Police are heroes because they are willing to do exactly this, and occasionally they are called upon to do exactly this.
- The two year period between 1989 and 1991 began with the tumbling of the Berlin wall and ended with the fall of the USSR. It is remembered by much of the world as a brief time of hopeful joy. The Palmer Report compares Vladimir Putin’s reaction to that time with that of another historical figure to another historical downfall. It may help explain a combative personal view that sees the world only in hostile nationalistic and racial terms.
- In Letters from an American, Heather Cox Richardson has us remember FDR’s fireside chats, in which he explained the war by contrasting the growing philosophy of fascism with that of democracy.
She suggests that Vladimir Putin may have provided a similar service in advance of his latest invasion.
In 2019, Russian president Vladimir Putin told the Financial Times that the ideology of liberalism on which democracy is based has “outlived its purpose.” Multiculturalism, freedom, and human rights must give way to “the culture, traditions, and traditional family values of millions of people making up the core population.”
Outmoded democracy and freedom must give way to what he sees as more traditional racial and ethnic family values.
We can see how the Putin side of that contrast might appeal to a few media personalities and political figures here in America.
- The Moderate Voice presents the speech by Ukraine’s President Zelensky to the British Parliament that inspired a standing ovation, along with a series of individual reactions.
- This not fun and games. Hackwhackers displays three photos showing frantic efforts to prevent, then reactions to, a singularly tragic death in Ukraine.
Putin is a murderer.
- Nojo doesn’t catch much cable news and so misses the enthused drama. But he sees the reaction of friends, and catches what is on line and in print about the forty mile Putin army convoy stalled on the way to Kiev. He greets reports with a degree of skepticism.
- Infidel753 explains with patient care, so even the dimmest bulbs among us can glow brighter with new understanding of why, no, we won’t have a no-fly zone over Ukraine. Spoiler alert: has to do with the end of the world as we know it.
- M. Bouffant at Web of Evil explains that, while many major corporations are pulling out of Russia, Mr. Trump’s former bank says it would be impractical to give up all those profits.
- Author John Scalzi has books that sell worldwide, including in Russia. So what are his thoughts on that, now that Putin has invaded Ukraine? Well… he does have a three point plan.
- Andy Borowitz reports that Putin is upset to find Ukrainians are less obedient than his friend Trump.
- Putin is having trouble invading Ukraine, but Dave Dubya explains how he had no trouble at all taking over the Republican Party.
- Remember, when Donald Trump was President Trump, how he all but tripped over his tongue gushing love and servitude toward Vlad Putin, Kim Jong Un, and every other dictator and near-dictator he stumbled into? He admired and envied tough guys who could subdue their societies and kill their critics.
tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors brings us the latest explanation from Donald Junior, Son of Don. Seems that gushing was all a trick to get on their good side and get them to agree to – well – things. Had me fooled. How about you?
- I usually suspect at least a little exaggeration from anyone discussing someone from the opposition. I have heard that Trump was asked about Ukraine and went to windmills. He had to have given a few sentences to the question, then rapidly and awkwardly transitioned. But NOOooooo…. News Corpse has the video. Sure enough, the friendly, fawning interviewer asks Mr. Trump what he thinks will happen in Ukraine. Mr. Trump’s very next words are:
Well, and I said this a long time ago, if this happens, we are playing right into their hands. Green energy. The windmills don’t work.
Then he stumbles on about birds and visual landscapes and environmentalists. Yikes.
- Ant Farmer’s Almanac has the headline as Mr. Trump has a new worry about the name of his new social media platform and Mr. Putin.
- Pravda is the Russian word for Truth! Our favorite Earth-Bound Misfit takes an old Russian saying about the official Putin News Agency and applies it to the Fox network.
- Ted McLaughlin at jobsanger goes all third-party Elizabeth Barrett Browning on Putin lovers in the Republican party: counting all the ways they love him using their own words. Oh how they twist about in the aftermath of the current stalled Putin invasion. Ted does express the forlorn hope that they’ll take Russia’s Ukraine debacle as an object lesson and rethink their own hostility to democracy. But he is afflicted with more realistic expectations.
- CalicoJack in The Psy of Life applies principles of group think to the actions of, and support for, Vlad Putin on the part of some.
- Iron Knee at Political Irony sees some flipping and flopping as some Republicans try to figure out how to Putinize with support/oppose/predict he won’t/knew he would confusion about the invasion.
- YellowDog Granny does seem to notice observations that possess the virtue of accuracy:
- A prominent Republican, favored to become the GOP nominee for a Congressional seat in Michigan, boasts of advising his daughters, if rape becomes inevitable, to lie back and enjoy it. Yeah, he says it on video, in public, in front of God and everybody. Vixen Strangely at Strangely Blogged suggests this is just the latest manifestation of a growing Republican philosophy, and relates her own father’s very different advice.
- Wisconsin conservative James Wigderson seems skeptical:
Continue reading “Vlad the Invader, Inside Putin, Zelensky Inspires, Ukrainians Suffer & Die, GOP”
