Vote for the least dangerous

The packing I can do tonight is done, so a short post. The Detroit Free Press ran an editorial about the five people running for the Republican nomination for governor of Michigan. The primary is August 2. It clearly says it doesn’t endorse any of them. None are qualified. However, it did pick one as “least dangerous.” And it started by saying yes, we do endorse Republican candidates – when the Democrats choose someone who is not qualified. And incumbent Democrat Gretchen Whitmer clearly is qualified to serve a second term. They recommend voting for this least dangerous candidate because it is possible the nominee could win and lead the state. The least dangerous is the one who doesn’t want to overturn the 2020 election and doesn’t spout conspiracy theories. Yeah, that’s where we are. There are four Ukraine updates with a bit to briefly share: Kos of Daily Kos had a lot to say about a news report saying Russia might possibly gearing up to attack Odesa, Ukraine. He wrote there is no scenario where Russia could make a serious effort against Odesa. Besides, in the Donbas territory Russia is trying to take it hasn’t advanced at all in two weeks. Kos quoted tweets from Yaroslav Trofimov:

“Putin opened his mouth, like a python, and thought that we’re just another bunny. But we’re not a bunny and it turned out that he can’t swallow us—and is actually at risk of getting torn apart himself,” Zelensky tells us. Looking forward to an avalanche of killer bunny memes. Western weapons supplies are beginning to have an effect in Donbas, Zelensky says. Ukrainian fatalities down to 30 a day from 100-200. Ukraine used to be able to fire 1,000-2,000 shells to Russia’s 12,000 daily. Now it can fire 6,000 as Russia experiences shortages.

That last bit about experiencing shortages is saying Russia is firing nowhere near 12,000 shells daily. The number is much closer to none. Charles Jay of the Kos community reported that there is an agreement to ship the millions of tons of Ukrainian grain that can’t get to the rest of the hungry world because of Russia. Notably, Ukraine signed a deal with Turkey and the UN and Russia signed a deal with Turkey and the UN. They did not sign the same piece of paper. Jay explains how the deal works. And less than 24 hours later Russia violated the agreement, firing a missile at the port of Odesa. Mark Sumner of Kos discussed several things going right for Ukraine. One of interest to me is that Ukraine has effectively (maybe not literally) surrounded the Russian forces in the town of Vysokopillya a ways northeast of Kherson. Russia called for a corridor to allow the troops to escape the area. Yeah, Russia would claim to create an escape corridor for trapped Ukrainian civilians, but then fire on them when they tried to actually escape. In this case Ukraine said surrender troops and equipment or be eradicated. In another post Sumner wrote that there might be 1,000 Russian troops in the surrounded town of Vysokopillya. The rest of the post talks about Kherson being effectively surrounded and Russians trying to flee while they can. Local sources say there is growing chaos and fear among the troops and collaborators still in the city. Finally, the post has a few videos of Russian incompetence. I think Ukraine updates might be the one topic I try to keep reading while I’m traveling.