The War Room: With great losses of both men and machines, Russia’s fighting force in Ukraine has dropped below 90 percent of its original “combat power,” according to a Pentagon assessment. The Russians are reported to be struggling not only at the front but with supply and logistics, critical elements of fighting a war.

  Along those lines, the General Staff of the Ukraine Armed Forces posted on Facebook that Russia’s primary armored vehicle manufacturer appears to have run out of parts to make and fix tanks. One factor is that under foreign economic sanctions, Russia will be starved for computer chips.

  It’s war and you have to be suspicious of what everyone says, but citing “available information,” the Ukrainians say the state-owned company that builds tanks such as the T-72B3 in the industrial city of Nizhny Tagil has had to temporarily cease production. 

  The Institute for the Study of War says that, facing stiff Ukrainian resistance,

Russian forces are likely moving to a phase of protracted bombardment of cities. They say Russian forces around Kyiv and other major cities are increasingly prioritizing long-range bombardment after the failure of Russian ground offensives but are unlikely to force major cities to surrender this way. They note that Russian forces continue to make slow but steady progress “reducing the Mariupol pocket.” In other words they are bombing it to rubble.

  In an effort to tighten the screws, President Biden is expected to announce sanctions this week on hundreds of members of Russia’s lower house of Parliament.

  Biden travels to Europe today. Jake Sullivan, the White House national security adviser, told reporters, “The president is traveling to Europe to ensure we stay united, to cement our collective resolve, to send a powerful message that we are prepared and committed to this for as long as it takes.” 

The Diplomatic Front: In a speech by video to the Italian legislature, Ukraine President Volodomyr Zelensky pressed for more help from worldwide allies. “We need more sanctions, more pressure so that Russia looks not for reserves of mercenaries in Libya, but so that Russia looks for peace, so that that one man seeks peace,” he said. The Russian invasion “will ruin more lives, more families, and the full scale war will continue,” Zelensky said. 

The Price of Opposition: Russians citizens who publicly oppose the war can go to prison for up to 15 years and the government has expanded the law to cover anyone “discrediting” the foreign operations of all government bodies, not just the military. 

 But the long-time dissident Aleksei Navalny is already familiar with the price of opposition.

  A Russian court yesterday sentenced the dissident to another nine years in a high-security prison, imposing more time on the already-imprisoned man who’s been a voice of opposition to President Vladimir Putin.

  Prosecutors claimed that Navalny embezzled donations from supporters of his Anti-Corruption Foundation. “Navalny committed fraud, that is, the theft of other people’s property through deceit and breach of trust,” the judge, Margarita Kotova, said while announcing her verdict. Navalny was supposed to get out of prison next year.

 Navalny was defiant and said his foundation would expand and carry on the fight.  “The best support for me and other political prisoners is not sympathy and kind words, but actions,” according to a Twitter posting attributed to Navalny. “Any activity against the deceitful and thievish Putin’s regime. Any opposition to these war criminals.”

Confirmation Bias: Getting appointed to the Supreme Court is like being put on the political rack. If you survive it without dying, or dying laughing, you’re fit for the court.

  Yesterday in the hearing for nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson she was grilled about everything from critical race theory and “sexual predators” to prisoners released from Gitmo, a lot of things the Supreme Court doesn’t control. South Carolina’s Lindsey Graham ranted about the failure of his preferred conservative candidate to get the nomination. “Every group that wants to pack the court, that believes this court is a bunch of right-wing nuts who are going to destroy America, that considered the Constitution trash, all wanted you picked,” Graham told Jackson.​​ He went on, “This is all I can say: that so many of these left-wing radical groups who would destroy the law as we know it declared war on Michelle Childs and supported you is problematic for me.” 

  After an argument with Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, Graham stormed out of the hearing room.

The Spin Rack: White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki tested positive for the coronavirus for the second time in five months and just a day before she was supposed to leave for Europe with the president. — Hundreds of employees of The Walt Disney Company walked off the job yesterday in protest of what they say is the company’s weak response to Florida’s new education law that’s been derisively nicknamed “Don’t Say Gay.” — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, clearly positioning himself to run for president, declared Sarasota-native Emma Weyant to be the winner of the NCAA women’s 500-yard freestyle swim. Transgender swimmer Lia Thomas, who matured as a a man, put in the fastest time, sparking debate about the definition of gender. DeSantis tweeted, “By allowing men to compete in women’s sports, the NCAA is destroying opportunities for women, making a mockery of its championships, and perpetuating a fraud.” 

Acronym Inflation: Speaking of gender matters, in recent days you may have heard additions to the acronym “LGBTQ.” Now in an effort to make sure it’s all inclusive it is “LGBTQIA” which stands for “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual” Some people even put a “+” on it to cover any variation that might come next.

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