Putin, Ukraine, Planning, Authoritarian, Tuck, Biden, KBJ, Slap, Covid, Madison

  • Putin propagandists accuse Ukraine of an air strike on a fuel depot within Russian borders. Green Eagle raises an obvious point.
     
  • Not all Russians buy into Putin lies:

  • Nojo finds a cute little cartoon video created by a Ukrainian girl about a tractor capturing and pulling a tank. Everyone singing and dancing as they roll merrily along. War enters everything.
     
  • Workforce managers have been boring their yawning staff members long before I became elderly, with useful aphorisms like Fail to Plan = Plan to Fail! And now, Putin ends up proving them right as rain!
     
    Bastard!
     
    Our favorite Earth-Bound Misfit sees one reason Ukraine has been so successful so far in so kicking an invading bully in the tail. In several years of preparing for the conflict that Putin planned and Ukrainians anticipated, Ukrainians were astonishingly smart, and Putin’s group were comically witless.
     
  • Infidel753 suggests one source for Putin miscalculation. Intelligence failures can be caused by a single characteristic pretty much baked in to power grasping authoritarianism.
     
  • Ted McLaughlin at jobsanger points to an extreme percentage of the world living under authoritarian regimes and suggests an overarching reason Ukraine’s fight against Putin’s invasion has become especially important.
     
  • tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors has the numbers. It seems Tucker Carlson is unable to convince even his most ardent followers that Vlad Putin is the good guy in the Ukraine invasion.
     
  • There are other lessons to be learned as well: like how to be an authentic human:

  • In News Corpse President Biden is derisive about Peter Doocy’s demand that the President publicly reveal strategic contingency plans about what the US might do if Putin uses chemical weapons in Ukraine.
     
  • Vixen Strangely at Strangely Blogged explains that, in hearing President Biden’s “ad-lib” about Putin, we may want to keep in mind the target audience.
     
  • In Letters from an American, noted historian Heather Cox Richardson examines economic news. With no help, no votes, just foot dragging opposition from Republicans, President Biden presides over astonishingly fast job creation and record low unemployment. Inflation is high, but appears to be a global problem, not endemic to the US.
     
  • Republicans have been on this path at least since those wayback days when I was just a lad. Frances Langum reports they are still at it, as they once more unveil plans to slash Social Security and Medicare.
     
    And that is not all we may experience:

  • Mitch McConnell demands that Republicans oppose Ketanji Brown Jackson for the Supreme Court. Scottie is irritated at the lack of principle or even a coherent phony argument for his opposition.
     
  • Usually indecisive Senator from Maine will be voting for Ketanji Brown Jackson after all. Andy Borowitz reports that Senate Republicans are planning to punish Susan Collins by making her sit next to Rand Paul.
     
  • PZ Myers watches a police raid on the home of an anti-abortion activist, where they discover… Holy Mother of God!!.

  • Hackwhackers reads a letter-to-the-editor they wish they had written about the current condition of contemporary conservatism.
     
  • If you listen carefully, you can hear a sort of reverse echo of reality.
     
    Tommy Christopher was there as the Fox Network complained for months that the Biden administration was not requiring immigrants to be vaccinated. Suddenly, Fox is bitterly complaining that the administration is now vaccinating immigrants.
     
    There does seem to be a common thread:

  • driftglass has photos as an Illinois remnant of the anti-mask, anti-vax convoy fades sadly away.
    Some issues remain with us for now:

  • The Palmer Report discovers that there really is something elected Republican officials find to be wrong, even if it is done by fellow Republicans.

    • Advocating murder of prominent Democrats goes with no particular comment.
    • Attending White Nationalist conventions is okay.
    • Calling Ukraine’s national hero, President Zelenskyy, a “thug” passes without objection.
    • Going all sci-fi anti-Semitic, accusing Jews of using a space satellite based laser to set American forests on fire, is fine.
    • Supporting an insurrection; the killing of police officers, an attempt to lynch Senators and Congressional representatives; is not only sustained, but any investigation is an attack on “legitimate political discourse.”
       

    As I see it, it actually is time we stopped accusing Republican office holders of not standing for anything.
    When it comes to fellow conservatives, they really will stand for anything.
     
    Almost!
     
    There is one transgression, committed by Representative Madison Cawthorn, that simply cannot be tolerated. He has revealed occasional Republican sex parties at which cocaine is served.
     
    Republican House leader Kevin McCarthy speaks sternly, in person, in private, to Madison about this unforgivable indiscretion.

  • Ant Farmer’s Almanac goes a bit satiric as the GOP responds to Madison Cawthorn’s statement about receiving those invitations to congressional sex parties.
     
  • Max’s Dad knew the young lady, when she was a young lady way back in college classes, before Ginni Thomas became Ginni Thomas. Folks in the community apparently knew her as a potentially dangerous fruitcake even then.
     
  • Coverage varies:

  • Do lies indicate consciousness of guilt? How about missing records? Dave Dubya finds the Trump lies with the assistance of the accuser, who is …well… Mr. Trump. And Dave has the receipts on the missing records. He leads us to the obvious conclusion.
     
  • Wisconsin conservative James Wigderson has always liked former Governor Tommy Thompson:

  • I was watching a televised fight this week, and suddenly the Oscars broke out. North Carolina pastor John Pavlovitz describes the slap heard round the world as the momentary exchange between three wealthy and powerful celebrities amid a world of very real pain and very real injustice then explains why, nonetheless, it was very important and very wrong.
     
  • Cato Institute’s Julian Sanchez knows who really owes an apology:

  • At The Moderate Voice Joe Gandelman says the Smith slap generated a worldwide joke fest on social media and brings us lots and lots and lots of examples.
     
  • CalicoJack in The Psy of Life wishes a Happy Birthday to Rachel Maddow.
     
  • The Strategic Studies Book Club explores the long-ago struggle between two Sunni schools of Islam theology.
     
    One held to pre-destination, because the Almighty knows everything in advance. The other believed in free-will because, otherwise, divine justice would be no justice at all.
     
    This debate is common to other belief systems as well. I am reminded of the late Isaac Bashevis Singer, who summed up the argument:
     
    We have to believe in free will. We’ve got no choice.
     
  • Nan’s Notebook contains the words to which we of faith must dedicate our lives. She documents multiple instances where we aim elsewhere.
     
    It really is a terrible thing when a critic has more insight into our faith than do we.
     
  • In The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser, atheist Bruce is asked who he thinks wrote words the Gospels attribute to Jesus, and whether Jesus existed at all. As usual, Bruce answers thoughtfully.
     
    He frequently hosts opinions of others on his site. Occasionally that includes writings volunteered by committed Christians. A few weeks ago, I was generously honored in that way myself. Bruce allowed me to contribute my reasons for believing as I do.
     
    He reminds me a great deal of another atheist, one who has been gone for decades but remains an important part of my life.
     
  • M. Bouffant at Web of Evil has a brief personal suggestion for a new Fox hireling, the one with a theory about a mainstream scientific theory. It seems Charles Darwin was paid, sub rosa, by the Rothschild family to create the theory of evolution as part of a Jewish conspiracy against God.
     
  • At The Onion, scientists speculate the universe may be a simulation after all, after ‘Trial Version Expired’ appears across the sky.
     
  • MadMikesAmerica has decided to close down, and has decided to remain open.
     
    Which has left me saddened, then gladdened.
     
  • The Propaganda Professor says the country of Colombia has gotten to be a pretty good place to live and visit, but is the victim of a retrospective image that the country should be credited with outgrowing.
     
  • @whiskeywhistle98, the artist formerly known as @momwino98, seems somewhat unhappy with a sudden discovery of a definition. Well, I’ve had to get used to it decades longer than has she.
    @whiskeywhistle98 #80schild #SmellLikeIrishSpring #UnsealTheMeal #tiki #whatever #fyp #foryourpage #tiktokmom ♬ Millennial Takeover – Parody Kat

  • Sarah Cooper is reminded of an important contract:

  • SilverAppleQueen has a poem about wisdom, a sword, and Winter becoming Spring. My uninformed interpretation? Choosing your battles.
     
  • In her Happiness Between Tails podcast da-AL brings us three quick and easy step-by-step veggie recipes.
     
  • Legal expert Imani Gandy takes a break from blogging as she encounters advice to Twitter participants:

  • Reductress, ever the source of useful life-hacks, reveals new clickbait: how to tell whether you just discovered a new Covid variant or if you just drank wine four nights this week.
     
  • The Journal of Improbable Research finds the study as the University of Nebraska constructs a model based on 3-dimensional multiphysics to study what happens to lasagna rotating in a microwave.
     
  • YellowDog Granny is affected when she drinks RedBull.
     

A few tweets I thought worthy:

And I’m allowed a few of my own:

– Podcasts –
 

2 thoughts on “Putin, Ukraine, Planning, Authoritarian, Tuck, Biden, KBJ, Slap, Covid, Madison”

  1. Well, to be fair, there comes a time, or many, many, deeply frustrating times in a printers life where dragging it out to the woods to shoot it is warranted 🙂

    That said I’ve never wanted to dress mine up as a voting machine. This is right up there with the ones shooting their coffee machines (that they already purchased) extremely expensive coolers (that they’ve already purchased), Nike shoes (yes, that they’ve already purchased) and my all time favorite, the one that lit his nike socks on fire (that he had already purchased, and was wearing at the time)

    Seriously though, I’ve seen that book before, he pretty literally cannot wait to go out and start to murderin’ folk.

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