Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met with President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv on Sunday, becoming the first senior U.S. officials known to have visited Ukraine since Russia invaded on Feb. 24. https://t.co/meZKd75HvS
— The New York Times (@nytimes) April 24, 2022
BREAKING: The U.S. has announced new military assistance for Ukraine and a renewed diplomatic push in the war-ravaged nation as President Joe Biden's secretary of state and Pentagon chief completed a secrecy-shrouded trip to Kyiv. https://t.co/xqd9wa1N8H
— The Associated Press (@AP) April 25, 2022
Sec Austin on visit to Kiev: training 50 Ukrainian artillerymen complete. 6 day course for next 50 begins soon. 18 Howitzers already in Ukraine. 7 more being prepped now. 72 more soon. $322 million foreign military assistance to buy whatever Ukraine needs, including exSoviet ammo
— Jennifer Griffin (@JenGriffinFNC) April 25, 2022
Related (if this was posted already, forgive me):
Biden: “I’ve had long discussions..now up to 70-some hours with Xi Jinping..He’s a very smart and calculating guy..He doesn’t think that democracies can be sustained in the 21st century, in the second quarter of the century, because” 1/https://t.co/HiNWzSFSn8
— Sari Arho Havrén (@SariArhoHavren) April 24, 2022
Xi said: “What are you going to do?” And I [Biden] said, “What I’m going to do is reestablish our alliances.” [Xi] said, “That’s..because you’re trying to hurt China.” 3/
— Sari Arho Havrén (@SariArhoHavren) April 24, 2022
Biden:”The point being that one of the things that the autocrats fear the most..is the notion that somehow we can work together in concert and-contrary to what are essentially dictatorships, which a lot of countries hv become-..not only China, but Russia and many other.” 5/5
— Sari Arho Havrén (@SariArhoHavren) April 24, 2022
In our age of perpetual discontent, it would be unheard of for an opposing party to acknowledge that an admin is doing just about everything humanly possible to confront evil. But this administration is. For that, Biden deserves a great deal of credit. https://t.co/p8mcxLUMTe
— Jennifer 'I stand with Ukraine' Rubin ???????? (@JRubinBlogger) April 24, 2022
…At times, Biden seems uniquely capable of conveying the moral exasperation of civilized people. “These past weeks have seen a terrible human cost of Putin’s ambition for conquest and control,” he said. “Approximately two thirds — two thirds — of all Ukrainian children have been displaced from their homes. More than 5 million Ukrainians have fled their country. It’s an absolute outrage. The idea this is happening approaching the second quarter of the 21st century is just … (sigh).” Yes, it’s beyond words.
Biden warned that this will not be a quick fight, noting that “Putin is banking on us losing interest.” He continued, “We will not lessen our resolve. We’re going to continue to stand with the brave and proud people of Ukraine. We will never fail in our determination to defend freedom and oppose tyranny.” Such rhetoric may not rise to the level of Churchill, but it serves as an eloquent expression of steadfastness.
In our age of perpetual cynicism, distrust and discontent, it would be unheard of for an opposing party to acknowledge that an administration is doing just about everything humanly possible to confront evil. But this administration is. For that, Biden deserves a great deal of credit.
Elizabelle
Have you noticed that Biden is the invisible president? Look for him on the “front page” WaPost or NY Times website, never mind the others.
The FTF NY Times has Ukraine at top — always. And, overnight, in the midsection: a proTrump MAGA red hat. Yes. It’s a story about evangelicals and Trump. So strange, the allure there. Not. (Extra props to the FTF NYT. A Black guy was wearing the hat. Take that, libs.). And again: the “stolen election” is “falsehoods.” Not lies. So genteel, the FTF NYT.)
Both papers have a LOT of white people in the news photos. I dare you to find Biden.
Elizabelle
LOL. Although: the FTF NY Times also called the effort a crusade. Credit for that. Not gonna link. And, so far, they do not allow reader comments on this one. It seems they are doing that a bit more lately; at least to me.
A Crusade to Challenge the 2020 Election, Blessed by Church Leaders
Some evangelical pastors are hosting events dedicated to Trump’s election falsehoods and promoting the cause to their congregations.
Ksmiami
@Elizabelle: both papers are dead to me
OzarkHillbilly
Not that he’ll get any.
Steve in the ATL
Apropos of last night’s thread, the first song I heard on the radio this morning was “green river”, a fine example of the blues riffs used by John Fogerty
zhena gogolia
@Elizabelle: They never missed a chance to put a big color picture of honey-baked ham* in his ugly suit and red tie on the front page.
*h/t Jimmy Kimmel
Elizabelle
Seriously. Fuck the fucking NY Times. Their most popular article at the time:
American Voters Haven’t Been Afraid Like This in a Long Time
It’s by Mark Penn. Voters aren’t afraid of fascism and losing their democracy (which was my immediate assumption, especially given the French election results yesterday). It’s economic security.
Fuck the Fucking NY Times. Fuck them.
They did allow reader comments, and the top ones I scanned all say this essay got it wrong.
But: the FTF NY Times published it. They are part of the disinformation engine.
Kropacetic
We know for real American voters, economic security Trumps all other considerations. Their economic security not anyone else’s.
KayInMD (formerly Kay (not the front-pager))
What frustrates me to no end is, when people hear Biden speak, they LIKE him! His approval ratings went up by double digits after his State of the Union speech. Why does he give these great speeches, almost daily, all during the day? He had a terrific Ukraine update on Friday, but it was at a time when nobody was going to see it, and it wasn’t going to make it into much of the nightly news. A speech like that is important enough for a nighttime slit, or a 5:00 or 6:00 PM time slot, at least. Don’t any of these people realize that part of politics is PR? Didn’t they learn anything from the a-hole former guy?
Elizabelle
Sorry to divert the thread. President Biden deserves so much more credit, and coverage.
Mark Penn tells us “Finally, Mr. Biden cannot let Mr. Putin win in Ukraine, …” lest he look weak. Especially after the Afghanistan withdrawal, which brought down his administration’s approval rating. (It’s all about approval ratings; not about what was the right thing to do.)
Per Penn, there is just nothing, nothing that Democrats cannot fail at. It is all Republican drivel.
Kropacetic
Penn would be the expert at D party failure…
Betty Cracker
I’m not sure who’s right about the future, Biden or Xi. We’ve seen with our own eyes how algorithm-driven disinformation can derail democracy. But as someone who’s rooting for democracy to prevail, I give Biden tons of credit for how he’s handled US foreign policy so far. He got the hell out of Afghanistan, and he helped unite NATO to oppose Russia’s war on Ukraine.
During his career as a senator, Biden considered himself a foreign policy guy. He chaired the foreign relations committee when Dems held the senate in the early aughties. I thought he did a lousy job back then. But he seems clear about the stakes now, thank dog, and has handled it as ably as anyone could, IMO.
Elizabelle
@Kropacetic: I feel so terrible about having a NY Times subscription. I really do. They put up some good content — never political stuff; some of the op eds are good.
It’s more to watch them, but shit like this makes me wonder if I would be happier not knowing what they’re doing. Although: “paper of record.” They do help set the tone, as does Fox News (which they amplify).
It’s like they have no recollection of the 1930s. None.
zhena gogolia
@Elizabelle: I gave up my subscription but then I couldn’t handle not knowing what storyline they were putting out. I have the same sense of guilt and ambivalence you do.
Kropacetic
@Elizabelle: I used to be a subscriber before too. Never again, enabling pieces of shit. We have a serious problem with news in this country, though. Simply unplugging isn’t going to solve it. Seems like our money is no good there.
Matt McIrvin
The Republican pitch: “Vote for me, because Joe Biden hasn’t done a damned thing to stop me from killing you!”
zhena gogolia
@Matt McIrvin: Precisely.
Another Scott
The announcement came after US officials visited Ukraine and announced more aid and plans to reopen US embassy in Kyiv.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/4/25/biden-names-bridget-brink-ambassador-to-ukraine
Cheers,
Scott.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Xi is a comie, of course he thinks the future is a dictatorship. He’s got a magic book that says so, magic books are never wrong, just people read them wrong way. Meanwhile both the PLA and the Russian Army are jokes because of widespread corruption that is only possible under an autocracy.
“If you want a vision of the future, imagine a hand passing a bribe to another hand, forever”
Matt McIrvin
@zhena gogolia: The thing is, that can actually work. When my mom was working as a psychologist one of her favorite concepts was “identification with the aggressor”–the way that people who feel under threat will have a need to identify with anyone who seems aggressive and active, even if that’s the very person who is hurting them.
It’s also related to the way that when Republicans are in power, their pitch for reelection is often that their own failures mean “government” is bad so you should vote for them as the “anti-government” party. That one usually doesn’t work, though.
Betty Cracker
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Widespread corruption is only possible under an autocracy? I agree democracies and autocracies have different kinds of corruption, but it can be pervasive in both types of societies — is in many places.
Matt McIrvin
@Betty Cracker: Xi’s pitch is the same one made by the autocrats of the first half of the 20th century–democracy is indecisive and weak; you want a single strong hand in control. We saw how that worked out for them.
The advantage of an autocracy with no limits on leaders’ personal power is that it can act swiftly and decisively. The disadvantage is that such leaders eventually end up in a bubble of bad information because their subordinates are too afraid to cross them, and the experiences of ordinary people are just ignored. Eventually they become unable to deal with the conditions of non-political reality.
Nuclear weapons do change the equation by making it so much harder to depose anyone who has them by force.
geg6
@Elizabelle:
Based on the shit they were putting out there back then, it’s not that they have no recollection. It’s that this is who they’ve always been. Fascists.
The Moar You Know
@Elizabelle: Oh, I’m afraid. They got that right. The state of California mandates that teachers salaries, home addresses and telephone numbers all be posted online, and I’m terrified some right-wing lunatic having a fuckfit about CRT is gonna show up and put a bunch of bullets through the front of my house.
Raoul Paste
There is a book titled Nonzero that makes a compelling historical case that societies pursuing win-win relationships are the ones that do well in the long-term.
So if country isn’t killed by a flood of lies, I am hopeful.
Also, it’s totally amazing to read about Biden‘s conversations with the Chinese leader. Every American should hear him speak at length- He wins people over
The Moar You Know
@Kropacetic: Hmm. I agree and hadn’t thought of it like that.
Elizabelle
@geg6: I think you’re right.
It’s the Sulzbergers.
Matt McIrvin
(The fundamental paradox of autocratic governance is neatly laid out in T. Geisel’s treatise “Yertle the Turtle.”)
Cameron
@Another Scott: She sounds very well qualified. I assume no Republican senators will vote to confirm.
Trine
@Elizabelle: I’ve ditched NYT now that I’ve found (free) 12ft.io to get around the paywall (type “12ft.io” in place of the “http:/” and voila!).
I have zero affiliation with 12ft.io other than as a user, to regularly get over paywalls. I hope this is helpful to someone.
Elizabelle
@Trine: Thank you. Will try that.
zhena gogolia
@Betty Cracker: It’s orders of magnitude greater in autocracies.
Chief Oshkosh
@Betty Cracker:
I’m totally ignorant about this topic and field, but shouldn’t we be able to create an algorithm that detects algorithms that drive disinformation and then, as part of our algorithm, counter the disinformation algorithm? And could our algorithm also help with detecting who made the disinformation algorithm and then go kill them…digitally?
Alison Rose ???
Why does it not surprise me that Griffin spells Kyiv the enemy’s way?
Ken
Not according to Sid Meier’s Civilization — no corruption in a democracy, and great production. The only downside is that the Senate sometimes overrules you when you want to start a war, but that’s easily handled by overthrowing the government, starting the war, then switching back to democracy.
Miss Bee
@Trine:
@Elizabelle: My public library has passes for the New York Times so I am thinking that other public libraries to do. See what your library offers.
kindness
The right wing in America has gone over to the insane side. All those (white) folk in diners in rust belt/middle America places can spout all the ‘economic insecurity’ they want (with it being amplified way out of proportion by too much of the media), when really we see that conservatives, especially Evangelical Christians (who curiously don’t follow the teachings of Christ) really just fear becoming a minority. They fear losing/sharing power with those they don’t agree with, so they knee jerk to totalitarianism and their leaders. And their leaders and the MSM reinforces this false dystopian view. I know a democratic republic has to have most sides buy into the government for it to function. So who ever runs it is supposed to give their opponents some say in things. I don’t mind reaching out to those I fundamentally disagree with in order to work together, but the way things are now when we do that to them they punch us in the face and spit on us. I don’t know how we can get past that.
taumaturgo
Could it be, maybe, perhaps that algorithms are just reinforcing the existing distrust and disgust of a growing minority of people that have seen their already lousy standard of living further diminished by the consensus of corrupt political parties that have failed over and over to regulate the unrestrained forces of capitalism? Could it be that algorithms are reinforcing the fact that neoliberal economies are working for a few and shafting the many? Right wing fascist ideology is on rise around the globe because the working poor can sense the betrayal of democracy as practice by pseudo liberals to even deliver a living wage, affordable healthcare and a decent education. Could it be, maybe, perhaps a tiny contributing factor? I’m afraid that thousands of algorithms exalting the supposed beneficial qualities of more, not fewer neoliberals governing ideas, would do little to restore the trust and faith in a fast sliding democracy toward right wing fascism.
Ken
And yet they claim that the 1619 Project, and anything else that touches on the historical treatment of minorities, are horrible lies and everything’s been just hunky-dory on that front.
Betty Cracker
@taumaturgo: People have legit complaints about our current system, but joining the QAnon cult or a neo-fascist org like Proud Boys or Oathkeepers isn’t a legit response.
bjacques
@Ken: White evangelical Christians have always treated minorities well; why should they worry?
Sure, certain autocracies are doing well *now*, but they’ve been historically as susceptible to bad decisions and civil unrest as any other government. Every country thinks itself exceptional; none is.
It’s too soon to tell.
WaterGirl
@Trine: Was it you who sent me the link to 12′ ladder? The first article I tried it on was the NYT, and it came back as saying that the NYT was on their excluded list, so 12′ ladder doesn’t work on them. :-(
*I don’t recall the exact wording of the error message.
PaulB
To get around the NYT and WP paywalls, all you need to do is turn off Javascript support in your browser for those websites. You’ll miss some graphs and pictures but will get the full text.
PaulB
@WaterGirl: That was my experience, as well, with the message, “12ft has been disabled for this site.
And when I tried it on a Washington Post article, I got “500: Internal Server Error.”
MisterDancer
@WaterGirl: I know I mentioned 12ft.io here in the recent past. And yes, NYTimes killed that access; I didn’t have a great way of warning everyone, here. :(
If y’all can get access to Blendle (still in beta) at https://blendle.com/ it’s still allowing per-article NYTimes access; I’ve mentioned it before, as well. Not great for posting links to, here, yet useful for supporting specific work out of the newspaper in a 100% legal way. I don’t think it supports WaPo, however.
Joe from Lowell
@Betty Cracker: “He chaired the foreign relations committee when Dems held the senate in the early aughties. I thought he did a lousy job back then. But he seems clear about the stakes now, thank dog, and has handled it as ably as anyone could, IMO.”
Maybe European security/military affairs are the one thing old Cold Warriors are actually adept at.
Elie
In a slight aside from the topic, I love that Defense Secretary Austin dissed and trolled Putin in his comment about “weakening” Russia. He is a big Black man and I suspect it had to upset Putin to no end that a Black man could be so disrespectful to deliver such a message to this leader of the international White Nationalist movement. Y’all noticed all the threats that Putin and his generals have been making — getting a little dose of their own medicine from a source not usually associated with a lot of aggressive talk… Some of the pearl clutchers on CNN were worried that Austin was crossing a line of some sort. He WAS — but not in the way they think. Austin knows what we are sending Ukraine and what we indirectly are set to do to the Russian military — and Putin’s pride. But really, Austin was just stating what is going to be factually true — and that we are not backing down.
H-Bob
@Joe from Lowell: Plus Biden spent a lot of time with the Europeans while serving as Vice President. Also, seeing how Biden operates, Biden is not only familiar with the European political leaders, he probably has meet and developed acquaintances with the head civil servants in the various European foreign ministries. While Bush, Trump, Tillerson et al. ignored such people, Biden is aware of their importance and therefore had more credibility in restoring the U.S. relationships with the European countries.