Stuff to Read (or Listen to)

Posted on by

Ezra Klein interviews Fiona Hill about what Putin is really up to. There’s a transcript if you aren’t into podcasts.

See also Jennifer Rubin, The GOP: An unending display of toxic masculinity.  If she ever goes back to being an apologist for Republicans I’m going to miss her. 

President Biden dropped the big one today and banned import of Russian fossil fuels. The UK is banning oil imports but hasn’t banned gas yet.

Paul Krugman explains why China can’t save Russia’s economy, even if it wants to. And it may not.

Paul Waldman says Liz Cheney nails the truth about ‘the Putin wing of the GOP.’

Which companies have stopped doing business in Russia, and which are still there? Here’s the list of both as of March 8.

9 thoughts on “Stuff to Read (or Listen to)”

  2. The Ezra Klein /Fiona Hill piece is a must hear/read.  Her knowledge base is incredible on the subject.  

    2

  4. I'm glad both of my parents lived long enough to see the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the demise of Soviet Russia.

    But also (strangely) glad that they didn't live long enough as to see Russia's horrendous invasion of Ukraine.

    A lot of the city and village names that I'm seeing every day on MSNBC & CNN were also the cities and villages that were on the escape routes for either my Mother's family, coming from Stalingrad, or my Father's, which had to leave Poltava, a Ukranian town to the west of Kharkiv.

    Every town had a story around it.  Some stories validate the feeling that most people are good.  And others that make you wonder what's taking that damned asteroid so long?

    When my parents shared these stories with me and my sister, they also shared their PTSD.  My sister and I both have 2nd-hand PTSD.

    For a good share of the day, I'm sitting and watching the news, trying to fight a war against tears.

    And when I hear the name of a new town on TV, an old story pops up.

    The tears are winning.

    6

    • Yeah, the site of the largest nuclear power plant in Europe is one of those places.

      I went to bed wondering if the end of the world would arrive near where my family was eradicated from.

      2

    • BTW, good to see you post today. If you can, go out into the prairie or grassland in your region on a day with clear blue sky and be still for a moment. The winter wheat should be arriving and will soon be a golden bounty.

      1

  5. This article, ‘The Street Sense to Recognize a Gangster’ by James Fallows is worth reading, especially the part where one reader believes ‘Biden baited Putin into making a historic error’. Also the last part about Ukrainian folk songs. “All Ukrainian folk songs involve torturing and killing Russians in the most grotesque ways possible”.

    1

  6. ‘Ukrainians voted for a mixture of Benny Hill and Boris Johnson, and somehow wound up with Churchill’

    …the facile comparison is in many ways inexact. “Comparisons to Churchill are unfair. Zelensky has a depth of feeling and understanding Churchill could only dream of,” wrote the Portuguese author Bruno Maçães, whom I saw in Kyiv only a week before the Russian bombs first began to fall indiscriminately on civilian housing.

    Zelensky is a master communicator, and his speeches have been pitch perfect. He has, after all, practiced for this role his entire life. There is no doubt in my mind that the Ukrainian army has held and fought as ferociously as it has because of the confidence and conviction that Zelensky has been able to instill in them through his words and actions. Given a choice to evacuate the country by the Biden administration, Zelensky famously reposted that he needed “ammunition, not a ride.” The translator who interpreted his speech to the United Nations last weekend broke into sobs while repeating his words in English. The European Parliament quickly voted to fast-track the Ukrainian application for EU membership…

    3

  7. It's strange how one's views can be amended by taking in information that they previously were unaware of. Case in point. Previously I was dead certain that Trump and Putin were in collusion but, now that I've gained more background info on Putin I realize that Trump was correct in his claim that there was no collusion between them. It now appears to me that Trump was completely played by Putin because Putin was clever enough to see and exploit Trump's insecurities and emotional need for validation,

    A prime example would be when Putin allowed Trump to lob 100 Cruze missiles into Syria after Russia had safely removed all of its military assets out of harms way. Trump got to show his manly resolve and win the awe of his MAGA base as a leader who takes shit from no one. Don Rambo. All the while Assad is in a position where he needs Putin to keep the asshole Trump off his back and Trump has to seek permission from Putin to safely corral Assad's behavior. And Putin comes off smelling like a rose.

Comments are closed.