A daughter of Ukraine.

March 1, 2022

[Audio version here]

          As the world grapples with its most serious crisis in seventy-five years, American pollsters and media outlets continue to focus on the question of Joe Biden’s popularity—and how his handling of the Ukraine war will affect his favorability ratings. Pollsters have pushed their questions to new heights of stupidity, asking fatuous questions such as, “Would Putin have invaded Ukraine if Trump was still president,” and “Is Joe Biden capable of handling the Ukrainian crisis?” The questions reduce a human tragedy of immense proportions to superficial soundbites to increase clicks and advertising revenue. The human carnage is relegated to background noise in the media’s obsession with converting every event into a predictor of electoral success.

          Here’s my advice. Ignore the polls. Focus on reality by supporting Biden as he tries to do the right thing for global security and the Ukrainian people. The American people will have the opportunity to vote for Biden or his successor two-and-half years hence—an eternity in politics. Who would have believed only two weeks ago that Putin would mount an all-out attack on the Ukrainian people and threaten nuclear retaliation to save his failing invasion? How Joe Biden responds to that threat is far more important than the hourly changes in Biden’s favorability rating.

          The truth is that Biden has done a masterful job of managing a maddeningly complex situation. Jonathan Last’s essay in The Bulwark discusses Biden’s deft handling of the crisis. See The Bulwark, The West Is Winning, Russia Is Losing, and Biden Is Doing a Good Job. Last writes:

          Biden did not draw lines in the sand. He did not personalize the conflict. He did not turn himself into the star of the show. He did not allow anyone, anywhere, to believe that this was about America.

          Since the invasion, Biden has been a full partner with our European allies. He has not pushed them into decisions. He recognized that having a united front was more important than any particular aspect of the response. And after only four days Europe came to the conclusion—on its own—that it would do everything the American foreign policy establishment had wanted. Biden understood that these countries needed to come to the decision to fight back on their own, and not be publicly cajoled into it.

          A week ago, the media and the GOP were badgering Biden about sanctions that were seemingly left on the table after Biden’s initial announcement. A week later, the sanctions imposed by a united alliance far exceed anyone’s expectations or imagination. See, e.g., WaPo, U.S., European allies freeze ‘Putin’s war chest’ as Russia careens toward economic crisis.

          But as the allies cornered Putin with sanctions and the Ukrainian people mounted fierce resistance, Putin decided to attack the civilian population. On Monday, Russian planes dropped cluster bombs on residential neighborhoods in Kharkiv, and a forty-mile-long convoy with missiles and hyperbaric weapons is moving towards Kyiv. The convoy is bypassing Ukrainian military bases, suggesting that Putin intends to inflict heavy damage on the homes and businesses of non-combatants in Kyiv. Such actions are war crimes. The International Criminal Court at The Hague has opened a war crimes investigation of Putin’s assault on the civilian population in Ukraine. The Guardian, ICC prosecutor to investigate possible war crimes in Ukraine | Ukraine.

          At this point, Putin has managed to undermine his iron grip on the Russian people, his oligarch buddies, and the military. Two billionaires spoke out against the war—calling for an end to the bloodshed. But in Putin’s Russia, speaking one’s mind is dangerous business. And there are speculative reports of unrest in the upper-echelons of the Russian military. Finally, over 5,000 Russian protesters have been arrested since the invasion.

          Putin seems not to care about his eroding support. He is intent on unleashing terror on the Ukrainian people in pursuit of his folly of re-establishing the Russian empire. The world must continue to punish Putin as he inflicts suffering on hundreds of thousands of innocent people.

A review of the upcoming reviews of Biden’s State of the Union address.

          Whatever Biden says in his State of the Union address, he will be criticized. But few commentators will note that the successes of Biden’s first year were achieved despite challenges that rival those faced by Lincoln and FDR. A reader (Stephen B.) sent me the following note, which is worth keeping in mind as Biden rightly lists his accomplishments on Tuesday and concludes that “the state of the union is sound.”

No one has clearly articulated the obstacles and challenges  Biden has had to deal with in his first year in office. I cannot remember in my lifetime a President who in his first term faced as many challenges such as:

• An attack on the legitimacy of his election victory.

• An insurrection and attempted coup before his Inauguration.

• A massive pandemic and the previous administration’s inadequate planning and a lack of an infrastructure to support and control the pandemic.

• A consistent right-wing campaign of misinformation on social media platforms against vaccines and masks.

• The withdrawal from Afghanistan and intense criticism of the method of the evacuation and the results.

• Negative media coverage and reporting. 

• Severe supply chain issues due to the pandemic, availability of resources and poor supply chain management and planning.

• High inflation due to pent up demand and consumer over-indulgence on products rather than services, and corporate greed.

• Rising energy prices.

• Uniform Republican opposition, with an assist from Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema.

• Fierce partisan disputes over voting rights, the filibuster, and the Supreme Court.

• Ukraine.

          That is quite a list. Few presidents would still be standing in the face of such headwinds. But as Biden finishes his first year, he has successfully resurrected NATO and re-established trust in U.S. leadership during the biggest crisis since WWII. That is saying something—despite whatever the pundits say tomorrow.

Conservatives on Supreme Court seem poised to gut EPA—and much of federal rulemaking authority.

          On Monday, the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued its most dire report to date on the need to address the climate crisis on a global scale. See The Guardian, The IPCC climate report is grim – but there is still room for hope. On Monday, during oral arguments before the Supreme Court, the reactionary majority signaled its intent to strip the EPA of its authority to regulate carbon emissions. The case is a travesty that should not be before the Court. Why? Because the two regulations at issue are no longer in force—meaning that there is no “case or controversy” for the Court to adjudicate. But that did not stop the conservative majority from taking the opportunity to find some way—indeed, any way—to limit the authority of the EPA to regulate carbon emissions.

          As the Court’s conservative majority struggled to find a reason to invalidate regulations that are no longer in effect, they engaged in “spitballing” to come up with a rationale that would support their foregone conclusion. Once upon a time, Republicans called such tactics “judicial activism.” Now they call it “Because we can.” Ian Millhiser explains the conservative majority’s bad faith in Vox, The Supreme Court wants to gut the EPA, but can’t figure out how. Yet another reason to expand the Supreme Court.

Concluding Thoughts.

          Putin’s war on Ukraine will create hundreds of thousands of refugees. Those refugees will depend on the kindness of strangers—including you and me—to help them establish new lives in unfamiliar places. Many of you know that my wife, a.k.a. my Managing Editor, publishes a daily blog that focuses on the lighter side of life. In today’s blog, she writes about her grandmother, who emigrated to America from Ukraine when she was two years old. Her grandmother’s life was changed by the kindness of a stranger who helped her create a new life in America—a life that gave rise to four generations of Americans (and counting). Here is Jill’s entry from her blog today, Everyday With Jill: A Daughter of Ukraine:

          The youngest of five children and the only girl, my grandmother immigrated from Odessa, Ukraine with her parents when she was two years old. They made the journey in steerage in a large transatlantic steamer, where my grandma’s mother died on board before they arrived in America.

          Thus, the family arrived with four sons, one little girl, and their father, but without a mother. The sons made their way across America to rural areas in South Dakota as farmhands. Their father, my great grandfather, settled in Aberdeen, South Dakota with my grandma.

          But life was difficult for immigrants in the city. My great grandfather became despondent and succumbed to alcoholism, which caused him to be inattentive and neglectful of his little daughter, Mary.

          Hungry and unsupervised, my grandmother began to wander the alleys near their home, digging in the trash for food to feed herself. One day, a Czechoslovakian immigrant, Anastasia Svoboda, found my grandmother in the alley digging through trash and took her in, fed her, and began to care for her as a mother would.

          And because of Anastasia, because of a stranger who took pity on a little lost child, newly immigrated, hungry, and uncared for, I am here today.

          It is surprising to think of how history repeats itself, even in small family lives, where strangers reach across borders to help those that they don’t know, feed those they have never met, and house new immigrants that have fled their homes and need a family to care for them.

          It’s been a rough two years, and now we face another unimaginable crisis. The purpose of this blog has been to provide cheer and respite through these difficult times. But today we cannot look away. Our neighbors across the globe do not have the privilege of looking away, and so we must stand still, and virtually hold their hearts and their hands, and send them the strength that they need to endure. As Anastasia did for my Grandma Mary so many years ago.

          And so today, I share my spring garden with them—and with you. For calm. For strength. For good.

          Ukrainians, including my dear Grandma, Mary Kom Palank, have taught us so much. How to endure, how to resist, and how to fight for survival. We must follow their example.

          Talk to you tomorrow!