Unforgivable rhetoric

 Our specialty.

Volodymyr Zelensky came virtually to Washington today with a speech and a video called "Close the Sky," perhaps calculating that the US Congress would respond to images and evocative music instead of words.  Very perceptive.  They applauded and wept.

Zelensky was very specific about what he needs short of a no-fly zone:  S-300 missiles and MiG29 fighters.  He's getting a $13.6 billion "package."  Maybe some armed drones called Switchblades.  The onslaught continues.

"Unforgivable rhetoric" was Putin's hurt-feelings response to Biden calling him a war criminal.  Lindsey Graham has swung back to calling for assassination, adding that John McCain would feel the same way.  He still misses McCain.  He also has nothing to lose now that a couple of New York Times reporters have a book which says Graham called White House counsel Pat Cipollone on January 6, 2021, to talk 25th Amendment if Trump refused to denounce the coup he had instigated.  "You're special, we love you" is probably not what Senator Integrity had in mind.  But he also wimped out on Twenty-five.   

Just off-stage, the slow collapse of civil society continues.  Idaho Republicans decided that the gynephobic anti-choice laws in Texas, Florida and Missouri weren't nearly cruel and stupid enough (Missouri has signed on to the myth that an ectopic pregnancy can and must be "re-implanted" because science doesn't count as much as punishing women).  The Idaho bill allows "biological relatives" of the "pre-born" to sue clinics and doctors, even including the rapist's second cousin Cletus.  (No more than ten, please, we're not barbarians.)  Who needs Ammon Bundy?  The state's already an asylum without walls.

A Republican named Peter Schiff, who failed to get elected to the Senate from Connecticut, nevertheless decided to grab some attention by complaining of Zelensky's attire.  "I understand times are hard, but doesn't the President of the Ukraine own a suit?  I don't have much respect for current members of the U.S. Congress either, but I still wouldn't address them wearing a t-shirt."  Chuckling at his own wit, he hit "send."  Oh, Mr. Schiff, does your work as an economist at Euro Pacific Capital ever take you near the sound of artillery?  By the way, no one calls it "the Ukraine" anymore.  But thanks for reminding us that Connecticut voters made the right choice.  Also you look like Trotsky.

Like Br'er Rabbit fighting the Tar-Baby, Lauren Boebert can't free herself from her State of the Union antics.  Now she's relating a letter she says she got from "Shana Chappell, the mother of Lieutenant Corporal Kareem Nikoui."  The lady exists; the rank doesn't.  Unless it's the one held by her imaginary friend Prince John.  Her term is nearly over.  She should sit down and shut up.

I was hoping to avoid this.  Atrocity of the day:  Russian troops shot down ten people standing in line for bread in Chernihiv.  Runner up:  A theater in Mariupol being used as a shelter was bombed.  Their mistake was writing in large letters and in Russian CHILDREN.  Gave them something to aim at.  And speaking of atrocities...

Pat Robertson is older than the plague and far more unpleasant.  Also, he can't wait for the End Times.  There is no other way to interpret his weird demand for Biden to call Putin's "bluff" and unleash nuclear weapons on Russia.  Listen, Marion (for that is the name your mama gave you), if you need to merge with your god go out in the woods and shoot yourself.  Some of us want to see the last season of The Crown.

Russian gangsters are having their yachts seized all over the world.  Wouldn't it be a shame if somebody accidentally took Joe Manchin's yacht by mistake?  Accidentally?  And it got broken?  It would.  And that Jeff Bezos monstrosity which will require the dismantling of a bridge to get it out of Rotterdam.  Some of these fuckers are bigger than the Titanic, which suggests another solution.

And lest we relax, covid is making a comeback.  A quarter-million new cases in Germany.  A whole Chinese province locked down.  Maybe Robertson has the right idea.