Hey, who can guess the only major US news show that airs daily on Russia’s #1 state TV channel? Hint: it saves the Russians money on filming their own war propaganda.

If you don’t like us, you are a Nazi. Hmm, where else have we heard it?

This is the mentality:

So who is the enemy of the Russian people? The Russian people have said it as openly as they can but the enemy is hoping that if it shuts its eye really tight, mommy will make the boo-boo go away.

Ukrainian soldiers turned out to be too tough to crack, so now these incredible bastards are waging war on the disabled and pregnant women.

None of this is new. We saw all this in Ukraine in 2014 and many other places before or since. But maybe now at least somebody will notice.

Translation: Ukrainian borders aren’t going to stop us. We’ll fuck up the whole world. Maybe not now but we will. We’ll occupy the whole of Ukraine and keep moving into Europe.

Look at the happy, excited faces. “The whole world, bam bam!” they say.

None of this is new. It’s been twenty years. Day in, day out. Tell me more about the poor victims who don’t want war.

https://twitter.com/sarahbeth345/status/1502824162808631297?t=Z2RXqrWdGRMpKLWUpcDN8A&s=19

Amidst the flood of stories about Russian immigrants in the US who reputedly experienced some mild discomfort because of being from a terrible country, I wonder, where are the stories about Ukrainian immigrants. Who’s talking about how we cry, have nightmares, and start the day by finding out which of our friends and relatives have been murdered by the friends and relatives of the ‘apologetic’ lady from the quoted tweet?

Every year in May, a large park in Montreal gets flooded by drunk and happy Russian immigrants yelling “we can repeat it!” This is a favorite militaristic slogan of Putin’s Russia. What they are planning to repeat is the triumphant march of Soviet troops across Europe in 1945. Only this time, they’ll decide who the “Nazis” are.

A few years ago, I wrote here on the blog about a party I visited at the house of a local chemistry professor from Russia. This is a very successful guy with hundreds of publications, gigantic grants, and a huge house. All he and his Russian buddies could talk about at the party was the greatness of Putin (even the vodka they drank was named after him), the importance of Russia’s recent invasions (this was in 2015, and guess which country Russia had recently invaded), and the stupidity and nastiness of Americans. This is a guy who was given everything by Americans. If he does feel a little apologetic, what’s the big deal? He won’t, of course, but at least he can try to pretend.

There are no “innocent victims escaping from the regime” in Russia. The borders have been wide open, and Russians leave always and solely for better economic opportunities abroad. After they leave, they tend to overwhelmingly support every Russian invasion. That Russian opera singer Netrebko I keep hearing about from kind-hearted Americans is one of the most passionate, hardcore Putinoids in existence. This is a terrible person. She should be on trial for war crimes. And what’s the big suffering she’s experienced? A loss of a contract? She’ll make a lot more money, as usual, opening her mouth not to sing but to fellate Putin’s cronies (in a literal sense).

And since I’m at it, I want to mention that spate of outraged reports on Russians denied private medical care in Germany. People! Use your thinking facilities. Who are the Russians who can afford private clinics in Germany? Where do they get such extraordinary amounts of money? These aren’t immigrants or regular citizens. These are members of a corrupt Russian elite. They are so rich, you are dust under their feet. They are going to be fine.

These are Russians in Germany protesting against accepting Ukrainian refugees:

Let’s feel sorry for them some more. Poor innocent bunnies, they suffer so.

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.