Russia Starts a War

Right before recording today’s episode started, news broke that President Joe Biden is nominating Ketanji ...

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Right before recording today’s episode started, news broke that President Joe Biden is nominating Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court. Our hosts take a quick look at that and what it means for SCOTUS. Then the conversation moved to the dire situation in Ukraine. David cautioned against believing all of the information we receive in the fog of war and the group discusses how many people on the right have flip-flopped on Putin. Tune in, too, for a preview of next week’s State of the Union address.

Show Notes:

–Ketanji Brown Jackson nominated to the Supreme Court

–Sen. Graham on KBJ nomination

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  1. Avatar photo
    Devin H

    I'm sort of confused that Sarah used JD Vance as an example of someone who thinks we shouldn't focus on Russia because of China. Maybe I missed a quote somewhere, but isn't his position (as well as most of the NatCons) that we shouldn't care about anywhere other than our own country? He recently said something to the effect of, "I'm tired of being told we have to care about the people of Ukraine more than people like my mom."

    The whole "what about China" is complete misdirection anyway because they seem to be so closely linked. If we can't address Russia, what message does that send China? Does addressing Russia mean we can't also deal with China? No! In terms of triage, Russia is the nicked artery on the operating table. China is the tumor that we went in to get and we'll get right to it as soon as we close it back up, but if we don't that person's gonna die on the table.

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  2. BL

    Transcript please. I'm Deaf and the podcast isn't accessible.

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  3. Alan C

    Steve, you criticized Mike McFaul for making a comment before the invasion about a diplomatic off-ramp for Putin.
    Really? I’ve listened to several interviews with Mike, and he’s been consistently critical and wary of Putin’s words and actions.
    Idea — invite Mike as a guest on the Dispatch podcast! It’d be a great discussion. (Full disclosure: he and I were classmates at Stanford).

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    Ben Connelly

    To Jonah’s comment at the end, what Biden should really say in the SOTU speech is, “the state of the union is drill, baby, drill!”

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  5. Mads Lindstrøm

    Sending love letters to Putin is all fine and dandy, but it misses that the west never gave Putin something he really wanted. Putin asked for not to have new NATO countries at his borders, and did not want Ukraine to westernize. One could say that this it is none of Putin's business and countries can join the defense alliances they god damn please, but US has followed The Monroe doctrine for a couple of centuries and it all feels a little hypocritical.

    Of cause, if we had given Putin the no new NATO countries he might just have asked for more. It might have put us in a worse position for nothing. We could have not helped foster a new government in 2014 in Ukraine, and that might also have left us in a worse position for no gain. Then again, it might have left us in a lot friendlier relationship with Putin, and it all gets a little tiresome when the hosts pretend there is no argument to be made and then strawman from there.

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    Jason Gibson

    They must show 13 days of glory as frequently in Texas as they show bond movies in Britain. Because I know of no human beings who have seen that movie recently enough to cite it

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    Victor Clairmont

    Wow…

    Why you all so mean to Sarah Isgur?

    ( :

    Thank you for the podcast!

    P.S.

    I am literally cringing thinking about Biden giving a full SOTU address, much like how I would cringe before Trump gave an address anticipating him doing something stupid.

    I feel like, as Jonah has noted, Biden will struggle with the teleprompter and scream randomly, “Get these squirrels off me!”

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  8. Avatar photo
    Jon McKinney

    Am I the only person that had to looked up the meaning of "Sista Souljah Moment" after hearing Jonah say it on literally every podcast?

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    Trevor Reid

    It would be great if, as Jonah commented, we could just open up our oil reserves and immediately supply Europe with the natural gas and energy it will need to replace any loss of supplies that could result from an embargo on Russia. This is certainly a noble aspirational goal which we should do so along with other measures to stabilize markets. In the short term reality dictates months of supply disruptions in such a scenario. Hydrocarbon production and distribution doesn’t really work like opening a water faucet, for just a variety of geological, engineering, and logistical reasons. Even if President Biden had the political will to do this (which he clearly does not) it would take considerable time to ramp up production and supply chains to make a significant impact.

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      Charlie Hall

      In addition, if the US ships massive amounts of oil and gas to Europe, prices will skyrocket in the US, and we all know how the Republicans will blame Biden rather than Putin. Biden didn't get elected to the US Senate seven times by being ignorant about stuff like this. Americans are all for supporting Uktaine as long as it doesn't cost us anything and doesn't cause any inconvenience.

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  10. Paula Weber

    I have a question I would love the Dispatch team to chase down somewhat related to subsidizing European oil...
    What happened with the Stategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) withdrawal? Did it already occur? How much was removed and from which caverns? Has it been replaced yet?
    I could see there being a very good news letter detailing the above and going into what could be done to increase production here in the states, where the low hanging regulatory fruit is, and other infrastructure needs (for example I don't think much of the crude oil is refined except near the gulf so actually building refineries near Alaska, the Dakota's could improve safety and cost concerns?).

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    1. Avatar photo
      Charlie Hall

      Oil companies mostly don't want to build new refineries. It is almost impossible to get large enough sites, and the regulatory hurdles are enormous. NIMBYs come out of the woodwork everywhere to block absolutely everything. We went four decades with zero new refineries being built! No state, not even Texas, will accept the federal government overriding its decision making powers. And five refineries closed during the pandemic as demand for gasoline dropped, which is one reason why gasoline prices have increased.

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