Without food or without you? Without you.

A year ago I wrote that during Pride month in 2021 I saw two books displayed at my bookstore, both featuring an American in a gay romance with a prince of England. Back in Christmas Day of 2021 I wrote about the first of the two, Playing the Palace by Paul Rudnick. Now I can tell you about the other. It’s the book I hinted at when I wrote about the diet book last Wednesday. Yeah, this book’s 400 pages didn’t take long to read. This one is Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston. In the prior book the American is a common citizen. This time it is the son of the first American female president. In addition, Alex Claremont-Diaz is half white and half Mexican. Alex is a senior at Georgetown and living at the White House. It is 2019 and Mom is gearing up for re-election (yeah, she won where Hillary Clinton didn’t – no sign of the nasty guy). His sister is living there too, partly to keep an eye on him. They and the granddaughter of the vice president are close in age and called the White House Trio. Alex is a policy wonk and wants to become the youngest member of Congress. And he hates the whole idea of Prince Henry. Throughout the book I wondered how much this Prince Henry was modeled on the actual Prince Harry. Henry is definitely gay and Harry is no closer to that than a lot of gay men’s fantasies. Both are the younger son with a grandmother on the throne. Both lost a parent at a young age. Both find royalty restricting. There are a couple differences with the Rudnick book. In that one Prince Edgar, the Crown Prince, is out with the approval of his mother the queen. The tone is lighter, going more for the comedy of an American dating the Crown Prince and all the cultural missteps that can happen. There is some tension in whether Edgar, in a gay relationship, would have the approval of the public. And whether he can get over his insecurities. In the McQuiston book Alex is concerned that the First Son being in a gay relationship would hurt his mother’s re-election chances. And Henry does not have the approval of the queen nor of his older brother. The weight of tradition and the expectation of heirs is heavy on him. The McQuiston book tells a more consequential story. Both Alex and Henry have a lot to work through and a lot to handle when their love is exposed. It is definitely not breezy in tone, though it has its humorous moments, such as Alex being handed a 15 page non-disclosure agreement before the first time he meets Henry. I enjoyed the book and think it would make a good movie. My Sunday movie was Howl’s Moving Castle, directed by Hayao Miayzaki out of Studio Ghibli. Because it is fantasy they make their own rules about how the world works I didn’t always understand what was going on, though I could usually go with the flow. Even so the images are quite beautiful and that is worth something. The movie seems quite an international mix. The author of the original story, Diana Wynne Jones, appears to be English or Welsh. The animation was done by Japanese. The towns, cities, and soldiers look German. The technology of cars, trains, and flying machines have a steampunk vibe. The version I watched was dubbed in English (with Billy Crystal as the flame). And that moving castle is quite marvelous. I enjoyed this one. I’ll look around for other Miyazaki movies to stream. In a Ukraine update for Saturday afternoon Kos of Daily Kos wrote that the town of Kozacha Lopan, on the Russian border has been liberated. Because it is on the border, just off a major supply road, just 30Km from the Russian city of Belgorod, and well fortified there was no reason for Russia to abandon it. But they did. It is all part of abandoning the Kharkiv Oblast (the state or district around the city), which Russia is doing – though what they say they are doing is “regrouping.” This is like what they did when the left Kyiv. Then Kos quoted several comments from Russians about the recent huge Ukrainian gains. Kos has said these sorts of comments show the need for high tensile strength copium. So they come with a good deal of mocking, such as this one from Matt Woolwich:

Putin’s macho army of testosterone-fuelled washing machine removal men defeated by volunteer lesbians and pink-haired coders programming drones.

And Billy tweeted about an incident early in the war.

Still thinking about that lady telling Russian soldiers to put sunflower seeds in their pockets.

In retaliation Russia has hit critical infrastructure and several cities have lost electricity. That prompted Zelenskyy to tell Russia:

Do you still think we are one people? Do you still think you can scare us, break us, force us to make concessions? Don’t you really get it? Don’t you understand who we are? What we stand for? What we are all about? Read my lips: Without gas or without you? Without you. Without light or without you? Without you. Without water or without you? Without you. Without food or without you? Without you. Cold, hunger, darkness and thirst are not as frightening and deadly as your friendship and brotherhood. But history will put everything in its place. And we will be with gas, light, water and food... and WITHOUT you!”

In an evening update Kos wrote about one reason why the Russian side folded so quickly. It’s because many of the soldiers aren’t Russian, they’re Donbas conscripts, men who tried to hide from the Russian overseers, but were pressed into the army. They may speak Russian, but after eight years of Russian occupation they are not willing to fight for their overlords any more than they have to. Already Donbas has had a higher number of war dead than the rest of Ukraine. So liberating Donbas may go easily because so many men have fled. Kos added that Russia could have made the Donetsk and Luhansk districts more Russian by building up their economies. But Russia doesn’t care about the economic welfare of its own citizens. And a great deal of what the Donbas overlords did was loot. Once Donbas soldiers left their home regions they saw the rest of Ukraine has washing machines. Ukraine may be the second poorest country in Europe but the country they are ahead of is Russia. In a Sunday morning post Kos included a map with a few areas shaded. It looks like the shading was done with crayon or chalk and I wonder how that was done on a computer. There is the area east of Kharkiv in which the news says Russia is abandoning. There is a larger area east of that, the area north of Luhansk. This is open and hard to defend and with little strategic value, so Ukraine might wait. Then there is the region north and northeast of Kherson where Ukraine has cut off Russian supply lines. The region in the south from Kherson to Mariupol will be harder to liberate. This region can be resupplied by sea, though Russia may still have logistical issues getting supplies inland, especially if Ukraine can cut a few rail lines. Mark Sumner of Kos reported that because of the abandonment in Kharkiv Russia is desperate for a win. So they’re taking their frustrations out on Bakhmut. And this appears to be a brutal fight with lots of dead on both sides. Ukraine is holding on. In the Kherson area Sumner reported it looks like Russia is repositioning many of its forces closer to the city. The suspicion is the reason is a lack of artillery ammo to keep up the imprecise and constant barrage Russia favors. By tightening the arc around the city they can use fewer shells for the same effect. Or the move could be the prelude to an evacuation. On Sunday morning Kos speculated whether Ukraine would consider the area north of Luhansk worth the strategic value to try to liberate now. On Monday morning Kos reported that Ukraine appears to be headed in that direction, then discussed the main cities Ukraine should take. It looks like Russia is sending reinforcements – to Mariupol, to help hold their land bridge in the south. Kos quoted a few tweets that list the equipment Russia left behind and Ukraine captured in the last few days. It’s enough tanks for a couple battle groups. Ukrainian maintenance guys will have long days getting these tanks and other equipment battle ready. We know they need some work or Russian troops would have driven them away as they fled. Chief Justice John Roberts was alarmed by the drop in approval of the Supreme Court. As The Critical Mind of the Kos community reported Roberts gave a speech. His major point was that we shouldn’t declare the court to be illegitimate because we don’t like their rulings. Critical Mind and lots of other people say that’s not why we see the court as illegitimate. This is: * Moscow Mitch refused to seat Merrick Garland, nominated by Obama, saying it was too close to an election. Yet he rushed to seat Barrett at a time much closer to an election. The court was politicized. * Four, maybe five, of the current justices lied in their confirmation hearings, at least when saying they thought Roe was settled precedent. They committed purgery. * There is credible evidence that Kavanaugh is a sexual abuser and there are still questions about how his credit cards and mortgages were paid off. * Clarence Thomas was also accused of being a sexual predator and his wife was active in the leadup to the January 6 Capitol attack. * Several state legislatures were swift in enacting severe abortion bans after the Court overturned Roe. Many of those are cruel. The Supremes, supposed guardians of human rights, are definitely not that. This is the first time they overturned an established right. Commenter Little Silver added another: * Too many of the recent rulings are based on questionable or false assumptions that happen to support the desired conclusions. A few of these false assumptions: In 2000 a hasty election is more important than an accurate election. Corporations are people and have the same rights. Money is speech. Congress cannot delegate regulations to agencies like the EPA. Minority voting rights no longer need protecting. PJ3LK added: * They make big decisions through the misuse of the shadow docket. So, Justice Roberts, if you want your court to be seen to have legitimacy, you have a lot of work to do. Or you can resign and take a few of your lying and illegitimate colleagues with you.