MOTHER'S DAY UPDATES
LUV YA AND MISS YA, MOM!
-Y'know who, if even some of these reports are true, is having a really, really, REALLY bad Mother's Day? Vladimir Putin! Sad, right? What's going on? SO much ...
-For starters, multiple international reports are indicating Russian forces are being beaten back - and possibly entrapped by Ukrainian forces - in the city of Bakhmut. The area has little military significance but has taken on massive symbolic importance because of the massive losses the Russian military has chosen to take there, including the paramilitary Wagner Group, who again is threatening to abandon the city. Wagner's leader, Yevgheny Prigozhin, is again threatening other Russian leaders and even called for 'revolution,' though his statements are taken with massive grains of salt.
-Nonetheless, Russia has also taken other losses in the last week. Ukrainian sources claim several Russian military leaders were killed when the house they were using as headquarters was hit by artillery, and five Russian aircraft were lost over this past weekend - with multiple reports claiming the craft may have all been taken down by Russian 'friendly fire.'
-Putin's allies are also reportedly reeling. After attending a massively truncated Victory Day parade that consisted of one lone World War II-era tank (at a parade normally full of massive displays of Russian military hardware), Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko was forced to leave early, and has reportedly been hospitalized with an undisclosed illness (many rumors are calling it a heart attack) amid lots of Belarusian silence. And Putin ally Recap Erdogan is facing an angry electorate today in Turkey, with his Presidency reportedly in peril as his handling (or mishandling) of the aftermath of earthquakes earlier in the year resulting in weak polling.
-And to just cap it all off, Putin decided the one thing he could do to reassert himself is to order missiles to fired on the Ukrainian town of Ternopil just as the hometown heroes were, at the moment of the missile attack, performing on the Eurovision Song Contest being held in Liverpool, England. The band, Tvorchi, sang and held a sign with their city's name when completed.
-(By the way, Eurovision was won by a Swedish singer named Loreen, with Tvorchi finishing sixth.)
-Looks like ol' Vlad may need to steer clear of buildings with tall windows ...
-... and SLAVA UKRAINI!
-What was billed as two dueling appearances in the early primary state of Iowa yesterday fizzled after Ex-President Trump used a tornado warning to cancel a scheduled rally in Des Moines. That there was no tornado or even any rain led to speculation that the REAL reason Trump cancelled was fear of a very small crowd - a fear exploited by Trump's main rival for the GOP nomination at the moment, Generalissimo Ron DeSantis of Florida, who appeared near Trump's site and drew a decent impromptu crowd. DeSantis was also trumpeting 37 new endorsements from IA Republicans, in a state where current polling does not indicate the massive Trump lead throughout the rest of the Republican party, nor the continued crowing Team Trump is doing in the wake of his CNN appearance earlier in the week.
-The first day of the end of immigration restrictions on the Mexican border that were in place due to the COVID pandemic - so-called Title 42 - saw something that, if it holds, should be good for the country but would be terrible for GOP political rhetoric: nothing. Nothing as in, no chaos and no swamping of the border by immigrants wanting to "take advantage" of a "border" that the end of Title 42 would be dangerously open, at least according to Republicans. Instead, the first day of the end of Title 42 saw a DECREASE in the total number of immigrants attempting to cross into the United States illegally.
-The statistic, according to immigration observers, is indicative of potentially more applicants being able to use the process successfully and a belief that many illegal immigrants were repeat offenders - that is, they would enter the U.S. illegally, be returned to Mexico automatically, and then try to re-enter the US illegally again, thereby inflating the total number of people trying to illegally enter the US. Whatever the reason, the lack of a swamping of illegals across the border was surprising - and, yes, politically disappointing - in its first day. Stay tuned to see if that trend holds!
-On this date in 1607, British citizens established their first settlement in North America, in Jamestown, VA. On this date in 1804, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark began their expedition of the American West (since, y'know, not a lot of white folks had ever seen it). On this date in 1846, James K. Polk declared war on Mexico. (See a trend?) On this date in 1948, Israel was granted statehood, using the area where Palestine also exists. On this date in 1973, Skylab was launched - the same day Billie Jean King defeated Bobby Riggs in a tennis matched dubbed "The Battle of the Sexes." On this date in 1981, Pope John Paul I survived an assassination attempt. And on this date in 1998, one of the most-memorable-for-all-the-wrong-reasons series finales was aired - SEINFELD's.
-Happy Birthday to Otto Klemperer, Sidney Bechet, Richard Deacon, Bobby Darin, George Lucas, Dick Tidrow, Jon Landau, David Byrne, Robert Zemeckis, Dennis Martinez, Tim Roth, C.C. DeVille, Ian Astbury, Suzy Kolber, Joey Cora, Fab Morvan, Raphael Saadiq, Cate Blanchett, Sofia Coppola, Roy Halliday, and Amber Tamblyn.
-Rest in Peace/Rest in Power to Henry John Heinz, David Belasco, Emma Goldman, Sidney Bechet, Billie Burke, Hugh Beaumont, Rita Hayworth, Lyle Alzado, Harry Blackstone, Jr., Frank Sinatra, Dave DeBusschere, Robert Stack, B.B. King, Brad Grey, Powers Boothe, Tom Wolfe, Tim Conway, Grumpy Catt, Bob Watson, and Phyllis George.
-Feed the Worms: Green Party ruiner and Putin BFF Jill Stein entered Earth on this date.
-Mark Zuckerberg was born on this date. You decide if he gets a Happy Birthday or if he Feeds the Worms.