Tonight Russians are bombing the entire territory of Ukraine, including the cities of Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk in the westernmost part of the country. This bizarre military strategy that can’t be explained by any reasonable scenario confirms what I said from the start: Russia is experiencing a collective freakout of enormous proportions.

This is scary, and there’s a strong temptation to hide from reality behind a fantasy of a simple, easy solution. But there’s no magic vaccine pill here.

I’ve been looking like an ancient old hag 30 years senior. Finally, today I decided to do something about it. Went to Sephora, got a complicated, expensive makeup done. Neon yellow nails. Let the Jewfro flow freely. Even wore lipstick, which I do about once a decade.

Everybody noticed. “Wow, you look great! So good to see you are doing better!” Two elderly Vietnamese ladies stopped me in the street to touch the Jewfro (“Gold! Pretty gold hair!”).

The only person who didn’t notice is my husband. Because he’d never noticed I looked like crap before all this effort. To him I always look stunning.

I do feel better, though.

This is a great thread describing the position of the army in the Russian society:

The author really knows what he’s talking about. It’s all true. Please remember that the army is venerated in a strong nation-state. In the post-nation state model, the object of veneration is the security apparatus. This happens because the narrative that “the army protects our borders” goes out of date together with the idea of the national borders. It becomes much more important to keep people in check than protect them from anything.

The city of Volnovakha in Ukraine no longer exists. The residents are either dead or evacuated. The buildings and infrastructure have been razed to the ground.

My most right-wing, mega MAGA acquaintance and my most left-wing, pro-antifa acquaintance said the exact same thing to me about Ukraine.

“How can the US sanction Russia or say anything against it when we bombed Iraq and Yugoslavia? This is hypocrisy!”

This is a boring Russian propaganda slogan but I’m glad that I no longer have to strategize to make sure these two people in my life (and they are both wonderful, wonderful people) never intersect. Now I can introduce them to each other and let them rehash these antique talking points together.

There’s no more need for “a national divorce.” The breach has been healed. Seriously, if you have friends on both extremes, bring up Ukraine. It’s magical! They start chanting in unison.

I look in on Klara at midnight. She sits up in bed, beaming.

“Everything is going great, Mommy!” she reports.

“What’s going great, honey?” I ask.

“The sleeping!” she says and immediately falls back to sleep.