Respondents to the latest Quinnipiac University survey were asked a number of questions related to issues like gas prices, Russia, and Biden’s approval rating. The partisan differences on the responses to the questions related to Russia’s war on Ukraine are pretty small, reflecting a lot of consensus lately on the issue – until they got to the question of “As you may know, some politicians and media figures have had words of praise for Russian President Vladimir Putin in the last several weeks. Does that make you view those individuals more favorably, less favorably, or doesn’t it affect your opinion of those individuals?” to which overall 2% of the respondents said “More favorably”, 57% said “Less Favorably”, and 36% said “Doesn’t affect your opinion” of them.

Naturally, since everyone already knows which party’s leader (and certain minions of his) this question was aimed at, the partisan difference is not anything particularly shocking, but it’s still an interesting angle: 81% of Dems, 54% of Independents, and 45% of Republicans say “Less Favorably” while 16% of Dems, 39% of Independents, and 46% of Republican voters said “Doesn’t affect”. Props to Quinnipiac for coming up with this question. Pretty savvy. Maybe even genius.

Why is BREITBART going FAKE NEWS? Make you're appointment with Dr Oz. He will see you in January. IN HIS US SENATE OFFICE pic.twitter.com/4hAXOVXEQx

— Greg Kelly (@gregkellyusa) March 16, 2022

President Biden spoke briefly to reporters on Wednesday afternoon called the not savvy, not genius Russian President Vladimir Putin a war criminal, the Associated Press reports.

Insecure manchild Donald Trump, worried about ending up backing a losing candidate in a contested Senate primary, tells the Washington Examiner in an interview (this fucking stupid clickbait paper splitting a single interview into at least 3 separate articles – see the Pence and Putin comments) that he might just decide to not lose by changing his endorsement to one of the likelier winners Katie Britt – Chief of Staff to current Senator Richard Shelby – or businessman/former US Army Blackhawk pilot Mike Durant. “Mo Brooks is disappointing… I’m determining right now, has Mo Brooks – has he changed?” said Trump, not realizing that Mo Brooks has always fucking sucked and the only thing that changed is that other, more competent candidates entered the primary since Trump endorsed him. “I endorsed him because he felt strongly about election fraud. And he still does. But he was inarticulate in the way he said it,” Trump added, as if Brooks wasn’t basically the first guy to come up with the idea to object to the Electoral College vote count on Jan 6, 2021.

Brooks is just one of a number of Trump-endorsed GOP primary candidates to fail to capitalize on being showered with his golden glory to take the lead in polls and fundraising. David “Chickenshit” Perdue’s primary challenge to sitting Georgia Governor Brian Kemp is sputtering while North Carolina Congressman Ted Budd is pretty much fucked as former Governor Pat McCrory rakes in cash. It’s not clear if Trump’s endorsed pick for a House seat in Tennessee, former State Department staffer Morgan Ortagus can even qualify for the ballot given her carpetbagger status and residency requirements for candidates in the state. World-class dipshit Vernon Jones’s Trump-endorsed bid for Georgia’s 10th appears to be going nowhere fast too, mostly because he’s Black.

The Donald also said he was going to make endorsements in the contested primaries to replace retiring Republican Senators in Ohio, Pennsylvania (where he already endorsed a loser who dropped out because he’s a child abuser), and Missouri – where Trump says complete piece of shit Eric Greitens is very much in the running for the endorsement. Fingers crossed on that one.

Russian aircraft struck a theater in downtown Mariupol in which “hundreds of civilians” were taking shelter, Talking Points Memo reports, citing city officials. “It was a building that in peaceful life was a focal point of the city’s cultural spirit, and in wartime became a shelter for hundreds of women and children,” the city council said on Telegram, adding it was “impossible to measure the scale of this horrible and inhumane act, because shelling of residential areas in the city continues.”

White House: “President Biden today announced an additional $800 million in security assistance to Ukraine, bringing the total U.S. security assistance committed to Ukraine to $1 billion in just the past week, and a total of $2 billion since the start of the Biden Administration. The assistance will take the form of direct transfers of equipment from the Department of Defense to the Ukrainian military to help them defend their country against Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified invasion.” ”

The new $800 million assistance package includes: 800 Stinger anti-aircraft systems, 2,000 Javelin, 1,000 light anti-armor weapons, and 6,000 AT-4 anti-armor systems, 100 Tactical Unmanned Aerial Systems, 100 grenade launchers, 5,000 rifles, 1,000 pistols, 400 machine guns, and 400 shotguns, Over 20 million rounds of small arms ammunition and grenade launcher and mortar rounds, 25,000 sets of body armor, and 25,000 helmets. In addition to the weapons listed above, previous United States assistance committed to Ukraine includes: Over 600 Stinger anti-aircraft systems, Approximately 2,600 Javelin anti-armor systems, Five Mi-17 helicopters, Three patrol boats, Four counter-artillery and counter-unmanned aerial system tracking radars, Four counter-mortar radar systems, 200 grenade launchers and ammunition, 200 shotguns and 200 machine guns, Nearly 40 million rounds of small arms ammunition and over 1 million grenade, mortar, and artillery rounds, 70 High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles and other vehicles, Secure communications, electronic warfare detection systems, body armor, helmets, and other tactical gear, Military medical equipment to support treatment and combat evacuation, Explosive ordnance disposal and demining equipment, and Satellite imagery and analysis capability.”

“In addition to the U.S.-produced short-range air defense systems the Ukrainians have been using to great effect, the United States has also identified and is helping the Ukrainians acquire additional, longer-range systems on which Ukraine’s forces are already trained, as well as additional munitions for those systems. The United States continues to expedite the authorization and facilitation of additional assistance to Ukraine from our Allies. At least 30 countries have provided security assistance to Ukraine since the Russian invasion began. In 2022, the Department of State authorized third-party transfers of defensive equipment from more than 14 countries, a number that continues to grow as Allies and Partners increase support to Ukraine.”

Oil prices are decreasing, gas prices should too.

Last time oil was $96 a barrel, gas was $3.62 a gallon. Now it’s $4.31.

Oil and gas companies shouldn’t pad their profits at the expense of hardworking Americans. pic.twitter.com/uLNGleWBly

— President Biden (@POTUS) March 16, 2022

A magnitude 7.3 earthquake struck off the coast of Japan’s Fukushima province Wednesday, triggering a tsunami warning and prompting fears of more radioactive shit could be spewed on a region still fucked up by the leak of the Fukushima-Daichi nuclear power plant following a tsunami wrought by the 9.1-magnitude 2011 Tokoku quake, CNN reports. Japanese officials said crews had checked reactors at other plants in the region and found no signs of leaks caused by the shaking.

The US Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said a Pacific-wide tsunami is unlikely and has not issued any alerts. The tsunami from the 2011 quake killed one man in Northern California who had arrived at a beach to take pictures of the incoming wave. His body was found on a beach 330 miles north in Oregon weeks later. Another man was killed in Indonesia. A wave from the September 1, 1923 Great Kanto earthquake upended currents in the eastern Pacific off the coast of California, causing several warships involved in a US Navy exercise a week later to collide, killing nine sailors.

Vladimir Putin, no doubt frustrated as fuck that everything has blown up in his face over the last month, complained on Wednesday that the West is trying to “cancel Russia” with a “blitzkrieg of economic sanctions,” but that their “attempt to have global dominance” was coming to an end, Yahoo News reports. Putin also didn’t sound like he was going to let up on Ukraine anytime soon and mixed some MAGA/QAnon bullshit into his rant. “In the foreseeable future, it was possible that the pro-Nazi regime in Kyiv could have got its hands on weapons of mass destruction, and its target, of course, would have been Russia,” Putin said, probably wishing he could still get a Big Mac.

Orange Degenerate former President Trump ruled out picking Vice Former Guy Mike Pence as his running mate for his supposedly not-official comeback bid in 2024, saying “I don’t think the people would accept it,” in an interview with the Washington Examiner. “Mike and I had a great relationship except for the very important factor that took place at the end. We had a very good relationship. I haven’t spoken to him in a long time,” said the Fat Bastard, while adding that any legislation to address the holes in the Electoral Count Act that he tried to force Pence to exploit are proof that he was right all along. “Mike thought he was going to be a human conveyor belt, that no matter how fraudulent the votes, you have to send them up to the Old Crow [Moscow Mitch] But that turned out to be wrong. Because now, as you know, they are feverishly working to try and get it so that the vice president cannot do what Mike said he couldn’t do. Obviously, they were either lying, misrepresenting, or they didn’t know. I was disappointed in Mike,” Trump said.

Good luck with that! Not if we have something to say about it. We have hundreds of thousands of armed Alaskans and military members that will see it differently. https://t.co/ji0Hiza1TE

— Governor Mike Dunleavy (@GovDunleavy) March 15, 2022

Republican Kansas Senator Roger Marshall gave a tour of the Capitol to clustertruckers in the “People’s Convoy” last week, Politico reports. The presence of the MAGA scumbags checking out the interior so alarmed one Congressional aide they contacted the Justice Department to investigate to see if they were planning another insurrection. The Capitol has been closed to the public since March 2020, but cops have allowed members an exception of two tours per week for supporters. “Hard-working Kansans – especially those who have driven over 1,000 miles to get to DC – deserve access to their US Capitol,” Marshall’s office said in response to Politico’s questions.

The Russian flag is removed from the line of flags of member countries in front of the Council of Europe headquarters in Strasbourg, France.  Russia resigned its membership hours before it was going to be expelled by other members for its invasion of Ukraine.

“Our acquaintance, the host of Fox News Tucker Carlson, obviously has his own interests⁠—but lately, more and more often, they’re in tune with our own,” acknowledges Olga Skabeeva, host of the program “60 Minutes” on Russian state-owned television.

“People forget so quickly, with the help of the Fake News, that it was me that got the 20 out of 28 delinquent NATO countries to start paying the money that they owed in order to rebuild a floundering NATO. Nobody knew things would happen so rapidly, but NATO was poor and now it is rich, and all of the Fake News commentators that said Trump was tearing down NATO should be ashamed of themselves for telling lies. Not only was the United States being taken advantage of by the EU on trade, but it was forced to pay the costs of the many delinquent NATO countries. Bush and Obama did nothing but make speeches and talk – I acted, and acted strongly. I said to them, ‘if you don’t pay up, no protection.’ They all paid up, and paid up quickly. It’s a story that’s never reported, but that’s only because we have a corrupt press in our Country!” says the Fat Bastard in another statement. Trump had planned to pull the US out of NATO no matter what if he had won a second term. All of that bullshit he just said was simply a pretext to self-justify a withdrawal.

Leading Republican Ohio Senate primary candidate Mike Gibbons made some awfully suspect comments about the intelligence of Asian people in a 2013 podcast episode he co-hosted, the New York Times reports. Gibbons, a hedge fund oligarch who polling shows is neck and neck for the hotly contested nomination with space laser guy Josh Mandel, was discussing business relations with China in the episode. “I’ve often thought that when I’ve run into Asians they’re all – you know, if you’ve ever read ‘The Bell Curve,’ it’s a book, a very controversial book… And it said that the smartest people in the world as far as measurable I.Q. were Ashkenazi Jews. And then right below them was basically everybody in China, India and, you know, throughout the Asian countries.”

Gibbons then described his experience in grad school in a class with “mostly Asians,” explaining “It was astounding to me how much they studied, how they were incredibly bright, but they memorized formula. And when we ran into a word problem – and you know, I think this is a function of the educational track they put them on – they got lost in the weeds.” When his co-host remarked on how Asians “lack critical thinking skills,” Gibbons added “They’re very good at copying.”

When asked why the fuck her candidate would say that, a Gibbons campaign spokeswoman said, “Mike was discussing the difference in educational structure and attainment that he experienced in both business and graduate school in relation to China,” which miiiiiight have worked a little better if he weren’t talking about a book once described by historian Steve Fraser as a “chilly synthesis of the work of disreputable race theorists and eccentric eugenicists” immediately beforehand.

As the Capitol insurrection raged on January 6th, 2021, situationally loyal Trump lapdog Senator Lindsey Graham reportedly told then-White House counsel Pat Cipollone “we’ll be asking you for the 25th Amendment,” if Trump did not forcefully command his MAGA terrorists to cease the attack and leave the building, according to a preview of upcoming book by New York Times reporters Jonathan Martin and Alex Burns titled This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden, and the Battle for America’s Future published by Axios on Wednesday. Burns and Martin apparently personally witnessed this from inside the Capitol at the time, with Graham telling them “People will say, ‘I don’t want to be associated with that’… There will be a rallying effect for a while, the country says: We’re better than this.” Then on February 20th, 2021 the Washington Post reported Graham went golfing with Trump.

The National Park Service has denied the “People’s Convoy” a permit for a twelve day-long clustertruck occupation of nearly the entire stretch of the National Mall’s lawn between the Capitol and the Washington Monument, the Daily Beast reports, raising the question of what kind of soyboy cupcakes would actually request a legal clearance to be there when their whole point is supposed to be defiance of governmental authority – especially since the Canadian clustertruck in February was sure as hell a not legally sanctioned gathering. Moreover, per the Beast, the assholes organizing the “convoy” claimed on the application there would be “10,000 to 100,000” of their number present during the planned twelve days on their application while there are no more than 500 still gathered at their staging site in Hagerstown, Maryland, down from 2,000 at its peak.

Also on the application, in response to the question “Do you have any reason to believe or any information indicating that any individual, group, or organization might seek to disrupt the activity for which this application is submitted?” organizer Brian Brase simply wrote “Antifa.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov claimed that a neutral military status for Ukraine was being “seriously discussed” at the “businesslike” peace talks between the two countries as the invasion spilled into its fourth week, the Associated Press reports. Hopes for a peaceful-ish resolution to the conflict got a boost Tuesday after Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky publicly stated his nation would never be approved to join NATO, adding to the credibility of the “neutrality” solution.

“A neutral status is being seriously discussed in connection with security guarantees… There are concrete formulations that in my view are close to being agreed,” said Lavrov on Wednesday.