The War Zone: Cracks are showing in the wall of Russian support for Vladimir Putin and his invasion of Ukraine.

  With the army retreating, a few television commentators and bloggers have openly questioned Putin’s so-called “special military operation.” Even some public officials have called for Putin’s resignation.

  Just one example; Boris Nadezhdin, a Russian city lawmaker, said on the state-owned NTV television channel that his country faces what had once been unspeakable, failure to win this war. 

  Dismissing Russia’s tactics as “colonial war methods,” Nadezhdin said, “The Russian army is fighting against a strong army that is fully supported by the most powerful countries in the economic and technological sense.” It’s also an army highly motivated by national defense.

  One political scientists said Russia is not going to win any hearts and minds denying the Ukrainians are a separate ethnicity with their own language.

  Another political scientist, Vitaly Tretyakov, warned that there could be social upheaval if Russia loses the war so many people believe is just. “Social tensions can emerge not because the population would speak against the operation,” he said, “but because they might ask why it is not active, why there is not victory, no advancements?”

  In another development in southeastern Ukraine, the chief head of the UN atomic energy watchdog says he is still “gravely concerned” about continued shelling around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear powerplant. He said both countries are interested in establishing a protection zone around the plant, which is currently held by Russian troops.

  Only one of the plant’s six reactor units is running.

Trump World: Lawyers for Donald Trump yesterday asked a federal judge to continue blocking Justice Department lawyers from using papers taken from the former president’s Mar-a-Lago estate in their criminal investigation. They want  documents marked classified to still be withheld from investigators and of course, that’s what this is all about, Trump improperly holding and storing classified documents.

  Dismissing  what the Justice Department sees as a serious matter, Trump’s lawyers wrote, “In what at its core is a document storage dispute that has spiraled out of control, the government wrongfully seeks to criminalize the possession by the 45th president of his own presidential and personal records.”

  His lawyers say some of the documents marked classified may not in fact be classified and that the former president may have the right to keep the materials. They refer to them in dismissive quotes as “classified records.”

  Steven Aftergood, a security specialist at the Federation of American Scientists, told The Washington Post, “These arguments are about things that the former president wishes are true, but are not. An impartial judge will not have difficulty dismissing most of these arguments.”

  In another development, the Justice Department has accepted one of Trump’s picks for special master, Judge Raymond Dearie of the Federal District Court in Brooklyn. 

  Also on the Trump beat, NY Times reporter Maggie Haberman writes in a new book that in the days following the 2020 election Donald Trump at first accepted his loss then changed his tune.

  “I’m just not going to leave,” Trump told one aide, Haberman reports. And, according to Haberman, “We’re never leaving,” Trump told another. “How can you leave when you won an election?”

  Her book, “Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America,” is set for release on October 4^th

  Haberman writes that Trump’s immediate reaction before he cried “fraud” was to tell a junior press aide that, “We did our best. I thought we had it.” 

The Queen: Thousands of people silently stood by as the funeral cortege for Queen Elizabeth II slowly proceeded through the streets  of Edinburgh, Scotland ultimately headed for Windsor Castle in England.

  The silence was broken only by gun salutes.

  Her daughter, Princess Anne, and sons Charles, Andrew, and Edward followed the hearse in lockstep with the military escort. 

  The Queen’s body laid in state yesterday afternoon and evening at St. Giles’ Cathedral. Today the coffin is scheduled to be flown to a military air base near London. Her funeral at Westminster Abbey on September 19^th.

Cancer Moonshot: President Biden spoke in Boston yesterday about his ambitious “Moonshot” initiative to reduce cancer deaths, comparing it to the once improbable effort to land men on the moon.  He said his goal is to cut cancer deaths by at least 50% in the next 25 years, calling it “bold, ambitious” and “completely doable.” 

  He said, “Cancer does not discriminate red and blue. It doesn’t care if you’re Republican or Democrat. Beating cancer is something we can do together.”

The Obit Page: New Wave movie director Jean-Luc Godard, who made “Breathless,” has died at 91. And Ramsey Lewis, the jazz pianist whose 1965 recording of “The ‘In’ Crowd” was a big hit, has died at 87.

Uniformity: On some formal occasions, the Queen’s funeral procession among them, the royals wear military uniforms festooned with so many medals you’d think they won a war single-handed. Charles III wore 10 medals yesterday marching behind his mother’s casket. Despite his actual military service, the medals are all honorary.

  Princess Anne, for instance, wore an admiral’s uniform and a laundry list of medals; the Queen’s Service Order, the Coronation Medal, the Silver Jubilee Medal, the Golden Jubilee Medal, the Diamond Jubilee Medal, the Platinum Jubilee Medal, and, well, you get the idea.  

  The disgraced Prince Andrew wore medals pinned to a suit. He was the only one of his siblings not allowed to wear a military uniform although he is the only one who served in combat. Andrew was a helicopter pilot posted on an aircraft carrier in the Falklands war, deployed as bait for anti-ship missiles.

  The same with young prince Harry, Charles’s son. Because he left royal life he will not be allowed to wear a uniform during the ceremonies because he left royal life. Harry did two tours during actual war in Afghanistan. 

-30-