February 24, 2022

Russia Attacks Ukraine

According to CNN, President Biden plans to address the nation at noon 12:30 pm ET today.

Afternoon Update:

Aamer Madhani, et al., of the AP: :President Joe Biden ordered broad new sanctions targeting Russia on Thursday..., declaring that Russian leader Vladimir Putin 'chose this war' and his country will bear the consequences. The sanctions target Russian banks, oligarchs and high-tech sectors, Biden said. The United States and its allies will block assets of four large Russian banks, impose export controls and sanction oligarchs. Biden also said the U.S. will be deploying additional forces to Germany to bolster NATO after the invasion of Ukraine, which is not a member of the defense organization. Approximately 7,000 additional U.S. troops will be sent." ~~~

~~~ Ellen Nakashima & Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: "President Biden on Thursday announced an unprecedented package of sweeping sanctions and export controls coordinated with European and Asian allies to punish and isolate Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. No country as large as Russia, with an economy as large as Russia's -- ranked 12th, according to the International Monetary Fund -- has been hit with such massive international sanctions.... The Biden administration and allies in Europe and Asia are also cutting off Russia's access to key components crucial to their emerging and high-tech industries." ~~~

Yuras Karmanau, et al., of the AP: "Ukrainian officials said their forces were battling Russians on a multiple fronts, but had suffered dozens of deaths and also had lost control of the decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear power plant, scene of the world's worst nuclear disaster.... Ukraine's health minister said 57 Ukrainians were killed in the invasion and 169 more were wounded. It was not clear how many were civilians, although earlier in the day it had said 40 soldiers had died."

Dasha Litvinova of the AP: "Shocked Russians turned out by the thousands Thursday to decry their country's invasion of Ukraine as emotional calls for protests grew on social media. Some 1,745 people in 54 Russian cities were detained, at least 957 of them i Moscow. Hundreds of posts came pouring in condemning Moscow's most aggressive actions since the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.... As sirens blasted in Kyiv, Ukraine's capital, and large explosions were heard there and in other cities, Russians were signing open letters and online petitions demanding the Kremlin halt the assault.... Several Russian celebrities and public figures, including some working for state TV, spoke out against the attack. Yelena Kovalskaya, director of a state-funded Moscow theater, announced on Facebook she was quitting her job, saying 'it's impossible to work for a killer and get paid by him.'" ~~~

~~~ Anton Troianovski of the New York Times: "For most of his 22-year rule, Vladimir V. Putin presented an aura of calm determination at home -- of an ability to astutely manage risk to navigate the world's biggest country through treacherous shoals. His attack on Ukraine negated that image, and revealed him as an altogether different leader: one dragging the nuclear superpower he helms into a war with no foreseeable conclusion, one that by all appearances will end Russia's attempts over its three post-Soviet decades to find a place in a peaceful world order."

Sergei Kuznetzov & Zoya Sheftalovich of Politico: "Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday launched an all-out assault on Ukraine with missiles, warplanes and tanks that threatens to push Europe into its biggest conflict since World War II.... Ukraine warned that Moscow was turning to propaganda tricks by suggesting that Russian troops were not meeting resistance and by exhorting Ukrainians to lay down their weapons. Kyiv insisted that its troops were locked in heavy fighting, had shot down seven warplanes, destroyed dozens of armored vehicles and killed dozens of enemy soldiers.... In a sign of the desperate straits Ukraine is facing against a stronger adversary, however, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called for a general mobilization. The country also put out an appeal for blood donors as news began to filter in of dozens of Ukrainian casualties across the country."

Kevin Granville & William Davis of the New York Times: "The price of oil jumped as high as $105 a barrel, European natural gas futures soared 50 percent, and global stock indexes fell on Thursday as Russia launched an invasion of Ukraine, extending market turmoil that had been driven by fears of a full-scale attack. The impact on financial and commodity markets from Russia's overnight attack was immediate and broad, starting in Asia, where the Hang Seng in Hong Kong lost 3.2 percent. In Germany, the DAX index slid more than 4 percent, and the broader Stoxx Europe 600 was about 3.5 percent lower."

Marie: Some readers here have asked why Putin would invade Ukraine. Others have offered explanations or pointed them toward analysts' assessments. But I, Marie Burns, will direct you to the True Answer, as delivered by that font of knowledge & wisdom, Senator Potato Head: ~~~

     ~~~ "He can't feed his people. It's a communist country, so he can't feed his people, so they need more farmland." -- Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) ~~~

     ~~~ This comes as a surprise to me because (1) I thought Russia quit being a communist country 30 years ago, and (2) as a somewhat sparsely-populated country with the most landmass on Earth, Russia is not short on farmland. In fact, Russia is renting out farmland to other countries.

Margaret Sullivan of the Washington Post: "As Russia prepared to invade Ukraine, the biggest star on Fox News was busy ... defend[ing] the murderous instigator Vladimir Putin while disparaging legitimate heroes like Alexander Vindman, the Ukrainian-born retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel and former White House national security aide.... In 2020, Fox's own lawyers successfully made the case in court that [Tucker] Carlson shouldn't be taken seriously. And a Trump-appointed federal judge agreed. U.S. District Court Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil echoed Fox's own arguments ... [that] the whole tenor of Carlson's show makes it clear to viewers that he is not stating 'actual facts' about his topics.... 'Fox persuasively argues, that given Mr. Carlson's reputation, any reasonable viewer "arrive[s] with an appropriate amount of skepticism" about the statement he makes.' That's the problem, of course. Too many in Carlson's audience simply don't arrive with that measure of doubt or disbelief. They swallow his nonsense whole." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: If I were a masochist, I'd watch TuKKKer's show tonight to hear how he rolls with Putin's tanks & artillery.

~~~~~~~~~~

Putin has just launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Peaceful Ukrainian cities are under strikes. This is a war of aggression. Ukraine will defend itself and will win. The world can and must stop Putin. The time to act is now. -- Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, in a tweet (WashPo link)

The New York Times' live updates are here. Ukraine says that dozens of its soldiers have been killed as Russia has attacked the country by land, air & sea.

The Washington Post's live updates are here: "Russia on Thursday launched a military assault against Ukraine, President Biden said, with explosions occurring across a wide swath of the country, in what the president called an 'unjustified attack' that signals 'a premeditated war.' The explosions could be heard in Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, and Kharkiv, in the country's northeast. A senior Ukrainian official said there were also explosions at the country's largest airport, in Kyiv. Air raid sirens were going off in the capital, though the official said that they were intended to wake up residents and that there were no indications of incoming warplanes. The attacks came as Russian President Vladimir Putin declared the launch of a 'special military operation' to carry out the 'demilitarization and denazification' of Ukraine and end eight years of war in the country's east, where Kyiv government forces have been fighting Russian-backed separatists. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky declared martial law. Kyiv's generals said the military was at full combat readiness and had repelled a Russian air attack, though few claims were immediately verifiable...." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Denazification??? The Week: Ukraine is "led by a Jewish president, Volodymyr Zelensky. For a brief while at the beginning of Zelensky's term, Ukraine also had a Jewish prime minister. It is possible for Jewish people to be Nazis, even though a core goal of Nazi Germany was the extermination of Jews, but Zelensky, a former comedic actor, is not one." ~~~

     ~~~ President Biden's full statement, via the White House, is here.

CNN's live updates are here. The AP has updates here. The Guardian's live updates are here.

Michael Birnbaum, et al., of the Washington Post: "Russia on Thursday launched a multipronged attack against Ukraine, with explosions audible in some of the country's largest cities, including Kyiv, the capital, in what President Biden called 'a premeditated war.'... Flashes could be seen and explosions could be heard in Kyiv, a city of 3 million people, as a senior Ukrainian official said the city's main airport was under assault. Explosions could also be heard in Kharkiv, the country's second-largest city, which lies just 12 miles from the border with Russia. A Ukrainian official also said the city of Kramatorsk, in eastern Ukraine, was being shelled." The AP's report is here.

Luke Harding, et al., of the Guardian: "The scope of the Russian attack appears to be massive. Ukraine's interior ministry reported that the country was under attack from cruise and ballistic missiles, with Russia appearing to target infrastructure near major cities such as Kyiv, Kharkiv, Mariupol and Dnipro.... Russian media reported that [Putin's] declaration of war may have been pre-recorded. The Russian president was wearing the same tie and seated at the same desk when he announced his recognition of the Russian-controlled territories on Monday."

Rachel Pannett & Adela Suliman of the Washington Post: "... global leaders were quick to condemn Russia's actions and call for a decisive response. Here's what they said.... China on Thursday appeared to deny backing Russia's military assault in Ukraine as it treaded a cautious line, after earlier this week stating that it recognized what it called Russia's legitimate security concerns without explicitly endorsing the Kremlin's actions."

Joe Tidy of BBC News: "Ukraine has been hit by more cyber-attacks, which its government says are 'on a completely different level'.> Earlier on Wednesday, the websites of several Ukrainian banks and government departments became inaccessible. Internet connectivity company NetBlocks tweeted: 'The incident appears consistent with recent DDOS attacks.' Distributed denial of service attacks are designed to knock a website offline by flooding it with huge amounts of requests until it crashes.... A researcher told BBC News: "Ukraine's military and banking websites have seen a more rapid recovery after today's cyber-attack, likely due to preparedness and increased capacity to implement mitigations. Despite this, the incident is ongoing, with latency and outages continuing at the Security Service of Ukraine, which points to the severity of the incident.'"

Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "... American Republicans view [Vladimir Putin] slightly more positively than they do leading Democratic officials. Between Putin and President Biden, it's a toss-up that leans in Putin's favor.... [Among Republicans,] Putin is viewed far less positively than is Trump -- but more positively than sitting Democratic leaders.... Only [President] Obama matches Putin's favorability among Republicans, certainly in part a function of his being out of office." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Here's a poll for you: Most Republicans are (a) reasonably intelligent; (b) somewhat stupid; (c) stupid; (d) very stupid; (e) extraordinarily stupid. Generally speaking, there can be no wrong answer in an opinion poll. This poll is the exception.

William Saletan, now of the Bulwark: "Eighty years ago, when a dictator rose to power in Europe and invaded his neighbors, he found an ally in the United States. The dictator was Adolf Hitler, and his ally was Charles Coughlin, a popular radio host. Coughlin belittled democracy, defended the Nazis, and opposed America's entry into the war, arguing that the movement to enlist the United States was a conspiracy on behalf of a sinister minority: Jews. Today, a new demagogue has taken up Coughlin's mantle: Fox News host Tucker Carlson. Like Coughlin, Carlson has spewed venom for years. And, like Coughlin, he has gradually made his treachery, nihilism, and bigotry unmistakable. To begin with, Carlson mocked the idea that rolling tanks into another country was wrong.... Carlson downplayed the putative moral differences between Russia, Ukraine, Canada, and the United States." MB: Yeah, TuKKKer, I'm more and more convinced the U.S. military should annex a region encompassing Ottawa, Toronto & Montreal. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Best Impression of Lex Luthor by a Fat Man. Jacob Bogage & Anna Phillips of the Washington Post: "The U.S. Postal Service finalized plans Wednesday to purchase up to 148,000 gasoline-powered mail delivery trucks, defying Biden administration officials' objections that the multibillion-dollar contract would undercut the nation's climate goals. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy..., a holdover from the Trump administration..., disregarded requests from the White House Council on Environmental Quality and the Environmental Protection Agency this month to reconsider replacing the delivery fleet with 90 percent gas-powered trucks and 10 percent electric vehicles, at a cost of as much as $11.3 billion. The contract, orchestrated by DeJoy, offers only a 0.4-mpg fuel economy improvement over the agency's current fleet. The decision is a major blow to the White House's climate agenda.... EPA officials said the Postal Service vastly underestimated the emissions of its proposed fleet of 'Next Generation Delivery Vehicles,' accusing the mail agency of fudging the math in its analysis to justify the massive purchase of internal-combustion-engine trucks."

Annie Karni & Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "Ivanka Trump..., Donald J. Trump's eldest daughter who served as one of his senior advisers, is in talks with the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol about the possibility of sitting for an interview with the panel, according to two people familiar with the discussions. It was not immediately clear whether the negotiations, which aides described as preliminary, would result in Ms. Trump providing substantive information to the inquiry or whether they were simply a stalling tactic, as some committee aides fear."

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court heard arguments on Wednesday in a tangled dispute over whether Republican-led states may step in to defend a Trump-era immigration policy that the Biden administration has abandoned. The policy, a revision of the 'public charge' rule, imposed a new wealth test on applicants for green cards. Some justices questioned the Biden administration's legal maneuvers, suggesting they were aggressive, unseemly and too clever by half." MB: Sam Alito is so openly hostile to anything Democrats do he should recuse himself from all litigation of a political nature. What a prick!

Trump Escapes Again. William Rashbaum, et al., of the New York Times: "The two prosecutors leading the Manhattan district attorney's investigation into ... Donald J. Trump and his business practices abruptly resigned on Wednesday amid a monthlong pause in their presentation of evidence to a grand jury, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The unexpected development came not long after the high-stakes inquiry appeared to be gaining momentum and now throws its future into serious doubt. The prosecutors, Carey R. Dunne and Mark F. Pomerantz, submitted their resignations because the new Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, indicated to them that he had doubts about moving forward with a case against Mr. Trump, the people said.... In a statement responding to the resignations of the prosecutors, a spokeswoman for Mr. Bragg said that he was 'grateful for their service' and that the investigation was ongoing." ~~~

~~~ Steve M. "I've resigned myself to the fact that Trump will evade justice until he dies -- most CEOs in America do, as have all Republican presidents since Nixon. The only people who've ever truly held Trump accountable were voters in 2020." Steve credits Marcy Wheeler for noting that prosecutors' failure to get Allen Weisselberg to cooperate doomed the case against Trump. Steve writes, "Trump sees himself as a mob boss, and Allen Weisselberg, his chief financial officer, is carefully observing the code of omertà. That seems to be paying off splendidly for Trump."

No Surprise Here. Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: "Lawyers representing Sarah Palin in her unsuccessful defamation lawsuit against The New York Times have told a federal judge that they plan to ask for a new trial and will file several other motions seeking to scrutinize the timing of his announcement that he intended to dismiss the case for lack of evidence if a verdict favored Ms. Palin. His statement arrived while the jury was still deliberating last week. The decision by Judge Jed S. Rakoff -- which was consistent with the verdict the jury arrived at the next day, holding that The Times was not liable for publishing and later correcting an editorial that erroneously linked the political rhetoric of Ms. Palin to a mass shooting -- was the subject of a brief conference call on Wednesday between the judge and lawyers for both sides."

Shawn Hubler & Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "Though it was billed as a grass-roots, nonpartisan event intended to oppose government Covid-19 mandates, a trucker demonstration that left California for Washington, D.C., on Wednesday appeared to be tightly aligned with far-right organizations and activists. Many of those behind the demonstration, which was planned as an American version of the past month's chaotic Canadian protest, have connections to the violent attack on the Capitol in January 2021, or supported the lie that fraud in the 2020 presidential election was to blame for Donald J. Trump's loss."

Dennis Romero of NBC News: "Three men who plotted to attack electricity substations in a white supremacist bid to sow national unrest pleaded guilty to providing material support to terrorism, the Justice Department announced Wednesday. Federal prosecutors in Ohio said the three planned to disrupt the electricity grid in order to sow civil unrest and economic uncertainty in furtherance of their white supremacist cohort. They hoped to cause unrest and trigger a race war, but the plot never really got past the planning stage, prosecutors said. Christopher Brenner Cook, 20, of Columbus, Ohio; Jonathan Allen Frost, 24, of West Lafayette, Indiana, and of Katy, Texas; and Jackson Matthew Sawall, 22, of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, pleaded guilty after initially claiming innocence."

Tasnim Ahmed & Aya Elamroussi of CNN: "Firearm deaths have overtaken car crashes are [as] the leading cause of death by trauma in the US, according to a new study. In 2017, there were 1.44 million years of potential life lost due to firearm deaths, edging out that of motor vehicle crashes (1.37 million years), according to the study published Tuesday in the journal Trauma Surgery and Acute Care Open. And that trend continued in 2018. Those numbers are based on data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention between 2009 and 2018, the most recent year for which data was [were!] available. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

The Pandemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Thursday are here.

The Washington Post's live updates of Covid-19 developments Wednesday are here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Beyond the Beltway

Illinois. Kim Bellware of the Washington Post: "Advocates for juvenile justice are calling for changes to the way police and schools handle arrests after the lawyer and family of an Illinois teenager said he was coerced into giving a false confession that led to him spending two days in lockup and charged with attempted murder. The attorney for Martell Williams, 15, said Waukegan police interrogated the teen for hours without his parents or a lawyer present and tried to bribe Williams with food from McDonald's in exchange for a confession; Williams caved after police promised he could go home once he confessed."

Kentucky. Giulia Heyward & Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs of the New York Times: "The only trial to emerge from the nighttime police raid that killed Breonna Taylor began on Wednesday, but the case centers not on an officer who shot her, but rather on a former police detective accused of recklessly endangering her neighbors by firing into their apartment in Louisville, Ky. Brett Hankison, who was fired several months after the March 2020 raid, is facing three charges of wanton endangerment after firing 10 shots during the operation. The former chief of the Louisville Metropolitan Police Department said that Mr. Hankison had fired 'blindly,' and that several bullets entered a neighbor's apartment, endangering the three people who were sleeping there: a pregnant woman, her husband and their 5-year-old child." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

North Carolina. Michael Wines of the New York Times: "A North Carolina court rejected a Republican-drawn map of the state's 14 congressional districts on Wednesday and substituted its own version, the second time in less than two weeks that a court in the state has invalidated a Republican House map as unconstitutionally partisan. The new map, drawn by a nonpartisan panel of four redistricting experts, appeared to split North Carolina's congressional districts roughly equally between Republicans and Democrats, in a state where voters are divided evenly along partisan lines. It gives each party six relatively safe House seats and makes the remaining two winnable by either side. The Republican-drawn map that was rejected would have awarded the G.O.P. six safe seats and Democrats four, leaving the remaining four as tossups.... Both sides said they would appeal aspects of the Superior Court decision to the State Supreme Court." ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Bryan Anderson of WRAL Raleigh: "The North Carolina Supreme Court late Wednesday upheld voting maps finalized earlier in the day by a trial court, a ruling likely to give Democrats a boost in this year's elections. The decision paves the way for candidate filing to resume Thursday after a long delay."

North Carolina. Kyle Cheney of Politico: "The North Carolina attorney general's office says a constitutional prohibition on insurrectionists seeking federal office could be applied to GOP Rep. Madison Cawthorn if a state board determines he aided or encouraged the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. In a late Monday court filing, state attorneys said a provision of the 14th Amendment -- disqualifying insurrectionists from holding federal office -- is not a defunct Civil War-era relic meant to apply only to former Confederates but a guard against future acts of insurrection. As a result, Cawthorn, who is fighting a challenge to his eligibility to run, could face that prohibition if the North Carolina State Board of Elections determines he meets the criteria, the state attorneys said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: If it works in North Carolina -- and it probably won't -- it could work elsewhere. Buh-bye, Jungle Gym Jordan.

Pennsylvania. Marc Levy & Mark Scolforo of the AP: "Pennsylvania's highest court broke a partisan deadlock Wednesday over a new map of congressional districts by selecting boundaries that broadly adhere to the outlines of current districts, even as the state loses one seat because of sluggish population growth. The Democratic-majority state Supreme Court in a 4-3 decision picked a 17-district map that had been proposed by a group of Democratic Party-aligned voters who sued last year in an effort to get the court involved. It is unlikely to create a big shift in the makeup of the congressional delegation...."

Texas. Jo Yurcaba of NBC News: “Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is calling on 'licensed professionals' and 'members of the general public' to report the parents of transgender minors to state authorities if it appears the minors are receiving gender-affirming medical care. The directive was part of a letter Abbott, a Republican, sent Tuesday to the Department of Family and Protective Services, calling on it to 'conduct a prompt and thorough investigation' of any reported instances of minors undergoing 'elective procedures for gender transitioning.' Abbott's letter follows an opinion released Monday by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, which stated that allowing minors to receive transition care such as puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgery is child abuse under state law. Paxton issued the opinion after the Legislature failed last year to pass a bill that would have made it a felony ... to provide such care to minors." A New York Times report is here.

Way Beyond

Canada. Nick Boisvert of CBC News: "Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is revoking the use of the Emergencies Act, the powerful legislative tool that was deployed in response to protests and blockades that erupted in Ottawa and at border crossings over recent weeks. 'The situation is no longer an emergency,' Trudeau told a news conference. 'We are confident that existing laws and bylaws are now sufficient to keep people safe.' The Governor General signed off on the revocation on Wednesday afternoon, which formally ended the state of emergency."

News Lede

New York Times:"Joe Tom Easley, the gay rights activist and lawyer who worked to repeal the military's 'don't ask, don't tell' policy and whose 2003 wedding was among the first same-sex unions announced in The New York Times, died on Feb. 13 at a hospital in Miami Beach. He was 81."

February 23, 2022

Afternoon Update:

Tasnim Ahmed & Aya Elamroussi of CNN: "Firearm deaths have overtaken car crashes are [as] the leading cause of death by trauma in the US, according to a new study. In 2017, there were 1.44 million years of potential life lost due to firearm deaths, edging out that of motor vehicle crashes (1.37 million years), according to the study published Tuesday in the journal Trauma Surgery and Acute Care Open. And that trend continued in 2018. Those numbers are based on data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention between 2009 and 2018, the most recent year for which data was [were!] available.

Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "... American Republicans view [Vladimir Putin] slightly more positively than they do leading Democratic officials. Between Putin and President Biden, it's a toss-up that leans in Putin's favor.... [Among Republicans,] Putin is viewed far less positively than is Trump -- but more positively than sitting Democratic leaders. Interestingly, only [President] Obama matches Putin's favorability among Republicans, certainly in part a function of his being out of office." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Here's a poll for you: Most Republicans are (a) reasonably intelligent; (b) somewhat stupid; (c) stupid; (d) very stupid; (e) extraordinarily stupid. Generally speaking, there can be no wrong answer in an opinion poll. This poll is the exception.

William Saletan, now of the Bulwark: "Eighty years ago, when a dictator rose to power in Europe and invaded his neighbors, he found an ally in the United States. The dictator was Adolf Hitler, and his ally was Charles Coughlin, a popular radio host. Coughlin belittled democracy, defended the Nazis, and opposed America's entry into the war, arguing that the movement to enlist the United States was a conspiracy on behalf of a sinister minority: Jews. Today, a new demagogue has taken up Coughlin's mantle: Fox News host Tucker Carlson. Like Coughlin, Carlson has spewed venom for years. And, like Coughlin, he has gradually made his treachery, nihilism, and bigotry unmistakable. To begin with, Carlson mocked the idea that rolling tanks into another country was wrong.... Carlson downplayed the putative moral differences between Russia, Ukraine, Canada, and the United States." MB: Yeah, TuKKKer, I'm now convinced the U.S. military should annex Ottawa, Toronto & Montreal.

The Washington Post's live updates of Covid-19 developments Wednesday are here.

Kyle Cheney of Politico: "The North Carolina attorney general's office says a constitutional prohibition on insurrectionists seeking federal office could be applied to GOP Rep. Madison Cawthorn if a state board determines he aided or encouraged the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. In a late Monday court filing, state attorneys said a provision of the 14th Amendment -- disqualifying insurrectionists from holding federal office -- is not a defunct Civil War-era relic meant to apply only to former Confederates but a guard against future acts of insurrection. As a result, Cawthorn, who is fighting a challenge to his eligibility to run, could face that prohibition if the North Carolina State Board of Elections determines he meets the criteria, the state attorneys said." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: If it works in North Carolina -- and it probably won't -- it could work elsewhere. Buh-bye, Jungle Gym Jordan.

Giulia Heyward & Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs of the New York Times: "The only trial to emerge from the nighttime police raid that killed Breonna Taylor began on Wednesday, but the case centers not on an officer who shot her, but rather on a former police detective accused of recklessly endangering her neighbors by firing into their apartment in Louisville, Ky. Brett Hankison, who was fired several months after the March 2020 raid, is facing three charges of wanton endangerment after firing 10 shots during the operation. The former chief of the Louisville Metropolitan Police Department said that Mr. Hankison had fired 'blindly,' and that several bullets entered a neighbor's apartment, endangering the three people who were sleeping there: a pregnant woman, her husband and their 5-year-old child."

~~~~~~~~~~

The New York Times' live updates of developments in the Ukraine/Russia crisis are here. The Washington Post's live updates are here. The Guardian's live updates are here.

Michael Shear, et al., of the New York Times: "The United States and its allies on Tuesday swiftly imposed economic sanctions on Russia for what President Biden denounced as the beginning of an 'invasion of Ukraine,' unveiling a set of coordinated punishments as Western officials confirmed that Russian forces had begun crossing the Ukrainian border. Speaking from the White House, Mr. Biden condemned President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and said the immediate consequences for his aggression against Ukraine included the loss of a key natural gas pipeline and cutting off global financing to two Russian banks and a handful of the country's elites. 'Who in the Lords name does Putin think gives him the right to declare new so-called countries on territory that belonged to his neighbors?' Mr. Biden said on Tuesday afternoon, joining a cascade of criticism from global leaders earlier in the day. 'This is a flagrant violation of international law and demands a firm response from the international community.'" ~~~

~~~ Vladimir Isachenkov, et al., of the AP: "President Joe Biden announced the U.S. was ordering heavy financial sanctions against Russian banks and oligarchs on Tuesday, declaring that Moscow had flagrantly violated international law in what he called the 'beginning of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.' 'None of us will be fooled' by Russian President Vladimir Putin's claims about Ukraine, the U.S. President said. And he said more sanctions could be on the way if Putin proceeds further." (Also linked yesterday.) The Washington Post's report is here.

     ~~~ A transcript of the as-delivered speech, provided by the White House, is here.

Jeremy Herb, et al., of CNN: "US Secretary of State Antony Blinken canceled a planned meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Geneva this week, he announced Tuesday, in the latest sign that diplomatic avenues with Russia over Ukraine are quickly closing. 'Now that we see the invasion is beginning and Russia has made clear its wholesale rejection of diplomacy, it does not make sense to go forward with that meeting at this time,' Blinken said at the State Department on Tuesday. 'I consulted with our allies and partners -- all agree.'"

The Resistance. Emma Graham-Harrison of the Guardian: "If Russian forces try to take new territory in Ukraine, they will face an army that is far smaller and less well equipped than their own but hardened by eight years of fighting. Nearly a decade of war has also left Ukraine with nearly half a million combat-experienced veterans, many now preparing to fight again, officially or unofficially. That combination, and the sheer size of Ukrainian territory, means that even if Russia can outgun Ukrainian forces on a conventional battlefield, any military clash could lead to a protracted and bloody partisan conflict."

Katie Rogers of the New York Times: "President Biden has interviewed at least three candidates for his Supreme Court nomination, a signal that he intends to fulfill his promise that he would choose a nominee by the end of the month.... The interviews began late last week, according to several people familiar with the process.... The White House emphasized on Tuesday that Mr. Biden had not made a decision but remained on track to make one before month's end." The three candidates whom the President interviewed were D.C. Appeals Court Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, California State Supreme Court Justice Leondra R. Kruger, and federal District court Judge J. Michelle Childs.

John Wagner & Amy Wang of the Washington Post: "President Biden hosted a virtual event Tuesday with California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), among others, to announce new domestic investments in minerals key to production of goods such as computers and household appliances. The afternoon event marked Biden's latest attempt to show his administration is addressing supply chain challenges that became more prevalent during the coronavirus pandemic and that Biden has blamed for inflation woes dogging his presidency -- a claim disputed by some economists.... Tuesday's event included multiple announcements...."

Joshua Partlow of the Washington Post: "The Biden administration on Tuesday said it found 'significant deficiencies' in a Trump-era environmental analysis of a controversial mining road that would cut through wilderness and Indigenous territory in northwest Alaska. The construction of Ambler Road is one of the most high-profile environmental issues in Alaska, as it would bring 211 miles of new road through one of the largest roadless areas in the country. The Interior Department said in a statement that the road proposal -- which includes about 50 miles of Bureau of Land Management and National Park Service land -- would cross the traditional homelands of Alaska Native communities including the Koyukon, Tanana Athabascans and Iñupiat peoples. In a federal court filing Tuesday, the administration asked the U.S. District Court for Alaska to send the permit approval back to the department so it can conduct a new environmental analysis. Interior said that it would suspend the right of way for the road while it carried out the new assessment 'to ensure that no ground-disturbing activity takes place that could potentially impact the resources in question.'"

Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post: "Attorney General Merrick Garland on Tuesday addressed for the first time the discovery of classified material in boxes of documents taken to ... Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence, confirming the Justice Department has been in discussions with the National Archives about the matter but stopping short of promising a full investigation. Asked if the department would investigate how the boxes got to Mar-a-Lago, Garland said: 'As the archivist said in a letter that was sent to the Congress, the National Archives has informed the Justice Department of this and communicated with it. And we will do what we always do under these circumstances -- look at the facts and the law and take it from there.'"

Ashraf Khalil & and Lolita Baldor of the AP: "The Pentagon has approved the deployment of 700 unarmed National Guard troops to the nation's capital as it prepares for trucker convoys that are planning protests against pandemic restrictions beginning next week. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin approved the request Tuesday from the District of Columbia government and the U.S. Capitol Police, the Pentagon said in a statement Tuesday night. The troops would be used to assist with traffic control during demonstrations expected in the city in the coming days, the Pentagon said. Four hundred Guard members from the District of Columbia Guard will be joined by 300 Guard members from other states, according to the statement. Guard members will not carry firearms or take part in law enforcement or domestic-surveillance activities, the Pentagon said."

Senate Races. Rick Scott's Bright Idea: New Taxes for Poor People. Michael Rainey of Yahoo! Finance: "Senate Republican leaders have made it clear that they aren't interested in detailing their plans if they win control of Congress in the midterms elections.... Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, who chairs the National Republican Senatorial Committee, apparently has a different view. Scott has released an 11-point, 31-page plan laying out the conservative agenda.... The plan is heavy on culture war controversies and traditional right-wing talking points.... But Scott also proposes dramatic cuts to the federal government and calls for cutting the government workforce by 25% in five years.... Scott pairs his call for smaller government with a call for tax increases on millions of lower-income Americans.... 'Taken as a whole,' [the Washington Post's Jennifer] Rubin says, 'the agenda ... is ... a frightful expression of White grievance and contempt for the intelligence of voters. And it confirms what we have long suspected: Republicans don't lack an agenda; they're just shy about revealing how unpopular it is.'"

Many Americans may have shuddered & asked themselves in recent weeks, "What would Donald do?" about Russia's aggressive military threats to Ukraine. Well, the former American Traitor-in-Chief revealed his own aberrant thoughts Tuesday on Vlad the Invader's actions against Ukraine's eastern regions: ~~~

~~~ "This Is Genius." Ben Adler of Yahoo! News: "... Donald Trump on Tuesday praised Russian President Vladimir Putin's decision to send Russian troops into Ukraine to support Russian-backed separatists in the Luhansk and Donetsk provinces. In an appearance on the right-wing talk radio program 'The Buck Sexton Show,' ... 'This is genius,' [Trump] said.... 'So Putin is now saying it's independent -- a large section of Ukraine. I said, how smart is that? And he's gonna go in and be a peacekeeper. We could use that on our southern border. That's the strongest peace force I've ever seen. There were more army tanks than I've ever seen. They're gonna keep peace, all right.'" MB: IOW, had he still been president*, Donald Trump's response to the Ukraine crisis would have been completely contrary to the best interests of the U.S., of Ukraine, of Europe and of Western liberal democracy. ~~~

     ~~~ AND Let's Ask Mikey. Michael Wilner of the Kansas City Star: "Of all the former secretaries of state under Democratic and Republican presidents, only one is taking to cable news and social media during a moment of peril in Europe to praise Russian President Vladimir Putin and chastise the Biden administration. Mike Pompeo has lauded the Russian strongman over the past month as a 'talented,' 'savvy,' 'capable statesman,' offering his praise during a slew of interviews after his political action committee spent $30,000 on improving his performance in media appearances. 'He is a very talented statesman. He has lots of gifts,' Pompeo told Fox News in January. 'He was a KGB agent, for goodness sakes. He knows how to use power. We should respect that.'... Pompeo has been visiting key primary states ahead of a potential run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024." Firewalled. ~~~

     ~~~ AND This Punk. Jake Thomas of Newsweek: "The Kansas City Star is accusing Missouri Republican Senator Josh Hawley of being a 'disgraceful voice of appeasement' in the run-up to Russia's invasion of eastern Ukraine. The Missouri-based regional newspaper on Tuesday published a withering editorial that placed Hawley among other conservative media and political figures who 'have demonstrated unseemly fealty' to Russia's autocratic president, Vladimir Putin. The editorial added, 'Few, though, have been as enthusiastic as our junior senator.'... 'His public two-step about the Russian threat -- amplified by countless tweets and television appearances -- has clearly provided aid and comfort to Putin and hard-liners in Russia,' reads the editorial." Both the Newsweek story & the KCS editorial are firewalled.

This Is Genius. Drew Harwell of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump, a longtime critic of how Democrats debuted Healthcare.gov, is facing a bungled website launch of his own. His long-promised social network, Truth Social, has been almost entirely inaccessible in the first days of its grand debut because of technical glitches, a 13-hour outage and a 300,000-person waitlist.... The site had been heralded for months as the crown jewel of Trump's post-presidential business ambitions, with allies pledging it would revolutionize social media and take down the mainstream social networks where Trump is banned.... The site's early struggles also have fueled doubts that Trump's company will be able to handle tougher long-term challenges, such as policing for dangerous content and guarding against cyberattacks.... The site's problems extend beyond its waitlist: Its logo -- a broken capital 'T' with a period -- is identical to the logo of Trailar, a British seller of truck solar panels." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: For someone with a Very Good Brain, it's odd that everything he touches turns to crap.

Fuhgeddaboudit. John Kruzel of the Hill: "The Supreme Court on Tuesday turned away an appeal by former President Trump in his dispute with congressional investigators who have sought access to Trump-era records as part of a House panel's investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. The court's move, which came in a brief unsigned order issued without comment, comes after the justices denied Trump's emergency request to block the transfer of his White House records from the National Archives to the House select committee, a process that began last month. Tuesday's development formally ends Trump's legal effort to stymie lawmakers' efforts to obtain a batch of schedules, call logs, emails and other requested documents that the committee says could illuminate key circumstances surrounding the deadly Capitol riot." (Also linked yesterday.)

Hugo Lowell of the Guardian: "Donald Trump's former attorney Rudy Giuliani is expected to cooperate with the House select committee investigating January 6, and potentially reveal his contacts with Republican members of Congress involved in the former president's effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election. The move by Giuliani to appear before the panel -- in a cooperation deal that could be agreed within weeks, according to two sources briefed on negotiations -- could mark a breakthrough moment for the inquiry.... Broadly, Giuliani has indicated through his lawyer to the select committee that he will produce documents and answer questions about Trump's schemes to return himself to office on 6 January that House investigators had outlined in a subpoena issued to him last month." ~~~

     ~~~ Rudy's Last Hurrah? Marie: I'd guess that Rudy, who never saw a mic that didn't attract him (even if it was in a landscaping company parking lot), is missing all the attention he got while perpetuating the Big Lie and wants to star in anticipated public hearings.

Ian Millhiser of Vox: :In the past few years, the Supreme Court danced around the question of whether religious conservatives have a constitutional right to violate anti-discrimination laws -- and specifically laws prohibiting discrimination against LGBTQ people. Now, it appears ready to come out and say that at least some businesses have a constitutional right to discriminate. On Tuesday, the Court announced that it will hear 303 Creative v. Elenis, a case that is likely to give at least some businesses a right to openly refuse services to LGBTQ customers.... 303 Creative ... involves a web design company owned by a woman named Lorie Smith, who refuses to create websites celebrating same-sex weddings. She claims that 'doing that would compromise my Christian witness and tell a story about marriage that contradicts God's true story of marriage.'... She wants the Supreme Court to give her license to design wedding websites for opposite-sex couples -- and only for opposite-sex couples.... At the very least, 303 Creative could give people in creative professions a sweeping new right to discriminate."

Danny Hakim & Jo Becker in the New York Times Magazine on how Ginni & Clarence Thomas are working to turn the country to the far-right. "Ginni Thomas insists ... that she and her husband operate in 'separate professional lanes,' but those lanes in fact merge with notable frequency. For the three decades he has sat on the Supreme Court, they have worked in tandem from the bench and the political trenches to take aim at targets like Roe v. Wade and affirmative action. Together they believe that 'America is in a vicious battle for its founding principles,' as Ginni Thomas has put it. Her views, once seen as on the fringe, have come to dominate the Republican Party."

Andrew Das of the New York Times: "A six-year fight over equal pay that had pitted key members of the World Cup-winning United States women's soccer team against their sport's national governing body ended on Tuesday morning with a settlement that included a multimillion-dollar payment to the players and a promise by their federation to equalize pay between the men's and women's national teams. Under the terms of the agreement, the athletes -- a group consisting of several dozen current and former women's national team players -- will share $24 million in payments from the federation, U.S. Soccer. The bulk of that figure is back pay, a tacit admission that compensation for the men's and women's teams had been unequal for years." (Also linked yesterday.)

Bill Pennington of the New York Times: "Phil Mickelson on Tuesday said he regretted his recent comments in support of a breakaway golf tour backed by Saudi Arabia and suggested he might take a leave from the golf course.... In an interview for an unauthorized biography to be released in May, Mickelson told the journalist Alan Shipnuck, the book's author, that he knew of the kingdom's 'horrible record on human rights,' but said he was willing to help the new league because it was a 'once-in-a-lifetime opportunity' to dramatically increase the income of PGA Tour players. In a story posted last week on The Firepit Collective, a golf website, Shipnuck quoted Mickelson, a six-time major golf champion, as saying the Saudi authorities were 'scary' and using a profanity to describe them.... Mickelson's comments spurred a vociferous backlash from the highest-ranking players on the PGA Tour, almost all of whom have publicly rebuffed the new, alternative league." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Pro golfers may have realized that working for a murderous kingdom was beneath them. But that has not occurred to well-known scumbag entrepreneur Donald J. Trump (WashPo link).

The Pandemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments are here.

The Washington Post's live updates of Covid-19 developments Tuesday are here. (Also linked yesterday.) The New York Times' live Covid-19 updates for Tuesday are here.

New Zealand. Pete McKenzie of the New York Times: "Hundreds of demonstrators opposed to New Zealand's Covid-19 vaccine mandate are in their third week of encampment in Wellington[, the capital], erecting tents, illegally parking vehicles and establishing communal kitchens and toilets in a deliberate echo of the Canadian siege. Initially, the New Zealand occupation had a carnival atmosphere, with a popcorn stand and a doughnut truck and a number of children brought in by their parents. New Zealanders joked that it was the country's only Omicron-era music festival.... In recent days, however, after the police moved to evict some protesters, the demonstration has grown more violent. On Monday, protesters threw feces at the police. On Tuesday, a driver tried to ram a car into a large group of officers, and three other members of the force required medical attention after protesters sprayed them with what a police statement called a 'stinging substance.'"

Beyond the Beltway

Georgia. Russ Bynum of the AP: "The three men convicted of murder in Ahmaud Arbery's fatal shooting were found guilty of federal hate crimes Tuesday for violating Arbery's civil rights and targeting him because he was Black. The jury reached its decision after several hours of deliberation on the charges against father and son Greg and Travis McMichael and neighbor William 'Roddie' Bryan. During the trial, prosecutors showed roughly two dozen text messages and social media posts in which Travis McMichael and Bryan used racist slurs and made derogatory comments about Black people. The FBI wasn't able to access Greg McMichael's phone because it was encrypted. The McMichaels grabbed guns and jumped in a pickup truck to pursue Arbery after seeing him running in their neighborhood outside the Georgia port city of Brunswick in February 2020. Bryan joined the pursuit in his own pickup and recorded cellphone video of Travis McMichael fatally shooting Arbery." (Also linked yesterday.) The New York Times report is here.

Kentucky. Joe Drape of the New York Times: "Medina Spirit is no longer the winner of the 2021 Kentucky Derby. The colt, who died unexpectedly in December, was officially disqualified by Kentucky racing officials on Monday for failing a drug test after winning the race.... The ruling also erased the Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert's seventh Kentucky Derby victory, which had been a record. In addition, Baffert was suspended for 90 days beginning March 8 and fined $7,500." (Also linked yesterday.)

Michigan/Wisconsin. Adam Zagoria of the New York Times: "After slapping an assistant coach for the Wisconsin men's basketball team in the head in the handshake line after his team's loss on Sunday, Michigan Coach Juwan Howard was suspended for five games -- the remainder of the regular season -- and fined $40,000, the Big Ten Conference announced on Monday. He will be eligible to return for the conference tournament. In a statement on Monday, Howard apologized for the first time. 'After taking time to reflect on all that happened, I realize how unacceptable both my actions and words were, and how they affected so many,' Howard said in the statement. 'I am truly sorry.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

Minnesota. Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs of the New York Times: "... jurors on Wednesday will begin deliberating whether any of the three officers [involved in the murder of George Floyd] -- Tou Thao, 36; J. Alexander Kueng, 28; and Thomas Lane, 38 -- are guilty of violating Mr. Floyd's civil rights."

02-22-2022*

*AND, as Bobby Lee notes, Twosday.

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Vladimir Isachenkov, et al., of the AP: "President Joe Biden announced the U.S. was ordering heavy financial sanctions against Russian banks and oligarchs on Tuesday, declaring that Moscow had flagrantly violated international law in what he called the 'beginning of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.' 'None of us will be fooled' by Russian President Vladimir Putin's claims about Ukraine, the U.S. President said. And he said more sanctions could be on the way if Putin proceeds further."

Andrew Das of the New York Times: "A six-year fight over equal pay that had pitted key members of the World Cup-winning United States women's soccer team against their sport's national governing body ended on Tuesday morning with a settlement that included a multimillion-dollar payment to the players and a promise by their federation to equalize pay between the men's and women's national teams. Under the terms of the agreement, the athletes -- a group consisting of several dozen current and former women's national team players -- will share $24 million in payments from the federation, U.S. Soccer. The bulk of that figure is back pay, a tacit admission that compensation for the men's and women's teams had been unequal for years."

Joe Drape of the New York Times: "Medina Spirit is no longer the winner of the 2021 Kentucky Derby. The colt, who died unexpectedly in December, was officially disqualified by Kentucky racing officials on Monday for failing a drug test after winning the race.... The ruling also erased the Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert's seventh Kentucky Derby victory, which had been a record. In addition, Baffert was suspended for 90 days beginning March 8 and fined $7,500."

Fuhgeddaboudit. John Kruzel of the Hill: "The Supreme Court on Tuesday turned away an appeal by former President Trump in his dispute with congressional investigators who have sought access to Trump-era records as part of a House panel's investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. The court's move, which came in a brief unsigned order issued without comment, comes after the justices denied Trump's emergency request to block the transfer of his White House records from the National Archives to the House select committee, a process that began last month. Tuesday's development formally ends Trump's legal effort to stymie lawmakers' efforts to obtain a batch of schedules, call logs, emails and other requested documents that the committee says could illuminate key circumstances surrounding the deadly Capitol riot."

The Washington Post's live updates of Covid-19 developments Tuesday are here.

Russ Bynum of the AP: "The three men convicted of murder in Ahmaud Arbery's fatal shooting were found guilty of federal hate crimes Tuesday for violating Arbery's civil rights and targeting him because he was Black. The jury reached its decision after several hours of deliberation on the charges against father and son Greg and Travis McMichael and neighbor William 'Roddie' Bryan. During the trial, prosecutors showed roughly two dozen text messages and social media posts in which Travis McMichael and Bryan used racist slurs and made derogatory comments about Black people. The FBI wasn't able to access Greg McMichael's phone because it was encrypted. The McMichaels grabbed guns and jumped in a pickup truck to pursue Arbery after seeing him running in their neighborhood outside the Georgia port city of Brunswick in February 2020. Bryan joined the pursuit in his own pickup and recorded cellphone video of Travis McMichael fatally shooting Arbery."

Adam Zagoria of the New York Times: "After slapping an assistant coach for the Wisconsin men's basketball team in the head in the handshake line after his team's loss on Sunday, Michigan Coach Juwan Howard was suspended for five games -- the remainder of the regular season -- and fined $40,000, the Big Ten Conference announced on Monday. He will be eligible to return for the conference tournament. In a statement on Monday, Howard apologized for the first time. 'After taking time to reflect on all that happened, I realize how unacceptable both my actions and words were, and how they affected so many,' Howard said in the statement. 'I am truly sorry.'"

~~~~~~~~~~

The New York Times' live updates of developments in the Ukraine/Russia crisis are here: "The United States and allied nations sought to isolate Russia on Monday at an emergency United Nations Security Council meeting over the Ukraine crisis, calling Moscow's recognition of two separatist regions and the deployment of Russian troops a blunt defiance of international law that risks war. The unusual late-evening meeting of the Council was requested by Ukraine after President Vladimir V. Putin ordered troops into the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics, escalating a conflict that Western officials warn could explode into one of the biggest armed clashes in Europe since World War II." ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live updates of the Ukraine/Russia crisis are here: "The United States and its allies are gearing up to impose a fresh set of sanctions on Russia Tuesday after Moscow formally recognized two breakaway enclaves in eastern Ukraine and sent so-called peacekeeping troops there Monday, in a move that the West fears could create a pretext for a wider invasion of Kyiv. Russia's maneuvers appeared to be increasingly out of step with world opinion, and were sharply rebuked by several nations at a hastily convened meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Monday night. The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of wanting the world to 'travel back in time to a time before the United Nations -- to a time when empires ruled the world,' and testing the international rules-based system." ~~~

     ~~~ The Guardian's live updates are here.

Myah Ward of Politico: "President Joe Biden on Monday issued an executive order sanctioning Russia for recognizing two breakaway territories in eastern Ukraine as independent.... Biden's executive order will 'prohibit new investment, trade, and financing by U.S. persons to, from, or in the so-called DNR and LNR regions of Ukraine' as well as 'provide authority to impose sanctions on any person determined to operate in those areas of Ukraine,' [press secretary Jen] Psaki said in a statement....'... these measures are separate from and would be in addition to the swift and severe economic measures we have been preparing in coordination with Allies and partners should Russia further invade Ukraine,' the White House said."

Foster Klug of the AP: "World leaders scrambled Tuesday to condemn Russian President Vladimir Putin -- and to signal possible sanctions -- after he ordered his forces into separatist regions of eastern Ukraine. While Russia's troop movements were still not clear, leaders in Asia and elsewhere voiced strong support for Ukraine's sovereignty, along with worries about how a European war could hurt global and local economies and endanger foreign nationals trapped in Ukraine.... China, a traditional ally of Russia, sounded a cautious note, calling for restraint and a diplomatic solution to the crisis."

Monique Beals of the Hill: "Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday that he would not concede his country's land despite escalating tensions with Russia amid the possibility of an invasion. 'We are committed to the peaceful and diplomatic path, we will follow it and only it,' Zelensky said, according to Reuters. 'But we are on our own land, we are not afraid of anything and anybody, we owe nothing to no one, and we will give nothing to no one.' The president also accused Moscow of violating Ukraine's sovereign territory and called for an emergency meeting of the leaders from Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France as well as support from Ukraine's allies, Reuters reported."

Ivana Kottasová, et al., of CNN: "Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered troops into separatist-held parts of eastern Ukraine in what the Kremlin called a 'peacekeeping' mission, just hours after he signed decrees recognizing the independence of the Moscow-backed regions. It is unclear if Russian troop movements marked the beginning of an invasion of Ukraine that Western leaders have warned about for weeks. But multiple US and Western officials cautioned Monday's move could serve as the opening salvo of a larger military operation targeting the country."

Robyn Dixon, et al., of the Washington Post: "Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday recognized the independence of two Moscow-backed separatist regions in eastern Ukraine and ordered Russian forces onto their territory for 'peacekeeping' purposes, a dramatic escalation in a crisis that is threatening a full-scale war. Putin's action -- in direct defiance of U.S. and European warnings -- was swiftly condemned by Washington and Brussels, with top officials promising sanctions in response to the recognition of the self-declared republics. Secretary of State Antony Blinken decried the recognition as 'a clear attack on Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity.' But amid reports of Russian military columns already appearing in the breakaway territories late Monday, the White House stopped short of announcing the full-fledged sanctions that President Biden had said Russia would face in the event of an invasion."

The New York Times has maps of Ukraine's Donetsk and Luhansk regions here.

Vladimir Isachenkov, et al., of the AP: "A long-feared Russian invasion of Ukraine appeared to be imminent Monday, if not already underway, with Russian President Vladimir Putin ordering forces into separatist regions of eastern Ukraine. A vaguely worded decree signed by Putin did not say if troops were on the move, and it cast the order as an effort to 'maintain peace.' But it appeared to dash the slim remaining hopes of averting a major conflict in Europe that could cause massive casualties, energy shortages on the continent and economic chaos around the globe." This is an update of a story linked yesterday afternoon. ~~~

     ~~~~ Earlier Lede: Russian President Vladimir Putin said he will decide later Monday whether to recognize the independence of separatist regions in eastern Ukraine, a move that would ratchet up tensions with the West amid fears that Moscow could launch an invasion of Ukraine imminently. At the carefully orchestrated, pre-recorded meeting of the presidential Security Council, a stream of top Russian officials argued for recognizing the separatist regions' independence, though some suggested Putin didn't have to do it immediately. It came amid a spike in skirmishes in those regions that Western powers believe Russia could use as a pretext for an attack on the western-looking democracy that has defied Moscow's attempts to pull it back into its orbit." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Sorta like the U.S. noting that there are many English-speaking people living in Toronto, Ottawa & Montreal, so we'll just "recognize-by-force" that region of Canada as an "independent nation" allied with the U.S. Too bad, Canada, our military is bigger than your military.

Monique Beals of the Hill: "Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced on Monday that the State Department would be relocating its embassy operations to Poland from Ukraine amid a possible invasion by Russia.... Blinken said in a statement ... that the U.S. commitment to Ukraine remained 'unwavering.'"

Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post: Putin is missing his puppet Donald Trump. "With President Biden leading the response, Putin's potential costs are rising -- while his hoped-for benefits have evaporated.... His threat to invade has not divided and weakened the Western alliance. Thanks largely to Biden, it has had the opposite effect.... Contrast [Biden's actions] with what possibly, or probably, would have happened had Trump still been in office. His 'America First' foreign policy was infused with a heavy dose of the kind of neo-isolationism that is nightly given voice by Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who argues that Putin is justified in insisting that Ukraine be firmly within Russia's orbit and never join NATO."

Another Democratic President Cleans Up Mess Left by Republican President*. Nick Miroff of the Washington Post: "In the year since President Biden halted border wall construction, his administration has been developing plans to put its own stamp on Trump's pet project.... In recent weeks, CBP officials have been soliciting input from ranchers, environmental advocates, landowners and others as the Biden administration prepares to spend hundreds of millions for border wall remediation. The money, which will include unused construction funds, will go to clean up worksites, stabilize areas facing erosion and remedy some of the worst environmental damage, while also allowing CBP to close gaps in the wall. The precise details -- where and how much money -- remain undefined." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Devin Nunes Is in Charge. What Could Go Wrong? Matthew Chapman of the Raw Story: "'Truth Social, the Trump-created Twitter alternative, went live in Apple's App Store on Sunday night, and would-be users immediately ran into glitches and error messages, [the Daily Beast reported]. 'Around 11 p.m. ET, select users who tried to create accounts were repeatedly met with a red error warning: "Something went wrong. Please try again." Shortly thereafter, around midnight, others were told told...: "Due to massive demand, we have placed you on our waitlist."'... Former Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA), now heading up ... Donald Trump's just-launched Twitter competitor 'Truth Social' is saying he hopes to have all of the problems in the service fixed by late March." The Beast story, which is firewalled, is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

The Pandemic, Ctd.

Apoorva Mandavilli of the New York Times: "Three doses of a Covid vaccine -- or even just two -- are enough to protect most people from serious illness and death for a long time..., a flurry of new ... studies suggest[s].... The Omicron variant can dodge antibodies -- immune molecules that prevent the virus from infecting cells -- produced after two doses of a Covid vaccine. But a third shot of the mRNA vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech or by Moderna prompts the body to make a much wider variety of antibodies, which would be difficult for any variant of the virus to evade, according to the most recent study, posted online on Tuesday. The diverse repertoire of antibodies produced should be able to protect people from new variants, even those that differ significantly from the original version of the virus, the study suggests."

Beyond the Beltway

Florida. Say What? WHAT? Sam Sachs of WFLA Tampa: "A new amendment to Florida's so-called 'Don't Say Gay' bill would explicitly require schools to inform parents of their child's sexual orientation, and put a deadline on how soon they must tell the family. The amendment filed by bill sponsor Rep. Joe Harding, R-Williston, on Feb. 18 changes the bill to instead not only require disclosure, but requires schools to tell parents within six weeks of learning the student is any sexual orientation other than straight.... As written, the amendment does not specify how the mental, emotional, and physical well-being of the student would be protected...."

Georgia. Tariro Mzezewa & Richard Fausset of the New York Times: "A federal prosecutor in the hate crimes trial for the three white men who murdered Ahmaud Arbery told the jury in closing arguments on Monday that the defendants had targeted Mr. Arbery because of his race and did not help him after he was shot because they considered him to be 'subhuman.'... On Monday afternoon, a jury began deliberating on whether the five-minute pursuit, which ended in the fatal shooting of Mr. Arbery, amounted to a crime of interfering with his right to use public streets because of his 'race and color,' as an indictment put it."

Minnesota. Tim Arango of the New York Times: "The defense cases in the federal trial of three former Minneapolis police officers accused of crimes in the death of George Floyd concluded on Monday with a common theme: that they were not guilty because their training led them to trust the senior officer at the scene, Derek Chauvin, who pressed his knee to the neck of Mr. Floyd for more than nine minutes until he stopped breathing. The three former officers -- Tou Thao, 36; J. Alexander Kueng, 28; and Thomas Lane, 38 -- are accused of violating Mr. Floyd's constitutional rights by not intervening against Mr. Chauvin and by failing to provide Mr. Floyd with medical care. All three testified in their own defense."

News Ledes

New York Times: "Paul Farmer, a physician, anthropologist and humanitarian who gained global acclaim for his work delivering high-quality health care to some of the world's poorest people, died on Monday on the grounds of a hospital and university he had helped establish in Butaro, Rwanda. He was 62. Partners in Health, the global public health organization that Dr. Farmer helped found, announced his death in a statement that did not specify the cause." ~~~

~~~ John Green, in a Washington Post op-ed, remembers Paul Farmer. and how he "saved millions of lives."