Wednesday, March 02, 2022

Today's News: Two remarkable politicians

Two remarkable politicians are earning the world's gratitude: Joe Biden and Chrystia Freeland. 
Biden's State of the Union was tonight and he deserves the credit he is getting for rallying the world to defend Ukraine. I don't think there is any other American politician who could have done it, even Clinton or Obama. Chrystia Freeland is getting credit for rallying the world to go to war against the Russian economy. The Russian economic sanctions have had another positive effect - a vast reduction in those tiresome social media right-wing trolls and bots, because nobody is paying them anymore: On a side note, here's the Saskatchewan edition of Things that Make You Go Hmmm.....all of a sudden, Premier Moe's tweets aren't getting thousands of "likes" anymore:
And here's another aspect of the #UkraineRussiaWar that is going to be increasingly important in the next few weeks -- spring: Its worthwhile to point this out, too: Here's today's cartoon (and on a side note, the so-called trucker convoys that were supposed to disrupt the State of the Union speech fizzled): In other news, here's the Thought of the day:
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Tuesday, March 01, 2022

Today's News: the "Before Times" are gone

I tell you, I'm getting very very tired of the 2020s. 
If I could return them for a refund, I sure would.
I had been thinking of the days before March 2020 as the "Before Times" -- when we could enjoy going to stores and restaurants and visiting people and going to the office, without worrying about a dreadful disease that could kill us and our families.
Now I realize the days before February 2022 were actually the "Before Times" -- when we could keep ourselves safe by getting vaccinated and wearing masks and working from home, without worrying about a Russian madman threatening to start a nuclear World War Three.
We don't know how this is going to go, and it's going to take a while before anyone will find out: Meanwhile, the tweets go on and I keep assembling them to post here -- I notice that apparently the people who "did their research" in Epidemiology in 2020 are now doing post-graduate work in Slavic Studies! Today, I noticed a little more realism on twitter, sharing the warning that this isn't going to be a quick or easy conflict.
Every day, I am proud to be Canadian and to have leaders like Trudeau, Freeland, Rae, and Joly: Individuals are figuring out how to do their part: And there is one funny thing about all this -- Fox News and the Republicans are both looking pathetic:
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Monday, February 28, 2022

Today's News: Ukraine Strong

For Ukraine coverage, here's some great resources: 
Josh Marshall's twitter list 2022 Ukraine Crisis 
Canadian reporter Justin Ling's twitter 
Balloon Juice's War In Ukraine page
New York Times Russia-Ukraine War page 
Washington Post War in Ukraine page 
Globe and Mail Ukraine page
For the first time, the entire European Union is ready for a fight: As I write this, it is Monday morning in Russia -- the ruble is crashing and the Russian stock market opening has been postponed again: The nations of the Europe and North America are speaking with one voice: Thanks to Biden: And to Canada: It was a little bit terrifying to hear that Putin had put Russia on nuclear alert. But the world didn't seem to panic over this: And the world's admiration for Ukraine just keeps growing: Trump's Putin-worship is looking increasingly pathetic and treasonous: Not to mention, really really stupid: Canada has a message for Trump and all the MAGAs who follow him:
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Sunday, February 27, 2022

Today's News: Fighting the good fight

Nobody knows if Ukraine will prevail over Russia - its hard to see what "winning" would look like in this context, maybe Russia will not just turn tail and go home, but instead maybe just that Ukraine keeps on fighting. 
But for today, at least, it seems like Ukraine is still hanging in there. As people see how courageous and steadfast the Ukrainians are, more and more countries are demanding their governments take action, sending arms to Ukraine and implementing significant sanctions against Russia. Russia is going to be feeling the pain of the world's condemnation: Even Germany is climbing on board now: Trudeau and Freeland have been key players in persuading Europe to increase sanctions: One of the most effective actions to protect Ukraine would be instituting a no-fly zone to prevent Russian jets from bombing cities. But as Dale Smith notes, this ain't gonna happen -- no other country will risk shooting down a Russian jet and starting world war three between all of Europe and a nuclear-armed Russia. So the Ukrainians must keep on fighting for themselves, and they are doing it:
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Saturday, February 26, 2022

Today's News: Lighting up the world for Ukraine

The world is supporting Ukraine, a development that apparently Putin did not expect. Even, apparently now, China. Trudeau and Johnson are getting Europe and the world on board with tougher sanctions: And if there's one person who should know the pitfalls of a nation starting a war of choice, its David Frum: Even Republicans are starting to parrot "Its really all Biden's fault somehow" as they desperately try to make everyone forget their knee-jerk pro-Putin reactions yesterday. And here's a timely reminder: Sean Penn is in Ukraine right now shooting a documentary about the war because of course he is: To his credit, Louis CK refused to cancel his show tonight in Kyiv -- though it also led to this tweet: Russian athletes are being put on the spot and, with some risk to their families in Russia, are speaking up: I hope its not just wishful thinking, but the war doesn't seem to be going Putin's way: The courage of the Ukrainians is legendary now: Canada proudly proclaims one of the largest Ukrainian diaspora in the world - the paintings of Manitoba artist William Kurelek tell their story here:
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Friday, February 25, 2022

Today's News: Ukraine fights back

Though most of my attention is on the Ukraine now, there is still actual Canadian news for yesterday and today-- Trudeau has revoked the Emergencies Act, for one thing -- and the insurrectionists who fucked around are finding out more of what Canadian justice has in store for them. I don't think the people of Ottawa will ever forget this attempted insurrection - I would love to see a book about it, and maybe this artist's work could illustrate it: And never forget the Battle of Billings Bridge: Turning to the war in the Ukraine, I thought this post today was inspirational and beautiful: And this is just so tragic: There are some reports tonight that the Ukraine army, though outnumbered and outgunned, continues to fight for their country with courage and determination, and even may be winning some battles: And once again, Republicans are on the wrong side of history: And one more bit of interesting info:
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Thursday, February 24, 2022

Today's News: War in Ukraine

78 years of peace in Europe was ended today by Russia and Belarus attacking the Ukraine. Its worth noting that Ukraine and Belarus are both huge countries. Someone said it would take 50 divisions to invade a country the size of Ukraine, and Putin only has 15.
So Russia won't be pulling a blizkreig invasion over the whole country, probably more like pummelling airports and ports and infrastructure, and hoping Ukraine will just collapse militarily and economically, and sue for peace, letting the Russians march in without opposition, ending up with half the country occupied by Russia and the other half another version of Vichy France. 
Its difficult to see now what the rest of the world will do to stop this, and whether Europe and the world can get pulled into fighting too:
In America, the Republicans should be ashamed of themselves for how they are following Trump's lead and supporting Putin, and many are calling them out: In Canada, considering all the pro-Putin Fox News blathering going on, I have been wondering which way our own CPC would go with this - particularly given how steadfast Trudeau has been in supporting Ukraine and how the CPC is always knee-jerk negative to everything Trudeau does. 
But tonight our old frenemy Harper issued a statement that was, I think, a clear message to the CPC to stop with the politics and get with the program: And finally -- Trump is just such a clueless twit: One thing we can count on is that Putin will put everything he can into turning the House and the Senate in 2022, and re-electing Trump to the presidency in 2024. 
It was a dreadful night to search for anything amusing to finish off this post, but this provoked a rueful chuckle:
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Wednesday, February 23, 2022

And in other news: America is furious at the Republican apologists

There used to be a quaint custom, particularly in the United States, that politics stopped at the border's edge - in other words, foreign policy was considered a national issue, and political games shouldn't be played when US interests abroad were at stake. 
The Trump Republicans have decided to ignore this convention now. Trump blathered on about how wonderful Putin was, and his Republican sycophants happily followed him.
Thousands of Americans are absolutely furious -- more than I have ever seen before.  On twitter, the tweets calling Republicans traitors are getting thousands of likes plus hundreds of retweets and comments. Here's one referencing that weird July 4 2018 Moscow trip taken by those Republican congressmen and senators. I have never understood why that stunt didn't get much more public coverage and criticism then or since. People are comparing the Republican reaction to the Ukraine with their support of the Canadian insurrection:
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Tuesday, February 22, 2022

Today's News: It passed

Done! The Emergencies Act passed the Commons and now the Senators get to posture and preen for a bit before they pass it too. We are thinking its over, but the problem is the insurrectionists aren't actually finished yet, they'll be glad to move back into Ottawa or the border crossings as soon as they can. They are going to be a policing problem for Canada for months -- until, I expect, a permanent bill gets passed that allows the feds to confiscate vehicles used illegally in protests and that also does something about the money angle too -- and THAT, my friends, is going to be where many in Canada will find it difficult to draw a line because of the fear - or even likliehood - that a future government could abuse powers like this to shut down legitimate protests.
We're already seeing this kind of stuff happening in the States - laws preventing people from taking water to people waiting in line to vote, for example. We're already seeing hypocrisy here - those who have no problem with dividing people into "good" protestors and "bad" protestors. So there may be some darker and more difficult days to come. 
But Canada will come through, I believe.
And today was a good day.
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Monday, February 21, 2022

Today's News: Cleaning up

A few recent statistics: Some comments: I thought this hit the mark: And some funny stuff, too: And because there's some other awful stuff about to happen in Europe, this is useful info too:
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