Cogito Ergo Non Serviam
9
Russia-Ukraine Situation Growing More Worrisome -- The Russian army encamped near the Ukrainian border has been sitting in the cold for quite a while now, and the recent talks about security have not produced much. The goal of President Putin for years has been to recreate the Soviet Union in some form or another. Ukraine is key to that ambition. The Russian state had its cultural founding in Ukraine. He has already sent his unmarked militia men into the eastern most part of his neighbor. The question is what is he going to do as this cannot go on indefinitely. Some kind of conflict now appears inevitable. [21 January]
Conservative MP Defects to Labour -- Christian Wakeford, MP, represents Bury South, a constituency in Greater Manchester. He won election as a Conservative in 2019 and was one of the successful candidates that broke Labour's Red Wall in the north of the country. He is young and appears to have a great future ahead of him if he is careful. Today, he up-ended all of that when he resigned the Tory whip and crossed the floor to sit as a Labour MP. Whether he has any future at all in Commons is now moot. He has put country and conscience ahead of party, and whatever happens, he has done what he believes he must. Prime Minister Johnson is in serious trouble. [19 January]
Democrats Must Make GOP Make Hard Votes -- The Biden administration came to office with the thinnest of Senate majorities (50-50, plus the Vice President to break ties) and a narrow one in the House (9 votes total, meaning a shift of 5 would give the Republicans control). Yet for the first year, it governed as if it had won 60 seats in the Senate and had a 50 vote margin in the House. What is particularly interesting is the White House got away with it. The Infrastructure Bill that Mr. Trump never got a vote on, is law. The debt ceiling was raised without fuss. And $1.9 trillion in Covid relief happened. Now, the party is on the edge of despair because they haven't achieved more. The truth is, they won't get anything more done this year, and they need to spend all the legislative time making Republicans take difficult votes. [18 January]
DoJ Indicts 11 Oath Keepers for Seditious Conspiracy -- The Department of Justice has received a great deal of criticism for the way in which it is handling the attempted coup of January 6, 2021. Low-level terrorists getting little jail time is not a deterrent to would be democracy killers. Yesterday, the DoJ silenced its critics with indictments of 11 members of the right-wing paramilitary group The Oath Keepers for seditious conspiracy, a charge that carries a 20-year prison sentence for those found guilty. The case looks solid and then some, and one expects this to lead to further indictments, potentially including members of the US government and military. [14 January]
Prince Andrew Stripped of Honors -- Queen Elizabeth II's middle son, Andrew, has managed to get himself in trouble with Mum. When Mum is the sovereign, that is worse than it is for most people. His friendship with the late child molester Jeffrey Epstein has brought him into the spotlight with a civil suit over allegations of sexual assault against a minor. A while back, he was forced into semi-retirement as an active royal. The Palace has decided that he has not been punished enough. Now, he has lost his military titles and his positions of royal patronage. His Royal Highness will no longer use "His Royal Highness" either. The Firm (a/k/a the House of Windsor) is circling the wagons, and Prince Andrew is on the outside looking in. [13 January]
© Copyright 2022 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.
Volume XX, Number 13
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