Friday, June 17, 2022

Today's News: Remember remember....

It doesn't quite scan like "Remember remember the 5th of November", but remembering Jan 6 2021 is now a cottage industry in the United States and the Jan 6 Committee hearings are getting more fascinating with every passing day. 
Today we found out how Trump kept himself surrounded by third-raters who would promote his fantasy that the election had been stolen. And who still promote it. 
But Vice President Mike Pence knew in December that Biden had won the election and he also knew that the Vice President did not have the authority to reject or change the American election results after states reported them. (Why he didn't announce this in December is a question asked by MSNBC tonight too.) 
We also found out that during the Jan 6 insurrection, Pence and his family and staff were within 40 feet of the protestors who wanted to "hang Mike Pence". Luttig was the conservative judge that W thought about nominating to the Supreme Court but then he picked Alito instead. What a loss that was to America! So then Tom Nichols decided to start a meme: And there are now hundreds of tweets in the series.
A few more observations:
  And what is truly mystifying is why anyone supports Trump still: I believe that Trump's absolute and total lack of any conviction, philosophy or character isn't a bug, it's a feature: Turning to Ukraine, here's an excellent article by Nick Cohen which describes why people in the West are displaying less compulsive interest in the Russia Ukraine War, and why continued engagement is so important. 
... But the great turning away from the Ukrainian struggle is not just selfish and parochial. It is foolish. If Moscow wins, we will be living with a permanent fear of war and all the financial and psychological costs that would accompany the inevitable rearming. 
...We might be yearning for peace, but Putin has shown no desire to compromise. Instead he invokes the colonial spirit of Peter the Great and dreams of sending his armies westwards. 
The Ukrainians remain far from defeated. Russia is short of men in the Donbass. It can bomb from the safety of a cowardly distance, but its armies can barely advance and are wide open to a counter attack in the Kherson region of southern Ukraine. The Ukrainians could push them back, but they need Western governments to supply them with the artillery pieces, shells and warplanes. 
Governments act under pressure from voters. The public needs to shake itself out of its privileged and dilettantish lethargy and realise that this isn’t a story with a happy ending but a hard, cold conflict that will determine the fate of Europe. 
Finally, I want to talk about stories. 
Twitter is a great place for stories -- sometimes in one tweet, sometime in 20, but always fascinating and sometimes even inspiring. Here's a few from the last several days:
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