I don’t have to recount the thousands of times that all but a tiny handful of GOP politicians have praised, looked the other way, made excuses for or lied about the despicable and illegal conduct of TFG.  Goofballs, weirdos and Fox News talking heads called sensible public health policy “tyranny”, comparing wearing masks and getting vaccines to the Nazi run gas chambers during the holocaust.  Said goofballs also did the bidding of TFG  and attacked the US Capitol to stop the lawful certification of the presidential election.  Since the attack, every conservative talking head and politician have twisted themselves into pretzels downplaying the insurrection or trying to justify it because of the tyranny of a free and fair election that their guy lost.

Then comes the guy TFG loves, Vlad Putin.  Doing what TFG only dreams of, Putin completely controls the levers of power in Russia and its zone of influence, having destroyed the constitution that Boris Yeltsin pushed through to make Russia a democracy.  He decided that Ukraine, which has been an independent democracy since 1991 when the Soviet Union finally collapsed, was actually his in his fever dream of rebuilding the Soviet Union.  Violating a whole book full of international laws, Putin launched a full scale invasion of Ukraine last week, expecting the same tepid response of 2014 when he annexed Crimea and succeeded while Europe looked the other way and the US responded with limited sanctions (that Trump undid as one of his first acts in office).  TFG stayed in character this last week lavishing praise on Putin, followed by sycophants at Fox Noise, and the TFG wing of the GOP.

And then, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky stood up, took off his suit, donned olive drab, declared he was not surrendering, and started rallying his people. When offered an evacuation by the US, he declined, saying, “I need ammunition, not a ride.”  Following his lead, thousands of Ukrainians have volunteered to defend their homeland, and even expat Ukrainians are returning to fight.  They’ve built barricades, made Molotov cocktails, taken up arms, and have steadfastly resisted the onslaught.

After witnessing Zelensky’s courage and the response of his people, the international community has responded in a way unseen since 911.  The EU banned Russian aircraft in their airspace; the US, with cooperation of allies, implemented sanctions on Putin and his henchmen, even including denying some Russian banks access to the SWIFT international payments system, which I believe hasn’t been done before and threatens to cripple the Russian economy.  Hundreds of thousands of Russians in large cities around the country, risking arrest and detention, publicly protested against Putin.  The EU offered to finance weapons into Ukraine, and then Fedex and UPS announced that they were halting all shipments into and out of Russia. Shortly after, BP announced that it was exiting its 20%, $14 billion position in Rosneft, the Russian national oil company.  Boom. In less than a week, Putin was isolated and now a pariah in global political and industry circles with few exceptions.  Even Putin ass-kisser Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has announced that he is “neutral” about the attack on Ukraine.

The pressure on Putin is now so great that, after putting his nuclear assets on alert, he asked for talks with Ukraine through the president of Belarus.  So far the talks are said to be arranged on the border between Ukraine and Belarus, a Russian satellite state.  There are no real hopes for progress, but with Putin raising the specter of nuclear war, he is clearly on his heels.

This is how you deal with a despot.  When they threaten unlawful actions, you don’t appease.  You kick them in the groin and poke them in the eye.  This is not only how you deal with Putin, you do the same thing with shitbags like TFG, Bolsanaro, Kim Jong Un, and other despots around the world.  They rule with fear; they’re bullies.  When overpowered, they run.

There is a lesson being taught the world by the people of Ukraine.  I’m just hoping that many people, including TFG appeasers, are learning it.

This week the NY Times published an excellent analysis of US response to the COVID 19 epidemic by compiling data from Johns Hopkins, the World Bank, and the US Census Bureau.  What the data show is a stark picture of just how badly the US responded to the pandemic compared to other developed countries.  The stupidity of the response is well illustrated in just two graphs:

The left graph is cumulative deaths per 100,000 since the pandemic began. The right graph is cumulative deaths from only the Omicron wave.  Notice that the US “wins” the death race over other wealthy countries by a LOT, and that failure stems from stupid public policy that is engrained in the US; the failure is worsened as a result of the stupidity of millions of Americans who chose to believe bullshit and have participated in politicizing science, vilifying of scientists  and doctors, and spreading nonsensical conspiracy theories about vaccines.

At the beginning of the pandemic, most wealthy countries locked down quickly, including the US.  The difference, though, was how the US did that compared to other countries.  Unlike the US, other wealthy countries, especially in Europe, took over the paychecks of their citizens, keeping them financially secure, which encouraged them to stay home and safe.  Characteristically, the US did it wrong.  First the US government stupidly poured a TRILLION dollars into companies with the stated goal of keeping people on the payroll, but the program was botched, and much of that money went into the pockets of the wealthy with little reaching  those who actually needed the money.  Second, GOP lead states like Texas started the misinformation campaign that developed into what is now a death cult among conservatives.  Recall that during this time, Dan Patrick, retired talk show host and bar owner, actually suggested that we should sacrifice the old and weak in favor of saving the economy.

Red states like Texas did extend unemployment benefits for a time, but that support was nowhere near livable, forcing millions of people to choose between risking the lives of themselves and their families and putting food on the table.  We all know how that turned out.  Add that to bullshit coming out of TFG’s mouth, his shutdown of all pandemic response that Bush II and Obama had put in place, and putting PPE response into the hands of that idiot Jared Kushner, and the perfect storm of stupidity flooded the entire country driving the US to the highest case and death rate in the developed world.

And it continues.  Playing to their base in an election year, Republicans all over the country are trying to out crazy one another doubling down on anti-vaxxer fears,  goofy conspiracy theories, and trying to to distract them with wild rhetoric about critical race theory and banning books.  And while they’re doing everything but their damn jobs, people continue to die.