;)
March 27, 2022
Putin's War Crimes, Ctd.
The New York Times' live updates of developments Sunday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "President Biden ended three days of diplomacy in Europe on Saturday that brought him within miles of the war in Ukraine, using a speech in Poland to rally American allies for what he said would be a long fight and escalating his personal denunciation of Vladimir V. Putin, saying the Russian leader 'cannot remain in power.' Mr. Biden described the war in sweeping terms, as 'a battle between democracy and autocracy, between liberty and repression, between a rules-based order and one governed by brute force.' He portrayed it as part of a long struggle against authoritarianism, linking it to past uprisings against Soviet domination in Eastern Europe." ~~~
~~~ The Washington Post's live updates for Sunday are here: "The White House is walking back President Biden's fiery, ad-libbed comments calling Vladimir Putin a 'dictator' who 'cannot remain in power' -- insisting the United States is not looking for regime change in Russia. 'We do not have a strategy of regime change in Russia - or anywhere else, for that matter,' Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday from Jerusalem, stressing that Biden's point was that the Russian president 'cannot be empowered to wage war or engage in aggression against Ukraine or anyone else.' Biden's Warsaw speech, capping his European tour, came as two powerful rockets struck around 250 miles away -- across the border in Lviv, a western city considered relatively safe in the month-long war, amid conflicting reports that Moscow is shifting the locus of war from capturing Ukraine's capital to prioritizing securing the east.... Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reiterated demands for Western countries to supply planes and tanks to Ukraine, and he criticized the West for its hesitation." ~~~
~~~ The Guardian's live updates for Sunday are here.
What If??? Marie: I am struck again and again by how differently Putin's war of atrocities would have unfolded if a few tens of thousands of Americans had voted differently in a few U.S. states in 2020. Ukraine would never have got American backing -- even if the Congress voted for it, Trump would have held it up, as he did aid to Ukraine in 2019 -- and, obviously, Trump would have never cast Putin's war as a battle between autocracy & democracy, since Trump himself comes down on the side of autocracy. European NATO members probably would have given Ukraine some help, but NATO itself would be decidedly weaker, and if Macron had emerged as its de facto leader, there would have been no major push for crippling sanctions against Russia. In short, if Trump were in power, instead of Biden, the course of European history might have worked out differently, and the change would have come quickly. A few weeks ago, Ken W. & I briefly mentioned the "great man" theory of history. One thing is certain: the individuals who head the major global powers, no matter how they got to the top, make a difference in regional and even global outcomes. Few realize it, but the world is indebted to those few tens of thousands of people who voted for Joe Biden.
Chris Megerian, et al., of the AP: "President Joe Biden said Saturday that Vladimir Putin 'cannot remain in power,' dramatically escalating the rhetoric against the Russian leader after his brutal invasion of Ukraine. Even as Biden's words rocketed around the world, the White House attempted to clarify soon after Biden finished speaking in Poland that he was not calling for a new government in Russia. A White House official asserted that Biden was 'not discussing Putin's power in Russia or regime change.' The official, who was not authorized to comment by name and spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Biden's point was that 'Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbors or the region.' The White House declined to comment on whether Biden's statement about Putin was part of his prepared remarks. 'For God's sake, this man cannot remain in power,' Biden said at the very end of a speech in Poland's capital that served as the capstone on a four-day trip to Europe." You can watch President Biden's full remarks here on YouTube.
Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Biden called ... Vladimir V. Putin of Russia 'a butcher' on Saturday, in response to a question after meeting with Ukrainian refugees in Warsaw, including several from Mariupol, the city that has been flattened by days of shelling from Russian forces.... His comment came as he visited a stadium in Warsaw where the Polish authorities are assisting the waves of people who are fleeing Ukraine. He shook hands and exchanged comments with people as they crowded around him. At one point, he picked up a little girl with a pink jacket and brown pigtails and took a selfie with her. Each one of the children, Mr. Biden said, asked for him to pray 'for my dad, or my grandfather, and my brother,' who remain in Ukraine."
Cara Anna of the AP: "Russian rockets struck the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on Saturday while President Joe Biden visited neighboring Poland, a reminder that Moscow is willing to strike anywhere in Ukraine despite its claim to be focusing its offensive on the country's east. The back-to-back airstrikes shook the city that has become a haven for an estimated 200,000 people who have had to flee their hometowns. Lviv had been largely spared since the invasion began, although missiles struck an aircraft repair facility near the main airport a week ago."
Poland Chooses Soverignty Over Nationalism, For Now. Tyler Pager, et al., of the Washington Post: President "Biden's two-day visit to Poland ... underscores the rapidly changing nature of the U.S.-Poland relationship, which has transformed into a close partnership in the face of Russia's invasion of neighboring Ukraine. Arriving at Poland's Presidential Palace for a meeting with [President Andrzej] Duda on Saturday afternoon, Biden embraced the Polish leader and the two men beamed at the cameras as they shook hands and Biden placed his other hand on Duda's shoulder. At the start of an expanded bilateral meeting, Duda said that the relationship between the United States and Poland is 'flourishing' and that the bond was 'strengthened immensely' by Biden's visit. In his remarks, Biden emphasized United States' enduring commitment to defending NATO member states, seeking to reassure the Polish people, who Duda said feel a 'great sense of threat' because of Russia's aggression.... In recent weeks, Polish leaders have pivoted from attacking some of the core institutions of liberal democracy to touting their role as defenders of European unity and values.... The fortified bond between Poland and the United States could be temporary, however." (Also linked yesterday.)&
William Booth, et al., of the Washington Post: "The war in Ukraine is proving extraordinarily lethal for Russian generals..., who are being aggressively targeted by Ukrainian forces and killed at a rate not seen since World War II. Ukrainian officials say their forces have killed seven generals on the battlefield, felled by snipers, close combat and bombings.... NATO officials estimated earlier this week that as many as 15,000 Russian troops have been killed in four weeks of war, a very high number. Russia has offered a far lower figure, reporting Friday that only 1,351 of its fighters had died. The Russian government has not confirmed the deaths of its generals.... By design, the Russian army is top heavy with senior officers, which makes them numerous, though not expendable.... Some experts suggest the Russian military has struggled to keep its communications secure and that Ukraine intelligence units have found their targets through Russian carelessness, with Russian forces reduced to using unencrypted devices.... One Western official suggested that Russian generals were also needed to push 'frightened' Russian troops, including raw conscripts, forward.... Russian soldiers attacked and injured their commanding officer after their brigade suffered heavy losses in the fighting outside the capital, Kyiv, according to a Western official and a Ukrainian journalist"
Power to the People. Daniel Boffey & Shaun Walker of the Guardian: "A mayor in a Ukrainian town occupied by Russian forces has been released from captivity and the soldiers have agreed to leave after a mass protest by residents. Slavutych, a northern town close to the Chernobyl nuclear site, was taken by Russian forces but stun grenades and overhead fire failed to disperse unarmed protesters on its main square on Saturday. The crowd demanded the release of mayor Yuri Fomichev, who had been taken prisoner by the Russian troops. An agreement was made that the Russians would leave the town if those with arms handed them over to the mayor with a dispensation for those with hunting rifles. Fomichev told those protesting that the Russians had agreed to withdraw 'if there are no [Ukrainian] military in the city'. The deal struck, the mayor said, was that the Russians would make a search for Ukrainian soldiers and arms and then depart. One Russian checkpoint outside the city would remain. The incident highlights the struggle that Russian forces have faced even where they have had military victories." ~~~
Robyn Dixon & Mary Ilyushina of the Washington Post: "The speed of Russia's transformation to Soviet-style 'self-purification' has been astonishing. When Russia invaded Ukraine last month, state TV went to wall-to-wall propaganda blaming Ukrainian 'neo-Nazis' and 'nationalists.' Now, shadowy pro-Putin figures are daubing the words 'traitor to the motherland' on the doors of peace activists and others.... Websites with names have sprung up encouraging Russians to denounce 'traitors,' 'enemies,' 'cowards' and 'fugitives' who oppose the war.... Cars carrying imperial flags and bearing the letter Z, a symbol of support for the war, have appeared in Russian cities and towns.... There is a thread of messianic rhetoric from top Russian officials, pro-Kremlin journalists, religious figures and academics, laying out the mission to revive Russian greatness. They revile Western liberalism and applaud conservative, authoritarian orthodoxy."
Roger Cohen of the New York Times reviews Vladimir Putin's career: "Speaking in what he called 'the language of Goethe, Schiller and Kant,' picked up during his time as a K.G.B. officer in Dresden, President Vladimir V. Putin addressed the German Parliament on Sept. 25, 2001. 'Russia is a friendly European nation,' he declared. 'Stable peace on the continent is a paramount goal for our nation.' The Russian leader, elected the previous year at the age of 47 after a meteoric rise from obscurity, went on to describe 'democratic rights and freedoms' as the 'key goal of Russia's domestic policy.' Members of the Bundestag gave a standing ovation, moved by the reconciliation Mr. Putin seemed to embody in a city, Berlin, that long symbolized division between the West and the totalitarian Soviet world.... An immense distance seems to separate the man who won over the Bundestag in 2001 with a conciliatory speech and the ranting leader berating the 'national traitors' seduced by the West who 'can't do without foie gras, oysters or the so-called gender freedoms,' as he put it in his scum-and-traitors speech this month.... Was [Putin] transformed over time into the revanchist warmonger of today, whether because of perceived Western provocation, gathering grievance, or the giddying intoxication of prolonged and -- since Covid-19 -- increasingly isolated rule?... 'You must understand, he is from the K.G.B., lying is his profession, it is not a sin,' said Sylvie Bermann, the French ambassador in Moscow from 2017 to 2020. 'He is like a mirror, adapting to what he sees, in the way he was trained.'" MB: Quite a fascinating analysis, IMO.
Jeff Stein of the Washington Post: "The White House will unveil a new minimum tax targeting billionaires as part of its 2023 budget Monday, proposing a tax on the richest 700 Americans for the first time, according to five people with knowledge of the matter and an administration document obtained by The Washington Post. The 'Billionaire Minimum Income Tax' plan under President Biden would establish a 20 percent minimum tax rate on all American households worth more than $100 million, the document says. The majority of new revenue raised by the tax would come from billionaires.... The plan comes amid signs that the administration's negotiations with Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) over stalled White House economic proposal may be reviving. But all previous efforts to tax billionaires have failed amid major political head winds, and it is unclear if Manchin and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) will go along with the plan." CNN's report is here.
** Maureen Dowd of the New York Times: "A snarling pack of white male Republicans ripping apart a poised, brainy Black woman at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, using sordid innuendos and baseless claims about race and porn to smear her, as her pained family sits behind her. It has been 31 years since I watched this scene, disgusted, when Anita Hill was questioned during confirmation hearings for Justice Clarence Thomas. Now Ketanji Brown Jackson has been cast into the same medieval torture chamber on Capitol Hill, with Democrats once more struggling to shield their witness from being mauled. This time, the male Torquemadas were joined by a female inquisitor, Marsha Blackburn. The Tennessee Republican is all magnolia Southern charm -- until she spits venom.... [Clarence] Thomas should never have been on the court. Now that we know his wife was plotting the overthrow of the government, he should get off or be thrown off. You can't administer justice when your spouse is running around strategizing for a coup."
Ray Hartmann in the Raw Story: "Sen. Josh Hawley was residing in a glass house when he metaphorically hurled rocks at Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson -- falsely suggesting that she was soft on sex-related crimes during her U.S. Supreme Court nomination hearing.... On multiple instances in his fleeting two-year stint as Missouri attorney general -- before he was elected to the U.S. Senate -- Hawley was either disinterested or inept in prosecuting sex crimes. Some of that history was laid out today in a National Memo report [Saturday]." (Also linked yesterday.)
Tom Boggioni of the Raw Story: "Reflecting on the outrageous grilling Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson received at the hands of Republican senators..., Intelligencer columnist Jacob Silverman suggested that the GOP rhetoric showed the party appears to be a wholly-owned subsidiary of QAnon.... 'Earlier this month, Missouri senator Josh Hawley presented a long Twitter thread charging that Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson "has a pattern of letting child porn offenders off the hook" -- a blaring Klaxon for QAnon adherents obsessed with child endangerment,' he wrote. "He later repeated his criticisms on the first day of Jackson's confirmation hearing.... Hawley's remarks were later echoed by South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham, who ... told Jackson, "Every judge who does what you are doing is making it easier for the children to be exploited."'... Touching on reports that Ginni Thomas was texting absurd conspiracy theories to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows during the Jan 6th insurrection, the columnist explained, 'Thomas's willingness to embrace even the most wild-eyed, Big Lie-fueled theories only affirms what we already know about some of her political peers, including those who served in the Trump White House. Some ... Trumpists, including perhaps Trump himself, actually accepted the proliferating lies[.]..." The New York column is firewalled.
Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: Republican senators' attacks on Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, accusing her of being "soft on" child pornographers are "so spurious and dishonest that National Review denounced it as 'meritless to the point of demagoguery.' Of course, 'demagoguery' is the point. It's no accident that Republicans have landed on this particular accusation. The belief that Democrats are pedophiles -- and that at its top levels the Democratic Party is an elaborate pedophilia ring -- looms large in the QAnon conspiracy theory, which is something like orthodoxy for a substantial portion of the Republican base.... The Republican attacks on Jackson are a QAnon dogwhistle, and QAnon followers have heard the message."
Let's Not Forget Racism, a Feature of the Hearings. Steve Phillips in the Guardian (March 25): "... the Republican committee members have opted to throw racist red meat to their rabid white supporters who are gripped by fear of people of color. [Ted] Cruz led the charge with his attacks on critical race theory, asking [Judge] Jackson whether she agrees 'that babies are racist' and trying to paint the judge as a dangerous person who would force white children to learn about racism.... Hour after hour, question after question, Judge Jackson -- secure in the knowledge that she is simply the latest talented Black woman and not the first -- is calmly, confidently and politely taking a wrecking ball to the myth that America is a meritocracy. And the implications of that scare the Republicans to death."
Danny Hakim, et al., of the New York Times: "A hard-line conservative activist, [Ginni] Thomas had long been viewed with suspicion by the Republican establishment. Yet her influence had risen during the Trump administration, especially after [Mark] Meadows, who like Ms. Thomas has roots in the Tea Party movement, became chief of staff. Now, an examination of her texts, woven together with recent revelations of the depth of her efforts to overturn the election, shows how firmly she was embedded in the conspiratorial fringe of right-wing politics, even as that fringe was drawing ever closer to the center of Republican power.... As his wife agitated for Mr. Trump and his aides to turn aside the election results, Justice Thomas was Mr. Trump's staunchest ally on the Supreme Court and has remained so."
Dan Balz of the Washington Post: Ginni Thomas' text messages to Mark Meadows "once again show how ... Donald Trump's conspiracies, lies and obsessions infected the Republican Party (and in many quarters still do), from its rank-and-file base to some of its most establishment figures. The more that is known..., the clearer it is just how extensive the efforts to overturn the election were and how high up they went.... Now it's known just how much Ginni Thomas pushed senior officials in the government to embrace allegations that were unproven at the time and ultimately disproved, claims that embodied some of the most outlandish of the ideas that were circulating then.... For anyone who thought that Trump's claims of a stolen election were a game to salve a bruised presidential ego and that those around him went along to humor him, the Thomas texts speak to the real threats that existed at the time." (Also linked yesterday.)
Mariana Alfaro & Maria Paul of the Washington Post: "Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-Neb.) said Saturday that he will resign from Congress after he was convicted Thursday on three felony counts for lying to federal investigators about illegal campaign contributions from a foreign billionaire. In a letter to his House colleagues, Fortenberry said his last day in Congress will be March 31.... The congressman -- who has maintained his innocence since being charged in October -- said he planned to appeal the verdict. His defense team had argued that authorities had used deceptive investigative tactics to indict the congressman.... Felons are eligible to run for and serve in Congress." The AP's story is here.
The Devil Went Down to Georgia. Maya King of the New York Times: Donald Trump headlined a rally Saturday night in Commerce, Georgia, to bolster the sputtering campaign of former Sen. David Purdue, who is running against the sitting Republican governor Brian Kemp who infuriated Trump by refusing to illegally throw the state's presidential election to Trump. "All seven of Mr. Trump's endorsed candidates [for Georgia offices] spoke at the rally. Nearly every speaker echoed Mr. Trump's false election claims, placing the blame on Dominion voting machines and Democratic lawmakers for Republicans' 2020 losses in Georgia. Mr. Perdue took things further, however, placing the blame for his Senate campaign loss and Mr. Trump's defeat on Mr. Kemp."
When All the President's Men Plotted to Assassinate an American Journalist. Mark Feldstein in the Washington Post: Before the Watergate break-in, White House special counsel Charles Colson, top White House operative, E. Howard Hunt & his sidekick G. Gordon Liddy conspired to assassinate syndicated columnist Jack Anderson, who was long a thorn in Richard Nixon's side. Nixon had earlier tried to get Anderson with a number of dirty tricks, but the stunts backfired or fizzled. "In the aftermath [of Watergate], a Senate committee investigated and confirmed the plot to poison Anderson. Liddy and Hunt eventually acknowledged their participation in the conspiracy. Colson never did.... Nixon['s] ... role in the Anderson plot has never been definitively established. Hunt believed that Colson didn't have the 'balls' to order the assassination on his own and had acted at Nixon's behest. Colson denied that. But it is hard to imagine Nixon's closest advisers plotting to execute America's leading investigative reporter without the tacit -- if not explicit -- authorization of the president." (Also linked yesterday.)
Colorado. Sophie Kasakove of the New York Times: "Jurors in Colorado on Friday ordered the city and county of Denver to pay $14 million in damages to 12 plaintiffs after finding that police officers used excessive force against them during demonstrations over the killing of George Floyd in 2020. The civil case in the U.S. District Court of Colorado was the first in the nation in which a lawsuit accusing the police of misconduct during the 2020 protests went to trial, according to the plaintiffs' lawyers.... The jury of eight Coloradans concluded that the city and county failed to properly train its police and that as a result,officers violated the plaintiffs' constitutional rights under the First and Fourth Amendments."
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Reader Comments (8)
I spent most of Saturday afternoon listening to the Metropolitan Opera broadcast of Verdi’s grandest of grand operas, “Don Carlos”. Based on a play by Friedrich Schiller (who also wrote the Lyrics for the Ode to Joy section of the last movement of Beethoven’s 9th), who in turn based his drama on historical events in the court of Phillip II in 16th C Spain.
One of the main themes of the opera is the problem of church and state. As one of the characters points out to Phillip at one point, he rules over an enormous empire, but when religious forces tell him what to do, in this case to hand his son Carlos over to the Inquisition to be tortured and slaughtered, he admits that the king must bow to the priest.
While listening to this scene, the massive encounter between Phillip and the Grand Inquisitor, I thought, for a second, this is the kind of nation desired by people like Ginni Thomas, Michael Flynn, Bill Barr, and plenty of others. The ones aching to lower the boom on LGBTQ Americans and anyone supporting a woman’s right to choose. An American theocracy, just as controlling, and scary, as any Taliban run government.
But I only thought that for a second. In Verdi’s opera, even the king must do what he’s told. But in Ginni Thomas’ theocracy, only certain people would have to obey. The “right kind” of people, as is currently the case, wouldn’t have to play by the rules. Only their enemies would be punished.
In the opera, as Don Carlos is attacked by the Inquisitor’s goons (his sin? Loving the wrong woman—something still seen as a problem by some Republicans), who are there to haul him off to the torture chamber, the spirit (or something) of his grandfather, the great emperor Charles V, shows up to take him to heaven, or out for ice cream or a slice, or some damned thing.
Unfortunately for us, no astounding deus ex machina would save us were the theocratic coup lovers ever to gain power, something unlikely (I hope). But that doesn’t mean they’re not trying. One of the big set pieces in the opera is an auto da fe scene, the burning of the heretics. Get yer popcorn, folks, show’s just about to start!
Very likely Ginni’s favorite scene. And don’t forget, public executions of their enemies is a cherished fantasy for a lot of these nuts. Remember Timothy McVeigh? He drew inspiration from a whacked out book called “The Turner Diaries” in which abortion doctors and adulterous women were hung from lamp posts in all American cities.
At least in Verdi’s opera, the souls of those burned at the stake were welcomed into heaven. I doubt this is something America’s theocrats would approve of.
Trumps rally yesterday featured security from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the Georgia State Patrol, and sheriffs deputies from several area counties. This is all at taxpayer expense. Got this from a friend who lives about a half hour out of Commerce. I asked them to let me know if there's an increase of Perdue signs over the weekend.
AK: Loved the way you weaved "Don Carlos" into our own opera of singers in congress. And I was thinking perhaps some in Ukraine are asking why their prayers have not been answered.
"It is a lie so staggering that he has to admire it." Wolf Hall
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/03/25/if-every-judge-is-an-originalist-originalism-is-meaningless/
My comment:
Good essay.
Originalism is a long form of CYA.
Whether the urge is political or psychological, originalism is cited by those who don't wish to take responsibility for their opinions or actions. It's finger pointing only, blaming a higher authority--God or the Founders--for doing what you wanted to do all along.
Originalists are adult cowards, swaddled in robes instead of blankets.
Good timing in local News:
https://about.usps.com/postal-bulletin/2022/pb22591/html/info_011.htm
And the latest on the farmworkers' strike.
https://mailchi.mp/470731b11a4b/workers-at-washington-bulbs-roozengaarde-tulips-pause-strike?e=7801dcb042
About that 20% tax rate proposal on millionaires with over 100
million dollars.
The fist thing out of Betsy's mouth is going to be "I gave a hundred
million dollars to build that children's hospital in Grand Rapids so
if I have to pay taxes I won't be giving any $ to charities (to get out
of paying taxes)"
The response should be that she only gives money when she can
get her name on the building or in the news.
Another response would be that if the government can collect money
from 700 millionaires and billionaires, perhaps that money can go to
various charities that actually help the needy.
Of course the R's are still going to claim that Biden will be buying
Cadillacs for welfare queens.
It never ends.
Tsar “Ich kann Deutsch” references Kant, Schiller, and Goethe.
Funny, innit?
It’s like Fatty trying to convince the droolers that he’s a Biblical scholar.
One at a time, shall we?
Kant, whose expression of moral philosophy is situated in a deontology that demands at all times an adherence to truth: not a great fit for an habitual liar.
Goethe? A famous liberal thinker, wrote a play about a narcissistic bastard who made a pact with the devil to get whatever he wanted, no matter the cost to others. Don’t think Vlad is all that familiar with Faust.
And Schiller? Another liberal whose works brimmed with his interest in freedom, especially (in a piece referenced earlier, “Don Carlos”), freedom from oppressive rat bastards waging illegal wars on a peaceful populace. Does anyone think Schiller’s Ode to Joy, about friendship and love is required reading for Putin’s murderous horde?
So…famous German language speakers amenable to Tsar Vlad’s minuscule heart, blackened soul, and murderous predilection?
How ‘bout Hitler, Goebbels, and Himmler?
Yeah. That’s the ticket. Cuz Kant, Goethe, and Schiller, were they alive today in Tsar Putin’s Russia, would be strapped to a table, Putin goons surrounding them with pliers and blowtorches.
The galactic hypocrisy of Josh Hawley’s coddling of pornographers and child molesters is a story told on the Raw Story site, but will it make The Paper of Both Sides (NYTimes) or show up in major network news rundowns (before the “Best new brownie recipe” stories)?
Nope. This is how these despicable liars flourish. Major news outlets are afraid to take them on. They’re fearful of the tsunami of attacks from the traitors if anyone tells the truth about one of their own. They never suffer that kind of bombardment when publishing hit pieces on Democrats and liberals, so let’s talk about how Biden is soft on Russia but Hawley and Cruz are just asking respectful questions.