7 Hours 37 Minutes 🌻🌻🌻

Burners:  War or not, the Former Guy has his priorities so, taking a page from the #ButHerEmails playbook that worked so well for him in 2016, during an interview with discredited far right journalist John Solomon he called for Putin to release everything he has, or can fabricate, about alleged dealings between Eastern European oligarchs and President Biden’s son Hunter. Vlad’s a bit busy these days with other things but it’s probably not a coincidence that Russian TV host Evgeny Popov spent some time during one of his state sponsored broadcasts calling for a change to “the regime in the US” before Biden’s term expires to again help “our partner Trump to become president.” Given Biden’s recent remarks, the regime comment wasn’t all that surprising but calling the FG “our partner” that’s saying the quiet part out loud.  Dredging up over the top Hunter allegations is something the FG and his echo chamber do when they’re seeking distraction from news they don’t like and there has been quite a bit of that lately starting with the decision by California federal judge David Carter that John Eastman, one of the more prominent “stop the steal” lawyers, has to turn over almost all of the documents that the January 6^th committee wants.  In that decision, Judge Carter said that it was more likely than not that the FG had “corruptly attempted to obstruct the Joint Session of Congress on January 6, 2021.” Calling the “illegality” of the FG’s plan “obvious,” Carter went on to write that the US was founded on the peaceful transition of power and that the FG ignored that history by “vigorously” campaigning for VP Pence to “single-handedly determine the results of the 2020 election,” adding that “in a democracy, leaders are elected, not installed.”  Eastman’s emails are far from the only thing about January 6^th that the FG and his abettors are hiding, or at the very least trying to hide.  Yesterday we also learned from the Washington Post and CBS News that the White House phone logs shared with the January 6^h committee show a gap of seven hours and 37 minutes, including the period when the Capitol was under assault. That gap, which makes Nixon’s 18.5 minute tape erasure look like child’s play, is obviously suspicious since quite a few Republican members of Congress have reported speaking to the FG during the height of the insurrection. It’s not a stretch to assume that the FG either borrowed an aide or two’s phones and/or was using a burner phone or two.  He more or less confirmed that he was using a burner phone by denying he even knew they existed, an assertion that former national security advisor John Bolton said was completely false as the two discussed the use of burner phones several times back when he worked in the White House.  Moreover the FG accused his niece Mary Trump of using a burner phone to communicate with her lawyers when he sued her for disclosing the terms of her inheritance agreement.  If we’ve learned anything by now, it’s that the FG lies most vociferously when he’s got something to hide.  Sadly we’ve also learned that he gets away with almost everything and may well get away with hiding his calls and attempting to steal the election. 

Drugs and Orgies:  On the topic of bad behavior North Carolina Congressman Madison Cawthorn may finally have crossed the line, not over his multiple reckless driving citations, his refusal to condemn Nazis and other white supremacists, or over his calling Ukraine President Zelenskyy a thug, but because of his assertion that his fellow lawmakers have invited him to take part in orgies in Washington and snorted lines of cocaine right in front of him.  Calling his fellow Republican lawmakers drug addled sexual perverts had to be about Republicans because no Democrat would invite him to one of their parties.  He really rubbed a few of those Republicans especially some members of his Freedom Caucus the wrong way so much so that a number of them are now demanding that, if true, he should name names or better yet that Kevin McCarthy do something to shut him up.  Kevin insists that he’ll call Cawthorn in and give him one of those stern lectures that he’s so good at, like the one he claims he’s given Margie Q.  Cawthorn’s assertions may or may not be true, but one thing’s for certain, Texas Senator Ted Cruz’s is probably not involved, not because he’s so innocent but because no one would invite him to a party.  That said, Cruz is taking some heat this week too as the Washington Post reports that he was deeply into the attempt to undo the election results, that he “crafted a plan” to get the Senate to object to the results in six swing states so that the electoral college results could be delayed indefinitely.  Cruz’s motivations were as much about helping the FG stay in power as they were about getting out ahead of Missouri Senator “Fist in the Air” Hawley who he feared might overtake him in the race to become the Republican’s next presidential candidate.  It’s not clear when the increasingly overwhelmed January 6^th committee will release its report and hold public hearings but they remain active.  They’ve voted to hold former White House communications aide/golf caddy Dan Scavino and former trade official Peter Navarro in contempt for even refusing to show up to plead the fifth, their recommendation next goes to the House floor for a vote. Navarro’s multiple appearances on Ari Melber’s MSNBC evening show, where he talked about many of the crimes he claims are protected by executive privilege were cited as part of the evidence against him. It’s not clear that Jared Kushner will tell the January 6^th committee anything, he was conveniently out of the country doing his Middle East peace thing during the insurrection, but he is expected to show up for an interview this week.  Perhaps, the Committee will ask him about any conversations with Ginni Thomas.  Though neither she nor her husband Justice Clarence have been called in, at least so far, Ginni’s name is being floated as a possibility while an increasing number of House and Senate members, all Democrats of course, are pushing for Clarence to at the very least recuse himself on all cases related to January 6^th.  On the subject of Supreme Court Justices,  Senators Susan Collins and Mitt Romney have met with Justice Ketanji Jackson, like Ben Sasse both say she’s super nice and supremely qualified, but neither have yet said how they’ll vote on her confirmation. Mitt did release some pictures of him standing and smiling with her, so now he can vote no, using them as proof that he’s so fair minded.   

Viral Musings:  The highly contagious Omicron BA 2 now dominates in the US and appears to be making inroads in NY and California where COVID positivity levels have started inching up, a harbinger of things to come elsewhere in the country.  That said, at least so far the expectation or maybe just the hope is that BA 2 won’t be as problematic mostly because so many people had the original Omicron.  Infectious disease expert Dr. Michael Osterholm says that we are back to the “familiar uncertainty” that has marked most of this pandemic.  Concerns about BA 2 may have driven the FDA’s decision to approve a second Pfizer or Moderna booster for those over 50 who are four months out from their last shot as well as for other immune compromised individuals.  They report that in making their decision which was based on data out of Israel that they determined that the known and potential benefits of second boosters outweigh the known and potential risks for those now qualified for the shot.  Big dilemma now is do you get the second booster now or wait it out in the hopes that a more tailored shot will become available later in the year. Dr Bob Wachter, Chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of California San Francisco, another one of the frequently cited experts says he plans to get the booster. He adds that he’s 64 and pretty healthy "but the evidence is clear that six months out from my first booster shot, the effectiveness of that booster has waned considerably."  Thoughts everyone?

 GI Jane?!?!  🌻🌻🌻

Slap Downs:  Full disclosure, I didn’t see any of the movies that were up for Oscars, but I watched the ceremony anyway to see and hear the nominated songs performed.  Shout out to Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas O’Connell for their winning Bond song.  I am assuming by now you know that the most ridiculous moment of the evening wasn’t Amy Schumer aloft in a Spiderman suit but was Will Smith slapping and cursing out presenter Chris Rock.  I’ll leave it to you to figure out what that was about, check out either Australian or UK TV to see an unbleeped version, but will instead repeat a comment I saw from Philadelphia Congressman Brendan Boyle on Twitter who said: “Well, now you know why we had to get him out of Philly to go live with his aunt and uncle in Bel Air.”  Violence is never good, and Smith’s took away from his Oscar win.  On the topic of violence, over the weekend things continued to deteriorate in Ukraine because even if the Ukrainians are doing better than expected better is relative when people are dying or being turned into refugees. President Biden finished up his trip to Europe where he met with President Duda of Poland and warmly embraced refugees while also hobnobbing and eating with some American soldiers.  He gave a great speech, one that belongs right there with Ronald Reagan’s “Mr. Gorbachev tear down this wall,”  but then threw in an unscripted remark at the end that causes a major kerfuffle, saying what a lot of us are thinking that “Putin cannot remain in power.” By the way, it turns out that Reagan’s “tear down this wall” was also unscripted.  The White House almost immediately walked Biden’s comment back, saying that he wasn’t pushing for regime change, though let’s be honest, everyone kind of would love to see regime change. The press went bonkers and just about every Republican politician hammered Biden for saying what they’re thinking.  Mean time alternative universe occupier, the Former Guy, you know, the one-time real estate investor who probably still hopes to build a tower in Moscow insists that Ukraine “would never have happened” had the election not been stolen from him, adding something about how NATO wasn’t worth much but he would have snapped his fingers and gotten in back in place even if he had already walked from the coalition, something that John Bolton said he planned to do at the beginning of his second term.   The FG made those remarks while speaking in Georgia at a not very well attended rally in support of Senate candidate/former football player Hershel Walker and one time Senator David Perdue who is primarying Republican Governor Brian Kemp who the FG once liked but now hates because he refused to overturn the 2020 election.  Recognizing that standing firm with the FG on election fraud is a must to keep his endorsement, Perdue is now asserting that his loss to Senator Ossoff was also due to the big steal.  Of course, since it was Georgia, Margie Q was also in attendance, spouting some bigoted and ignorant stuff, this time about the need to prevent Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and his husband from using women’s bathrooms. Also, all Republicans see no problem in Clarence Thomas ruling on election related cases despite his wife’s insurrectionist behavior but that quite a few more including Senator Ben Sasse can’t find their way to voting for Judge Jackson because of course.     

Viral Musings:  Karine Jean-Pierre who subbed for Press Secretary Jen Psaki after she had to cancel her plans to join Biden’s travel entourage over her COVID positive test, has now tested positive.  Secretary of State Blinken who as least so far has not tested positive, is now avoiding people because an official he came in contact with on his follow up stop to Israel has tested positive.  The party line is that since Biden was not considered one of Jean-Pierre’s close contacts and Blinken’s encounter happened after he left Biden’s side, the President is in the clear.  That’s nice, but anyone watching TV this weekend knows that Biden had plenty of opportunity to have made his own contact.   Maybe the WH doctors have him on IV antibodies, or some other wonder drug? Oy. As to the rest of us, the NY Times reports that the FDA is expected to authorize a fourth shot this week.  The shot will be made available to those over 50 who are four months out from their booster. However, the FDA and CDC aren’t going to give a formal recommendation, instead they are going to leave it up to individuals to make their own decisions. By the way, since the votes weren’t there, no additional COVID money was included in the recently passed funding package.  The government is running out of COVID funds which could impact the availability and cost of things like shots, tests and anti-virals.                  

 

Oh Virginia 🌻🌻🌻

Batsh-t Crazy:  I wasn’t planning to write today but then Bob Woodward and Bob Costa, the media’s newest investigatory duo, dropped a bombshell revealing some of the rather incriminating texts that Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, spouse of the still hospitalized Justice Clarence Thomas, exchanged with the Former Guy’s last Chief of Staff Mark Meadows after the 2020 election.  We’ve known for sometime that Ginni’s political views fall somewhere between right wing fanatic and full on Q and that Meadows speaks out of both sides of his mouth, but still their text convo is both stunning and alarming, assuming of course that you find pushing coups, insurrections and the overturning of legitimate elections something to be concerned about. Among other things,  Ginni told Meadows to “stand firm” to stop “Biden and the Left” who she asserted were “attempting the greatest Heist of our History.” She pushed Meadows to “release the kraken” by putting  the demonstrably nutzoid lawyer Sidney Powell in charge of the legal effort to overturn the election results.  In addition she cited some crazy Q originated theory, something to do with ballots and watermarks as part of the “proof” that the election had been stolen. And then there’s the part where she called for Biden, his abettors and his family to be arrested and sent to GITMO.  Meadows did nothing to dissuade her, in fact he agreed with her assertions, supported her efforts and invoked Jesus to justify the need to keep the FG in power. In all, Woodward and Costa reviewed 29 texts, but there are probably more as those are only the ones that the January 6^th Committee obtained from Meadows before he stopped cooperating with their investigation.  There’s little doubt that Ginni had a lot more to say, was deeply involved in the efforts to overturn the election and that the Meadows texts represent just the tip of her communication ice berg.  To that end Woodward and Costa also mention that she reached out to son in law Jared but they don’t have any information about how or even if he responded. Remember how the FG kept saying that “his” Supreme Court would overturn the election if only he could get his cases heard there. Could Ginni have been whispering that in his or Meadows’ ear.  Also, worth noting, Clarence, who hasn’t but should be recusing himself from decisions concerning January 6^th was the only justice to dissent from the SCOTUS decision that refused to block the release of the FG’s January 6^th related documents.  While that decision didn’t lead to the Meadows texts getting into the hands of the January 6^th committees, they’d already received them directly from Meadows, it’s not a stretch to believe that Clarence remains concerned that there is more that could further implicate his wife.  That said, anyone who thinks that he’ll recuse himself from further decisions, step down, or is just hiding out in the hospital until the smoke clears is delusional.  I’d like to be wrong about that step down and recusal part, but I am probably not.  By the way, during her hearings Judge Ketanji Jackson said that she’d recuse herself from the Harvard affirmative action case not that taking the high road matters to Mitch McConnell, Ted Cruz, or Josh Hawley, all of whom have already gone on the record saying that they absolutely won’t vote for her to be confirmed.  Not surprising, but what may be is that Republican Senator John Thune, who isn’t expected to vote for Jackson, expects that she could get as many as three Republican votes.  Or not.

Also:  Republican Congressman Jeff Fortenberry of California was found guilty yesterday of three felony counts for concealing information and making false statements to federal authorities in regard to an investigation looking into illegal campaign contributions in his 2016 reelection campaign.  As of this morning he was still running for reelection but maybe that’s about to change or not.  On a more positive note the Republican Governors of Utah and Indiana both decided to veto bills banning transgender girls from participating in school sports.  Utah’s Governor Cox explained his veto by saying that he’s “not an expert on transgenderism.  I struggle to understand so much of it and the science is conflicting.  When in doubt however, I always try to err on the side of kindness, mercy and compassion.”  He also pointed out that there are only four transgender students playing high school sports in his state and that only one of them is a girl, making it clear that the ban is a solution looking for a problem that, unlike high suicide rates among transgender youth, isn’t there.    

 

Jackassery 🌻🌻🌻🌻

Supremes:  Nebraska Republican Ben Sasse accurately described the absurd, hate filled, performative crap emanating from his Senate colleagues during Judge Ketanji Jackson’s Senate Judiciary hearing as jackassery, as in behavior encouraged by the presence of cameras and the desire to generate media soundbites, for a future presidential run perhaps? Though Sasses’ description is spot on, he doesn’t deserve too much credit because though his style is more civil, in all likelihood he, like all the other Republicans on the Judiciary Committee and most if not all of the other Republicans in the Senate are likely to vote against confirming Judge Ketanji Jackson to the Supreme Court.  At one point it was thought that Lindsey Graham who voted for Jackson’s earlier confirmation to the Appeals Court would support her but given the thoroughly rude and obnoxious behavior he has demonstrated during the past two days, that’s no longer expected.  As a result it’s quite possible the committee which is made up of an equal number of Democrats and Republicans will be deadlocked, not great but in the past that wasn’t a problem, notably the still hospitalized Clarence Thomas’s nomination made it to the floor of the Senate for a confirmation vote without gaining majority support from the committee. Then again, who knows, precedent doesn’t appear to be a thing with this crowd of Republicans, they could decide to go nuclear, not that we should be using that word lightly these days.

Cory Booker’s Star:  As to Judge Jackson, she really is eminently qualified but you wouldn’t know it from the slime being tossed her way by a lot of Senators like Cruz, Hawley and Kennedy who are smart enough to know better and a few like Blackburn who aren’t.  They’ve asked her about her religion and her religiosity, questioned her “too light” sentencing of child porn possessors even though according to a letter from several conservative judges her sentencing was within the norm, and have suggested, with no evidence of course, that because she hasn’t condemned their bugaboo de jure, critical race theory, she believes babies are born racist.  Graham has also whined repeatedly that it’s not fair that his choice, Judge Michelle Childs of South Carolina wasn’t nominated instead, odd and childish, but then again that’s how Graham rolls these days. Some shout outs to the Democrats:  Senator Cory Booker used his time to celebrated Judge Jackson’s precedent setting nomination, Patrick Leahy called out Graham’s brutal behavior and Jon Ossoff once again demonstrated that though he’s a young newbie he’s one to watch. As to Mitch McConnell, the minority leader is not on the committee but he’s now moved from falsely claiming that he would fairly evaluate Jackson to criticizing her inadequate performance, his way of signaling to his crowd that he’s all in with their atrocious behavior and that he would really like them to vote against her confirmation.  Indiana’s Senator Mike Braun isn’t on the Judiciary Committee either but that hasn’t stopped him from saying some of the quiet part out loud.  Earlier this week  Braun said that the Supreme Court had made a mistake with its 1967 Loving v Virginia decision that legalized interracial marriage, because in his view decisions on who people can marry, like decisions about reproductive rights should remain with the states rather than the federal government. Braun then tried to retract his statement, but as nuts as it seemed, it’s scarily in line with what a lot of his other colleagues believe, after all Tennessee’s Blackburn is on record questioning the 1965 Griswold v Connecticut decision, that ruled that said that birth control was okay because the use of contraception is a private matter. Anti-abortion advocates hate Griswold because it provided some of the basis for the Roe v Wade decision.  And a lot of Braun’s like-minded friends also hate Obergefell v Hodges, the narrowly decided ruling that legalized same-sex marriage, another right that the conservative set would like to see sent back to the states.

Politics as Usual: The Former Guy rescinded his endorsement of Congressman Mo Brooks who is running to become the Republican candidate to fill the seat being vacated by retiring Alabama Senator Richard Shelby.  The FG called Brooks “woke” for suggesting he move past his complaints about the 2020 election.  Woke is hardly the word that most would use to describe the right wing Brooks who participated in the January 6^th festivities donned in protective combat gear.  Brooks retaliated by revealing that the FG  had pressed him to work to illegally remove President Biden from office and hold a new presidential election, moves that are both unconstitutional.  Memo to the January 6^th Committee and AG Merrick Garland, this seems like something you’d be interested in pursuing.  In other legal news, NY Times published the resignation letter that respected prosecutor Mark Pomerantz sent Manhattan District Attorney’s Office when he quit  over frustration with DA Alvin Bragg’s decision not to pursue charges against the FG.  In the letter Pomerantz said that he believed that the FG “was guilty of numerous felony violations” and that it was a “grave failure of justice” not to hold him accountable.  Speaking of guilty but getting away with it types, Paul Manafort tried to go to Dubai, the place where many Russian oligarchs can be found these days but was foiled because his passport had been cancelled.  Unfortunately, now that he’s pardoned he is entitled to a new passport and who doesn’t believe he’ll spend the money to expedite one.  As to oligarchs, it turns out that the reason that the US hasn’t sanctioned Roman Abramovich yet, is because Ukraine’s Zelenskyy asked Biden to hold off as Abramovich has been trying to serve as an intermediary between Zelenskyy and Putin.  Biden has however kind of sanctioned  Senate wannabees Mehmet Oz and Hershel Walker.  Last night he asked both to resign from the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness & Nutrition, appointments that both received in the waning days of the FG’s administration. The charming Oz responded by saying “Clearly, Joe Biden can’t be around anyone who doesn’t completely fall in line with his fear-mongering authoritarian one-size-fits-all COVID handling. I am proud of my service and will not resign.”  No matter, he’ll be off and probably won’t become a Senator either.

Ukraine: War sucks. Though he lost one of his ships overnight to a missile attack and two more are on fire, Putin is still doing his massively destructive thing.  The unhappy vile one is very pissed with a number of his senior advisors and to put it mildly it’s not a good thing when Putin decides to sideline you.  One of those advisors, General Anatoly Chubais resigned of his own volition and has left Russia altogether reportedly to protest the war. He’d be wise to stay away from windows and doorknobs. For his part, Biden is in Belgium today meeting with NATO leaders where everyone is concerned that the frustrated Putin is seriously considering using chemical and/or nuclear weapons.  Though he hasn’t attacked any countries so far, Kim Jung un appears to be frustrated that Ukraine’s getting all the attention so last night he launched his biggest intercontinental missile yet because why not.  By the way you might find it either entertaining or frightening to know that Kid Rock reports that the FG sought his advice on how to handle the North Korean dictator.  Kid Rock, who was apparently the adult in that room, wisely responded that he didn’t think he had the qualifications to opine.

Viral Musings: White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki is not with Biden’s entourage today as she is COVID positive again, as are Hillary Clinton and Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey.  The highly contagious BA 2 variant now represents more than a third of new US cases, more in bell weather NY where cases are inching up, not dramatically but still heading in the wrong direction.  Moderna is planning to ask for emergency use authorization of its vaccine for children as young as 6 months of age shortly.  And the Republicans want us to know that if or when they take over Congress they plan to launch investigations into Dr Fauci because of course.

RIP Madeleine Albright            

 

 

Stalemated Horror 🌻🌻🌻

Ukraine:  Military experts and the various and sundry pundits who insist that they are now experts report that Ukraine is holding its own, that Putin’s war is now at a stalemate as if stalemate can accurately describe the horror that has thus far resulted in ten million Ukrainians fleeing their homes and more than 3.5 million fleeing their country. It’s hard to know how many people have been killed so far as both sides are being less than candid about their death counts but the UN reports that around 850 Ukrainians civilians have died with at least another 1300 injured and estimates of Ukrainian military deaths are north of 1500. Those figures are likely undercounts but we do know for sure that one of the civilians killed this week was Kharkiv resident Boris Romantschenko, a 96 year old Holocaust survivor who died after his apartment building was bombed, further “proof” of how that Russian “denazification” plan is working. Things are far from hunky dory on the Russian side.  It’s reported that several hundred thousand Russian citizens, not including oligarchs, have left their country to protest the war, many fearing retribution for expressing views critical of the government. Yesterday a Russian Defense ministry website posted but then took down data indicating that 9861 Russian soldiers had been killed so far with an additional 16,153 injured.  Those are staggering numbers, by comparison US fatalities in Afghanistan were just over 2400 in a war that went on for almost 20 years.  Sadly, instead of genuinely looking for a way out, Putin appears to be doubling down, because if he can’t have Ukraine, no one else can either.  Biden is headed to the region, he’ll be attending a NATO meeting in Belgium before going to Poland to express appreciation for all the refugees they’ve taken in and also probably to talk about military equipment transfers, quietly this time.  For his part, the Former Guy, whose sons continue to assert that none of this would have happened on his watch either because Putin respected him so much or more likely because their father would have just handed Vlad the keys to Ukraine’s door by pulling out of NATO, is spending a lot of time on the air reminding us of his profound stupidity.  Last night the presumptive Republican 2024 candidate told Fox Business News that if he were still in the White House, he’d “send nuclear submarines to the country's coast to pressure Russia to back out of Ukraine. You should say, 'If you mention that word [nuclear] one more time, we're gonna send [nuclear submarines and planes] over and we'll be coasting back and forth, up and down your coast." Yes I said presumptive 2024 candidate because though he’s lost some luster, he still has a huge following. Also, while a whole bunch of Republican Senators have taken to criticizing President Biden for not doing enough for Ukraine, keep in mind that 33 of them, including the most vocal, voted against providing aid to the war torn country.  Also, only 8 Congresspeople, all Republicans including the usual suspects of Massie, Boebert, Gaetz, Biggs, Grothman, Roy, Bishop and Margie Q voted against rescinding Russia’s most favored trade status upset maybe because they fear the cut off of some of those alleged NRA Russia funded donations?     

The Supremes:  Justice Clarence Thomas quietly slipped into the hospital on Friday evening, though we didn’t learn about his trip until Sunday night. As far as we know, he’s still there being treated with antibiotics for flu like systems that “are not COVID.” Thomas is 73 years old and triply vaccinated.  Meantime back in the Senate yesterday marked the beginning of Judge Ketanji Jackson’s confirmation hearings. Judge Jackson is incredibly well qualified for the job, she checks more qualification boxes than any of the other sitting justices and certainly more than the Former Guy’s three appointments but of course either out of payback for “I love beer” Kavanaugh’s rough ascent to the bench, or because they’re just a-holes, or because they’re racists, or because they’re auditioning for the presidency, or all of the above the usual set of Republican Senators have already made it clear that they plan to grill Judge Jackson, part of their attempt to paint her as a left wing radical with dubious qualifications. Tennessee’s Marsha Blackburn said that she plans to ask Judge Jackson if it’s her plan to incorporate Critical Race Theory into the US legal system.  Texas charmer Ted Cruz, fresh off of causing a scene at a Montana airport where the responding officer had no idea who he was which had to hurt, brought up how Kavanaugh was mistreated over “normal teenage dating practices.”  Not to be outdone, Missouri’s Josh Hawley, best known for that fist pump on insurrection day, asserted that Judge Jackson was too nice to pedophiles, his nod to those Qsters who still believe that Pizzagate was for real. This from the party of underage dater Matt Gaetz and the Former Guy who once gleefully admitted how he liked to go back stage at his teenage beauty contests to visit while the girls were getting dressed.  Also, that’s the party where Eric Greitens, the disgraced former Missouri Governor, is trying to become the Republican nominee to run for Senator to succeed Roy Blunt who is not running for reelection while his ex-wife accuses him of pretty gnarly abuse.  As to Republican candidates, yesterday Alaska’s former Governor/one time Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin teased that she’d accept in a “heartbeat” the seat just vacated by the death of Alaska Congressman Don Young. Who doesn’t think that she’d fit right in between Boebert and MargieQ?     

Viral Musings:  It’s back, well the truth is COVID never left.  The BA 2 variant is on its way to becoming dominant in the US and is already making a name for itself in the Northeast and West, the usual US starting points for new COVID waves.  In fact, the NY Times reports that BA 2 already makes up 42% of new NY cases.  That said, given how many people were infected by the first BA wave, combined with high vaccination rates in NY, the experts don’t expect to see a significant spike in hospitalizations or deaths, though infection levels have started to move upward, partly due to the recent drop of mask mandates as well as things like the St Patrick Days festivities.  Only time will tell, because if we’ve learned anything it’s that COVID is unpredictable.  Also unpredictable, or at the very least predictably ignorant of science, Congress did not include additional funding for COVID in the package that was passed last week because the votes weren’t there and COVID’s over, right?  That’s a problem because if Pfizer and Moderna are right, fourth shots are coming and testing is still needed. Speaking of shots, it turns out that the J & J shot has withstood the test of time and in terms of durability is actually holding its own when compared to the mRNA options despite all those early reports that it wasn’t working as well.       

 
Mad War Criminal 🌻🌻🌻☘️☘️☘️

Ukraine:  The war is now in its fourth week and though Ukraine continues to suffer immeasurably and the refugee count is still climbing the Russians are have a hard time too, way more than they or almost anyone anticipated they would.  Yesterday President Zelenskyy continued on his very shrewd government tour, a trip that has included virtual visits to the UK, Canada, US and as of this morning Germany. While he was charming, cajoling and even at times criticizing his legislative audiences, combining requests for military equipment with a heartbreaking video montage of the crushing damage being inflicted on his country by the Russians, Vile Vlad was at home raging. The increasingly isolated Russian leader is mad at his overfunded military for underperforming and over promising, he’s mad at those “fifth column” Russians who have spoken out against his war, he’s even pissed at his yacht hiding oligarchs for whining about the sanctions they’re suffering, chastising them for prioritizing their need for “foie gras and gender freedoms” over blind fealty to him, their patron saint of corruption.  There’s a significant chance that Vlad is more than angry mad he may just be mad mad, as in unhinged and crazy and as Joe Biden called him in an unscripted moment a “war criminal.”  On the subject of  corruption, it’s not unreasonable to assume that a significant portion of the billions Vlad thought he spent upgrading his military instead lined a few pockets, his and his oligarchs.  It’s also fair to say that Russian prima ballerina Olga Smirnova who decamped to Norway to protest the war should watch her back and avoid touching door knobs because Vlad isn’t happy with her either.  And having to explain to the 7000 Russian moms why their sons, even a few generals, aren’t ever coming home, or are but in body bags, that too wasn’t part of Vlad’s game plan.

Switchblades:  Getting back to the charismatic Zelenskyy, he’s getting most of what he wants from the west and the US including javelins, stingers, switchblade drones and other lethal weaponry though at least for now he’s not getting those fighter jets or that no-fly zone he keeps requesting. Amazing how the volatile combination of Vlad and the very media savvy Zelensky have united the west in a manner that seemed impossible back when the Former Guy, influenced by Putin, was threatening to pull out of NATO, something he really planned do in his second term once that “rigged” election was behind him.  Worth noting that the Former Guy has started to pivot away from Putin just a little saying that the current Vlad isn’t the same nice one he used to chat with way into the night when no one was listening, well no one but Vlad and the Russian translators.  By the way, Russia sanctioned a whole bunch of Americans yesterday including President Biden and his son Hunter, Hillary Clinton, General Milley, Secretary of State Blinken, and Defense Secretary Austin among others, but for some reason the FG was nowhere to be found on the list.  

Evolution:  Unfortunately Sarah Bloom Raskin, wife of Representative Jamie Raskin, was forced to withdraw her Federal Reserve nomination after Senator Joe Manchin announced he would not vote for her and no Republican stood up to fill his spot.  Raskin is eminently qualified but Manchin opposes her confirmation because his energy industry constituency hates her, something about her position that climate change should be incorporated into risk analysis.  No reason to be concerned about the failure to take into consideration anything related to rising tides or the like, something the military and responsible corporate leaders already do, also no reason to worry about Georgia Republican Senatorial candidate Herschel Walker and his view that evolution isn’t real because there are still apes. I can’t explain that so I won’t but sadly Walker is more than holding his own against Georgia Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock. Also on the Senate campaign front, it looks like Dr. Oz is flailing and may even be considering throwing in the towel.  Yesterday, the NJ native who is running in Pennsylvania got into some trouble for saying that if he won he wouldn’t give up his Turkish dual citizenship, a problem because he then couldn’t qualify for a whole bunch of committees. He later retracted that statement but it probably doesn’t matter because he’s polling in the low single digits. Not only are apes still here but so is the Justice Department investigation into Hunter Biden, it continues on even though he has now paid off all of his outstanding tax liability because of course.      

Viral Musings:  Proving that coronavirus is still out there, add Ireland’s Prime Minister Michael Martin to the COVID positive list.  Martin is in Washington DC for St Patrick’s Day and was in the same room as Biden before he got his test results though the White House says that they weren’t in close contact.  Likewise second gentleman Doug Emhoff is also COVID positive though VP Harris is not, at least so far, but she is keeping a low profile and has canceled a few in person meetings. Also on the coronavirus front, Pfizer has applied for emergency use authorization for its current vaccine to be given as a second booster/fourth shot to the 65 and over set.

 

Not So Mighty Mouse

Ukraine 🌻 🌻 🌻:  The situation in Ukraine remains dire with no end in sight. We’re still being told that the Russians are underperforming and that their advance has “stalled” but since a stalled attack can and in this case is still lethal, that adjective means little to the 2.5 million refugees, the pregnant woman who died while delivering a baby who also died, the dead or injured news correspondents, the “disappeared” mayors, or the thousands who’ve seen their homes destroyed.  Power at the Chernobyl nuclear site was finally restored yesterday, well restored for a few minutes, before a power line was severed. And naturally, it seems like everyone who for two years was an expert on all things coronavirus has now moved on to being experts in  military strategy weighing in on what the US and NATO should be doing now to make Putin stop his horror show.  Likewise, a lot of faux and even a few real experts have weighed in to tell us what Putin is thinking and what, if anything, it will take to get him to stop or retreat.  I have no idea what Putin’s thinking, but given that he’s reached out to China for assistance, it’s fair to assume that while his war isn’t going according to plan he is nowhere near ready to give up, after all he’s the guy who thought it was okay to destroy Aleppo.  As to that China outreach, we know about it because shedding light on Putin’s moves remains part of the Biden team playbook.  In addition to asking China to provide military equipment and funding, it’s also appears that Vile Vlad is seeking Chinese MREs (military rations), an indication that the Russian military supply chain is really screwed up and another reason to believe that the malevolently deluded Putin didn’t think his troops would be mired in the muck long enough to actually need to eat three squares for more than a few days.  As to the MREs they have, a number of Russian soldiers have gone to social media to complain that they expired almost ten years ago.  The US is now trying to convince China that helping the Russians out would be a bad thing.  It’s not clear what the Chinese will do, they abstained on the UN vote to condemn Putin’s actions, a disappointment for Vlad but hardly all that impressive, but you don’t have to be much of an expert to believe that the Chinese will do what they perceive to be in their best interests and since they, like India, would love some cheap oil, they might conclude that providing the Russians some of what they’re seeking is worth it for them.  As to Russian citizenry, with the departure of western media outlets they’re being fed even more than the usual amount of disinformation some of which includes excerpts of Fox’s Tucker Carlson evening shows.  According to a leaked Kremlin memo received by Mother Jones magazine, Russian news outlets are actually being encouraged to play Tucker’s pro-Russian/pro-Putin propaganda as often as they can.  How nice that Tucker and his Murdoch bosses are using their influence to bolster Russian morale and support for Putin’s horror show.  While our convoy of disgruntled anti-vax truckers continues to circle aimlessly around Washington, DC,  some really brave Russians are putting their heads on the line, something those whiny truck drivers who fear getting a vax jab would probably never do. One prominent Russian, Marina Ovsyannikova, an editor at Russia’s state-run Channel One network, shocked audiences and her Russian overlords by appearing on a news broadcast with a sign reading “Stop the war. Don’t believe the propaganda.”  Anticipating that her action would probably be the last one she ever makes in public, she also arranged for a colleague to release a pre-recorded message where she detailed how Putin’s media was lying to the Russian people about Ukraine.  She hasn’t been seen since.  If she’s “lucky” she’ll “only” be jailed in a gulag 15 years  Those disgruntled American truckers, they’re calling 911 to complain about other drivers giving them the finger.

Viral Musings:  New COVID cases, hospitalizations, and even deaths, are still trending down here in the US but that doesn’t mean that the virus is behind us.  Over the weekend former President Obama tweeted out that he tested positive and is  “mildly” symptomatic as did at least four Democratic Congresspeople, including Pennsylvania’s Madeleine Dean, California’s Zoe Lofgren, Washington’s Kim Schrier and Connecticut’s Rosa DeLauro. All four attended the Democratic conference’s annual retreat last weekend. Overseas the picture is of more concern.  Cases are up in Europe and Asia, especially in China where the fast moving Omicron is doing its thing helped along by less effective Chinese vaccines. As to vaccines, Pfizer’s CEO Albert Bourla is now saying that we’ll need another booster, though it’s not clear when or whether that fourth shot, well fourth for those who’ve already gotten a third, will be more of what we’ve already gotten or whether it will be a new more targeted version.    

Mickey Mouse:  Ginni Thomas, the very right wing wife of Supreme Clarence Thomas, admits that she was at the January 6^th rally, though she asserts that she left before all that good, wild stuff happened.  That’s especially notable because her like-minded husband was the one justice to vote against the release of Trump’s January 6^th related records. It turns out that Proud Boy leader Enrique Tarrio had a videographer following him around as he planned some of his group’s January 6^th actions.  Apparently he hoped to release a documentary after his Proud guys and those other insurrectionists returned the presidency to the Former Guy, you know the guy who is still talking about what a nice guy Putin is.  We know about the video because it was presented to the court by prosecutors seeking to keep Tarrio in jail while he awaits trial. Bob Chapek, the CEO of Disney, is now saying that he’s not proud of the way he failed to use his mighty mouse powers to pushback against Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill. Apparently he hoped no one, least of all the many people who work for Disney in Florida, would notice that he was happily throwing them under the bus by funding a lot of the politicians who voted for the bill in exchange for lower corporate taxes. He says that the company is freezing political contributions in Florida to all local politicians, so the few Democrats who also received Disney bucks and didn’t support the bill will also be affected.

                  

Tilting at Windmills 🌻 🌻 🌻

Ukraine Crisis:  The unimaginable humanitarian crisis continues to worsen in Ukraine.  The refugee count now exceeds 2 million. More than two weeks in and with quick victory out of reach the increasingly isolated Putin appears to be going for siege warfare, starving, bombing and trapping remaining Ukrainians in the cities he previously planned to “liberate” and “denazify.”  He’s even cut off electricity to the Chernobyl nuclear site.  In a show of US support, President Biden sent VP Harris to Eastern Europe where yesterday she met with Poland’s President Duda to express appreciation for Poland’s impressive assistance with the huge number of Ukrainians refugees and to smooth over the very public disagreement over whether Poland should be allowed to send some of its Russian war planes to Ukraine in exchange for US ones.  That scheme which seemed plausible last week hit a huge wall after President Biden’s military advisors told him that it would likely escalate hostilities with the trigger happy Putin, would be difficult to pull off especially given how much press it’s gotten and at least for now probably wouldn’t do much to help the Ukrainian military which has been holding its own with the planes it has.  Of course, the right wing press immediately attacked Harris’ performance despite the fact that she more than held her own because that’s what they do. 

Back in the USA:  The Former Guy who had he managed his election steal scam would still be president is still finding it bizarrely inconvenient to say anything critical about Vlad.  Even for him, the FG seemed unusually unhinged when he responded to a question during a podcast interview by the host of “Full Send” about how he thought the Russian invasion of Ukraine would end by immediately pivoting to windmills, yes those “cancer causing” windmills.  The FG riffed on and on about how windmills don’t work, they’re too expensive, they kill all the birds….they ruin your landscapes.”  Nothing about people being killed by his BFF Putin, or the bombing of hospitals, but a lot of concern about the landscapes, especially the ones near his Russian funded golf courses.  Last night Sean Hannity tried to help him out, feeding him several opportunities to condemn Putin’s evil ways, but once again the FG couldn’t do it and so he didn’t. The FG’s continued Putin friendly position still has a lot of influence with his supporters, likely one of the reasons that fifteen Republican House members, including among others the usual clown contingent of Margie Q, Boebert, Gosar, Biggs and Cawthorn,  voted against the bipartisan ban on US purchases of Russian oil.  In particular, North Carolina’s Madison Cawthorn, when not getting caught speeding and driving without a license, appears to be acting under the influence of Russian handlers.  How else can his assertion at a weekend campaign rally that Ukraine President Zelenskyy is a “thug” and that the Ukrainian government is “incredibly corrupt and is incredibly evil and has been pushing woke ideologies,” like democracy, perhaps, be understood.   Cawthorn’s talking points come right out of the Russian playbook.  Don’t be surprised when he joins Russian Foreign Minister/Baghdad Bob imitator Lavrov in claiming that the Russians didn’t really bomb any hospitals, kindergartens or civilian targets, that such assertions are all Ukraine invented bunk. Keep in mind that bombing hospitals is a Russian thing, they repeatedly bombed them in Syria. Worse yet, the Russians appear to be on the verge of launching a chemical strike or two.  We know that because they are now claiming that Ukraine will and false flag assertions are on page one of their playbook. One more thing worth noting, it’s not just Republicans, two House Democrats, Ilhan Omar and Cori Bush, also voted against banning Russia oil out of what Omar said was concern that doing so would hurt the Russian people.  Apparently she has chosen to ignore that stressing the populace is the point.  Getting back to the Russian playbook, one of Putin’s favorites Maria Butina, the Russian sparrow who was released back to Russia, where she is now a member of the Duma, after completing her US sentence is pushing the Ukrainians as Nazis theory and doing videos showing her comrades how to sew the Russian Z on to their jackets.  By the way, it turns out that she wasn’t the only Russian woman trying to exert influence in the US. Earlier this week the DOJ  indicted Russian/American dual citizen Elena Branson who was engaged, albeit, less successfully, in activities similar to those that got Butina into jail.  Branson even shows up in a few pictures with Butina.  Unfortunately, Branson has already fled and is now back in Moscow.

Lending Trees: Just a day after accounting firm Mazars announced that they were dumping him as a client, the FG completed a refinancing of a $100 million Trump Tower loan, proving that there are still lenders sketchy enough to do business with him. The new loan was made by Axos Bank, a California based internet bank headed by a former Goldman Sachs banker name Greg Garrabrants who has also personally donated money to the FG’s campaigns.  Axos has previously come under the scrutiny of regulators so we may hear more about this loan in the weeks to come or maybe not because everything FG seems to be protected by magic Teflon,  everything but his plane.  It looks like he still hasn’t repaired his personal Boeing 757.  Over the weekend he and his entourage were forced to make an emergency landing after the donor provided plane he was traveling on for his New Orleans large donor trip lost an engine.  Freeloader FG and his crowd managed to get back to Mar a Lago but only after another donor coughed up a plane.  One guy who wasn’t with the FG on that trip was his one time convicted and then pardoned national security advisor Michael Flynn.  Flynn likely spent his weekend preparing for the January 6^th committee testimony he provided yesterday, not that repeatedly claiming the Fifth takes that much practice but then again, Flynn has been caught lying before so maybe he needed to be prepped. Add Colorado election official Tina Peters to the list of people who could use a really good legal team to prep her for future court appearances. Republican Peters, County Clerk of Mesa County and a hero to those who admire her embrace of election-fraud conspiracy theories, has been indicted on state criminal charges for her efforts to secretly copy hard drives from Dominion Voting Systems equipment.  Why is it that almost all of the people responsible for election fraud turn out to be Republicans?    

Fields, Forests, Shores and Streets 🌻 🌻 🌻

UkraineStrong:  The humanitarian crisis in Ukraine has reached catastrophic proportions and is getting worse with the number of fleeing refugees at 2 million and rising.  The Russians have teased and then reneged on cease fires which were supposed to facilitate civilians evacuations while also saying that Ukrainians could leave if they wanted to but only if they headed towards Russian controlled areas, an obviously cruel suggestion and clearly an unappealing option for those fleeing Russian bombs and incoming troops.  Again, though much is still being written about how the Russians underestimated Ukrainian resistance and how Putin’s army and equipment are failing to live up to expectations, Vicious Vlad’s troops are making progress, leaving Aleppo level destruction in their wake.  Yesterday, quicker than expected and without European buy-in, President Biden banned imports of Russian oil, natural gas and coal.  When asked what impact the ban would have on prices at the pump, he spared no words, answering bluntly that they’d go up and so they have.  Though most Congressional Republicans support the ban, they are also likely to blame the price increases on Biden because that’s what politicians do, though at least for the moment Biden’s poll numbers are actually going up.  The EU which imports 45% of its gas from Russia is too dependent on Vlad to be willing to go cold turkey when it comes to Russian energy, so instead they have announced plans to reduce purchases of Russian gas by two-thirds before the end of the year. The UK, no longer part of the EU due in part to Russian interference in its Brexit vote, announced plans to phase out imports of Russian oil and oil products by the end of 2022 and will also consider banning its natural gas, whatever “consider” means. Last night without being specific Putin retaliated by issuing a decree banning exports of certain commodities and raw materials, an action that will further damage his already severely weakened economy. The Wall Street Journal reports that Biden’s initial overtures to Saudi Arabia and the UAE for help with oil supplies have been rebuffed which partially explains why the Biden administration has also approached sometime arch enemy but oil rich Venezuela. Judging by the fact that two American businessmen who had been held by Maduro’s regime were released yesterday those talks, and the hope of getting Venezuela to fill some of the Russian oil gap may prove fruitful.  Should we really be surprised that Saudi Arabia, led by a bone sawing prince and home of the 9.11 attackers, isn’t being all that cooperative?  As to the Russian economy, the list of western companies pulling out, suspending or drastically cutting back services in Russia continues to expand.  As of now the list includes Yum Brands (KFC and Pizza Hut), McDonald’s, Starbucks, Coca-Cola, Deloitte, Ernst & Young, PricewaterhouseCoopers, KPMG, Estee Lauder,   Boeing, Airbus, Shell, BP, Exxon Mobil, GM, Ford, BMW, Daimler Trucks, Volvo,  Renault, VW, Harley Davidson, Adidas, Nike, FedEx, UPS, Net-a-Porter, Apple, Dell, Ericsson, Walt Disney, Warner Brothers, Sony, Paramount, universal, Ikea, Airbnb, Google, Microsoft, Hermes, Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Amazon Web Services. Russians are not going to be happy about losing their streaming services, credit cards, lipstick and eye shadow, Birkin bags and replacement iPhones. Putin has a lot of explaining to do and it’s not at all clear that blaming those “inconveniences” on Ukraine’s fictional Nazis will fly. For his part Ukraine’s Zelensky who spoke via zoom to the British Parliament is winning the war of words, even if some of those words were admittedly and wisely cribbed from Winston Churchill:  We will not give up, and we will not lose. We will fight till the end — at sea, in the air, we will continue fighting for our land whatever the cost. We will fight in the forests, in the fields, on the shores, in the streets."      

Insurrectionist Update:  It turns out that being an insurrectionist actual can have consequences, at least for some.  Yesterday, a federal jury deliberated for just three hours before convicting January 6^th insurrectionist Guy Reffitt on obstruction and weapons charges.  Reffitt’s son, who had grown increasingly concerned about his father’s radicalization, was one of the people who testified against him.  In other insurrectionist news, Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio was arrested and charged for conspiring to “corruptly obstruct, influence, and impede an official proceeding, the certification of the Electoral College vote."  All good news, but while Tarrio suffered the indignity of being dragged out in his PJs, a certain Former Guy remains out and about whining and endorsing right wing nuts and the like and one time Attorney General, out hawking his book, told NBC’s Savannah Guthrie that  while he thinks that the FG has an unhealthy obsession about faux election fraud, he’d vote for him again because he’d rather have a crazy, vindictive man in the oval office than any Democrat.

Viral Musings:  The seven day average of new COVID cases is down to 40k, hospitalizations are down around 39k and deaths, still high, are at 1400.  With home testing more widely available, many cases go unreported so hospitalization trends are probably the best indicator of what’s going on right now.  While they’re down in the US they’ve started to climb again in the UK where restrictions were lifted early so don’t throw away your mask supply yet.  It’s likely that the Novavax COVID vaccine will finally be approved for US use soon. That’s significant because the vaccine which has already been approved for use in Australia, Europe and India uses an older, more established technology that mRNA vaccine skeptics find more acceptable so maybe some of those striking truckers who Senators Ted Cruz and Ron Johnson like so much will be willing to try it.  Well probably not.  In other health news, a Missouri state legislator is seeking to prevent women seeking abortions from going out of state to get them.  Because, of course.             

961K

Planes and Oil  🌻 🌻 🌻

Ukraine Strong: The Ukrainians are winning the war of public opinion as they should but despite their impressive bravery on the battlefield their suffering is immeasurable. As exemplified by the very long convoy of Russian military trucks and assorted killer paraphernalia that remains stuck in place during day twelve of what was supposed to be a five day blitz, Russia is still underperforming but given their military resources they’re still causing an unconscionable amount of disruption, death, and destruction and are expected to destroy more cities and takeover more land, nuclear reactors and ports during the coming days.  Of course the Former Guy has a solution to all of this, over the weekend speaking at a New Orleans  big donor event, he said that the US should put the Chinese flag on F-22 fighter jets and "bomb the s*** out of Russia….And then we say, China did it. Then they start fighting with each other, and we sit back and watch.” Everything about that statement is moronic:  the Former Guy who once suggested nuking a hurricane probably wasn’t kidding and who are these “big” donors who are so committed to him that they are still showing up and emptying their wallets to hear him speak? Would it surprise anyone to learn that Fox’s Sean Hannity, who remains a member of the Former Guy’s shadow cabinet, was the one who first came up with the idea?  As to calls by many including the very frustrated and heroic Ukrainian President Zelenskyy for the US and NATO to establish a no fly zone over Ukraine, that’s considered a no-go strategy because doing so would risk a direct confrontation between US and Russian forces, one of those things that could trigger WW III with nukes. The alternative which Biden appears to be in the process of facilitating involves back filling Poland’s air force with US fighter jets allowing them to provide the Russian fighter jets that Ukrainian pilots have experience flying to Zelenskyy’s air force. 

Filling Up: Another big issue currently up for discussion is whether or not the US and Europe should ban imports of Russian oil. That’s a logistical, inflationary problem for the US as we produce more than enough to cover our needs, but it is a bigger problem for Europe which is dependent on Russian energy. According to Axios, President Biden may be headed on a “make nice” trip to Saudi Arabia shortly to convince the Saudis to sell more oil to cover Europe’s Russian oil shortfall.  The bottom line is that it is going to cost more to fill tanks everywhere, not that any of that bothered those truckers who showed up in the Washington DC area to protest vaccine mandates and a few other things that they’re not sure about this weekend.  They didn’t do much to disrupt traffic, nor did they get anywhere near the attention they wanted. Close to one million Ukrainian refugees fleeing for their lives with many, many more likely to follow and some US snowflake truckers are whining about getting jabbed.  The truckers aren’t the only ones seeking attention, Kim Jong un, who the Former Guy made sure to tell those New Orleans donors is someone he still very much admires because Kim is so nice and his quivering staff stands at attention whenever he speaks, keeps shooting off missiles, frustrated that right now his actions aren’t getting him any banner headlines. Also on the world leader front, Israel’s Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, together with one of his Russian speaking cabinet members, made a surprise to us but approved by Zelenskyy, Biden, Macron and whoever else matters trip to Moscow to try to intermediate between Putin and Ukraine over the weekend.  More meetings are expected to follow but it’s not clear that there is an offramp that Putin would be willing to take and for obvious reasons no one is openly supporting Senator Lindsey Graham’s suggestion, the one that involves poison and/or shivs.   China’s President Xi seems to be taking his time, trying to figure out what about the Ukraine crisis is good for him and his long term aspirations to Ukrainize Taiwan.  On the one hand China didn’t vote against the UN condemnation of Russia, instead opting to abstain, on the other he hasn’t done anything helpful, beyond getting Putin to reschedule his attack until after the Olympics.

People and Politicians:  WNBA star Brittney Griner may now be Putin’s newest hostage.  She was in Russia playing offseason basketball which is what WNBA players do to earn a living when she was stopped while trying to fly home something to do with traces of hash oil in her luggage but also because in socially conservative Russia gong after a prominent LGBTQ Black person reaps PR benefits and since Russians now have no Netflix, can’t upgrade their iPhones and there are food and essentials shortages, diversions are needed.  We’re only learning about her detention now but it appears to have happened more than a week ago. Florida Senator Marco Rubio and Montana Senator Steve Daines took some deserved heat over the weekend for tweeting about a zoom meeting with President Zelenskyy while the call was taking place even though Ukrainian officials had asked everyone on the call to hold off until it ended to protect Zelenskyy’s safety.  Rubio, who is Vice Chair of the Senate intelligence committee and who really should know better showed up on every news show he could so he could say that his screw-up was a nothing burger, just leftist fake news, because he’s up for reelection this year and can’t afford to appear to be that craven and stupid.  Except it’s Florida so maybe he can?  And talking stupid and probably illegal, according to The New Yorker former Chief of Staff/North Carolina Congressman Mark Meadows voted as a North Carolinian during the 2020 election by using an address in a trailer park where, of course, he never lived because voting fraudulently is okay when you are a Republican?                                     

 

Conjuring Chernobyl

🌻 🌻 🌻: The fire at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station outside of Kyiv triggered by last night’s relentless Russian bombing was extinguished overnight and at least for now another Chernobyl is not in the offing as radiation levels remain normal but the plant, the biggest in Europe, is now in Russian hands.  Elsewhere in the embattled country, despite valiant fighting by the Ukrainians, the Russians continue to make inroads. Fear the worst because that’s where things on the ground appear to be heading even if some Russian troops are underperforming. The US and its NATO allies might seize a few yachts and a number of oligarchs might actually be so upset about Vlad upending their summer vacation plans that they’re now calling for him to relent, but their pleas don’t appear to be doing anything to dissuade him from continuing on his relentless march.  If anything, he appears more determined than ever and in addition to ramping up his attack on Ukraine, Putin has shutdown Russia’s few remaining free press outlets while initiating a countrywide disinformation campaign intended to “educate” the Russian citizenry on why he had no choice but to save Ukraine from it Jewish Nazi leadership.    

January Sixth:  Back at home, the House’s January 6th Committee shot off some fireworks of their own.  Yesterday, they subpoenaed Junior’s fiancée Kim Guilfoyle.  Guilfoyle who stormed out of an earlier voluntary video appearance claiming that she wasn’t being treated fairly because some members of the Committee, including Congressman Adam Schiff, were listening in, a bogus complaint because Committee members frequently sit in on testimony even when their staff are the ones asking the questions.  Lap dance Kimmy’s testimony is being sought because she met with the Former Guy and other members of his family on insurrection day, screamed at the pre-riot rally and played a key role in organizing and raising funds for that event.  Kimmy is only one of the Committee’s remaining targets.  On Wednesday night the committee filed a legal brief refuting lawyer John Eastman’s claim of executive privilege that he asserts allows him to keep his critical files and records hidden from prying eyes.  Eastman is the Former Guy lawyer who told VP Pence that he had the constitutional authority to overturn the results of the election by refusing to certify the electoral college vote. The Committee had several valid reasons for rejecting Eastman’s claim but the one that lit up the TV screens was the suggestion that even if Eastman’s privilege claims were valid, the crime-fraud exception to attorney-client privilege would apply, because they believe they have evidence that “strongly suggest that Eastman’s emails may show that he helped” the Former Guy “advance a corrupt scheme to obstruct the counting of electoral college ballots and a conspiracy to impede the transfer of power.” All that will make for interesting fodder during the upcoming TV hearings to the extent they ever happen and aren’t interrupted by the news out of Ukraine but from a legal perspective they really only matter if Attorney General Garland comes out from under his rock.      

Politic Unusual:  For the moment, Texas Governor Abbott’s efforts to go after the parents of transgender kids is on hold as a Texas judge has blocked the state’s efforts to investigate one transgender teen’s parents.  Of course, since he doesn’t like it when Texas gets attention, Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis, whose approval ratings in his state are actually above water at 54%, is now fundraising off of a video that showed him dissing some University of South Florida students for wearing facemasks and is expected soon to sign a law banning abortions after 15 weeks. Fish stick heir Tucker Carlson wants to see Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson’s LSAT scores, no matter that she attended Harvard Law where she excelled and has awesome professional credentials, apparently her LSATs, unlike those of any other Justice including those named Brett, Amy and Neil matter. What’s that about, as if we don’t know? Arizona Governor Doug Ducey, like New Hampshire’s Chris Sununu and Maryland’s Larry Hogan before him, has rebuffed Mitch McConnell’s and former President George W Bush’s efforts to run for the Senate.  That’s good news for Senator/Astronaut Mark Kelly who is up for reelection again in November.  Of course even though the failure to get popular Republican governors to run hurts the GOP’s efforts to retake the Senate, the Former Guy, who hasn’t forgiven “RINO” Ducey for refusing to overturn Arizona’s presidential election results is happy about Ducey’s decision.  One would think he would have shared that glee over his new social media site Truth Social, but apparently given its “start-up issues” no one would have seen it there if he did, so he didn’t.  One positive note, Democratic Senator Ben Ray Lujan of New Mexico whose vote is needed to assure Jackson’s SCOTUS confirmation is back at work, just one month after suffering a stroke.

 

Blue and Yellow

State of the World:  It took the horrifying war in Ukraine to get Congress to act with a degree of unanimity that hasn’t been seen for a long time. Members from both sides of the aisle stood and applauded early on during last night’s State of the Union address, showing solidarity with embattled Ukraine, President Zelensky who was not there and his ambassador who was.  Of course once President Biden moved from Putin’s despicable war to domestic issues, things got back to normal, leaving Republicans sitting stone faced during the rest of the speech, except when Biden called for not defunding the police.  Worth noting the stoneface routine is standard behavior these days for the out of office party but not for the antsy Margie Q and Lauren Boebert who couldn’t sit still; the white supremacist and her like-minded juvenile delinquent BFF remained in full disruptive mode for most of the evening, shouting and tweeting, because that’s what they do. By the way, though GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy has expressed dismay and twisted a borrowed pearl or two over Margie Q and Arizona’s Paul Gosar participation at last weekend’s white supremacist conference, that’s all he’s done because he needs them to vote for him for Speaker should the Republicans retake the House after the midterms.  Also he knows his party well enough to know that far too many of its members believe that endorsing white supremacism is a good thing. 

#StandWithUkraine:  On the Ukraine front things continue to worsen.  On the one hand we’ve been told that Putin’s Russian forces are underperforming, that they’re running out of food and fuel and that some of them are showing signs of discontent over being asked to kill their cousins, on the other hand he has quantity on his side and more than enough of his soldiers appear willing to commit fratricide by effectively using their lethal weaponry against civilian targets. The US and NATO have the military power to stop Putin’s unending line of troop carriers and missiles from making it into the heart of Ukraine, unfortunately Putin has got nukes and is doing a good job of seeming crazy enough to use them rendering our superior air strength useless. As to Putin’s assertion that he’s denazifying Ukraine, yesterday Russian forces struck outside of Kyiv around the Holocaust memorial at Babyn Yar where thirty thousand Jews were killed by the Nazis in a two day massacre during WW II, because isn’t that what denazifiers do?  The impressive and articulate President Zelensky bemoaned “What is the point of saying ‘never again’ for 80 years, if the world stays silent when a bomb drops on the same site of Babyn Yar?” Hard to dispute him or to not feel his frustration and anger as the nuclear constrained West watches mass murder in slow motion.  There are reports this morning that Zelensky has asked the Chinese, those experts in ethnic cleansing and repression, to help Putin find an offramp.  Great if that works but don’t count on it.  Also, it’s “nice” that all those oligarchs concerned about the safety of their yachts and their travel plans are doing the same, but that’s probably not going to do much either.

Midterm Madness:  Yesterday was primary day in Texas.  It looks like Governor Greg Abbott will be facing off against perennial candidate Beto O’Rourke in November.  Ken Paxton, the state’s indicted attorney general who like the former guy still hasn’t suffered any consequences for his “alleged” crimes, faces a run off against fellow Republican/FG fan George P Bush, son of Jeb. The Democrat’s sole remaining anti-abortion congressperson Henry Cuellar faces a run off from progressive, or at least more progressive than him, Jennifer Cisneros. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who by the way did condemn Representatives Margie Q and Gosar for attending the white supremacist jamboree, is currently having a tiff with Florida Senator Rick Scott. Scott who the Former Guy would like to see take over “Old Crow” Mitch’s leadership role.  Scott is on Mitch’s sh-t list for circulating a policy statement that among other things calls for everyone, including those who earn little, to pay taxes.  It’s not that Mitch doesn’t want to shift more of the tax burden to lower and middle income people, it’s just that he doesn’t want to see that or anything else in writing. Getting back to Texas Governor Abbott, yesterday, as promised, he began implementing his campaign against parents of transgender children by having his forces suspend and launch an investigation into an employee of the state’s Department of children services for committing the crime of providing gender affirming medical care to her transgender teen.  Abbott knows that culture wars are the way to go.   

Viral Musings:  Notably, yesterday’s State of the Union affair was mask optional, a bit unnerving given that as the recently recovered Queen Elizabeth now knows COVID is still out there and many of the attendees, including President Biden, fall into her high risk geriatric category.  Democratic Congressman Jamie Raskin was absent because he’s COVID positive, currently experiencing flu like symptoms.  He’s not alone, two other Democrats disclosed that they also flunked their mandatory pre-speech COVID tests. Then there’s Florida Senator Marco Rubio who didn’t attend the speech because he was “too busy” to go for the required swab.  Really, is he that afraid of Q tips, concerned that his Florida base would be upset if he took the test or does he have COVID?  On the vaccine front, Pfizer reports that two shots of its vaccine for the 5 to 11 year old set doesn’t do much to prevent them from getting the virus though it doesn’t have any bad side effects and crucially does prevent hospitalizations. The daily average virus case count is around 61k with deaths just above 1900.