Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen made a surprise visit to Ukraine today. From Reuters:
Yellen met with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and other key government officials just days into the war’s second year, repeating U.S. assurances delivered by President Joe Biden a week ago in Kyiv.
“America will stand with Ukraine as long as it takes,” Yellen, flanked by sandbags at the cabinet ministers’ office, told Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal.
In a private meeting with Zelenskiy late in the afternoon, the Treasury said she commended him “for his leadership and resolve in the face of Russia’s illegal and unprovoked war.”
Yellen is an underappreciated figure, IMO. What an upgrade from the grotesque supervillain Trump appointed to the role!
Speaking of supervillains, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the bill the supine wingnut supermajority statehouse passed at his request to put DeSantis cronies in charge of the special district Disney World used to control, according to The Tampa Bay Times.
Appointees include a Moms for Liberty kook who’s married to the state Republican Party chair, a local Federalist Society chapter president and an evangelical grifter whose main shtick is insisting that the U.S. is a Christian nation. What could possibly go wrong?
Speaking of maladjusted kooks, the insurrectionist known as Sedition Panda because he wore a panda costume while storming the Capitol has finally been busted. NBC News:
WASHINGTON — The FBI has arrested a Donald Trump supporter who allegedly stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 while wearing the head of a panda costume.
Jesse James Rumson was arrested in Florida on Monday, according to court records, and charged with multiple offenses including assaulting, resisting or impeding an officer and engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds.
I didn’t know about Sedition Panda until I read the news of his arrest. Shocker that he was picked up in Florida! Maybe DeSantis will appoint him to the Reedy Creek Improvement District board.
Open thread!