DL Open Thread: Thurs., Feb. 24, 2022

Putin Starts Shootin’:

Early Thursday, just as President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia announced on television that he had decided “to carry out a special military operation” in Ukraine, explosions were reported across the country.

Blasts were heard in Kyiv, the capital; in Kharkiv, the second largest city; and in Kramatorsk in the region of Donetsk, one of two eastern Ukrainian territories claimed by Russia-backed separatists since 2014.

In a phone call on Thursday, Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, told his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, that his country had been forced to take “necessary measures to protect its interests” after the United States and NATO “broke their promises,” according to a brief summary of the call released by Chinese state media.

Aleksei A. Navalny, the jailed Russian opposition politician, used a court hearing on Thursday to condemn President Vladimir V. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

“The war with Ukraine has been unleashed to cover up the robbery of Russian citizens and divert their attention away from the country’s internal problems, from the degradation of its economy,” Mr. Navalny said.

Trump Prosecutor Going Soft.  Two top attorneys resign b/c the new Manhattan DA doesn’t seem particularly interested in proceeding with criminal case:

NEW YORK — Two prosecutors heading the Manhattan district attorney’s criminal probe into Donald Trump’s business dealings have resigned from their positions — frustrated that after their former boss authorized them to seek an indictment againstthe former president, the new district attorney appeared uninterested, multiple people familiar with the situation said.

One person familiar with the situation said the new prosecutor took weeks to read memos Dunne and Pomerantz had prepared and didn’t meet with them for some time. When they did meet, he didn’t seem keenly interested, said this person, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations in an ongoing investigation.

Suckers Keep Getting Sucked.  This is what happens when you leave your brain at the Church door and never reclaim it afterwards.  Here’s a real good story about the hucksters and the sucksters:

So it seems a little strange for Geraghty to complain that Republican grifters are letting down President Trump. Donald Trump grifted his way to the presidency and has kept on grifting. It seems positively unfair that his fellow grifters should have to stand down while he keeps wetting his beak. Geraghty complains that many tea-party groups are a “pyramid scheme,” but the essence of a pyramid scheme is that they connect a partnership of con artists with the greatest share of profits flowing to the person at the top.

The fact that the conservative media can publish a column entitled “The Right’s Grifter Problem,” and that the column will depict Donald Trump as a victim rather than a perpetrator, tells you most of what you need to know about why the phenomenon exists in the first place.

Dog Bites Man: Leading Climate Researcher In Bed With Fossil Fuel Industry:

Elsevier, a Dutch company behind many renowned peer-reviewed scientific journals, including The Lancet and Global Environmental Change, is also one of the top publishers of books aimed at expanding fossil fuel production.

For more than a decade, the company has supported the energy industry’s efforts to optimize oil and gas extraction. It commissions authors, editors, and journal advisory board members who are current employees at top oil firms. Elsevier also markets some of its research portals and data services directly to the oil and gas industry to help “increase the odds of exploration success”.

What do you want to talk about?