CNN Reporter: Ukrainian Officials “Shocked” That Biden Gave Putin A Green Light To Invade Ukraine…

 Weasel Zippers

Hoo boy: There's no such thing as a "minor incursion," tweets Ukrainian president – HotAir  "Pity this poor bastard, who must have assumed that his worst experience with a U.S. president would be the former guy trying to trade him military aid in exchange for dirt on his election opponent.

"Little did he know that Trump’s successor would all but dare Putin to invade Ukraine at a press conference, even hinting that there’d be few repercussions so long as the incursion was “minor.”

"The competition for “dumbest thing Biden’s said as president” is stiff but that’s a strong contender. Possibly second only to the president suggesting five minutes earlier, at the same press conference, that the midterm elections won’t be legitimate if state election reform laws aren’t overridden by Congress.

"Biden officials are in overdrive today trying to clean up the “minor incursion” comment, but the damage is done:

We want to remind the great powers that there are no minor incursions and small nations. Just as there are no minor casualties and little grief from the loss of loved ones. I say this as the President of a great power. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky

The Onion gave an elbow to Biden over this:

‘You Know, If I Were You, I’d Go After Finland,’ Says Biden Trying To Dissuade Putin From Invading Ukraine https://t.co/5pWAwglrCq pic.twitter.com/UIdx0nm1ST

— The Onion (@TheOnion) January 19, 2022

A Goodbye Kiss for Family Programming

 Intellectual Takeout

"One wonders whether it is still possible to enjoy family entertainment that is not doomed to be turned into leftist agitprop. Perhaps a sad farewell and a kiss goodbye is all that’s left for us to give those who were once in the business of romantic, family friendly television such as Hallmark and GAC Family."

"Recently, Joseph Cotto and I discussed on our regular podcast the fate of the Hallmark Channel, which I have viewed periodically while moving with my remote button toward Turner Classic Movies. (On Turner I find old movies, popular during my youth, that have not yet been canceled.) What drew me, however briefly, to the Hallmark Channel were its two-hour romance stories starring photogenic young couples who radiate good will. After the predictable vicissitudes, these beaming young couples emotionally kiss during the last 30 seconds of each story and then express their desire to wed.

"Of course, I have never been able to watch the full unfolding of any of these budding romances, because in their sweetness they start to cloy after about 10 minutes. But it is nice to see normal young people on TV who hail mostly from small towns and possess courteous, kindly parents. Yet even these sickly sweet shows are not safe from diversity’s alleged fairy dust, and Hallmark’s move in this direction should cause those who support traditional values to stand up and protest, rather than to watch one last kiss cross the television—the kiss of death.

"Hallmark appears to pander to diversity in two different ways: racial and sexual. The first is evidenced by the increasing insertion of minority actors into these two-hour romance stories whether or not they fit the plots. Despite the incongruity of racial minorities filling hamlets that look as if they had been settled by Scandinavians, it is apparent that such moves are evidence of the harmless diversity the producers are trying to offer in a world hypersensitive to race.

"But it is the Hallmark Channel’s pandering to sexual diversity that is the real problem. In December of 2019, things began to change aggressively when the channel, under the guidance of its holding company Crown Media and its CEO Bill Abbott, decided to feature a lesbian couple in advertisements for Zola, a wedding-planning website. The ads showed the two women kissing and exchanging vows. This experiment in wokeness caused complaints to pour in, and the ads were pulled." . . .

When Joe Biden speaks, sane people are horrified

Exactly to whom was this speech meant to appeal?  Those who embrace the racist aims of Black Lives Matter perhaps were cheering him on, but most black Americans were likely to be as horrified as everyone else who heard it. 

 Patricia McCarthy   "If there was any doubt that Joe Biden is unfit for the office of president of the United States, yesterday's marathon press conference put such qualms to rest.  But the signs have been there all along, while his decline into incoherent totalitarian irascibility is accelerating. 

"His painfully overlong press conference on Wednesday, only his second of this long and miserable year of drastic inflation, lunatic COVID restrictions, vaccine mandates, etc., confirms the decline.  It did not put anyone's fear about Biden's competency to rest.  Faux reporters like Yamiche Alcindor and Jennifer Rubin swore that Biden performed brilliantly, but every rational person watching knew that it was a "slow-motion train wreck.". . .

. . ."The Wednesday press conference only proved again that this president and his staff are incompetent, that Biden himself is not mentally fit, that the Democrat party is officially a Marxist party that cares not one whit about the American people or the Constitution.  These are dangerous times.  The midterm elections cannot come soon enough."

Defiant, Unapologetic: Biden's Marathon Presser | RealClearPolitics

. . .There was bravado. Biden insisted his accomplishments were “bigger than any president has ever gotten in the first year.” Unabashed audacity too: “I make no apologies for what I did,” he said about how the war in Afghanistan was ended."... 

. . . The clarification didn’t sit well in Kiev. After the press conference wrapped up, CNN quoted an unnamed Ukrainian government official who warned that “this remark potentially gives the green light to Putin to enter Ukraine at his pleasure. Putin senses weakness.”. . .

Family of US Marine killed in Afghanistan files $25 million lawsuit against Alec Baldwin, claiming the actor accused them of being insurrectionists on Instagram

Insider.com  "The family of a US Marine who was killed in a suicide bombing in Afghanistan over the summer has filed a $25 million defamation lawsuit against Alec Baldwin, saying the actor accused them on Instagram of being insurrectionists after he learned the Marine's sister was in Washington, DC, during the riot on January 6, 2021.

"Relatives of Lance Cpl. Rylee McCollum, who was 20, said in the lawsuit that Baldwin's comments about the family on the social-media platform "were false, outrageous, defamatory, irresponsible, vindictive, and caused — and continue to cause — Plaintiffs severe emotional distress." 

"McCollum was among the 13 US service members killed in the attack at the Kabul airport on August 26 as troops withdrew from Afghanistan. 

"The lawsuit, filed on Monday in the US District Court for the District of Wyoming by McCollum's two sisters, Roice and Cheyenne McCollum, and his widow, Jiennah McCollum, alleged Baldwin defamed the family to his 2.4 million Instagram followers. 

"Baldwin donated $5,000 to the Marine's widow and her newborn daughter "as a tribute to a fallen soldier" after Rylee McCollum's death, the court papers said.

"But on January 3, Baldwin posted about Roice McCollum after she shared a "throwback" photo of a crowd of pro-Trump protesters in front of the Washington Monument on January 6, 2021, "in anticipation" of the anniversary of the Capitol riot, the suit said. " . . .

California Democrats propose measure that would double our taxes to pay for “free” healthcare, but even they aren’t serious about it.

The American Spectator   "Gov. Gavin Newsom has announced that he’s fulfilling his promise to provide universal healthcare to all Californians (and non-Californians, regardless of immigration status) with a $2.7-billion budget proposal to expand state-provided coverage to low-income adults. Progressives, however, believe the boast is a sellout of his campaign promises.

“ 'I campaigned on universal healthcare; we’re delivering on that,” he said during a speech in the Central Valley. Currently, MediCal provides coverage only to people under 26 and older than 50, so Newsom is arguing that expanding that program not only lives up to a top campaign theme, but — and let’s all say this in unison — is yet another bold step that should be a model for the rest of the nation.

"There’s plenty to criticize in the plan. Assemblyman Tom Lackey, R-Antelope Valley, told ABC10 News that the official price tag won’t even be close to the final tab, which is a self-obvious critique. Furthermore, “it’s not even close to realistically covering what they’re indicating it’s going to cover.” No doubt about that, either, although most of the criticism is coming from the Left.

"As CalMatters’ Dan Walters noted, union officials see the proposal as an inadequate flip-flop given that Newsom said he supports “single payer.” Newsom’s universal plan “includes a wide variety of public and private health insurance plans … while the latter would provide unlimited benefits free of out-of-pocket costs, much like Great Britain’s National Health Service,” Walters added.

"We should all be thankful that Newsom merely is ramping up government spending and expanding a largely incompetent government agency — given the latest alternatives from the Legislature. Democratic legislators recently introduced Assembly Constitutional Amendment 11, which would “impose an excise tax, payroll taxes and a State Personal Income CalCare Tax … to fund comprehensive universal single-payer healthcare coverage.' ”. . .