The ‘Ukraine in the Membrane, Dog, and Behar Blah Blah’ Edition – Opinion

Against all odds, Ukraine has decided to fight and been somewhat successful, although there are certainly those insisting Russia isn’t really hitting them with everything they have. Things have become a little more frightening in the last few days.

A Sunday briefing of senior U.S. defence officials is ending.

Up front, official acknowledges reports that Putin has put his nuclear forces on alert and said that it is “not only an unnecessary step for him to take, but an escalatory one.”

— Dan Lamothe (@DanLamothe) February 27, 2022

But a legitimate question for Americans is just what exactly has been the role of the Biden administration, either in trying to broker a coalition to push back against Putin’s aggressions as Press Secretary Jen Psaki has insisted has happened, or in working to slow Russia advances by economically weakening them, as Psaki also insists has happened.

PETER DOOCY “[Biden] says the sanctions are gonna take…about a month. Are you sure that the Ukrainian people have only a few days?

PSAKI condescendingly says: “Peter. Let me just take one step back and show everyone how diplomacy actually works.” pic.twitter.com/nf1jPsHonT

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) February 25, 2022

This is from the White House release announcing sanctions — which many have pointed out didn’t intially include the fuel sector.

Putin’s threatening actions and now his unprovoked aggression toward Ukraine are being met with an unprecedented level of multilateral cooperation. The United States welcomes the commitments by Australia, Canada, the European Union, Japan, and the United Kingdom that they will also take similarly forceful actions to hold Russia accountable – demonstrating the strength of our partnerships and deepening the impact on Russia more than any action we could have taken alone. This comes after our earlier joint effort to impose the first tranche of severe sanctions against Russia.

However, the reporting of that initial tranche was much less obsequious.

The sanctions targeted a pair of Russian banks, VEB.RF and Promsvyazbank as well as three members of Russia’s elite with close ties to the Kremlin. Additionally, future Russian sovereign debt purchase were to be stopped.

Yet the sanctions hardly amounted to the precedent-shattering, economy-crippling measures the U.S. and its partners long telegraphed if Russian troops were to roll across the border.

White House officials spent Tuesday afternoon trying defend this measured approach. Questions swirled around about their ability to prevent the Kremlin’s larger assault. Moscow has denied it plans to invade Ukraine and Putin has said he does not currently plan to send forces — he has called them “peacekeepers” — into the breakaway areas of eastern Ukraine, although the treaties he signed with the separatist leaders allow him to do so and build Russian bases.

By Wednesday, the Biden admin added the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to the list of sanctions, rather hilariously because Texas Sen. Ted Cruz spent six months trying to block Biden appointments due to the administration’s refusal to sanction the pipeline after entering office — something that arguably might have staved off the Russian invasion of Ukraine to begin with.

So the big talk coming from the Biden administration doesn’t really match the weak response. And it makes one wonder just what the hell the administration is doing — or hopes to accomplish — as regards Russia and Ukraine. Also, and I admit to hard bias here, it’s exceedingly difficult to the believe Biden brokered the cooperation between nations to enact sanctions. However, I think that in these strange times anything is possible. We would be delighted to have more information from our partners and allies.

I talk about all of this on the show today, as well as offer my thoughts on the surpsingly deep “Dog” (trailer below). Oh and Joy Behar’s embarrassing lack of tact and self-awareness also makes an appearance.

Below, you can listen.

The show lives on Spotify and you can also find me at iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, FCB Radio’s Spreaker, and Deezer.