βοΈ THE CRIMEAN CONUNDRUM β Thursday, April 24, 2025 β C&C NEWS π¦
Zelensky grabs the blame baton; Trump plants a poison pill in Ukraine aid; NM judge meets karma; Trump hammers woke colleges; SCOTUS rips gender smut books a new porthole.
Good morning, C&C, itβs Thursday! Todayβs roundup includes a trio of progress: Zelensky seems intent on becoming the scapegoat for losing his own war; Trumpβs poison pill that puts the blame squarely on Ukraine; gangster-loving New Mexico judge begins to feel the wheels of justice driving over his back; Trump signs more orders escalating his war against woke colleges; and in some overdue good Supreme Court news, the Justices tear woke school books a new orifice.
π WORLD NEWS AND COMMENTARY π
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Behold the emerging end-game narrative, as the Proxy War devolves into its predictable sorry conclusion. NBC ran its story yesterday below the headline, βTrump slams Zelenskyy for rejecting Ukraine-Russia negotiations, saying a deal was 'very close.β The sub-headline added, βHigh-level talks in London aimed at bringing a pause to fighting in Ukraine disintegrated after Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff pulled out.β If heβs not careful, pugnacious comedian and understated dresser Zelensky is about to be left holding the bag.
U.S. negotiators had organized a high-profile Wednesday meeting to discuss terms for a permanent cease-fire plan with top Ukrainian officials in London. The US intended to present a deal the Russians had allegedly agree to, which would have completely and indefinitely halted the fighting while a final peace deal could then be negotiated at leisure.
Problems arose when Kievβs thespian-in-chief got an advance copy of the agenda. His bloodshot eye was immediately drawn, not to his side of the ledger, but to something the U.S. had offered Russia to lock in Putinβs agreement. Specifically, the Americans offered to recognize Crimea as Russian territory. But the deal did not require Ukraine to make the same concession. It was win-win.
But winning was too much for the vertically-challenged Martial Law Administrator. He blew his short stack. Zelensky, enraged, got in front of Ukrainian media before yesterdayβs talks began and delivered a defiant diatribe that would make a South African military dictator blush. Never Crimea! We wonβt do it! We wonβt let YOU do it! And more ranting to the same effect.
Secretary of State Rubio and Special Envoy Steven Witkoff immediately pulled out, scratched, and canceled their reservations, and let the junior members of the team handle the Ukrainians instead. Surprising no one, the discussions came up empty, or as NBC put it, βthe high-level talks disintegrated.β
Ukraineβs Deputy Prime Minister, Yulia Svyrydenko, who attended the short-lived meeting explained, βOur people will not accept a frozen conflict disguised as peace.β Whatever that means.
Crimea is literally the dumbest place imaginable to stake out a red line.
π Crimea is a jagged peninsula shaped like a lionβs paw, jutting defiantly into the northern Black Sea, sun-scorched in summer, wind-lashed in winter, and soaked in the blood of centuries of conflict. The storied peninsula has been claimed, conquered, and coveted by civilizations from the Greeks, Scythians, and Byzantines to the Tatars, Ottomans, and finally, the Russians, when Catherine the Great annexed it in 1783, calling it βthe jewel in her southern crown.β
During World War II, the Russians clawed Crimea back from invading Nazis at unfathomable cost and upon heroic Soviet defense that became stuff of Russian legend. Decades later, in 1954, while both countries were part of the united USSR, General Secretary Khrushchev gifted the territory to Ukraine as a comradely gesture. Thirty years later, the Soviet Union crumbled like a cheap taco, and Crimea βalong with its crucial military location on the Black Seaβ became officially Ukrainian.
Just over ten years ago in 2014, during Ukraineβs color revolution, at a time when ethnic Russians living in Crimea were experiencing violent discrimination by Ukrainian officials, Russia invaded the peninsula, claiming occupation was necessary to protect its citizens who lived there. Now Crimea is a beautiful and haunted militarized resort, a paradoxical mashup of beaches and bunkers, vineyards and ammo depots, castles and missile silos.
Shortly after invading βagainst no resistanceβ Russia held referenda elections. The Crimeans voted in large numbers to join the Russian Federation. So Russia amended its constitution to recognize Catherineβs jewel as having been restored to the Rodina.
To this day, Ukraine and NATO countries continue to refuse to recognize the referendum or Russiaβs annexation as either legal or permanent. But there is no realistic pathway for Ukraine to recover Crimea. Ever. Recent limited hangouts revealed that Ukraineβs 2023 Glorious Spring Offensive βat its peak military capabilityβ was really meant to push through the Russian lines and establish a beachhead in Crimea.
They never even got close.
π Zelensky said that a cease-fire deal that includes anybody recognizing Crimea means surrendering the Ukrainian dream of taking back the peninsula. Kievβs nebulous obsession with someday pushing Russia back out will be over. In reality, right now, Ukraine is losing the war for the whole country, and Trumpβs cease-fire deal, dangling right in front of them, could immediately stop the bleeding.
But because the fantasy of recovering Ukraine is so powerful, Zelensky shot down even talking about it. βUkraine will not legally recognize the occupation of Crimea,β he vowed, so βthereβs nothing to talk about here.β (Again, the deal never required Ukraine to recognize anything, but thatβs how Kievβs cocaine-addled former president sees it.)
President Trump had a lot to say about it in one of his extended Truth Social posts. The President made several very revealing and blame-shifting comments, decorated with spears of exclamation, like βItβs inflammatory statements like Zelenskyyβs that makes it so difficult to settle this War. He has nothing to boast about!β And, βThe statement made by Zelenskyy today will do nothing but prolong the βkilling field,β and nobody wants that!β
Finally, the President reiterated his running refrain that the war was not his fault. βI look forward to being able to help Ukraine, and Russia, get out of this Complete and Total MESS, that would have never started if I were President!β
Itβs beginning to look like the Ukrainians βZelensky and the oligarchs really calling the shotsβ soon need to make some difficult decisions. But thereβs so much war money sloshing around Europe right now that all the incentives are completely topsy-turvy.
As NBCβs headline showed, Trump is setting Zelensky up for the fall when this thing finally goes completely sideways.
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An update story: That was fast! The New York Post ran an article yesterday headlined, βDem Judge Joel Cano banned by New Mexico Supreme Court after alleged Tren de Aragua gang member arrested in his home.β
For Portland readers, back in early March, Homeland Security raided this New Mexico judgeβs home and found a 23-year-old Tren de Aragua gang member (an illegal alien) living in the judgeβs casita (guest house) where he was polishing his illegal firearms. Three days following the arrest, Judge Cano wisely resigned from the bench.
Yesterday, just a few weeks later, the New Mexico Supreme Court ruled that Mr. Cano βcan never hold a judicial office again, be a candidate for a judicial office, and cannot exercise any judicial authority in the state,β including weddings. Boom.
You might wonder why the New Mexico Supreme Court didnβt disbar ex-judge Cano and preclude him from practicing law. My informed guess itβs because he hasnβt been convicted or even charged with any crime. Yet. Due process precludes taking away someoneβs livelihood no matter how badly things look, but the Supreme Court can nix a judge for reasons relating the appearance of low morals.
As I said, Joel Cano hasnβt been charged with anything yet. Were I advising him, which I am not, I would suggest he retain a criminal defense attorney immediately. If not sooner. I could already think of a half dozen federal charges for the ex-judge, and thatβs just off the top of my head (and I donβt even practice criminal law).
So, disbarment may yet be in Canoβs cards. In other words, this ainβt over. Heβs going to have to eat the whole grande burrito.
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The UK Guardian ran a story yesterday headlined, βTrump signs orders cracking down on diversity and inclusion at US universities.β More orders. More fronts opening in the war with woke colleges.
The most important of the series of new orders ended use by any federal agency of the so-called βdisparate impactβ theory of racial discrimination, which allowed agencies to conclude there was de facto discrimination at a school or business if there were too few minorities as a statistical sample.
Imagine a donut shop that requires applicants to pass a written math test to get hired, like measuring glaze-to-dough ratios or inventory forecasts. If minority applicants disproportionately fail the test, the EEOC could prosecute the shop for the βdisparate impactβ claiming it is presumptive evidence of racial discrimination.
Now imagine the same scenario, but linked to college SAT admission scores.
In a different time, a university might have said, βWe only admit students with SAT scores above 1300.β Sounds neutral and non-discriminatory, but if that policy resulted in significantly fewer minority students being admitted on paper, then under the βdisparate impactβ theory, the school could be accused of systemic racismβ even if nobody involved acted with racial intent.
The moronic logic is that, if too many kids from certain groups are scoring lower on the SAT, then the test itself βor relying on itβ must be discriminatory. Do universities were forced to either ditch the test, lower the standards, or get sued.
In other words: disparate impact says that, if equal rules produce unequal outcomes, then the rules themselves are racistβ even if theyβre literally graded by Scantron machines instead of people.
Dropping disparate impact is a game-changer.
Another order aimed at college accreditors, who currently use DEI metrics in accrediting universities. The order directed Education Secretary and WWE boss Linda McMahon to hold accreditors accountable, with βdenial, monitoring, suspension, or termination of accreditation recognition, for accreditorsβ poor performance or violations of federal civil rights law.β
It also ordered DOJ to investigate βunlawful discriminationβ in higher education.
The orders continued what the Guardian called βan all-out attack on US universities since the president took office in January.β Hilariously, the paper, trying to make Trump sound unhinged, reported βhe has claimed universities have been taken over by βMarxist maniacs and lunatics.ββ
Well. A rose by any other name is still a stinky plant, and so on.
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Itβs not all bad news from the Supreme Court this week. On Tuesday, ScotusBlog published a story headlined, βSupreme Court likely to rule for parental opt-out on LGBTQ books in schools.β By likely, ScotusBlog meant they tore the school boardβs drag queens a new lower access point.
The above shows two pages from one of the textbooks involved in the lawsuit. It teaches kindergartners, βMy pronouns are like the weather; they change depending on how I feel.β Thatβs confusing enough, but when you add that they are telling kids they can also swap body parts depending on how they feel, things get really cuckoo.
A group of Maryland public school parents werenβt okay with that. So they sued for the right to opt out their elementary-school-aged children from any instruction including such baffling and revolting LGBTQ+ themes. The Washington, DC-area school board refused to let them opt out, of course, and the parents claimed it violated their religious beliefs.
The case was a political powderkeg. The surprising lack of media coverage speaks volumes to where the culture is headed. (Activists held a twisted drag show outside the Supreme Courthouse during the arguments, which persuaded nobody, but spiked sales of eye bleach.)
The plaintiff parents were religiously diverse. They included Muslims, Ukrainian Orthodox, and Roman Catholics. The lower courts all sided with the school board. The DC Circuit Court of Appeals sneered that βthe parents had not demonstrated that exposing their children to the storybooks compelled the parents to violate their religion.β
This time though, we have good Supreme Court news. During nearly two-and-a-half hours of oral argument, a majority of the justices seemed clearly to agree with the parents, and several justices even wondered aloud: whatβs the harm in simply letting parents excuse their children from the objectionble instruction?
Haha, the school boardβs lawyer was hamstrung. He couldnβt afford to admit what the real harm was. The real harm the schools are afraid of is, in order to give parents an opt-out from the lessons, the schools will have to tell them the lessons are happening in the first place. Iβll bet $50 that 90% of Maryland parents have no idea what kind of gross stuff the teachers are spoon-feeding their kids. By βLGBTQ+ books,β they mean pornographic smut with erotic overtones.
CLIP: Laura Ingrahamβs piece on the Oral Arguments including mashup (8:30).
Anyway, since the schoolsβ lawyer couldnβt say that an opt-out would force schools to give away their gross little sex secrets, he had to dissemble and obfuscate, leaving the judges wondering what the heck the argument was even about. If the parents simply want to have their children excused from instruction using these storybooks, Justice Alito asked, βwhat is the big deal about allowing them to opt out?β
Were I there, I would have added that weβve already found it constitutional for parents to opt out of public schools entirely and become homeschoolers. Why should letting parents opt out of parts of public school not also be constitutional? The whole, after all, is just the sum of the parts, and so forth.
The conservative majority seemed intensely skeptical of the school boardβs argument that mere exposure to school materials does not compel someone to violate their religious beliefs. Chief Justice Roberts disagreed with that logic, wondering whether giving unwanted and objectionable moral instruction to five-year-olds isnβt automatically coercive and immediately violates a familyβs deeply held religious beliefs.
For their part, two of the liberal Justices wondered what the big deal was about making kids learn about legal alternative lifestyles, and fretted over creating βchaosβ by letting parents decide what materials their children can and canβt be exposed to. The notion, apparently, is that purple-haired, tattooed teachers are better equipped than parents to make those kinds of decisions.
My pronouns are: βpublic schools suck and are cesspools of bottom-feeding activists.β Four years ago, my sentiment was an outlier. But once again, we can thank the pandemic for ripping off the leather puppy mask, when school-by-computer allowed parents to finally learn for themselves the kinds of bizarre ideologies their kids were really being taught.
Itβs a funny old world. Who knows whether weβd have gotten to this place of sanity without the FBI raiding soccer moms for criticizing school board members. And recall that, earlier this week, the United Kingdomβs Supreme Court also found that gender means biological sex.
Now, thanks to covid, another conspiracy theory has become Supreme Court majority opinion. Progress. It seems the tide has turned in the conservative counter-revolution.
Have a tremendous Thursday! Show up again tomorrow morning, before the bell, for your Friday roundup of essential news and commentary.
Donβt race off! We cannot do it alone. Consider joining up with C&C to help move the nationβs needle and change minds. I could sure use your help getting the truth out and spreading optimism and hope, if you can: β Learn How to Get Involved π¦
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I have a client who works for the IRS (in IT) that came in yesterday. She was saying that the people who received true accommodations for working at home, prior to covid, say because theyβre disabled or whatever, are also being required to come into the office every day. That doesnβt sound right to me, it sounds like βtheyβre taking away the poor kids lunch money!β When they just moved it to another department. Anyone have ideas on this?
She also said that people who lived like 15 miles away were taking the package because they just canβt commute that far into work (we live in freaking HOUSTON, we drive 15 miles to go out to dinner). A couple of other gems were that people who were working at home to take care of their kids or elderly parents were just at a loss, without options, and were going to take the package. And also that there are multiple people in their 80s still working there because they like seeing everyone and donβt have anyone at home.
Now this client definitely leans left but she is not woke, she did lament the chaos going on and morale issues, but sheβs worked in the private sector before and had been laid off and knows how this goes and is actually looking forward to improved efficiency. I set her straight on the commute, the child/elder care and the old people working (βitβs not the responsibility of your workplace to accommodate those thingsβ, I was kind and Iβve known this woman for years, it wasnβt argumentative at all). Anyway, she also said that 27,000 ish have taken the package this 2nd time around, about 4,000 the first time out of 102,000. Thatβs about 25%, so Iβm thinking itβs going well over there.
Anyway, just thought Iβd share.
But you, beloved, ought to remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, that they were saying to you, βIn the last time there will be mockers, following after their own ungodly lusts.β These are the ones who cause divisions, worldly-minded, devoid of the Spirit. But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life.
β Jude 17-21 NAS