Weekend Quotables

Blinken says war is a 'success'. Sells more arms to Ukraine.

A Ukrainian solider unloads a delivery of Javelin missiles purchased from the US.

Whistling past the graveyard…

5,000 civilian casualties in Ukraine. Millions displaced. Economy in ruins. But “Ukraine is succeeding”, says Sec. of State Anthony Blinken, after his visit to Kyiv during which he pledged additional military aid, including advanced weapons. Of course, by “aid” Blinken means millions more in arms sales along with more than $300 million in foreign military financing.. The war business is good. Better than diplomacy.

Weekend Quotables

Emmanuel Macron

Acknowledging that “numerous” voters cast ballots for him simply to keep out the fiercely nationalist far-right Le Pen, Macron pledged to reunite the country that is “filled with so many doubts, so many divisions” and work to assuage the anger of French voters that fed Le Pen’s campaign. — AP

New York Times obit calls Orin Hatch, “gentlemanly”, as in…

Throughout his Senate years, Mr. Hatch had been a gentlemanly conservative rock. He blocked labor law reforms and fair housing bills with filibusters, tying up Senate business for weeks. He voted against the Equal Rights Amendment, which would have enshrined gender equality as a bedrock civil right, and he proposed a Constitutional amendment to make abortion illegal. — NYT #GoodRiddance

Kareem Abdul Jabbar

Just when masculinity is being both berated as toxic and lamented as disappearing, The Northman kicks down the door to top-off men’s testosterone. And if that doesn’t get the job done, Tucker Carlson wants to tan our testicles. — Substack

Simon Balto, assistant professor of history at the Univ. of Wisconsin

The NYPD is the most heavily resourced police department in this country. And yet, as a demonstration of its priorities, many of its officers, upon demand of the mayor, spent countless hours last week engaged in high-profile sweeps arresting shelterless people, destroying their property, and in turn arresting those who showed up to protest their targeting of some of our society’s most vulnerable people. — Guardian

Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio

…said Friday, there were no major breakthroughs, but the mere fact that the U.S. was holding substantive talks was a sign relations might be looking better under President Biden after going into deep freeze under his predecessor.

“They seem committed. They ratified that they are committed to the agreements in place," Fernandez de Cossio said. "So we have no reason to mistrust what they’re saying, but time will tell.” — Boston Globe

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tells Amazon workers…

“What happened out here … what you guys did in Staten Island was just the beginning. It was the first domino to fall,” she said, noting that workers at a second Amazon sorting facility in the New York borough were voting on Monday.

“We have another election tomorrow, and we’re going to support them in that. And the day after that, and the day after that, all the way. But what we need Amazon to do first and foremost is to recognize the union that won their election.” — Guardian

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