I rarely get a chance to be ashamed of being a Spanish speaker but this is one of those occasions. 

It’s refreshing since usually I’m ashamed of being a Russian speaker.

I’m feeling very Christmasy, people. I’ve got a new little nephew, my colleagues are all great people and even the HR is coming through for me in a very helpful way, I just received a 800-page book that I really want to read, and I finally came up with an idea for the conclusion of the last chapter of my book. 

I did some really good work today, so I can now lie in front of the fireplace and wait for my pheasants to defrost. (This last phrase sounds very funny to me, especially given my origins.) 

Once again, Assad used chemical weapons against civilians. At the same time, Amnesty International is accusing Russia of crimes against humanity in Syria because the only thing Russians bomb are civilian living quarters, mosques, markets and hospitals.

The idea that somebody else is going to snatch chestnuts out of an open fire for you needs to be abandoned forthwith. Everybody has their own goals and is pursuing them. 

There is nothing more transformative and intellectually enriching than the realization that every person on the planet is just as human as you are. In a rapidly globalizing world, the price for not understanding this will be steep. Both the Republican and the Democratic debates on foreign policy made it very clear that very few of our aspiring leaders are capable of understanding that other people are just as bad, just as good and just as dedicated to their own interests as we are.

Germany approved the scandalous Nord Stream pipeline, hugely strengthening Putin and locking the EU in another unbreakable cycle of dependence on Russia.

I have absolutely no other explanation for what Merkel has been doing than that she hates the EU, hates Europe and wants to wreak some sort of vengeance on it. The way Germany behaved throughout the global economic crisis, ensuring that as many countries as possible soured on the EU, the way Merkel trampled on the sovereignty of her neighbors in what concerns the refugees, and now the pipeline decision that will make many European countries very angry – Southern, Central, and now Northern Europe are being angered one after another with a truly German meticulousness.

I’m not a Merkel hater. I always wanted to give Merkel the benefit of the doubt. But after all this, I can’t think of any reason for all these actions that doesn’t include dumb, possibly unconscious malice.

I don’t know what can happen to let the EU survive right now. And that’s something that will enormously strengthen Putin (or the successor his criminal organization will appoint.) Plus, this will produce more unhinged far-right parties in power and an even more rapidly fraying social safety net.

And while I’m on the subjects that annoy me, Canadian healthcare system sucks. If that’s what free universal health care is, then fuck it.

MSNBC is running an hour-long feature glorifying Trump. I watched for 10 minutes, threw up at something like “since age 24 Trump was fiercely anti-establishment”, and turned off the TV.

People, help me out. Is this Roger Cohen who wrote the completely unhinged article in today’s NYTIMES the same Cohen who writes crazy Putinoid pieces for The Nation? Or is it a different Cohen? And if so, what made the bearers of such a glorious name suddenly go crazy en masse?

Now Trump is defending the love of his life Putin from charges of killing journalists.

The funny thing is that I have no idea which journalists Putin is supposed to have had killed either. I literally live inside the Russian news cycle and know an enormous lot about Putin’s crimes. The vicious little creep has done a lot of horrible things and keeps doing more of them every day. But I can’t think of any reporters Putin could have murdered. Moreover, I don’t know why he’d want to do that. The way the Russian media space is set up makes journalists extremely innocuous. Why would Putin want to waste energy on killing them?

This is all very mystifying. Everybody knows how much I detest Putin but can we discuss his real crimes instead of these imaginary charges? It doesn’t help to throw around accusations that nobody can substantiate.

It only took me a month to get through the idiotic Title IX training we have to take online. It’s the stupidest thing ever because it teaches professors how to adjudicate rape cases on campus. 

The very first requirement of the training is that if a student approaches me to communicate an instance of sexual assault or harassment, I need to “believe the student.” I have no idea how I can manufacture belief if it’s not something controlled by an act of will. There is no space for questioning these bizarre wisdoms, though. We have to accept whatever we are told by the brainless bureaucrats who come up with these idiotic seminars whether we like it or not.

Also, I find it quite disrespectful of my boundaries and invasive of my own sexual space that I have to be forced to listen to a litany of different forms of sexual penetration while I’m in the workplace. 

Immediately after the 2016 prognosis about the oil prices remaining low (and possibly going down to $20 per barrel) came out, Russian terrorists occupying the Donbass area of Ukraine became suddenly active. Within the past 24 hours, Russians shelled Ukrainian positions 12 times, using the kind of heavy artillery that the Minsk Agreements do not allow. Then they occupied a village that they’d left alone before.

It’s crucial that everybody understand that the fighting has been resumed because of the oil prices. I’m tired of people analyzing whatever happens in terms of what Obama said or Biden did. This is not about Americans at all. 

Putin is freaking out about the oil prices. Russia’s economy only exists for as long as the country can sell oil and gas at a profit. If oil prices go down, people become even more impoverished. Putin has to distract them from their poverty with military exploits and “victories.” 

I have already heard an intelligent person with a PhD suggest that Russians resumed fighting in Ukraine because Obama “sent weapons to Ukraine.” Which is a ridiculous fabrication.