The Ukraine Certainty: President Biden said bluntly during a press conference yesterday that he thinks Russia’s Vladimir Putin will invade Ukraine and that the US and Western allies will be unable to talk him out of it. 

  “Do I think he’ll test the West, test the United States and NATO, as significantly as he can? Yes, I think he will,” Biden told reporters during a near two-hour presser in the East Room of the White House. He cautioned though,  “But I think he will pay a serious, and dear price for it that he doesn’t think now will cost him what it’s going to cost him. And I think he will regret having done it.”

  But any invasion is unlikely to face military opposition by the US. 

  Biden waffled a bit on whether he thinks Putin has completely made up his mind. “I suspect it matters which side of the bed he gets up on in the morning as to exactly what he’s going to do,” the president said.

  Asked about his stalled legislative agenda — stalled by the Republican opposition — Biden said, “I did not anticipate that there would be such a stalwart effort to make sure that the most important thing was that President Biden didn’t get anything done.” 

  Of course he didn’t mention that two of his biggest problems are two Democratic senators. But, referring to the Republican practice of opposing anything while proposing nothing, Biden asked, “What are Republicans for? What are they for? Name me one thing that they are for.”

Voting Down Voting Rights: Senate Republicans yesterday voted to stop President Biden’s voting rights initiative with a 49-51 decision that was far short of the 60 votes required to prevent a filibuster. 

  Senate Democrats unanimously supported the act that would have expanded voter registration with automatic and same-day registration, increased access to the polls with early and absentee voting, and created new criteria for the states before they pass laws that would affect voting rights.

The Trump Records: In a blow to the former president, The Supreme Court yesterday ruled that more than 700 pages of Trump presidential records can be released to the House committee investigating the January 6^th insurrection at the US Capitol. 

  The committee hopes the documents will reveal the former president’s actions and more about events preceding the assault on the Capitol and the attempt to illegally stop certification of the 2020 presidential election. 

  The documents sought by the committee include activity logs, schedules, speech notes, and three pages of handwritten notes from then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, all of it stuff that might reveal the inner workings and even intent of people in the West Wing while the insurrection reached its crescendo.

  Trump’s lawyer had argued, unsuccessfully, that “Congress may not rifle through the confidential presidential papers of a former President to meet political objections.” 

Viral News: In New Mexico, cases of Covid-19 have more than tripled over the past two weeks, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has asked the National Guard and state workers to fill in as substitute teachers.

  “Our kids, our teachers and our parents deserve as much stability as we can provide during this time of uncertainty,” the governor said in a statement, “and the state stands ready to help keep kids in the classroom.”

  It’s not an instant solution. The National Guard members and state workers would have to become licensed as substitute teachers or child care workers while meeting the usual requirements, such as background checks and attending a teaching workshop.

Mystery Unsolved:  The CIA has concluded that a foreign power, such as Russia, is not responsible for what has become known as Havana Syndrome suffered by Americans serving at the US Embassy in Cuba. The first cases of dizziness, headaches and ringing in the ears were reported in 2016.  Government investigators say they have since reviewed more than 1,000 cases of what they call “anomalous health incidents” that have since been reported by intelligence, diplomatic and military personnel on every continent except Antarctica.

  An anonymous CIA official told The Washington Post, “We assess it is unlikely that a foreign actor, including Russia, is conducting a sustained, worldwide campaign harming U.S. personnel with a weapon or mechanism.” 

  The CIA says  the majority of cases could be attributed to preexisting medical conditions or environmental factors, but a few dozen  of “the toughest cases” could not be explained.

Cool It: Earth’s core is cooling faster than scientists had previously thought, putting the planet on course to becoming a solid rock like Mars, according to recent research.

  Explaining this would require getting into the function and activity of Earth’s layers including the mantle and something called bridgmanite. The short of it is that you don’t have to worry. It could take hundreds of millions and possibly billions of years. 

-30-