Russians reveal how many Russian soldiers were killed and maimed in action in Ukraine.

The linked article also reveals the amounts that the families of the dead soldiers received in return for pretending that their dead sons and husbands never existed.

These are, of course, just the regular troops. There are also crowds of Russian “patriots” who have been coming to Ukraine to kill. These are the ones who are the first to be killed because they have no military training.

Another good professor falls prey to the insanity of trigger warnings.

Soon, I will have to create a club for the last remaining practitioners of the belief that college is a place of work and not a place of consumption.

I was brought up to believe that school is work. Not a place where you come to purchase qualifications that will prepare you for work but actual work. I always expected my professors to treat me as (young, inexperienced, largely ignorant but still) a colleague, an equal. And they did that, for which I am grateful.

The workplace is changing, however. Instead of a place where all of us come to develop personally, intellectually and professionally, it has become a space where the lucky few manage to peddle their foibles and weirdnesses while everyone else watches them on TV, simultaneously fearing and aspiring to their lifestyle.

College prepares students for the post-work mentality by telling them that the public space is dead. It has been colonized by sloppy, unschooled, gushing emotions to the extent that everything is now located within the realm of the private.

Political activism has been substituted by feel-good hashtagging, and Trump is leading in the polls as a result of offering emotional release instead of inviting voters to engage intellectually. If the classroom has been turned into a place where we are directed to emote before we even try to learn anything, why  would the voting booth  be any different?

And only the few old farts like myself are grumpily refusing to participate in the collective Emote-fest and insist that it might not be a bad idea to preserve a tiny little space that will not be fully occupied by irrationality.

It drives me up a wall when people eagerly bring up somebody’s lack of experience in politics as their best qualification for the role of president. Is there any other profession where potential customers value inexperience and lack of knowledge?

“I found this great dentist. She’s a total outsider to the field of dentistry, never went to any of those dentistry schools because how elitist is that? No, she’s one of us, regular folks. Never treated a tooth in her life. I’m having her do my root canal tomorrow.”

“This new plumber I hired is the best. Has zero knowledge of plumbing. He’s actually a professor of Spanish literature, so other plumbers perceive him as a total outsider. Now that he’s a plumber, he’ll really revolutionize the field of plumbing. How long has it been since we’ve had a plumber who is terrified of plumbing tools and hates water pipes?”

A friend from Africa came over and tried to get in touch. Unfortunately, he used all the methods of connecting that are guaranteed to fail:

1. Facebook – I only go there once every six months out of a misplaced sense of guilt.

2. Skype – I only go there to see my analyst and never read the IMs.

3. Phone – I don’t have voice mail and never pick up if I don’t recognize the number.

These additional methods are just as useless:

4. Email – unless it’s the university email, I only read it once a month or less.

5. Work voice mail – haven’t checked it since August of 2009.

People, if you want to connect with me, don’t rely on these outlandish methods. Simply leave me a message on the blog alerting me to your need to get in touch. I’m always available through the blog. 

Meet my two new Mary Frances handbags and – you’ll never guess what the pink thing is. It’s a key chain! Of course, I’m not about to use it as a key chain but I couldn’t leave the store without it either.

The bags are very similar but I was so torn between the two of them that it was easier to get both and stop feeling tortured.

And since I’m on the subject of good news, is it true that Joe Biden is running? I’ve had a crush on him since he wiped the floor with that mumbly fellow – whatever was his name, Ryan something? – back at the vice-presidential debates 4 years ago. If Biden is running, I might have to start supporting him. Or I’ll just feel torn, like I was today with the handbags.

Of course, I’m also hearing that Biden is running with Elizabeth Warren, and that makes me less torn. I want to support a serious ticket, not some populist attempt at pandering to the simple-minded.

I told you they are the same:

In recent days, the real-estate tycoon has even struck a populist note by criticizing “hedge fund guys” who “shift paper around and get lucky,” saying they should pay higher taxes. . . And Bernie Sanders has railed against the banker class and wondered why executives who made irresponsible bets in the run-up to the last financial crisis weren’t punished.

Cheap, meaningless populism that attracts people with a very childish worldview. Find and punish the evildoer who “prevents us from having nice things”, and everything will be perfect.

In the meanwhile, the real election that is going on is being drowned out by this loud pandering to the overwhelmed and anxious simpletons.

I thought Kasich was normal but hey, how can one expect any normalcy at all from these folks?

Within a few weeks, Ohio’s legislature is expected to criminalize any abortion if the pregnant woman’s intent is to avoid having a baby with Down syndrome.

. . Ph.ony “conservative” Republicans want to shrink “Big Government” just small enough to fit under people’s bedroom doors.

It is crucial to waste government resources to ensure that only healthy fetuses are aborted.

Several years ago, Putin tried to abolish welfare assistance for about 1,2 million people in the Greater Moscow area (where cost of living is higher than wherever it is that you live). People got angry, took to the streets, protested, and Putin had to cave. The welfare assistance was left in place.

Two weeks ago, Putin once again abolished the same welfare measures. Not a single person protested.

Moral of the story: if you fire up people’s diseased patriotism and allow them to feel no shame for hating their neighbors, you can easily take away all of their welfare protections.

And what it is that Trump is doing right now? Exactly.

While we are entertaining ourselves with Trump’s crazy antics, China’s manufacturing rates are dropping off a cliff. In response, stock markets in the US plummeted to the levels lower than those of the 2008 crisis and stock markets around the world are doing even worse.

On the positive side, this has got to be painful to Russia. On the negative side, the pain will be felt everywhere.