January 27

 Good morning--and it is still morning for another 30 minutes. We have been very lazy today and just sat around vegetating. We didn't want to look at the news so I have a stack of our re-runs to go through. The coverage has gotten to the point that they rehash everything and provide nothing new. I didn't even get the computer out until just a bit ago.

The first thing I saw after disposing of a bunch of ads was a piece by Bill Astore which was interesting for a couple of reasons. I won't link because I trashed it before I realized I wanted to comment. He writes that Britain is asking the U.S. to recover its resolve and continue funding Ukraine. Someone pointed out yesterday, I think, that the U.S. is actually fourteenth among the nations supporting Ukraine though many of the system they rely on are from the U.S. Astore suggests that the U.K. should send some $60 billion also instead of pushing the U.S. to save Europe from Vlad and his Russian hordes. Unfortunately, I don't think their economy (or the economies of other European nations can cough up that sum for long. And I doubt we can either. A writer, I forget who, said some decades ago that it is easy to be generous when you seem to have an excess. He was talking about the U.S. effort to fund a range of social endeavors (medicare among them) while fighting a war in Southeast Asia. It didn't go well. I have thought for some time that our economy isn't as robust as we have been told. We no longer have the heavy industry we once had. We aren't the only intact industrial power any more. The most basic question is can we afford to let Putin have Ukraine? Considering the legislation their Duma passed last week and which Putin signed directing that the Russian government begin to recover property lost over the last few centuries, maybe not. Among the "property" mentioned was Finland, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, most of Eastern Europe, and Alaska. The we have the pairs questions of whether we, even if the E.U. stays on board, have the resources and resolve to stop Russia and whether Russia has the economic and military muscle to accomplish their aims.

Stray thought: is there any way to criticize Israel without being accused antisemitism. Israeli officials have accused the ICJ of just that. Over the years I have heard the same every time anyone voices any criticism however mild. Israel has traded on the Holocaust for the last 70 years during which time the character of Israel has changed. And American and European governments haven't noticed or have ignored.