;)
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."
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Reader Comments (11)
For obvious reasons, those hours, days and years of reflections in which I have indulged about the point of war's carnage have returned bright and sassy this morning.
Vietnam? Iraq II? Sure fixed things, didn't they?
I am a member of a truly weird species, and I can't seem to do anything about it.
From Fiona Hill:
"Last night I was at dinner with a European foreign minister and one of their under secretaries. They were relating discussions that they've had with Russians where Putin has told them bluntly they can buy anyone they like in the U.S. or in Europe."
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/18/us/politics/putin-ukraine.html
And it appears that we have quite a few Americans that have been bought––Putin is like Trump's second cousin –--kisses all round and admiration for being such a brilliant schister. I find this abominable!
And last night the war began.
. Today I join Ken in feeling as if I, too, belong to a truly weird species. And last night I said to Joe:
"We cling to each other like orphans in a storm"
Justice delayed is justice denied: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Anderson_(American_businessman). The CEO of Union Carbide during the Bhopal lived a good long life. This is much like Orange Turd and so many others who deserved scorn, ridicule, and justice. Simply put, lots of high school drug dealers grow up after getting away with it in their youths and move onto more adult pursuits. Think Louis DeJoy. Does any normal person think there is no kickback or nefarious shit under the table of his car deal? Putin and his Orange Wind-up doll are really in a class by themselves though, aren't they? They turn shit and suffering into dollar bills.
@Ken Winkes: You might try squeezing shut your eyes & scrunching up your face and wishing really hard you would mutate into a higher being. Alas, I've already tried that, and it didn't work. When I peeked in the mirror, I could see that it just made me look more like Putin.
and to think I expected the NY prosecutors story to be the big news of the day! Instead I am wondering if some miscalculation is going to be the start of a larger war with all the terrifying possibilities.
PD,
There’ll be plenty of orphans in the storm in Ukraine after Trump’s pal Putin gets through. And Fox—and the Fat Fascist—will be cheering on the carnage. “Reprehensible” doesn’t even come close. (Although as I begin to type “reprehensible”, Otto Correct helpfully, and accurately, suggests “Republican”. Otto has been paying attention.)
I’ll take Bellicose Asshole Quotes for $1000, Alex.
“Our response will be immediate and lead to the consequences you have never seen in history.”
“If [we are] forced to defend ourselves or our allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy [you].”
Who said it?
Okay, the first is Putin, the second, his orange lapdog.
First, consequences never seen in history? Worse than Hiroshima and Nagasaki? That’s quite a threat. As for the Orange lapdog, “total destruction”quickly turned to love letters and ass-kissyness.
Both assholes were (and are) cheered on by the traitors. They are not even the same species as the rest of us, Ken.
In the Land of Terminal Narcissism
So we’ve been watching this thing on Netflix, “Inventing Anna”, about a con artist who invaded New York society pretending to be a wealthy German heiress with a billionaire father, instead of the poor Russian girl she was, whose father was a truck driver. Now, we’ve all seen movies or read stories about con artists you end up liking (Newman and Redford in “The Sting”, for instance) but mostly as long as they’re stealing from gangsters, crooks, or other assorted slimeballs.
But in this case, as in the case of much more successful con artist we all know and despise, Anna Delvey, née Sorokin, is a world class narcissist as well as a brazen confidence trickster and thief. You just can’t root for her in any fashion, even though she is bilking mostly wealthy society types, who are depicted largely as deserving their fate (the show is mildly entertaining, but has its problems which we won’t get into now).
The astonishing thing about the story (which apparently is mostly true, except for the “parts that are totally made up”, as we’re informed at the opening credits), is the complete sociopathy that goes along with this level of narcissism. Yeah, we’ve all watched Trump bluster and blister his way to whatever he wants, but it’s all at a remove.
The fascinating thing about “Inventing Anna” is the focus on how her demands and personal ability to con people out of thousands, allow her to get what she wants (for a few years) while completely dismissing the lives she impacts. In fact, she (like Trump) viciously attacks anyone who complains that she has stolen from them. If people lose jobs, reputation, money, and have their lives brutally upended, it’s no concern of hers as long as she gets that new dress, a private jet, or a few weeks in a swanky hotel in Morocco.
It’s all about her.
I thought about that while reading about Trump glorifying Putin’s criminal invasion of Ukraine. One wonders how he can do this. This is the place Reagan once blithely joked about bombing. The place Republicans have made hay on for decades by demonizing anyone who wanted to discuss peace with. Fucking Russia!
And for years, the blithering idiots on the right have slavishly praised Trump for “going it alone” and “sticking it to the man” along with other similar enervated encomiums. It’s nothing of the sort. With Trump, there is no right or wrong. The only thing that matters is “what’s in it for me?”. So, tearing up climate agreements, the Iranian treaty, tax cuts for the wealthy…or lavishing praise on a war mongering tyrannical murderer, there’s little to no real ideology or even much conscious thought behind it.
It’s all transactional. What can I get out of the chaos? Can I make a Buck on this, or stick it to my enemies, or look good to the yokels? It’s all about what works for him. So what if half a million Americans die of Covid. Who cares if thousands of Ukrainians are murdered?
Can I get something out of it? That’s all that matters. Terminal narcissism.
Anna Sorokin is still grifting, but at least she was forced out of haute couture gowns and into hot orange jumpsuits.
We likely will never see Trump get the comeuppance he so richly deserves. But at least we know it’s not about genius or savvy or political competence.
Like an infant, it’s all about “Where’s my next baba?”
I'm hoping someone here will watch Faux news* tonight and will
be able to translate the Russian subtitles and report back to us
tomorrow. Thanks.
So Russia has taken Chernobyl. Makes a kinda good riddance sense.
After all, they own all that history associates with it.
Wonder if Ukraine fought desperately to keep it.
Today we had to go to Tweed airport in New Haven to fetch our granddaughter who was coming in from Florida after visiting her maternal grandparents and bring her back home to Ridgefield since both her parents were teaching today. In the waiting room we were sitting next to a middle aged man who was Ukrainian; he was there to pick up his brother who managed to leave Ukraine two weeks ago and spent some time in Florida with relatives. We got to talking about the Russian invasion. At one point he started to cry––bent over, hands covering his face and saying how so many of his people will die. I put my arms around him and I, too, got teary. He thanked me for my concern and said he was "sick inside––-it will be so terrible for my people."
Moments like this will stay with me for the rest of my life.