WED 3/16/22

Scroll down below today’s news to read our debate, No-Fly Zone = WWIII? with commentary in the left and right columns.

Zelenskyy Wants Polish MiGs and U-24 – Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pleaded for a no-fly zone – unlikely because of the implications of starting a “hot war” with Russia – Polish MiG fighter jets, and the formation of a new international organization he called “U-24” to fight Russian aggression in his live video address to the U.S. Congress Wednesday morning. Zelenskyy evoked the attack on Pearl Harbor and September 11, 2001, saying “Russia has turned the Ukrainian sky into death… . Is this a lot to ask for, to create a no-fly zone?”

Zelenskyy also asked for more aid and tougher sanctions against Russia, including the withdrawal of all U.S. businesses from the country.

“Ukraine is grateful to the U.S. for its overwhelming support,” Zelenskyy added, “I am grateful to President Biden for his faithful commitments.” 

Closing Quote: “I’m addressing President Biden. … You are the leader of the nation. I wish you to be the leader of the world. It means to be the leader of peace. Slava Ukrain!

What is ‘U-24’? – Zelenskyy did not go into detail, but it obviously would be a way to back Ukraine with some of the 30 European and North American (U.S. and Canada) nations in NATO, and likely to evoke a strong reaction from Russia’s dictator-president, Vladimir Putin. 

•••

Fall Back No More? – Who says an evenly split Senate can’t agree on anything? Republicans, Democrats, and whatever Manchinema are voted unanimously to make Daylight Savings Time permanent. You sprung forward last weekend? You won’t fall back this autumn in a sort of Groundhog Day for Americans’ internal body clock if the House forwards the bill to the White House and President Biden signs it.

•••

Meanwhile, in the Home of Starbucks -- After graduation, most college graduates would like to move to Seattle, according to a survey from the Axios-Generation Lab Next Cities Index. The other cities in the top five are New York, Los Angeles, Denver, and Boston.

However: Amazon has told some 1,800 of its employees who worked in an office in downtown Seattle they can work elsewhere, GeekWire reports, not because of COVID but because of crime occurring around the offices.

--Edited by Todd Lassa, Gary S. Vasilash and Nic Woods