MBW - 3/31/2022

Good morning friends. The last day of March is upon us. Let’s get down to your daily digest:

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1. News Briefing

   •According to the White House the US had information that Mr Putin "felt misled by the Russian military" and this had resulted in "persistent tension between Putin and his military leadership".

   •In the meantime, four million Ukrainians have fled the country and a quarter of the population has been displaced. Peace talks between Russia and Ukraine are due to restart online on April 1.

   •Drone footage that the shows the level of destruction of besieged Mariupol.

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   Destruction of Mariupol #Ukraine #Mariupol #UkraineRussiaWar

   •Ukrainians driving over Russian landmines:

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   Ukrainians driving over Russian landmines #landmines #UkraineRussiaWar

   •Donald Trump calling Putin’s help:

   •Bruce Willis gives up acting due to brain disorder aphasia, a condition that impedes a person's ability to speak and write. More on this here.

   

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2. Understanding Sanctions Against Russia

   Sanctions against Russia have been unprecedented in speed, the scale of targets, and international cooperation. But they are NOT comprehensive. A few myths that require correcting:

   a. Not all Russian banks have been cut off from SWIFT. In fact, the EU has cut off just seven Russian banks from SWIFT. Of the five largest Russian banks, just one (VTB) is banned from SWIFT. Sberbank, which is by far Russia's largest bank, retains access to SWIFT.

   

   b. No, "self-sanctioning" has not devastated Russia's oil sales. Russian oil is still finding buyers. To truly curb Russia's oil sales, Europe will need to reduce its own imports, and the US & EU will need to launch a global secondary sanctions campaign.

   

   c. It is only partially true that the effects of sanctions "worsen over time." Yes, sanctions will curtail Russia's economic & technological development. But sanctions-induced financial panic is already abating. Keeping up pressure requires increasing sanctions.

   

   d. It is misleading to call Russia the "world's most-sanctioned country." Tallying up individual targets is meaningless. The right question is: How comprehensive are restrictions? Iran and North Korea remain far more economically isolated than Russia is. (Credit to: Eddie Fishman)

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3. The Controversy Around Justice Thomas and His Wife

   The Supreme Court of the United States has nine justices. They are politically appointed for life. Currently, there are six justices picked by Republican presidents and three by Democratic presidents. There is growing discontent on the left with one of the Republican affiliated justices, namely, Clarence Thomas and calls for an impeachment are growing especially among progressive politicians. In the history of the court only one justice was ever impeached and it happened in the 19th century. The reason is mainly related to the activities of his wife, Virginia Thomas, who is also a conservative activist.

   

   Apparently, she repeatedly pressed the former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to pursue unrelenting efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election in a series of urgent text exchanges in the critical weeks after the vote, according to copies of the messages obtained by The Washington Post and CBS News.

   The messages - 29 in all - reveal an extraordinary pipeline between Virginia Thomas and President Donald Trump’s top aide. On Nov. 10, after news organizations had projected Joe Biden the winner based on state vote totals, Thomas wrote to Meadows: “Help This Great President stand firm, Mark!!!...You are the leader, with him, who is standing for America’s constitutional governance at the precipice. The majority knows Biden and the Left is attempting the greatest Heist of our History.”

   The text messages were among 2,320 that Meadows provided to the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. They do not directly reference Justice Thomas or the Supreme Court.

   

   Virginia Thomas has publicly denied any conflict of interest between her activism and her husband’s work on the Supreme Court. “Clarence doesn’t discuss his work with me, and I don’t involve him in my work,” she said in an interview.

   Justice Thomas, 73, is the Supreme Court’s longest-serving current justice. In February 2021, when the Supreme Court rejected election challenges filed by Trump and his allies, Thomas wrote in a dissent that it was “baffling” and “inexplicable” that the majority had decided against hearing the cases because he believed the Supreme Court should provide states with guidance for future elections. (Source: The Washington Post)

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4. Facebook vs. TikTok

   Facebook parent company Meta is paying one of the biggest Republican consulting firms in the country, Targeted Victory, to orchestrate a nationwide campaign seeking to turn the public against TikTok. Internal emails from Targeted Victory were shared with The Washington Post. Employees with the firm, Targeted Victory, worked to undermine TikTok through a nationwide media and lobbying campaign portraying the fast-growing app, owned by the Beijing-based company ByteDance, as a danger to American children and society.

   

   For instance, on March 12, a letter to the editor that Targeted Victory officials helped orchestrate ran in the Denver Post. The letter, from a “concerned” “new parent,” claimed that TikTok was harmful to children’s mental health, raised concerns over its data privacy practices and said that “many people even suspect China is deliberately collecting behavioral data on our kids.”

   

   Launched as a Republican digital consulting firm by Zac Moffatt, a digital director for Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign, Targeted Victory has routinely advised Facebook officials over the years, including during a high-profile congressional hearing after the 2016 election.

   

   In an internal report last year leaked by the whistleblower Frances Haugen, Facebook researchers said teens were spending “2-3x more time” on TikTok than Instagram, and that Facebook’s popularity among young people had plummeted. (Source: The Washington Post)

   Also this:

   

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5. Pics, vids & memes

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   Egypt vs Senegal on March 29. A disgrace for the sport.

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   Another one

   

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   Trump playing the accordion

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   Lightning strike out of Kansas

   Morning Before Work @MorningBeforeW

   Lightning in Kansas

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   Fox brothers

   

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   Biggest natural gas producers through time:

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   The American-Canadian border.

   

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That was it for today folks. Wishing you a great day ahead, see you tomorrow.