COVID-19 Update

3-13-2022: 1 out of every  4 Americans has tested positive for COVID-19.*

3-13-2021: 1 out of every 11

(* equivalent - the number of Cases includes people who've been infected more than once)

3-13-2022: 1 out of every 336 Americans has been killed by COVID-19.

3-13-2021: 1 out of every 610

1. We ain't done yet
2. It's prob'ly a lot worse than we've thought

WaPo: (pay wall)

Opinion: The pandemic toll may be three times greater than reported. That’s a lot of lost souls

The pandemic was worse than the official numbers show, and how much worse is now becoming more evident after two years. A new study, based in part on statistical modeling, suggests the loss in lives was close to three times greater than the official data. It is important to understand what happened and why in the greatest public health catastrophe since the 1918 influenza pandemic, which is estimated to have killed at least 50 million people.

The new study, peer-reviewed, was published Thursday in the Lancet medical journal and carried out at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. The research, examining the pandemic years 2020 and 2021, found that while the official death toll worldwide was 5.94 million due to covid-19, in fact 18.2 million people might have perished in the pandemic. That estimate is similar to one reached by the Economist in ongoing research that uses different methods. Both studies suggest that the pandemic’s pain in lost lives has been undercounted because of a combination of factors, including neglected treatment for other ailments.

At the core of this is a measure of excess mortality, the difference between the observed numbers of deaths from all causes, and what would normally be expected over the same time period, absent the pandemic. Although excess mortality is an estimate, it can help underscore the true scope of the catastrophe in lost lives, help scientists prepare for the next pandemic and pinpoint vulnerabilities in public health systems.

The official covid death toll undercounts for several reasons. Health-care systems often don’t list covid as a cause of death without a positive test — so, many who died were not counted as covid because they lacked a test. According to the study, before tests were widely available, “many deaths due to COVID-19 among older individuals in high-income countries, particularly in long-term care facilities,” were not counted as covid. Moreover, nearly 4 in 10 of the world’s deaths are unregistered, according to the World Health Organization; in Africa, only 10 percent of deaths are registered, compared to 98 percent in Europe and 91 percent in the Americas. On top of this, covid so flooded health-care systems that many people who suffered other sicknesses could not get treatment and died. They might have survived were it not for the pandemic. Taken all together, the new study declares, pandemic mortality “has been more devastating than the situation documented by official statistics.”

Excess mortality differed around the world. In the United States, the researchers said the two-year official death toll was 824,000 but the estimated excess deaths were 1.1 million. Undoubtedly, those estimates are higher today after the omicron surge. The official U.S. covid death rate was 130.6 per 100,000 population, but the estimated excess-mortality rate was 179.3 per 100,000.

Globally, the researchers say that a “substantial fraction” of the 12 million deaths beyond the official counts were probably caused by covid, just not properly accounted for. Figuring out why should help everyone grasp the true size of this disaster.

Tech Stuff

Just Have A Think - New tech

And also too - China may be hoarding lithium in order to drive up the price so its Sodium-ion technology can be more competitive when they release it. (just a guess)

Today's Daddy State

When it serves their purpose, the Daddy State will not hesitate to put thoughts in your head, words in your mouth, and slogans on your sign.

It's illegal to criticize Putin's government. And while it's not much of a stretch to think this woman meant to do exactly that, she was exactly not doing that.

Слава Україні

In Line With The Kremlin

No one is surprised by any of this, but it's important to see it, and acknowledge it, and try to remember it.

Mother Jones:

Leaked Kremlin Memo to Russian Media: It Is “Essential” to Feature Tucker Carlson

The Russian government has pressed outlets to highlight the Fox host’s Putin-helping broadcasts.

On March 3, as Russian military forces bombed Ukrainian cities as part of Vladimir Putin’s illegal invasion of his neighbor, the Kremlin sent out talking points to state-friendly media outlets with a request: Use more Tucker Carlson.

“It is essential to use as much as possible fragments of broadcasts of the popular Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who sharply criticizes the actions of the United States [and] NATO, their negative role in unleashing the conflict in Ukraine, [and] the defiantly provocative behavior from the leadership of the Western countries and NATO towards the Russian Federation and towards President Putin, personally,” advises the 12-page document written in Russian. It sums up Carlson’s position: “Russia is only protecting its interests and security.” The memo includes a quote from Carlson: “And how would the US behave if such a situation developed in neighboring Mexico or Canada?”

The document - titled “For Media and Commentators (recommendations for coverage of events as of 03.03)” - was produced, according to its metadata, at a Russian government agency called the Department of Information and Telecommunications Support, which is part of the Russian security apparatus. It was provided to Mother Jones by a contributor to a national Russian media outlet who asked not to be identified. The source said memos like this one have been regularly sent by Putin’s administration to media organizations during the war. Independent media outlets in Russia have been forced to shut down since the start of the conflict.

The March 3 document opens with top-line themes the Kremlin wanted Russian media to spread: The Russian invasion is “preventing the possibility of nuclear strikes on its territory”; Ukraine has a history of nationalism (that presumably threatens Russia); the Russian military operation is proceeding as planned; Putin is protecting all Russians; the “losing” Ukrainian army is shelling residential areas of eastern Ukraine controlled by Russia; foreign mercenaries are arriving in Ukraine; Europe “is facing more and more problems” because of its own sanctions; and there will be “danger and possible legal consequences” for those in Russia who protest the war. The document notes that it is “necessary to continue quoting” Putin. It claims that the “hysteria of the West had reached the inexplicable level” of people calling for killing dogs and cats from Russia and asks, “Today they call for the killing of animals from Russia. Tomorrow, will they call for killing people from Russia?”

A section headlined “Victory in Information War” tells Russian journalists to push these specific points: The Ukrainian military is beginning to collapse; the Kyiv government is guilty of “war crimes”; and Moscow is the target of a “massive Western anti-Russian propaganda” operation. It states that Russian media should raise questions about Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s state of mind and suggest he is not truly in charge of Ukraine. And it encourages these outlets to “broadcast messages” highlighting the law recently passed by the Russia Duma that makes it a crime to impede the war effort or disseminate what the government deems “false” information about the war, punishable for up to 15 years in prison. This portion instructs Russian journalists to emphasize that these penalties apply to anyone who promotes news about Ukrainian military victories or Russian attacks on civilian targets.

This is the section of the memo that calls on Russian media to make as much use as possible of Tucker Carlson’s broadcasts. No other Western journalist is referenced in the memo.

Mother Jones is not posting the full document to protect the source of the material. Here are photos of the memo. The first shows the opening page; the next displays the paragraph citing Carlson.

"Some people say..." Hmmm - I wonder where we've heard that before.

Fox's Maria Bartiromo: "Some people have told me over the weekend that they feel that, at the end of the day, this administration does not see Putin as the enemy, they see him as a partner!" pic.twitter.com/lkYddMlXUs

— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) March 13, 2022

Get Out Of Russia

Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, Yale School Of Management, keeps a list of companies that have folded their tents in Russia, and of those that remain.

Over 300 Companies Have Withdrawn from Russia—But Some Remain

Since Putin's devastating invasion of Ukraine began, 350 companies have announced their withdrawal from Russia—but some companies have continued to operate in Russia undeterred.

The complete, current list of companies that have curtailed operations in Russia as well as those that remain, as of March 13, can be seen below.

Download the list by clicking here.

The list is updated continuously by Jeffrey Sonnenfeld and his research team at the Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute to reflect new announcements from companies in as close to real time as possible.

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I think I get why some of these guys are worried about the decision to stay or to go - there are some people calling the shots who are legit concerned - but their public statements ring hollow to me.

If you're bothered by the humanity of it all, then your "fiduciary responsibilities" wouldn't be much of a factor, and you wouldn't put that excuse up front.

WaPo: (pay wall)

Dozens of corporations are still in Russia. It’s getting harder for them to leave.
Several multinationals have stayed despite public blowback, and experts say they are running out of time to protect their assets and reputations.

Hundreds of multinational corporations have cut ties with Russia as its military assault on Ukraine intensifies, bolstering the effects of western economic sanctions and redirecting their operations to serve desperate Ukrainian refugees.

But for the dozens of companies that remain in Russia, it’s getting increasingly difficult to leave, experts say.

Consumers watching the horrific humanitarian toll of the invasion have registered their disapproval of the businesses that remain in Russia, vowing boycotts on social media. But companies that leave now, experts say, could be seen as pandering, or worse: prioritizing profits and shareholders above human suffering.

The corporate quandary is testing the mettle of some of the world’s most powerful brands, and the long-held business credo that countries that trade together don’t wage wars with one another.

“I would say to any corporate executive, you have to do what you think is right,” said James O’Rourke, a professor of management at University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business. “In the end, you have no control over what [President Vladimir] Putin or the central government will do. But if you want to keep doing business in the rest of the free world, you have to pay attention to what they [the rest of the free world] think of you.

“This may be one of the moments in history in which proactive disinvestment is the best option. You’re invested there now. You hope that this remains a stable, predictable nation, but what I would tell anyone still doing business in Russia right now is that it’s really hard. If you can’t move money in and out of Russia in a convertible currency, what’s the point of being there?”

The question is underscored by the now-viral spreadsheet compiled by Yale professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld and his research team, which had CEOs racing to avoid being added to the roster of “Companies That Remain in Russia With Significant Exposure.” As of Friday, roughly 35 such companies have made no public statement signaling any intent leave the country. And even those who have committed to leaving have partial ties to Russia that will be hard to sever.

“The risk calculus in recent days has been to your reputation scores,” O’Rourke said. “It appears now for many of those large businesses that the calculus is now to your assets, and you just have to realize that you’re no longer in control.”

Food producers such as PepsiCo and Mondelez, the brand behind Oreo cookies, Ritz crackers and other snacks, maintain they don’t want to withhold food and beverage staples from Russian citizens. Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Deutsche Bank say they want to wind down operations, but they are bound by complicated client relationships. Others like Burger King and Marriott are tied down by complicated legal agreements as they struggle to reconcile two conflicting legal regimes.

Manufacturing companies face frightening prospects if they pull out of Russia, experts say. The Kremlin has threatened to nationalize assets of corporations that leave the country over its assault on Ukraine.

Consumer goods manufacturers face an even steeper challenge: Just because they shut down factories, retailers may continue selling their wares. It leaves those corporations open to continuing reputational damage while missing out on profits and risking their high-priced assets.

Korean automaker Hyundai announced Friday it had suspended operations at its factory in St. Petersburg. But sales may continue at independent dealerships in Russia, Sonnenfeld said.

LG Electronics said in a statement that it was “deeply concerned for the health and safety of all the people who are suffering during this period of conflict, but did not say whether the company would change its business practices in Russia.

It presents a situation similar to that of fast-food restaurants, Sonnenfeld said, which are often operated by franchisees.

“The dealerships are like the franchises of the hotels and things. The arrangements give them almost no control,” he said. “The branding and the marketing is all the automakers and the fast-food companies can do.”

That lack of control, though, provides even greater incentive for companies to cut ties with Russia, experts say. Putin’s threats toward businesses make a strong case that executives can’t trust the Kremlin to backstop the Russian economy or to protect private property rights. Companies ought to consider writing off their Russian assets as lost causes, O’Rourke said, and get out of the region.

“If Vladimir Putin thinks he can do a better job at the deep fryer, let him have it. If he can flip some burgers, great,” Sonnenfeld said. “What exactly are they seizing that is of such great value? A small part of this is physical assets.”

Several major banks have announced plans to draw down their Russian business, citing both investment priorities and moral duty. But experts say their fiduciary responsibility to clients may prevent them from fully cutting ties, and none have provided a firm date by which they will leave.

A Deutsche Bank spokesperson told The Washington Post on Friday that it was “in the process of winding down” its remaining business in Russia while helping international clients reduce their investments in the country. “There won’t be any new business in Russia,” the spokesperson said.

A day earlier, Chief Financial Officer James von Moltke told CNBC that leaving Russia was not an immediate option because, “We’re there to support our clients.” Nor would it be the right thing to do, he added, in terms of “helping them manage their situation.”

Although Goldman Sachs says it will “wind down” its business in Russia, its statement announcing the pullout left open the possibility that some clients might choose to “manage” their preexisting obligations there as opposed to closing them out.

“We are focused on supporting our clients across the globe in managing or closing out preexisting obligations in the [Russian] market and ensuring the well-being of our people,” a Goldman Sachs spokeswoman said in an email Thursday.

JPMorgan is “actively unwinding” its Russian business and is not pursuing any new business there, a spokesperson said. But it remains engaged in helping clients “address and close out preexisting obligations,” and manage Russia-related risk and “acting as a custodian” to clients with business there.

Putin on Thursday endorsed a plan to nationalize foreign-owned businesses that leave because of the invasion. But in some cases he may not need to. Some corporations are bound to Russia by complicated franchising arrangements through which Russian owners operate the stores.

Biden, European allies move to strip Russia of trade status

Subway and Burger King have both said they don’t actually own any of their Russian stores, which are owned and operated by local franchisees. In both cases, the stores are managed by an independent “master franchisee.”

Restaurant Brands International, the U.S.-based corporate entity behind Burger King, has taken steps to cut off corporate support for its franchisees but has made no move to close them. It has committed $3 million to support Ukrainian refugees and gave out $2 million in Whopper meal vouchers for refugees leaving Ukraine. Subway also promised to redirect any profits from Russia to humanitarian aide.

“These are not war profiteers nor are they exploitative in any way,” O’Rourke said.

“If McDonald’s pulls out of Russia and closes its 850 stores, those stores are not going to remain empty forever or even for very long. If the government nationalizes those stores and hands them to friends of the government to run, the folks in Chicago are not going to be able to make them take down the golden arches.”

PepsiCo and Mondelez have pledged to stop making and distributing certain luxury items in Russia, including soft drinks, cookies and candy.

In a letter to PepsiCo employees, CEO Ramon Laguarta wrote that the war meant “we must stay true to the humanitarian aspect of our business,” suggesting that halting the company’s operations on items such as baby food, formula and dairy products would create unnecessary hardship for ordinary Russians.

Mondelez CEO Dirk Van de Put said his company would help “maintain continuity of the food supply during the challenging times ahead.” The company also makes Halls cough drops and an array of baked goods.

The pronouncements were largely met with approval on social media, and some experts said the positions were a stable middle ground: they could protect the brands from consumer blowback, prevent ordinary Russians from suffering the consequences of the war and protect Russian workers from lost wages and public criticism.

And there it is - it's meant to sound all warm-n-fuzzy, but it amounts to little more than the same old corporate calculations - Profit & Loss, and Cost/Benefit Analysis.

They're just trying to make it look like they're doing what's right - hiding behind some noble-sounding press release language - while they're actually prioritizing the comfort of 140 million "ordinary" Russians over the very lives of 43 million Ukrainians, all in service to the two-headed golden calf of profitability and shareholder value.

“For the moment, that looks noble,” O’Rourke said. “If they want to appear fully noble, they can donate the excess profit from those lines of business to humanitarian causes in Ukraine.”

But those stances also risk blunting the efficacy of western sanctions, whose aim is to isolate Moscow and make the Russian public feel the effects of the invasion. The purpose, Sonnenfeld said, is to create sufficient financial chaos in Russia that the public holds the nation’s leaders accountable.

Today's Tweet

I❤️

NY

Rain wasn’t going to stop anyone today in Times Square #StandWithUkraine️
Via: @dandavenport(IG) pic.twitter.com/irkFToILbp

— Wu-Tang Is For The Children (@WUTangKids) March 13, 2022

You Ain't Done

Get your sorry butts back in those chairs and finish your work.

Leigh McGowan - Politics Girl

Today's Reddit

Significant if true - no confirmation at time of posting.

COVID-19 Update

Per Worldometer

USA:    39,000 New Cases

      1,000 New Deaths

World:  1.7 million News Cases

             6,000 New Deaths

WaPo: (pay wall)

Two years into the pandemic, the earliest mourners reach for hope

They were among the first to be affected when their husbands, wives, parents or siblings died of covid-19, and two years later — on the second anniversary of the World Health Organization’s pandemic declaration — the D.C. area’s earliest mourners are still reeling.

Many are African American or Latino, the two communities hit the hardest when the virus preyed on those who couldn’t work from home or lived in crowded housing. Some are dealing with probate court cases and funeral expenses, after learning their loved ones had no wills or life insurance. Some, amid the fights over mask-wearing and vaccinations, and as infection rates in the Washington region seesawed, have gotten sick themselves. A few have watched relationships wither.

Through it all, they’ve honored those they’ve lost in big and small ways, while still reaching for a hope that, too often, has seemed elusive.

That hope dangles before the mother of two bright-eyed girls who, after her husband died, dares their daughters to dream big while, in her spare time, counseling others through grief.

It drives a District construction worker who has stepped into her dead father’s shoes, shuttling her younger brother with severe disabilities to his classes at George Mason University, a task that requires her to work overnight.

And it shines in the gold earrings that Carrie Kelley, a human resource manager at a Washington-area homeless shelter, puts on every day. They had belonged to her mother, who died of covid-19 in suburban Maryland on April 7, 2020, a day before her 72nd birthday — and eight days before Kelley’s stepfather died of the disease, too.

“I’m still somewhat in shock,” Kelley said. “Life hasn’t been easy.”

‘We’re all interconnected’

Our lives are made of moments, Nicole Boynes has concluded. What you do with them is what matters most.

Living that conviction is how she has honored the memory of her husband, Sean Boynes, who died in Annapolis of covid-19 on April 2, 2020, at the age of 46.

It hasn’t been easy. Sean, a pharmacist and former Howard University football player whose warm charm and sharp humor filled the room, left a huge void for Boynes, 46, and their two daughters, Gabrielle, 10, and Sierra, 13.

“We were a unit,” said Boynes, the director of institutional advancement at Holy Trinity Episcopal School, in Bowie, Md. “All four of us.”

During the empty days following Sean’s death, concerns about covid kept Boynes from hugging the two friends who came to their Bowie home to comfort her. They stood on the driveway instead, about six feet apart, as her grief thundered.

Family members also kept their distance, pulling up to their home in cars to let Boynes know she was not alone, though they were all apart.

“There was no comfort, or what we would traditionally identify as comfort,” she recalled.

Since then, Boynes and her daughters have moved in with Sean’s mother in Silver Spring, a help with the loss of his income. But as they’ve resettled, each new surge of cases and covid-related deaths arrives like a familiar tormentor.

“It’s almost like a PTSD,” Boynes said. But she intends to be a beacon for her daughters in the way that her husband was. She encourages them to be daring, even as they continue to mourn.

For Gabrielle, that means hurling her body into the air as a gymnast. Sierra lets her soul fly as an aspiring artist.

Through a weekly “prayer call” organized by her church in Silver Spring, Boynes also works to comfort others in mourning. In group phone conversations, they read Bible passages and work through the reminders of a dead loved one that come with a familiar smell or song.

The larger message, Boynes said, is that we’re in this together and to remember that, always, there is hope.

“And that’s hard,” she said. “It’s hard in the pandemic, and it’s hard in this political climate. The great thing is we’re all interconnected in this process.”

Taking over for Dad

As the sun rises over Interstate 66, Ingrid Reyes can usually be found directing traffic in her orange reflective vest — part of a quiet promise she made to her father, José Mardoqueo Reyes, after he died May 12, 2020, at age 54.

Reyes, 28, took the graveyard shift on the highway expansion project in Northern Virginia so she could be free later in the mornings to drive her younger brother, Jason, to George Mason, where he studies economics and finance.

Their father, a former war refugee from El Salvador who founded a Spanish online radio station, had been the one to take Jason, 23, to school every day from their home in the District. He saw that as a way to ensure his youngest child would know success, despite the congenital birth defect that has made it difficult for Jason to walk, Reyes said.

In her father’s absence, when she finishes her 12-hour shift at 6 a.m., Reyes drives to her home in the District to get some sleep. Then she’s up at 11 a.m. to take her brother to George Mason’s Fairfax County campus. Another brother retrieves Jason while she heads back to the District to get some more rest before leaving again for Fairfax to start work.

In between, Reyes has dealt with a lingering probate court case in which her family is seeking to transfer the title of the house to her mother. Because her father had no will, that has been complicated, made worse when District courts were closed for several months, she said.

After the family scrambled to raise enough money to bury her father, who had no life insurance, Reyes said the experience has made her realize how important it is to get your affairs in order before you die.

“We’re preparing for my mom,” she said, referring to a nearly paid-off cemetery plot next to her father’s. She is also preparing her own will.

“This was a lesson that we have to plan for these types of things,” Reyes said.

Letting go of anger

Anger has often engulfed Anthony Cabbagestalk, a software analyst in White Plains, Md.

Who can blame him?

On March 2020, his mother, Minnie Cabbagestalk, a beloved minister in her South Carolina church, died at 82, less than two weeks after falling ill with covid-19. Three days later, his father, James Cabbagestalk, was suddenly dead of the disease, too, at 85, after doctors had assured the family he was healthy enough to be released from the hospital.

Then Cabbagestalk’s two brothers and three sisters each became seriously ill. Last year, an uncle and a cousin both died of covid-19.

Cabbagestalk, 56, got vaccinated and boosted as soon as he was able. But the constant dismissals of the virus’s severity from some corners have felt like a repeated “slap in the face,” he said. “I was very angry. It took a while for me to step out of that.”

In December, his son, Anthony Jr., 24, tested positive. The following month, Cabbagestalk and his wife, Crystal, 53, were both seriously ill.

As Cabbagestalk lay in bed with a 104-degree fever, worried he would wake up connected to a respirator, he thought about the pain his unvaccinated elderly parents must have endured.

The burning that he felt in his chest — how much more intense, he wondered, had it been for them?

The experience was a turning point. He vowed to emulate his parents’ loving nature, allowing his anger to soften, though it sometimes still clinches.

Now, Cabbagestalk is leading an effort to create a college scholarship fund in their name through his mother’s South Carolina church. Though his hands and feet are still swollen from his bout with covid, he tries to spread love in small ways, such as when coaching a local high school boys’ basketball team.

“Both of them were very loving,” Cabbagestalk said of his parents. “I want to carry on that same legacy. I try, every opportunity I get, to show that.”

Dreaming of dancing


The way that Carrie Kelley’s mother and stepfather both died, several days apart in April 2020, was painful enough.

What’s happened since, now that family cornerstones Minnette and Lawrence Nokes are gone, has been like a falling house of cards, leaving their children and grandchildren “kind of all over the place,” said Kelley, 47.

Fights over what to write on headstones, how to pay for burials and which possessions went to whom have caused deep rifts within Kelley’s family. Kelley’s 31-year-old son, Jzhy Thomas, who was very close to his grandmother, fell into a deep depression. Consumed by an alcohol addiction, he became homeless for a few months.

Kelley, too, became infected, though her symptoms were minor. Then her engagement ended, in part because of a fight over her ex-fiance’s reluctance to get vaccinated, she said.


Making matters worse, Kelley was forced to stop teaching dance in her spare time because of concerns about infection.

“I think it’s just hard for all of us to deal with the fact that they’re no longer here and how it all went down,” Kelley, who works full-time as a human resource manager for the Central Union Mission, said of losing her parents and the family fights that followed. “None of that stuff is who they were.”

Lawrence Nokes, a nursing assistant at a Maryland nursing home hit hard by the virus, entered a coma shortly after he tested positive in March 2020.

He regained consciousness to learn Minnette, his wife of 24 years, had suffered a heart attack and died April 7, a day before her 72nd birthday. She posthumously tested positive for the coronavirus.

After his wife’s death, Lawrence Nokes’s condition grew worse. He died eight days later, at 69.

“We’re already on Year 2, and it still feels like yesterday,” Kelley said.

She finds comfort in wearing something of her mother’s every day, usually a pair of gold earrings and a black sweater or a blouse. They were both the same size. “She had style,” Kelley said.


The ritual — and raising her 14-year-old son, Eirrac Kelley — has helped her stay centered, said Kelley, who lives in Anne Arundel County but works in both Prince George’s County and the District. She gets tested weekly as part of her job, has navigated a patchwork of pandemic restrictions in three jurisdictions and keeps a row of fresh N95 masks hanging from her car’s windshield-wiper lever, with a pack of surgical masks nearby in case someone else needs one.

But, after all that’s happened during the past two years, with the stress of pandemic life stacked on top of her grief, she feels a deep longing to let all of that go.

She yearns to dance again, to move, carefree, to a good beat in a crowded club. Recently, she started doing, for her, the next best thing: roller-skating.

The first time she strapped on a pair of skates again, a few months ago, “I fell,” Kelley recalled, laughing.

But, she said, “it just kind of filled me up” to hear the music playing and people laughing while they fell or glided past.

Bad For Them Is Good For Us

... but it could easily turn back to bad - really bad - if Mr Putin has the kind of meltdown that makes dictators famous and even more dangerous.

Daily Mail:

Putin 'has placed the head of the FSB's foreign intelligence branch under house arrest because he is furious at security services for failing to warn him' that Ukraine could fiercely resist invasion

• Vladimir Putin has reportedly placed the head of the FSB's foreign service under house arrest, along with his deputy
• The Russian president is said to blame his intelligence agencies for the slow pace of the war in Ukraine, which has seen Russian casualties continue to mount
• Andrey Soldatov, a well-respected author on the Russian secret services, said sources inside the FSB told him of the arrests on Friday
• Embezzlement of funds allocated for subversive and undercover work in Ukraine, as well as false information, is said to be the reason for the arrests
• The FSB security service allegedly told Putin Ukraine was weak, riddled with neo-Nazi groups, and would give up easily if he invaded
• The news comes after Putin was said to have sacked his top generals

Vladimir Putin has placed the head of the FSB's foreign service and his deputy under house arrest after blaming them for intelligence failings that saw his army handed a series of embarrassing defeats in Ukraine, it has been claimed.

Andrey Soldatov, a respected author on the Russian secret services, said sources inside the FSB told him that Sergey Beseda, 68, head of the agency's foreign service, has been placed under arrest on Putin's orders.

Also arrested is Anatoly Bolyukh, Beseda's deputy, according to Soldatov, who said Putin is 'truly unhappy' with the agency - which he ran before becoming president.

Putin is said to blame the agency for intelligence which assured him ahead of the invasion that Russian forces would face only token resistance from the Ukrainian army and that Ukrainians themselves were eager to be rid of their leaders.

Among the reasons for the repressions are the embezzlement of funds allocated for subversive and undercover work in Ukraine, as well as deliberately false information about the political situation in Ukraine.

The FSB security service allegedly handed him intelligence suggesting that Ukraine was weak, riddled with neo-Nazi groups, and would give up easily if attacked.

In fact, the Russian armed forces have faced fierce resistance from Ukrainian soldiers that has battled them to a standstill, inflicted heavy losses, and forced Putin's commanders to resort to brutal siege warfare that has so far yielded few results.

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