Friday, March 18, 2022

Today's News: Reality bites

Photos from the Russia Ukraine War are striking and memorable, so I am planning to post some daily.
This Reuters photo of a woman carrying her cat to safety is so beautiful it haunts me: Coincidentally, CNN's Brian Stelter and Oliver Darcy in their nightly email newsletter tonight highlighted the work of photographers throughout the Ukraine. Here are some of their links: 
 Associated Press: Inside Mariupol's devastation 
And some other photo essays here: 
 The Atlantic: Animals can be refugees too 

The world is so angry now at Putin and at Russia, it may not be possible anymore for everyone to just forgive and forget. 
But in Slate today, Tyler Austin Harper writes eloquently about the profound and tragic reality which we in the West now find ourselves facing - that there cannot be any heroes in a nuclear war. So yes, America and NATO can help Ukraine in many ways, but it can't fight the war for them, not without risking nuclear annihilation. And that reality could be a tragedy with no solution.
I worry that many of us expect this to be a modern story: one where good prevails, evil is vanquished, and the invaders are turned away at the city gates.... If the Ukraine crisis has brought anything into focus, it is that our national identity and our national interest are at odds... 
many—indeed most—of those Americans calling for a no-fly zone ...are simply people who cannot accept that, at a certain point, there is nothing more America can do. They are people who cannot believe there may come a time when we must contemplate letting Putin win, because the alternative would be to set Europe—and Ukraine with it—on thermonuclear fire. They are people who cannot bring themselves to understand that American heroism is in this instance impossible, that the price for our past sins—for the terrible bomb we invented that we alone have ever used in anger—is that the United States can no longer swoop in to save the day. 
We can send money, provide defensive supplies, and impose sanctions. We can make this war costly, in terms of international standing and economic stability, for Russia and its allies. But that is all we can do. And if it is not enough? Then that will be a nearly incomprehensible tragedy. 
But the alternatives are more incomprehensible, more tragic still. ...
The atomic genie shed its bottle in 1945, and it cannot be put back. The morally monochrome heroism of America’s past—the America that carried out a democratic revolution, that tore itself asunder to abolish slavery, that turned back the Third Reich—is no more. 
We can no longer risk everything in defense of our utmost values. That is the devil’s bargain we made when we dropped “Fat Man” and “Little Boy” on two Japanese cities, transposing human shadows onto concrete. 
This does not mean the heroism of American individuals is over ... [but] military heroism of America as a nation can no longer function in extremis. The stakes have become too unfathomable, and our very power has become our most profound weakness. 
So pray for the heroism of Ukrainians—pray that they can hold on, make do with what help the world can provide—but it is time we let go of the old American fantasy that there is no war we cannot win, no democracy we cannot save, no wrong we cannot right. 
Ukraine faces an enemy whose capacity for evil may well be greater than America’s capacity for good. That is a tragedy, but it is a tragedy we must learn to understand if we are not to stumble into a greater tragedy still, out of a misplaced faith in our own heroism. Much has changed in the world since 1945, but this fact has not: There are no heroes in a nuclear war. 
Biden knows all of this already, and so does Trudeau and the leaders of Europe. But its hard to figure out they are going to educate the public about this -- just look at the media hysteria yesterday in Canada over Joly's "convene" remark. And the number of people I see online slamming Biden for "doing nothing" because they still think its a movie, that the US can just send in the 82nd Airborne and win the war before the credits role. Sigh. Well meaning, but really.... That said, Putin is also facing a difficult reality, too -- he is losing the war in Ukraine. He fired another general today as his illegal war went from bad to worse, and Ukraine continues to battle back on several fronts: I see tweets about the upcoming NATO meeting, and the expectation that NATO can figure out what more can be done -- I hope so, but I guess I just can't see anything yet:
Another big question is where China will land in all this: At Daily Kos, Mark Sumner is talking about the Russia Ukraine War as the first war where new kinds of weapons are being used to attack enemy positions: 
 In just three weeks of combat, Ukraine has become not just a war zone, but a laboratory. On the one hand, Russia is using the same tactics of brutality, and the same weapons, that it has deployed for decades to destroy cities and persecute its invasion. On the other hand, Ukraine is defending itself with an arsenal that increasingly depends on weapons designed to take down armor and aircraft. Where Ukraine has been less successful is in degrading Russia’s ability to inflict brutality to civilian areas — but systems like Switchblade might well help with that. Because while a soldier with a rifle can’t do anything about artillery firing from woods five miles away, a soldier with a Switchblade definitely can.
 Other news today, the world continues to figure out how it can help: And the latest news is that 130 people have been rescued now from the Maruipol theatre bombing.
Finally, I'll bet very few people knew this before: Obama should have done it. 
And this also happened today:
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Thursday, March 17, 2022

Today's News: The worst option except for all the others

I got the impression for the first time today that more Canadians and Americans are finally realizing that the Russia Ukraine War might not just be another far-away war we check nightly on TV as we chatter about our few off-the-cuff ideas for how easily the Prime Minister or the President could get it all resolved if only they were "stronger", whatever that means. 
The No-Fly-Zone-NOW! yelling is, I think, tamping down a bit as everybody begins to understand that there are no quick-and-easy solutions in Cold War Two -- yes, Ukraine's cities are being targetted in terrible war crimes and yes, a No Fly Zone could save Ukraine lives, but no, there is no real way to just limit a NFZ to a "humanitarian corridor" and even if there was, any NFZ could lead to the US military shooting down Russian aircraft and this could start a nuclear World War Three and nobody wants that. 
The only real option we have is just to try to stop the war before Ukraine is blown to bits -- you could maybe describe it as the worst option except for all the others. So this is the option that Biden and Trudeau and Johnson and NATO are doing: arm the Ukraine as quickly as possible so the Ukrainians can save their own cities, plus hammer Russia with sanctions until they agree to a ceasefire.
Jen Psacki said it very succinctly today to the reporters at the White House press briefing, very few of whom are old enough to remember the Cold War:  "A no-fly zone is the United States declaring war against Russia."
Canada is sending more arms, and so is the US: As the truth sinks in, we are also starting to wonder how much danger Canada might be in: The news from Ukraine continues to be awful - the worst today was the theatre blasted by Russian bombs, where a thousand people including children were trying to find shelter. We don't know yet how many died but it is clear that this attack was a war crime. Even the Pope is concerned about Mariupol: But in spite of it all, Ukraine abides: Russia is failing everywhere now across Ukraine: Russia got kicked out of the Council of Europe too: Putin is proving himself to be a war criminal: I think we all agree with Julia here: Here's a blast from the past: But there is one thing we can count on -- there will always be those who fix their attention firmly on what's REALLY important in our society these days: how people are dressed: This Peter Schiff guy is a self-described "economist and global strategist" but apparently he was also a GOP candidate sometime. So of course, after thousands of people criticized his stupid remark, he just had to double down:
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Wednesday, March 16, 2022

Today's News: The end of the beginning?

Its not the end, nor the beginning of the end, but it may be the end of the beginning. 
Russia is still making war on Ukraine, people are still dying. 
But Russia's trucks are running out of gas, their generals are getting killed, their soldiers are looting for food, and Putin is trying to find replacements from other countries. 
The news today indicated that the attempt to encircle Kyiv is failing, though the cities in the south seem to be in more serious trouble. 
But as Zelenskyy is talking to the Canadian parliament today and the US Congress tomorrow, there appear to be new and powerful weapons on the way to Ukraine, too.
The leadership shown by Joe Biden through all this is absolutely outstanding:
  Here's some news from today: Some people are still obsessed with the No Fly Zone idea, which of course came up again when Zelenskyy made his address to Parliament today. What does it all mean? Why is this war different? 
At Balloon Juice, Watergirl is discussing this question and commenter Carlo Graziani sums it up this way: 
...there used to be an international architecture — amoral, but mindfully-constructed — for managing the Cold War, and when it became obsolete in 1991 it was not replaced by anything well-thought out.
Rather, a smug elite “Davos Consensus” ruled, which one might capture in a phrase by “all that remains now is for the rest of the world to become as smart as we are, and everyone will get rich”. 
Everyone did not get rich. 
Instead, a series of economic, military, climate, epidemiological, and income/wealth inequality-driven instabilities created massive global popular anxiety, which was exploited by nationalist populist demagogues with no commitment to the Enlightenment project, (Milosevic, Orban, Berlusconi, Putin, Modi, Bolsonero, Le Pen, Farage, Trump, among others). 
The Davos Consensus never deigned to notice the growing challenge, and at the same time undermined the West’s understanding of what it stood for. “Freedom” was right-wing nutter discourse, embarrassing in polite company. We talked instead about the importance getting rich. 
By 2016, everything had turned to shit, and we could not understand how things could possibly have gone this apocalyptically badly. The anti-democratic challenge from the discontents of reason seemed unstoppable, at times. 
Fast forward to “I need ammunition, not a ride!” That would be Zelenskyy reminding us of our heritage. 
Of the fact that liberty is, in fact, more important than getting rich. 
Showing us what liberty really means, what it is worth, and what it costs. 
That was the turning point. That’s why this war is different. 
Even the damn Germans would now prefer liberty to getting rich. 
Zelenskyy turned the war in Ukraine into the antidote for the intellectual toxicity of the Davos Consensus. 
He reminded us of our duties to our freedoms, and that “freedom” is not, in fact, a dirty word, however badly idiot truckers may abuse it. 
Supporting this war is not “warmongering”. 
Rather, it signifies a return to the best version of our Western selves. We owe Ukrainians, and Zelenskyy in particular, more than we can ever repay them. 
 A very thoughtful piece. 
And now, on a lighter side:
And in other news, this happened: Read the whole thread for other Clooney - heat pump look-a-likes. 
And there was this, too: Twitter went nuts about the "half a giraffe" standard of measurement: The National Review writes: 
Since when, exactly, did we measure asteroids in giraffes?  I’m no astronomer, but “a giraffe” seems to be an extremely odd way of measuring any item that is not, in fact, a giraffe. 
Back in 1999, NASA lost a $125 million Mars orbiter because, as the Los Angeles Times reported it, “spacecraft engineers failed to convert from English to metric measurements when exchanging vital data before the craft was launched.” 
One can only imagine how much worse this problem would have been had zoo animals been the standard. “Sorry, sir. It was an elementary mistake, really. The Florida lab uses alligators, but here in Maryland we’re still measuring with crabs, and so, when the orbiter finally got into position, it ended up hitting the atmosphere at the wrong angle by between two-thirds and three-quarters of a lemur.” 
 And Twitter remembered these clangers, too: And finally, this -- go Hillary!
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Tuesday, March 15, 2022

Today's News: Extinction Burst

An "extinction burst" is what little kids do when they melt down in a temper tantrum because they can't get what they want. 
From what I am reading tonight, Russia is now trying an "extinction burst" of attacks on Ukraine - Putin is furious that Ukraine won't surrender, and the Russian generals are making a desperation move before they run out of soldiers, ammo, food, gas, and the will to fight. 
Kos pointed out last Friday that Russia has been trying to advance on too many targets all at once, and failing to achieve their goals: 
Russia sucks at logistics, and yet they’re trying to keep a dozen lines of attack operational. Yeah, no wonder they’ve mostly grinded to a halt. Let’s zoom in on that Kyiv and Kharkiv/Sumi axes:  

See that long tendril from Sumi to Kyiv? That exists because Belorussia is north of Kyiv, Sumi is Russian border. It’s easier for Russia to get its supplies into the Kyiv area through Sumi than it is through yet another country. Yet despite being just kilometers from the border, Russia has been unable to take it. And that means that long tendril is 334 kms long (~210 miles), none of it secure, all ripe pickings for Ukrainian territorial defense forces—locals with guns and, increasingly, anti-tank missiles.....A regiment is around 600 soldiers, and [Russia has] shown no ability to mass larger groups for major assaults. One POW was complaining that his unit took more casualties from their own artillery than Ukrainians. Air cover is severely limited, likely for the same reason. Russian communication gear is literally commercial walkie talkies. Their $30 million advanced fighters have Samsung GPS units fixed to their windows. They can’t communicate, they can’t coordinate. This is the sort of thing western militaries practice time and time and time again. It’s expensive! It’s complicated! But our commanders don’t take the money and spend it on Italian villas and vodkas instead. 
Now ponder how Russia is expecting to take Kharkiv (pop. 1.4 million, pre-war of course), Sumy (pop. 265,000), Kyiv (pop. 2.9 million), Odesa (pop. 993,000), Mykolaiv (pop. 486,000) and Chernihiv (pop. 285,000) if they can’t even pull together 1,000 troops for an assault. No wonder they’ve settled on trying to terrorize civilians into compliance!
But Ukraine will not be terrorized, they will not give up, not after what they have been through these last 19 days. 
We are now on day nineteen of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and it remains in something of a holding pattern. Russian airstrikes are ramping up, and no, NATO will still not implement a no-fly zone because it will mean shooting down Russian targets, blowing up air defences on Russian soil, and dragging us into a shooting war with a nuclear power while at the same time not doing anything about ground-based shelling or missile-strikes. 
While sanctions continue to ramp up, the IMF is warning of a massive recession in Russia, which could have bigger international ramifications. 
That says it all in a couple of sentences. 
Here's what we can expect to see now:
Some tweets from today's US Defense Dept briefing: And Russia has no reserves left near the Ukraine borders: Steven Pifer in Bulletin of The Atomic Scientists has an interesting article about the "tacit" rules that the West and Russia have agreed on so far, to avoid crossing "red lines" so that the Russia Ukraine War will not escalate into World War Three. 
First, President Biden, NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg, and NATO member-state leaders have said that, while they will defend NATO territory, NATO forces will not take on Russian forces to defend Ukraine. ....It explains NATO’s decision not to establish a no-fly zone over Ukraine.... 
Second, US and NATO intelligence-sharing with Ukraine appears acceptable under the rules....they have not challenged US, British, and NATO aircraft conducting intelligence and air surveillance missions to look at what the Russian military is doing in, near, and over Ukraine. .... once the Russian military launched its invasion. US and British aircraft no longer fly in Ukrainian air space and appear to take more care regarding flights over the Black Sea. 
Third, the rules permit at least some Western arms shipments to Ukraine. In the weeks before and since Russian forces attacked, the United States, NATO member-states, and others have provided a stream of defense assistance to Ukraine,...the Russians do not like the arms shipments, though they have not acted to interdict them. ...[regarding the offer of Migs from Poland] The European Union, Polish, and US officials aired too much of the Mig-29 issue in public ... The fighters should have just been given to the Ukrainian air force with no public discussion, denying Moscow the opportunity to try to impose a limit on the arms provision rule.... 
Fourth, economic and other sanctions appear acceptable, if disliked, within the tacit rules, even if they went well beyond what the Kremlin might have anticipated. ...Moscow thus far has not wielded what many see as its major counter-sanction: an embargo of oil and gas sales to Europe, which would cause an energy crisis there.... 
But as the days go by, and as Russia increases its attacks on civilians, the suffering is horrific:
These war crimes will not be forgotten or forgiven. 
Here is one interesting "take" from journalist Julian Roepcke, an angle I had not thought of before: Yes, I can understand why Ukraine would not want to give away its territory, especially those provinces that would give Russia a direct access to Crimea and the Black Sea - Putin can strut and call that a victory, though its a far cry from what he actually wanted.
And the so-called "break-away" regions which supposedly already belong to Russia aren't happy with their new Russian overlords, either - people are demonstrating, two mayors have been arrested and illegally replaced; The Resistance in these provinces is just beginning:
There is going to be a significant long-standing effect from this war that I don't think anyone has yet understood -- for the first time, a billion people around the world who are under 40 years old will know what is is like to be threatened by nuclear war. 
  I think - I hope! - that this experience will make everyone put a little more thought and consideration into the quality of the politicians they are electing in the future. Because it matters!
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Monday, March 14, 2022

Today's News: Ukraine perseveres

This is wonderful: We don't know when this war will end. But whenever it is, we are now 18 days closer. 
And here's some good news: Russia is now desperate enough to start asking China for help. And I don't think anyone knows what China will do. Historically China tries to back winners, not losers: Here's an interesting analysis by Hunter over at Daily Kos (By the way, Kos has become one site I am checking every day for its Ukraine news and analysis - it is excellent.)  Anyway, today Hunter notes the news about Russia wanting help from China likely originated from US Intelligence, to put both Russia and China on an uncomfortable spot: 
 Chinese leaders have little to gain from standing by Putin even as Putin loses, cannot risk involving themselves to any extent that would genuinely help Putin to win, and could themselves face unified international sanctions for even attempting it. 
China's only plausible move, according to that analysis, is to abandon Putin and attempt to limit the damage. The current attempts to remain vaguely neutral will only rebound more harshly on China as a desperate Putin attempts to escalate his conflict in an all-or-nothing bid to salvage his nation's stature—and his own skin. 
We can expect U.S. intelligence "leaks" to crop up quickly, if Chinese leaders give the go-ahead to Russia's new weapons requests. It won't go unnoticed. And that means that the United Nations and other nations are now putting China in a position where neutrality can't be faked. China will either provide the weapons or it will not. The nation's frustrated leaders can't stall for time much longer. 
But Ukrainians must be feeling desperate too, as Russian war crimes continue. Hunter describes this as a deliberate strategy: 
The Russian "strategy" of shelling urban centers in an apparent attempt to level what they cannot militarily capture, however, continues. And the civilian death toll is rising rapidly. 
These stories are terrible: And this: Tens of thousands of volunteer soldiers are arriving in Ukraine to help: And the whole world is angry at Russia for what they are trying to do: The DO SOMETHING! crowd continues to bellow, however - NATO, the US and Canada are moving heaven and earth to get arms to Ukraine, but I still see comments deriding them for "doing nothing" because they refuse a No-Fly Zone.  I can understand why Zelenskiy keeps asking for it, but here in the West I am starting to wonder if the NFZ complaint has become just another right-wing political talking point, somethingelse to criticize Biden and Trudeau over. Or do people here actually not understand that the West, while trying to save Ukraine, is also trying to prevent a nuclear war? We're not just playing a game of Risk here.
Its frightening just how nuts this general is: And finally, things do happen in other news too.
Sometimes there is so much going on that it's easy to lose track and let things get forgotten or pushed aside. For example, the FluTruxKlan is still trying to act up, and municipal police are still letting them. Calgary is PISSED! And Trump keeps doing rallies and getting into the news again, and I hate it! It horrified me recently to realize that I am likely going to be hearing about Trump for the rest of my life!  The only good thing about Trump is that he is so stupid - unlike Hitler, Trump himself doesn't know how to lead people nor get anything done, and he can never hire anyone competent either. 
All the same, my soul leaps down every time I hear his name. 
So sometimes I re-read this, from Tiny Fairy Tales, just to help me regain some perspective and because it is so beautiful:


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Sunday, March 13, 2022

Today's News: Stepping on a Lego

I found this image on twitter -- and anyone who has ever stepped barefoot on a lego knows what will happen next:

Many stories tonight projecting Russia's ultimate defeat - provided Ukraine can hang on long enough and the arms keep flowing from Canada, the US and Europe. Cities are just being hammered, and Russia is committing war crimes every day. But here is an excellent article by Bush apologist/ international relations expert Francis Fukuyama: 
Russia is heading for an outright defeat in Ukraine. Russian planning was incompetent, based on a flawed assumption that Ukrainians were favorable to Russia and that their military would collapse immediately following an invasion. Russian soldiers were evidently carrying dress uniforms for their victory parade in Kyiv rather than extra ammo and rations. Putin at this point has committed the bulk of his entire military to this operation—there are no vast reserves of forces he can call up to add to the battle. 
Russian troops are stuck outside various Ukrainian cities where they face huge supply problems and constant Ukrainian attacks. The collapse of their position could be sudden and catastrophic, rather than happening slowly through a war of attrition. The army in the field will reach a point where it can neither be supplied nor withdrawn, and morale will vaporize. 
From CNN:
This whole 25-tweet thread is worth checking but here is the main map showing the situation March 11: Here is an interesting analysis of the Kyiv situation: Another lengthy thread on why Russia's army is not winning: I don't know whether this story is true or not, but it SHOULD be true! I've been seeing so many pictures from Ukraine and here are the ones that affected me the most. 
This used to be a pleasant street: These little angel wings!


This is beautiful:

Finally, this:
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Saturday, March 12, 2022

Today's News: Let's call that hope

Some discouragement in the Russia Ukraine War today, but lets start with some beautiful things:
British Poet Laureate Simon Armitage has written a poem about this war: "Its war again. 
An air-raid siren can't fully mute the cathedral bells. 
Let's call that hope." 
My heart: Journalist Laura Rosen tweets about an interview with military analyst Michael Kofman about what went wrong: Here's some other interesting analyses today: (On a side note, isn't it too bad now that Canada doesn't have any way to organize its international grain sales this fall - a "Canadian Wheat Board", if you will - to help the world out of the coming shortages. What a concept! But I digress...) The more "DO SOMETHING!" hysteria I see, the more I realize what a difficult path Biden and Trudeau and NATO are trying to take here. Its been  2+ weeks since Russia invaded and honestly some of the reaction is reminding me of how we first reacted to Covid two years ato -- a sincere though naive desire to FINISH THIS NOW so we can declare it OVER! This, combined with increasing anger that the powers that be aren't wrapping this up; cynical reactions of "that'll never work!" and "they ain't doing it right!" to everything the West is doing; combined now with justifiable demonization of Putin, who could well be history's greatest monster. 
Here is a couple of negative reactions toward everything NATO is doing for Ukraine: This morning Biden apparently made some remarks warning Russia against trying any chemical or biological warfare false-flag attacks: And this immediately ratchetted up the war drumbeats here in the West to the point that Biden had to clamp it down severely this afternoon: Thus provoking more angry reaction from people who want more done: Maybe Vindman is right - he's certainly more expert than I am. But damn it, I don't want World War 3 to start over this either! I read a very interesting commentary sorting out some of these points by Markos at Daily Kos today:
The argument for doing more is predicated on the civilian carnage we’re seeing in Ukraine. Putin must be stopped, it is argued, to save civilian deaths. 
However, a wider war doesn’t mean fewer civilian deaths, it means more. 
If Russia’s modus operandi is to bombard its foes into submission, what makes anyone think that Russian bombs and missiles would stop falling on population centers? What’s more likely is that they’ll start falling on more population centers. 
Suddenly, capital cities like Warsaw, Vilnius, Riga, Tallin, Bucharest, and Sofia would be in range of Russia-based missile systems, and many more in range via Russian naval and strategic air assets in the Mediterranean, North, and Baltic seas. And that’s not including the Belorussian and Russian civilians who would die on the other side of the line (in case anyone cares). Even if we take nuclear weapons off the table, what’s stopping a desperate Putin from dropping chemical weapons on population centers across the region? 
Are we willing to put tens of millions of new civilians at risk, to feel better about the millions currently at risk? I know this sounds heartless, and especially so to those currently trapped in Russia’s line of fire. But adding a broader international profile to the casualty list doesn’t bring back the victims of Russian aggression. It just adds to them. 
We are doing a lot. We’ve armed Ukraine with modern weapons systems that have allowed it to fight a vastly superior enemy to a standstill. It is that effectiveness that has unleashed death on Ukrainian civilians. Ironically, if “saving civilians” was really the moral imperative, we never should’ve armed Ukraine. 
But of course, that’s not what we’re all fighting for. We’re fighting for freedom and democracy and the right of self-determination, and Ukrainians knew the stakes, and they decided to fight. Our job is to support them in that fight, and make sure they get the most effective equipment for the job. (So not fighter jets, because they’re difficult to maintain and easy to destroy, but new air defense systems that can reach higher altitudes than the man-portable ones currently used so effectively by Ukrainian forces, to name one example.) 
It’s okay to be frustrated and want there to be more to do. But remember, actions have consequences, and in this case, additional civilian deaths. And so we need to manage the situation as carefully as President Joe Biden has thus far. 
Now on to some Canadian stuff:
With the CPC leadership campaign is starting up, here's some good advice that I really hope the party ignores -- because I hope the Liberals can continue their string of victories over the Conservatives and if the Cons select an experienced leader who won't knuckle under to knuckle-draggers this time, then Trudeau will likely have a real fight on his hands to keep those suburban Toronto and Quebec ridings that the Liberals need to maintain their government:
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