Russian Athletes

 Russian athletes, particularly NHL players, who refuse to speak out publicly and loudly against President Putin and his war of choice against Ukraine, should be deported immediately. I am speaking directly to athletes like the NHL’s Alex Ovechkin whose mealy-mouthed “no war” comments are so milquetoast they are meaningless at best.

Quote from the Future

 Here is a quote from a history book yet to be written. "N.A.T.O. leadership continued to be concerned over what moves, if any, to make in order to help Ukraine. Put N.A.T.O. troops on the ground against the Russians? Help Poland get fighter jets to Ukraine?  The people of Europe and the United States had seen on TV what was happening to the civilian population of Ukraine and wanted something to be done. But, their leaders worried that any moves they made would give President Putin the conflict with N.A.T.O. that it seemed he really wanted, they were worried whatever they did would facilitate the start World War Three. They didn't realize at the time that World War Three had already started."

The United States Could Have and Should Have Stopped the Russian Invasion

It's not my intention to recount all the dumb reasons why Ukraine has been denied membership in NATO. All that information is available at Wikipedia and for those with a desire to learn it's an interesting read. My intention here is to say that, in my humble opinion, the Biden administration completely dropped the ball when it comes to the situation as it stands now. The world saw what happens in 1938, with Germany's invasion of Poland, when dictators are allowed to go unchecked. The world stood by and did nothing and when Hitler saw he could get away with it once he did it again and again. The same is true now. The world did nothing in the face of Vladimir Putin's annexation of Crimea in 2014, why wouldn't he assume he could get away with it again with the rest of Ukraine in 2022? 

The Biden administration could have and should have stopped cold any plans of invasion two weeks ago by placing the entirety of the 101st Airborne Division smack in the middle of Ukraine and then telling President Putin if he wanted wanted Ukraine to come and fucking take it. At the very least, the bevy of sanctions we've now levelled should have been rolled out two weeks ago only to be lifted once it had been verified that all Russian troops massed along Ukraine's borders had gone back to their bases. Instead we relied on threats of sanctions after an invasion which had zero effect in stopping Putin based on the fact that he has been "sanction-proofing" the Russian economy for the past ten years. The only thing the United States can do at this point, along with our NATO allies, is to make damn sure the Ukrainian military doesn't run out of ammunition. If they run out of Javelin and Stinger missiles then the Ukrainians are well and truly fucked.  

And, yes, I've heard Trump's toadies and others on the right saying "Things would be different if Trump were still President!" They're probably correct, but not in the way they mean it. After saying NATO is "obsolete," after saying during his campaign in 2016 that he would take the U.S. out of NATO, after never explicitly endorsing support for Article Five of the NATO charter, I do believe that the difference would have been that after Trump had unpuckered his lips from Putin's arse, he would simply have asked the Russian president if he wanted any help with the invasion. In fact Trump persists, to this day, in his hero worship for the dictator by continuing to say what a swell guy he thinks Putin is. 

I'm a proud Democrat and will likely always be a proud Democrat, but I am massively disappointed in the Biden administration's handling of this crisis. My father recently told me a joke that was circulating at the end of World War Two that goes something like this: An American soldier and a Russian soldier were talking one day. The American soldier says, "In America we have free speech. I can stand in the street in front of the White House and yell at the top of my lungs, 'To hell with President Truman!'" "So what?" says the Russian soldier. "In Russia I too can stand in the center of Red Square and yell at the top of my lungs, 'To hell with President Truman!'" The Ukrainian people may well have forever lost their freedom to stand in the heart of Kyiv and yell at the top of their lungs, 'to hell with President Putin!' and it just didn't have to be that way.

All Republicans are to Blame for Wednesday's Domestic Terror Attack

 So, we're now seeing lots of conservatives and Republicans in Washington D.C. resigning over what happened at the capital Wednesday. That's good! They should resign. But the simple fact of the matter is, every law maker in Washington D.C. with an R behind their name is partially responsible for what happened Wednesday. Republican lawmakers in Washington who have parroted Donald Trump's lies, who have made excuses for his daily assaults on the Constitution, Republican lawmakers who cowered in fear of a mean tweet from Dear Leader Trump, all of you are complicit in what happened on Wednesday. And now, after the nation and the world watched what happens when people are lied to by their leaders, fed a steady diet of conspiracy theories, told that an election was being stolen from them, and had it all validated by a small, petty, demagogue wanna-be and his sycophant toadies, eight Senators and over one hundred House members stood and perpetuated the lies and conspiracy theories of voter fraud. Remember their names  because these are the people who are laying claim to to the racists and ultra-nationalists that make up Trump's hardcore base. 

Never mind the fact this election was deemed the most secure, possibly in history, by handpicked Trump people, most notably former Attorney General Bill Barr and former head of CISA (Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency) Chris Krebs. Krebs was fired by Trump - by tweet - when he thoroughly debunked Trump's lies about there being widespread voter fraud. Barr was given a few days to resign after he too said there was no voter fraud or wrongdoing by the individual states. 

Donald Trump is clearly a danger to our Democracy. He has stoked and magnified the fears of unhinged conspiracy theorists. The terror attacks of Wednesday were advertised for weeks by Trump. Donald Trump needs to be removed from office immediately, either by the Twenty-Fifth Amendment or by Impeachment.

Trump Administration and Republican Leadership Complicit in Sedition

 Where is ANYONE in the Trump administration condemning today's events? Where is the head of Homeland Security? Where is the head of the F.B.I.? Where is the head of the National Security Agency condemning this coup attempt. Where, the Fuck, is anyone in federal leadership. The fact is Trump and all his lackeys and sycophants are complicit in what's happening at the Capitol Building. Where is Susan Collins, Republican Senator of Maine who said after Trump was Impeached by the House, "I think the President has learned a lesson." Why is Susan Collins not on all the cable news networks apologizing for her own stupidity and begging the terrorists to stand down? Along with Donald Trump, and Mike Pence, anyone in Congress with an R behind their name, Lindsey Graham, Mitch McConnel, Susan Collins, the whole lot of them, is complicit in acts of terrorism.