The War Room: Russian missile strikes on a military facility in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro has destroyed buildings and casualties are unreported. Taking Dnipro would link areas already occupied by the Russians in the south and east. 

  The Ukrainians have mounted a counter offensive against their weakened opponent, but they’ve suffered. Authorities now say about 300 people were killed in the Russian bombing of Mariupol’s Drama Theater, which was used as a bomb shelter.

The Mouse That Roared: Ukraine carried off an amazing strike against the Russians yesterday, destroying a landing ship and damaging two others in a harbor west of the besieged port of Mariupol that was taken four days into the invasion. 

  The Russians heralded the ship’s arrival in port with a television report. The ship was capable of carrying men, tanks, munitions and more. Secondary explosions seen on video indicate there was a lot of stuff on board. The Ukrainians aren’t saying how they did it, but the sinking is major military and psychological blow against the much bigger Russian military.

The Diplomatic Front:  President Biden is traveling to the Polish border with Ukraine today to draw attention to the humanitarian catastrophe caused by the war. He’ll meet with refugees and troops. 

 Yesterday in Brussels the President said Russia should be ejected from the G20 group of industrialized and developing nations, which would further isolate the Kremlin from the civilized international community.

  Russia was already thrown out of what was then known as the G-8 when Vladimir Putin annexed Crimea. Eliminating Russia from the G-20 would be harder because it would require the vote of China, which is waffling on where it stands on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

  Biden said that if Russian cannot be put out from the G-20, Ukraine should be allowed to sit in.

  As expected, The US yesterday placed new sanctions on 300 members of the Russian parliament and dozens of defense companies. 

  And in another development, the Biden administration has decided to take in 100,000 Ukraine refugees and donate $1 billion to help European countries digest in influx of people fleeing Ukraine.

Abandon Ship: The crew of a $700 million superyacht undergoing work in a port in Tuscany, Italy, all left their jobs and were replaced by a British crew. The ship is a target for impoundment under international sanctions imposed on the Russian rich.

  Ownership of the yacht is vague, very vague, but anti-corruption investigators say they are convinced it belongs to Vladimir Putin, who certainly did not save up to buy it out of his regular salary.

The Thomas Brief: Ginni Thomas, a fervid activist in right wing politics and the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, pushed hard on then President Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows to find a way overturn the 2020 presidential election, according to copies of messages obtained by CBS News chief election and campaign correspondent Robert Costa and Bob Woodward of The Washington Post.

 Among twenty-nine messages in the weeks following the November vote, Thomas called Biden’s victory “the greatest Heist of our History” and told Meadows that that Trump should not concede.  

  None of the messages directly mention Justice Thomas.

  On November 10^th, 2020, after news organizations had projected Joe Biden as 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.”

  Meadows invoked God when he wrote to Thomas on Nov. 24th, saying, “Evil always looks like the victor until the King of Kings triumphs. Do not grow weary in well doing. The fight continues. I have staked my career on it. Well at least my time in DC on it.”

  Thomas replied: “Thank you!! Needed that! This plus a conversation with my best friend just now… I will try to keep holding on. America is worth it!”

  She did not say who is her best friend, but Justice Thomas has publicly referred to his wife as his best friend.

Guilty as Not Charged: A senior Manhattan prosecutor on the investigation of Donald Trump said in his resignation letter that he believes  the former president is “guilty of numerous felony violations” and that it is “a grave failure of justice” not to hold him accountable.  Mark Pomerantz resigned last month after the Manhattan DA, Alvin Bragg, stopped pursuing an indictment of Trump.

  The 70-year-old Pomerantz resigned the same day as another member of the prosecution team. He wrote in his letter that,  “The team that has been investigating Mr. Trump harbors no doubt about whether he committed crimes — he did.” 

  The NY Times reports that much of the internal disagreement in the DA’s office was about whether Trump knowingly falsified the value of his assets on financial statements, a critical element to prove the case.

The Spin Rack: New York mayor Eric Adams lifted the vaccine mandate for professional athletes to play in the city, outraging police and other public employees still required to get the shots. This means that the Brooklyn Nets’ unvaccinated  guard Kyrie Irving will be able to play in home games. —  The Arizona legislature has joined Florida and Mississippi in passing a law that bans abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The Mississippi law is up before the Supreme Court to determine whether it  violates the 1973 decision that determined abortion is a personal right. — Former President Donald Trump has filed a 108-page racketeering lawsuit against Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee claiming that, “The Defendants, blinded by political ambition, orchestrated a malicious conspiracy to disseminate patently false and injurious information about Donald J. Trump and his campaign, all in the hopes of destroying his life, his political career and rigging the 2016 Election in favor of Hillary Clinton.” 

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