My mind, this morning, is flitting from one thing to another – there are so many things to flit about.

(1) I just read that the House of Representatives is going to vote on a resolution stating that MIT and Harvard should fire their presidents. Does this seem as absurd to you as it does to me? Aren’t Harvard and MIT big enough that they can choose their own leadership? I guess that most Republicans and some Democrats will vote in favor of this resolution. Bipartisanship in action. Reminds me of the last scene in Jules Feiffer’s play of decades ago, “Little Murders”, where the estranged father and son are sitting at the windows of their New York City apartment firing their guns indiscriminately at passers-by, while the wife/mother beams and says something like “it’s so nice that the family is together again”.

(2) And just yesterday, I listened to part of a House of Representatives hearing where the legislators were doing real important work, preparing for another House vote. This would (will) be on whether to authorize an investigating committee to determine of they can find anything that would authorize the opening of an impeachment investigation of Joe Biden. This is a direct follow-up, I guess, to the resolution presented by Marjorie Taylor Greene just following Biden’s inauguration in 2021 to impeach the President. I am not sure the Bidens had even moved into the White House yet. The hearing was basically: Republicans – “where there’s smoke, there’s fire”. Democrats – “there’s no smoke”. All of it of course hinges on whether the Biden family (a family, apparently, in Cosa Nostra terms) illegally made a fortune from China or from a Ukrainian gas company or somewhere. Which reminds me – what’s the name of the family that is making a fortune off of a hedge fund with Saudi investors? It’s on the very tip of my Trump.

(3) In the meantime, it appears that Mr. Zelenskyy’s trip to Washington might have been a waste of time and money. The Republicans say that they will provide no more assistance to Ukraine until the Biden administration illegally closes the southern border. At least, that’s how I read it. Congress is unable to draft, much less pass, new immigration legislation, but expects the executive to ignore existing law in dealing with the border. Not that I follow this situation that carefully, but it seems to me that the courts, when asked to rule on governmental border actions, seem to feel that the existing laws should be followed. And, again if I had this right, the Democrats have asked for appropriations for more border patrols, but the Republicans say “no, first you have to adopt our (presumably illegal) policies”. If someone can correct me, I’d be happy to be corrected, but this is how it seems to me. (This is not to imply that the border isn’t a mess – it is. It is also a big vulnerability for the Democrats politically, and the Republicans want to make the most of it.)

(4) Back to Ukraine (which is where I thought I was going on paragraph (3)). Remember Vietnam and the domino theory – if Vietnam goes, everything will go. This is of course one of the arguments being used now – if Ukraine falls, can Latvia be far behind? Well, you can pooh-pooh this argument, but I heard yesterday that Putin said “Russia knows no boundaries”. And there is a lot of fear in the Baltic states. Russia has lost over 300,000 troops, and apparently 2/3 of their tanks. But (and I got the inspiration from that ad for Shingles medication on TV) “Putin doesn’t care”.

The destruction in parts of Ukraine rival the destruction in Gaza, and millions of Ukrainians have fled the country and are hanging out elsewhere in Europe (and some in other places). This is a difference in Gaza and Ukraine. Ukrainians can flee; Gazans are trapped. That is a big difference.

By the way, speaking of Eastern Europe – have you ever looked at population figures? The populations of Romania, Bulgaria, Lithuania and Latvia have diminished by a very large amount over the past decades – as young people have found greener pastures elsewhere (largely elsewhere in Europe). This must mean something – but what does it mean? And did you see the article on French – the language – the NYT this morning? How French is becoming more an African language than a European one? But French with an African twist that the French academy can do nothing about? That’s zogo. (This paragraph was a diversion.)

Maybe the rest of the day will be a diversion, too. It’s getting harder and harder for me to actually sit down and accomplish anything. Maybe I should run for Congress.