There is pretty much of a consensus now that the war in Ukraine has reached a tipping point and that the prospects are not good for Russia or Putin. As an autocrat backed into a corner tends to do, Putin is lashing out with threats, especially of the nuclear variety, perhaps hoping the specter of another Chernobyl will somehow salvage his war effort.
Despite censorship, it is clear the Russian population is now deeply split over the war. Drafts have a way of doing that to nations; Americans recall how the last draft here ended with defeat in Vietnam and domestic chaos as well.
The winner in all this appears to be Zelensky of Ukraine. U.S. officials believe that his regime was behind the recent assassination in Russia — perhaps one indication of what he is capable of doing with his new-found power. Beware the consequences of backing a victor.
Meanwhile, the danger of a more authoritarian future in the U.S. continues to mount, as the majority of Republican candidates for office this election year are election deniers. Those who have vowed to not accept the results of voting they don’t agree with are enemies of democracy, yet many of them are expected to win in November.
This represents a huge risk for the future of our democratic government.
But perhaps the two biggest developments of this decade — the Covid-19 pandemic and the emergence of super storms like Hurricane Ian — are unfortunately merely harbingers of what’s to come.
Scientists understand that Covid was not an isolated event, nor the last pandemic the world will suffer, but rather the first in a new wave of public health crises, perhaps aided and abetted by the great causative factor behind both pandemics and super storms — climate change.
Hurricane Ian is a warning sign that life as we’ve known it in low-lying costal areas is finished. Oh, some will rebuild this time around and then lose everything again in a future storm, when the sea surge will be even greater than it was this time. That’s because sea levels are rising, so the impact on land structures will only get worse over the years to come.
I fear that our children and grandchildren are getting an unfortunate lesson in what’s in store for them with climate change — wave after wave of environmentally destructive weather, from fires to floods to drought to super storms, potentially releasing bacteria and viruses throughout the ecosystem leading to more epidemics and suffering.
I wish the news was better and I’m trying hard to find a silver lining here. Maybe with enough information about the future, the generation now in the early stages of their time on earth will forge a consensus to become better custodians of our common home than we have been.
If there are concrete signs of hope, they include the emergence of young people like Greta Thunberg with the determination to tackle climate change directly, rather in the tentative, one-step-forward, one-step-back approach of older leaders.
And then more generally, there is the art and music and story-telling of those among us who try to tell the truth at any cost. There are the letter-writers, the activists, the rabble-rousers.
And it may sound naive but there’s love. In a world where hate, violence, racism, and authoritarian impulses sometimes seems to rule our fate, there still is the simple impulse to love one another.
That’s our hope.
LINKS:
Pouring scorn on ‘annexations,’ Ukraine reclaims more territory in the south and east; ‘You’ve already lost,’ Kyiv tells Moscow (CNBC)
In Rebuke to West, OPEC and Russia Aim to Raise Oil Prices With Big Supply Cut (NYT)
‘We’ll see if our house is still there’: civilians follow Ukrainian forces south (Guardian)
U.N. Nuclear Agency Pushes for Safety Zone Around Ukraine’s Largest Nuclear Plant (WSJ)
Ukraine leader says Putin wouldn't survive nuclear attack (ABC)
U.S. Believes Ukrainians Were Behind an Assassination in Russia (NYT)
Two Russians flee to Alaska by small boat and ask for asylum (NBC)
IS Ramps Up Attacks in Afghanistan, Taliban Claim Key Arrest (VOA)
Life in Afghanistan has reached new lows. There’s a growing economic and hunger crisis, with half of young children facing malnutrition, according to a new U.N. report. (WP)
Children among at least 36 people killed in child care center massacre in Thailand (CNN)
Myanmar sentences Japanese journalist to prison on 2 charges (AP)
Michael Cohen says the Supreme Court would reveal its corruption if it agrees to intervene in Trump's dispute with the FBI over the seized Mar-a-Lago files (Insider)
After Mar-a-Lago Search, Talk of ‘Civil War’ Is Flaring Online (NYT)
Amid end to COVID help, homelessness surging in many cities (AP)
U.S. appeals court sends DACA case back to lower court to consider new rule (Reuters)
A majority of Republican nominees deny the 2020 election results. A new Post analysis of GOP candidates up for election next month for the House, Senate and statewide offices. There are 299 election-denying candidates, and most are likely to win. (WP)
Falsehoods, harassment stress local election offices in US (AP)
Sanibel residents return to an unrecognizable island a week after Hurricane Ian’s devastation (CNN)
It's been just over 100 days since the Supreme Court repealed Roe v. Wade, and a new study shows the devastating consequences of the decision. Almost one-third of the entire U.S. population of women of childbearing age are now facing bans or severe restrictions on abortion. [HuffPost]
Republican support from this key voting group is in jeopardy. Abortion is to blame. (Politico)
Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney said the election-denying Republican candidates for Arizona governor and secretary of state pose a huge risk for democracy because both say they will refuse to certify the election if they don't favor its outcome. Cheney encouraged those who care about democracy to not "give people power who have told us that they will not honor elections.” [AP]
Ratings agency Fitch lowered the outlook for its credit rating for British government debt to 'negative' from 'stable', days after a similar move from rival Standard & Poor's. Britain's battered pound will be around 3.6% stronger in a year, according to a Reuters poll in which analysts were divided, however, on whether the currency would reach parity with the U.S. dollar by year-end. (Reuters)
IMF warns of higher recession risk and darker global outlook (AP)
Musk’s Twitter Deal Could Saddle Banks With Big Losses (WSJ)
Biden to pardon all federal offenses of simple marijuana possession (WP)
Human-caused global warming has made severe droughts like the ones this summer in Europe, North America and China at least 20 times as likely as they would have been more than a century ago, scientists said Wednesday. (Cal Today)
Farmers in Imperial County currently draw more water from the Colorado River than all of Arizona and Nevada combined. (NPR)
Video captured orcas hunting and killing great white sharks. The footage showed a more than hour-long pursuit off the coast of South Africa. At least two great whites, the stuff of “Jaws” legend, were killed. (WP)
I Was Allergic to Cats. Until Suddenly, I Wasn’t. No one quite knows why some allergies disappear and others don’t. (Atlantic)
Are You the Same Person You Used to Be? (New Yorker)
Nation’s Overthinkers Convene To Determine What That’s Supposed To Mean (The Onion)
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