Law, Power, and Justice

Friday 28 July 2023

Books to Check Out at Library

• Affinities by Brian Dillon
• The Sullicans by Alexander Stille
• Battle of Ink and Ice y Darell Hartman
• Beyond the Shores by Tamara J. Walker.

Books to Buy

• Blowback by Miles Taylor

Trump

• There was no Trump indictment today in the Jan. 6 case, but there was a superseding indictment issued in the documents case.

Ukraine

• Ukraine is thought to have launched its awaited counter-offensive.
• Attacking from Zaporizhia, Donetz, and Bakhmut, the Ukrainians are fighting their way south to try to cut off the land bridge to Crimea. 
• (Note: I read earlier that the Russian had issued a warning to civilians to get out of the area known as this land corridor to Crimea.)
• The counter-offensive is reportedly going to take from one to three weeks. 
• There has been concern and some criticism about how long it was taking to launch the counter-offensive by the Ukrainians.  But, yesterday, a British military official made a public statement supporting Ukraine’s actions and saying they were perfectly in line with agreements made between Ukraine, the UK and the US.  Ukraine was, in his words, refusing to waste men and resources unless it felt that there was a good chance of succeeding.
• It was reported that one of the reasons the Ukrainians decided to move against Zaporizhzhia was that the Russian general formerly in charge of the area, Popov, was removed by Putin for criticizing military methods of running the war.  This leaves what will hopefully be a hole and disorder in the Russian lines and defense lines.
• Russia has, of course, already developed a counter narrative.  According to them, Ukraine’s efforts were turned back and the Ukrainians lost many men more than the Russians.  Putin claimed the Ukrainian losses were 10 times the Russian losse.

WAGNER

• Prigozhin was photographed smiling and posing with African leaders at the St. Petersburg meeting on Africa.
• This is an extraordinary turn around from a few weeks ago when Putin was calling for Prigozhin’s head.
• Some 19 out of 43 countries invited to this summit for Africa actually attended the conference.
• At the top of the list of concerns was that Russia had pulled out of the Grain Deal with Ukraine.  Russia shows no signs of rejoining this deal.
• Russia has been bombing Odessa, the port where the grain ships leave.
• There has been talk about one of the surrounding countries, like Turkey, could escort ships under a new agreement.  It has also been proposed that NATO forces escort the ships.  No country, nor Nato has stepped up to the plate.
• There has been widespread criticism of western countries for not having planned for this likely eventuality a long time ago.  It seems as if everyboy was caught off guard when a situation that was almost guaranteed to occur, actually occurred.
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ICC

• Biden has agreed to give information to the International Criminal Court (ICC) which will help establish a case against Russia for war crimes.  The US has refused in the past to cooperate with the ICC fearing (quite rightly) that once joined, the ICC could bring charges against American soldiers.  (Note: Why should American soldiers be exempt from this international court?)  It is considered a breakthrough that the Biden administration has agreed to cooperate.

CLIMATE DISASTER

• The heat is so extreme that several large power grids in the US have issued warnings about usage.

ISRAEL

• Judicial suppression law passed, now Court has to act.