Persisting during challenging times.

February 18, 2022

[Audio version here]

          The Biden administration continued its policy of immediate transparency regarding Russia’s troop buildup near Ukraine. President Biden told journalists that Russia will likely mount an attack in the “next several days.” Other administration officials reported that Putin’s claim that Russia was withdrawing its troops after “military exercises” was a “deliberate ruse designed to mislead” NATO. Secretary of State Antony Blinken agreed to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov in Germany next week. A State Department representative used the announcement of the meeting to test Putin’s veracity and good faith. The spokesperson said that Blinken agreed to meet next week

provided there is no further Russian invasion of Ukraine. If they do invade in the coming days, it will make clear they were never serious about diplomacy.

          The dueling assertions and denials make it difficult to assess Russia’s true intentions. Although I am not an expert on Russia, I decided to check with the two leading sources of Russian propaganda: Fox News and TASS (the latter being the official Russian news agency, the former being the unofficial Russian news agency).

          On the website for Fox News, there is no mention of Russia’s continued buildup or reports of a “false flag” operation followed by an impending invasion. Instead, there is only Tucker Carlson’s commentary asserting that “Biden has been played by Putin.” Carlson appears to be celebrating the fact that Putin was successful in convincing the U.S.—for a few hours—that Russia was withdrawing its troops from the Ukrainian border. Good boy, Tucker! That’s sticking it to Biden! Vladimir is proud of you!

          The reporting in TASS is more worrisome. Thursday evening (Pacific), the leading headline in TASS/World was Russia Says It May Respond Militarily If U.S. Doesn’t Accept Security Demands. The article went on to say that if the U.S. did not agree to the “whole package” of Russian demands, “Russia will be forced to respond, including through the implementation of military-technical measures.” The reference to “military measures” is clear. The reference to “technical measures” probably refers to cyber attacks. Not reassuring!

          Two other headlines in TASS read as follows: Kremlin warns situation near Russia’s borders could ignite at any moment and Kremlin points to growing tension at Donbass engagement line. I am not a regular reader of TASS (I canceled my subscription to TASS and the WSJ simultaneously and for the same reason—their anti-democratic editorial policies). It may be that alarmist headlines are par for the course in TASS, and I am overinterpreting their bellicose tone. But the above headlines sure seem like they are preparing world opinion for an invasion.

          Most worrisome is that pro-Russian forces in the Donbas region of Ukraine shelled a kindergarten and wounded two teachers. TASS blamed that shelling on Ukrainian forces—exactly the type of “false flag” operation that the U.S. has been predicting.

[Update: As I have been writing this newsletter, TASS added the following headline: Kiev troops violated ceasefire 29 times in past 24 hours.]

          Setting aside Tucker Carlson’s cheerleading for Putin, it appears that Senate Republicans have a reptilian-brain memory of the fact that Russia is a bad actor and a major threat to global security. On Thursday, the Senate overwhelmingly passed a resolution condemning Russia’s threatening move toward Ukraine. Good. That unified support for Ukraine will likely increase if Russia actually invades Ukraine—which will likely strengthen President Biden’s hand in attempts to impose sanctions on Russia.

          An invasion of Ukraine will be a significant setback for European stability. But Biden has navigated the crisis skillfully, even using it to repair some of Trump’s damage inflicted on NATO unity. This crisis is far from over, but we are fortunate to have Biden in the Oval Office at this challenging time.

With friends like Kevin McCarthy, who needs enemies?

          Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy just endorsed the GOP primary challenger to Rep. Liz Cheney, who worked closely with McCarthy as the Chair of the Republican Conference in the House until nine months ago. Loyalty has never been McCarthy’s long suit. See The Hill, McCarthy endorses Cheney primary challenger.

          McCarthy endorsed Harriet Hageman. When a Cheney spokesperson was asked about McCarthy’s endorsement for Hageman, the spokesperson replied, “Wow, she must be really desperate.” Well said!

Join a reader-inspired “corporate accountability project.”

          After January 6th, many U.S. corporations claimed they would no longer support the seditionists in Congress who voted to overturn the 2020 election. Many corporations reneged on their promises within months. Jedd Legum, who writes the wonderful newsletter Popular Information, published several articles that identified corporations that had resumed supporting the Sedition Caucus. I mentioned Legum’s articles and, as a result, connected two readers of this newsletter who expressed interest in organizing a letter writing campaign to hold those corporations to account. The two readers/organizers are now ready to launch their campaign and have provided the following invitation to other readers of Today’s Edition Newsletter:

          We will launch officially this Sunday, February 20th--via Zoom at 12:00 PM Pacific/ 3:00 PM Eastern--to present our database of corporate contacts and to discuss sample letters, procedures, and FAQs. The meeting will be hosted by Cherie Shore at Civic Sunday’s regular weekly meeting. The sign-up link is here: Civic Sundays--Show Up, Do Something!

          Join if you can! Cutting off funding to the Sedition Caucus is an important tool in preventing a repeat of 2020.

Read Dan Rather’s commentary on Elon Musk’s tweet comparing Justin Trudeau to Hitler.

          Canada announced that it would try to freeze the crypto-wallets of the “Freedom Convoy” truckers who blocked the U.S. Canadian border for two weeks. Elon Musk responded with a tweet that contained a full-sized picture of Hitler and a (supposedly) snappy, snarky retort comparing Justin Trudeau to Hitler. To be clear, Musk was comparing the effort to freeze funds used for an illegal blockade with the murder of six million people. Those events do not belong in the same universe, much less the same sentence.

          Dan Rather (as usual) does a superb job of describing jaw-dropping developments that leave most of us sputtering for words. See Dan Rather and Elliot Kirschner in Steady, This is Not Okay. I urge you to read Rather’s entire essay. Rather says, in part,

          This kind of dangerous rhetoric cannot go unchallenged. I cannot imagine any respected national public figure in my lifetime doing something like this. It’s not some “tech dude” being provocative. This is appropriating the deaths of millions of people to make a snarky political comment. And Musk is not alone. More and more we are hearing Hitler and the Nazis invoked to demonize science, knowledge, public health, and social and racial justice.

          Most people who make comparisons between contemporary political developments and Hitler are demonstrating their astonishing ignorance of Hitler and the Holocaust. Add Elon Musk to that ignominious list. Musk joins GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who tried to compare Capitol Hill Police to Hitler’s secret police force, the Gestapo. Instead, she mistakenly referred to the Gazpacho police. It is no laughing matter. The Capitol Hill Police defended democracy on January 6th. The Gestapo played a key role in the Holocaust. No thinking person would make a comparison between the two.

          Tesla is a public company, and Musk is its CEO. If any other CEO in the world compared the Canadian Prime Minister to Hitler, the CEO would be fired. At the very least, the Board of Directors of Tesla should publicly rebuke Musk. As Dan Rather said, “This is not okay.”

Concluding Thoughts.

          In response to my entreaty yesterday that Democratic fundraisers stop predicting the end of democracy in 2022 if Republicans take control of Congress, I received many thoughtful comments from readers. Here are two of my favorites:

          As my favorite Tang Dynasty poet, Du Fu wrote, “The country is broken but the mountains and rivers are still here.” Similarly, even though Trump was president, we went to bed at night, got up in the morning, ate our meals, and did what we had to do in our lives. We kept going. That’s how we defeated Trump and how we will defeat the GOP.

          Upon reading the line from Du Fu’s poem, my immediate reaction was, “We are the mountains and rivers.” If the nation suffers a period of instability, we must be the unchanging features on the landscape of democracy. We can do that, in part, by recognizing that most Americans will continue to live their lives in a decent and productive way despite political turmoil. Another reader wrote in the Comments section that

          We face neither the end of the world nor the end of democracy should Republicans and even DJT return to control of Congress or the White House. Would it be bad? Certainly, but the sun will come up the next day and resistance to authoritarianism and poor governing philosophies will continue.

       We will win if we have the fortitude to endure difficult times. Each of us can recall a time in our lives when we overcame adversity by putting one foot in front of the other until we had the strength to rise above our challenges. If we can do that in our personal lives, we can do that in the life of our democracy. Let us be the mountains and rivers that persist during tumultuous times.

          Talk to you on Monday