LOTS HAPPENED THIS WEEKEND WHEN IT COMES TO UKRAINE And it's been really incredible to watch the world coalescence around Ukraine as they fight for their continued independence. Watching President Volodymyr Zelensky stand up and stand in (he refused to be evacuated) with his people has been very inspiring. Allegedly Putin has sent a hit squad to assassinate Zelensky and several other officials, but I have to say, if Zelensky dies, he becomes the martyr of Putin's nightmares as this thing goes on. Zelensky has requested that Ukraine be admitted into the European Union immediately as he is releasing prisoners with combat experience to serve on the front lines and pay their debt to society. It's been really inspiring to watch this man, even as I realize our own current President (and perhaps the last one) would probably have high tailed it out of town were the roles reversed. Here is some of the stuff that happened over the weekend and today.
THE RUBLE IS WORTHLESS AS OF NOW It's dropped like a stone as the US and other countries move to remove Russian banks from the SWIFT banking system that allows them to move currency through the world and more importantly, buy currency that still has value. There are huge lines at banks as people are trying to take out whatever cash they have stored their. The banks have raised interest rates to 20% in a bid to get Russians to store their now worthless money there. The next steps here are hyper inflation and the complete collapse of the Russian economy, which is only going to encourage more of this:
That is in Saint Petersburg, Russia. There were protests all over the Russian nation, although a planned on in Moscow didn't happen because Putin flooded the streets with cops and military. Over 5,000 Russians have been arrested since the start of the war last Thursday. Pray for these people and every brave person in Russia who takes to the streets to show their displeasure. This isn't like in the US, where you can protest and riot and burn stuff down and get away with it. These people are actually risking their lives.
THE WORLD SPORTS COMMUNITY IS EVEN STEPPING UP And kicking the Russian soccer team out of the Europa League as of today. The Sochi Grand Prix was nixed by Formula One and soccer finals were moved to Paris.
AN ANONYMOUS GROUP OF HACKERS TOOK DOWN RUSSIAN PROPAGANDA MACHINES I saw a story Friday where a captured Russian soldier said he thought they'd be greeted as liberators when they came to Ukraine. He got that impression from the propaganda being put out by state media. Now a group of hackers have taken down state media, replacing the news with messages like this one:
I am guessing that Putin did not see this coming.
THIS IS HOW ONE UKRAINIAN SOCCER STAR WAS GREETED BY HIS FANS If this doesn't move you, you are dead inside.
THESE THINGS ARE WHY THE RUSSIAN INVASION IS "NOT ON SCHEDULE" According the British Defense Minister that is. Staunch Ukrainian opposition and logistical failures are to blame for the ongoing fighting, which I'm sure is supposed to be over by now in Putin's mind. Does this now leave the door open for regime change? Boris Johnson seems to think so when said the new raft of sanctions the UK rolled out today is designed to "bring down the Putin regime". Read about those sanctions here.
RUSSIAN AIRPLANES HAVE NOWHERE TO GO As pretty much every country to its west has shut down their airspace to Russian planes. And not just war planes, ALL planes, including those for passenger air travel. This has created huge issues for Aeroflot, with some planes not sure how they will get home. You know who hasn't banned Russian travel in their airspace? The United States. Canada has, Europe has, but we haven't. How would we get our Russian oligarchs to Aspen?
IS PUTIN USING THE TRUMP TECHNIQUE OR IS HE GENUINELY NUTS? Lots of questions about Putin's state of mind after he put his nuclear arsenal on high alert this weekend. President Biden chose not to respond in kind for fear of escalating the situation, which I get, but there was NO response from the White House, which I don't get.
GERMANY IS FINALLY STEPPING UP TO DEFEND ITSELF AND IT'S NEIGHBOR And this is a pretty surprising development as Germany has been very military adverse since that whole Hitler thing. Not only did they decide it was time to jump in the fray, they did so in spectacular fashion by immediately juicing their defense budget to 2% of their GDP, they are also sending weapons to Ukraine. From the article:
The events of the past week have shocked countries with typically pacifist miens, as well as those more closely aligned with Russia. Both have found the invasion impossible to watch quietly. Viktor Orban, the pro-Russia, anti-immigrant prime minister of Hungary, who denounced sanctions against Russia just weeks ago, reversed his position this weekend. And Japan, which was hesitant to impose sanctions on Russia in 2014, strongly condemned last week’s invasion.
In Germany, the chancellor’s speech capped a week that saw the country abandon more than 30 years of trying to balance its Western alliances with strong economic ties to Russia. Starting with the decision on Tuesday to scrap an $11 billion natural gas pipeline, the German government’s steps since, driven by the horror of Mr. Putin’s attack on the citizens of a democratic, sovereign European country, mark a fundamental shift in not only the country’s foreign and defense policies, but its relationship with Russia.
Seems Putin may have accidentally shifted the world order by invading Ukraine. Good for the world.
WE SHARED INTELLIGENCE WITH CHINA, THEY STOLE IT PER USUAL And promptly gave it to their friend in Russia. Is this surprising at all?
THIS VIDEO BY NEIL OLIVER GAVE ME PAUSE And it's almost nine minutes long and you should watch it. He calls out the leadership of the entire world for their various roles in this crisis. He doesn't trust any of them, including ours.
LOUISVILLE HOMEOWNERS ARE VICTIMIZED FURTHER BY STUPID NEW BUILDING CODES And they rallied yesterday to demand the new green codes be lifted so they can rebuild. The new net zero requirements include idiotic things like electric charging stations be built into every home and other cost raising measures. The new codes are going to add anywhere from between 20 grand and 100 grand PER HOME in Louisville and this is killing underinsured homeowners. This after Superior voted to table its new green requirements that would similarly run up the cost of rebuilding. We'll see if the governments do the right thing by citizens or bow to Xcel, which is pushing the total electrification (meaning no natural gas for you) to pad its coffers.
POLIS APPOINTS ANOTHER VEGAN TO OVERSEE LIVESTOCK IN COLORADO And I don't know that she's a vegan, but I know she promotes plant based eating so.... She also loves the re introduction of wolves, which has already wreaked havoc for some ranchers. This is another sharp stick in the eye to Ag in Colorado says this editorial from the Denver Gazette.
FORMER ATTORNEY GENERAL BILL BARR'S NEW BOOK IS NOT KIND TO TRUMP In it, Barr urges the Republican party to move on from the former President. I can't wait to read this one, and I generally eschew post-office tell-alls. When Trump hired Bill Barr I thought it was a good choice because Barr is a follow the law kind of guy. When he defended Trump from Dem attacks I was inclined to believe it was because Barr thought the attacks were unfair, which means I am inclined to give this book more credence than that of other Trump appointees who have new books out. From the Wall Street Journal article which is paywalled:
Mr. Barr has said that he intervened to correct what he saw as overreach by the prosecutors and flaws in the department’s approach to those cases, a stance he maintains in his book.
“Predictably our motion to dismiss the charges led to an election-year media onslaught, flogging the old theme that I was doing this as a favor to Trump,” Mr. Barr writes. “But I concluded the handling of the Flynn matter by the FBI had been an abuse of power that no responsible AG could let stand.”
I personally think history will judge Barr kindly as someone who tried to stick to the law in an Administration which felt less strongly about that.
And showed as much by sending out Jen Psaki to tell us that we don't need to drill more of our own oil and gas, we need to use windmills and solar panels instead. I kid you not.
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Why not just tell Germany, which has WAY more renewable energy than we do, to use that instead of Russian gas? Because she knows it's not going to work.
WILL YOUR LEFTOVERS DO YOU IN? You've probably seen the story of a college student who ate leftovers and ended up getting multiple limbs amputated because of it, but if not, find out more here. You can also find out how not to die from that leftover pork lo mein.
THE CDC UPDATES ITS MASK GUIDANCE And I honestly don't care unless they extend the mask mandate on planes. Here is the new guidance from the CDC. The mask mandate on airplanes is supposed to end on March 18th and they have extended the other mask mandates about two weeks or so before they were supposed to expire so keep your eyes peeled on this one. The Flight Attendant Union does NOT want to drop the mask mandate because THE CHILDREN and I'm not making this up. As a former flight attendant the LAST people I want making this decision are the people in the Flight Attendant union. No offense, but no. Especially as ACTUAL flight attendants do NOT want the mask mandate extended.
JOHN KERRY TAKES ACTION IN UKRAINE BY SENDING SOLAR PANELS Because he's working ON WHAT REALLY MATTERS and that is the climate! Only the Babylon Bee covers this huge story here.
BUSTER KEATON PUT CGI TO SHAME With the most ridiculous stunts, all of them done BY the star himself.
THINKING OF COLLEGE? CHECK OUT THE APPRENTICESHIP ALTERNATIVE INSTEAD This is a GREAT article on the value of apprenticeships and how they are used by a vast majority of workers in Europe. We MUST get over our "everyone must go to college" bias in this country and begin to do these same things.
HOW SOUTHERNERS ACCEPT A GIFT Accurate.
Y'ALL HAVE TO SEE THIS TO BELIEVE IT The United States Federal Government just issued new guidance on how to deal with a nuclear attack. That's good, right? Read what it says about finding shelter from said attack:
Oh, but there's more. How about this one:
I could not make this stuff up if I tried.