Abbreviated Pundit Roundup: What's the price of cowardice?

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Greg Sargent / WaPo:

The other big question raised by the leaked Kevin McCarthy audio

McCarthy told Cheney he thought the resolution might pass the Senate, meaning it would have some GOP support, and suggested he might prod Trump to resign.

“I’m seriously thinking of having that conversation with him tonight,” McCarthy said on the audio, which Rachel Maddow aired on Thursday night. Then McCarthy said this:

This is one personal fear I have. I do not want to get in any conversation about Pence pardoning. Again, the only discussion I would have with him is that I think this will pass. And it would be my recommendation that you should resign.

McCarthy seriously considered telling Trump he should resign, perhaps before a 25th Amendment resolution passed with some GOP support. This contradicts McCarthy’s denial of a New York Times report by Alexander Burns and Jonathan Martin that McCarthy had done this. After this denial, they released the audio.

Maybe lying about everything, always, isn’t the smartest approach.

Dr. Jack Watling and Nick Reynolds / Royal United Services Institute (UK (.pdf):

Operation Z: The Death Throes of an Imperial Delusion

Although Russia has clearly been weakened by its battlefield setbacks in Ukraine, the combinationof its imperial ambitions and significant coercive power risks destabilisation further afield.Moldova is the most prominent example, but as the conflict protracts, Russian operations couldpose threats in Serbia and beyond. Coordinated efforts to curtail Russian malign influence in thesestates – and further afield – will be critical if the crisis in Ukraine is to be contained. Further crises,risking further economic disruption, will prove politically difficult to bear.

Finally, the Russian decision to double down is a high-stakes gamble. If Russia mobilises andeventually overcomes Ukrainian resistance then NATO will face an aggressive, isolated andmilitarised state. If Russia loses then President Putin has now begun radicalising the populationin the pursuit of policies that he will struggle to deliver. Failure to defeat the Ukrainian state afterrelentlessly comparing it to the Nazi regime may have serious consequences for Putin and thosearound him. To frame a conflict as existential and to lose must necessarily call the suitability of aleader into question among Russia’s political elites. NATO states therefore need to consider how tomanage escalation pathways that follow if Russia is not only defeated in Donbas but finds its newlymobilised and poorly trained troops, with few remaining stocks of precision munitions, unable todeliver a victory in the summer. The death of Putin’s political project is plausible, but it has alreadyinflicted immense damage internationally and risks doing considerably more.

BBC:

French election: A battle of bad reputations for Le Pen and Macron

In fairness, [Marine Le Pen]’s persuaded many, with popularity ratings she never enjoyed previously. But large swathes of France simply don’t buy it.

Nagette, a young Muslim office worker, told me Le Pen could ‘”change her mask as often as she liked” but that she remained far-right in her roots and policies.

She’d be voting Emmanuel Macron, she said, to keep Le Pen out.

When I followed Le Pen on her campaign trail in the south of France a few days ago, her press officers had us journalists meet them in a car park at an arranged time. We then were left to hang around irritably, until they suddenly announced the name of the village Marine Le Pen would imminently appear in for a campaign event.

It was quite surreal.

But there is a logic to it. If the press didn’t know ahead of time where Marine would be glad-handing, then her shouting, chanting, at times aggressive detractors wouldn’t be there either, to ruin her PR event.

WFTV9:

End of Reedy Creek: Disney won’t pay more taxes, but you will

One of the biggest myths circulating on the internet is that the end of Reedy Creek will finally force Disney to pay its fair share of taxes, boosting the economies of Florida and the counties its resorts are located in.

Let’s dispel that rumor right now: not only is it wrong, it’s the opposite that will take effect.

This much is true: the Reedy Creek Improvement District is an extension of Disney that shields the company from oversight others have. The theme park operator taxes itself and gives itself permission to build whatever, wherever so long as it follows building codes and other state and federal laws.

David Rothkopf / Daily Beast:

The Results Are in on the World’s Handling of the War in Ukraine

Some leaders have stepped up during Russia’s war on Ukraine—but others have failed to make the grade.

At this point, we have learned enough to provide a first pass at evaluating how those leaders are doing. Here’s an assessment of how the most noteworthy among them have distinguished themselves for better or for worse in the course of what must certainly be seen as one of the darkest chapters in the recent history of Europe.

…

So, it turns out having foreign policy experience matters. Biden, who had more than anyone elected to the US presidency in history, has certainly shown that during the Ukraine crisis. 

Pew Research Center:

Republicans increasingly critical of several major U.S. institutions, including big corporations and banks

Republicans are critical of how several major institutions, from large corporations and technology companies to universities and K-12 public schools, are affecting the United States. And in many cases, Republicans’ assessments have taken a sharp negative turn in the past few years.

Edward Stringer / Twitter:

Some thoughts on the air war over Ukraine and its implications for air forces in general. I caveat all by stating that we don’t know very much about UKR tactics, and if we did we wouldn’t want to be too descriptive. But we can pick out some essential observations.

The first point is that in the eighth week of this war the Russian Air Force (VKS) still shows no sign of running a campaign to gain air superiority. Given the advantages it has in the ‘physical component’ of air combat power this is truly remarkable. So it probably cannot.

And that means that the Russian army cannot discount air attack at any time, and UKR can plan to make use of the air environment. This could prove to be the factor that tips the balance in effective overall combat power, and it arises because the UKR armed forces are clearly leading in the ‘conceptual component’ of air combat power. They have worked out how to take a massive inferiority in numbers and turn that around by fighting smarter. There are lessons here in Air C2 for all air forces.