It’s Wednesday, March 16th, 2022…and the fact we’re writing this means, unlike Julius Caesar, we survived the Ides of March.
And since we’re on the subject of would-be dictators, before we begin, how many times can 46* repeat the same lie…
…without the MSM calling him on it? Answer: As many times as he wants. Perhaps more importantly, do Joe’s handlers not realize no one gives a hoot in Hell about the vaccine with the price of gas where it is, nor are jobs previously lost due to government-ordered lockdowns and restrictions to be considered “created” upon their return?!?
Now, here’s The Gouge!
First up, NRO‘s Kevin Williamson records in gory detail (said details accessible through the link in the title immediately below) the sufferings of Ukrainian civilians which have resulted in the sequestration of…
“…“We are all Ukrainians now,” says the headline over a Wall Street Journalcolumn. The sentiment is a humane one. But it is a lie. We are not all Ukrainians. Most of us are far removed from anything like that kind of danger or that kind of suffering. The worst we have felt is higher gasoline prices and more expensive groceries. These matter, of course, and they matter a great deal to the poor, for whom these additional financial burdens are very heavy. But that is not the same.
It is not easy to be brave, and it is not easy to suffer. But how much easier it must be to suffer oneself than to watch one’s children suffer, to be cold and hungry, to die, blown to pieces in the womb before taking their first breath. How many Ukrainian mothers and fathers would happily — joyfully — give their own lives if it meant that their children could have a decent dinner and a safe, warm place to sleep — i.e., if they could have what my dogs have? Millions, I imagine.
No, we are not all Ukrainians now. Not by a damned sight.
We are not all Russians either. I do not flatter myself that the Russian people have been waiting for my advice, but I will offer it, anyway: You have toact. You must. This is your country, your army, your government, your tax dollars, your flag, your name. Vladimir Putin is not a superman, and he cannot act alone. What is being done by your government is not going to be forgiven.You, and your children, and your grandchildren will bear the shame of this. Things are never going to go back to normal for you. I don’t know if you have noticed, but, to put it in popular terms, the civilized world has got together, and we have voted you off the island. The ties between you and the civilized world that have been cut in recent weeks are not going to be restored quickly, and many of them will never be restored at all. You are not part of the civilized world anymore. We are not going to forget what you have been party to, what so many of you have stood by and accepted.
What makes it worse, if that is possible, and certainly more asinine: You have already lost, in that what your government had hoped to achieve will not be achieved. You can murder as many expectant mothers and children as you like, bomb them until you run out of munitions, burn down the hospitals and the libraries, execute all the mayors, and you will still have lost. And when you are gone, the civilized people of this world are going to help to rebuild Ukraine, and you will be — what? Praying for high gas prices?“
And though it’s reasonable to assume a man getting his ass handed to him as badly as Vlad is would be grateful for a way out, Putin is as far from reasonable as Biden’s Green Agenda is from reality, as Jim Geraghtytells us…
“…Back in 2014, when Russian military forces moved into Crimea and annexed it, then-secretary of state John Kerry and other Obama administration officials kept talking up the option of a “diplomatic off-ramp” that would end Russia’s military occupation. Those proposals never went anywhere; Kerry seemed to be in denial of the fact that Putin was on precisely the highway he wanted to be on, headed toward exactly the destination he wanted. Putin wasn’t looking for an “off-ramp.”
Today, you hear the same refrain — that if the West just tried hard enough, it could find some “diplomatic off-ramp” that would be acceptable to Putin:
Axios: “President Biden now faces a great unanswered question — how to give Vladimir Putin an off-ramp to avoid even greater calamity.” The Irish Times: “While the prospect of a ceasefire in the short-term may seem remote, there will come a point where Putin needs an off-ramp. The West can keep applying pressure on Putin while showing him that a negotiated peace is there for the taking.” NPR: “Diplomats are trying to find an off ramp to Putin’s war in Ukraine.”
How can Putin make it any clearer? He doesn’t want an “off ramp!” He doesn’t want to end his war, he wants to win his war. He doesn’t care how gargantuan a price he or his country must pay in blood and treasure to achieve victory. To a certain degree, Putin is dealing with the sunken-cost fallacy. He has already committed so much, nationally and personally, into this war that he cannot accept a relatively modest prize of Donetsk and Luhansk and a guarantee that Ukraine would never join NATO. Russia’s big sacrifices in this war means Putin must bring home a big prize to justify the bloody endeavor.
The only way this war ends is with one side or the other devastated — or both in a bitter stalemate.
Putin will shift to the long game and bet that his willpower can outlast the West’s. He never has to worry about reelection. He likely believes the Russian people will accept any sacrifice he asks to restore Russia to greatness. He looks at the West and sees weakness, decadence, and fecklessness — a lot of tough talk but not much willingness to sacrifice.
Sure, the world is outraged at Russia’s brutality in Ukraine now. But the world was outraged by the Taliban returning to power, and it slowly and steadily moved on from that; Afghanistan is once again an afterthought on the world stage.
The world was outraged by the brutality of Syria’s Bashir al-Assad and his use of chemical weapons 50 times in the course of that country’s civil war . . . but the world slowly and steadily moved on from that. The world was briefly outraged by the CCP’s ongoing genocide of the Uyghurs . . . and yet the world, moved on from that concern. There’s always something else coming along to push that story out of the news cycle.
In Putin’s mind, all of the West’s principles are conditional and negotiable.
In six months, will Europe still be willing to do the hard work of weaning itself off Russian oil and gas exports? Will all those international companies still want to stay away from the Russian market? Will London property owners and businesses start to miss all those big-spending oligarchs? Will American farmers want that $1.28 billion in fertilizer again?
Putin is betting that Americans, and the rest of the free world, don’t have the stomach for a protracted economic war and that the Ukrainians don’t have the stomach for a protracted military war. The Russian dictator calculates that the moment that the West really starts to sweat over $100-per-barrel oil prices, Western leaders will call up Zelensky and tell him to give up half the country and move the capital of free Ukraine to Lviv or someplace else.
Putin might be wrong. But it’s far from guaranteed at this moment.“
Meanwhile, also writing at NRO, Andrew Stuttaford updates us on…
“…Meanwhile, our cooperation with China over climate change (a relationship so vital that John Kerry wouldn’t want it to be disrupted by small matters such as genocide) seems to be going swimmingly.
China plans a massive increase in coal mining, a move that will dramatically reduce its reliance on imports and deal a blow to its near-term climate actions.
The National Development and Reform Commission, the nation’s top economic planner, told officials from major mining regions at a meeting late last week that it wants to boost domestic production capacity by about 300 million tons, according to people familiar with the matter. It also plans to build a 620 million-ton stockpile of the fuel split between government, miners and users.
Such an increase in output would cut the country’s already scant dependence on foreign imports after global prices hit record levels in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The measures also highlight concerns that China’s reliance on fossil fuels remains as entrenched as ever, as it seeks to enhance energy security to limit disruptions to economic growth, regardless of the impact on its climate goals…
And there we have it.“
Here’s the juice:
That last sentence in the Bloomberg quote bears repeating: Enhanced energy security so as limit disruptions to economic growth. What an incredibly novel concept. So while the ChiComs continue to drill and dig at a frenetic pace, the illegitimate occupant of the Offal Office doubles down on an utterly impossible Green energy agenda which would leave America at the mercy of her most implacable foreign foes, as the Journal’s Alyssia Finley records.
Turning from the Bad & the Ugly to the Good, NRO‘s Rich Lowry introduces our current favorite for 2024:
“Ron DeSantis had another moment that lit up the Right last week, this time pushing back against Disney’s critique of the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
In his statement, DeSantis was absolutely stalwart, saying that the chances are “zero” that he’s going to back away from his support for the law. And he didn’t hesitate to go on offense against Disney. He said it had made a fortune off being family-friendly so should understand that families don’t want inappropriate material injected into the curriculum at schools, and smacked the company for making money in China without denouncing the brutal practices of the CCP.
DeSantis had been equally forthrighta few days earlier, contesting the dishonest “Don’t Say Gay” characterization by a reporter at a news conference. “It’s why people don’t trust people like you,” the governor said, “because you peddle fake narratives, and so we disabuse you of those narratives.”
This is the voice of the new Republican Party.
…If this new approach draws on Trump, it should vitiate one of the arguments long made for Trump: “At least he fights.” Now, the party is full of people who want to fight in a broadly similar fashion — however, with important differences from Trump.
In the “Don’t Say Gay” controversy, DeSantis isn’t relitigating what happened in the last election; he is freshly litigating a defense against a cutting-edge progressive cause.
He isn’t defending the indefensible; he’s defending the eminently defensible, in fact the unfairly maligned.
He isn’t dragging anyone through a fight occasioned by his personal failings or dubious practices; he’s standing up for a well-considered conservative initiative.
And he isn’t winging it and jousting with reporters who know more about the contested topic than he does; no, on this and pretty much everything else, he knows more than any of his antagonists.
So DeSantis opens up a vista offering an important element of Trumpism without the baggage or selfishness of Trump.
…This gets at what could be one of the most persuasive arguments to Republican voters for Trump not running again — not that he needs to go away so the old party can be restored, but that he’s unnecessary because a new party has emerged.“
Here’s a second shot of the juice:
Why would…or should…anyone want to settle for less?!?
Next, inquiring Conservative minds should find their interest piqued by this quintet of specially-selected items:
(2). The officer who shot a knife-wielding 16-year-old in the act of stabbing another girl has been cleared of any wrongdoing. For those unfamiliar with the circumstances of the Ma’Khia Bryant incident, we’re including the body cam footage of the officer involved. The key clip is from the 1:25 to 2:36 mark:
We’re frankly in awe of the officer’s judgement and reaction time, and disgusted that the “father” didn’t love his “baby” enough to break this brawl up before the police were forced to intervene.
(4). The Morning Jolt wonders whether Biden can say “no” to Zelensky?
(5). Charlie Cooke, NRO…takes a humorous look at the Daily Mail’s measurement of an asteroid in giraffes…or in this case, half a giraffe.
Which brings us, appropriately enough, to The Lighter Side:
Then there’s these from Balls Cotton…
…the Padre…
…and Speed:
Finally, we’ll call it a day with a tidbit we happened upon involving, of all people, Alice Cooper and the late Glen Campbell we thought you’d find of interest:
To wit:
The man could definitely…
…play.
P.S. Here’s another version of Classical Gas in which Campbell was accompanied by Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops, but the sound quality isn’t as good.
Magoo
Video of the Day
When Larry Summers says a Dimocratic president is wrong, i.e., lying, it speaks volumes.
Tales of The Darkside
Further evidence Progressives will do or say ANYthing to increase/preserve their personal power and wealth.
On the Lighter Side
Courtesy of Carl Polizzi, it’s a bird, it’s a plane…no, it’s an RC aircraft of a rather unique design! Not exactly how we’d spend our time and resources, but whatever floats your boat…or soars your Superman.
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