Wil called me to the window to see the contrails. We don’t usually get contrails, and if we do they are tiny, from large commercial planes flying high up. Then he added, “F-35s headed to Russia.”
From on-line distance calculators (doesn’t quite add up, but that is probably because the great circle route from Fresno would lie south of that from Burlington):
Distance from Burlington to Munich = 3839 miles From Fresno to Munich = 5850 miles From Fresno to Burlington = 2472 miles
I'm stretching between feeling like "Woodrow Wilson is writing another note" that will have little effect on Putin and being so very grateful we don't have troops on the ground there. Let us hope that these actions will make a huge difference. Let us pray for the people of Ukraine who are in harm's way.
I have been purchasing watercolors from an old line [think Tsarist] manufacturer in St. Petersburg; I am well pleased with them, and they are very good value for money. But in view of the current international news I feel obliged not to buy anything more from Russia. In addition to the trouble of selecting a new palette, I don't think I can equal the cost of St. Petersburg watercolors. So be it.
Good plan. Though, to be honest, I think it's sad we're pushed to this, since the people you would be benefitting are not likely to be Putin supporters. The majority of Russians do not want trouble.
My life as an ER doctor during Covid: ‘People walk in, throw their garbage at you, and walk out’ [Click] I can well believe things got worse during Covid; but I worked for five years at a county hospital ER (sometimes the busiest ER in California) and we had to be prepared to prevent or deal with as bad as or worse than described in this article. When the county Supervisors gave the whole operation to a large private hospital, the first things the private owners did were to cut back on housekeeping, cut back on security, replace the cafeteria with vending machines, and replace all the billing staff (who were masters at locating funds to pay for the care of people who had no money) with their own ignoramuses (which cost them millions of dollars in the first year). Then they commenced union busting. I worked both before and after that in other hospitals with emergency rooms, and security in the private ones was always lacking.
President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has announced the approval of another package of “massive and targeted sanctions” against Russia.
First, this package includes financial sanctions, targeting 70% of the Russian banking market and key state owned companies, including in defence.
Second, we target the energy sector, a key economic area which especially benefits the Russian state. Our export ban will hit the oil sector by making it impossible for Russia to upgrade its refineries. Third: we ban the sale of aircrafts and equipment to Russian airlines.
Fourth, we are limiting Russia’s access to crucial technology, such as semiconductors or cutting-edge software. Finally: visas. Diplomats and related groups and business people will no longer have privileged access to the European Union.”
Taiwan has condemned Russia’s actions, saying it will join other “like-minded” partners in sanctions, although details have not been provided.
The crisis is being watched closely in Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory and has faced increased military pressure by Beijing over the last two years.
Premier Su Tseng-chang told reporters in Taipei:
We very harshly condemn such an act of invasion and will join democratic countries to jointly impose sanctions.”
Taiwan economy minister Wang Mei-hua told reporters the island will “harshly scrutinise” exports to Russia and “coordinate” with unspecified allies for further actions. She did not elaborate.
The foreign ministry said in a statement that the island, which is key in the global semiconductor supply chain, will “coordinate closely with the United States and other like-minded countries to adopt appropriate measures in order to free Ukraine from the horrors of war.”
French president Emmanuel Macron said on Friday that Russian president Vladimir Putin had been duplicitous in his conversations with him, discussing the details of the Minsk agreements over the phone while preparing to invade Ukraine.
Macron told reporters after an EU summit:
"Yes, there was duplicity, yes there was a deliberate, conscious choice to launch war when we could still negotiate peace.”
He added France would add its own sanction to an EU package.
I wanted to note this report [Click] that Ukraine has essentially opened its armories to civilian volunteers. They claim to have given out [about] 10,000 automatic weapons today to citizens willing to fight as home guards or essentially paramilitaries and irregulars. This makes perfect sense for how this conflict is evolving. It is clearly an existential battle for the Ukrainian state. But I just wanted to focus in on what this means. This means giving out machine guns to any Ukrainian citizens who are ready to kill Russian soldiers. This is an invitation to the kind of merciless and bloody urban warfare that insurgents and irregulars excel at and which regular armies struggle with. Don’t get me wrong. If I were running Ukraine I would be doing this too. Watching ordinary Ukrainians, in various ways, put their lives on the line to fight back against this entirely unprovoked aggression inspires me. But I just want to focus in on how dark and desperate a situation this is. This is to-the-death kind of fighting. Where who is military and who is civilian is totally blurred. It’s a level of ferocity you don’t easily come back from.
Calamity Again [Click] “No nation is forced to repeat its past. But something familiar is taking place in Ukraine.” Oh, my— this tells us a lot. Definitely something to read.
Wil called me to the window to see the contrails. We don’t usually get contrails, and if we do they are tiny, from large commercial planes flying high up. Then he added, “F-35s headed to Russia.”
ReplyDeleteProbably Poland at this point. But still…
Reply
I don't see anything like that here this morning, but we are much farther from Europe than you are. We are about equidistant from London and Tokyo.
DeleteFrom on-line distance calculators (doesn’t quite add up, but that is probably because the great circle route from Fresno would lie south of that from Burlington):
DeleteDistance from Burlington to Munich = 3839 miles
From Fresno to Munich = 5850 miles
From Fresno to Burlington = 2472 miles
NYT: Russians Now See a New Side to Putin: Dragging Them Into War [Click] or here [Click] “The autocrat who has steered Russia for 22 years was embraced by many Russians for what they saw as his rationality and astute risk management. That image has been upended.”
ReplyDeleteRussian Troops have seized Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant
ReplyDeletePresident Biden is about to address the nation. (CNN is carrying it.)
ReplyDeleteI have a meeting at 2:00pm, but I'm taping it.
DeleteBiden is authorising severe sanctions.
DeleteI'm stretching between feeling like "Woodrow Wilson is writing another note" that will have little effect on Putin and being so very grateful we don't have troops on the ground there. Let us hope that these actions will make a huge difference. Let us pray for the people of Ukraine who are in harm's way.
I can hope that this will destroy the reputations (such as they are) of DT & Fox News.
DeleteThe amount of harm one madman can do is entirely disproportionate.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.politicalflare.com/2022/02/biden-just-froze-every-russian-asset-in-the-united-states-over-one-trillion-in-wealth-gone/
ReplyDeletehttps://polinews.org/trump-gets-brutally-cut-off-during-live-fox-news-interview-after-he-went-on-unhinged-big-lie-rant-blamed-russian-invasion-and-attack-against-ukraine-on-his-election-loss/
ReplyDeleteOh peeps, you have *got* to read this one. Even Fox can't tolerate LardVader's insanity now.
So I guess now Fox News is guilty of treason?
DeleteI should be very surprised if the former guy could locate Ukraine on a map.
DeleteMoJo: Antiwar Activists Take to the Streets in Russia to Protest Putin’s Invasion of Ukraine [Click]
ReplyDeleteI have been purchasing watercolors from an old line [think Tsarist] manufacturer in St. Petersburg; I am well pleased with them, and they are very good value for money. But in view of the current international news I feel obliged not to buy anything more from Russia. In addition to the trouble of selecting a new palette, I don't think I can equal the cost of St. Petersburg watercolors. So be it.
ReplyDeleteGood plan. Though, to be honest, I think it's sad we're pushed to this, since the people you would be benefitting are not likely to be Putin supporters. The majority of Russians do not want trouble.
DeleteMy life as an ER doctor during Covid: ‘People walk in, throw their garbage at you, and walk out’ [Click] I can well believe things got worse during Covid; but I worked for five years at a county hospital ER (sometimes the busiest ER in California) and we had to be prepared to prevent or deal with as bad as or worse than described in this article. When the county Supervisors gave the whole operation to a large private hospital, the first things the private owners did were to cut back on housekeeping, cut back on security, replace the cafeteria with vending machines, and replace all the billing staff (who were masters at locating funds to pay for the care of people who had no money) with their own ignoramuses (which cost them millions of dollars in the first year). Then they commenced union busting. I worked both before and after that in other hospitals with emergency rooms, and security in the private ones was always lacking.
ReplyDeleteNYT: Biden Hits Russia With Broad Sanctions for Putin’s War in Ukraine [Click] or here [Click] I was surprised to read that Russia’s GDP is half that of California.
ReplyDeletePresident of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has announced the approval of another package of “massive and targeted sanctions” against Russia.
ReplyDeleteFirst, this package includes financial sanctions, targeting 70% of the Russian banking market and key state owned companies, including in defence.
Second, we target the energy sector, a key economic area which especially benefits the Russian state. Our export ban will hit the oil sector by making it impossible for Russia to upgrade its refineries. Third: we ban the sale of aircrafts and equipment to Russian airlines.
Fourth, we are limiting Russia’s access to crucial technology, such as semiconductors or cutting-edge software. Finally: visas. Diplomats and related groups and business people will no longer have privileged access to the European Union.”
Three ex-officers found guilty on federal charges in George Floyd killing [Click] “Lane, Kueng and Thao also face a separate trial in June on state charges alleging that they aided and abetted murder and manslaughter.”
ReplyDeleteParents of Michigan school shooter to be tried for involuntary manslaughter [Click]
ReplyDeleteMakes sense to me.
DeleteIt is an incredibly egregious case.
DeleteTaiwan has condemned Russia’s actions, saying it will join other “like-minded” partners in sanctions, although details have not been provided.
ReplyDeleteThe crisis is being watched closely in Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory and has faced increased military pressure by Beijing over the last two years.
Premier Su Tseng-chang told reporters in Taipei:
We very harshly condemn such an act of invasion and will join democratic countries to jointly impose sanctions.”
Taiwan economy minister Wang Mei-hua told reporters the island will “harshly scrutinise” exports to Russia and “coordinate” with unspecified allies for further actions. She did not elaborate.
The foreign ministry said in a statement that the island, which is key in the global semiconductor supply chain, will “coordinate closely with the United States and other like-minded countries to adopt appropriate measures in order to free Ukraine from the horrors of war.”
French president Emmanuel Macron said on Friday that Russian president Vladimir Putin had been duplicitous in his conversations with him, discussing the details of the Minsk agreements over the phone while preparing to invade Ukraine.
ReplyDeleteMacron told reporters after an EU summit:
"Yes, there was duplicity, yes there was a deliberate, conscious choice to launch war when we could still negotiate peace.”
He added France would add its own sanction to an EU package.
To The Death
ReplyDeleteJosh Marshall
I wanted to note this report [Click] that Ukraine has essentially opened its armories to civilian volunteers. They claim to have given out [about] 10,000 automatic weapons today to citizens willing to fight as home guards or essentially paramilitaries and irregulars. This makes perfect sense for how this conflict is evolving. It is clearly an existential battle for the Ukrainian state. But I just wanted to focus in on what this means. This means giving out machine guns to any Ukrainian citizens who are ready to kill Russian soldiers. This is an invitation to the kind of merciless and bloody urban warfare that insurgents and irregulars excel at and which regular armies struggle with. Don’t get me wrong. If I were running Ukraine I would be doing this too. Watching ordinary Ukrainians, in various ways, put their lives on the line to fight back against this entirely unprovoked aggression inspires me. But I just want to focus in on how dark and desperate a situation this is. This is to-the-death kind of fighting. Where who is military and who is civilian is totally blurred. It’s a level of ferocity you don’t easily come back from.
Calamity Again [Click] “No nation is forced to repeat its past. But something familiar is taking place in Ukraine.” Oh, my— this tells us a lot. Definitely something to read.
ReplyDeleteCome to think of it, it is related to the Josh Marshall column posted just above.
DeleteKrugman: Laundered Money Could Be Putin’s Achilles’ Heel [Click] or here [Click] IF the west is willing to go after its own money launderers as well . . .
ReplyDelete