You really should listen to this week's Radio Open Source for a unique view of what Russia's invasion of Ukraine means. Remarkable agreement among the academics. Whatever you think of Putin, Russia has been provoked. At some point we all decided that Russia's nukes no longer made it a superpower. We never asked Russia what they thought about that conclusion. What a show of power in the 2016 election. I have no doubt had Russia not interfered HRC would have won. It never occurred to me until today that we (ie President Biden) could have negotiated with him on that. Stand down and we'll do X for you. Sorry Ukraine, no to NATO but you get something even better, a US government that isn't owned by Putin. Sure Putin is a short, ugly, and by our standards a mean person. Boris Badenov without the charm. But underneath that façade, he's actually been pretty patient. #

How much better for Putin if he had waited until 2024. Didn't he see that the US is sliding down the path to electing a Putin lapdog in 2024. Why bother with Ukraine? He was about to land the big fish. I don't think Putin understood how scared of him we in the west are and how easily we could be united if we had even a slight chance to bring him down.#

I have been watching Fox. Their coverage of Ukraine is equal to or better than CNN or MSNBC. They are loving Ukraine. Makes me wonder if Fox was really a Putin property, or if they just gravitated toward stories that raised the ire of their audience. The Ukraine story of 2022 is like Gone With The Wind, but the sequel of the sequel, and without slaves. The story has Fox all over it. Remember they liked Mayor Pete there. That was puzzling too. For a moment, Putin has brought us together in North America, maybe. We found something we agree on -- it's time for Putin to go. But remember on January 7, 2021 we had that unity too, but it didn't last long.#