Good morning, this is The Smoke Eater for Monday, April 25, 2022, and Johnny, Ivan, Ian, everybody come along for our nations need new heroes.
NOTE: My Go Fund Me campaign to cover the war in Ukraine is still running; I head out Saturday. The Smoker Eater is hastily written, poorly edited, mobile-friendly, always free and supported by super awesome readers. If you want to be super awesome, tip me on Ko-Fi, or subscribe to my Patreon!
Two Months Later...
Sunday marked two months since the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The Kyiv Independent has a gallery of before and after photos.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin went to Ukraine to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky. During a press gaggle in Poland, Blinken announced the U.S. embassy in Kyiv would reopen in the coming weeks, and a the typically reserved Austin said the U.S. wanted to see "Russia weakened to the point where it can't do things like invade Ukraine." Austin added that Russia has, "already lost a lot of military capability and a lot of its troops, quite frankly, and we want to see them not have the capability to very quickly reproduce that capability.”
MORE: Russia is (again) warning the U.S. to stop sending arms to Ukraine. On March 31, Russian President Vladimir Putin drafted another 134,500 conscripts during the annual spring military draft. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said training would take three to five months, adding,"recruits will not be sent to any hot spots." Russian legal nerds (in exile) note Russian can legally send conscripts wherever they want. In somewhat related story, on April 10 the LA Times reported China has been quietly selling weapons to Serbia.
On Thursday, U.S. President Joe Biden announced $1.3 billion in aid for Ukraine that includes $800 million for ammo and heavy artillery, and $500 million in economic assistance to cover Ukrainian government salaries, pensions and social programs. The U.S. has so far given and $1 billion in economic support.
There are calls for the U.S. to give frozen funny money from Russia's Central Bank to Ukraine, but (TLDR) as Andrew Boyle notes in Just Security, it would require members of Congress to actually agree on something beyond their collective love of freedom fries since the U.S. isn't technically fighting Russia (cybersecurity nerds might disagree to a certain extent).
Biden is hoping to link new COVID aid with aid to Ukraine, but last week Andrew Desiderio reported for Politico that some members of Congress were complaining about priorities.
While most Republicans are talking tough about Russia (now that Trump is no longer capable of pulling the U.S. out NATO, or repeatedly extorting and blackmailing Ukraine for political gain), others in the Republican’s crackpot and apologist caucuses are attempting to downplay the crisis in Ukraine. Orgy objector Rep. Madison Cawthorne called Zelensky a "thug" during a town hall, and Ohio Republican Senate candidate J.D. Vance suggested that the images of dead civilians and children laying are sad and icky, but, "the tragedies that we have to care most about as policy makers…is not what’s going on 6,000 miles away."
NOTE: J.D. Vance is not a policy maker, he’s a Trump-endorsed venture capitalist backed by Trump-supporting venture capitalist, Peter Thiel.
MORE: A handful of career shitheads professional bloviators are engaging in the usual of egalitarian NIMBY (Not My Boys, Y'all) BS that fabulously wealthy people say whenever there's talk about sending young Americans into a conflict, and playing what-aboutism with isolationists who have an irrational fear of Not America.
Below the Fold
New polling form the AP and National Opinion Research Center shows Americans don't want boots on the ground in Ukraine, and that Biden isn't doing enough.
As Robert Kagan writes in Foreign Affairs, the war in Ukraine has renewed calls for changes in international diplomacy.
In the U.N., Lichtenstein submitted a proposal to force countries on the Security Council explain their vetoes and allow other U.N. members to bitch them out. According to Lichtenstein's U.N. ambassador, Christian Wenaweser, the hope is to, "promote the voice of all of us who are not veto-holders, and who are not on the Security Council, on matters of international peace and security because they affect all of us."
The AP summarizes how the General Assembly has so far suspended Russia from the Human Rights Council, blamed Russia for causing a humanitarian clusterfuck and demanded Russians stop being violent assholes.
MORE: On April 5, Zelensky told the council that Russia's presence on the Security Council was, "turning the veto...into the right to die," and that the group, "simply cannot work effectively." Zelensky concluded that Russia should either be removed, and that the council should be reformed or dissolved.
One More Thing...
Despite a low turn-out, French President Emanuel Macron was reelected on Sunday after handily defeating far-right Marine Le Pen, Le Pen admitted defeat and vowed to continue the bigotry her father started decades ago. Macron is expected to face scrutiny in the coming weeks ahead of legislative elections that could see the election of far-left and far-right politicos.