Category Archives: Europe
One view of what’s really happening
A full-fledged information battle
The NYT: “In recent weeks, the Biden administration has detailed the movement of Russian special operation forces to Ukraine’s borders, exposed a Russian plan to create a video of a faked atrocity as a pretext for an invasion, outlined Moscow’s war plans, warned that an invasion would result in possibly thousands of deaths and hinted that Russian officers had doubts about Mr. Putin. …
“The hope is that disclosing Mr. Putin’s plans will disrupt them, perhaps delaying an invasion and buying more time for diplomacy, or even giving Mr. Putin a chance to reconsider the political, economic and human costs of an invasion.
“At the same time, Biden administration officials said they had a narrower and more realistic goal: They want to make it more difficult for Mr. Putin to justify an invasion with lies, undercutting his standing on the global stage and building support for a tougher response. …
“One U.S. intelligence official said that when the country’s spy agencies have information that could help the world make better judgments about Russian activity, it should be released, as long as the government can avoid exposing how the information was collected or who passed it along.
“It is, according to some strategists, a full-fledged information battle.”
Nothing but bad options
Let the vaccinated in; keep the unvaccinated out
How not to handle a pandemic
If you’re a popcorn manufacturer
or a sick voyeur, Brexit is the gift that keeps on giving. Otherwise, not so much.
A better way to do it
Stock up on the popcorn
“For all his [Johnson’s] bluster, history suggested that the negotiations were less likely to collapse than to enter a climactic final act, promising even more of the theatrics and brinkmanship that have characterized the Brexit drama from the start.”