Surprise, Surprise!

 The trip that people never said would happen happened.

President Biden left Washington by plane in the dead of night and then, after a stop in Germany, landed in Poland, where the President boarded a train - a favorite way to travel of his - to Kyiv, where he met President Zelensky to stress his and the United States' commitment to Ukrainian sovereignty.  People had pleaded with Biden to make the trip, but the White House insists that it was too dangerous.  So long after everyone gave up on the idea, Biden took the initiative.

It's been a real boost to the people of Ukraine, where they've held off the Russian advance for about four months and are possibly ready to strike in a counteroffensive.  Biden's visit to Kyiv has made it clear that the West's commitment to Ukraine is real and unrelenting.    

To respond to the inevitable complaint from some Republicans that this was a shameless publicity stunt, I recall George Walker Bush showing up in Iraq in a surprise visit to the troops on the first Thanksgiving of the war in Iraq that Bush started.  He also presented a turkey to the servicemen, which, as I recall, was as fake as the reasons for going to war in Iraq.   

A Bridge Too Far

Just when Vladimir Putin thought he'd fixed things for good on the war in Ukraine by jacking up oil prices with Saudi Arabia's Mohammed bin Salman, the man who will be king, the Crimean Bridge, connecting Crimea - occupied by the Russians since 2014 - with the Russian North Caucasus region, was attacked.

An explosion did major damage to the road-and-rail bridge crossing the Kerch Strait, cutting off a vital supply line for Russia to aid the war effort in Ukraine and hold Crimea itself.

Putin celebrated this bridge as a big deal, and not just because it connects Russia and Crimea, given to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev (who grew up in Ukraine and who married a Ukrainian woman) at the expense of the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic.  (Since Ukraine and Russia were both part of the Soviet Union, the best way to explain this land transfer is to imagine if President Eisenhower had transferred the Oklahoma Panhandle to Texas.)   Putin celebrated this bridge and officiated at its opening in 2018 because he saw it as technological marvel - twelve miles long over the Kerch Strait.

Uh, Vlad?  Dude?  Can I see you in my office?  Because we in the States have a seventeen-mile crossing - that's right, seventeen miles (about 27.3 kilometers) between Virginia Beach and Cape Charles on the Delmarva Peninsula.

The Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel?  Maybe you've heard of it.

I mean . . . it was built in 1964.

Did I mention the artificial islands made for the tunnel entrances?

Welcome To the Club

It's official: The once-neutral countries of Sweden and Finland have been invited to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and will be fully initiated in a few months. President Biden was able to get Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to agree to the expansion of NATO despite Erdoğan's misgivings about letting them join over concerns of Kurdish terrorists (or freedom fighters, depending on your perspective) living in exile in both countries.  And the Turkish leader gets new American fighter jets in the deal.

Leaving that aside, this is what President Biden would call a big f**king deal.  Sweden, historically neutral, has not been in war since 1814, meaning that none of its veterans are alive today.  There are also dead soldiers in Finland; they're all Russian, causalities of the Winter War between Finland and the Soviet Union in 1939 and 1940.  Their abandonment of neutrality changes things dramatically.  Their proximity to the Baltic Sea will make Russian naval exercises there much more difficult, and now a NATO member - that would be Finland - shares a border with Russia that is 810 miles long, longer than the borders Russia shares with the Baltic States and Poland, all NATO members, put together.  This is precisely what Vladimir Putin did not want.

Oh, yeah, with St. Petersburg at the end of the Gulf of Finland, a body of water situated between Finland itself to the north and Estonia to the south, could make the city's maritime access, umm, complicated. Putin, who calls the city formerly known as Leningrad home, must be glad that the Russian capital has long since been moved to Moscow.

The only wrinkle is that Ukraine - the Russian invasion of which was the catalyst for NATO expansion in Scandinavia - has wanted to join NATO and has been held back, being told that it must go through a process.  Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky believes that the Ukrainian people have paid for NATO membership with four months of war with Russia.  But, despite more American shipments of weapons to Ukraine, the country will not likely join NATO until after the war is over,  Because an attack on one NATO member is an attack on all, and if Ukraine joined NATO tomorrow, the alliance would be obliged to send troops their to face the Russians.

And you know what would happen after that?  World War III.  

This Is Not France

French President Emmanuel Macron won re-election, largely because while many people were disappointed with him, many of them would have rather eaten raw snails than vote for right-winger Marine Le Pen.  Especially when a Le Pen presidency would have resulted in France's withdrawal from NATO and the coalition against Ukraine.

So Joe Biden, or another Democrat to be determined if Biden does not run for another term, could still win the 2024 presidential election over Donald Trump or a pro-Trump Republican, right?

Wrong.  Why? Because this is not France.

The French people voted with their heads to keep a dangerous chick like Marine Le Pen out of office.  Americans vote with their guts, which is how right-wingers get elected.  Also, because she's French, Le Pen is not a sore loser who would claim that the election was stolen - and there is no such thing as a French electoral college that awards electoral votes from each of the country's 94 departments and can circumvent the will of the people.  And you know that "liberty, equality, fraternity" thing?  The French may not always live up to that standard, but they do take seriously the right to vote.  For one thing, they don't pass laws to restrict the vote.

Another thing is, they vote on Sundays.  Not Tuesdays.    

The Ukraine war is more of a factor in the French presidential election than it is likely to be here in the 2022 midterms and the 2024 presidential election because, well, Kiev is about 1,470 miles from Paris, which is shorter than the distance between New York and Denver, and there's no ocean between the two countries either.  If a Republican administration that takes office in 2025, should the war in Ukraine still be going on by then, pulls out of NATO, that move will be met by the American people with more by a shrug than a shudder.  That's what my gut tells me.  (My head? No, I'm an American.)   

Also, the French have a lot of amenities and programs that we Americans lack.  Despite inflation ravaging the French economy, it's not ravaging it as much as it's ravaging our own, and the French of course have guaranteed health care.  Not to mention more nice things to cushion an inflationary economy.   

Remember, once again - this is not France.

Okay, is there any other business? 

Fade To Black (Sea)

Ever wonder who you always hear of the great battles the Russian army have fought in history but you never hear anything about the Russian navy?

Perhaps this picture will refresh your attention-span-starved memory.

This is the Moskva, a Russian navel vessel sunk in the Black Sea by the Ukrainians near the coast, near where the Czarist Russian navy bit the big one in the Crimean War against the British, the French and the Turks, and so lost the right to station a fleet in a Black Sea port.  Oh yeah, the Moskva was a Soviet-era ship from the 1970s (she was an old warhorse of a bucket, mate!) that was, ironically, built in a Ukrainian shipyard! 

Awkward. 

After the war, Putin is rumored to be contemplating a new generation of warships for the new Russian navy, to be built with transparent hulls so, when sailing through the Black Sea, the crewmen can see the old Russian navy!

Pozdravlyayu!

Bucha

The name of this Kyiv suburb will be forever linked with war crimes, like Auschwitz.

Ukrainian civilians tied up and shot by Russian troops.  Murdered in cold blood.  Many shot in the street and left for dead.  All without any rhyme or reason, as if there could be any rhyme or reason in killing noncombatants.  All courtesy of Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. 

This is the man Donald Trump says is a genius?  Trump actually thinks that a deal with such a man - not for détente but for dirt on Joe Biden's son - is honorable?  

It's become more obvious that President Biden is right - Vladimir Putin must go!

Two Ukraines?

Vladimir Putin, realizing that the war un Ukraine that he started is now going badly (very badly), says that he considers the first phase operations to be a success, and now he's concentrating on what he really wants - two independent states in the eastern separatist region.

So, naturally, he attacked Lviv, which is in the western part of the country,  with missiles.

Now Putin is talking about partitioning Ukraine into two countries, a western republic that could join the European Union and an eastern Republic aligned with Russia.

Yeah, how did that plan work out for Germany?

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is hoping to talk directly with Putin, but he has vowed not to cede one square centimeter of territory to the Russians.  Good for him.

And yes, Joe Biden is right, Putin does have to go! Time for another Russian revolution! 

No Info

Last Sunday (March 6), CNN planned to air a documentary on right-wing "InfoWars" radio host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.  I tuned in at the appointed time, only to find continuing news about the situation in Ukraine.  I looked on CNN's Facebook page to see when it would be rescheduled and failed to find even an acknowledgement of it.

I found out later what happened.  CNN decided not to air the documentary - but not because of the war in Ukraine.  It turned out that CNN did not postpone but canceled the Jones documentary at almost literally the last minute due to pressure from Jones' detractors.  It  seems that they had a problem - a big problem - with CNN giving Jones even more attention than he was already getting from the mainstream press.    

Personally, I think this was the wrong decision.  Jones is one of those obnoxious, toxic celebrities (like the previous White House occupant) who always find a way to get attention no matter how much you try to ignore them.  Take it from someone who tired to treat obnoxious, toxic people - celebrities or otherwise - like a bad headache by not thinking about them and hoping against hope that they would go away.  But Jones is also dangerous, thanks to his spewing of falsehoods and misinformation (again, like the previous White House occupant).  It would have behooved CNN to air the Jones documentary so those of us who are his detractors could see exactly what and whom we're up against.

You can expect to see far fewer CNN documentaries as the war in Europe drags on.  The second season of Stanley Tucci's Italy travelogue series has already been delayed until spring because of Ukraine, and, I'm not sure, but I think CNN pre-emptied a documentary about Anthony Bourdain for more war coverage.  CNN just realized it's the Cable News Network, not the Cable Documentary Network. 

And The War Goes On . . . And Michael Moore Goes On and On . . .

The Russian military has been attempting to overpower Ukraine with its massive forces ,but the Ukrainian army is fighting back and the Ukrainian people - including a former Ukrainian president - are helping them, making Molotov cocktails (invented by the Finns during Finland's 1939-40 war against the Soviet Union, for Stalin's foreign minister) to throw at the Russian invaders, and also getting out their guns.

And Vladimir Putin is losing his grip on reality - and on Republicans.  He's put nuclear arsenal commanders no high alert, and as more Republicans stand against Putin, more Republicans , according to the polls, are beginning to turn away from Putin and his puppet - Donald J. Trump - as most Americans and people all over the world stand with Ukraine.  

So you're probably wondering what noted liberal gadfly Michael Moore thinks of all this.

No, of course not, but he does have an opinion about the war.  Here's what he said on Facebook: 

"Of course Russia should be upset if we made Ukraine part of NATO. Like how we'd react if the Soviet Union had made Mexico or Canada a member of the Warsaw Pact. Or if Russia had tried to put nuclear missiles in Cuba. We wouldn't stand for that!"

He's not being facetious - well, he is, in a way.  He's actually saying that Ukraine should not join NATO - even though Ukraine wants to join - and he says he doesn't want U.S. troops anywhere outside the United States, even though someone has to guard against possible Russian invasion of, say, the Baltic States, which can hardly defend themselves against the Russians alone.  They tried doing that in 1940 and look what happened.  (Oh yeah, Moore once dismissed the people of all three Baltic countries as "Nazi collaborators.") 

Moore went on, urging Putin to stop the fighting in the second person: "Your people made the greatest sacrifice in World War II - 27 million dead. We couldn't have defeated Hitler without you. We in this country have never sufficiently acknowledged your suffering and your loss. And then thank God for the brilliant Gorbachev who ended the Cold War and the threat of nuclear annihilation between us. I prefer today to think of all the good Russia has done for the world."

Yes, the Soviets - Ukrainians and Belarusians as well as Russians - made a great sacrifice.  We couldn't have defeated Hitler without the Soviets, who had in fact signed an agreement with the Germans to divide eastern Europe between them before Hitler broke the pact and invaded the Soviet Union.  But Gorbachev didn't end the Cold War - Pope John Paul II did. As for the good Russia has done for the world lately . . .  what, the Bolshoi Ballet?  Ask the Finns and the Baltic peoples about all the good Russia has done for the world.  Ask the Poles, or the Czechs.  Ask the people of Karelia, an ethnic enclave in Russia next to Finland, if there are any left.

So what's Moore's advice for Putin? "Get some mental help . . .. You are no longer in the KGB. Take off your shirt, go sit in the sauna, then go ride your horse. Ukraine is not joining NATO."

Oh honey, I think Michael Moore has finally flipped out.  I thought he'd flipped out when he called Madonna a serious musical artist, but this takes the cake.

It's long since become obvious that Moore is just another so-called progressive who thinks that society must always be in a state of upheaval.  I get the impression that he really doesn't want us to have the nice things we can't have and Europeans do have because, if we ever actually get them, he's out of business.  Maybe that's not true, but that's the impression.  It seems that he doesn't want to bitch about what's wrong with America and offer solutions to fix what's wrong, he just wants to bitch.

Well, I'm not going to help him bitch for the sake of bitching.  As of today, the link to his Web site that had been on my blog for so long is gone.  

Sorry, Mike.  You've outstayed your welcome.