Politics

Count Cockburn among the many skeptics of daylight savings time. One minute he's setting his alarm for his usual wakeup call of 1 p.m., the next he's being jolted out of a deep REM cycle at what should be the ungodly hour of noon. Thankfully Cockburn and the many other DST detesters out there have found a champion in Marco Rubio. The Florida senator recently introduced the Sunshine Protection Act, which would make Daylight Savings Time permanent nationwide (right now only Arizona and Hawaii don't observe). That would mean no more setting back the clocks in November only to jump them ahead in March, no more of those sudden and surprising and sunny springtime evenings.

Zelensky pushes the limits of American willpower The most pointed message in Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky’s address to Congress this morning was aimed not at the assembled lawmakers, but Joe Biden. “You are the leader of the nation, I wish you to be the leader of the world. Being the leader of the world means to be the leader of peace,” he said. The wartime leader received a standing ovation when he concluded his remarks. “Ukraine is grateful to the United States for its overwhelming support,” Zelensky said. “I call on you to do more.” It’s hard not to be moved by Zelensky’s appeal for more support, even if acceding to his plea for a no-fly zone over Ukraine would mean an ill-advised escalation in the confrontation between Russia and the West.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky is flying high. The contrast between Zelensky, who virtually addressed Congress this morning, and Russian president Vladimir Putin, who rarely appears publicly, becomes starker almost by the day. Putin believed that he could launch a Blitzkrieg attack that would topple Zelensky but the very opposite has occurred. It is Putin who is cornered while Zelensky basks in the world’s spotlight. In his address, it was shrewd of Zelensky to fold Ukraine’s struggle for independence into the American saga. Essentially, he appealed to the New World to redress the balance of the Old World.

Last week, former Hawaii congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard released a video calling for a ceasefire in areas around American-funded biolabs in Ukraine. She also called for the United States to reconsider its support for these facilities, which experiment with pathogens that could be accidentally released in a time of war. For the crime of preferring that Europeans not die en masse from biological poisons, Gabbard was accused by Senator Mitt Romney of "parroting false Russian propaganda" and spreading "treasonous lies." Gabbard quickly responded with tweets of her own, citing plenty of evidence that, yes, Washington is funding these biolabs, and no, this isn't just a Kremlin talking point. And really, it was all a bit much, this accusation of treason from a sitting senator.

A dozen Republican candidates are running in Pennsylvania's gubernatorial election to replace Democrat Tom Wolf, who is termed out. The crowded primary naturally means that candidates are trying to separate themselves from the pack. Dave White, the owner of an HVAC business and a former county councilman, hopes he can do so by earning former president Donald Trump's endorsement. White's relationship with a certain state senator, however, could complicate his ability to earn Trump's favor. White revealed that he had a private sit-down with Trump at last month's CPAC in Orlando, Florida. "I'm looking forward to meeting the president. He has done great things for the United States.

The #Resistance goes global The bands are getting back together. In a piece for the New York Review of Books, Spectator contributing editor Jacob Heilbrunn outlines the way in which war in Ukraine has brought with it the return of a debate between familiar factions in Washington. He quotes an anonymous Trump administration sardonically arguing that with Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, “The good old days are back in DC. Lines are being drawn.” The Republican establishment has reverted to what I’ve called “normie” Republican foreign policy, largely sticking to an all-purpose charge of weakness against Biden. Meanwhile, the usual dovish voices are making the usual dovish noises. On the right, the big-picture foreign policy debate feels no more resolved today than it did in 2016.

Boris Johnson is considering doing something that should be a duty for every leader. In the wake of sanctions poised to disrupt the 8 percent of domestic oil and 18 percent of diesel the UK imports from Russia, Johnson is reportedly toying with the idea of putting his country first and on the road to self-sufficiency by lifting the UK’s moratorium on fracking. The British government banned hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” in 2019. Fracking is a method of extracting oil and natural gas by drilling deep underground and fracturing shale rock with a fluid mixture (99 percent water and sand) that allows fossil fuels to flow out, be captured, processed and used to myriad ends (including gasoline).

Did you make good use of the neatly palindromic 2/22/22? To refresh your memory, it was a day that turned out be the narrow window between the moment when the evolving “science” suddenly allowed Democratic governors to start lifting their states’ mask mandates, and Vladimir Putin launching his special mission to “protect the people” in eastern Ukraine. I hope you enjoyed it, because given the way the mainstream media portray the news these days, it may be a while before we’re all allowed our next respite from the seemingly permanent existential crisis that runs as a through-line to our human condition.

‘Luxury beliefs’ in the time of war Are defense stocks ESG, asked Financial Times columnist Merryn Somerset Webb shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It’s a cheeky but clarifying question, exposing the moral complacency of that self-satisfied corner of finance flogging “ethical” investments to the socially conscious consumer. Most ESG funds boast about not investing in arms companies. But, as Somerset Webb points out, what could be more ethical than manufacturing anti-tank weapons to stymie Russia’s conquest of Ukraine? The consequences of war in Europe for ESG investing is hardly the most important dimension of the present crisis.