Crooked Media - What A Day: SWIFT repercussions

 -Clay Higgins, House GOP Poet Laureate

The invasion of Ukraine has not been the cakewalk that Russia expected, but it’s too early to tell if Ukraine’s fierce resistance and international support will ultimately bring about a ceasefire, or just more brutal military force. 
 

• Russia and Ukraine completed a first round of peace talks in Belarus without progress, but with plans to hold more talks in the coming days, as Russian rockets rained down on Ukraine’s second-largest city on Monday. Ukrainian officials said that indiscriminate shelling in Kharkiv may have killed dozens of civilians, with at least 11 people confirmed dead. More than 520,000 Ukrainians have now fled the country, according to the UN Refugee Agency. The prosecutor of the international criminal court (ICC) in The Hague announced Monday that he will launch an investigation into possible war crimes in Ukraine. 
   
• Five days into its invasion, Russia hasn’t yet managed to take control of any major cities or establish air supremacy over the Ukrainian air force, and failed logistics supply chains have left Russian troops stranded by the side of the road without fuel. But the escalating bombing in Kharkiv may be a sign of a new stage in the war, and the Pentagon said on Monday that Russian forces were still slowly encircling Kyiv. Satellite images showed a large convoy of Russian armored vehicles and tanks continuing to move toward the city on Monday.
   
• Russian President Vladimir Putin’s unprovoked aggression has left Russia increasingly isolated. The last EU holdouts finally agreed to kick Russia out of the SWIFT banking system on Saturday, and the ruble has taken a nosedive. The Treasury announced on Monday that it will freeze Russian Central Bank assets held in the U.S., and Switzerland said it would freeze the assets of Russian leaders, breaking from its tradition of neutrality. In a move to strengthen ties with the West, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday signed an official request for Ukraine to join the European Union.

The Biden administration has rightly smashed the sanctions button, but it’s steering clear of actions that might lead to a direct war with Russia.
 

• On Sunday, the EU and Canada moved to close their airspace to Russian planes, an unprecedented step aimed at putting additional economic pressure on Putin to quit commissioning longer and longer Kremlin tables and end the invasion of Ukraine. The U.S. has not (yet) followed suit. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki on Monday ruled out the idea of using U.S. troops to create a no-fly zone over Ukraine, because it would “essentially mean the U.S. military would be shooting down planes, Russian planes.” 
   
• President Biden has also taken a pass on the opportunity to drag the U.S. into Cold War 2.0. Putin ordered Russian nuclear forces put on high alert on Sunday, in a very cool, sane-guy reaction to Western sanctions, but the U.S. hasn’t reciprocated. “At this time, we see no reason to change our own alert levels,” a White House official told reporters. “We think provocative rhetoric regarding nuclear weapons is dangerous, adds to the risk of miscalculation, should be avoided, and we will not indulge in it.”

Ukrainians may still be in for much more hurt, despite heroically denying Putin the speedy victory he wanted, and the people of Russia will be hit with the economic consequences of a war they never asked for. Amid all of it, it’s worth remembering how differently this would all be going with a different U.S. president, and worth hoping that this misstep spells the end for Putin and his admirers.

On the latest special report from Pod Save the World, Ben runs through the latest on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, how this attack marks a new phase of history, and what to expect in the coming weeks and months. Ben is joined by Ukrainian investigative reporter Tanya Kozyreva from Kyiv as it is under siege to discuss the dire situation there and the Ukrainian peoples’ commitment to resist. Max Seddon, Bureau Chief of the Financial Times also joins from Moscow to share how Russians feel about the invasion, and if sanctions could actually cause President Putin to stand down. New episodes of Pod Save the World drop every Wednesday wherever you get your podcasts.

The Supreme Court on Monday heard arguments in a case that could dramatically limit the EPA’s power to fight climate change. The case involves an Obama-era regulation that never actually took effect, and though the Biden administration said that it was working on a replacement and that litigants should wait until there was an actual rule to discuss, the Court ominously decided to hear the case anyway. As expected, most of the conservative justices seemed eager to gut the EPA’s authority to reduce emissions from power plants. They couldn’t have picked a more perfect day: Monday’s oral arguments began just hours after the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a bleak report warning that extreme weather events are already more frequent and severe than previously predicted, and that swift, significant cuts to greenhouse gas emissions are necessary to prevent worse catastrophes. 

• Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Paul Gosar (R-AZ) spoke at a far-right conference run by white nationalist Nick Fuentes over the weekend. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy on Monday called Greene’s participation “unacceptable,” but must still decide if her sins are comparable to, say, serving on the January 6 committee. 
   
• Thousands of African students have been stranded in Ukraine, reportedly facing discrimination from Ukrainian authorities as they try to flee into Poland. 
   
• The Senate voted 46-48 to block the Women’s Health Protection Act, Democrats’ doomed bill to codify abortion rights into federal law. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) joined Republicans in opposition. 
   
• FIFA and its European counterpart, UEFA, have suspended Russian teams from all international soccer, including qualifying matches for the 2022 World Cup.
   
• A pair of new studies point to a Wuhan wet market as the likeliest origin of COVID-19, further undermining the lab-leak hypothesis.
   
• Jury selection began Monday in the case of Three Percenter Guy Reffitt, kicking off the first trial of a January 6 defendant. The outcome could spur hundreds of other insurrectionists to accept plea deals—or, you know, not. 
   
• The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a challenge to the Indian Child Welfare Act, a 1978 law created to stem the separation of Native American children from their families and communities. (Now’s a great time to get caught up on the latest season of This Land.)
   
• Capitol Police have reinstalled a fence around the Capitol building ahead of President Biden’s State of the Union address on Tuesday, as a precaution against potential antivax trucker malarkey.
   
• Former Attorney General Bill Barr has called for Republicans to abandon Donald Trump in his new book, Memoir of a Stooge: How I Waited to Distance Myself Until There Was a Profit Incentive.
   

• (Opening up trench coat) Wanna see a fucked-up painting?

Texas will kick off the 2022 primaries on Tuesday, after the state’s new voter-suppression law threw the early-voting period into utter chaos, as intended. (There may be more suppressing to come: The law includes provisions that empower partisan poll watchers to lurk around intimidating voters, though they might not be a big problem until the general election.) Keep an eye on a trio of Democratic congressional candidates backed by national progressives: Jessica Cisneros, Greg Casar, and Jasmine Crockett could help build momentum for other progressive candidates in the midterms, and provide some early clues on whether arguments like “centrists are murdering Biden’s agenda” are resonating. The Texas primaries will also be the latest test of Donald Trump’s endorsing power, as Trump-backed Attorney General Ken Paxton (R-TX) vies for a third term. 

Relationships take work. A lot of us will drop anything to  go help someone we care about. We’ll go out of our way  to treat other people well, but how often do we give ourselves the same treatment? 

This month, BetterHelp online therapy wants to remind you to take care of your most important relationship– the one you have with yourself. Whether it’s hitting the gym, making time for your haircut, or even trying therapy, you are your greatest asset, so invest the time and effort into yourself like you do for other  people.  

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The 13 Ukrainian soldiers reported to have been killed while defending Snake Island are actually alive, according to the Ukrainian Navy.

Chef José Andrés has been offering free meals at the Ukraine-Poland border through his nonprofit World Central Kitchen.

Fifty-four openly LGBTQ candidates are running in this year’s Texas primaries, nearly double the amount in 2020.

Boston could become the next major city to legalize noncitizen voting in municipal elections.