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.