Tab-Clearing

First off, Boris Johnson has found out the hard way that in order to be a leader, people have to follow. The Russians are claiming Boris quit because he was hostile to Russia, which only suggests that Baghdad Bob has gotten himself a new gig.

Second, Brittney Griner pled out in a Russian court. I understand the reasoning for that plea, but how in hell can the Biden Admininstration say that she was wrongfully detained when she copped to doing what she was accused of doing.

Third, The ISW reports that the Kremlin is carrying out a "crypto-mobilization" of the Russian economy in support of the war. I don't know how well that's going to work. Their unspoken dealwith Putin was that he did international relations and politics, while ordinary Russians got to go about their lives without either the economic catastrophes of the Yeltsin era or the everyday shortages and general meddling of Soviet times. It seems that Putin is bringing back the Soviet era and it may not sit too well.

Fourth, imagine this headline: "Woman Killed Due to Alcohol Violence" in a case where a drunker boyfriend beat her to death. I get that we have a problem in this country with people murdering one another (and themselves) with firearms. But the term "gun violence" implies that everything will be hunky dory and that unicorns farting rainbows will descend upon us if the guns all go away. Which ignores reality, but we tend to chase easy solutions. For example, we have a crisis with mental health because some assholes[1]
thought they could cut taxes by enplying out the insane asylums and switch to community-based care, but that never happened.[2]
So the criminal justice system ends up dealing with a lot of people with mental problems, which means the police. Cops enforce laws, they're not social workers. And when the expeted result happens, the cry is "defund the police", not "we'd better get going on those community-based mental health centers that we were supposed to set up in the 1960s."

To my mind, using the term "gun voiolence" is a signal of lazy thinking.

One last tip: When a political candidate in this cycle says that "I'm going to plut America first", you're listening to a follower of the TOFF. Even if they don't say that they are.
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[1] Looking at you, Ronald Reagan.
[2] That was a perfect combination of NIMBYism and "that's going to cost money and we'll have to raise taxes."