Amazing that the BBC is still reporting from Moscow after so many western news organizations have left. Bravo Steve Rosenberg!

A wild guess on Putin's "Victory Day" speech. He announces his intention to annex newly conquered territories in Ukraine ("Novorossiya") and defend them with nuclear weapons.

This didn't happen by chance. I see 3 possibilities. (1) A real debate, reflecting divisions at the top. (2) Preparing the Russian population for defeat. (3) Preparing population for extreme measures (e.g. use of tactical nukes) as only alternative to defeat. Perhaps all 3.

I admire Mark Hertling as an outstanding military analyst, and share his abomination for Putin, but WWII is a little different to the situation we face in Ukraine. One difference: Nazi Germany did not possess 6,000 nuclear weapons.

Sums up four decades of tumultuous change in Russia very nicely....

🎧 New #CIFTC 🎧 Author Michael Dobbs joins Bill to discuss his new book, "King Richard: Nixon and Watergate--An American Tragedy.” #podcast cna.org/our-media/podc…

Fifty years after the “third rate robbery” at the Watergate, as the White House described it, a great conversation about how Nixon made himself, and then destroyed himself.

Thanks!

Glad to report that WP Fact Checker (which I launched 15 years ago) is alive and thriving under new management.

Now that Putin has backed himself into a corner over Ukraine, we should all be studying the Cuban missile crisis for insights into the perils we face. Here's my five minute take, courtesy of New York Times Op Ed

“While the war in Ukraine is obviously different from the Cuban missile crisis, it is not hard to imagine comparable failures and miscalculations,” writes Michael Dobbs. nyti.ms/3SUgDvU

The video of that Thick of It quote that people are sharing.

Very interesting interview with a brave Russian university lecturer about the catastrophic brain drain triggered by invasion of Ukraine.

It's the same with me. I do not see CHOPT. I just see SNORT. And that is 30 years after I lived in Russia! Soviet era joke told by foreigners in Moscow back in the day. It's not a "Restoran" (PECTOPAH), it's just a '"pectopah"...

The Reichstag fire comes to mind except this "terrorist action" did not even seem to cause any damage to the flag on top of the Kremlin....

Love this explanation and the perfect timing at the end...

Yevgeny Prigozhin says that Russia’s objectives of "denazifying" and "demilitarising" Ukraine have failed miserably "F*ck knows how, but we’ve militarised Ukraine!"

Prigozhin is actually talking a lot of sense here. He has put his finger on the Russian problem, and how Putin has not only failed to achieve his Ukraine goals, but has achieved the opposite.

I'm still proud to have been the first NJ member of Congress to endorse Joe Biden in 2020. He's been a uniquely successful president. Today, he can go down in history as the man who saved America from Trump twice - first by running four years ago, then by passing the torch.

First segment by itself would be very effective closing campaign ad for Harris. No comment required. youtube.com/watch?v=vkBKuy…