Archives for 2024

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Three quick housekeeping notes. First, Rosie is doing great. She’ll be off through next week before starting the fourth and final round of chemo. Thank you for the good thoughts, well wishes, prayers, and donations.

Second, the new bed frame is assembled, in place, and the bed is all put back together. When I was getting everything out from under the old, taller frame I kept pulling dog hair out. It was like one of those magician’s never ending handkerchiefs. I am wiped though and I’ve been offline most of the day, so I’m going to try to keep this on the briefer side.

Third, the 23 of August is Ukrainian Flag Day. Ukrainian Independence Day is the 24th of August. While it is still the 23rd here in the US and will be for several more hours, it is already tomorrow in Ukraine. Since it’s the 23rd where I’m at, I’m going to leave the Ukrainian Independence Day material for tomorrow’s update.

A number of you have asked about Vice President Harris’s potential foreign, natsec, and defense policy preferences. I’ve been collecting some reporting on that over the past couple of weeks and will begin to work some of that in over the next week or so. From what I saw of the foreign affairs remarks in her speech last night, I think she was very solid. Let’s be honest, no candidate for president in the US is ever going to say they won’t support Israel, so let’s just set that aside. I think her remarks about what is going on in Gaza, what the Palestinians are enduring and suffering, and what needs to be done to rectify and remedy that suffering was very well done. Her remarks on NATO and Ukraine were also excellent. And that’s what I want to focus on a bit here. Nine days ago, Jennifer Rubin called out reporting by Fred Kaplan in her column about VP Harris. Rubin writes:

And in contrast to her opponent Donald Trump’s kowtowing to dictators, invitation to Russia to attack NATO countries that haven’t “paid up” and clear willingness to bargain away Ukraine’s independence, Harris is an unabashed internationalist. Fred Kaplan at Slate writes that she did more than superficial protocol when she “visited 21 countries on 17 foreign trips, met with more than 150 leaders, and led the U.S. delegation at three Munich Security Conferences.” She was an active participant in the president’s daily briefings. He shares this nugget:

In February 2022, when the [President’s Daily Brief] revealed new, highly reliable intelligence that Russian President Vladimir Putin was about to invade Ukraine, officials who were present say that it was Harris who suggested that the intel be shown to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a face-to-face meeting — then made the trip to do so herself. One official recalls, “This was some of the most detailed intelligence sharing, outside of intelligence channels, that I have been party to. And her presentation of it, along with options of what we could do about it, was compelling.” Harris has since met with Zelensky five more times.

If we include tonight’s post, I have now done 912 of these updates. I spend a lot of time reading about what is going on in Ukraine, Russia, Europe, and DC in order to do them. While I knew she received the president’s daily briefings, that’s been standard for vice presidents for a while now, this is the first time I’ve seen it reported that VP Harris proposed providing the intel to President Zelenskyy and that she then went and did the briefing herself. Because if I’d seen this reported, I’d definitely have included it in an update before now. This is a good indicator that she has excellent strategic thinking skills and good natsec instincts. More to follow on this topic.

Here is President Zelenskyy’s address from earlier today. Video below, English transcript after the jump.

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War for Ukraine Day 912: Ukrainian Flag DayPost + Comments (19)