Troops on Alert Over Ukraine, Tracing 11,780 Georgia Votes and Clutching at Our Pearls
TUESDAY, JANUARY 25, 2022
Putin Triggers U.S. Military – The Pentagon has ordered 8,500 troops on high alert for potential deployment, not to Ukraine, but to NATO bases elsewhere in Eastern Europe as Russian President Vladimir Putin takes advantage of Western panic over his amassing more than 100,000 troops on Ukraine’s eastern border (AP).
“Putin’s decision on invading Ukraine will depend on what side of the bed he wakes up on,” President Biden said Monday.
Known Unknowns: Kremlinologists still hold out the possibility that Putin is simply stirring up NATO, which he wants out of the former Eastern Bloc, and the U.S., where Biden is still dealing with deep criticism for his disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan.
But invading all of Ukraine also will recall for Russians the nine disastrous years Soviet Russia spent in Afghanistan in the 1970s and 1980s, well before our own disastrous 20 years in the country.
“I don’t believe that full invasion is in his plans,” Nina Khruscheva, author and professor at The New School, and yes, great-granddaughter of the late Soviet Premier Nikita Khruschev, told NPR’s Morning Edition Tuesday. “If he were to invade it wouldn’t be that open. … I think it would be more of a blackmail-brinksmanship.”
•••
About Those 11,780 Votes – Judges on Fulton County’s Superior Court Bench gave District Attorney Fani Willis the green light for a special grand jury to investigate ex-President Trump’s efforts to overturn Georgia’s 2020 presidential election resultsThe Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.
A special grand jury will be impaneled May 2, according to the report, and can convene for a period “not to exceed 12 months,” chief judge Christopher S. Brasher, wrote in informing Willis of the court’s ruling last week.
Note: The grand jury investigation almost certainly will affect the Democratic-Republican balance in the U.S. Senate, where Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) faces re-election in this fall’s midterms. Warnock’s challenger will be determined in the state’s May 22 primaries, and Trump’s hand-picked candidate is former New Jersey Generals (the Trump-owned USFL team) running back Herschel Walker, and Georgia voters will be watching for news from the grand jury for those six months between the primary and midterms.
•••
People Across U.S. Clutch Their Pearls Monday — President Joe Biden met with the White House Competition Council Monday to talk about efforts it has made so far to improve competitiveness in the economy. Among the topics discussed were:
• FDA-proposed rules that would make hearing aids available over the counter;
• FTC commitments to ramp up enforcement on behalf of “right-to-repair” rules;
• DOJ actions to challenge or block mergers that would have negative impacts on the economy.
But of course, you probably know none of that. You do know that Biden referred to Peter Doocy of Fox News as “a stupid son of a bitch.”
Note: While it is absolutely indecorous for the president of the United States to use language considered to be common, one could make the argument that Donald Trump’s litany of verbal abuses is something that will be hard for any 10 presidents to trump, even if they each spent hours before getting in front of a microphone slamming boilermakers.
Perhaps this will help Biden’s numbers with some Republicans and Independents who support(ed) Trump because of his alleged shoot-from-the-hip approach.
--Edited by Todd Lassa, Gary S. Vasilash and Nic Woods