Welcome to The Quarter Inch, a mid-week missive on current events from The Square Inch Newsletter. This is a paywalled feature, and today’s edition includes a sneak peek preview as a reminder to free subscribers to upgrade their subscription before July 1st to continue receiving all that the publication has to offer. Just click the button below!
Dear Friends,
Around here we are finally somewhat recovered from a very long weekend at an art show, where Tara was showing off and selling a few of her offerings. It was a successful show as these things are usually measured, but it was draining. It was a lot of work, and for introverts like us standing there all day for days talking non-stop to strangers (more her than me!) is a very particular challenge. She’s so good at it you’d never know that she’s an introvert.
We were encouraged enough to do it again and she got some very promising leads to get into shows that would be a better fit.
On Saturday morning the world awoke to what everyone thought was a world-historical moment happening right before their eyes. Vladimir Putin’s favorite mercenary army, the Wagner Group, suddenly turned away from Ukraine and steamrolled toward … Moscow. They met little to no resistance and were within a hundred kilometers or so from the Capital when they finally halted. From all appearances they seemed to be prepared to sack the Kremlin. Putin himself had reportedly fled to St. Petersburg.
Details are still very fuzzy, but it seems that Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin either A) was offered concessions he deemed suitable, or B) completely lost his nerve. Or, perhaps C) he was just bluffing the whole time and just wanted to show Putin that he could, if he wanted—you know, Alpha Males pushing their weight around.
At any rate, it all fizzled just as quickly as it started.
But it does seem to indicate that all is not well in Moscow or with the Ukrainian “special operation” as a whole. Certainly Putin has been shown vulnerable in ways he hasn’t before. That’s President Biden’s assessment, telling a reporter that “Putin is losing the war in Iraq.”
Ay yi yi. All is not well here, either.
Some segments of the Left in America seem to sense that perhaps they’ve pushed a bit far on the LGBTQIA++ campaign. I’ve noticed a lot less rainbow-tinged corporate logos this year over last. The Anheuser-Busch marketing executives who thought the Dylan Mulvaney beer can was a good idea are reportedly looking for new jobs. Target held their annual shareholder meetings in person rather than online in an apparent attempt to limit participation and scrutiny in the midst of the uproar over their trans-friendly clothing lines for children.
Now comes NBC News with this headline:
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to The Square Inch to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.