Last Call For The Entire Universe

If you missed the premier of Cosmos, hosted by astrophysicist Neil Degrasse Tyson tonight, you can catch it on NatGeo Monday at 10 PM.



 My first thought is "Everyone needs to see this."

My second thought is "A whole lot of future astrophysicists just did."

The Rage Of The Turtle

Mitch McConnell seems to be feeling pretty good about not only his primary chances, but the primary chances of all his GOP establishment buddies, because apparently screw the Tea Party wing 

"I think we are going to crush them everywhere," McConnell said about Tea Party challengers in a New York Times interview published Saturday. "I don’t think they are going to have a single nominee anywhere in the country."

McConnell faces a primary challenge from the right. The Senate Conservatives Fund, which backs Tea Party challenger Matt Bevin, believes the candidate has a chance of defeating McConnell the the primary.

"Mitch McConnell is clearly in trouble in this primary or he wouldn’t be attacking Matt Bevin and declaring war on conservatives," Matt Hoskins, the head of the SCF, told the New York Times.

Unless time and space have become unhinged, the last time I checked, Bevin was losing by 26 points.  So, the Turtle may actually be right about Bevin not having a shot in hell.  It would be too bad if the rest of Bevin's drooling maniacs also lost their primaries, because it would make it far easier for the Dems to keep the Senate if they won.

On the other hand, Mitch isn't exactly making friends with this interview among the Tea Party set, either...

Meanwhile, In Crimea...

Seems ol' Vlad here doesn't buy the idea of standing down too much ahead of the "referendum" at the end of next week for Crimea to "join" the guys pointing all the very large weapons at them.

Or else.

 Russian forces tightened their grip on Crimea on Sunday despite a U.S. warning to Moscow that annexing the southern Ukrainian region would close the door to diplomacy in a tense East-West standoff.

Street violence flared in Sevastopol, home to Russia's Black Sea Fleet, when pro-Russian activists and Cossacks beat and kicked a group of Ukrainians at a meeting.

Russian forces' seizure of the Black Sea peninsula has been bloodless but tensions are mounting following the decision by pro-Russian groups that have taken over the regional parliament to make Crimea part of Russia.

The operation to seize Crimea began within days of Ukraine's pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovich's flight from the country last month. Yanukovich was toppled after three months of demonstrations against a decision to spurn a free trade deal with the European Union for closer ties with Russia.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk will visit Washington this week for talks, a White House official said.

 So things get real on March 15th, when the "referendum" is scheduled.  Of course the vote will be overwhelmingly to join Mother Russia.  Then this all becomes about "the Russian minority in Crimea needing protection from the West."

It's been relatively bloodless so far.  That could change any second...and I'm not sure if there's anything we can do to stop Putin at this point, anyway.