Ukraine update - Bob Rae: "To base decisions on fear would be devastating for democracy"

I'm doing a Ukraine update every two or three weeks now - my last one was Dec 28, when I talked about the resilience and courage of the Ukraine people.

Tonight's update covers the recent events in Dnipro, as well as analyst expectations for the future -- it isn't victory, not yet, but the shape of victory is becoming clearer, and maybe that riderless horse isn't galloping quite so madly across history.

First, these Russian attacks on civilians are horrific:

Russia’s attack on #Dnipro with a megabomb directed at civilians, combined with massive armoured assaults represent #escalation which must be met with the strongest possible response. To hesitate or base decisions on fear would be devastating for #Ukraine and #democracy

— Bob Rae (@BobRae48) January 17, 2023

"Russia is just continuing to act in ways that are almost unbelievable," Biden says in Oval Office during bilat with Netherlands' Mark Rutte. Rutte says they have seen the “terrible footage” from Dnipro and it has strengthened resolve to help Ukraine. https://t.co/Avz42Bnvu7

— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) January 17, 2023

I'm so tired of Teh Stupid!

 

The question asked by nations around the world in 2016 was "Why is US politics so stupid?" because America's idiotic Electoral College system allowed Trump to become president even though he did not win the popular vote. 

Now nations will again be asking "Why is US politics so stupid" if America's idiotic Republican politicians allow the world economy to crash because they can't make a simple fix to their debt ceiling procedures. 

In both cases, America knew what the problems were but wouldn't or couldn't summon the political will to fix them. 

The United States already lost political prestige and influence around the world because of Trump -- it took Biden some time and lots of meetings to get the world community to forgive America for Trump.

Now America is risking its economic credibility and clout with the debt ceiling debacle -- and the easiest solution seems to be to print a trillion-dollar coin!

it is genuinely hilarious the entire financial system might be saved by a random poster with the username "beowulf" in the blog comments of a B list hedge fund manager who was like "why dont we just mint a trillion dollar coin" which was passed by word of mouth to Krugman

— Lucas 🧡🧦 (@PunishedLink) January 7, 2023

What a week!

 

Sad news from all over today:

Jeff Beck, Robbie Bachman, Lisa Marie Presley … gone. ☹️

Life is fragile folks. pic.twitter.com/XJ7FVj7pJu

— Larry Updike (@LarryUpdike) January 13, 2023

In other news, one has to wonder how incredibly stupid will this get?

For those playing along at home, Merrick Garland knew Trump stole classified documents as early as January 2021 and... took almost 2 years to appoint a special counsel.

With Biden, it took Garland 2 months.

I keep trying to tell you guys that Merrick is a pathetically weak man.

— Elie Mystal (@ElieNYC) January 12, 2023

Increasingly, I am convinced that Garland will never have the courage to indict Trump for anything - I doubted he would do it even before the Biden documents were announced, but now it would likely be impossible. Oh well.... 

Some things to think about, when you have a minute...

Here are some predictions for 2023 from Visual Capitalist

Here's something else to ponder:

Andrew Wyeth, Fence Line ,1967,watercolor on paper
21.9 x 30"

"I prefer winter & fall,when you feel the bone structure of the landscape-the loneliness of it,the dead feeling of winter.Something waits beneath it,the whole story doesn’t show."
—Andrew Wyeth pic.twitter.com/pxSqBZyrvN

— Edward Elderman (@edwereddie) December 20, 2022

And here's another:

When you’re Godzilla every city is a walkable city

— stoned cold fox (@roastmalone_) January 9, 2023

Some neat stuff

And here's some more neat stuff.  First, some great articles -- 

- From the New York Times, a 2023 Astronomy and Space Calendar that you can add to your Google calendar, plus an article about how the Calendar was developed. 

Here is the tweet about it:

How 552 episodes of "The Simpsons" led to me building a space and astronomy calendar for @NYTScience that is now in its sixth year. Gift link so you can read it: https://t.co/OkCOTtvfbx pic.twitter.com/6jinKiLdGW

— Michael Roston (@michaelroston) January 9, 2023

Finally the crazy is over!

Yeah, sure.

I spent the evening watching the US House of Representatives try to elect a Speaker. Finally, they did. Just barely.

A head of lettuce

— Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) January 7, 2023

Today's News: Update on Covid

I haven't posted much about the Covid news lately, but I have been gathering together some of the articles and tweets that seem to summarize the most helpful advice right now.

TL,DR: wear a mask, damn it!

Animal crackers

“I had dozens of utterly bizarre experiences that were also Perfectly Normal. This is because the human condition is vast and also Very f*ck*ng Weird.” (cc: @PaulDechene) #PublicTransport https://t.co/evb0ELqgEr

— Schmutzie 🦉 (@schmutzie) January 1, 2023

The Dogs of 2022 pic.twitter.com/jiDzh4GhHg

— WeRateDogs® (@dog_rates) December 30, 2022

Happy New Year!

✏️ As drawn by @AnnTelnaes: Hoping for a better year ahead https://t.co/3Rqp9s3sjf pic.twitter.com/DhESNz78dh

— Washington Post Opinions (@PostOpinions) December 31, 2022

To bring in the new year, I have gathered some of the funnier posts I saw over the last few weeks. 

It's another edition of "Christ, What An Asshole!"

So one the dude-bros that Musk let back onto Twitter in November was the "social media personality" and wealthy kickboxer Andrew Tate - and it didn't take long before Tate indulged himself in needless, gratituous, misogynistic insults:

Hello @GretaThunberg

I have 33 cars.

My Bugatti has a w16 8.0L quad turbo.

My TWO Ferrari 812 competizione have 6.5L v12s.

This is just the start.

Please provide your email address so I can send a complete list of my car collection and their respective enormous emissions. pic.twitter.com/ehhOBDQyYU

— Andrew Tate (@Cobratate) December 27, 2022

Twitter exploded - here's a typical reaction:

Kinda creepy how a grown man wants to randomly email a teen out of the blue... Creep Factor: 10 out of 10.

— Mark Bignell (@MarkBignell) December 28, 2022

Keeping up with the Ukraine War

The resilience and courage of the Ukraine people is one of the most inspirational events our society has ever seen. 

This New York Times photo essay Ukraine Under Attack: Images from the Russian Invasion shows what Ukrainians have had to endure:

Kyiv apartment residents manage with makeshift electricity during power outages, November (Lynsey Addario NYT)

Some amazing Christmas stories

For millions of people in Canada and in the US, it has been an awful Christmas - terrible weather, monster storms, no power, cancelled flights, people stuck in transit. Dozens of people have died. 

The only uplifting aspect in this situation is the stories we are reading now about how ordinary people pitched in to do whatever they could -- stories of courage, resilience, and willingness to help. These people are extraordinary:

This is what America is all about! ⁦@NormOrnstein⁩ ⁦@semaforben⁩ ⁦@MaraGay⁩ ⁦@RevFredDavie⁩ ⁦@ChloeBreyer⁩ ⁦@JoeNBC⁩ ⁦@JoePotasnik⁩ https://t.co/jSsmb5vTvA

— Jerry Goldfeder (@JerryGoldfeder) December 26, 2022

They traveled from South Korea. They Got Stranded Near Buffalo:

....Then, on Friday at 2 p.m., with the storm already swirling and snow rapidly piling up, making roads impassable, there was a knock at the door. Two men, part of a group of nine tourists from South Korea that was traveling to Niagara Falls, asked for shovels to dig their passenger van out of a ditch.

And so an unlikely holiday weekend began, with the Campagnas welcoming the travelers, along with their driver, as house guests....

They spent the weekend swapping stories, watching the Buffalo Bills defeat the Chicago Bears on Christmas Eve and sharing delicious Korean home-cooked meals prepared by the guests, like jeyuk bokkeum, a spicy stir-fried pork dish, and dakdori tang, a chicken stew laced with fiery red pepper. To the surprise and glee of the Korean guests, Mr. Campagna and his wife, who are both fans of Korean food, had all the necessary condiments on hand: mirin, soy sauce, Korean red pepper paste, sesame oil and chili flakes. There was also kimchi and a rice cooker.

Best Christmas TV ads

It's the most wonderful time of the year! -- or at least, its the time when companies actually put some thought into their television ads, and when ad companies do their best work too. Here are some this year that I liked.

John Lewis & Partners is known in Britain for their Christmas ads. Here is a great one, The Beginner:  

How ya gonna keep 'em in Paree after they've been down on the farm?

 

One of the lasting impacts of the pandemic, I think, will be the destruction of the "downtown office" concept as an organizing principle for cities. 

Historically, it has always taken wars to get North Americans to travel -- the Civil War was the first time that significant numbers of Americans ever travelled around their own country. In World War One, we got the song "How Ya Gonna Keep 'Em Down in the Farm After They've Seen Paree?" as an question of why the soldiers who had travelled overseas would ever be content with living a rural life again. Likewise, World War Two resulted in millions of Americans and Canadians travelling to places they would never have gone to otherwise, within their own countries and over the oceans. 

Now, we have the aftermath of the pandemic - another kind of war, really - that showed just about everyone that we they can be just as productive working at home as we were in the office - providing that the internet is working, of course - and without the hassles of public transit, commuting, parking, office politics, lunch line-ups, crowds, somebody microwaving fish, cube farms, etc. 

Today's News: The Beginning of the End?

Three stories tonight seem to have the same theme -- that it may be the beginning of the end for Pierre Poilievre, for Elon Musk and for Donald Trump. 

First, for Pierre Poilievre: 

Evan Scrimshaw analyzes the Angus Reid poll tonight, comparing Poilievre at 3 months to the other Conservative leaders, and it is NOT good news for PP.