‘Lightning-quick’ response if NATO intervenes in Ukraine: Putin

Russian leader delivers a bellicose warning to the West while vowing his ‘special operation’ in Ukraine will be ‘unconditionally fulfilled’.

Countries aiding Ukraine “that get it into their heads to meddle in ongoing events from the side and create unacceptable strategic threats for Russia, they must know that our response to counterpunches will be lightning-quick”, said the Russian leader.

“We have all the tools for this that no one else can boast of having,” Putin told lawmakers in St Petersburg, implicitly referring to Moscow’s ballistic missiles and nuclear arsenal.

“We won’t boast about it: We’ll use them if needed and I want everyone to know that. We have already taken all the decisions on this.”

 

I trust Austin and Blinken's way forward. They haven't missed anything on Putin in this war.

No Wave? Surge? Ripple? Bimp?

The United States is "certainly, right now, in this country, out of the pandemic phase," Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden's chief medical adviser and the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on PBS's "NewsHour" on Tuesday.

"Namely, we don't have 900,000 new infections a day and tens and tens and tens of thousands of hospitalizations and thousands of deaths. We are at a low level right now. So if you're saying, are we out of the pandemic phase in this country? We are," he said. 

 

 

 

"We're not over the pandemic. Don't let anybody get the misinterpretation that the pandemic is over, but what we are in is a different phase of the pandemic," he said. "A phase that's a transition phase, hopefully headed toward more of a control where you can actually get back to some form of normality without total disruption of society, economically, socially, school-wise, etc."

Russia Gas Cutoff

Europe is not without some leverage in the dispute, since it pays Russia $400 million a day for gas, money Putin would lose with a complete cutoff.

$400M/DAY?! Holy hell I didn't realize it was that much. A few days of that and you're talking real money!

Cuban coffee

Segueing--How many of you have had Cuban coffee? (If you're from Miami you don't count.) Homos of the world, there is nothing like Cuban coffee--nothing. It is more desert than caffeine in a cup. It is the most delicious coffee in the world, omg. And yet, even if you go to the next county up from Miami, Broward county, it's scarce as hens teeth. I used to drive my daughter to high school in Broward. Bear of a drive first thing in the a.m. Even if I had my stove-top colada before I left (and I always did) I would need another on the way back going to work. In Miami, you toss a handful of pebbles in any direction and you're bound to hit a Cuban coffee place. I had to look and look and look for one on a major thoroughfare in Broward. I finally found one. One. I pitched this business idea to someone, I don't remember who now, years ago: You want a sure-fire money-making bidness? Open a ventanita (translated "the little window") in a deprived area--and the rest of the U.S. is a deprived area. It's the cheapest storefront imaginable and once people in New Yawk or Chi, or even Fort Lauderdale, taste the stuff you'll have a line of customers for LIFE.

Prices for Cuban coffee at Miami Florida ventanitas are increasing

See, we're suffering too.

 

Russia Stops Gas Supplies to Poland, Bulgaria--NATO

So? What did they expect? 

“It comes as no surprise that the Kremlin uses fossil fuels to try to blackmail us. Today, the Kremlin failed once again in his attempt to sow division amongst member states. The era of Russian fossil fuel in Europe is coming to an end.”-EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

Right! Poland has been the most aggressive NATO nation in confronting Russia over Ukraine. They are a transit point for Western materiel. So why is Associated Press, which does not sensationalize, calling it "a dramatic escalation" with NATO? I don't know.

"Gas prices in Europe shot up on the news." That would follow.

"The tactic could eventually force targeted nations to ration gas and deal another blow to economies suffering from rising prices. At the same time, it could deprive Russia of badly needed income to fund its war effort."

Well, it's not going to stop the war, I don't know what Poland's leadership is telling its public but President Biden has been clear and has repeatedly stated that sanctions will not stop Russia's war on Ukraine. The West chose between a NATO-Russia war, which inevitably would become nuclear, and dramatic, crippling sanctions. Now, it sounds to me, from recent U.S. statements and actions--made in consultation just yesterday with 30 European countries--that the West is thinking about transitioning to a real war with Russia--which if fine by me!--which it believes it can win, but you really don't get to talk "dramatic escalation" when Russia responds reciprocally in the economic sphere. C'mon.

In Memoriam: Antonio Gramsci

 

I know of no political thinker of the 20th century as brilliant as he.

Sudden Death

I was over at my son’s house watching mostly the Florida “Panthers” hockey game (we lost 4-2) and at intermissions the “Heat” game. I saw Kyle and Jimmy in street clothes on the bench and immediately got stressed. Jimmy misses too many games. Every time we switched to the “Heat” game I got tense. I finally told my son to keep the “Panthers” on, I didn’t want to watch the “Heat.” Both local teams were practicing “load management”, the "Panthers" are playing out the string in a wildly successful regular season, but for the “Heat” this was a game five and a close-out game!  I thought load management ended in the playoffs.

I'm worried about Manchester City. I am concerned that we gave up three goals at home today. Concerned that our margin for error in Madrid is narrow. Don't think, if we get past Real, that we will beat Liverpool in the final. Worried that if we don't win the Champions League this season that Pep Guardiola will leave. I’ve been disturbed all day by the Philadelphia “76ers”, too. Am still shocked by the Brooklyn “Nets” sweep. I wasn't up for stressing over the "Heat."

A normal lifespan in the NBA is 82. Two-thirds of the teams get a life extension of, at least, one, maybe two, maybe three before Association death; sixteen, more than half, get extensions of four to seven; the luckiest live to be almost 100 and it's possible to live till 110. But life is very fragile beyond 82; every extension is also potential sudden death. The "76ers" went from new-found Fountain of Youth vitality to critical condition in the span of 48 hours. No living mortal thought Brooklyn would need a pacemake just to make it to 84 only to die in a fiery crash at 88. Very few cognos think the "Heat" will live into their late 90's. Lose tonight and they would have entered "Sixers" World, a fraught, foreboding place, and I didn't want to go there with them as a fan. They didn't go there.

FT MIAMI 97 (4-1) ATLANTA 94!

 

Miami 79 Atlanta 75, 8:13 4Q

I can't follow this, it stresses me too much. No Kyle, no Jimmy, I'm sick of the "Hawks," we've been up most of the game, sometimes high single-digits, and look at it, 4 points with an eternity of time.

For Ukraine, With Love

Come on, come on, come on, come on
(Together) we will go our way
(Together) we will leave someday
(Together) your hand in my hands

(Together) we will make our plans 

(Together) we will fly so high 

(Together) tell all our friends goodbye 

(Together) we will start life new 

(Together) this is what we'll do

life is peaceful there 

(Go west) in the open air 

(Go west) where the skies are blue 

(Go west) this is what we're gonna do 

(Go west, this is what we're gonna do, go west)

There where the air is free 

We'll be (we'll be) what we want to be (ah, ah, ah, ah) 

Now if we make a stand (ah)

We'll find (we'll find) our promised land (ah)

there are many ways 

(To live there) in the sun or shade 

(Together) we will find a place 

(To settle) where there's so much space 

(Without rush) and the pace back east 

(The hustling) rustling just to feed 

(I know I'm) ready to leave too 

(So that's what) we are gonna do 

(What we're gonna do is)

Life is peaceful there 

(Go west) there in the open air 

(Go west) where the skies are blue 

(Go west) this is what we're gonna do 

(Life is peaceful there) 

Go west (in the open air) 

Go west (baby, you and me) 

Go west (this is our destiny) 

Smelling Russian Blood, a Confident West Commits to Ukraine

Whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God:

Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the Lord do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me. Ruth 1:16-17

Secretaries Blinken and Austin, after traveling to Kyiv and meeting President Zelensky, concluded consultations with 40 allies in Germany who agreed to provide long-term war materiel to Ukraine. ...Germany said it would send dozens of armored antiaircraft vehicles. It was a major policy shift for a country that had wavered over fear of provoking Russia.

This is consistent with Western leaders' trips to Kyiv, with Austin's statement yesterday that it is only confident in eventual Ukirainian victory but wants to see the Russian military degraded. It also shines a different light on Russian threats. Yesterday, the Russian embassy in Washington delivered to the State Department another of those seemingly anodyne diplomatic notes stating Russian "concerns" over Western military aid to Ukraine. In the lingua franca of diplomacy those notes are taken ominously. And today Lap Dog Lavrov blew the nuclear whistle again. In the past the West was positively panicked when Putin or a top Kremlin spokesman dog whistled nukes. They're not panicked anymore. The West is confident either that the Kremlin is crying Wolf or it has taken stock of Russian military capabilities, including wmd, and concluded that Russia is going to be defeated in Ukraine and will be defeated in a head-on war, even a nuclear war, with the West. The statements, the tone, the actions, are just completely different from what they were just a few weeks ago.

FT Manchester City 4 Real Madrid 3

 On to Madrid. City Forever!

4m ago16.42

GOAL! Manchester City 4-3 Real Madrid (Benzema 82 pen)

This match is getting positively psychedelic. Benzema gives Ederson the eyes and Panenkas it! A Panenka in a Champions League semi, with his team two goals adrift. Zidanesque.

Panenka:

 

 

Manchester City 4 Real Madrid 3, 83rd'

Oh God, just shoot me. It was on a PK. Handball by Laporte.

 goal

1m ago21.37

77 min: Ederson races hysterically miles from his box to absolutely blooter clear, under pressure from Benzema. A spectacular, no-nonsense clearance that’s celebrated almost as much as Silva’s goal.

Is that good or bad? I have no idea.

 

Now stop fucking around on defense.

Manchester City 4 Real Madrid 2, 74th'

Bernardo Silva for the Angels and City have their two-goal lead back.

 Goal!

Tim Bonville-Ginn
@TimBonvilleGinn


Giving two away goals before heading to the Bernabéu could be costly for City #UCL

4:27 PM · Apr 26, 2022·Twitter for Android

 

Thank you for your soccer insight.

Transport for Greater Manchester 

@OfficialTfGM

@ManCity

v

@realmadrid

at the Etihad tonight  Match concludes at around 9.50pm Roads around the stadium will be busier from this time as fans make their way home, allow extra time for your journey #TfGMTraffic

 

4:27 PM · Apr 26, 2022·Hootsuite Inc.

 

 

Thank you for your service.

 

 

3-2, 63'

Let's say this score holds up (It doesn't look like it will with this shooting gallery going on but let's just say.). All Real have to do is beat us 1-0 at the Bernabéu and they knock us out.

Manchester City 3 Real Madrid 2, 55th'

God DAMN it!

 goal

Manchester City 3 Real Madrid 1, 53rd'

 Phil Foden restores City's two goal lead!

 goal

The Angels got off to a non pareil start with the gospel according to KDB striking in the first minute and the Arch Angel Gabriel in the 11th. Benzema got a crucial away goal for the "Royals" in the 33rd.

Manchester City 2 Real Madrid 1, 50th'