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.             

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