JaneAusten

This is worth reading; A segment from this article "In the wake of Russia’s occupation of Crimea in 2014, Merkel talked to Putin and reported to Obama that, in her view, Putin had lost touch with reality. He was, she said, living in “another world.” Today, we are all living in it," writes Ivan Krastev" Opinion | We Are All Living in Vladimir Putin’s World Now - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

Well if Putin has really become this unstable, it's time for a nice cool drink for him. There have been rumors the past couple of years despite the narrative of Putin STRONG blah blah that he has become more unstable and isolated and has little touch on what's really going on in him own country and beyond.

I am not going to jump the gun on this. I wish we could see people fight as hard in this country and others under attack from sociopathic politicians on the right, as we are seeing in Ukraine. Zelenskyy's election was a fluke but from the day he took office when he told the people not to hang pictures of him in their offices and homes but to hang pictures of their children and look at their faces when making important decisions in their lives, he was something different in a good way. Ultimately despite the pressure, he didn't cave into the demands from Trump's extortion campaign, and he's shown more courage and leadership than I have seen in any leader in ages. In this country we have to look to our minority populations whether it is the African American community, particularly the women, or the LGBTQ community for examples of real leadership and the fortitude to fight.

It's always those who have nothing on the line that want this garbage. If the US is indeed in Civil War territory, someone needs to educate this clown on how the COMPROMISE of 1850 alleviated a Civil War. Newsflash Jordan it didn't. What these folks want which is more Christian white males in this country is not possible. And this is not 1995 or 96. Folks are beyond the point of having any interest in the "compromise" this clown is talking about. Compromise always ends up throwing someone under the bus. So who is it. African Americans, Hispanics, LGBTQ , Women, Disabled? We also have a compromise that led to the end of reconstruction. How did that work out?

I will never understand how some can defend the royal family after this past week. So this happens and Charles apparently KNOWINGLY exposed his mother to COVID. His current wife now verified to have COVID went to visit a grade school the day after Charles was diagnosed and it was announced he had COVID, and she wore no mask around the children. 2 days later she was announced as having COVID. These people are putrid. I have had some respect for Elizabeth but her forking over money for Andrew's settlement of that lawsuit really rubbed me the wrong way. Yet people will still scream MEGHAN AND HARRY BAD. And then Charles and this garbage. So all you have to do as a Saudi to become a UK citizen is to be a billionaire and donate to his charities. I will NEVER understand the wests allegiance still to the Saudi's after all the actions they had a hand in the past 25 years. Well longer than that but you get the point. Why people still want to support this garbage by the royals is beyond me. Prince Charles probed for handing Saudi billionaire UK citizenship in exchange for donations | Al Mayadeen English

It's so interesting talking about all this and Seles. I'm not a mega tennis fan but I was a big Seles fan and it was like sacrilege rooting for her and not rooting for Graf. Seles was so young when she won the French Open - 15 if I remember. The voting the women did in terms of her status after her stabbing disillusioned me over Womens tennis until the Williams sisters came along. The lack of any kind of solidarity around the violence perpetrated on her particularly from Graf was really IMO a betrayal. Seles was incredibly brave and has actually done some real good in talking about her eating disorder. She was not only stabbed, but she lost her dad/coach not long after.

We are in the early stages. After a few years the Spanish Flu burnt it's way through the world and we are left with what a flu annually. I have a relative that works for the NYC Dept of Public Health and she's said it's already starting to wane. When variants happen, they generally they become more contagious and less lethal. Omicron fits that bill as will the next one. The problem is COVID is still overloading our hospital systems and people are still dying of COVID - and not only more vulnerable people. We'll likely have just as you said an annual COVID shot very similar to the flu shot at some point. The other major issue we have is that vaccines are not readily available around the world. That needs to happen like ASAP and the US can play a vital role in that.

Oh and don't forget how complicit the media has been with their "no matter what you do it doesn't matter" attitude despite the fact that it's likely hundreds of thousands of lives that have been saved. Maybe more.

Tell that to those who work in the healthcare industry, specifically hospital workers. Some folks really don't get it.

The coal miners union normally a big Manchin supporter has asked him to reconsider his stance. Apparently BBB includes an extension to a fund that provides benefits to coal miners suffering from black lung disease which expires this year. They also praised tax incentives that encourage manufacturers to build facilities in coalfields that would employ thousands of miners who lost their jobs. Imagine Manchin voting NO on this.

Such contempt for his own constituents. WV is number one in the country in Opioid deaths.

Meh they should have been courting Murkowski. Just like McConnell spent time courting Manchin and Sinema. Get the 50 votes that way and how about try Ben Sasse who CLAIMS to support voting rights. Could Murkowski be persuaded to help carve out an exception to the filibuster for voting rights? She'd be more reasonable than Manchin has been. And it's clear he HATES a lot of West Virginians.

Well and there it is. Manchin is a NO on BBB. He's willing to destroy Biden's presidency for the money he's being bought off by and the news media has completely ignored this aspect of him. And he announces it on FOX NEWS. I've been holding out hope because this was Biden's agenda - not the progressives. BIDEN. The democrats are going to get blown up in 2022 and it's because of ONE ARROGANT and CROOKED senator who won't budge on voting rights or legislation. Manchin tanks Biden’s $1.75 trillion spending plan - Axios I'm not naive I kind of figured Manchin would not do it so Biden better start lining up Executive Orders - as many as he can sign and get through to do a ton. The good news is they have gotten a record number of judges approved.

I read that article you posted. I admit I am not well informed on British politics but I am not clear on the point the article was trying to make about the Lib Dems. It's clear that Labour, The Lib Dems, and the Greens must form a coalition but is there a real question as to if the Lib dems would unite with the Greens and Labour to oust the Tories? And I am not clear on the challenges the Lib Dems face in terms of broader election wins that the article seemed to insinuate.

Not a surprise. I am a little surprised at how lopsided the win was though. I guess we'll see how well this new variant is handled in the UK. So far it's problematic despite all the assurances. I'm actually liking how this new variant is being addressed here. People are being told to be cautious but there are no alarm bells. Johnson is an idiot plain and simple. He clearly almost died with that first bout of COVID he had. We'll see if this is any kind of breaking point. Are people tired enough of his lies about Brexit and now COVID along with the hypocrisy and the corruption? We'll see.

There won't be elections for another 2 years. Lots can change but if the Tories lose that seat they have held for years, they could dump Johnson. My question is who would want to be PM. Leading through a pandemic and Brexit would be difficult for someone competent much less a neanderthal like Johnson.

Both abortion and gun rights are constitutional . The abortion rights through the 4th snd 14th amendments and gun rights through the 2nd amendment. It has been how the court has interpreted those amendments that has provided those rights. No where in the constitution does it say individual private citizens have the right to own a gun. No offense but I wish people would stop this nonsense about how abortion rights are not protected constitutionally. It’s like most have no idea what Roe Vs Wade was about and how it gave women those rights. Newsomes strategy is brilliant and is why gun rights organizations came out against the abortion vigilante law in Texas and sided with abortion rights advocates.

The media and press is not the friend of regular people. The sooner we all understand that the better. That has been the case for a while. There is still some good reporting but most of it is not in major news outlets. it certainly is not anywhere on cable TV. When you have large corporations and oligarchs owning most of the major news outlets (TV, social media, cable TV, newspapers) that should tell you all you need to know. Trust me when I say Trump is a horrible human being yet one thing he did say is the truth in many ways. The press is the enemy of the people. But it never has been the enemy of the attention *hores like Trump who get favorable coverage for just breathing. As horrible as social media is and the people who run those platforms are, there are so many things we would still never know about if we relied on the press and media corps. That's by design.

It’s so interesting that Sondheim was interested in working with Angela after seeing her performance in The Manchurian Candidate. Yes she was brilliant but it fascinates me that he saw something in her that he believed could enhance his work. It speaks to his own insight and the complexity of his work.

Sondheim’s loss is monumental. I think his work will go down as the greatest in the history of musical theatre. His work didn’t pander like some of ALW’s did. IMO He was so much like Tom Stoppard the playwright. Both of their works never assumed their audiences needed to be spoon fed. The language and words so carefully chosen. I’ll always admire Streisand for her desire to make the Broadway albums which she was warned would likely flop. Her instincts have always been impeccable. So much of that work was Sondheim and she introduced millions to so much of his music they likely would never had ever heard. RIP Mr Sondheim. You were truly magical

I have a Dutch oven made by them that belonged to my mom. It was given to her by her aunt who brought it with her from Luxembourg. I just can’t with this nonsense

Lord knows I have zero use for Nazi lover Olivia Nuzzi but she's right about Chris Christie

Wallace caught Christie in an entire network he missed in his book and what Fox is doing. NOT ONE MENTION but he had time for CNN, MSNBC, the NY TImes, and Post to lambast at. He's not interested in reform just exploiting what's been there for years and what Trump exploited. A failing phony.

Christie has a book to sell. That's the end of it. Plus he's a non starter and coward who has already said that he'd vote for Trump if he were the nominee again. Funny he talks about how Biden is ruining the country but nothing about the 4 years of Trump and it was 4 years not just the last 2 months. And of course can't name anything Biden is doing to ruin the country. It must be that terrible infrastructure deal he got done that no GOPer has touched since Eisenhower. Christie is no better than Rahm Emmanuel who left office with an 18% approval rating. He'd never get elected for another office which is why he was handed a cushy ambassadorship he didn't deserve either.

Its a shame more Americans don't realize (Thanks US Media and press) everything the GOP accuses the democrats of is of course projection of their own. McCrook McConnell knows this.