From the New York Post:

[White House press secretary Jen] Psaki made the crack in an appearance on the January 25 edition of Pod Save America, which is hosted by former Obama White House aides Jon Favreau, Daniel Pfeiffer, Jon Lovett and Tommy Vietor.

During her interview, Psaki read the chyrons of various cable news shows off the TVs in what appeared to be her White House office.

“CNN [is saying] ‘Pentagon: As many as 8,500 US troops on heightened alert.’ OK, true,” the press secretary said. “Same on MSNBC. CNBC is doing their own thing about the market.

“And then, on Fox is [The Five cohost] Jeanine Pirro taking about ‘soft-on-crime consequences,’” Psaki went on. “I mean, what does that even mean, right?”

It means, as I pointed out four weeks ago, that homicides in the top 50 cities increased 45% from 2019 to 2021.

“So, there’s just an alternate universe on some coverage. What’s scary about it is, a lot of people watch that.”

Meanwhile, from the New York Times news section:

For Some of Ukraine’s Neighbors, ‘Defend Europe’ Has Another Meaning

For the populist leaders of Poland and Hungary, Russia’s saber-rattling on the border with Ukraine takes a back seat to domestic politics and issues like immigration.

By Andrew Higgins
Jan. 31, 2022

WARSAW — As the United States ramped up warnings of a Russian attack, and as Western allies called for unity against aggression, the leaders of two NATO members bordering Ukraine headed for a gathering in Madrid over the weekend called “Defend Europe.”

But instead of tackling the Russian threat to Europe’s eastern frontier, the meeting attended by the prime ministers of Poland and Hungary, Mateusz Morawiecki and Viktor Orban, focused on what the populist leaders cite as their most pressing threats: immigration, demographic decline and the European Union.

Even as the two NATO members rely on the alliance for their security, the pressing in Madrid of issues that have long driven a wedge between them and the United States and the European Union highlighted the extent to which domestic political concerns remain at the forefront of their calculations.

… It instead stressed the need to form a united front in favor of “family policies,” Christianity and keeping out immigrants. The European Union, the statement said, had become “detached from reality,” leading to “demographic suicide. ”

Poland is a country with a long and traumatic history of Russian aggression. That it would join a gathering focused on attacking the European Union at a time of crisis on its eastern border highlighted just how much the governing party sees Brussels as a threat.

The NYT seems to envision NATO ~ EU. Perhaps that is true.

Poland regularly denounces Moscow and supports the presence on its territory of around 4,500 American troops and a U.S.-run missile defense installation. But, incensed by E.U. criticism of its restrictions on judicial independence, L.G.B.T.Q. rights and other issues, the governing party has increasingly turned its fire on Brussels.

In other words, Poland has been a staunch supporter of NATO, but the EU’s attempts to interfere in Poland’s domestic politics are undermining Polish enthusiasm for Biden’s NATO initiative.

“Polish foreign policy has been completely subjugated to domestic needs and is now all about stopping interference from the European Union,” said Roman Kuzniar, a professor at Warsaw University who advised his country’s previous pro-European government.

For example, Biden could ask the E.U. to shut down its LGBT campaign against Poland until after the Ukraine crisis is resolved, but that would be wrong. Some people are too sacred to have to wait just to head off World War III. If you watched the right TV networks you’d know who those people are.

The scrambling of foreign policy by domestic politics mirrors a similar phenomenon in the United States, where the Republican right has challenged the Biden administration’s support for Ukraine and asked whether Russia might be a more worthy cause.

Few in Poland voice sympathy for Russia. But, there is also deep wariness about Ukraine, the western part of which belonged to Poland before World War II, particularly among nationalists who view as genocide the massacre of tens of thousands of Poles by Ukrainian nationalists during the conflict. …

Jarosław Kaczyński, the head of Law and Justice and Poland’s de facto leader, fulminates regularly against the European bloc, claiming in December that it was becoming a German-led “Fourth Reich,” but has said nothing publicly about the Ukraine crisis.

Whereas, of course, pro LGBT Germany has stood staunchly against Russia, daring Putin to turn off its natural gas deliveries: “Just try it, Putin,” scoffed the new German chancellor whose name is something other than Merkel but I’m not going to look it up now, “And you’ll see how our mighty nuclear power plants make your natural gas unneeded. Ha-ha-ha! … Oh, wait … [aside to an aide: “Merkel did what?”] OK … Actually, Vlad, buddy, did I mention you are looking really good lately? What are you benching?”

Mr. Kaczynski’s liberal critics note that his emphasis on defending traditional Christian values against what he views as decadent intrusions by the European Union is almost indistinguishable from the Kremlin’s own favorite propaganda trope.

Sure, Mr. Kaczynski appears to believe, deep down, that Putin murdered his identical twin brother in the 2010 Katyn plane crash. So you might think that the Biden Administration could cleverly drive a wedge between the two enemies. But the point is that neither Putin nor Kaczynski—unlike the New York Times or, next week, the White House—favor referring to an individual “menstruator” with the possessive pronoun “their” rather than “her.”

And that’s what really counts.

From the New York Times news section:

The Hard-Line Russian Advisers Who Have Putin’s Ear

Three reactionary security officials dedicated to “traditional values” and restoring Soviet glory will figure prominently in the decision whether to invade Ukraine.

By Anton Troianovski
Jan. 30, 2022
MOSCOW — The West is legalizing marriage between people and animals.

… As they work to crush dissent, the hard-line security officials are also at the forefront of espousing “traditional values” as Russia’s superior alternative to a morally decaying West. A television channel was recently fined for showing a man with long hair and painted nails — “not corresponding to the image of a man of a traditional sexual orientation.” Two bloggers were sentenced to 10 months in prison for a sexually suggestive photo in front of St. Basil’s Cathedral.

“Father and mother are being renamed parent number one and two,” Mr. Patrushev said in a September interview, describing the West’s “foreign” values. “They want to give children the right to determine their own sex, and in some places they’ve gotten to the point of legalizing marriage with animals.”

Mr. Putin repeated the line about “parent number one and two” in an appearance a month later, but left out the zoophilia.

Putin is such a rightwing maniac that he doesn’t realize referring only to “parent number one and two” is now verbal violence to parent number three and four.

[Comment at Unz.com]