by Kerry Dougherty
You would think that after two years of folks marching around with useless rags on their faces and wearing rubber gloves to grocery shop, we’d be weary of empty gestures.
You would be wrong.
Over the weekend another kind of mass foolishness gripped the country that was watching in horror as Russia attacked Ukraine:
Vodka signaling.
If you weren’t dumping your vodka down the drain and demanding that liquor stores smash the bottles already on their shelves — you know, the stuff the retailers ALREADY BOUGHT FROM RUSSIA — you were secretly supporting warmonger Vladimir Putin.
Politicians, including the leader of the Democratic brain trust running Virginia’s State Senate, DEMANDED Russian vodka be swept from ABC store shelves.
We need to take strong actions to support Ukraine, so I am calling on @GovernorVA to order the removal of all Russian Vodka and any other Russian products from our ABC stores immediately.
— L. Louise Lucas (@SenLouiseLucas) February 26, 2022
“Strong action”? Removing bottles of booze? The Ukrainians are forever in your debt, Senator.
Who wants to tell Lucas — or the ghostwriter of her Tweets — that Virginia taxpayers PAID for that vodka. Ages ago. How does taking an inventory loss help Ukraine?
Yet, dozens of knobturners in the Senate sent Lucas messages cheering her brilliant idea, she said.
Odd. I didn’t hear any of those Mensa members demanding that the U.S. gin up oil and gas production and cease buying crude oil from Russia.
By Saturday afternoon the governors of Texas, New Hampshire and Ohio embarked on their own impulsive fool’s errands, clearing Russian vodka from their liquor store shelves.
Proving, if there was any doubt after the lunacy of the past two years, that critical thinking is in short supply everywhere.
Virginia’s Gov. Glenn Youngkin took an intelligent approach. He ordered actions that could actually hurt Russia in the long term.
Youngkin’s order declared that he was:
Ordering the Department of General Services to immediately review all contracts across government and procurement to determine what, if any, Virginia tax dollars are spent on goods and services from primarily Russian companies.
- Calling on the City of Norfolk and the City of Roanoke to end sister city partnerships with Russian cities.
- Calling on the Virginia Retirement System Board of Trustees and university endowment funds to divest in a prudent and orderly fashion any and all holdings of the Russian Ruble and any and all securities of Russian companies.
By Sunday afternoon, the apparatchiks at Virginia’s ABC Board couldn’t resist. They declared that they were removing Russian vodka from the state-owned ABC stores. They did this not at the behest of the governor, but “in the spirit” of his order.
Sigh.
Virginians bought that vodka. Sell it, dammit. And don’t buy any more.
It’s worth remembering that, according to USA Today, only 1.2% of all vodka sold in the U.S. comes from Russia.
The most popular vodkas in the U.S. including Smirnoff, Ciroc, Tito’s, Absolut, Svedka, Grey Goose, SKYY and New Amsterdam — are not made in Russia. They are made in Sweden, France, the U.K. and the U.S.
That didn’t stop one saloon owner from posting a video of himself emptying bottles of Stoli to teach Putin a lesson. That Russian-sounding vodka is made in Latvia.
At least read the labels before wasting good liquor.
Watching the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine leaves many of us feeling helpless. We want to DO something. Pouring vodka down the drain may be therapeutic, but it’s an empty gesture. We’d be better off drinking it. Straight.
If Americans really want to hurt Russia, we should rebuke the Green New Deal factotums pulling Joe Biden’s strings, regain energy independence and stop buying Russian oil.
That actually would send a “strong signal” that America is serious about punishing her enemies.
This column has been republished with permission from Kerry: Unemployed & Unedited.
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