Biden Used The 'G' Word. No, Not 'Groomer,' You F*cked Up Rightwing Perverts, He Said 'Genocide.'

Words matter.

Well, something monumental happened in Russia's war against Ukraine, and it is that Joe Biden gaffed out loud that Vladimir Putin is committing "genocide." Why did Joe Biden say this? Because Vladimir Putin is committing genocide. Also it's not a gaffe, just like it wasn't when Biden called Putin a war criminal.

We don't really have any hot take on this besides that we're glad he said it. Using the correct terminology is important.

Of course, it's interesting that Biden said it during some Build Back Better event in Iowa, and it was in the context of how life for Iowans shouldn't suck because "a dictator declares war and commits genocide a half a world away." He later explained that it wasn't an accident that he said the G-word:

“It’s become clearer and clearer that Putin is just trying to wipe out the idea of being Ukrainian. The evidence is mounting. It looks different than last week,” the president said before departing Iowa. “More evidence is coming out, literally, of the horrible things that the Russians have done in Ukraine. And we’re gonna only learn more and more about the devastation, and we’ll let the lawyers decide internationally whether or not it qualifies, but it sure seems that way to me.”

So that is that. Politico notes that when Biden said it, other members of his administration like National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and Secretary of State Antony Blinken decidedly had not used the G-word. It is a big deal for the president of the United States and leader of the free world to use the word, and it was a big deal when he said "war crimes." (Also, Politico notes a bit of a pattern here, of Biden getting in front of his administration on messaging. We think it's funny because one of the QAnon/Republican smears on Biden, on top of how he is the groomer-in-chief, is that he's just too senile to lead and is being puppeted around. Sounds like he's just fine leading the way!)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy noticed:  

True words of a true leader @POTUS. Calling things by their names is essential to stand up to evil. We are grateful for US assistance provided so far and we urgently need more heavy weapons to prevent further Russian atrocities.

— Володимир Зеленський (@Володимир Зеленський) 1649803134 

So that's all interesting. And it seems like it's coming at a moment of this war that's pretty dang important. ("The war's decisive moment," Eliot Cohen writes in The Atlantic .) We are reading reports that the Pentagon is talking about how to "vastly expand weapons for Ukraine," as the Washington Post   puts it. Meanwhile, it's seeming more and more likely that Russia has already used chemical weapons in Ukraine, as everybody knew they would, as they are worthless genocidal trash. Joe Biden said the US would have to respond to that in a proportional way. We may soon find out what that means, if Russian use of chemical weapons can be proven. 

In other Russia/Ukraine news, you may remember right at the beginning of this conflict that Tucker Carlson was spreading conspiracy theories about how Ukraine was the REAL thug and Zelenskyy was the REAL dictator, and "no country that jails its opposition leader is a democracy." Of course, Tucker was lying, and the man he was talking about was Viktor Medvedchuk, the former leader of an opposition party in Ukraine who just happens to be so close to Putin that Putin is his daughter's fucking godfather , who's actually been under indictment for treason.

As the AP explains, he wasn't actually in prison, but rather under house arrest, but somehow POOF he got away when the tanks rolled in. And now Zelenskyy's forces have done a mission and re-arrested Putin's buddy:

In his nightly video address to the nation Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy proposed that Russia could win Medvedchuk’s freedom by trading Ukrainians now held in Russian prisons.

Ivan Bakanov, the head of Ukraine’s national security agency, said on the agency’s Telegram channel that Medvedchuk had been detained.

The statement came shortly after Zelenskyy posted on social media a photo of Medvedchuk sitting in handcuffs and wearing a camouflage uniform with a Ukrainian flag patch.

Yeah, that statement from Zelenskyy's address was pretty great:

“I propose for the Russian Federation to exchange this guy of yours for our boys and girls who are now in Russian captivity,” Zelensky said in a video address posted on Telegram. Medvedchuk was handcuffed and disheveled, dressed in army fatigues with a Ukrainian flag patch—a disguise worn to flee from the country, according to Ukrainian officials.

Want your boy, Putin? Zelenskyy knows one weird trick for that.

For a longer explanation of who the fuck this Medvedchuk chump is, and a whole bunch of whiiiiiiiining from Russian media about it, hit this Daily Beast link from Julia Davis.

Lots more articles about the current state of Russia's war if you check "internet."

But we don't feel like typing anymore, so here is your OPEN THREAD.

[ Politico / AP ]

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