BY DAN VALENTI

PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY

(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY MARCH 2, 2022) — At the conclusion of this column, THE PLANET has two important questions to ask. These queries are two of the most solicitations we have ever presented.

But first, we set it up. Please read on.

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They brought out the razor wire to keep We The People from The People’s house on Capitol Hill, the perimeter of which resembles what you might find for containment at a hazardous-waste dump or a concentration camp. Meanwhile, our country’s southwest border remains porous to nearly anyone who wants to sneak into America and get on the gravy train.

Some state of the union.

Speaking of which Syracuse Joe delivered it last night to a joint session of Congress. THE PLANET writes this before the speech to meet our production deadline, so we haven’t a clue what the president said or how it was received. Same with the “response” from the “other side.” We do know what we hope he said.

Domestically

• We hope he actually uses the word “inflation” instead of the euphemisms the White House has preferred, such as “transitory price elevation” and “cost and commodity elevation.”

• We hope he has something to say about the inequity of illegals flooding this country and cutting ahead of Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski in the line for help, aid, assistance, and relief. We also hope he fires the vice president, in whose capable hand he put the job of Border Czarina.
• We hope he reverses course on the Keystone XL pipeline so America can become more energy independent and less in need of fuel from … Russia. The Greens well-intentioned but ill-timed war on American fossil fuels needs at least a ceasefire or truce.
• Finally, in response to the rise in crime, mostly from drugs, and the loss of public safety in cities across America, we hope President Biden called out the policies of district attorneys and school committees who have embraced the extreme permissiveness of the radical woke left that has threatened the extinction of common sense.

Foreign Affairs

THE PLANET doesn’t know what President Biden said about foreign affairs, where there is only one issue at present.

• We hope he took advantage of the slight thaw in the Cold War going on between the two major parties, who have rallied around a $6.4 billion aid package meant for the Ukraine people and its government, led by that heroic “badass” Volodymyr Zelensky. Any chance that Biden and Kamala Harris resigned last night to turn over the store to Zelensky?

• We hope Biden directly addressed Vladimir Putin, who has reverted to his street-gang mentality and KGB bloodline — floodlights, barbed wire, and all — to launch his reckless invasion. Putin attempted a blitzkrieg, a strategic plan that has turned out to be miscalculated. The Russian campaign has not distinguished between civilian and military targets. The invaders have targeted apartment buildings, residential neighborhoods, electrical grids, fuel depots, orphanages, schools, supply warehouses, and hospitals indiscriminately. At least in this early phase of the invasion, Putin has proven to be more Gomer Pyle than Douglas McArthur as a military commander.

• We hope Biden cautioned against false hope. THE PLANET‘s feeling is that the worst is yet to come. How long can the Ukrainian militias hold out against Putin’s war machine. You know the Russians will regroup, establish supply lines they didn’t think the needed, and send in the bulk of the force they have assembled. And if that fails, where will he stop? How desperate does Putin get to save lost face?

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The brutality of the invasion has resulted in a rousing and unprecedented international reaction. Particularly effective has been the freeze on Russia’s economy. The country is under what one diplomat called “an economic siege.” With half of its reserves inaccessible, the Russian central bank will not be able to support the ruble much longer. Interest rates soared to 20% and long lines stretched endlessly around banks and ATMs. The result will crush ordinary people, the Russian equivalent of Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski — Sergei and Svetlana Goudkov.

We wonder if Biden broached the subject of the sanity or at least the mental stability of Putin, a guy who has his finger on the button that controls the world’s largest stockpile of nuclear weapons.

Which leads to The Big Fear.

It’s happened once. Check the memory banks under “Hiroshima” and “Nagasaki.”

You know it will happen again. It’s just a matter of time. Question is: Will it be in our time?

“Whoever tries to impede us, let alone create threats for our country and its people, must know that the Russian response will be immediate and lead to the consequences you have never seen in history,” President Putin threatened in a fiery speech declaring war on Ukraine.

On Sunday, Putin put Russia’s nuclear forces on “special combat readiness” — a high-alert status in response to what he called “aggressive statements” by NATO.

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If Russia implodes economically and the people respond by calling for his ouster, will Putin let go with the nukes? His “startling escalation of rhetoric” (LA Times) may be precede action, especially if he feels threatened by the West. Certainly, the isolated Putin must be feeling exactly that right now.

America doesn’t hold the key to solving this, and neither does the West. Xi Jinping and China do.

Again, from the LA Times:

“During most of the 20th century Cold War, China was a poor country, a relatively minor player economically and militarily.

Now it’s an economic superpower and Russia’s most important ally.

Fifty years ago this week, President Richard Nixon wooed China away from its alliance with the Soviet Union. … President Biden should try to do likewise now.

“China has seen Russia as an important ally in pushing back against the West,” Kupchan said. “But the Chinese, unlike Putin, do not like disruption. They see Putin turning everything upside down, and they’re not sure that’s a good idea.… It’s in the interest of the United States to take advantage of that.”

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Our MOST FERVENT HOPE for the State of the Union address is that Biden made overtures to China. We hope he invited Xi to the U.S. or offered to journey there, as Nixon once did.

You, dear readers, know more than we. THE PLANET wrote this last night. Your are reading this The Morning After.

The Morning After.

We leave it at that.

And now for those two questions:

1. What did you hear last night from the president?
2. What is your take on what you heard?

Please respond. Many thanks.

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WE ADD THIS LATE NOTE, HAVING JUST WATCHED THE SPEECH:

THREE QUICK POINTS:

• The president entered the chambers without a mask. He scored big right there.
• Biden struck the right tone with respect to Putin, Russia, the Ukraine.
• He used the word “inflation.”
• Overall, a better-than-expected performance.

THE PLANET’S RUSH JUDGMENT. JOE DID A GOOD JOB. HE MADE SU ORANGE ALUM PROUD. SPEAKING OF ‘ORANGE,’ HE TURNED IN A MUCH BETTER PERFORMANCE THAN ORANGE MAN DID HIS LAST TIME BEHIND THE PRESIDENTIAL PODIUM.

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“Do it” — Grigori Rasputin.

LOVE TO ALL.

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