Reading Tea Leaves:  With more than 100,000 Russian troops surrounding Ukraine posed to invade, President Joe Biden told reporters yesterday he’s not sure what Russia’s Vladimir Putin is going to do. “It’s a little bit like reading tea leaves,” he said. “I don’t think that even his people know for certain what he’s going to do.”

  Biden noted that “If he were to move in with all those forces, it would be the largest invasion since World War II. It would change the world.”

  The President revealed some of the measures short of war that the US and its allies might take against Russia, including a ban on exports to Russia of vital computer chips used in strategic sectors like artificial intelligence, quantum computing, defense, and aerospace. Even chips for household items such as phones and washing machines might be choked off.

  The export restrictions would come in addition to the more usual economic and banking sanctions that would hurt the Russian economy. 

  “The gradualism of the past is out, and this time we’ll start at the top of the escalation ladder and stay there,” an administration official told reporters on condition of anonymity during a conference call. 

  The economic equivalent of the nuclear option would be for the West to kick Russia off SWIFT, the messaging system for international money transfers. The problem with that is that the damage would go both ways. Europe is dependent on Russian natural gas and uses SWIFT to pay for it. And, of course, Russia could turn off the gas spigot.

  Our friend Lucian Truscott writes on Substack that, “Without Western technology, Russia is a third world country.  Belching diesel exhaust, Russian tanks may be able to roll across the plains of Eastern Ukraine, and its military jets may be able to bomb cities and kill thousands of soldiers and civilians.  But the modern age is passing them by, and they can’t keep up by taking territory and enslaving people the way the Nazis did.  Information moves faster than tanks and jets, and the West owns the information age.  It’s a war he cannot win.”

Viral News: New York State’s indoor mask mandate remains in effect after an appeals judge yesterday blocked Monday’s lower court ruling that had struck down the rule imposed by Gov. Kathy Hochul last month. The mandate that requires masks or proof of full vaccination at all indoor public spaces is particularly controversial in some school systems.

  This morning, new cases of Covid-19 nationally are down xx percent over the past two weeks, but deaths are up xx percent.

The Real Election Fraud: Federal prosecutors are examing fake Electoral College certifications that declared former President Donald Trump the winner of states he lost, CNN reports according to an interview with  Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco. 

  While the fake certificates have previously been mentioned in the news, this appears to be the first time anyone at Justice has talked about them, but Monaco didn’t go into any detail.

  The fake certificates bearing signatures of Trump supporters who falsely claimed to be the rightful electors in Georgia, Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Nevada, and New Mexico were sent to the National Archives in mid-December 2020. 

Fool for a Client: The Once-prominent California lawyer Michael Avenatti fired his lawyers and took over his own defense in the criminal trial in which he’ll have to confront former client and porn star Stormy Daniels over her claims that he stole money she was owed for her autobiography.

  The 50-year-old Avenatti is accused of taking nearly $300,000 of the $800,000 advance paid to Daniels for her 2018 book “Full Disclosure.” Daniels was expected to take the witness stand at the trial as early as Wednesday.

  Daniels and Avenatti, her lawyer at the time, sprang to fame in 2018 with lawsuits against then-President Donald Trump. Avenatti has already been convicted and been sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison for attempting to extort up to $25 million from sportswear giant Nike. 

In the Hall: Baseball slugger David Ortiz , who hit 541 home runs, was voted yesterday into the Hall of Fame.

  Barry Bonds, who hit 762 homers, and pitcher Roger Clemens, both of whom were suspected of using performance enhancing drugs, were denied. 

Small Screen News: Rumors have circulated that CBS News is looking to replace “Evening News” anchor Norah O’Donnell, who has remained mired in third place among the big three since taking over the show in 2019. Now comes word that CBS is so desperate it offered the job to Brian Williams, the former anchor of NBC “Nightly News” who was toppled in disgrace for falsely claiming he had been in a helicopter hit by hostile fire during the Iraq War. 

The Spin Rack: Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who’s 81, announced that she will running for reelection to the California seat she’s held since 1987. — A second New York police officer shot in Harlem died Friday night died yesterday. Wilbert Mora, 27, had a bullet lodge in his brain. — As many as 39 people are missing after a human smuggling boat bound from the Bahamas capsized Saturday night off the Atlantic coast of Florida. One man was rescued standing on the boat’s hull. — The Federal Trade Commission is going to fine the popular fast-fashion clothing site Fashion Nova $4.2 million for suppressing online customer reviews that were less than four out of five stars.

Put Down Your Pencils: The administrators of The Scholastic Aptitude Test, the standard college admission test that requires students to fill in little circles to identify the correct answer among multiple choices, announced that they are going completely digital starting in 2024.

  The College Board, the evil behind the SAT, also announced that they are going to allow calculators for math and will shorten the reading sections because evidently it’s still true that Johnny can’t read. 

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