FRI 4/1/22
No April Fools … Personally, we never made plans for an April Fools story today. But we were struck by public radio’s Marketplace noting it would forego its annual tradition this year in light of current global events and the prevalence of conspiracy theories and other outrageous made-up news that far too many people are consuming from social media and various corners of the Internet.
According to The History Channel’s This Day in History English pranksters first popularized April Fools in 1700. After 322 years, is it time for a burial?
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Red Cross to Mariupol, Ukrainian ‘copters to Russia … The International Committee of the Red Cross is attempting to open a “safe passage operation” in Mariupol, Ukraine, The Washington Post reports, a day after the Kremlin declared a humanitarian cease-fire in the southeastern city most heavily hit in the war. It was not clear whether the ICRC would be able to enter the city, where about 150,000 Ukrainian civilians remain trapped, according to the BBC.
Meanwhile: Two Ukrainian helicopters bombed an oil depot across the border in Belgorod, according to Russian officials. Ukraine has not confirmed the report. While the Kremlin says the attack is “not conducive to peace talks” planned to continue online Friday, the attack stands out for Ukraine’s ability to invade Russian airspace, with ‘copters, no less.
Known Unknowns: Russia puts the number of its own military personnel killed in its war against Ukraine at approximately 1,300, Dmitry Polyansky, deputy ambassador to the United Nations, told the BBC Friday. Ukraine officials say it’s more like 17,000 and NATO says the number is even higher. Earlier this week Polyansky claimed there is no “war” in Ukraine, so let’s say those additional 15,700+ Russian soldiers were killed in the “special military operation.”
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Gas Prices to Fall? … That’s a pun. President Biden announced the largest-ever release of the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve Thursday of up to 1 million barrels per day for up to six weeks, saying, per The Hill, “Putin’s price hike is hitting Americans at the pump.”
Of course, all that oil needs to get transferred to refineries before it gets to your gas tank. It won’t happen in time for family vacation season, when a higher cost “summer blend” has hiked prices at the pump for decades. Biden calls the SPR release “a wartime bridge into the fall.” Not bad timing for Democratic mid-term candidates, at least, though 1 million barrels per day is not really much, so the effect will be mostly symbolic.
Known Knowns: Renewable energy has been on the cusp of reducing our reliance on oil from Russia, Venezuela and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries since the Ford administration, and if the hype over automakers’ emerging shift to electric vehicles (though requiring rare metals for batteries from some of these, and other troublesome countries) becomes reality in this decade, perhaps we can phase out the SPR. Biggest impediment? Big Oil itself.
--Edited by Todd Lassa
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THU 3/31/22
In Ukraine … As Russia allegedly pulls back from attacks on Kyiv and Cheherniv, Ukraine is bracing itself for a fresh assault on the breakaway Dunbar region to the east, despite further peace talks scheduled for Friday via video-link, Ukrainian President Vlodymyr Zelniskyy warns (per The Guardian).
Meanwhile, up to 45 buses were reported headed to extra-hard hit Mariupol to evacuate citizens.
Unknown Unknowns: The Pentagon says Vladimir Putin’s military advisors are telling him that Russia is having much more military success in Ukraine than it is, heavily downplaying Ukrainian resistance, The Washington Post reports. Assessment is Putin’s advisors may be afraid to deliver bad news to their dictator. This is not as reassuring as it may sound; U.S. military experts fear the deliberate propaganda aimed at Putin could undermine negotiations underway between Ukraine and Russia.
The Trump Factor: It always looms, doesn’t it? Earlier this week Donald J. Trump raised questions based on unsubstantiated claims about Hunter Biden’s former business dealings in Russia on a program called the Just the News TV and said “I think Putin would know the answer to that. I think he should release (evidence).” This is as Russian troops are shelling hospitals and schools and trying to close off humanitarian cooridors.
White House spokesperson Kate Bedingfield responded Wednesday; “What kind of American, let alone an ex-president, thinks that this is the right time to enter into a scheme with Vladimir Putin and brag about his connections to Vladimir Putin? ... There is only one, and it is Donald Trump.”
Wonder what the purveyor of The Big Lie might tell Putin how the war in Ukraine is progressing?
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Meanwhile, at Justice … As some anxious Democrats and never-Trump Republicans worry about deliberate progress in its investigation, the Justice Department has expanded its probe into the January 6 Capitol insurrection to examine preparation and financing for Donald J. Trump’s rally preceding the attack, The Washington Post reports. Good news perhaps, for DOJ, is this appears to fall largely in the time before seven hours, 37 minutes of communication with ex-President Trump went missing.
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Meanwhile, where the truth is what one wants to make it. . . That Madison Cawthorn (R) succeeded Mark Meadows in the North Carolina 11th congressional district in 2020 is perhaps not entirely surprising. (Slightly more surprising is that for the purpose of voting in that district, Meadows’ address in the 11th is attached to a mobile home.)
Cawthorn, 26, had attended Patrick Henry College in fall 2016 . . . but dropped out because his grades were, apparently, below average. Cawthorn had been injured in a vehicle accident in 2014 when he was a passenger in an SUV on its way back from spring break in Florida. He was partially paralyzed by the accident. And it seemed to have had an effect on his college undertaking as, according to Wikipedia, he said in a deposition, "You know, suffering from a brain injury after the accident definitely I think it slowed my brain down a little bit. Made me less intelligent. And the pain also made reading and studying very difficult."
Of course he was elected to Congress.
Cawthorn said in an interview in the Warrior Poet Society podcast that he was invited to orgies and drug use among his fellow Republicans in Washington.
That, it seems, is the proverbial bridge too far for those for whom truth is fairly flexible, as House Minority leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) took him to task.
Axios reports that McCarthy said in an interview:
- "It's just frustrating. There's no evidence behind his statements. And when I sit down with him ... I told him you can't make statements like that, as a member of Congress, that affects everybody else and the country as a whole."
- "In the interview, he claims he watched people do cocaine. Then when he comes in he tells me, he says he thinks he saw maybe a staffer in a parking garage from 100 yards away.”
- "I just told him he's lost my trust, he's gonna have to earn it back, and I laid out everything I find is unbecoming. And, you can't just say, 'You can't do this again.' I mean, he's, he's got a lot of members very upset."
In an environment that has been characteristic of the Republican Party since at least 2016, when blatant lies can be told only to be walked back, it isn’t entirely surprising that Cawthorn made things up.
What if he had said the same things about being aware of Democrats doing those things? Would it even have been questioned by McCarthy, or simply amplified?
--Edited by Todd Lassa and Gary S. Vasilash