“Stay fully, totally, thoroughly united.”

March 25, 2022

[Audio edition here]

          At a perilous moment in world history, President Biden met in Brussels with a united and renewed North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Biden was welcomed by other world leaders as a trusted friend and respected statesman. It could have been otherwise. If Biden had not been elected, it is highly likely the U.S. would have withdrawn from NATO before Russia invaded Ukraine. As detailed in their book “I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trump’s Catastrophic Final Year,” authors Phil Rucker and Carol Leonnig write, “Trump had privately indicated that he would seek to withdraw from NATO and to blow up the U.S. alliance with South Korea, should he win reelection.” Though Trump was denied the chance to withdraw the U.S. from NATO, he inflicted great damage on the world’s most important treaty organization. Biden has helped to quickly repair that damage.

          Putin made many blunders in starting his war on the Ukrainian people. But one of his biggest miscalculations was underestimating the degree to which NATO would unify against Russia’s unprovoked aggression. Although there is great frustration in Ukraine over NATO’s unwillingness to start a “hot war” with Russia, Putin’s beleaguered army is looking westward at a unified, expanded, and primed NATO alliance. That is the last thing Putin wanted—or believed would happen. Every member of NATO deserves credit for the newfound unity, but the election of President Biden helped make a reinvigorated NATO possible. Whether NATO 2.0 can deter and contain Putin remains to be seen, but there is no question that a strong U.S. commitment to NATO will maximize the possibility of success.

          President Zelenskyy spoke to the assembled members of NATO on Thursday and reiterated his plea for the maximum military aid possible—including aircraft, air defense systems, shoulder-fired missiles, and tanks. Zelenskyy is right to ask for maximum support from NATO because he must act in the best interests of his people based on his battlefield judgments. Although NATO and the U.S. have provided thousands of shoulder-fired missiles and tens of millions of rounds of ammunition, they have drawn the line at a no-fly zone and fighter aircraft (for now, at least).

          Drawing those lines is a painful and delicate task. It is easy to second-guess the judgments of military intelligence about what aid Putin will consider to be “direct intervention” justifying a nuclear response. For example, former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul said on Thursday evening that he did not see a difference between providing Stinger anti-aircraft missiles or fighter aircraft to Ukraine. While McFaul’s argument has some logical merit, he does not have access to the military intelligence that has caused the U.S. to come to a different conclusion.

          After the meeting in Brussels, Biden answered questions from the media, which (for the most part) were “gotcha” questions designed to second-guess the lines being drawn by NATO and the U.S. One reporter (from CBS) asked Biden about the new sanctions announced by NATO on Thursday. After the reporter asserted that prior sanctions “didn’t work,” she asked, “What makes you think Vladimir Putin will alter course based on the action you have taken today.” Biden gave a great answer, highlighting that it was the maintenance of sanctions over time that could change Putin’s behavior, not merely the imposition of sanctions themselves. Biden said, in part:

Let’s get something straight. If you remember, if you have covered me from the beginning, I did not say [that] sanctions would deter him. Sanctions never deter. You keep talking about that. [It is] the maintenance of sanctions. The maintenance of sanctions. The increasing the pain, and that’s why I asked for this NATO meeting today[.]

You are playing a game with me. . . . The single most important thing is for us to stay unified and for the world to continue to focus on what a brute this guy is, and on all the innocent peoples’ lives being lost and ruined . . . . [I]f you’re Putin, and you think Europe is going to crack in a month, [Russia] can take anything for another month. But we have to demonstrate. . . we have to stay fully, totally, thoroughly united.

          Biden’s emphasis on NATO unity and the maintenance of sanctions over the long term does not fit neatly into the reporter’s gotcha narrative. But Joe Biden deserves credit for speaking the plain truth: “We have to stay fully, totally, thoroughly united” to defeat Putin. That Joe Biden understands that truth and has the discipline and diplomatic skills to help NATO maintain its unity is a truly fortunate fact for the U.S. and the world.   

[Note, many right-wing media outlets are gleefully reporting that Biden has “changed his stance” on sanctions “because they didn’t work.” Not true. Biden repeatedly refused to impose sanctions in advance of Russia’s invasion, which would have been an example of sanctions as “deterrence.” When sanctions are imposed after the fact, they are manifestly designed to “increase the pain” of sustaining the targeted conduct over the long run, as Biden said in his answer.]

          As Biden proposes that Russia be kicked out of the G-20 group of leading economies, the war continues badly for Russia. Ukraine destroyed a ship in the port near Mariupol that carried armored personnel carriers. Putin’s Defense Minister (and best friend forever?) Sergei Shoigu has not been seen in over a week. See CNN, Kremlin dodges questions on Defense Minister amid reports of health problems. An investigative journalist at The Jamestown Foundation detailed Putin’s failed attempts to control public opinion. Kseniya Kirillova writes about Putin’s “public relations” dilemma as follows:

[E]ven pro-government information sources find a “significant increase in public fatigue” [but] authorities already have demonstrated that they have no other mechanism to react to popular discontent than increased repression.

          In short, Putin’s solution for discontent on the home front is to say, “The beatings will continue until morale improves.” That is never a winning proposition and underscores why Biden’s call for unity and “increasing pain” over the long run may be the most effective way to contain Putin.

The worst scandal in the history of the Supreme Court?

          Justice Clarence Thomas has participated in several matters that arose out of the January 6th insurrection and Trump’s failed coup. Text messages recently obtained by the January 6th Select Committee show that Justice Thomas’ wife, Ginni Thomas, urged others to move forward with the plot to overturn the 2020 election. She is either a material witness or a co-conspirator. In either event it was wildly inappropriate for Justice Thomas to participate in any matter that involved the coup attempt or the insurrection. See WaPo, Virginia Thomas urged White House chief to pursue unrelenting efforts to overturn the 2020 election, texts show.

          Although Justice Thomas can’t discuss the Court’s business with his wife, Ginny Thomas is free to tell husband about her day job of attempting to overthrow the government. Did she? That question raises the question posed by Dan Rather in his essay in Steady, What Does Clarence Thomas Know? And when did he know it? As Rather writes,

          Let’s be clear with what we already know. . . . It was a coup attempt. It would have sparked a constitutional crisis that would have torn apart this nation. . . . Was [Justice Thomas] trying to protect his wife when he was the lone dissent in a case about handing over documents to the congressional committee investigating January 6?

          Sadly, the milquetoast Chief Justice will do nothing to determine whether his Court is rotten to the core. If Roberts and Thomas refuse to address this breach of trust, there is only one constitutional remedy that will allow Congress to learn what Justice Thomas knew and when he knew it: Impeachment. Justice Thomas can explain himself in a trial before the Senate if he maintains his Sphinx-like silence on the obvious conflicts of interest created by his wife’s encouragement of a coup.

          Of course, Merrick Garland could investigate the attempted coup and question Ginni Thomas before a grand jury. But Garland will not even bother to peer over the top of his morning edition of the Wall Street Journal to arch an inquisitive eyebrow. He might “harrumph” loudly and sip his tea with extra vigor but will settle back into his slouch of protecting the DOJ from the unavoidable political heat that will accompany protecting the Constitution from a rogue president.

Speaking of Merrick Garland.

          Mark Meadows refused to appear before the January 6th Select Committee, which then referred the matter to Merrick Garland on December 15, 2021 for prosecution for criminal contempt. For three months, the DOJ has done nothing to prosecute Meadows. So, when Peter Navarro received a subpoena from the Select Committee, guess what he did? Navarro opted for the “Mark Meadows get-out-of-jail free card” by thumbing his nose at the subpoena. Who can blame him if the DOJ is the place where contempt citations go to die?

          If Garland believes that the contumacious behavior of Meadows and Navarro does not deserve to be prosecuted, he should say so. Contrary to what Garland appears to believe, lack of communication during a constitutional crisis is not helpful and is not in accord with Justice Department policy.

To lift your spirits!

          The group Markers For Democracy is hosting a series of virtual conversations with interesting and inspiring guests like Cory Booker on March 25, Michael Waldman (President of the Brennan Center) on March 27, Qian Julie Wang (author of Beautiful Country) on March 31, Bill McKibben on April 4, and Kathryn Kolbert & Julie F. Kay (reproductive rights attorneys) on April 26. The dates and details are included in this link: Markers for Democracy Special Events. Markers for Democracy is a great group packed with fun, interesting and committed people like you! Check it out!

Podcast on Saturday with Defenders of Democracy Against Disinformation.

          Join me on Saturday as I interview leaders of Defenders of Democracy Against Disinformation (DDAD). The work of DDAD is critically important at this moment in our history as major media outlets promote disinformation created by the Kremlin. Tune in live at 2:00 PM Eastern / 11:00 AM Pacific on the Callin Social Podcasting App (available in the Apple Store or Google Play).

Concluding Thoughts.

          I expect to receive some blowback from readers who believe I was too harsh and personal in my criticisms of Justice Roberts and Thomas, and Attorney General Garland. I reflected on those possible objections before I included my criticisms and concluded they are appropriate and necessary. First, part of the mission of this newsletter is to give voice to the outrage that people are feeling over events that have been normalized or ignored in the constant stream of outrage that has become the norm. As Dan Rather said in his excellent essay about Ginni Thomas, linked above,

Truth has regularly galloped past the limits of fiction. The half-life of outrage can be measured in nanoseconds.

          If outrage ceases to exist, then nothing is beyond the pale of decency, and we are lost. Roberts and Thomas have allowed the Court to undermine the public’s confidence in the administration of justice in America. That is a grave injury that warrants harsh judgment of their role in inflicting the injury.

          As to Merrick Garland, we are in an ongoing constitutional crisis. The fact that he cannot rouse himself to break free of intuitionalist constraints of “the way the DOJ always does things” may inflict an injury on America far beyond any reputational controversy that will accompany a prosecution of Trump.

          If Roberts and Garland are not up to the moment, we must be. These are not normal times, and we cannot pretend otherwise. We must not surrender to exhaustion or cynicism or defeatism. We must act with urgency—because we have no other option. It will not always be so. We will regain control of the Court and Congress and return to regular order. But we can only do so if we continue the fight, sustain our capacity for outrage, and join with other like-minded citizens who give a damn about democracy.

          Take the weekend off and come back on Monday ready to begin again!