TrickstaPriest

There's a part of me that hopes President Biden decides not to run for reelection. Not because I particularly dislike him, and certainly not because I think ANYONE from the Republican side would be a better option, but because I don't think he's up for four more years of this. He's not in as dire a situation as the former President, who is narcissistic, delusional, and arguably seriously mentally ill, but I don't think Mr. Biden is the best option for the next four years.
 
Who is? Beats the hell out of me, Roy.

Exactly. By saying an organization with an even split of R and D leaders is biased against them, they're 1) saying they will only support things that are biased in their favor and 2) sending yet another signal to their base that democracy is biased against them and must be rejected.

The main reason they're withdrawing is that they think Trump will be the nominee again if he wants it and he can't debate.
 
If they leave the possibility of debates open and he's opposed in the primaries, the other candidates would be idiots if they didn't use "he can't debate" against him, especially since he's even less rational now than in 2016.
 
So Trump would end up winning the nomination but be damaged...then look like he's chicken because he refuses to debate in the general election.
 
The RNC is sidestepping the whole thing by trying to get all the potential nominees to sign a pledge to not participate in presidential commission debates...and rigging the nomination process in the various states so that only candidates who signed the pledge will be eligible to be listed on the ballot during the primaries as a presidential candidate.
 
If Trump decides to not run, or runs and loses the primaries, I'd expect the RNC to do an about-face and require their nominee to debate.
 
And honestly, there's not any of them potentially running (except Trump) who don't think they could absolutely destroy Biden in a debate (whether that's true or not is another matter).
 
That was never Biden's strong suit even back to his first run for president in 1988. He plagiarized material from other politicians during his extemporaneous speaking, exaggerated his own accomplishments (such as the number of college degrees he'd earned and that he'd marched in the civil rights movement when he hadn't), and was forced to withdraw his candidacy.
 
And he's definitely lost a step in his spontaneous responses since then.
 
Everyone on the Republican side except for Trump is eager to get Biden as a debate opponent.

I'd rather the 1000 marines in Mariupol hadn't had to surrender than seen the warship sunk. *sigh*
 
Edit: this does brighten my day, the Moskva was THE Russian warship that called on Snake Island to surrender.
 
Russian warship has f***ed itself.

We're seeing from Russian troops the exact same thing that we've seen from untrained conscripts in wars throughout the ages: looting, rape, and taking it very personally when they're shot at then retaliating upon everyone in sight.
 
For two-thirds of each Russian battle group, their training consisted of "Put on this uniform. Someone will tell you what to do, then do it."
 
Those troops are put onto the battlefield but Russian military doctrine is that those troops won't actually see battle. But that's not what's happening in real life in Ukraine.
 
Troops behave in a civilized manner toward civilians when
 
a) They're in their own country defending their own country or
b) When troops are trained to act like disciplined soldiers even when no one is looking.
 
Option "b" isn't an iron-clan guarantee but it's the best any country has come up with so far.
 
And it's been to Russia's advantage so far that their soldiers have been undisciplined brutes because that's played into their tactic to break the Ukrainian's will to fight.
 
And it'll come back to bite them in the butt unless they go on to conquer the world.
 
 

I'm afraid there isn't much use in pointing out the holes in the road to those who follow the path of a braying jackass.

I don't really believe that he's reasoned that far. To him, the only apparent lies are things that the other side says (or is purported to say, as he's a fan of Alex Jones and the My Pillow Guy).

My new co-worker told me that fact-checking was censorship, so I'm pretty sure I know how he'd react to this.

I would like to point out that the oil companies having been using the last two years to artificially keep their gas prices high, and are using this current conflict to keep doing that. It will be interesting to see what happens if Biden does start dropping the million barrels of oil a day he promised out of the reserve.
CES

“Illegal”? Like shelling civilian targets? Huh. Interesting argument.
 
 I’m thinking fuel facility in city where Russia launched a good portion of their invasion from, and a city in which they’re launching rocket attacks from, might be considered a fair logistical target. I could be biased though. 
 
It’s not, however, like they targeted a Red Cross facility. I don’t think that argument will garner much sympathy.

https://www.npr.org/2022/04/01/1089990539/climate-change-politics
 
A disturbing story from All Things Considered about the environmental movement's deep roots in white supremacist/nativist/far right/alt-right politics -- and there's still considerable overlap today.
 
Dean Shomshak

There’s various footage of the helicopters shooting at the facility. I cannot speak to whether they’re Ukrainians of course, but it seems likely.

BBC  World Service discussed this just now. The situation may be, well, muddled. Ukraine's government neither confirms nor denies the strike in Belgorod. A Ukrainian MP opined it was more likely a Russian "False Flag" attack -- see, Ukraine is attacking Russia, we're just defending ourselves. For Ukrainian troops to cross the border and attack a target in Russia, he said, would play into Russian hands.
 
But other observers suggest the Russian announcement seems unusually muted, compared to the usual hysterical bombast of Russian accusations. Whether Ukraine did it or Russia did it, where are the accusations of genocide? Possibly the ?Russian authorities are in shock that anyone actually managed to strike into Russia. He also suggested such an attack might be illegal.
 
Or, someone suggested that oil depots have been known to catch fire by accident. It seems not totally implausible to me that a Russian depot manager might try to cover up an accoident by saying that Ukrainian helicopters did it.
 
It's a downside -- for Russia as well as the wider world -- of Russia's policy of constant lying. No claim can be trusted.
 
Dean Shomshak

**sigh**  I recall, early in the pandemic, watching the squabbling political parties in my own government actually work together to take rapid action to implement benefits to get people through the inability to work, and help businesses survive.  [Perfect?  Far from it - but programs that should take months or years to develop had to be designed over a weekend and rolled out immediately.]
 
Within 6 months, we were still in a pandemic, but back to partisan politics and divisive infighting.  It seems like we prefer mudslinging and squabbling to working together, bringing different viewpoints to the table and working out real solutions.  Certainly, it isn't the latter that wins elections.

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/03/donald-trump-missing-phone-logs-capitol-attack

https://crimereads.com/tyrants-and-propaganda-or-the-totalitarian-need-for-total-information-control/

"it's not a real pandemic." 
 
"The election was stolen."
 
Why is the same human behaviour overseas so surprising?

There are endless stories of Russians straight up calling their Ukrainian relatives liars, when the Ukrainian relatives are literally Facetiming them from the ruins of their homes.  Media bubbles are strong.  One would hope that as Russian troops return home (or, more likely, vanish) and sanctions cause widespread shortages, the blinders will come off.  But it's not a foregone conclusion.

Because, of course, there isn't an invasion on the US southern border. Not by any definition. But some people won't let go of that perception, and there are parties to whom it's advantageous to keep pushing it.

…and Russia says he’ll leave if she agrees not to join the neighborhood watch (NATO), gets rid of her gun and dog (demilitarizes), doesn’t disagree with him ever in public (becomes officially “neutral”), and abandons “woke” ideologies (ok, so I have no more idea what de-nazification is supposed to be than anyone else).
 
Sound about right?

I want to apologize for Marsha Blackburn, she's one of Tennessee's senators. When she first won, I thought she was mostly a corporate shill willing to destroy us for lobbying money. I did not , at the time, realize she thought A Handmaid's Tale was a life goal

There is that.
 
I choose to interpret this as progress. Maybe some of the Trumpian sycophants are coming to realize that his influence isn't infinite or all-encompassing, and that carrying on against the current Administration in the face of widespread popular support for Ukraine is akin to urinating into a stiff wind.
 
I'm probably wrong. But I'll hold on to the illusion that people may not be as stupid and/or indoctrinated as I'd feared for as long as I can.

Here are the 8 House Republicans who voted against suspending normal trade relations with Russia and Belarus
 
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia
Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida
Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado
Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky
Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona
Rep. Dan Bishop of North Carolina
Rep. Glenn Grothman of Wisconsin
Rep. Chip Roy of Texas

I was afraid of this...
 
Anti-War Protester Who Crashed Russian State TV is Missing

This might get lost in domestic events here in the US...
 
In Texas, thousands of mail ballots were rejected following new ID requirements