Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

Relentless negativity is not a sign that you are more realistic.

Do we throw up our hands or do we roll up our sleeves? (hint, door #2)

You cannot love your country only when you win.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

People really shouldn’t expect the government to help after they watched the GOP drown it in a bathtub.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

The “burn-it-down” people are good with that until they become part of the kindling.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

Let me file that under fuck it.

Our messy unity will be our strength.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

“Facilitate” is an active verb, not a weasel word.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / Foreign Affairs Open Thread: Glory to Ukraine

Foreign Affairs Open Thread: Glory to Ukraine

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  4. 4.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    This is all I could get on this side of the (London) (Murdoch) Times pay-wall

    President Zelensky has survived at least three assassination attempts in the past week, The Times has learnt.
    Two different outfits have been sent to kill the Ukrainian president — mercenaries of the Kremlin-backed Wagner group and Chechen special forces. Both have been thwarted by anti-war elements within Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB). [really? that seems… significiant– JFL]
    Wagner mercenaries in Kyiv have sustained losses during their attempts and are said to have been alarmed by how accurately the Ukrainians had anticipated their moves. A source close to the group said it was “eerie” how well briefed Zelensky’s security team appeared to be.

    That last sentence really fascinates me. I’ll admit to being a bit LeCarré addled, but I think there’s a lot going on in the invisible war. I wonder (like I said, I’ve read a lot of Le Carré) how many sources are being shared by allies and near-allies that they were keeping to themselves before the invasion.

  6. 6.

    Mike in NC

    It’s become apparent that Putin’s ultimate goal is to exterminate Ukrainian leadership in the exact same way Stalin slaughtered thousands of Polish soldiers, priests, and politicians at the Katyn Forest. I also read that Russian vehicles marked as ‘ambulances’ are stocked with munitions and weapons. No surprise there, either.

  7. 7.

    Geo Wilcox

    And then there is this fact:

    State of Kentucky’s Teachers Retirement System was the second-largest shareholder for Sberbank of Russia (The largest bank in Russia).

    What’s even more interesting is that the top-3 institutional holders in that Russian bank are all from Kentucky.

    https://twitter.com/mkt_sentiment/status/1499585220001304576

    There is something very putrid about this set of facts. McConnell and Paul need some deep dives into their finances and associations.

  10. 10.

    JPL

    @Geo Wilcox:Rusal,    the aluminum company partially owned by Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, announced plans to invest around $200 million to build a new aluminum plant in Kentucky just months after the Trump administration removed it from the U.S. sanctions list.      link

  16. 16.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Jeffro: Don’t be surprised if Trump turns on Putin, those sanctions have stopped those Russians love donations to  Trump’s various grifts.  Trump is basically a rent boi, only loves someone as long as the money is coming.

  18. 18.

    Edmund Dantes

    @Geo Wilcox: we’ve never really had a good explanation for why that GOP senator group made a July 4th trip to Russia when most pols are back home marching in local parades etc.

  20. 20.

    Gin & Tonic

    This guy is a good follow on Russian military vehicle maintenance.

    Alright, here is another Mud & truck maintenance post. Look at the tires in the video immediately under the wheel hubs.That is oil from the wheel hubs leaking onto those tires from the hub to the ground.The seals on those wheel hubs have failed due to dry rot. 1/2 https://t.co/J4MKLsA1tA— Trent Telenko (@TrentTelenko) March 4, 2022

    The video is short, but if you watch it past about 0:30, you’ll see what the local “road” conditions are like. Half the narration is profanity, the rest is making fun of the equipment and saying it’s good that it won’t be used against peaceful Ukrainians. Ends with “Glory to Ukraine! Death to our enemies, may they burn in Hell.”

  21. 21.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Whether it’s true or not, it’s good to sow doubt.

    Thing is, Ukrainians are fighting for their home. Their opponents are fighting for a paycheck. That didn’t go well for the US in Vietnam, as I recall.

  22. 22.

    RandomMonster

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: Don’t be surprised if Trump turns on Putin, those sanctions have stopped those Russians love donations to  Trump’s various grifts.  Trump is basically a rent boi, only loves someone as long as the money is coming.

    I still believe kompromat plays a role in keeping him quiet.

  24. 24.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I read that as pretty clear signs that at least some FSB agents don’t see a promising future for Putin or those loyal to him.

    The question is whether it’s isolated agents or a significant anti-Putin organization, and I suspect the latter.

  25. 25.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Geo Wilcox: happy to see this getting boosted by somebody so well-connected to, and currently much televised by, the MSM

    Tom Nichols Retweeted

    President Kamala’s Hand (Again) @myronjclifton 34m

    Why would the Kentucky teachers retirement system have $13m invested in Russia’s largest bank? Now it’s broke and all that teacher retirement money is gone. Down to $778k.
    Wow.

    also a sign of the times and technology that a guy who used to describe himself as a paleocon is retweeting someone who calls himself “President Kamala’s Hand

    ETA: McConnell and Paul need some deep dives into their finances and associations.

    doesn’t Deripaska have a big aluminum (?) plant in KY? and wasn’t Rand Paul one of those on the Senatorial 4th of July Moscow junket? And of course, Moscow Mitch covered up for Trumpov for five years and more, starting in August of 2016.

  29. 29.

    Betty Cracker

    In the wee hours this morning, I read Adam’s war update post from last night and the 200+ comments (dog help me). There are deranged comments in that thread, but also comments with wisdom and new (to me) perspectives, so it was worth reading.

    To state the obvious, there are no good choices for the U.S. But one feeling I can’t shake is that Putin has well and truly screwed himself. He underestimated Ukraine and overestimated his own forces. It also looks like he underestimated NATO’s cohesion and blindsided his own people. China seems content to stand back and let him blow himself up.

    I think Adam is right when he says Putin has been waging war on the U.S. (and other NATO members) for years. It was working too! By helping install Trump and coopting conservative organizations for disinformation distribution, Putin almost destroyed NATO and brought the U.S. to the brink of the authoritarian abyss.

    I’m sure Putin saw Biden’s win as a setback, but unless he knows something I don’t, the ultimate outcome for the U.S. is by no means assured. So why attack Ukraine now? Maybe Putin lost his patience. Maybe he fears death and/or he lost his marbles due to COVID isolation.

    What a fucking world.

  30. 30.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I expect to see a lot of Republicans now saying super-aggressive things about Russia that Biden can’t echo because he’s trying to keep the world from blowing up, so they can effectively outflank him for electoral purposes and try to extinguish the memory of how chummy with Russia they used to be. I hope their opponents bring receipts.

  31. 31.

    sixthdoctor

    And who did the Washington Post have this morning in a live webcast to discuss Ukraine? John FUCKING Bolton. Makes me want to dive in a bathtub of hard seltzer and Delta-8 gummies.

  32. 32.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @RandomMonster: I still believe kompromat plays a role in keeping him quiet.

    It’s hard to believe that Trump has any secrets to hide after he was described in court testimony by a professional dominatrix of having a dick shaped like a mushroom, but who knows with that crazy dude.

  33. 33.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: or not? from last year

    Russian Company Bankrolling Troubled Kentucky Aluminum Plant Suspends Investments
    WUKY | By Josh James
    Published March 18, 2021 at 7:27 PM EDT
    According to a Bloomberg report, Rusal, the formerly blacklisted Russian company with a major stake in the 10-figure project, is suspending its investments while it awaits word that its U.S. partners have raised the necessary funds.

    According to a Bloomberg report, Rusal, the formerly blacklisted Russian company with a major stake in the 10-figure project, is suspending its investments while it awaits word that its U.S. partners have raised the necessary funds. So far the company has sunk at least $65 million in the proposed mill, to be built by Unity Aluminum, previously known as Braidy Industries. […]

    Kentucky pledged $15 million in taxpayer dollars toward the project under former Gov. Matt Bevin, but current Gov. Andy Beshear has repeatedly vowed to get the money back if the mill project doesn’t materialize.

    I don’t pretend to understand high-level money-laundering, but the great Max Bialystok understood that a losing venture can be a great place to hide cash from the government.

  35. 35.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Dad draws Kentucky Teachers’ Retirement. It was about the only bright spot for his choice to stay all those years ago.

    It was an interesting choice of an investment. Wonder what the fundamentals looked like, and who recommended it?

  36. 36.

    Peale

    @sixthdoctor: We are currently in a war that is being blamed on Neocon overreach. Who better to criticize…Oh whatever. I’m sure there’ll be a lot of “This wouldn’t have happened if we had done x when I recommended doing x.” from people who long ago should have been discredited. Say what you will about authoritarian systems – at least when they tire of the bozos, they either kill them or send them to exile.  The press hasn’t updated its FP rolodex since 1989, unless its the General of the day.

  37. 37.

    Amir Khalid

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    It occurred to me that if the Biden administration and/or some US special forces were indeed planning to do it, or even just thinking about it, the last thing they’d want is some idiot blabbing about it on national media.

  38. 38.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Betty Cracker:

    Every sober piece I’m reading says that the choices that EU/NATO are left with are binary only:

    1. Let Putin have whatever he wants, including the former Soviet satellites that are now in NATO, as he’ll always waggle an ICBM like it’s a dick;

    OR

    2. Just go ahead all in and keep your fingers crossed that he won’t light the big candle, since he won’t stop here and has no intention of letting Ukraine get back on its feet with redevelopment.

  44. 44.

    Old School

    So the Ukrainian team arrived at the Paralympics.  Is there a Russian Paralympic team?

  46. 46.

    dmsilev

    Putin is pouting: Putin wants ‘normalization’ of global relations, saying there is ‘no need’ for sanctions on Russia

    Russian President Vladimir Putin called Friday for the “normalization” of relations with other states, saying Moscow had “absolutely no ill intentions with regard to our neighbors.”

    Speaking via video link at a ceremony raising the Russian flag on a Kaliningrad ferry, Putin called for global coordination, even as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine entered its second week.

    “I think that everyone should think about normalizing relations and cooperating normally,” he said.

    He added “We invaded them for their own good.”. Not at all sure what to make of this; geopolitical gaslighting, I guess?

  47. 47.

    CaseyL

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

    No.  If Putin invades or attacks any NATO county, regardless of whether it used to be part of the USSR, Article 5 mandates an armed response.  That’s why Putin has targeted things like ships at sea, and had his aircraft enter the edges of NATO countries’ airspace: he’s hoping to provoke a NATO response.

  48. 48.

    Baud

    @dmsilev:

    We should tell Putin that if he leaves Ukraine we will lift sanctions and NATO will take on the responsibility for “deNazifying” Ukraine.  Surely he couldn’t refuse that offer.

  49. 49.

    Cameron

    @dmsilev: Christ, if the Ukraine invasion shows Russia’s good intentions, I really would hate to see what ill intentions look like.  Also, doesn’t this sound like a bit of a walk-back from all his nuke-rattling?

  52. 52.

    trollhattan

    @dmsilev:

    If that isn’t a variation on “I would never have punched her if she hadn’t made me” then I’ve never seen one.

    What’s Russian for “I’ve been treated so unfairly”? Vlad may have ridden Trump and put him away wet, but he also learned a few pointers from Donny on playing to the public/camera.

  53. 53.

    JoyceH

    All this speculation about whether Trump is bribed or blackmailed by Putin – he may very well be both, but I think it’s abundantly clear that Trump genuinely admires and envies Putin. Putin is everything he wishes he could be. Think back to that photo of Putin arriving at that ceremony in Europe (some WWII memorial thing, I think) – every other head of state is scowling, but Trump is grinning like a guy whose crush just showed up at the party. That was genuine.

  55. 55.

    sdhays

    The Republican Senate caucus has a great many clowns, but Lindsey Graham is in a league of his own.

  56. 56.

    trollhattan

    @JoyceH:

    Oh yes, a thousand times yes. Dictator-plutocrat is how Donny envisioned his presidency and but for a few unfortunate legal and constitutional roadblocks he was on his way to having it.

    They both seem to also share the “why have all these nukes if I can’t use them?” fixation. And one is still in charge.

  60. 60.

    citizen dave

    I liked Rebecca Solnit’s Guardian column, It’s time to confront the Trump-Putin Network as a summary of how it went down here in TFG years.

    I can see a scenario where putin “lights a big candle “, or two, and we don’t respond in kind, but wait a moment to see if clearer heads will take him out.  Still the question of whether putin and his inner circle can fire nukes, or is there some link in the chain that could say No, and that point would have to start the coup.

  61. 61.

    oatler

    @Peale:

    Makes me think of Christie bouncing like a tubby pinball from liberal talk show to liberal talk show. “Chris, as a failed presidential candidate from two administrations, do you think there is a diplomatic solution to Ukraine?”

  62. 62.

    RandomMonster

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: It’s hard to believe that Trump has any secrets to hide after he was described in court testimony by a professional dominatrix of having a dick shaped like a mushroom, but who knows with that crazy dude.

    @Cameron: Ah, you’ve been following him under his stage name as P-Tape.

    While something salacious would be fun and totally unsurprising, I suspect it’s something as banal as proof of his debt to Russian lenders.

  64. 64.

    Brachiator

    @JoyceH:

    Think back to that photo of Putin arriving at that ceremony in Europe (some WWII memorial thing, I think) – every other head of state is scowling, but Trump is grinning like a guy whose crush just showed up at the party. That was genuine.

    Ugh! But you nailed it. Trump is a strange man. He fakes toughness, but has a weird love for autocrats and strong men. And it is men he loves, not women leaders. He loves these people who can wield power without constraint.

    But yeah, describing it like a crush nails how immature and petty his affection for authoritarians is.

  67. 67.

    NotMax

    Fix.

    @trollhattan

    There is zero reason to presume the maintenance protocols for the nuclear weaponry is less shoddy than for the other materiel.

  68. 68.

    leeleeFL

    @dmsilev: He is FULL OF SHIT!  He has always been FULL OF SHIT. Full Stop!

    Don’t look for logic or sense, it isn’t there.  He wants the old empire back, and that’s that.

    I know from some videos that some Russians are swallowing the BS, but Vlad should read up about the original Revolution.  He’s standing in for the Czar.  And Ekaterinburg still has hives and holes deep enough to dump things.

  69. 69.

    Spanky

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

    Every sober piece I’m reading says that the choices that EU/NATO are left with are binary only:

    Nope! Wait for – and assist however possible – a (hopefully kinetic) regime change by Russians within Russia. That seems the best of scenarios – if they would just hurry up.

    One of the reasons they may not be hurrying up is that those likely to assume power need to gather allies so that they can remain in power. And I’m betting there are more than 2 groups jostling at this point. Meanwhile, Vlad goes on …

  72. 72.

    Brachiator

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

    Every sober piece I’m reading says that the choices that EU/NATO are left with are binary only

    Odd. Why do they dismiss sanctions, and the possibility of encouraging unhappy oligarchs to unseat Putin?

    A long guerilla war in Ukraine might also drain Russian resources. This happened to a large degree in Afghanistan.

  73. 73.

    leeleeFL

    @Ksmiami: See Afghanistan, re 1978ish We sent Stinger missiles then, too!  It’s what we do.  The Bear is not invincible.  It tends to pick targets that won’t back down on occasion, and it definitely gets it’s ass stung.

  75. 75.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @RandomMonster:While something salacious would be fun and totally unsurprising, I suspect it’s something as banal as proof of his debt to Russian lenders.

    Hasn’t Trump’s debts come up a lot? Trump’s enemies don’t seemed die mysteriously so murder for hire from the Russian mob doesn’t seem to be it. Likely, it’s just some bullshit that would make no sense to the rest of us.

  76. 76.

    Lyrebird

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

    Do you put commentary from Tom Nichols in the “sober piece” category?   That’s definitely not how I read what he’s been saying, though I certainly am not on top of all of it.

    I read almost as many comments as @Betty Cracker: did.  (waves!)  I agree that P has screwed himself and his country over, but since he does not care how many thousands die so long as he gets more of what he wants, his blunders do not spare Ukrainian lives.

  78. 78.

    Richard Fox

    @Betty Cracker: I always go back to the ancient Greeks for answers on the inscrutable actions of human beings in power. Hubris. It’s never enough. Never content with power they have. Always wanting more. Putin did what he could with the behind the scenes meddling. He has this mechanized machine of war itching to be used and his sycophants filled him with how easy this will be (and those that didn’t follow the playbook were ignored, etc.) I truly think it’s a matter of time before it all blows up. Truly tragic that so many thousands (perhaps millions) of innocents are in the crosshairs of insecure puffed up egomaniacs like him.

  79. 79.

    trollhattan

    @NotMax:

    Vlad to statistician: “So, is one in three nukes kaput?”

    Statistician: “Da, President Dreamboat, one in three is kaput.”

    Vlad: “So, how many I use to guarantee one go boom? How I know which one go boom?”

  80. 80.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Betty Cracker:

    I’m sure Putin saw Biden’s win as a setback, but unless he knows something I don’t, the ultimate outcome for the U.S. is by no means assured. So why attack Ukraine now? Maybe Putin lost his patience. Maybe he fears death and/or he lost his marbles due to COVID isolation. 

    So why attack Ukraine now?

    I’ve been wondering the same thing.  Why now?  Why 2022?  I wonder if COVID delayed his plans.  After losing his orange bitch in the White House, you figure he would’ve attacked them some time in 2020 if not for COVID.

  81. 81.

    NotMax

    Who will be the first GOP goober to demand the menus in the Congressional dining rooms be reprinted with a choice of Freedom Dressing for salads?

    And demand his/her favorite watering hole stop serving Moscow Mules.

  82. 82.

    Betty Cracker

    @citizen dave: I haven’t read Solnit’s column, but I agree with the premise as you described it. It’s all of a piece. I was hoping to see a hint of that in the SOTU speech, but maybe the admin thought it would undermine the message that the U.S. is united against Putin’s attack on Ukraine.

    The upcoming 1/6 hearings might be a good place to dump that heaping basket of smelly laundry. Or maybe the admin is willing to pretend key leaders of the Republican Party were not onboard with selling us out to a murderous foreign autocrat as long as they promise not to do so in the future. Neither outcome would surprise me at this point.

  83. 83.

    evodevo

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Yeah..Deripaska’s project didn’t happen…and appears to have fallen down the memory hole…we don’t hear anything much about it…It was supposed to have gone in somewhere around Ashland, and since Beshear was elected…crickets.  Would love to know how much Moscow Mitch got in return for greasing the rails for it…

  84. 84.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @mrmoshpotato: takes time to plan this kind of operation, even badly. And who knows when he decided to go all in rather than continue his strategy of incrementally expanding control/influence from the east.

  85. 85.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    I just came back from a zumba class. The teacher is Russian. She says she calls her mother, who’s in Moscow and is safe as long as she doesn’t go out to demonstrate. They’re getting no news.

  86. 86.

    Ksmiami

    @leeleeFL: and this time Europe will be part of the effort instead of Charlie Wilson plus we will be dealing with mostly western aligned ppl so the communication and the cause won’t be diluted.

  87. 87.

    Spanky

    Jennifer Rubin takes questions every Friday at noon:

    Jennifer, thanks so much for taking questions today at the end of another tense week. Your calm and clear-eyed approach to, well, pretty much everything you write about is much needed and appreciated. Putting aside Sen. Lindsey Graham’s reckless call for for Putin’s assassination and reactions from the far right siding with Putin, what is your take on how “regular” (whatever that means these days) Republicans have responded to the events in Ukraine? It’s tragic that it takes a war to do it, but do you have any sense that a bit of bipartisanship and common resolve to respond with a unified front might be returning, even if brief? It seems to me that, if nothing else, the impact of the horrifying and heartbreaking pictures we are seeing have at least for the moment marginalized Trump and his crew, leaving the grownups to set the tone. Or is this just wishful thinking on my part?

    Jennifer Rubin
    Opinion Columnist

    They are hypocrites through and through. They know enough to be on Ukraine’s side. They criticize Biden for everything, so they label him weak on Ukraine (despite his enacting every imaginable sanction except on energy). And yet they still support Trump! Total incoherence is the price they pay for spineless fidelity to the cult leader.

  88. 88.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @NotMax: Maybe the Russians are dealing with that issue by attack other people’s nuclear power plants.

    Friday, Mar 4, 2022 · 5:57:58 AM PST · Mark Sumner

    None of us did. As it happened, I had a live few of the plant open on my desktop in time to see some shots in the background and then a few parachute flare lighting up the area. By the time I got out a “What the…” a GRAD system was slinging missiles across the space toward the buildings of the nuclear plant and something was already on fire.

    It didn’t seem to be so much a battle — because I’m not sure that Ukraine actually had any armor on site, and Russia definitely did — as a deliberate shelling of the plant accompanied by a small arms skirmish among scattered groups of infantry.

  89. 89.

    Ken

    @dmsilev: Moscow had “absolutely no ill intentions with regard to our neighbors.”

    I posted this a few days ago, but it seems even more appropriate now.

  91. 91.

    bluegirlfromwyo

    @dmsilev: “We invaded them for their own good.” No wonder GWB looked into Putin’s soul and saw a good man. They’re “liberators.”

  92. 92.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: The analyses I’m seeing generally show at least three options:

    1. Give up and let him have what he wants under threat of nuclear war.

    2. Start a shooting war.

    3. Huge direct and indirect international support for Ukraine, economic punishments for Russia, with a direct military response only happening if NATO countries themselves are attacked.

    #3 is the one that’s most likely to happen. It also means other countries around Russia will push for entry to NATO, and that might also lead to #2. But #3 is the safe bet right now.

  93. 93.

    Spanky

    @Spanky: Boy! If she’s not already a jackal here, she sure would blend right in:

    Q: It is critical for the press to thwart this “declining to comment” strategy, and it seems to me especially critical that TV reporters, across several networks, broadcast Republicans’ “deer in the headlights” refusals.

    Jennifer Rubin
    Opinion Columnist

    You raise a great point. The media not only doesn’t cover the awkward denials but doesn’t keep asking questions until they get an answer. Moving on to the next topic just rewards the stonewalling. Likewise, when media people invite Republicans on for TV interviews, they need to persist when the officials deflect and filibuster. Too often journalists have a list of questions they are determined to plow through, not bothering to follow up or to drill down when they get a nonresponse.

  94. 94.

    Steeplejack

    UPDATE: The Kentucky Teachers’ Retirement System now says they sold their stake in the Russian bank for a $3.2 million loss on February 23, 2022. It remains baffling that Kentucky would invest so heavily in a Russian bank.
    pic.twitter.com/LqCNRjWcQ5

    — MeidasTouch.com (@MeidasTouch) March 4, 2022

    What luck on the timing! ?

  95. 95.

    Gin & Tonic

    In the week since it opened a special account for foreign donations to support the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the National Bank of Ukraine reports it has raised ~$260 million.

  98. 98.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Steeplejack: The *day before* the invasion? The fucking day before? So they only lost $3 mil and not $13?

    I can imagine quite a few people at the SEC saying “well, shit, would you look at that?”

  100. 100.

    Lyrebird

    @Richard Fox: I usually avoid the ancient Greeks as much as possible, and I skip out of teaching Jungian archetypes whenever I can.

    BUT yes Euripides has been coming to mind a LOT these days, hubris hubris hubris…

    @Spanky:

    Indeed.

    Some folks do not enjoy the overall atmosphere on DKos, but I found the latest piece by Kos illuminating (link below).  And @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: I hope you don’t mind my mentioning you again, but here’s a piece that lays out specific armament recommendations that fit into #3 above:

    a no-fly zone would be an overt declaration of war against Russia, creating a showdown between nuclear powers (NATO planes would be shooting down Russian violators), and it wouldn’t even protect against the weapons causing the most damage.

    And all good wishes to your dad – I hope they can restore his pension find and find guilty McConnell fingerprints all over that mess!

  101. 101.

    Ken

    @Steeplejack: You may call it a $3.2 million loss borne by the taxpayers and teachers of Kentucky, but on the other side of the ledger it’s practically a gift of badly-needed, clean Western currency.

  102. 102.

    Calouste

    @Gin & Tonic: To be fair, Biden had been saying that the invasion was imminent for a few days, if not a week at that point. On the other hand, they couldn’t have predicted the extent of the sanctions.

  104. 104.

    Lyrebird

    @Gin & Tonic: Howdy and good wishes to you on what must be another awful day…  If you have time and interest to read what Kos was saying, I’d be interested in your take, not that I have any standing to ask.  (intro quoted in #100)

    Be well regardless…

  105. 105.

    Chris

    @JoyceH:

    All this speculation about whether Trump is bribed or blackmailed by Putin – he may very well be both, but I think it’s abundantly clear that Trump genuinely admires and envies Putin. Putin is everything he wishes he could be. Think back to that photo of Putin arriving at that ceremony in Europe (some WWII memorial thing, I think) – every other head of state is scowling, but Trump is grinning like a guy whose crush just showed up at the party. That was genuine.

    I finally watched that video the other day in which Putin embarrasses his security chief.  And… honestly, that is the most Trump-like behavior I’ve seen from any other politician in a long time.  Including many Republicans.

    No wonder Trump loves him and vice-versa.

  106. 106.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Lyrebird:

    BUT yes Euripides has been coming to mind a LOT these days, hubris hubris hubris…

    The Colin Marx, or Chico Powell, Rule: You rippa dis, you pay for dis, causa hoobriss

  107. 107.

    Raoul Paste

    @trollhattan: logger my kkkm

     

    @NotMax: “There is zero reason to presume the maintenance protocols for the nuclear weaponry is less shoddy than for the other materiel.”

    Another nuclear madman, Sideshow Bob, procured an old nuke that ultimately didn’t work.   A sticker on the bomb said “Best if used by 1955”

    God help us all

  108. 108.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Travis Akers @travisakers 9h

    Tara Reade, who falsely accused President Biden of sexual assault, has had her podcast removed from Spotify due to her association with Russian propaganda network RT.’

    Chris Hayes devoted IIRC three segments to Tara Reade’s accusations. One with Rebecca Traister, who like Hayes had pretty much decided this was the end of Biden’s campaign, the other two patronizingly scolding his audience for not wanting to hear the story (which by the time of his first segment was pretty clearly horseshit) because of partisanship.

  110. 110.

    Hoodie

    Preface this by saying that Putin may very well have become a raving lunatic operating on religious and ethnic fantasies, but he may be acting under the type of cold-blooded rationality you see in real psychopaths.  During the Vietnam era, Nixon supposedly adopted what is termed the Madman Theory of Diplomacy, i.e., make your opponents think you are irrational and dangerous if provoked.  Talking about using nukes, implying that you want all of Ukraine, and spouting all that nutty historical mumbo-jumbo about the Russian Empire smells a bit like that.

    What might Putin really want?  Looking at the performance of his armed forces and the state of the Russian economy, the idea that he could bring back into the fold all of the old Soviet satellites seems pretty far-fetched.  Putin has always wanted to be relevant, which means he needs to make “gains” every few years and take periodic opportunities to demonstrate to everyone that he’s a player.   It’s quite possible that he’ll stop at something like a land corridor to Crimea and control of most of the Black Sea coast along with, perhaps, creating a rump Ukraine that is completely neutered and unable to pose any particular threat (he may not even care if he controls the latter).  The attacks to the north may be mostly diversionary in character, forcing the Ukrainians to fight on multiple fronts and creating the impression that he’s mad and won’t stop, even if he has to blow up everything.

    Some of that may be basedon real strategic concerns (e.g., ports, shipbuilding facilities, etc.), but a lot of it may also be performative – he wants to scare people (including people in Russia) and look like the guy in charge.  He may have thought this would be easier and quicker based on how easily he took Crimea, but that may not matter all that much and the fact that it’s turning out more difficult and bloody may even be desirable.  He implied as much yesterday.  This also gives him the opportunity to crack down on dissidents at home and chill any rivals that might want to displace him.  It’s a kind of psychopathic instrumentalism, but that’s how he has always operated.

  111. 111.

    topclimber

    @Chris: Maybe explains why FSB may be blabbing about Zelenskyy assassination attempts. Was it Stalin who said, “Never piss off your security chief until AFTER you purge him.”

    Well, no it wasn’t. That was me.

  112. 112.

    Chris

    @topclimber:

    Definitely.  Although honestly, my first thought when I read that was “maybe the Ukrainians just got lucky, but are making it look like they have unusually good intel in order to make Putin even more paranoid and further drive wedges between him and his senior people.”

    But it could definitely be this, too!

  113. 113.

    catclub

    @dmsilev: ​
     

    Moscow had “absolutely no ill intentions with regard to our neighbors.”

    Still a lie, but,
    They consider Ukraine already theirs, so not a neighbor but a province.

  115. 115.

    trollhattan

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    IDK if the stories made it beyond northern California, but after Reade’s accusations broke, former landlords, employers and coworkers connected and began comparing notes. The takeaway: lifelong grifter with a fraud string trailing back decades.

    Sounds like somebody totally armor-plated against being approached by interests with money who wish that she would “keep up the good work.”

  116. 116.

    trollhattan

    @catclub:

    Was it the foreign minister who yesterday proclaimed “The West just isn’t hearing us”? It was like an angry spouse in couples therapy.

  117. 117.

    Kay

    @trollhattan:

    This alone should have discredited her:

    Under the name Alexandra McCabe, Tara Reade has for years testified for the prosecution as an expert in domestic violence cases. But a number of California defense attorneys are considering challenging the convictions of their clients amid questions about whether Reade misrepresented her credentials under oath.
    An attorney for Jennifer Vasquez, a woman convicted of attempted murder, said he is currently reviewing options for his client in the wake of recent revelations about Reade.

  118. 118.

    Calouste

    @Chris: Adam Silverman mentioned that the Chechens are good at terrorizing civilian populations and was concerned about what they would do in that respect. But that is a different kettle of fish than trying to assassinate a well-protected government leader, so it’s not exactly surprising that they failed at the latter. Don’t know if the Wagner mercenaries have better training or more experience in that regard.

  119. 119.

    Kay

    @trollhattan:

    Not a foreign policy expert, but for me they blew the whole “we’re just worried about security” when they invaded, started committing war crimes, and have now made tens of millions of mortal, lifelong enemies in Ukraine. Not buying that. No one’s definition of “security”.

    I would have more respect for them if they’d have just said “we want it so we’re taking it”.

  120. 120.

    cmorenc

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    and Lindsey doubled down on Fox this morning, saying we need a “Wyatt Earp” or “Elliott Ness” in Moscow.

    The irony of Graham citing Wyatt Earp as a potential role model for someone to take out Putin is that the real Earp was as much a thuggish gambler, saloon/whorehouse owner and grifter as lawman, who drifted from western boom town to boom town as he wore out his initial welcome as local lawman.  His mythical reputation only arose after his death in 1929, with an overly flattering biography of him in the early 1930s, coupled with popularity of western movies, as the real old west was fading into the romanticized mythical past, instead of gritty, often ugly reality that actually was.

  121. 121.

    Chris

    @Calouste:

    If Erik Prince is any indication of what state-sponsored mercenaries are like, they may indeed not be all they’re cracked up to be.

    (Actually, they’re almost certainly not: the rule when privatizing state functions, with almost no exceptions, is that you end up with grifters who are just trying to socialize the costs and privatize the profits in the most extreme way possible).

  122. 122.

    Geminid

    @trollhattan: Those stories about Reade’s shabby history were propagated fairly widely on the internet and Twitter. I have an acquaintence who votes Republican (he’s very mixed up and is easily bamboozled by people like Glenn Beck). I sent John somebody’s summary  of Reade’s history and he agreed yeah, she sounds like a nutty grifter.

    I still want to see Chis Hayes account for his attempts to mainstream that Russian stooge.

  123. 123.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Calouste: If Putin wants “denazification” maybe he could start with the Wagner Group, whose founder literally has SS runes tattooed on his collarbone.

  126. 126.

    Ken

    @cmorenc: I think Graham was referring to the version played by Hugh O’Brian. He probably also meant Robert Stack, for Eliot Ness.

  127. 127.

    Medicine Man

    Random thought: All this talk about “FSB dissenters” is almost certainly Ukrainian and Western intelligence fucking with Putin’s head. You generally don’t reveal sources publicly, not if you hope to use them again in the future, but Putin’s visibly paranoid. Ditto for the US revealing some of what they know about Putin’s planning.

    If he starts cracking down on his own security apparatus, Putin is much more likely to end up face down in a forest.

  128. 128.

    trollhattan

    @Kay:

    Geez, a whole side hustle I didn’t know about.

    Do know several public defenders, so they probably have stories.

  131. 131.

    MoCaAce

    @NotMax:  Shame Ivan has the appellation “the Terrible” all sewn up.

    I think “Vlad The Underwear Poisoner” is still in the lead.

  132. 132.

    Kent

    @Baud:We should tell Putin that if he leaves Ukraine we will lift sanctions and NATO will take on the responsibility for “deNazifying” Ukraine.  Surely he couldn’t refuse that offer.

    He apparently wants regime change.  We can agree to hold binding internationally supervised elections in say 4 months after they withdraw and his Kremlin-supported candidates can make their case against Zelensky.  And we can ban any NAZI parties from running.  What could be more fair than that?

  135. 135.

    Gravenstone

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: If(f) a faction within the FSB is the source of those leaks protecting Zelensky, then I wonder if it’s intended in part as a message to Putin? “We’re protecting him. Keep this shit up and we will come for you instead.”

  139. 139.

    Betty Cracker

    According to the NYT, The Putin government blocked access to Facebook (ingrate!) and made it a crime punishable by 15 years in prison for Russians to deviate from the party line about the war. For example, no one is allowed to call Russia’s attack on Ukraine a “war.”

    This doesn’t sound like a confident regime.

  140. 140.

    Gravenstone

    @dmsilev: He doesn’t see them as neighbors. He sees them as lost property he intends to reclaim. That whole “Ukraine has no legitimacy” thing.

  141. 141.

    Philbert

    @Hoodie: Yup, there is apparently gas and oil off the Black Sea coast. Like a moth to a flame. Damn if so much isn’t about oil again..

    Meanwhile we are learning so much about how they fight and what works against them, even without them sending their best. With this we can prepare for his next push, about which I am with Adam and Fiona that it will come, and we need to hit back hard.  Vlad hasn’t lost a war yet. Our passivity is triggering him, not any threat to fight back.

  143. 143.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Kent: Nope.  The Ukrainians get to decide which parties & candidates get run run.  And if they won’t want to allow pro-Russian candidates, that’s their choice to make.

  146. 146.

    Peale

    @Betty Cracker: Our right wing will go back on his side quickly enough, since thats what they dreamed of doing to us when we weren’t all that keen on the necessity of Iraq II. That said, instead of throwing us in prison, they just ignored us for 20 years when it turned out we were right. Given the choice, I’d rather be shunned than shot, I guess.

  147. 147.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    I was reading last year that the elite school in Moscow were the Putin’s inner circle sent their kids had a typhoid epidemic because someone sold the school contaminated food for the cafeteria that the health inspectors had condomed. So, the break down of just following the rules is that bad even the top 1% families aren’t safe.

    Could be, too many Oligarchs are bailing for other countries because Russia is starting to suck to much and this whole war is so Putin can give them a fresh place to plunder.

  148. 148.

    Chris

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    Could be, too many Oligarchs are bailing for other countries because Russia is starting to suck to much and this whole war is so Putin can give them a fresh place to plunder.

    I’ve been saying for years that the single most revealing fact about red states and blue states is that the vast majority of the rich end up living in the “decadent coastal enclaves” of blue urban/suburban America – even the right wing’s biggest stars.  Trump moved from New York City to Palm Beach. Pat Robertson lives in Virginia Beach. Tucker Carlson lives in freaking San Francisco of all places.  Those are all people who have the money to live anywhere they want, and in the modern age, probably work (“work”) from anywhere they want.  They could easily move to Alabama and get away from all the socialism and the wokeness and the ungrateful plebs.  But they’ll never do that, because even the richest man in Alabama is still in Alabama.

    There’s been a similar dynamic at the international level for a long time.

  149. 149.

    Ruckus

    @Betty Cracker

    There could be a lot of causes for vova to be in the mental condition that he’s in but one of them could be the initial stages of dementia. He’s a touch on the young side but I’ve seen this up close and personal with family, of notable dementia being seen at 65, which for vova was 4+ yrs ago. That family member ended up having Alzheimers. Now he may not be going down the dementia road, he may just be insane or he’s just a major fucking asshole. He may be sitting in the middle of all three. I’m much more inclined to go with C, all of the above and think that he’s seeing his last chance to be the big dick he thinks he is and wants to be seen as.

  150. 150.

    Betty Cracker

    @Chris: Great point. Remember Rod Dreher’s experiment with going back to his small Louisiana hometown to escape the uppity women, gays, atheists, etc.? He lasted maybe a year — and that’s where he was from! 

  151. 151.

    Ruckus

    @sdhays:

    lindsey is the clown that wears his makeup to bed every night, the clown that is first on stage, who sprays shaving cream on his head and dances around like an actual idiot, you know, the guy with the IQ of less than 60. He’s the guy the circus runs out there to show the kids that actually attending school and paying attention is a good thing, because look at the result when you don’t.

  153. 153.

    Chris

    @Betty Cracker:

    No, I actually hadn’t heard that.  But I totally believe it!

    Going to be interesting to see what J. D. Vance does with his life after his candidacy goes down in flames.  I have a funny feeling he’s going to high-tail it right back to Silicon Valley.

  154. 154.

    columbusqueen

    @Chris: Tisk tisk! With Intel building here now, Vance hardly needs to go back to California. Particularly since the cost of living is so much lower in Columbus.

  155. 155.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @NotMax: “Health inspectors condemned”  lol, dyslexia  strikes again… or did it? This is Russia….

    Double ewww!  80

    Bad subconscious! Bad subconscious!

  156. 156.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Chris: Tucker Carlson lives in freaking San Francisco of all places.

    Of course Fucker Carlson would. Nothing more low or vile than a San Francisco conservative.

  158. 158.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Chris:  When the SF Republican Party disbanded back in the ’90s one of my small c conservative friends said that was because SF Republicans were so obnoxious even they couldn’t stand each other.

  160. 160.

    Sebastian

    @Betty Cracker:

    So the long and the short is that Ukraine was always about the gas reserves in the Black Sea which would have Ukraine made a competitor to Russia. In order to keep the petrokleptostate running, Putin needed to grab Ukraine. He did first with Yunakovich (Manafort) and when the Orange Revolution started, he started stirring shit up with two separatist provinces.

    That’s why Manafort, that’s why Ukraine got taken out of the GOP platform, that’s why out of NATO.

    It was always about the oil and gas.

  161. 161.

    J R in WV

    @Ken: 

    @dmsilev: Moscow had “absolutely no ill intentions with regard to our neighbors.”

    I posted this a few days ago, but it seems even more appropriate now.

    This is absolutely a true fact IF you regard Ukraine as a rogue state belonging to the Russian Federation, as V V Putinski apparently does. Crazy is as crazy does!!

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