;)
February 19, 2022
Afternoon Update:
Jim Heintz, et al., of the AP: "Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, facing a sharp spike in violence in and around territory held by Russia-backed rebels and increasingly dire warnings that Russia plans to invade, on Saturday called for Russian President Vladimir Putin to meet him and seek resolution to the crisis. 'I don't know what the president of the Russian Federation wants, so I am proposing a meeting,' Zelenskyy said at the Munich Security Conference, where he also met with U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris. Zelenskyy said Russia could pick the location for the talks. 'Ukraine will continue to follow only the diplomatic path for the sake of a peaceful settlement.' There was no immediate response from the Kremlin."
Canada. Get Out! Rob Gillies & Robert Bumsted of the AP: "Police aggressively pushed back protesters in Canada's besieged capital on Saturday, seizing control of trucks and clearing the streets in front of Parliament, the heart of the protests. Scores of trucks left under the increasing pressure, raising authorities' hopes for an end to the three-week protest against the country's COVID-19 restrictions and the government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Authorities took control of the street in front of Parliament Hill which has been occupied by protesters and their trucks since late last month and had been turned into a carnival on weekends." ~~~
~~~ Natalie Kitroeff & Sarah Nir of the New York Times: "Canadian police officers advanced on demonstrators [in Ottawa] at gunpoint, smashing truck windows and arresting protesters in front of the country's Parliament building, an aggressive escalation in the government's effort to finally end the protests that have roiled the nation's capital for three weeks. Officers in riot gear, brandishing batons and rifles, pushed to regain the area around Parliament, expanding an operation that began on Friday to remove parked trucks that have blocked the city's downtown core. In the heart of the encampment, the police pushed people back with batons, and toppled over a table displaying dubious information about vaccine injury. They advanced methodically truck by truck, shoving protesters back, some people getting pushed over by the police, as demonstrators shouted, 'Shame on you!'"
Timothy Bella & Kelsey Ables of the Washington Post: "Jean-Luc Brunel, the former head of a French model agency who was accused of rape in the 1990s and later of supplying young girls to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, was found hanged in his Paris prison cell early Saturday, French prosecutors confirmed to local media. The 76-year-old was found dead in his cell at around 1 a.m. Saturday during an overnight check by guards at La Santé prison in Paris, prosecutors told Le Monde. Brunel was being held as part of an ongoing investigation into the alleged rape of minors and trafficking of minors for sexual exploitation. Several models had accused him of sexual assault and rape, and French police had interviewed many potential witnesses in the case. Brunel had denied the allegations.... Brunel's attorneys ... told Le Monde that the apparent suicide of their client 'was not driven by guilt, but by a deep sense of injustice.'" The Guardian's report is here.
Fox "News": All the "News" That's Fit to Pull from Social Media. Michael Luciano of Mediaite: "Jesse Watters Primetime ran with a fake story involving the U.S. ambassador to Germany that actually drew two members of Congress into a Twitter spat on Friday. Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) quote-tweeted a video of Ambassador Amy Gutmann at a meeting in Germany. It ... features overlaying text claiming she is being told to stand between the U.S. and German flags, but that 'she doesn't know which flag is the U.S. flag.' The idea that Gutmann doesn't know which flag is the U.S. one is obviously absurd. Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) seized upon the tweet and called out Banks, saying, 'You can't be a bigger ass than this guy.'... Nevertheless, Jesse Watters ran with the story on his Fox News primetime show." Somehow, Swalwell & Watters changed the story to assert that Gutmann couldn't ID the German flag, still absurd because Gutmann's father is a native of Germany.
~~~~~~~~~~
The New York Times' live updates of the Ukraine crisis are here. The Washington Post's live updates are here.
Vladimir Isachenkov, et al., of the AP: "U.S. President Joe Biden said Friday that he is 'convinced' Russian President Vladimir Putin has decided to invade Ukraine, including an assault on the capital, Kyiv, as tensions spiked along the militarized border with attacks that the West called 'false-flag'operations meant to establish a pretext for invasion. In Ukraine, a humanitarian convoy was hit by shelling, and pro-Russian rebels evacuated civilians from the conflict zone. A car bombing hit the eastern city of Donetsk, but no casualties were reported. After weeks of saying the U.S. wasn't sure if Putin had made the final decision to invade, Biden said that assessment had changed, citing American intelligence. 'As of this moment I'm convinced he's made the decision,' Biden said. 'We have reason to believe that.' He reiterated that the assault could occur in the 'coming days.' Meanwhile, the Kremlin announced massive nuclear drills to flex its military muscle, and Putin pledged to protect Russia's national interests against what it sees as encroaching Western threats." The Washington Post's report is here. ~~~
Katie Lillis & Kevin Liptak of CNN: "Multiple US and western government officials tell CNN that the US has intelligence that Russia has drawn up lists of current political figures that it would target for removal in the event it invades Ukraine and topples the current government in Kyiv. Sources familiar with the intelligence say the target lists are part of Russian planning to replace the current administration in Kyiv with a more Russia-friendly government, bolstering a previous disclosure by the British government identifying pro-Moscow figures it said Russia planned to install. The most likely outcome for those politicians and public figures whom Moscow has targeted to be ousted in the event Kyiv falls, these sources say, is jail or assassination."
Constituent Service. President Biden tells attendees at a National Association of Counties meeting about a time when he was a county official:
Rachel Siegel of the Washington Post: "The Federal Reserve on Friday overhauled its trading rules for policymakers and staffers, rewriting previous guidelines that central bankers said were insufficient amid the resignations of three top policymakers. The rules mirror a general outline offered by Federal Reserve Board Chair Jerome H. Powell in October. But the additional details reflect tougher standards and the culmination of a review that sought to regain public trust after the financial activities of top officials -- including regional bank presidents Eric Rosengren and Robert Kaplan, and Fed Vice Chair Richard Clarida -- came under heightened scrutiny."
Lock Him Up. Luke Broadwater & Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "The National Archives confirmed on Friday that it had found classified information among documents that ... Donald J. Trump had taken with him to his home in Florida from the White House and that it had consulted with the Justice Department about the matter.... The National Archives said in its letter [to Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), chair of the House Oversight Committee,] on Friday that the Trump White House had failed to turn over records that included 'certain social media records.' [The national archivist David] Ferriero also wrote that 'some White House staff conducted official business using nonofficial electronic messaging accounts that were not copied or forwarded into their official electronic messaging accounts.' The archives said it was in the process of obtaining some of those records.... The former president's use of cellphones to conduct official business also could have led to large gaps in the official White House logs of his calls on Jan. 6, 2021.... If Mr. Trump did not preserve cellphone records and failed to turn them over to the National Archives, that could also be a violation of the law." An AP story is here. ~~~
~~~ Marie: No doubt if you had waltzed away with 15 boxes of government property, including classified docs, you'd be wearing an orange jumpsuit today. On the other hand, you probably would not have had a "staff" you could blame for the theft nor lawyers who might keep you out of jail until you croaked.
Katelyn Polantz, et al., of CNN: "Civil lawsuits seeking to hold Donald Trump accountable for the January 6, 2021, insurrection can move forward in court, a federal judge said Friday in a ruling outlining how the former President could conceivably be responsible for inciting the attack on the US Capitol. Trump's statements to his supporters before the riot 'is the essence of civil conspiracy,' Judge Amit Mehta wrote in a 112-page opinion, because Trump spoke about himself and rallygoers working 'towards a common goal' of fighting and walking down Pennsylvania Avenue. 'The President's January 6 Rally Speech can reasonably be viewed as a call for collective action,' Mehta said." ~~~
~~~ Zoe Tillman of BuzzFeed News: "The ruling, which Trump is expected to appeal, preserves a trio of lawsuits filed by Democrats in Congress and US Capitol Police officers that accuse Trump of conspiring to disrupt Congress's certification of the Electoral College results and interfere with the peaceful transfer of power." ~~~
~~~ Philip Bump of the Washington Post: In deciding that lawsuits brought by members of Congress against Donald Trump could go forward, D.C. District Judge Amit Mehta wrote, "'... the court concludes that the Complaints establish a plausible §1985(1) conspiracy involving President Trump. That civil conspiracy included the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers, [Proud Boys leader Enrique] Tarrio, and others who entered the Capitol on January 6th with the intent to disrupt the Certification of the Electoral College vote through force, intimidation, or threats.'... [Mehta pointed out that] in November and December, Trump supporters came to Washington to protest and, each time, scattered incidents of violence broke out afterward.... '... '[I]t is at least plausible to infer that, when he called on rally-goers to march to the Capitol, the President did so with the goal of disrupting lawmakers' efforts to certify the Electoral College votes,' Mehta writes."
Bad Hair Day Week.Jill Colvin of the AP: "... Donald Trump faced one legal setback after another this week as a judge ruled he must sit for a deposition in New York to answer questions about his business practices, his accounting firm declared his financial statements unreliable, another judge rejected his efforts to dismiss conspiracy lawsuits and the National Archives confirmed that he took classified information to Florida as he left White House. Whatever happens, said Jeffrey Jacobovitz, a Washington lawyer..., 'I think the weeks will get worse for him.'"
George Conway in the Washington Post: "... maybe, just maybe, this time will be different. On Thursday, a judge in New York ordered [Donald] Trump, along with his daughter Ivanka and his son Donald Jr., to testify within 21 days at civil depositions in the New York attorney general's investigation of potential fraud at the Trump Organization ... because[, the judge noted,] prosecutors have unearthed 'copious evidence of possible financial fraud' in Trump's business.... [The accounting firm] Mazars said that 10 years of Trump's financial statements, from 2011 to 2020, 'should no longer be relied upon,' and that Trump should tell that to the people he gave them to.... [Mazars'] letter was an unmitigated disaster for Trump.... All this could threaten Trump;s livelihood -- his all-important mogulhood -- in a way no setback ever has before.... Could this be, at long last, the beginning of the end for Trump? As always, don't bet on it -- but this time, don't be surprised if it is."
Chauncey DeVega of Salon: "Donald Trump ... continues to threaten his 'enemies' with lethal violence.... His threats should be taken seriously.... Last Saturday..., Donald Trump ... literally threaten[ed] Hillary Clinton and her campaign staff with death.... How did the American mainstream news media respond to Trump's latest death threats? With some polite fact-checking, but largely with silence. That amounts to permission or even encouragement of more such threats.... In many respects, Trumpism thrives on encouraging all kinds of anti-social and destructive behavior, up to and including murder and mob violence.... As a group, the millions of Americans who voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020 -- and there were even more the second time -- were searching for a type of liberation through destruction." ~~~
~~~ Marie: DeVega is right. I found Trump's threat against Hillary, et al., on a "back page" of the NBC News site. The writer, Steve Benen, cited the threat but did not comment on it. I never saw it on an MSM front-page story. (That doesn't mean it wasn't there; I don't always read entire stories, and the threat could have been down there in Graf 13.)
Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "A second federal judge has ordered Stewart Rhodes -- founder and leader of the extremist group Oath Keepers -- to remain jailed pending trial on a charge of seditious conspiracy for allegedly guiding a months-long effort to use political violence to prevent the swearing-in of President Biden. U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta of Washington on Friday denied Rhodes's renewed request for bond pending a July trial, calling his case the most serious brought against nearly 750 federal defendants charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.... 'He presents a clear and continuing danger in my view,' Mehta said...." ~~~
~~~ Hannah Rabinowitz, et al., of CNN: "... on Friday ... prosecutors revealed new Signal app messages where Rhodes allegedly called January 6 'the final nail in the coffin of our republic' and instructed his followers to prepare for violence. The messages from the encrypted app, which were presented during hearings Wednesday and Friday, allegedly show how Rhodes advocated for ... Donald Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act. If Trump didn't, prosecutors allege, Rhodes repeatedly suggested that his followers should be ready to act without Trump's support.... Prosecutors used the messages as evidence that Rhodes is too dangerous to be let out of jail while he awaits trial."
Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court agreed on Friday to decide whether the Biden administration can end a Trump-era immigration program that forces asylum seekers arriving at the southwestern border to await approval in Mexico. The court put the case on a fast track, scheduling arguments for April. A decision will probably arrive by the end of the court's current term in late June or early July.... After the policy was put in place at the beginning of 2019, tens of thousands of people waited in unsanitary tent encampments for immigration hearings. There have been widespread reports of sexual assault, kidnapping and torture. Soon after he took office, President Biden sought to end the program. Texas and Missouri sued.... Last August, Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, in Amarillo, ruled [against the Biden administration].... The Biden administration promptly asked the Supreme Court to intervene, but it refused to block Judge Kacsmaryk's ruling, which required it to restart the program."
Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "The wife of a Navy engineer pleaded guilty Friday to helping her husband try to sell secrets about U.S. nuclear submarines to a foreign country -- a high-profile espionage case that will send her to prison for up to three years, significantly less time than her husband faces. The guilty plea by Diana Toebbe, 46, was expected after her husband, Jonathan Toebbe, pleaded guilty Monday in the same case. His plea deal calls for a prison sentence of roughly 12 to 17½ years. Both pleaded guilty to conspiring to communicate restricted data, a charge that carried a potential life prison sentence."
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Michael Grynbaum, et al., of the New York Times: Before then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-N.Y.) sat for an interview about Covid-19, he "had told a senior CNN executive, Allison Gollust, about subjects that he'd like to be asked about on air, according to several people familiar with the matter. Ms. Gollust, CNN's longtime chief of communications and marketing and a former top aide of the governor, passed along the topics to CNN producers and then reported back to the governor. 'Done,' she wrote. On Tuesday, Ms. Gollust was forced to resign from CNN after an internal investigation found a trove of written communications between her and Governor Cuomo.... Jeff Zucker, who at the time was CNN's president, was aware of many of the communications between Ms. Gollust and the governor.... It is unusual ... for a senior executive to be involved in that pre-interview process -- especially when that executive previously worked for the person who's being interviewed."
Richard Goldstein of the New York Times: "When [Gail] Halvorsen died on Wednesday at 101, he was remembered as the original 'Candy Bomber' of the [Berlin] airlift, a defiance of Soviet power by the United States, Britain and France that also symbolized reconciliation between the German people and the Allies in the wake of World War II.... Lieutenant Halvorsen and his two crewmen joined with fellow American airmen to drop a total of 23 tons of candies, chocolate and chewing gum wrapped in tiny parachutes from their planes while preparing to touch down at Tempelhof airfield with vast quantities of other supplies in an effort to break a Soviet land blockade of Berlin's Allied-occupied western sectors.... The airlift, which continued for 15 months, claimed the lives of 31 American airmen and 39 British fliers in accidents, but it thwarted the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin's attempts to drive the West from the city. By the time it ended in September 1949 (the Soviet blockade had been lifted the previous May), Allied pilots had flown more than 277,000 missions, sometimes buzzed by Soviet fighters, to supply the city's western sectors with 2.3 million tons of food, flour, coal, medicine and construction equipment."
The Pandemic, Ctd.
Canada. Miriam Berger, et al., of the Washington Post: "Ottawa's Interim Police Chief Steve Bell told reporters that authorities had arrested at least 100 people [participating in the so-called 'Freedom Convoy'] for various offenses, including mischief, as of Friday afternoon. They included several convoy organizers and boosters. Police said they also had towed 21 vehicles. Bell said officers were carrying out a 'methodical and well-resourced plan' and would work until 'the residents and community have their entire city back.'" ~~~
~~~ Marie: This is very bad news for Mike Lindell & his Parachuting Pillows Plan (see yesterday's page).
Beyond the Beltway
Minnesota. Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs of the New York Times: "The former police officer [Kimberly Potter] who fatally shot Daunte Wright during a traffic stop was sentenced to two years in prison on Friday, far less than the standard of about seven years for manslaughter, after a judge said leniency was warranted because the officer had meant to fire her Taser and not her gun.... It is quite likely that Ms. Potter will be released from prison after about 14 months.... Mr. Wright's relatives said they were outraged by the leniency of the two-year sentence Ms. Potter received.... 'They were so tied up into her feelings and what's going on with her that they forgot about my son being killed,' [Mr. Wright's father Arbuey Wright] said.... Ben Crump, a lawyer representing Mr. Wright's family, said many people have been sentenced to longer terms in prison for selling marijuana." ~~~
~~~ Marie: CNN played video of the judge, Regina Chu, fighting back tears because she had to sentence good-hearted Kim to any prison time. She had no tears for Daunte.
Minnesota. Katharine Seelye of the New York Times: "Representative Jim Hagedorn, a second-term Minnesota Republican who was a staunch ally of ... Donald J. Trump and who joined with other members of his party in seeking to overturn the election of Joseph R. Biden Jr., died on Thursday. He was 59."
Nebraska. Paul Hammel & Aaron Sanderford of the Nebraska Examiner: "State Sen. Mike Groene announced that he was resigning Friday afternoon, just a couple of hours after denying accusations that he took sexually inappropriate photographs of a female legislative aide.... Groene, 66, said that he is dropping out of the race for University of Nebraska Board of Regents, a campaign he announced only two days ago.... The Nebraska Sunrise News reported that Kristina Konecko, who had worked on and off for Groene for six years, had lodged a complaint over photos of herself that she had discovered on Groene's laptop computer.... 'The pictures appeared to have been taken by Groene and then emailed from him to other parties with email captions of a sexual nature,' the website reported."
Texas. Neena Satija of the Washington Post: "At least 19 Austin police officers ... are facing criminal charges for allegedly using excessive force on protesters during the summer of 2020, according to their union president -- an unusually high number that reflects District Attorney José Garza's year-old effort to crack down on police misconduct.... Before Garza took office, fewer than half a dozen Austin officers had been indicted in the previous 20 years."
Wisconsin. Patrick Marley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "Assembly Republicans sought Friday to jail the chairwoman of the state Elections Commission, Racine's mayor and other officials as part of their months-long review of the 2020 presidential election. The court filing marked the latest shift in approach for Michael Gableman, a former state Supreme Court justice who is leading the review for the Republicans.... On Friday Gableman intensified his efforts, telling Waukesha County Circuit Judge Ralph Ramirez he should incarcerate those mayors and others if they don't sit for interviews with him behind closed doors. The officials have said they are willing to talk to Gableman but don't believe he should be able to do so out of the view of the public." MB: It's almost as if these public officials think Judge Gableman is a partisan hack who will mischaracterize their responses. ~~~
~~~ Where the Cheeseheads Are Crackpots. Reid Epstein of the New York Times: "... more than 15 months after ... Donald J. Trump lost the state by 20,682 votes, an increasingly vocal segment of the Republican Party is getting behind a new scheme: decertifying the results of the 2020 presidential election in hopes of reinstalling Mr. Trump in the White House.... The Republican effort to overturn the election results here is picking up steam ... and spiraling further from reality as it goes. The latest turn, which has been fueled by Mr. Trump, bogus legal theories and a new candidate for governor, is creating chaos in the Republican Party.... If Wisconsin pulls back its electoral votes, [state representative & gubernatorial candidate Timothy] Ramthun said, other states may follow." MB: Somehow, I don't think the Bidens are packing their bags.
News Ledes
CNN's live Olympics coverage is here. The AP's live updates are here.
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Reader Comments (12)
From an article linked above:
“If Mr. Trump did not preserve cellphone records and failed to turn them over to the National Archives, that could also be a violation of the law.”
“Violation of the law” is Trump’s middle name.
Back around 1085, William the Conqueror (aka Big Bad Bill) completed a survey of all the stuff he now owned or could collect taxes on (Battle of Hastings and all that). The list was compiled in a big ass tome called the Domesday Book. It had over 13,000 entries.
If one were inclined to list all the discrete instances of lawlessness on the part of Trump, his crooked family, and the cronies and Jamie’s he hired, it would make the Domesday Book look like a pamphlet.
But still he waddles about unshackled.
Jamokes…
From my Billiards Shark sister: If trump played poker and won,
what hand would he have held?
A royal flush.
I know, it's a week late but whatever.
As if yesterday's report and Patrick's comment on the disappearing of voting rights in Texas were not enough, Ruth Marcus provides a good lesson on where Federalist judges would like to see voting right go: in short, somewhere far, far away, certainly beyond that wall that Texas is still building.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/02/18/trump-judges-neutering-voting-rights-act/
My Comment:
The biggest problem with our democracy is that from the nation's beginnings, we've never been wholly enthralled by it because the people in charge like where they are and want to stay there.
If we had been committed to democracy or if we had grown to be, our courts would not be in charge of so many factors that have to do with voting. Congress would have made the right to vote a priority and closed all the language loopholes Federalist hacks eagerly drive through to ensure that the status remains quo.
That we do not have a national holiday explicitly designed to make voting easy, that citizens who reach their majority (however defined) are not automatically registered, that we allow gerrymandering, that we make voting itself so hard in so many ways....tells a very clear story.
Every once in a while we get a Congress or a President who thinks democracy is a good idea but that has not been true of Republicans since Goldwater's massive defeat at the ballot. Since then, the Republican path to victory has been to make voting harder and the right to do so more limited.
Time and again, Republican lawmakers (McConnell) have admitted as much, calling the recent attempt to protect voting rights and make voting easier a "power grab."
When people refer to our current government as an oligarchy or plutocracy, they are simply telling the bald truth. We are not a democracy, and thanks to Republican machinations are in fact drifting farther away from that ideal every day.
https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-elections-pennsylvania-lifestyle-election-2020-fc79679ef54d850c0245f96dac37456c
As if we didn't know that race is the biggest factor splintering our country...
And oh, yeah, money.
First off let me send hats off to Ken, and Ak for their super supreme contributions plus kudos to Patrick's sister for her "royal flush"––perfect!!!!!
George Conway's "Could this be, at long last, the beginning of the end for Trump?" Reminds me of another admonition flung at Joe McCarthy in the good ole days. I'm holding my breath in anticipation.
and a good word for Devega over at Salon who nails it when he says "Trump voters are searching for a type of liberation through destruction." Bannon's message from the get=go.
But here is a story that needs to be heard. The oil industry and its GOP allies are trying to sink Biden's pick for Federal Reserve's vice chair of supervision, Sarah Bloom Raskin (wife of Jamie). Why? Take a guess. Read on. I found the details illuminating as well as terribly frustrating that once again power and money come before anything else including death and destruction due to the climate changes,
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/sarah-bloom-raskin-fed-vice-chair-nominee-fossil-fuel-backlash_n_62100104e4b06212585d305c
Meanwhile Vlad is glad he's so "in the news" and is dangling the prospect of war like one dangles threads with a cat. A little man full of himself determined to rule in the old Soviet Way–-he's playing for time but looks like time is running out.
@P.D. Pepe: That was Forrest's sister, not Patrick's, but that's not saying Patrick doesn't have a sibling as droll as Forrest's! The only problem with the royal flush, of course, is that Trump would clog up the plumbing with love notes from Vlad -- "Thanks, Donald, for sending me that secret U.S. intel" -- or whatever.
Ken,
In one of his more trenchant “quiet parts out loud” expressions, re: voting rights, the Orange Monster once opined that “If we let everyone vote, Republicans will never win another election!”
He was talking about presidential elections, of course. The multitude of obscenely gerrymandered districts around the country guarantee the opposite, that no matter how small their minority, Republicans will never lose local or state wide elections.
The operative concept there is “obscene”.
Well, shucks–-sorry Forest, although as M.B.says, perhaps Patrick has a sister just as clever. I must say, Forest, you are lucky to have a sister who is compatible ––-I, unfortunately, have a brother who describes me as his "ass hole" sister–––luckily he is far away in Wisconsin and I probably will never see him again. To think at one time we were so close.
CAN DEMS DODGE DOOMSDAY:
This is the title of Dowd's column today in which she brings in James Carville, David Axelrod and Stan Greenberg to parse this question. It's a worthwhile read. Interesting to me how many have so much advice to give to the Dems who they see drowning in their own success and unable to communicate to the great unwashed along with those who smell good while the other side is wallowing in muddy waters and stink to high heaven. Weird does not even begin to describe what's going on.
I seem to be asleep at the wheel this morning–-here's the link:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/19/opinion/democrats-biden-voters.html
Do you think Putin supports the renegade Americans going to Ottawa, Canada shaking one of the world's great alliances? I bet Putin laughs every time he sees how cheaply he can stir up shit. Putin is like Chump with more purpose and a keener mind. And now the Ottawa police are cracking heads as well as windshields. https://www.npr.org/2022/02/19/1081965235/ottawa-canada-protests.