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MARCH 15, 2022

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT:

MEANWHILE, BACK IN THE SANDBOX, FROM COLLEGE FIX:  Despite an apology and a suspension, Columbia University Irving Medical Center students still want a doctor fired for his controversial tweet that called a black woman beautiful. Leading psychiatrist Jeffrey Lieberman was suspended from his posts as chair of the department of psychiatry and psychiatrist-in-chief at Columbia University Irving Medical Center for his tweet late last month. “Whether a work of art or freak of nature she’s a beautiful sight to behold,” he had said, referring to a photo of Nyakim Gatwech, an American model of South Sudanese descent. In an email to peers before he was suspended, Lieberman apologized and called his tweet “racist and sexist,” adding he was “deeply ashamed” of his “prejudices and stereotypical assumptions,” the New York Times reported.
“An apology from me to the Black community, to women, and to all of you is not enough,” Lieberman wrote in the email. “I’ve hurt many, and I am beginning to understand the work ahead to make needed personal changes and over time to regain your trust.” Lieberman could not be reached for comment by The College Fix. Columbia University Irving Medical Center did not respond to a request for comment as well. Lieberman is world renowned as a leading expert on schizophrenia and well-respected in psychiatry. But psychiatry residents and graduates want him gone for good — as well as stricter diversity and inclusion measures instituted.  Compare please to what Ukrainian students are doing today – defending their country with their own blood.  If the Columbia "students" were mature adults, and not children, they could have handled this with a simple meeting with the professor, not calling for his destruction.  But that may be too much to ask.

March 15, 2022     Permalink

THE WAR – OVERNIGHT:  The president announced that he will leave soon for Brussels to attend a NATO summit meeting on Ukraine.  Can you just imagine the excitement in Brussels? "BIDEN IS BACK!"  There are rumors that Kamala may follow Joe to Brussels, primarily to visit a school and give a free English lesson.

In fact, no one is much interested in the NATO summit.  It comes a war too late.  People are wondering why a summit is even needed.  Ukraine requires arms, not words.  The Ukrainian capital of Kiev is under heavy bombardment, as are other Ukrainian cities. While the Russian ground advance appears to have slowed, in part because of Ukrainian resistance, the prospect of bitter urban warfare lies ahead. One ray of hope – that the Red Army will run out of supplies and not try to advance any further. Only a hope.

And there are new reports of secret negotiations. From Times of Israel:

KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine said it saw possible room for compromise in talks with Russia despite Moscow’s stepped up bombardment Tuesday of Kyiv and new assaults on the port city of Mariupol, from where an estimated 20,000 civilians managed to flee through a humanitarian corridor.

The fast-moving developments on the diplomatic front and on the ground came as Russia’s invasion neared the three-week mark and the number of Ukrainians who have left the country amid Europe’s heaviest fighting since World War II eclipsed 3 million.

After a curfew planned to span 35-hours went into effect across Kyiv Tuesday night, there were fresh reports of explosions and fighting near the capital before dawn on Wednesday.

Delegations from Ukraine and Russia met again Tuesday via video. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said early Wednesday that Russia’s demands were becoming “more realistic.”

The two sides were expected to speak again Wednesday.

“Efforts are still needed, patience is needed,” he said in his nightly video address to the nation. “Any war ends with an agreement.”

While both Moscow and Kyiv signaled progress in ceasefire talks, a Ukrainian presidential aide, Mykhailo Podolyiak, cautioned that while “compromise” was possible, “fundamental contradictions” remained.

Kyiv was “not showing a serious commitment to finding mutually acceptable solutions,” Russian President Vladimir Putin told European Council leader Charles Michel in a call Tuesday.

In his speech, Zelensky, who was expected to address the US Congress on Wednesday, thanked President Joe Biden and “all the friends of Ukraine” for $13.6 billion in new support.

He appealed for more weapons and more sanctions to punish Russia, and repeated his call to “close the skies over Ukraine to Russian missiles and planes.”

He said Russian forces on Tuesday had been unable to move deeper into Ukrainian territory but had continued their heavy shelling of cities.

Over the past day, 28,893 civilians were able to flee the fighting through nine humanitarian corridors, although the Russians refused to allow aid into Mariupol, he said.

COMMENT:  Remember, this war is only three weeks old.  In the bizarre world of television coverage, it seems like it's always been there.  The presumed experts tell us there is no clear end game.  Indeed, some military people had predicted that Vietnam would be over in a few months, and it lasted years.  Most of the action in the Korean War occurred in the first year, when we secured the existence of a South Korea.  After that, the sides fought to a stalemate, and we had two years of peace talks. Believe no one who says he can tell you when Ukraine will end.

March 15, 2022     Permalink

MARCH 14, 2022

WELCOME TO THE WAR – OVERNIGHT: The war in Ukraine is sucking all the oxygen out of the political room. There seems to be an understanding, even among some Democrats, that this is something new, and different. We now realize we can have a major war in Europe, one that can draw in the superpowers quickly.  We can lose this war. We can lose our status as leader of the free world.  Indeed, we seem to be trying.

I ask this question:  Are we really prepared for this crisis? Anyone who replies "yes" hasn't been watching the rapid decline of the United States – a decline begun wilfully under Barack Obama, interrupted by Donald Trump, and now continuing with unseemly enthusiasm by Joseph Biden and his trustless sidekick, Grand Admiral Kamala Harris.

Can you imagine the movie? Fade in: A huge hole where the White House once stood. Kamala Harris enters the frame in rags and four-inch heels, determined to find the teddy bear she left behind as the place was being evacuated.  She finds the remnant of the White House staff, bloody but alive, and announcing that now Americans would understand what Donald Trump and Richard Nixon gave them.  Kamala giggles, and trips over the remains of an Iranian missile financed by the United States.

I ask another question:  Why are we one of the few democracies on Earth that has no mechanism for replacing a clearly failed leadership in times of crisis?  I'm not overlooking impeachment and removal, but that only applies to one officeholder.  I am not forgetting the 25th amendment, but that only allows for removal of an impaired president after a complicated process.

No, I am talking about a Constitutional amendment, precisely and calmly written, that would permit several different entities – Congress, state legislatures, a petition drive, to order a snap election within 30 days, an election that could replace an entire administration, the way any presidential election would.  For goodness sake, the Brits can change administrations overnight.  This proposal would allow a month.

Opponents would argue that such a Constitutionally permitted process could destabilize the presidency, that the office has worked since 1789 because it is so stable.  I ask: What happens when stability fails?  And stability is failing right now.  The president of the United States has led the nation on a rush toward suicide.  His first act after taking the oath was to destroy our energy independence.  This was followed by an all-out political attack on our energy industry, an industry vital to our national survival.  After that, as Americans remember with horror, came the president's vast failure as commander-in-chief, ending the Afghanistan war with a chaotic, humiliating withdrawal worthy of a defeated third-world country. That act was unquestionably examined in the Kremlin before Putin decided to invade and bomb Ukraine.  Today, the president of the United States is rarely mentioned as a serious player in international politics – and we are supposed to be the leader of the free world.

We must finally concede that we have a flaw in the presidential system.  That system may have been tolerable in the pre-nuclear age of artillery shells and bayonets, a time when a train trip from coast to American coast took four or five days.  A presidential election every four years seemed to work, with the president held in check by Congressional elections every second year.  Today, when a nuclear-tipped missile can cross an ocean in 20 minutes, our system is eroding, and needs to be fixed.

Do you agree?

March 14,  2022     Permalink