I know many of us are feeling sick and outraged about the news emerging from Bucha this weekend. Sounds like Joe Biden is too:
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Monday called for war crimes trial against Russia President Vladimir Putin and said he’d seek more sanctions after reported atrocities in Ukraine.
“You saw what happened in Bucha,” Biden said. He added that Putin “is a war criminal”
Biden’s comments to reporters came after Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited Bucha, one of the towns surrounding Kyiv where Ukrainian officials say the bodies of civilians have been found. Zelenskyy called the Russian actions “genocide” and called for the West to apply tougher sanctions against Russia.
This image. Damn.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited Bucha today. His face says it all. pic.twitter.com/IWOmIdnnVT
— Kateryna_Kruk (@Kateryna_Kruk) April 4, 2022
Hillary Clinton was on Meet the Press yesterday. She praised the Biden administration’s response to Russia’s assault on Ukraine but says we need to “double down,” including actions like adding more banks to the SWIFT exclusion list, enacting new sanctions, delivering more aid to Ukraine, blocking Russia from participating in events like G20, etc.
Here’s the full interview.
There are mixed reports on what’s happening inside Russia. According to some accounts, life goes on more or less as normal, but I saw a clip this weekend that showed anti-theft tags on canned meat in a Russian supermarket and elderly ladies fighting over bags of sugar. Will that sort of thing build social pressure inside the country, and would it matter if it did? I have no idea.
I remember crying in a parking lot a couple of years ago when we were down to one roll of toilet paper and the person in line ahead of me got the last four-pack at the grocery store. But I’m a spoiled American. I suspect Russians — at least those who are middle-aged and older — are more used to privations.
Open thread.
Renaming CSR plans in New Mexico
trollhattan
I thought the rule for US presidents was to call Putin “a really smart guy.” Joe has lost the script.
Russia really did think this was going to be a cakewalk. Heard an analyst last night discussing the NKVD assassination teams who are tasked to capture/kill leaders of the Maidan Revolution–NB Vlad’s memory is long and his enemies list is even longer–and secondarily, there are general instructions for rounding up and torturing/executing Ukrainian resistance. That, I suppose, is every civilian who did not welcome them with flowers and candy.
We’re seeing these schemes play out practically in real time.
hells littlest angel
Sadly, shamefully, the US does not have standing to demand a trial for war crimes.
O. Felix Culpa
@hells littlest angel: Bullshit.
Jeffro
pretty ballsy of NBC, just up and interviewing Hillz like that, as if she knows stuff or anything
hells littlest angel
@O. Felix Culpa: We withdrew from membership in the International Criminal Court. We literally do not have standing.
debbie
I support him more than 110%, but Joe’s got to step up the allies’ response to these atrocities. Also, Russia must be roundly slapped back at this UN meeting that’s supposed to be held today.
jackmac
A Democrat on ‘Meet the Press?’ No Republicans available?
debbie
@Jeffro:
There was a clip from the interview on the local Fox news, with zero belittlement from the newsreader. Shocking!
different-church-lady
@hells littlest angel: c’mon, it was a fifth amendment kind of thing…
Betty Cracker
@hells littlest angel: I get your point, which Putin will no doubt make too, also not without justification, but as a practical matter, who does? Are we going to declare war crimes are not a thing because everyone has blood on their hands? Samantha Power was right; it is A Problem from Hell.
Jeffro
@debbie: that IS shocking!
Wouldn’t be surprised to see the demon trio (Hannity, Carlson, Ingraham) try and use the appearance as more nonsense fodder tonight. “HILLARY ’24? COULD THERE BE A PRIMARY CHALLENGER TO UNCLE JOE?”
Oh well, there’s no use worrying about what they’ll say, it’s not like they’re going to start having standards all of a sudden.
MattF
@trollhattan: I’m guessing that ‘denazification’ is a coded reference to mass murder. Russians understand that, the rest of us are now figuring it out.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
The 1917 Revolution was because of food shortages in the cities. Wroth noting that the reason why the food shortage in the Russian army was because blackmarket MREs are what the Russian poor survive on. It’s hard to believe the Russian army isn’t trying to put a stop to that because you can’t expect men to do hard physical work on only 1,000 calories to day.
hells littlest angel
@Betty Cracker: No, we just plain don’t have standing. It’s nothing to do with hypocrisy or blood on our hands or anything like that. We quit the ICC.
O. Felix Culpa
@debbie: Joe isn’t the only one with agency. How about the allies need to step up their response? Which I agree with.
O. Felix Culpa
@hells littlest angel: Thank you for the clarification.
Brachiator
@Jeffro:
Clinton was very good, but why not get the current secretary of state or another Biden administration official?
Baud
I hope Hillary was just the right amount of prepared this time.
Brachiator
@O. Felix Culpa:
Other nations are taking action. US media wants to emphasize the America as world leader angle.
different-church-lady
@Baud: it’s impossible to be the right amount of prepared when any preparation at all is too much.
wv blondie
@Brachiator: Maybe because it’s a great way to get under both Putin’s and the GQP’s skins?
Frankensteinbeck
@hells littlest angel:
Someone who can, will.
Betty Cracker
@Brachiator: Current SoS Blinken was on before Clinton.
Litlebritdifrnt
I got to the point yesterday when I couldn’t look at the photos anymore. I was sat in the kitchen crying and my hubby came in and suggested that I just get away from it and stop looking. It was obviously doing severe damage to my mental health. Strangely enough it reminds me of The Falklands War, which happened when I was in the WRNS. The stories of our brave lads, the stories of the Argentian forces basically killing their officers so that they could surrender to the UK troops sounds alot like what is going on in Ukraine. I lost friends in that war and the anniversary brings it all into focus with the stories of the absolute bravery of the Ukranian troops and volunteers. However the sheer barbarity of RUssian troops hog tying and executing civilians and leaving them dead in the street in front of their homes HAS to surely get some international response, I cannot fathom how this kind of evil is allowed to go on in a civilised world in 2022. I understand why NATO do not go in, we know that Putin is insane enough to press the red button, but at some point the entire world has got to say enough, surely they have got to say enough.
O. Felix Culpa
@Brachiator: I was responding to a commenter, not the US media. I am well aware that other countries are doing things too, but in the notable case of Germany (among others), not nearly enough.
Brachiator
@Betty Cracker:
Thanks for the clarification.
Betty Cracker
Todd tried to set up a conflict between Blinken and Clinton by implying that Blinken said the U.S. would drop sanctions and recognize Putin’s Russia as a legit part of the “world order” if Russia withdraws forces and stops committing atrocities in Ukraine. HRC pushed back on that take of Blinken’s remarks.
I’ve got zero foreign policy expertise, but my sense is Putin is emboldened every time the world lets him essentially get away with another set of atrocities. And he’s not the only one who’s watching and taking notes.
Soprano2
So I wonder, will the Fox News programs tonight even address Bucha, or will they try to act like it didn’t happen? I was at the bar last night, sitting at the bar because it wasn’t that busy. The bartender had the Grammys on the TV’s over the bar with the sound off. When Zelenskyy came on, a couple of the women started talking about him and Ukraine, so I didn’t bring it up (I try to never bring up politics when I’m there, way too many Trump supporters who spend lots of money). One of them is a big Trump supporter, and she was denigrating Zelinskyy and our attention to what’s happening in Ukraine. I almost lost my cool, but held on enough to ask her what she thinks Ukraine did to justify what Russia is doing there. She was non-specific, just saying what she’s seen suggests they aren’t innocent. I said no country is “innocent”, but as far as I can tell they didn’t do anything to justify what’s happening there. She said she’s just “on a different side”, and I muttered about them murdering civilians. Thankfully she left pretty soon after that, because I don’t want to start a fight with a regular customer! I cannot understand how ANYONE can say what she said after what I’ve seen and heard about Bucha, but evidently on the right they’re saying no big deal, Ukraine brought it on themselves.
Cameron
Would this be the same Hillary Clinton of “We Came – We Saw – He Died” fame? I don’t think America, and Joe Biden in particular, needs to peep out anything about war crimes. There are a whole lot of reasons why USAUSAUSA is getting increasingly hated around the world.
Martin
@hells littlest angel: It’s not like we have no standing. We are an official observer of the ICC. We recognize the ICC at least during Democratic administrations, but don’t grant it jurisdiction in the US.
So the US participates in the deliberations of the court, but not the decisions. So we do have a limited seat at the table.
Jeffro
@wv blondie: you may be on to something there…
@Betty Cracker: ah, good!
Is it just me, or does it seem to you all like perhaps the snooze media in general is waking up a bit to how asymmetrically our… national media environment, let’s call it…has been operating? I feel like I am seeing more pushback, at least, on their unbalanced pundit panels and constant framing of everything being bad for President Biden and the Dems.
It’s probably just me, though. A couple of folks on Twitter does not a ‘pushback movement’ make.
trollhattan
@Betty Cracker:
Considering they held the same job, guessing Hillary falling for that trap works zero out of ten tries.
pajaro
It’s not correct that we quit the ICC. We were never in it. President Clinton signed a version of the treaty, although we only wanted to accept it with modifications. It made no difference, because the Senate never came close to ratifying it, which was necessary for us to have joined. Then, the Bush Administration, I believe actually “unsigned” the treaty, a publicity stunt that has no legal effect. But there’s more. We actually passed a bill called the American Servicembers Protection Act, which prohibits cooperation with the ICC, and prohibits transfer of law enforcement information to the ICC, even if no American is accused of a crime. A few years later we added to that a prohibition of certain kinds of foreign assistance to countries that had failed to enter into a bilateral agreement with the US to exempt the US from prosecution from the ICC.
So yeah, I was surprised that the ICC is now our friend.
Brachiator
@wv blondie:
Sadly, I don’t think that either one of them cares. It has been disgusting to see certain conservatives recently seeming to praise Putin.
Villago Delenda Est
Vlad hasn’t lifted a finger to put a stop to this butchery. He’s definitely a war criminal, just as Hitler was.
Mike in NC
Governor DeathSentence declaring war on Disney. Wonder who’ll prevail?
Raoul Paste
@Soprano2: Apparently this was not one of the people who was paid to watch CNN for 30 days.
They think whatever Fox tells them to think, and parrot back the short phrases they are trained to say
Enhanced Voting Techniques
And, then, by the time they are done, they will convince themselves Biden is a Republican like they did with in 2012 when they convinced themselves Bill Clinton was a Republican ROFL,
Betty Cracker
@Soprano2: Ugh, that must be maddening to have to listen to that bullshit without telling a customer to go fuck herself. Right-wing media has to both-sides Russia’s assault on Ukraine because they’re basically Putinists themselves, just as their orange god is.
O. Felix Culpa
@Villago Delenda Est: There are strong indications that the butchery was part of his original plan. As others have noted, that’s what “de-nazification” means.
Villago Delenda Est
@Jeffro: Ratings are their god, now. Chris Wallace has a point when he says that 60 Minutes changed the way the networks looked at news…not as a loss leader, but as a profit center. Couple that with the MBA mentality, and actual reporting takes a back seat to sensationalism to draw eyeballs. The Internet is no better at this, may be worse.
Roger Moore
@MattF:
The Russians see “Nazi” as “those people who attacked Russia*” rather than “those people who committed the Holocaust”. And, in fairness, the Nazis did A) kill an awful lot of Russians and B) see eventual genocide of Slavs as much of the plan as genocide of the Jews. So to them, “denazification” means getting rid of anti-Russia forces, even when the people they’re killing are Jews.
*Their tendency to see the USSR as Russia under a different name is part of the issue.
Villago Delenda Est
@O. Felix Culpa: Can’t naysay you on that. Vlad is a monster. Much like TFG.
Villago Delenda Est
@Roger Moore: The USSR was the Russian Empire of Nicholas II reborn. Without Poland, or Finland, of course. Which is why Poland has been so supportive of Ukraine and why Finland is seriously considering joining NATO. The Baltics needed no persuading on that account. And you’re spot on about the definition of “Nazi” in the eyes of Muscovy.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
I’ve seen comments that rape and murder are baked into Russian military culture, and I think that’s probably true. I only recently learned that my grandmother (a Russian Jew) had been gang-raped by Russian soldiers. We know very little of the family history. I don’t know if those were the Czar’s soldiers or the Communists. Either way, the Revolution didn’t do any favors for Jews which is why my grandparents ended up here.
debbie
@O. Felix Culpa:
Of course, but he needs to shepherd them to the right place.
Brant
@O. Felix Culpa: Let’s see; we’re not in the IOCC, we water boarded people, we hung them in stress positions and we froze some of them ‘til they died. I think that robs of of moral authority, DON’T YOU?
Enhanced Voting Techniques
As far as the War Crimes go, for a modern nation state that Russia claims to be, this is even more fucked in the head than Germany in the ’40s. At lest the SS buried the bodies. This is more like third world failed state crap.
O. Felix Culpa
@Villago Delenda Est: Yes, they are both monsters.
O. Felix Culpa
@Brant: Glem, is that you?
Brachiator
@Soprano2:
Very interesting anecdote. I don’t understand the callous mindset that would lead anyone to think that a people brought invasion and misery on themselves.
prostratedragon
@Litlebritdifrnt: Some Argentine Falklands veterans are pursuing legal redress for the torture they endured from some of their own officers. This weekend was a day of remembrance for them. Note that the torturers had honed their technique against those arrested as political dissidents in the Dirty War. There are many resonances in the present situation — the torturings, stolen children, people simply snatched and disappeared, exhibiting a few in the places where they’ve been taken as if they’re just on a walkabout.
Sometimes I wonder about this human project we’re pursuing.
Villago Delenda Est
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: There’s a reason why Judaism is matrilineality traced. It’s due to all the raping that went on in the Kahzar realms (which existed North of the Caucuses and in what is now Southern Russia) that had a strong Jewish population. Can’t trust who the father might have been, but you can figure out who mom was.
sdhays
@Baud: Thank you for never letting go of this. I wish guests would throw that in his face every once in awhile. But, of course, they’re all “friends” on these stupid shows.
Villago Delenda Est
@Brachiator: Glemm Greenwald will buy into that position without hesitation. He’s well paid to do so.
trollhattan
@O. Felix Culpa:
Right? ALL CAPS is a nice touch.
Geminid
An interesting poll out of Texas showed 42% of respondents favoring Greg Abbott, 40% favoring Beto O’Rourke. Other/Undecided were 18%. The Texas Lyceum pollsters queried 900 some Texans, and say their margin of error is +/- 3.1%. Texas Lyceum seems to be a nonpartisan, “good government” outfit.
MisterForkbeard
@Brachiator: It’s not limited to the invasion. They reflexively side with strongmen, particularly if that strongman hates the same people they do or has praised them in the past.
It’s very similar to what happens when they discover evangelists have raped women – they talk about how the woman invited it, mouth some platitudes about how the evangelical needs to do better and then try to forget the whole thing.
ian
@Villago Delenda Est:
matrilineality appears to go back to around 70 CE, right around the time Vespasian took a 2 x 4 to the province of Judea
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matrilineality_in_Judaism
Soprano2
@Betty Cracker: I really wanted to unload on her, but she’s a good regular customer who is actually pretty smart about some things (I have learned through exposure that it’s not right to say Trump supporters are dumb, and in fact I think it’s counterproductive because it lets them off the hook for their support of the odious turd). That I engaged with her at all shows you how outraged I was, because I normally ignore any of their pro-Trump anti-Biden stuff. Every now and then a customer will wear a hat or T-shirt with political stuff on it, but that’s the exception. Our manager has forbidden them from talking about politics at the bar during the day because there are two regulars on opposite sides who were having fights every day and the other customers got tired of listening to it. They don’t talk about politics that much, actually, because they’re there to have a good time. If they hadn’t seen Zelenskyy on the Grammys it wouldn’t have come up at all.
Mike in NC
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Have read quite a bit lately about the hazing and brutality that Russian conscripts are subjected to. The same mentality afflicted the Japanese military during WW2. The idea seems to be that they are trained to hate and fear their superiors as much as the enemy in wartime.
trollhattan
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Have an Austrian friend with stories, lots of stories, about the lengthy Soviet occupation. Their “Marshall Plan” was quite different from the US version.
Martin
@Villago Delenda Est: I don’t think 60 minutes changed it. I think CNN did. There was plenty of space for an hour a week of investigative journalism to make/not make money. But when you are news 24/7, then the news *must* make money. There’s no subsidizing it by having it lead into Carson.
O. Felix Culpa
@debbie: We’re really on the same side, but the language of Joe “shepherding” still robs the allies of agency. I am deeply grateful for Joe’s leadership, AND the allies are big boys and girls and they know what they need to do. They *just* need to muster the political will. In Germany’s case, a lot of that relates to domestic politics and their sorry dependence on Russian gas. I don’t know what Joe can do to address those factors.
Villago Delenda Est
@Mike in NC: FA with The Mouse, and FO. The only organization I know of that can take on The Mouse is the University of Oregon. Every so often they get a “cease and desist” demand concerning the UofO’s use of Donald as a mascot. The UofO proceeds to send a photocopy of the letter signed by Walt himself granting the UofO permission to use Donald. I suspect that this may be a hazing ritual in the Disney legal office for noobs.
brantl
@O. Felix Culpa: No, that’s the truth, though. We aren’t always Glem’s bad guys, but we haven’t come close to always being the good guys, either.
trollhattan
@Mike in NC: Never bet against The Mouse.
sdhays
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: They didn’t even bury their own bodies.
Villago Delenda Est
@ian: That makes sense, for the same reason. I was told the Khazar version by a Jewish friend in HS.
trollhattan
@Geminid: And when Texas voter suppression prevents 10% of potential Beto voters from getting to the polls, Abbott glides in with an easy win. Why yes, I am cynical.
Frankensteinbeck
@MattF:
From what I’ve been reading since the invasion began, Putin (a hardcore racist) believes that Ukraine is an illegitimate nation and nationality. He believes they are Russians, period. Mass murder and mass relocation are two techniques for monsters like Putin to destroy the ‘Ukrainian’ identity. Throw in that he’s a butcher and a bully and his government runs on brutal intimidation.
@Soprano2:
Unconfirmed because I have no intention of subjecting myself to even clips of Carlson, but from what I have read Carlson’s reaction to Bucha was to say the Ukrainians murdered their own people and are blaming Russia. He has supposedly been that level of ‘Russia good, Ukraine bad’ level of propagandist, way beyond the rest of Fox that merely wants to focus on gas prices making Biden unpopular.
trollhattan
In which I surprise myself by giving Howard Schultz an attaboy.
Martin
@Geminid: 18% undecided with a high profile incumbent is not good. Its not like they never heard of the guy.
Matt McIrvin
@Mike in NC: The current CEO of Disney is not the most savvy character, and they may be a less formidable opponent than you’d think. Under the best of circumstances, their cultural attitudes depend on their bottom line and they could easily return to their hardcore reactionary roots.
The Moar You Know
@Mike in NC: I think Disney is about to learn a hard lesson in why you need to make sure your politicians stay bought, and why you don’t put most of your physical infrastructure investment in the cheapest place possible.
They can fix this but it’s going to be REALLY expensive.
geg6
@Brachiator:
I believe Blinken was also on, which I saw on another site that I cannot remember now. Shocking, two Democrats on Press the Meat.
Geminid
@trollhattan: O’ Rourke knows as much about voter supression as you or I do. He’s not throwing in the towel and neither is Stacey Abrams.
Roger Moore
@Brant:
It robs us of moral authority, but moral authority is not required to report a crime.
Aziz, light!
I have, or had, a good friend from Russia; she’s been in the States for 16 years with no desire to ever go back. But she surprised our circle of friends on Feb. 24 by expressing on FB her solidarity with Putin’s bullshit about the need to further “liberate” Ukraine and denazify the rest of it. Yesterday I sent her Bucha photos and asked “How is denazification going? Only forty million more Nazis to go.” I think this portends the end of our 10-year friendship. She has full access to the truth but is tuning it out, being strongly influenced by her family back in Khabarovsk to embrace Russian state media lies instead.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
I keep coming back to the intercepted communication where some pig told his mommy about how they killed and ate an Alabai.
The Alabai is an incredibly valuable, large shepherd dog, undoubtedly some farmer’s prized working animal, carefully, lovingly trained. Poor thing would have been starving for food and human contact, depending on how and when it got separated from its owners.
And those pigs just destroyed it because they were bored of their shitted combat meals.
cain
@Soprano2:
They are always non-specific when challenged. She doesn’t actually know what Ukraine did. She just listens to Tucker or some other far right news site. She just trusts them. :-)
Also, she will absolutely argue that the U.S. is pure as the driven snow and to say otherwise would be unpatriotic.
Wapiti
@Soprano2: I cannot understand how ANYONE can say what she said after what I’ve seen and heard about Bucha, but evidently on the right they’re saying no big deal, Ukraine brought it on themselves.
If they admit it is a problem, then they have to admit Russia is a problem, and Trump’s support for Russia was a problem, and their support for Trump is a problem. They’re aware enough that they don’t want to start pulling on loose threads and find out they’re the baddies.
Aziz, light!
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Worse is 335 dogs dying of thirst in the Borodyanka animal shelter.
Martin
@MattF: Yeah, it means genocide. Unrolled:
Russian propaganda outlet. Calling for forever war, execution of all Ukrainian speakers, and elimination of Ukraine as a place.
This is Russia backing themselves into a corner. How do they negotiate a peace under this theory of the war?
cain
@Villago Delenda Est: 1000x this.
I always tell my parents that they are funding this nonsense by daily watching MSNBC. But they can’t stop it and they are in love with a lot of the media personalities there.
Brachiator
@Mike in NC:
Disney. No contest. The Mouse don’t like it when you mess with his money.
prostratedragon
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: I went to Wikipedia to see a picture of the dogs and found that this incident is already mentioned. They seem like such good dogs.
(Just as I read the post above, a large dog began barking insistently outside my window for several minutes. There are few large dogs in the neighborhood, and they’re usually very quiet. Disturbance in the force.)
Aziz, light!
@Villago Delenda Est: I went to grad school at the U of Oregon. There are a few provisions as to how the school can use Donald Duck’s likeness but its right to use it has remained safe from challenge.
cain
@Villago Delenda Est:
The more you read about human history the more I feel our species are fucked up.
NYCMT
@Martin: RIA Novosti is not a propaganda outlet. It is an official government enterprise with roots going back to the Second World War.
This is Official Russia speaking.
Frankensteinbeck
@Martin:
And that’s all what we’ve been told Putin believes. There is no ‘Ukraine’, just rebellious Russians, and the nationality needs to be stamped out so everyone in Ukraine considers themselves as homogenously Russian as anyone in Moscow or St. Petersburg.
EDIT – To be absolutely clear, this is a kind of genocide and involves all kinds of horrors, with mass executions being only one.
Geminid
@Geminid: In other Texas news, embattled 28th District Congressman Henry Cuellar distonguished himself once again by voting against the cannabis law reform passed by the House last week. Chris Pappas of New Hampshire was the only other Democrat voting against.
Cuellar was also the sole Democrat to vote against a federal law codifying Roe’s guaranty of women’s reproductive freedom. He and challenger Jessica Cisneros square off in a primary runoff next month.
cain
@Geminid: Hope Jessica wins.
Villago Delenda Est
@Martin: 60 Minutes, in the 70s, proved that a news program could turn a tidy profit. This caused a bulb to light up over Ted Turner’s head. CNN followed in the early 80s.
Martin
@The Moar You Know: Chapek won’t survive this. He’s not up to it. Everyone is demanding that Iger return to sort this out.
Florida will lose this, because like every other company has determined, their future rests with with young consumers and a more diverse customer base.
Plus, Disney employees are walking off. And Disney is not based in Florida, but in California. Disney World may be the crown jewel of their parks, but Anaheim is where the work gets done, and Californians are not shy about pushing back, and here in CA, Disney has a VERY strong LGBTQ customer base because for a long time Disney was the one that showed up for the community. Gay Days have been a staple of the parks out here for decades. They’re watching this carefully. Disney is going to have to take a side here. Chapek thinks he can have it both ways, but he can’t, and eventually Disney will realize they have to go with California over Florida, because it makes the most financial sense.
But yeah, it’s going to be costly. Disney needs to announce they’ll make no more investments in the state until this bill is repealed.
brendancalling
@Martin: My ex used to tell me about what the Russians had done to Ukraine previously.
The Russians don’t want peace. They want to continue being the genocidal murderers they’ve always been. Russia needs to be defeated, humiliated, and ultimately broken.
The vast majority of Russians, propagandized or not, support this war. They will never recover from what they’ve done—I want them gone from the UN human rights commission, gone from the UN security council, and left to starve like North Korea.
Betty Cracker
@Martin: Is that the Timofey Sergeytsev piece? I read an excerpt of a translation of it this morning — can’t remember where. Do you know if this is a mainstream Russian pundit?
germy
Martin
@Villago Delenda Est: But that’s not the fault of 60 minutes, but the fault of Turner. He didn’t need 60 minutes to make that decision.
Villago Delenda Est
@Aziz, light!: When the UofO, back in those fabulous 70s (and when I was an undergrad there) wanted a black Donald with an Afro to be the mascot of the track team, they did indeed check with Disney to see if that was OK with them.
Villago Delenda Est
@Martin: He looked at how profitable news could be using that as a template. It’s not like CBS didn’t transform its news division into a profit center without Turner’s example.
Geminid
@cain: She has a good shot. Cisneros trailed Cuellar by only 4% in the first round. The third candidate, who kept Cuellar from getting to 50%, was a liberal so her voters seem likely to back Cisneros.
I think that if Cuellar wins it will be because district Democrats think Cisneros won’t win in the general election. Republicans have been on the rise in the Rio Grande Valley, formerly a Democratic stronghold. They have high hopes of flipping that seat after generations of Democratic control.
Martin
@Betty Cracker: Yeah. Not a mainstream pundit, more like a political strategist. Close to Putin from what I understand.
germy
Villago Delenda Est
@NYCMT: That is, it’s a propaganda outfit.
Villago Delenda Est
@germy: You can always count on the Bechamel Babe to be a dunderhead.
cain
@Matt McIrvin: I’m not so sure. The GenZ generation is a lot more liberal than previous and I understand more activist – it is also their most important demographic (and of course their bottom line) – I don’t think they are going to waste political capital on shit kicked up by Boomers and GenXers.
Roger Moore
@Martin:
CNN, as it was under Turner, was actually a pretty good thing. The problem is they have degenerated, both by being taken out of Turner’s control and by having to compete with other 24 hour “news” channels. The big thing, as I see it, is that the amount of news programming has declined, replaced by more and more opinion and “news analysis” programs.
cain
@Geminid: Yikes, that sucks. (GOP voters moving in) hopefully, we can keep it awhile longer.
eversor
So much stupid here, but for the site on three iphones now clicking the picture of BigZ asks you to tweet in favor. I know it’s not deliberate, but this is an issue. Also Clinton, any Clinton? They need to fucking go away all of them. It’s toxic now. You can say it’s not their fault (and it mostly is not) but inserting themselves into things now and not going away shows a jaw shattering level of stupidity.
Matt McIrvin
@Martin: Iger’s departure was hilarious–getting out right when COVID was starting to bite and shutting down the Chinese parks, telling Chapek “it’s all yours now”.
germy
Ruckus
@Soprano2:
Conservatives want conformity. They want the world to make simple sense, because they are simple. They want an order that makes the world a disaster and has every time it’s been tried. Because the world order they want destroys human life. Because the world is made up of beings that are not simple. Because of what conservatives want the world to look/be like they have to eliminate anything different. So to them vova eliminating different, eliminating those that do not want to live in a life that is to them, correct, is OK. Like the KKK eliminating those that don’t look like them. This is creating, in their minds, natural order.
Need I say that this is far worse than bullshit? Conservatives are OK with anything that brings their world into focus and harmony. Anything. And everything. Their logic is simplicity, sameness is better than any reality.
Betty Cracker
Had a convo with a friend earlier on the DeSantis vs. WDW issue, prompted by the Greg Sargent column on the topic at The Post. My take is that DeSantis and WDW will huff and puff a lot but ultimately go back to the status quo unless the people each is trying to mollify/inspire keep paying attention and demand results.
The premise of the Sargent column is that DeSantis’s culture warrior base will demand not just rhetoric but action, like stripping WDW of its privileged position in the state. Maybe, but I don’t know — the same people gave Trump a pass for talking a lot and doing virtually nothing.
The creators in the WDW stable and their fans forced the CEO to belatedly address the issue, which incurred DeSantis’s wrath. Will they keep paying attention, call for boycotts, etc., or will the issues fade from view? I don’t know, but people generally have a short attention span. We’ll see.
Benw
Obviously.
Ruckus
@Villago Delenda Est:
Vlad hasn’t lifted a finger to put a stop to this butchery. He’s definitely a war criminal, just as Hitler was.
And for the same reasons. Because the butchery was part of the entire system he runs.
Anyway
@eversor:
Disagree. Hillary Clinton was a recent SecofState and has masses of experience dealing with Putin and Ukraine. She’s a knowledgeable and shrewd observer of international events.
Geminid
@cain: I think the GOP voters were already there. Some are newly registered, some are dectecting Democrats. And Independents may be voting Republican in higher numbers. The Republicans are putting a lot of resources into the Rio Grand Valley. For instance, they’ve set up four headquarters locations that double as community centers, with movie nights and community group meetings.
cain
@Roger Moore:
Probably because advertisers want more bang for their buck. I’m not sure how that is going to work later – younger generations don’t watch news – I think Gen Xers is the last generation that used to watch the evening or morning news as a regular thing?
None of my step kids watch news, and I don’t know any other kids who do either. They get all their stuff from tiktok and instagram.
Eventually 24 hour news is going to tank.
cain
@Geminid: Huh.. what are the dems doing in response? GOP get in charege and it’s going to be a shit show of cultural division.
I’m actually curious when they’ll turn their guns on the entire Gen Z generation. heh.
Kay
@trollhattan:
Abbott is unpopular though. He should be beating Beto easily in polls. It’s interesting.
Far Right Republicans are always portrayed as “following their voters” (excusing the radicalism) but Abbott’s voters aren’t exactly thrilled with him.
CaseyL
@Roger Moore: That’s absolutely happened on MSNBC, where opinion programming has pretty much replaced actual news programming. CNN is going for a more RW demographic than MSNBC but neither of them are what you’d call shining lights of journalism.
I find my self increasingly going to the original NBC for actual news content (along with WaPo, UK Guardian, and other sources). I want news coverage; I do NOT need people (who generally know less about this stuff than I do) to tell me what it means and what I should think about it.
Matt McIrvin
@Martin: The other company I wonder about is Comcast/NBCUniversal. There’s all this furor about Disney being huge in Florida; meanwhile Universal is actually in the process of building their largest-ever new theme park there, and the biggest headlining franchise at their existing resort is now associated with the toxic Queen of the TERFs. But they don’t start out as as much of a cultural lightning rod.
JMG
@Betty Cracker: The people Disney needs to make its movies, video games, TV programs, design its theme park rides, etc. have options. They can walk from the company and readily find the same or better jobs elsewhere. That’s the “boycott” that has management worried.
Roger Moore
@Betty Cracker:
I think the Disney creators and fans will do their best to keep the heat on. This isn’t something they can just drop, since it attack the very essence of who they are. It’s like so many things people try to keep under control with intimidation. As long as LGBTQIA+ people were kept in the closet, society was able to keep them there by intimidating the few who were bold enough to try to be themselves. But now that so many of them are out of the closet, it will take far more effort to force them all back in. That won’t keep conservatives from trying, of course.
Ruckus
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Burying the bodies would take time and effort and not show those they are trying to fuck over that they will go to any lengths to achieve “success.” I also believe that the Nazi’s buried the bodies to insure that they were dead or would be before anyone could save them.
Subsole
Betty,
Regarding your last point.
Perhaps the Russians are more used to being hungry than we are.
Seems to be worth remembering that being used to something doesn’t make it any more enjoyable. Being hungry? That shit sucks, whoever you are.
Also worth remembering that some of that reputation for stoic endurance was birthed in a brutally repressive police state. You only heard from the stoically durable because the folks who spoke up… went away.
@jackmac: Maybe some of the criticism is actually starting to penetrate the Beltway Bellend Bell Jar. We can only hope.
Martin
@cain: I think the thing to understand about GenZ is that they don’t live in the same media space as the rest of us. At all. They live in a space with transgender makeup channels, where everything gets shared, and where political spats don’t happen in the boardroom but up front, recorded, for everyone to see.
They don’t see this so much as a liberal/conservative war as much as they do a generational one. We’ve fucked it all up, and they don’t trust us to fix it. From their perspective, even the Democrats are sell-outs, and the Republicans are just fascists.
But they vote. Youth turnout has broken records in 2018 and 2020. No reason to believe it won’t continues, especially as more of their generation are running for office. AOC is their trailblazer in every way.
Brachiator
@cain:
But this is largely snippets of stories from news sites, often without larger context. And of course mixed in with gossip and opinion. And tiktok and instagram seek to monetize their services.
Perversely, not only are newspapers dying, but Internet sites are dying as well. Buzzfeed won a Pulitzer, but has been pressured by its investors to shut down its news division.
Well funded conservative sites may hang on, but other sources of news are shrinking. It is no longer about making news a profit center. News is being replaced by rootless opinion and entertainment.
Kay
The best part of the conservative push to create a panic around CRT and gay people in public schools is there’s no evidence at all that it works politically:
Wouldn’t it be so great if they got snookered by the Moms for Liberty grifters and the rest and the whole thing flopped?
We’ll have to do our own analysis. Political media have already decided it’s a roaring success, but I think the jury’s still out.
Ruckus
@Brachiator:
Think of it as an ideal – conformity. Ukraine is supposed to conform to vova’s ideals, just as all Americans are supposed to conform to all the conservative ideals. Anyone who doesn’t has to be eliminated. Everyone has to conform to conservative bullshit. Anything else is chaos. Simplicity and conformity, that is the conservative way. One color (or lack thereof), one religion, one illogical pathway.
Immanentize
@O. Felix Culpa:
Hi! Just an explainer not directed at you:
We didn’t quit the ICC, we never joined it. I could go on at length about this but won’t. Big difference. And the ICC is not the only way to have war crimes tribunals. Ukraine is itself setting up such a process, there have been War Crimes tribunals before the ICC existed and a group of countries (like NATO or a collection of neighbor states) can prosecute war crimes. Like Nuremberg.
People should remember what your papa may have told you, “Ignorance of the law is no excuse.”
Roger Moore
@cain:
I think it’s the other side of the equation. It turns out that being a serious news source is actually really expensive. You have to pay hundreds of reporters throughout the world, plus editors, etc. It’s much cheaper to fill airtime with a few talking heads plus the relatively modest research and video staff it takes to put them on the air.
Subsole
@Cameron: So my jaywalking ticket means I cannot turn in a child trafficker.
Got it.
@Betty Cracker: I’ve heard it referred to as the Fascist Internationale. I think it fits.
Matt McIrvin
@Matt McIrvin:
…though Harry Potter doesn’t actually belong to Universal, except for the theme-park rights–it’s a Warner brand, which is a little unusual because Warner’s other biggest brands are associated with Six Flags.
raven
@Martin: “the Democrats are sell-outs” Everyone I knew in the 70’s felt that way. All this cheering about “labor”, shit they were the worst.
Kay
I shouldn’t say “conservative’s push to create a CRT panic”
They didn’t do it alone. They had the whole ridiculous “anti cancel culture” hordes cheering them on every step of the way. This was a group effort. Bipartisan.
eversor
@Anyway:
Don’t matter. Through mostly Republicans, second her husband, and third herself she’s managed to poison anything she touches. That may be unfair, but it means the wise choice is to STFU.
There’s no reason bomb your own cause.
Betty Cracker
@Martin: Spot on. As a parent, I find it maddening sometimes, but I can also understand how the kids — now young adults — came by those views.
Subsole
@Brant: No. Next.
NotMax
Echoing a call from a former U.N. bigwig with impeccable credentials.
@JMG
Already pushback on Disney’s plans for staff relocation.
hells littlest angel
@Martin: We are not a state party to the ICC, and thus cannot refer a case for prosecution. Sure, we can petition the court, but so can anyone, but our petition can simply be ignored.
Brachiator
@Roger Moore:
Lauren Boebert (R-Nutcase) recently suggested that gay people wait until age 21 before being legally able to announce their sexual and gender identity. This seemed like some kind of sick and twisted April Fools joke.
Still, the right wing does appear to be revving up their culture war. It is sick and demented.
Matt McIrvin
@raven: I think cynical “both sides are the same” sentiment is actually more common among GenXers and Millennials. But I can see the GenZers pushing the Democrats way further on the cultural stuff.
Roger Moore
@Ruckus:
I think the bigger thing is that the Nazis tended to go on their biggest shooting sprees when they were on their way into a place. They buried the bodies because they were planning on staying, and they didn’t want the streets of a place they were staying to be littered with bodies. That the Russians just left the bodies there to rot is a sign they knew on some level they weren’t going to stay for long.
Subsole
@Mike in NC: There was a philosopher, Miguel de Unamuno, who lived during the Spanish Civil War.
He made the observation that fascism is essentially a movement of people who are maimed in soul or body or mind, trying desperately to find relief by maiming society – a legless man trying to saw the legs off children.
Which was a pretty ballsy thing to say to a room full of Franco supporters, honestly.
tybee
@Brachiator:
and the Mouse takes no prisoners.
trollhattan
@Kay: I wonder how Abbott and Ted Cruz favorability numbers compare? Can’t pretend to understand how Texas politics works from here in the cheap seats.
Martin
@cain: Dems are growing the tent, as they should. Zoomers are less likely to be white, less likely to be religious, much more likely to be better educated (on track to be), prefer dems to republicans roughly 3:1, more likely to believe that there is systemic racism in the US, and more likely to be open to criticism about the US. They also are much more likely to argue that government is necessary to solve our current problems, not the private sector.
They are realists and lean socialist. They are far more media savvy than other generations and GenX and Boomers as an enemy that fucked up the world and stuck them with the bill. They don’t care if their ideas make us cry. They will laugh at the dumb shit we take offense to, knowing that we’re going to burn or drown in we don’t make big changes.
The GOP has signaled that they are no longer a national party. Their entire focus is to hold key pockets of the country, and rig the rules so that a minority of states can keep them in power. Texas, a +5R state is acting like a +40R state, not because it benefits the GOP nationally, but because saving the state offices is all that matters now. This is their retreat from Kyiv in order to hold Donetsk.
Bupalos
@O. Felix Culpa: This is a literal and legal reality. We have, as a sovereign state, both unsigned and announced refusal to comply with the ICC.
And both Abu Gharib and Guantanimo would have been prosecutable.
Obviously in a more general sense we can, but it is worth recognizing the way our own betrayal of liberal values presents real obstacles for both encouraging other nations in those values or cooperatively enforcing them on other nations.
Geminid
@Kay: I wonder if Texas Republicans have any kind of hangover from their primary. Abbott was challenged from the right by two or three candidates. Most of their supporters will show up for Abbott in November. But some may say, “Abbott’s a RINO and I’m done voting for those varmints. Beto can win for all I care. We’ll beat him next time with a real Conservative.”
Georgia Republicans may have that problem too if Brian Kemp wins their primary.
Kay
@trollhattan:
Speaking of:
Good news. They’re all horrible but Mandel has the advantage of being horrible and also likely to win the primary, where JD Vance is so disliked he can’t even get Republicans.
I’m for Mandel.
Brachiator
@Ruckus:
I see your point, but I think that Putin is more interested in restoring a former empire, and has no problem in reducing Ukraine to rubble. He can repopulate with Russians.
Cultural conformity is not the same thing as genocide.
We may have a cultural civil war here, but we have not yet moved to the outright murder of masses of people.
Putin wants to expand Russia. The Republican insanity may result in the death of America.
Subsole
@cain: Yep.
Think about it.
We might actually be some of the nicest people our species has ever produced.
Roger Moore
@Kay:
Go Injuries!
Kay
@Geminid:
I wouldn’t bet it’s far Right dropoff. It could just be people who appreciate reliable electricity or don’t want women followed around by nosy religious nuts ready to “report” them for pregnancy infractions.
Bupalos
@Brachiator: Blinken was on the Sunday shows too. As was Masha Gessen. All good, obviously Gessen the best- how Masha manages to sit in the presence of Chuck Todd without blowing a gasket and pulling a scene from Network I have no idea.
I haven’t seen the Sundays in years. I found it, like everything else these days, vaguely terrifying.
Betty Cracker
@Bupalos:
I agree 100% with that. The danger is letting that paralyze us into inaction instead of learning from it and trying to do better.
Kay
@Roger Moore:
He’s really an unlikeable individual. Sherrod Brown snoozed thru their debate like “fuck it- just let him talk”.
Dopey-o
If war crimes occur in a nation that is a signatory to the ICC, charges can be brought. Neither the US or Russia have signed on, but that does not block the ICC from taking action.
Ukraine can make the complaint.
Martin
@Brachiator: We’re now seeing conservatives attacking teens (minors) who are out as being ‘groomers’ under the new theory of ‘protect the kids’.
The GOP seems to think this won’t be widely seen because it’s not on Fox and CNN, but it’s all over Insta and TikTok. What little support the GOP had from zoomers is basically gone over this. Even conservative zoomers are tolerant of the LGBTQ community.
Hoodie
We’ve seen a lot of comparison to Nazis, but Putinism seems pretty much a remake of Stalinism. The Nazis wanted to physically exterminate the European Jews to racially “purify” Europe. Putin wants ideological purification.
NotMax
@Subsole
That whole sapiens thing looked promising on paper. In practice, not so much.
//
TonyG
@Brachiator: Certain “leftists” too.
Doug R
One advantage of living in the Pacific Northwest, we make all kinds of paper up here-even at the worst of times Costco had one brand for sale, limited quantities of course.
Martin
@Dopey-o: Apparently not because like the US, Ukraine is a signatory but not a ratifier of the ICC. So per HLA, they don’t have standing either.
Kay
Come on. I swear they’re over-advised. Just take a tiny little risk. Time is of the essence.
Nothing bad will happen!
TonyG
@Hoodie: Of course, Hitler and Stalin were de-facto allies for about two years, until Operation Barbarossa.
Subsole
@Ruckus: A small world for the smallest of people.
Geminid
@cain: I learned about the community centers in a February Politico article about Hispanic Republican women leading their party’s efforts in the Valley. One woman they interviewed, Cassie Garcia, ended up first in their 28th District primary. She will face their 2020 candidate, a Ms. Whitten, in the May runoff.
Texas Democrats have their own voter outreach programs, but I don’t think they have copied these multi-use campaign centers, which seem like a good idea.
The article said that the Repuiblican National Committee pays for 20 organizers who operate in the Rio Grande Valley. They’ve seen Texas trending bluer and want to counter that.
Subsole
@Brachiator:
Well what else have they got? Their glorious string of military successes? The booming job markets and strong industrial sectors? The social harmony and contentment their policies engender? The expansion and protection of individual rights? Keeping our children safe from violence? Curtailing the sale of addictive and socially corrosive drugs? Christ and Buddha, these people can’t even procure their citizens drinkable water…
These people rely on spite because they are utter stumbledicked fuckups who have nothing else.
Soprano2
I think this is exactly right, or else she would have told me why she thinks that. She’s been hearing and reading that Ukraine is bombing themselves, and she probably believes it.
catclub
@NotMax:
Give a man a fish, he can eat for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he will fish out the entire resource and drive successive species extinct.
JoyceH
@Brachiator:
It’s nuttier than that. Since the right wing doesn’t want to explicitly bash gayness, they talk about ‘gender identity’, MEANING gay, but applicable to ALL gender identities.
What she said was
“Lauren Boebert has suggested an age limit of 21 before people be allowed to make “life-altering decisions about their sexuality and identity”. ”
Sooo – no dating till you’re 21? Because if a guy asks a girl to the prom, isn’t that a decision about sexuality and identity?
Same problem with the ‘don’t say gay’ bill – because it doesn’t say gay, any straight teacher who mentions her husband could be written up for promoting a gender identity.
Kay
Republicans are “let’s execute women who get abortions!”
Democrats are “do you think it’s SAFE to congratulate the historic win by the scrappy warehouse workers? What if we alienate the anti-warehouse worker voters?”
Be confident. It can’t hurt and it might help.
Geminid
@Kay: I’m think those factors you mention and others account for O’Rourke’s strength in that poll. The far right drop off that I speculate about would affect only a few voters, and would only matter in a close race if they mattered at all. These people might be in the 18% Other/Undecided total in the poll.
Betty Cracker
@JoyceH: I read somewhere that the Don’t Say Gay law goes into effect in July. Between now and then, someone — the schools? a wingnut star chamber? — has to come up with enforcement standards. Should be interesting!
Martin
@Betty Cracker: Well, I’m with them. We fucked up, and we’re too privileged to fix it.
‘Land of opportunity’ means that risks are supposed to be taken, and forgiven. But you have to own your fuck-ups to get forgiveness. And owning it means doing what you can to set it right. Not signaling it, but actually doing it.
Kay
@Geminid:
I just thought the consensus was “Beto- giant loser!” Maybe they just don’t like Abbott but that’s a very GOP state. He should probably be doing better than 40.
Dopey-o
Crap. Just crap. Will there be no justice for Ukraine?
IIRC, one of the sub-clauses of Catch-22 says “We can do anything to you that you can’t stop us from doing.” I despair for Ukraine.
cain
@Roger Moore:
But there are a bunch of others as well .. like trans and even rascism. . the genie is out and those groups have political power that is rising.
That’s why extremism is the only course for a party that refuses to change.
WaterGirl
@O. Felix Culpa: Brant has been commenting here since 2008.
Roger Moore
@JoyceH:
It’s the classic “fish don’t see water” thing. Being cis het is the assumed default, with any other gender identity being an affirmative choice. So it’s fine to act cis het at any time; it’s only if you want to be something different that you have to wait until you’re 21.
Of course they do this for every aspect of identity. A great example was the way gay judges were supposed to recuse themselves on the issue of marriage equality- hey, they have an interest in the outcome!- while simultaneously arguing that gay marriage was a threat to straight marriage. If gay marriage is a threat, that means every married straight person is inherently interested. Hell, every non-married straight person who might at some point in the future consider marriage is interested. But they can’t see that interest because they don’t see straightness as an identity.
O. Felix Culpa
@Immanentize: Thanks, Imm. Your expertise and insight are always welcome.
Geminid
@Kay: President Biden lost Texas by 5 points I think. State office elections sometimes have a different dynamic, though. Texans are coming up on 20 years of one-party rule, and O’Rourke may be able to generate a “Throw the Rascals Out!” mood and knock Abbott out.
I noticed that O’Rourke walked back his “Damn right we’re coming for your AK-47s” statement. This hasn’t seemed to hurt him.
Bupalos
@brendancalling: I think the horrible and wonderful story we all have trouble remembering at times like this is that humans are humans.
Russians have been brutalized and propagandized and developmentally stunted in ways and to degrees that we in the United States have a hard time really grasping. And yet at that, the accelerating destruction of community and meaningful free lives in the United States (much of which has to do with technology and competitive racialized mindsets) is pushing many towards a similar zombified authoritarian desire for simplicity, in direction if not in degree. It’s there and it’s here and it’s everywhere. It’s a global slide.
This can be turned around, in both countries, and everywhere. It won’t be turned around by drawing lines and making things simple, sorting out who is good and bad, who goes behind the wall and resigned to sub-human zombie status and who is allowed out to be a free human. It will be turned around by working on our capacity to accept complexity, to see and break complex cycles, to think freely, and to create atmospheres and communities that enable free thinking. We need to do that work here. Now.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: I don’t know the specifics, but I’ve heard Abbott’s deployment of the TX guard to the border has been a giant disaster. Maybe that’s a factor.
Edg
@Jeffro:
But her e-mails!!!
(eye roll)
O. Felix Culpa
@WaterGirl: Twas snark.
zhena gogolia
@Bupalos: Good comment.
Quiltingfool
@Soprano2: I went to Springfield this morning to buy fabric – blue and yellow fabric, naturally! Anyway, in the first store, the owner had a Ukrainian flag on the wall. While the clerks cut fabric, we chatted a bit about Ukraine. The uptake? These two people were horrified about the murders of civilians, and they were not Russia fans at all. The owner wondered why more churches in Springfield weren’t doing much – and I kept my opinion to myself.
At the second store, the reaction of the clerks was the same – horrified, angry, sad. One clerk said she had a church friend who is Ukrainian, and has family there – one did get out, but another family member was in Poland.
Soprano, you and I live in bright red areas of Missouri, and we aren’t surprised at the Republican/Trump love, so I was a bit shocked to see how vehemently anti- Russia/ pro-Ukrainian these people were. I just figured there would be shrugs and “no big deal” attitude.
Captain C
@brendancalling:
And like American Conservatives, they want to be praised for this. By their victims most of all.
Kay
@Geminid:
Abbott was getting the gun nutters anyway so I thought the AK comment was less risky than other people thought it was.
People like Beto chip away at places like Texas and then someone else (finally) wins and that person gets all the credit.
pajaro
@Dopey-o:
Ukraine has previously filed a declaration accepting the court’s jurisdiction for crimes occurring on its territory, which I think would be the basis for the ICC investigating.
JanieM
@Roger Moore: I tried to make this point about R senators asking Brown Jackson if she would recuse herself in affirmative action cases. If she should, then they all should, and then what?
Citizen_X
@Bupalos: I hear “Russians are hopeless,” but I think, what about the Germans and Japanese after WWII? They must have seemed a pretty hopeless project at the time, too.
Then again…looking at my still-Confederate-sympathizing cousins…it may be a long-term project. sigh
Geminid
@Kay: I wonder if O’Rourke can make any political hay out of Texas’ new permitless concealed carry. A Texas Tribune poll showed 58% disapproval of the law when it was proposed last spring. Ten years ago Republicans in Virginia controlled the legislature and Governor’s mansion and they passed various gun rights laws. They never even tried to pass a permitless concealed carry law. But what was too radical then has become basic doctrine for red state Republicans.
Soprano2
@Quiltingfool: That makes me feel better; maybe my customer is an outlier. I think Convoy of Hope is helping Ukraine; they’re associated with Assemblies of God. But yeah, it doesn’t surprise me that a lot of churches aren’t doing much, at least not yet. Every time there’s an article in the paper about the homeless, any church mentioned is a liberal one – none of the “biggies”, like James River Assembly or High Street Baptist or Second Baptist are ever mentioned. I think they should be ashamed of themselves, but a lot of their members would probably be happy if City Council authorized the police to drive the homeless out of the city with whips.
It’s funny, I was at Margaritaville last Monday and Tuesday for our industry conference. I had no time to do anything else, unfortunately. I’ve been up there several times but have never done anything other than go to meetings and dinners. JB Hooks is a pretty sweet place to eat, especially when it’s free!
Do you agree with me that it’s wrong to say Trump supporters are dumb or morons? I think it’s dangerous to kid ourselves about that.
cain
This is what I hope .. and yes Dems are sell outs as well. We still have ancient people like Machin voting like it’s 1956.
I am curious if the GOP will turn against an entire generation. Of course, nome of them will see it as it’s on Twitter and Facebook. Heh
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Citizen_X: The Allies knew the cost of failing to turn Germany and Japan around would be another world war in the ’60s.
cain
@Roger Moore:
Yes but you still need them to actually pontificate on the news. Information is still needed.
Kay
@Geminid:
Trump only won Texas by 5 and the response from Texas Republicans was to go far, far Right?
Imagine if a Democratic governor had done that. All we’d be hearing about is “overreach”.
cain
@Brachiator:
I miss the days when it was just War on Christmas. Not they have given up on that culture war.
Ksmiami
@Martin: Furthermore a significant portion of the upper level creative talent at Disney is lbgtq and will absolutely not stand for this garbage; Never mess with the Mouse.
Lyrebird
Thanks for your clarification as well.
I am confused by many of the comments here, because Ukraine filed a genocide accusation in February, I guess with the UN court not the ICC, and the European high court and the UN high court have already responded in part.
So Ukraine can, Ukraine has, and Ukraine will.
The whole situation is a horrific tragedy. I am glad we have a president who is willing to say basic truths.
cain
@Martin:
Do zoomed really look at GenXers like that ? Culturally they are much closer together than say Boomers and Millennials.
That doesn’t mean us GenXers are awesome or anything. I see plenty of my high school friends who are conservative and probably all in on the latest Q stuff
Kay
“Cancel culture/CRT” panic starters becoming a LITTLE concerned about where this panic they started and promoted is headed:
When do you think they’ll figure it out?
Quiltingfool
@Soprano2: I do agree it is not a good idea to call Trump supporters stupid. I have Trump supporters in my family, and they are not stupid. I think they are tribal. They think being a Republican means they are hard-working, good Christian folk who never take “gubbmint” handouts, they take care of their own, thank-you-very-much, well, you get the drift. They don’t want to pay taxes because they know it all goes to lazy, undeserving people. They have been told this over and over and over. To leave the Republican Party means they lose the hard-working, righteous, salt of the earth persona – and they can’t do that, no matter what.
I think Martin is right in that the youngsters look at things much differently that the older folk. Each generation makes their own way, no matter what the “olds” think.
debbie
@MattF:
Putin used “denazification” because he intends to eradicate and eliminate Ukrainians from the earth. He intends the exact same thing that Hitler did.
cain
@Kay:
I blame professional consultants. The young man who did a movement for labor rights for Amazon workers is a good example of not following conventional wisdom.
Kay
“All my friends on the Right who were owning the libs on CRT started calling gay people pedophiles”
The MINUTE it affects him personally it’s “gone too far”. Always.
Quiltingfool
@Soprano2: Whoo wee, you are livin’ large to eat at JB Hooks! I’ve never eaten there, but have heard it is very good.
I had to think a minute about Margaritaville, as in, “Huh, where’s that?” and then I thought, “oh, yeah, Tan-Tar-A.” Been to many educational conferences at that site; my husband put lots of carpet in the many rooms at that resort!
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Roger Moore: The Nazis were also big on moral of the Germans and quite sensitive to how mass shooting were driving the German soldiers doing the killings crazy. Bury the bodies hides the sin from the soldiers who did it. Here, the Russian dead were mixed up with their own victims which means the Russians were wallowing in it.
The other thing the Nazis were big into disappearing people because they felt uncertainty was more terrifying. In this case, there are the victims and there are their killers are mixed together.It basically tells everyone, the Russians simply rabid animals that can only be dealt with by shooting.
Geminid
@Kay: That’s a very hypothetical question. Most Demoratic office holders understand that their party is a coalition of moderates and liberals and they govern accordingly.
The Republicans, on the other hand, have abandoned Karl Rove’s vision of a permanent Center/Right Majority and want to establish a permanent Right Majority. I think they know they may not be able to pull this off, and that’s why they lean so heavily into voter suppression and election subversion.
Baud
@Kay:
They’re not hurting the people they are supposed to be hurting.
Kay
@cain:
You just get so tired of the fear. That’s what it feels like to me- fear. Their supporters are often so brave and it’s like they don’t honor that with taking chances themselves.
Biden, for all his “gaffes” has the better approach. He just says shit that he believes :)
debbie
Anyway
deleted
cain
@Kay:
Has Glenn Greenwald weighed on this new attitude. I expect not .. he is no ally
Miss Bianca
@Kay:
After Sullivan gets canceled by an accusation of pedophilia? Just a wild-ass guess on my part
ETA: Ah, I see you already got there.
Kay
@Baud:
I don’t know why. Rufo wrote an insane manifesto laying it all out. He TOLD them. They still went along.
Oh, well. None of the substackers will suffer. Sixth grade teachers will take the hit.
Brant
@O. Felix Culpa: And that was the best answer you had?
Baud
@Kay:
I’m pretty sure it was our fault somehow.
cain
@Kay:
Yeah .. too much parsing for pols .. also I feel for many public service should be a permanent job. If you want to help people then do tbjd and move on to other things.
Calouste
@NotMax: Moving Disney’s creative department to Florida is fucking stupid. LA is where the creative top talent lives, they’re not going to move to Florida. You won’t see it immediately of course, but in a couple of years Disney movies are going to tank if they go through with that.
Miss Bianca
@Brant: You mean you expect an actual, serious reply to your ‘A WRONG AND A RIGHT MAKES TWO WRONGS NOT A RIGHT AND OH YEAH AMERICA SUCKS’ routine?
Kay
@debbie:
My son and his wife signed up to host Ukranian refugees in Denmark. They have an apartment and a baby so requested a parent and child. My son is great (ya know, in his own antisocial way) but I suspect his wife is driving this. In Denmark the refugees have to go to an “asylum center” if they don’t have a host family, so they’re trying to avoid that, for two anyway. My father was really pleased. He gave me 100 dollars to give to them, because he still thinks my son is 15 :)
I did give it to them, though. 100 big ones. I hope they don’t spend it all in one place.
Villago Delenda Est
@Baud: DING DING DING DING DING
Soprano2
@Quiltingfool: I almost called it Tan-Tar-A. It’s the same except for the decorative theme, which is now more like a beach than a rugged resort. And JB Hooks was paid for by a consultant, so I didn’t pay a penny for it! Great turtle cheesecake and steak, I ate too much. It’s bad when all the meals are paid for either as part of your conference registration or by a consultant. Actually, the worst meal was dinner at the conference because they served steak without being able to ask how you want it cooked. They did a terrible thing to a small but thick filet – they cooked it medium well! Ugh, it was almost inedible.
debbie
@Kay:
What sweethearts your son and daughter-in-law are!
Kay
@Baud:
I hope it fails politically because boy they are all in. Can’t back off it now, especially after that national SCOTUS confirmation performance.
Kay
@debbie:
My sense is it plays differently there. Closer. More of a threat. His wife gets really agitated and upset just talking about it and she’s a reserved person.
debbie
@Kay:
I bet. Denmark’s uncomfortably close to Russia.
dr. luba
@Soprano2: But they’re praying…..loudly!
Let me tell you, I am sick to death of all the “prayer warriors” pout there who are saving Ukraine by pray8ing.
Yeah, right.
You want to pray? Go ahead, but do something useful, too.
They keep infesting Ukrainian FB groups, trying to post long religious screeds and dr. Luba Jesus memes….in my groups, those get deleted.
Soprano2
@Kay: I think it’s learned helplessness. They feel like they’ve been beaten about the head and shoulders by the press every time they take a chance on being honest so they just quit. Too many politicians think Twitter is real life, when the truth is the majority of people have no idea what happens on Twitter.
dr. luba
@NYCMT: Nataliya Popovich translated the Russian language RIA-Novosti article referred to, and wrote an explanatory intro. It’s on FB; link here. It is disgustingly scary.
Her explanation of it:
Ukrainians know this. They understand what Putin wants. It’s not Ukraine natural resources, or a land bridge to Crimea. He is as obsessed with Ukrainians as Hitler was with the Jews, and will only be happy when Ukraine and Ukraiinians are eliminated.
This is why Ukrainians fight, because they know they are fighting for their survival.
debbie
@dr. luba:
Stupid question: Have all Russian leaders since Stalin held this same level of hatred?
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@debbie: Stalin didn’t hate Ukraine so much as Stalin hated
Ukraine was guilty of all four in Stalin’s eyes.
The weird part of this is Khrushchev was Ukrainian. Khrushchev had no idea why he was spared during the Great Purge.
Xennial Dysentery Dodger (formerly texasboyshaun)
Russia delenda est?
debbie
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
That is weird. But what about Brezhnev, Gorbachev, or Yeltsin?
artem1s
@Brachiator:
they are the same people who have been trained to believe and spout GOP talking points about Travon Martin and Tamir Rice bringing misery on themselves.
evodevo
@Quiltingfool: Yep…most of that generation were able to get good-paying, often Union jobs that kept them in the middle class range for live. This is increasingly impossible nowadays, especially for the under-30’s of ANY race. Definitely a game-changer politically.