plausible conspiracy,” meaning that cases against him and some of his cohorts can move forward. It’s hard to know if any of these cases will ultimately knock the FG out of action, but his legal bills are definitely growing, or at least those paying his bills like the RNC are taking a hit.

The Peanut Gallery: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis who is seen as the heir apparent to the Republican nomination for the presidency if the Former Guy should decide not to run in 2024 is going all in on the culture wars.  He has thrown his support behind what is being called the “don’t say gay” bill which among other things bans teachers from encouraging conversations about LGBTQ topics in the classroom and would also require that schools alert parents if their kids are gay.  What’s next, state sponsored conversion therapy and higher suicide rates?  Of course it’s not just Florida, in Michigan three Republican men seeking their party’s nomination to run for State Attorney General questioned the 1965 landmark Griswold v Connecticut decision that stuck down Connecticut’s ban on the sale of contraception.  By establishing the right to privacy, Griswold paved the way for Roe v Wade.  The three Republican candidates indicated that they thought that the Griswold case was wrongly decided and trampled on states’ rights.  We’ve gotten used to the attack on Roe and abortion rights, but contraception, yikes.  In other koo koo for cocoa puff news, right wing pundit Candace Owens wants us to forget about Russia and that whole Ukraine thing because in her  view we should be preparing to attack Canada, something about Justin Trudeau “Castro” and his “oppression” of those unvaccinated truckers. Owens has a book coming out about the dangers of vaccines, of course she does.  In Wisconsin, Republicans are still fighting over the last election with an “increasingly vocal” segment of the party getting behind a scheme to decertify the results of the 2020 election to reinstall the FG. And remember Tulsi Gabbard, the former Democratic Congresswoman from Hawaii who ran for president.  She’s still around and has just been added to the speakers list for the upcoming CPAC convention.

Viral Musings:  The 7 day average of cases in the US is at 85K, with deaths finally under 2000.  Masks keep coming off but the even more contagious BA 2 subvariant’s predominance is growing so use caution in crowds and indoor areas particularly in higher COVID areas.  Britain’s Boris Johnson says that the pandemic is over but apparently the COVID positive Queen who has now cancelled her online engagements due to her “mild” symptoms which probably aren’t all that mild since she’s 95 and hasn’t been in the best of health lately didn’t get that message. By the way, remember when the real experts said that ivermectin also known as horse paste was useless at curing or preventing COVID, the studies are out and yes it is useless.