News Roundup--Mostly Dealing With A Profoundly Unserious Country

I’m fighting a cold, so before I totally lose energy today, I’ll just do a news roundup.

First, what’s going on with the Special Military Operation. I’ll quote South Front, which is pretty much confirming what we saw yesterday:

AFTER VICTORY IN AVDEEVKA RUSSIAN ARMY ADVANCES IN ALL DIRECTIONS

The loss of Avdiivka has jeopardized the Ukrainian defense in the entire Donetsk direction, where the Ukrainian Armed Forces lack sufficiently fortified positions on new lines of defense. Ukrainian military resources are sounding the alarm. The new commander-in-chief, fearing a collapse of the front, is reportedly hastily transferring reserves to the area, including units that are defending the capital Kiev.

That’s the key point that Danny Davis and others have emphasized—the lack of seriously fortified fallback lines of defense. That’s the factor that could lead to further Russian advances. The Ukrainian retreat is continuing, while Russian pressure also continues, to make any halt in the retreat more difficult to accomplish.

Ukrainian units continue to retreat to the west, where they are hastily equipping a new line of defense in Orlovka.

Amid the victory in Avdiivka, Russian troops continue offensive operations on all fronts, destroying Ukrainian reserves with precision strikes in the rear areas. As a result, the Ukrainian command is forced to stretch its forces along the frontlines. It cannot concentrate a large group of forces in some areas without knowing the direction of a new Russian main attack.

…

Thus, any maneuver by Ukrainian reserves can lead to a Russian breakthrough in any direction.

For now, that’s the important dynamic. The Russian advance is tempered by the usual imperative to prevent excessive casualties.

Next up is a story that we’ve heard about previously, but could take on added importance due to the publicity and emphasis it appears to be receiving in Russia. Could this be a buildup to Russia taking action against US/NATO ISR assets, which have been key to strikes against Russian territories?

Russia Says NATO Troops, Disguised As Mercenaries, Control Air Defenses In Ukraine

The Russian military has made the accusation that NATO troops are actually manning and directly overseeing Ukraine's advanced anti-air defense systems which were provided by the West.

The charge comes after weeks of the Kremlin saying that French mercenaries have been positioned in the city of Kharkiv, which sits across from Belgorod - a Russian border area subject of persistent mortar and rocket attacks.

The statement was issued by a high-ranking Russian officer in a command post and was amplified in Russian state media, however wasn't stated directly as an official defense ministry press release, but is still significant.

"Military personnel from NATO countries, under the guise of mercenaries, operate air defense systems, multiple launch rocket systems, and tactical missile systems in Ukraine, Colonel General Sergey Rudskoy, chief of the Main Operational Directorate of the Russian General Staff and First Deputy Chief of the General Staff, said in an interview with the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper," according to TASS.

…

Kremlin leaders, including President Putin, have frequently cast the war as one where the ultimate enemy is the United States, the UK, and all of NATO. Moscow has vowed to directly attack any foreign fighters or equipment found on the battlefield and will hold external nations responsible, according to repeat prior warnings.

Battlefield participation is probably the least of NATO involvement. ISR is far more important for targeting with NATO systems.

And now we turn to that most unserious of countries, the USA. Mostly just headlines, because most of us can tell from the headlines how the stories will go—it’’s all so predictable.

Middle America Is Dying, And D.C. Doesn't Care

Authored by Salena Zito via The Washington Examiner,

WEIRTON, West Virginia - Most people in this town will tell you they’d rather have taken a physical punch to the gut than get the news they received yesterday when Cleveland-Cliffs Steel announced it was idling its tinplate production plant, a move that directly cost 900 people their jobs.

It isn’t just those workers who face catastrophic uncertainty; this closure also jeopardizes the jobs of thousands more people whose businesses supported the plant: the barber shops, gas stations, mom-and-pop grocery stores, the machine shops that make the widgets for the steel industry. And there’s also the demise of the tax base, which affects the school district and the quality of the roads.

Thirty years ago, more than 10,000 people worked here at Weirton Steel. Now, the last 900 workers left have just lost their jobs.

I saw a story that IL is looking at a $900M “shortfall.” And every official policy is only making the flight from the state worse. All those problems in WV? Not unique. And, by the way, the demise of the tax base affecting school districts? There’s a lot worse than lack of tax money affecting education in America. Plenty of room to cut and get back to actual education. "American Students Are Falling Behind": Poor Math Scores Are Now A National Security Threat. Surprised? Over the weekend the WaPo ran an OpEd calling for … less math education.

In comparison to their counterparts in other industrialized nations, American students are falling behind. The rather sobering results revealed a 13-point decline for U.S. students when compared to the 2018 exam.

In stark contrast, 28 countries and economies managed to either maintain or improve their 2018 math scores, with countries such as Switzerland and Japan leading the way—and leaving the United States in the dust.

…

The math problem is an education problem. To correct the problem, the manner in which math is taught must change—radically and rapidly.

Other countries have different approaches to comprehending, appreciating, and teaching math. Take the aforementioned Russia, for example.

The big takeaway from the Tucker - Putin interview is that Russia has a serious leader, whose seriousness is appreciated by the populace. America? Not so much. We have unserious leaders whose unseriousness reflects the unseriousness of Americans, by and large. Don’t believe me? We do elect these people, those of us who bother to vote:

Wall Street Apes @WallStreetApes

HERE WE GO, It’s Really Happening 

February 2024 Update: They Just Made It Official, New Bill Introduced “Courage To Serve Act”

This Will Allow Migrants Serve In The US Military & Get Citizenship With Benefits

“A new proposal in Washington that would help migrants get an expedited path to citizenship, it would require them to first serve in the US military,

Right Fox size. Morgan Mackay joins us with details in the bill, which lawmakers say could help solve two problems at once.

There is no higher honor than serving your country in uniform and that honor could be extended to migrants. Under a new bill introduced by Hudson Valley, Congressman Pat Ryan [D-NY] called the Courage to Serve Act. This bill would offer qualified and vetted migrants an expedited path to citizenship if they serve in the military. According to Ryan, last year, the military services collectively missed recruiting goals by roughly 41,000 recruits, leaving some crucial positions unfilled.

…

No wonder we need a flood of migrants—our own numbers may be dwindling:

Study Finds 80% Of Americans Exposed To Fertility-Lowering Chemicals In Cheerios, Quaker Oats

According to a recent study, four in five Americans tested positive for an agricultural chemical found in several wheat and oat products, including brands like Cheerios and Quaker Oats.

The peer-reviewed study, published in the JESEE journal on Feb. 15, looked at urine samples from American citizens to determine their exposure to chlormequat chloride—a plant growth chemical. Exposure to the chemical can result in lower fertility and harm developing fetuses even at doses below acceptable levels set by regulators. Researchers detected chlormequat in 80 percent of urine samples collected between 2017 and 2023, with “a significant increase in concentrations for samples from 2023.”

The chemical was detected in “92 percent of oat-based foods purchased in May 2023, including Quaker Oats and Cheerios,” said the Environmental Working Group (EWG), which conducted the study.

And now for more sheer, well, we’ll call it unseriousness:

Three federal judges in Illinois giving extra time for arguments to young female and minority lawyers

Three federal judges in Illinois have standing orders for their courtrooms allowing extra time for oral arguments only for young lawyers who are either female or minority. The orders have drawn complaints as being reverse discrimination for oral arguments.

A complaint has been filed with the Chief Judge of the Seventh Circuit.

David Dugan - Trump

Nancy Rosenstengel - Obama

Staci Yandle - Obama

Lastly, another legal story that has to be read to be believed:

Pennsylvania judge charged with shooting sleeping ex-boyfriend and asking 'what did you do?'

To give a hint as to how wacky this story is, the “judge” had previously shot her ex-husband (who had two armed robbery convictions) but got off by claiming self defense.

BTW, I’m listening to The Duran talking with Danny Davis. For an understanding of the type of warfare going on in Ukraine it’s really good: “After Avdeyevka, what happens next?” It’s a live feed right now.