People are sending me videos of anti-war protests in Russia. Honestly, they can all burn in hell with their protests. I have no interest in any of their fake, slobbery protesting. And people on social media are melting. Ooh, aren’t they brave! It’s pathetic.

And a little comic relief:

https://twitter.com/Laurie_Garrett/status/1496880140319604736?t=mTcPu8W8i6EDz6Uo_TaqsA&s=19

With a masked face in a photo, this poor woman is probably suffering from chronic oxygen deprivation.

By the way, tomorrow I’m going to work for the first time without a mask. Our mask mandate has been dropped right at the moment when I can’t even enjoy it. I’d actually prefer a full-face covering tomorrow because I look scary.

I was curious how the right-thinking, peace-loving, poetry-reading members of the Russian intelligentsia are reacting to the invasion. Turns out there are two lines of thinking among them.

1. There’s no invasion. It’s fake news.

“But here’s a statement by your president. . .”

Fake news.

“Here is video footage. . .”

Fake news.

And so on into the infinity.

2. Ukraine has been invaded by the US, not Russia.

“But here is a statement by your president and video footage. . .”

American fake.

And so on.

I’m waiting to see who’ll be the first here in the US to offer these takes. I’m thinking before the end of the day today we’ll hear how the invasion forces are US Marines in disguise. I saw this back during the Ukrainian revolution in 2013. Within literally days some future BLM supporter concocted a story about how it was all being organized by the Department of State, and then countless future vaccinated individuals happily repeated it.

I’m not in the mood for much social media right now, so please drop a link when you start seeing this.

Finally, I decided to go check social media and immediately ran across the worst take I could even think of. The Ukrainian military took back the Hostomel airport near Kiev that had been taken by elite Russian special forces.

How can it be? idiots ask.

Maybe the Russian soldiers ‘ hearts aren’t in it! they conclude.

No, really. See for yourselves.

https://twitter.com/Icky_Mettle/status/1496955206432702467?t=zu5hyWewc90lQ6W1m_8fdw&s=19

I wonder how it must feel to be quite this stupid.

On a positive note, I’m glad that I don’t know anybody who isn’t supportive and is acting like a bastard in this situation. It doesn’t help that we are in yet another weather-related lockdown today. It took everything I had to spend the day entertaining my kid and not fall apart.

I now went for a drive, in spite of the weather because I need to recharge to be fit for human company. I’m trying to avoid updates from the battlefield because I can’t process them. What makes it really bad is that this is our brothers and sisters doing it. My own child is half-Russian. It’s easier when it’s a distant foe and not somebody who grew up next to you, watching the same cartoons and laughing at the same jokes.

I also would like it if people quit with the “Putin this and Putin that.” Putin does what his people want him to. Every time he sends troops somewhere, his ratings go through the roof. Yes, he’s dumb. But even an opossum would learn this simple reward system by this time.

This isn’t semantics. Putin will die at some point. But a hundred million people armed to the teeth with nukes and burning with an extreme hatred of the US aren’t going anywhere.

Our main hope right now is, strangely, the neoliberal capital I keep talking about. The capital won’t be into a nuclear holocaust. Let’s see what the forces of the capital do.

Some points that Americans forget at their own peril:

1. There’s no China as an independent political actor. China is a satellite of Russia and does as it’s told. People who say “our biggest geopolitical threat is China and not Russia” have no idea what’s going on. There’s no “x but not y.” XY are an entity with common goals.

2. The reason why the Russian people hate the US isn’t anything the US did. This hatred isn’t about the NATO, the 1990s or anything of the kind. Consequently, there’s nothing that Americans can do to make themselves less hated.

3. The current invasion of Ukraine by Russia is domestic policy, not foreign. People who keep asking, “but why would Putin do this?” are, again, very unaware of recent history. Putin is doing it because every time he invades somebody, his approval ratings soar. His people are loving it. There’s no cruel dictator forcing an unwilling populace to murder. The populace is willing, happy, and very upset.

4. Americans believe they are the center of the world and everything happens because of something they did or didn’t do. But that’s not true. Its very possible for people to hate you without you doing anything to them. They hate that you exist, period.

I know that the TV says the opposite, so it’s useless to bring all of this up. But I’ve got to try.