Go ahead, wrap a feather boa around the missile

Mark Sumner of Daily Kos reviewed the Republican case against Joe and Hunter Biden. More accurately, the sources for the claims of scandal against the president and his son. One informant, Gal Luft, is on the run after jumping bail. He faces charges of illegal arms dealing, lying to federal agents, and being an agent of China. Attorney David Weiss brought minor charges against Hunter a while back and Gary Shapley is now accusing Weiss of protecting the Bidens. But Shapley seems to be doing this because he blames Weiss for blocking Shapley’s promotion. There is a form called the FD 10-23 used by the FBI that is a record of unverified reporting from a confidential source. Since it is both unverified and confidential the FBI won’t release it. Republicans are trying to force the release. That battle was part of the grilling FBI director Christopher Wray got from Republicans in Congress – so it’s useful for that. Details of the source are coming out – in this case the source was the wife of Mykola Lisin of Ukraine. Lisin died in 2011 when he was speeding in his Lamborghini and crashed it. That’s three years before Hunter was involved in Buisma of Ukraine. As for the wife, she’s never actually named and it’s possible she never existed. There is a claim of 17 tapes that supposedly have evidence of ... something. But no one knows where those tapes actually are. There are Whatsapp messages from Hunter extorting a Chinese official. But they’re obviously fake and from a time when Joe was a private citizen so his position couldn’t be used for extortion. As I had reported before if Weiss had a stronger case against Hunter he would have brought appropriate charges. No one higher up was preventing that. So, in summary, they have ... nothing. Which means they’ll keep looking. Hunter of Kos discussed a rant from Rep. Matt Rosendale, who screeched:

We have drag shows taking place at Malmstrom Air Force Base. There are 150 ICBM missiles that are being controlled by that Air Force Base and by these individuals. I don't want someone who doesn’t know if they are a man or a woman with their hand on a missile button.

Which only shows Rosendale doesn’t understand drag, it’s long history, or that Bob Hope used to include drag when entertaining the troops. So what does Rosendale mean when he doesn’t want drag show enthusiasts to “control” nuclear missiles? Doe he not know launch protocols and that the president must issue the launch? Does he not know the guy launching the missile doesn’t aim it? Who or what does he think they’ll aim it at? Is he afraid a drag queen enthusiast will turn the missile gay, in which the fallout turns everyone fabulous?

I don't even care if you put the missiles themselves in drag. You want to wrap a feather boa around that thing, you go right the hell ahead. Slap some lipstick on that intercontinental Ru Paul, give it nice rosy missile cheeks, I don't care. It's still going to blow everything to s--- if anyone ever presses the doomsday button, and nobody in Moscow or Pyongyang is going to file a sternly worded protest because the missile headed towards them is more glam than the 100 or so missiles headed towards everybody else.

One person who should never be anywhere near Malmstrom or any military base is Rosendale. In a Ukraine update Sumner talked about what was behind Zelenskyy’s plea for Ukraine to join NATO as the NATO country leadership gathered in Vilnius. It comes down to the worry that Biden may lose the 2024 election. The entire Ukrainian military sees Biden as the guy who keeps saying no. But they’re not going to do better than him. Ukraine – the whole world – pays very close attention to American politics. They know Biden’s reelection is not a sure thing. And many of the Republicans have said they are quite willing to let Russia keep land to get “peace.” Considering what the nasty guy tried to do to NATO a Republican in the White House could very easily stall Ukraine’s application, giving Russia time to rearm and try again. The only thing Ukraine can do is try to win faster. Zelenskyy now has a goal of doing that by the next NATO summit, which is in Washington a year from now. That’s why Zelenskyy was trying to get a firm agreement about what it had to do to be ready to be admitted into NATO. Kos of Kos wrote that since this foolish war started almost 17 months ago every week has been bad for Putin. But this last week seems especially bad. Here are some reasons: * Turkish president Erdoğan flipped to approving Swedish membership in NATO. He returned to Ukraine some the commanders that defended Mariupol. He renewed the grain corridor deal, forcing Russia to go along. And Turkey is clearly pivoting back to the West. * Russia was a driving force in the BRICS alliance – Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa – is falling apart. India is turning towards the West. South Africa is hosting the August BRICS meeting and has told Russia to not send Putin, because if Putin attended they’d have to arrest him for war crimes. * It appears Ukraine got some of what it wanted on its way to join NATO – no need for a Membership Action Plan. Finish that little war and you’re in. * Several new weapons systems have been promised or are arriving soon. * Putin has locked up some of his generals (Ukraine won’t have to kill them). One of those generals, Ivan Popov criticized how poorly the military is being run. He’s gone and his successor won’t make that mistake. * Prigozhin, the guy who staged that mini coup, is still free and refuses to cede control of his mercenaries. Has Russia’s balance of power shifted? * The Russian Ruble has, over the last year, dropped nearly 37% against the dollar. That ain’t good for the Russian economy. * The Gulf of Finland has St. Petersburg at its eastern end with Finland and Estonia on either side. And those two countries have agreed to combine their coastal defense commands. All of that in a week.