Ukraine

I have not tried to study the geography of the area, or the probable locations of strong points and weak, or game out aircraft vs anti-aircraft. I know enough of the history to know that what happens depends on what's in the minds of people I don't know, and who have no reason to reveal their real thoughts to reporters or self-appointed pundits.

To make it still cloudier, the leaders' underlings may be lying to them about preparedness. What happens doesn't depend on anything I can do, and I doubt that what Biden thinks weighs much in the balance for the interested parties.

And once Mars takes over, even leaders can turn into puppets.

The runup to this uncovered appalling corruption and stupidity--and that's just in the US. I hear the Ukraine is worse, and I decline to trust that Russia is better. And the difference between sources of information is staggering.

I have to be content with not knowing much. Trent Telenko has been reporting things from World War II that are still not well known; initial reports from Ukraine are bound to be incomplete and often simply wrong.

My daughter told me she'd just watched Drachinifel's youtube episode on ship's cats--one of which slept through a bombardment at D-day. Sleeping isn't a crazy thing to do, when there's nothing you can do but pray, and wait.

UPDATE: And yes, one of my colleagues has relatives there, and another was stationed there for quite a while, and a professor has connections there too. It isn't something we don't care about.