April 3, 2022

Afternoon Update:

Jeff Stein & John Hudson of the New York Times: "Biden administration officials have discussed intensifying their sanctions campaign against Russia as evidence emerges of the apparent execution of civilians in a suburb near Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, according to two people familiar with the matter.... The scope of the potential U.S. retaliatory measures was not exactly clear, but senior Biden officials have previously discussed potentially devastating 'secondary sanctions' that would target countries that continue to trade with Russia. The Biden administration could also impose sanctions on sectors of the Russian economy that it has not hit so far, including mining, transportation and additional areas of the Russian financial sector.... Officials stressed that planning was preliminary and no decisions had been made about potential responses."

Oleksandr Stashevskyi of the AP: "Bodies with bound hands, close-range gunshot wounds and signs of torture lay scattered in [Bucha,] a city on the outskirts of Kyiv after Russian soldiers withdrew from the area. Ukrainian authorities on Sunday accused the departing forces of committing war crimes and leaving behind a 'scene from a horror movie.' As images of the bodies -- of people whom residents said were killed indiscriminately -- began to emerge from Bucha, a slew of European leaders condemned the atrocities and called for tougher sanctions against Moscow.... Russia's Defense Ministry rejected the accusations as 'provocation.'" The New York Times story, from its live updates, is here. ~~~

~~~ Annabelle Timsit & Jennifer Hassan of the Washington Post: "Ukrainian officials said they have asked the International Criminal Court (ICC) to visit the mass graves seen in Bucha, a suburb northwest of Kyiv, so experts can gather evidence of possible Russian war crimes. The request comes as Kyiv's mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said the discovery of the graves -- made as Ukrainian troops recaptured territory and Russian forces pulled back from towns they had seized in the war's earliest days -- could 'only be described as genocide.'... Ukraine's foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, in a tweet Sunday accusing Russia of carrying out a 'massacre,' requested that the ICC visit the scene 'to collect all the evidence of these war crimes' and use it to prosecute those responsible.'" ~~~

~~~ Sam Sokol & Jonathan Lis of Haaretz: "Israel's ambassador to Ukraine denounced the killing of civilians in a Kyiv suburb as a 'war crime' on Sunday, in a break from the more restrained rhetoric exhibited by Israeli officials since Russia invaded the former Soviet republic just over a month ago. 'Deeply shocked by the photos from #Bucha. Killing of civilians is a war crime and cannot be justified,' Ambassador Michael Brodsky tweeted on Sunday morning, using the hashtag #UkraineRussiaWar."

Eddy Wax of Politico: "Ninety years ago, Joseph Stalin's Soviet regime inflicted a devastating famine on Ukraine, killing 3.9 million people in what became known as the Holodomor, or genocide by hunger. Now Vladimir Putin, whose invasion has stalled on the battlefield, is trying to starve Ukraine into submission again. Russian troops have laid waste to farmland, destroying agricultural equipment and planting landmines in the rich soil where crops should grow. Ukraine's traditional supply routes have been wrecked, its ports now under Russian control. In the besieged city of Mariupol -- where 170,000 people are still struggling to survive -- food had virtually run out by March 13. Aid convoys have not made it through."

Justin Gomez of ABC News: "White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain is warning that Russia's invasion of Ukraine is 'far from over,' despite the claim by Moscow that they are retreating from Kyiv and surrounding areas. 'I think there's a lot of evidence that Putin is simply taking his troops out of the northern part of the country to redeploy them to the eastern part of the country to relaunch a battle there,' Klain said during an ... interview with ABC 'This Week' anchor George Stephanopoulos."

Cora Engelbrecht of the New York Times: "A Lithuanian documentary filmmaker has been killed in the besieged southern city of Mariupol, according to his colleagues and the Ukrainian Defense Ministry's information agency. The agency said on Sunday that the award-winning filmmaker, Mantas Kvedaravicius, had been killed in an attack by Russia 'while trying to leave Mariupol."

Tom Friedman of the New York Times has a thought that's actually worth passing through your brain: "... I'm beginning to wonder if this conflict isn't our first true world war -- much more than World War I or World War II ever were. In this war, which I think of as 'World War Wired,' virtually everyone on the planet can either observe the fighting at a granular level, participate in some way or be affected economically -- no matter where they live.... Though this war is far from over, and Vladimir Putin may still find a way to prevail and come out stronger, if he doesn't, it could be a watershed in the conflict between democratic and undemocratic systems. It is worth recalling that World War II put an end to fascism, and that the Cold War put an end to orthodox communism, eventually even in China. So, what happens on the streets of Kyiv, Mariupol and the Donbas region could influence political systems far beyond Ukraine and far into the future."

This guy's head is stuffed with more crap than his pillows. And by the way, I was told not to say this, but I will: His stuff is crap. I mean, it's absolute crap. You only find that kind of stuff in the Trump Hotel. -- Gov. Chris Sununu (R-N.H.) on Mike Lindell ~~~

I was especially stunned that Madison Cawthorn and Matt Gaetz weren't here, because nobody loves a good party more than those guys do. And so, I called Madison up to say, 'What's up, dude?" And it turns out, it was a simple scheduling conflict: The Republicans have their own formal black-tie and white-powder orgy taking place tonight in the Capitol. -- Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.)

~~~ Rachel Bade of Politico reports on some of the jokes delivered at the annual Gridiron Club dinner after a pandemic hiatus.

~~~~~~~~~~

Putin's War Crimes, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of developments Sunday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "As Russian troops retreated from areas outside Kyiv..., they left behind devastation that is only now becoming clear. Civilians have emerged from basement shelters to clamor for bread distributed by the Ukrainian soldiers retaking territory. The husks of destroyed tanks clutter roads. Mines and booby traps have been hidden amid the wreckage. Bodies lay uncollected in streets littered with debris. The dead include civilians, some of whom Ukrainian officials have accused Russian forces of executing.... Russia's chief negotiator in peace talks, Vladimir Medinsky, rejected a Ukrainian counterpart's suggestion that Presidents Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine and Vladimir V. Putin of Russia could soon hold direct talks.... Lithuania has stopped importing natural gas from Russia.... The head of Russia's space agency said that he would submit a proposal to the Russian government to end cooperation on the International Space Station program.... Zelensky ... called out Hungary's prime minister, Viktor Orban, in a video address for being the 'only leader in Europe who openly supports Mr. Putin.' Orban is up for reelection on Sunday." ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live updates for Sunday are here: "A series of explosions rocked Odessa early Sunday as Russia said its missiles struck an oil refinery and fuel storage facilities -- the first strike on the strategic Black Sea city's downtown as the war in Ukraine grinds into its 39th day.... An adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky urged Ukrainians to prepare for 'difficult fights' ahead in the besieged port city of Mariupol -- where Moscow has been concentrating its firepower, vying for a strategic victory that would free up thousands of troops to fight elsewhere. Britain's Ministry of Defense said Sunday that Russia's navy is strategically blockading the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov to prevent Ukraine from rearming. Meanwhile, as Ukrainian troops recapture territory around Kyiv, the scope of destruction left by Russian forces has been revealed. Burned-out vehicles and bodies line the streets of nearby towns such as Bucha, which had been at the forefront of Moscow's unsuccessful attempt to encircle the capital and overthrow the government." ~~~

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

Andrew Kramer & Neil MacFarquhar of the New York Times: "The Russian forces that were intent on overwhelming Kyiv at the war's start with tanks and artillery retreated under fire across a broad front on Saturday, leaving behind them dead soldiers and burned vehicles, according to witnesses, Ukrainian officials, satellite images and military analysts. The withdrawal suggested the possibility of a major turn in the six-week war -- the collapse, at least for now, of Russia's initial attempt to seize Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, and the end of its hopes for the quick subjugation of the nation. Moscow has described the withdrawal as a tactical move to regroup and reposition its forces for a major push in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. While there are early indications that the military is following through on that plan, analysts say it cannot obscure the magnitude of the defeat.... Elsewhere in Ukraine, Russian attacks continued unabated, and the Pentagon has cautioned that the formations near Kyiv could be repositioning for renewed assaults.... Ukraine's military on Saturday moved into Bucha, a key town on the west bank of the Dnipro River -- which divides Kyiv -- days after Russian forces had sacked it on their way out.... As photos of casualties in Bucha emerged, a senior adviser to Ukraine's president said on Saturday that some of the dead wearing civilian clothes appeared to have been bound and executed." ~~~

~~~ Nebi Qena & Yuras Karmanau of the AP: "Ukrainian troops moved cautiously to retake territory north of the country's capital on Saturday, using cables to pull the bodies of civilians off streets of one town out of fear that Russian forces may have left them booby-trapped. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that departing Russian troops were creating a 'catastrophic' situation for civilians by leaving mines around homes, abandoned equipment and 'even the bodies of those killed.' His claims could not be independently verified. Associated Press journalists in Bucha, a suburb northwest of Kyiv, watched as Ukrainian soldiers backed by a column of tanks and other armored vehicles used cables to drag bodies off of a street from a distance. Locals said the dead -- the AP counted at least six -- were civilians killed without provocation by departing Russian soldiers.... In his nightly video address Saturday, the Ukrainian leader said the country's troops were not allowing the Russians to retreat without a fight: 'They are shelling them. They are destroying everyone they can.'"

Daniel Boffey of the Guardian: "Russia has been accused by Ukraine of using children as 'human shields' while regrouping its forces, as the first horrifying witness accounts from the newly liberated town of Bucha, near Kyiv, emerge. Ukraine's attorney general is gathering a dossier of claims about the Russian use of local children to avoid fire when in retreat from around Ukraine's capital and elsewhere. Coaches of children were said to have been placed in front of tanks in the village of Novyi Bykiv, close to the encircled city of Chernihiv, 100 miles north of Kyiv. It was further alleged that children had been taken as hostages in a number of conflict hot spots around the country to ensure locals would not give the coordinates of the enemy's movements to the Ukrainian forces."

Daniel Boffey & Martin Farrer of the Guardian: "The retreat of Russian forces around Kyiv has left horrifying evidence of atrocities against civilians littered across the region's suburbs and towns, turned into hellish war zones by Vladimir Putin's invasion. As Ukrainian armoured columns rolled into Bucha, a town north-west of the capital, they found streets blocked by burned-out Russian tanks and military vehicles, and strewn with the bodies of civilians whom locals said had been killed by the invading forces without provocation. Photographs from the town showed a scene of devastation, with hunks of charred and destroyed tanks and armoured vehicles lined up along one street, along with dead bodies."

Anjali Singhvi, et al., of the New York Times on how Ukraine held Kyiv: "Russia vastly underestimated Ukrainians' resolve to defend their homeland. And a Russian military trained for open spaces has also struggled with basic realities of urban warfare. Even a finely orchestrated military would be challenged by the block-to-block fighting required to secure Kyiv. The Russian army has failed to even surround it. The campaign went wrong on Day 1, when Russian helicopters assaulted the Hostomel airfield on the outskirts of Kyiv and were met with stiff resistance. Because the military failed to hold the airport, it couldn't quickly build up the airborne forces needed to invade the capital."

The Little Town That Could. Carlotta Gall of the New York Times: "Hyperboles aside, the people of [Vasylkiv, the] quiet provincial town of tree-lined streets and low-rise buildings dating back to the Russian empire managed to fight off Russian troops in the critical opening days of the war, preventing Russian forces from capturing strategic bases that could have allowed the nation's capital, Kyiv, to be encircled.... Accounts from residents, government officials, armed forces personnel and civilians who have enlisted territorial defense units described how Ukraine rebuffed the Russian assault and helped prevent Russia's wider aims to seize control of the country."

Thomas Gibbons-Neff & Natalia Yermak of the New York Times: "A monthlong Russian occupation ... [of] Trostyanets, a strategically located town in the country's northeast..., reduced much of the town to rubble, a decimated landscape of mangled tank hulks, snapped trees and rattled but resilient survivors.... The Ukrainian victory in Trostyanets came on March 26 -- what residents call 'Liberation Day' -- and is an example of how disadvantaged and smaller Ukrainian units have launched successful counterattacks. It also shows how the Russian military's inability to win a quick victory -- in which they would 'liberate' a friendly population -- left their soldiers in a position that they were vastly unprepared for: holding an occupied town with an unwelcoming local populace.... The unrelenting violence from both Ukrainian and Russian forces fighting to retake and hold the town raged for weeks and drove people into basements or anywhere they could find shelter. On Friday, dazed residents walked through the destroyed town, sorting through the debris as some power was restored for the first time in weeks."

Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is putting public and private pressure on his Senate Republican colleagues to oppose President Biden's nominee to the Supreme Court, despite the historic nature of her nomination to be the first Black woman on the court. McConnell has dug in against Biden's nominee, arguing the vote isn't about 'race or gender' but about Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson's record, which he says is too soft on crime and indicates she'll likely turn into an activist judge on the bench. McConnell made an impassioned plea at a recent Senate GOP lunch for his colleagues to oppose Biden's choice, according to senators who attended the meeting." MB: Yeah, it's not about race or gender; Mitch just doesn't want a gal with cornrows messing of the Court's class picture.

Jacob Heilbrunn in Politico Magazine: "... as Putin's deadly and unprovoked assault [on Ukraine] drags on, the GOP is also going to war -- against itself. As so often, the battle revolves around the America First doctrine first espoused by ... Donald Trump in April 2016.... Trump did manage to shift conservative thinking about Putin himself, a powerful adversary of the U.S. who wields power with an autocratic strength that Trump and his followers openly admire. Even the invasion of Ukraine has not prompted Trump to alter his fundamentally adoring view of the Russian leader.... Though Trump's view of Putin may be little changed, the Russian invasion has broken open the uneasy marriage between the followers of Trump, who abhor foreign entanglements, and the hawks of the Republican Party, who have rarely seen a war they didn't want to enter." MB: Anti-hawkish though I may be, I can't see why the America First crowd doesn't understand that America First means just the opposite: the U.S. in decline & retreat, its head in the sand, denying the rest of the world exists and therefore weakening itself relative to other powerful nations.

Jodi Kantor & Karen Weise of the New York Times: "In the first dark days of the pandemic, as an Amazon worker named Christian Smalls planned a small, panicked walkout over safety conditions at the retailer's only fulfillment center in New York City, the company quietly mobilized.... In the end, there were more executives -- including 11 vice presidents -- who were alerted about the protest than workers who attended it.... The company fired Mr. Smalls, saying he had violated quarantine rules by attending the walkout. in dismissing and smearing him, the company relied on the hardball tactics that had driven its dominance of the market.... Mr. Smalls and his best friend from the warehouse, Derrick Palmer, had set their sights on unionizing after he was forced out. Along with a growing band of colleagues -- and no affiliation with a national labor organization -- the two men spent the past 11 months going up against Amazon, whose 1.1 million workers in the United States make it the country's second-largest private employer.... The union spent $120,000 overall, raised through GoFundMe, according to Mr. Smalls.... Amazon spent more than $4.3 million just on anti-union consultants nationwide last year, according to federal filings." An NPR story is here.

AP: "An Algerian man imprisoned at the Guantanamo Bay detention center for nearly 20 years has been released and sent back to his homeland. The Department of Defense announced Saturday that Sufyian Barhoumi was repatriated with assurances from the Algerian government that he would be treated humanely there and that security measures would be imposed to reduce the risk that he could pose a threat in the future." A New York Times story is here.

The Pandemic, Ctd.

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

Davey Alba of the New York Times: "Dr. [Robert] Malone spent decades working in academic centers and with start-ups seeking to bring new medical treatments to market and to combat the Zika and Ebola outbreaks. But in recent months, as the coronavirus pandemic has persisted, he has taken up an entirely different role: spreading misinformation about the virus and vaccines on conservative programs. In many of his appearances [on shows like 'The Joe Rogan Experience' and Fox's 'Hannity'], Dr. Malone questions the severity of the coronavirus, which has now killed nearly one million people in the United States, and the safety of the coronavirus vaccines, which have been widely found to be safe and effective at preventing serious illness and death.... Dr. Malone also routinely sells himself on the shows as the inventor of mRNA vaccines, the technology used by Pfizer and Moderna for their Covid-19 shots.... In addition to his regular appearances on conservative shows, Dr. Malone has more than 134,000 subscribers to his Substack newsletter. About 8,000 pay the $5 monthly cost, he said, which would amount to at least $31,200 in monthly revenue."

Way Beyond the Beltway

Pakistan. Pamela Constable of the Washington Post: "Pakistan's embattled prime minister, Imran Khan, outmaneuvered his political opponents Sunday as they attempted to oust him from power through a vote of no confidence. Within two hours, Parliament had been dissolved at Khan's request so the country can prepare for new elections. Khan orchestrated an abrupt suspension of the expected no-confidence vote by the legislature's acting speaker, a member of his party, then immediately announced on live TV that new elections would be held."

News Lede

Another Saturday Night in the U.S. AP: "Six people were killed and 10 injured in a mass shooting early Sunday as bars and nightclubs were closing in downtown Sacramento and police in California's state capital were searching for at least one suspect.... No arrests have been made and no information about a suspect has been released. Authorities urged witnesses or anyone with recordings of the shooting to contact police. They said they don't know whether one or more suspects were involved."

Comments

[P.D. Pepe]

Removed. Plagiarized from a March 31, WashPo story. No attribution, no quotation marks, no nothin'. And way too long to characterize as a clip. MB: PLEASE do not pass off others' writings as your own. I know I have not caught every instance where this has happened, but I do try. And I hate having to take the time to be the plagiarism police.

[Forrest Morris]

Isn't it interesting that Sarah "Mooselini" Palin announced her
candidacy on April 1? That's her day alright, but then, she's a fool
any day of the year. If she makes it to Congress she's gonna find
out that she can no longer be number one fool. Lots of competition
there lately.
And Trump was here in Michigan Saturday for one of his "send me
money" rallies where he claimed the title of "Michigan Man of the
Year", a competition that does not exist according to a dozen fact
checkers. Personally, I think he read the cue card wrong. Could it
have been 'maniac of the year', 'madman of the year', 'manchild of the
year', 'manure of the year'? Take your pick.

[P.D. Pepe]

Well, shucks! I attributed the first part of my comments to the Washington Post and the second part was my own comment. Guess that wasn't enough. The problem is many of us here cannot access the W.P. therefore I thought I could get this story out by doing what I did. Too bad---it's a story that shakes my timbers and needs to be told.

[Marie Burns]

@PD Pepe: I do see now that at the end of the last paragraph of a Washington Post story, a large part of which you copied & pasted, you did write, "from Wash-post". But that attribution, again without any quotation marks in the body of the eight lifted paragraphs, is so obscure that I didn't see it. It is not enough to make evident you've copied & pasted a big part of a WashPo article, and most readers, who probably just scan comments as I do, would think you had written it yourself.

I suspected what you wrote was not original only (1) because I was aware one of the major media had published a story about that pastor, and (2) because the style suggested a pro reporter(s) had written it. I had to turn to the Googles to find the story and check it against what you had written. "from Wash-post" tacked onto the end of the 8th copied paragraph, and in the body of the paragraph no less, is not good enough.

Also from the Googles, "To quote a source, copy a short piece of text word for word and put it inside quotation marks. To paraphrase a source, put the text into your own words. It's important that the paraphrase is not too close to the original wording."

Had I noticed that obscure attribution, I probably would have written a clear attribution at the top, including entering a link, then cut what you had copied & encased the remaining paragraphs in quotation marks -- rather than cut the whole entry. But I really should not have to do that much editing of a comment by a seasoned writer, especially on my "day off"!

[Jeanne]

Sorry PD ran into trouble-- no way in the world she meant to pass any of that insane article as her own. Not that the writing was insane, but the subject of the article is "nuts" all the way to the bank. That stuff has been around forever, and I ran into a bit of mild evangelicalism growing up in VA, NC and KY, (mostly Baptist and Church of Christ--not UCC, you understand--)
clear up to raising my kids in IL and PA and they having to defend their Unitarianism and protect their souls from people worried they were going to hell...I guess there will always be weak people looking for something, but what worries me is that communication is so immediate and pressing-- it's very dangerous. Much much worse than in my lifetime so far. And all this revolving around a man who is an irreligious bigot interested in only himself and money...Crazy. All of it is crazy. Except the pastor depicted: he is not crazy, he's evil.

Education. So necessary. And so under fire.

[Ken Winkes]

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/04/03/magazine/thomas-piketty-interview.html?

Hope Mr. Piketty is right....but the interview was published on April 1st.