Duck and cover

 We have heard a lot about the Ukrainian refugees produced by Putin's invasion but very little about the others.  People in border countries -- some NATO, some EU, some both -- are worried about being the next targets of invasion, even as they make plans to receive Ukrainian refugees.  But ever since Putin started making ominous nuke noises, Russians, too, are scrambling to pack and acquire Western currency.  Their absence, if they really light out for places like the UAE, will put still more pressure on the Russian economy and the overstretched military supply lines.  I assume there are people in Putin's government who are not mad and have already figured this out.  

Government-controlled media are not allowed to give casualty figures, but everyone knows Russian troops are dying, many of them teenage conscripts who were told it was a training exercise.  The Ministry of Defense announced a payment of 11,000 rubles to the families of the dead, which works out to about a hundred Euros.  But they save money with a tricky distinction between "killed" and "dead," so expect to hear about a lot of Russians falling down wells or succumbing to covid.  

Nobody is more nervous about all this than China, which leases a huge tract of Ukraine's famously fertile land for agriculture.  The last thing they want is more irradiated soil like Chernobyl, which the Russians occupied on the first day of the war for some unfathomable reason.  Shinzo Abe, the former prime minister, thinks Japan should accommodate American nuclear missiles, which would be even more concerning for China, not to mention a shock to the country that is the only victim of atomic warfare to date.  

So it's a world war no matter what you call it.  And yes, in case you thought Americans were at least pretending to some kind of unanimity...don't be silly.  

This week's mass shooting took place last night in Sacramento, in a church for added piquancy.  A man having a supervised meeting with his daughters killed all three, their chaperone and himself.  A restraining order should have prevented him from having a gun, but I guess the Sacramento police had other priorities.

Governor Steve Sisolak of Nevada and his wife Kathy, who is Chinese American, were driven from a Las Vegas restaurant by "digital creator" Justin Andersch and an accomplice who were shouting racist insults.  The Sisolaks' daughter joined them in the parking lot and the outnumbered heroes backed off.  "We should string you up by a lamppost right now.  You're running into a patriot now," said Andersch as he returned to his mother's basement to write more brave threats.  This kind of shit happens every day, just not usually to governors.  GuiYing Ma, 62, assaulted with a rock ten weeks ago, has died, the fourth Asian New Yorker killed this year.

The "Freedom Convoy" of he-man truckers Pigpen Bannon has been promoting for two weeks rolled into DC and, well, Spinal Tap drew a better crowd when they opened for a puppet show.  As Rick Wilson wrote, "I've seen bigger crowds at a meeting of the local Boxer Rebellion re-enactors group."  Curse you, Snidely Trudeau!

Liz Harrington is real!  At least a woman using that name materialized on a comedy sketch show called Real America's Voice to dopesplain that there's no need for Joe Biden to deliver a report on the state of the union, no matter what that silly old Constitution says.  Trump, who uses her Twitter account like a cardboard cutout at a sideshow, said all that needed to be said at CPAC on Saturday.  

For over a hundred years civil rights groups have fought for an anti-lynch law, and today it finally passed the House.  Guess who voted against the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act.  Go on, guess.  Chip Roy (Texas), Thomas Massie (KY) and Andrew Clyde (GA) apparently think Till had it coming.  

But that's not the only reason Ocasio-Cortez slammed the "little KKK circus" in the House.  She wasn't impressed by Kevin McCarthy's barely audible criticism of members who spoke at AFPAC.  He's no Charlie Halleck.  He's not even Mitch McConnell, who slapped down Rick Scott's batshit proposals to abuse the poor and destroy Medicare and Social Security.  Trouble in paradise?  No, because only Democrats can be at odds.

Greg Gianforte, still an asshole.  The tough-guy governor of Montana shot a yellow mountain lion wearing a National Park Service tag after his dogs chased it up a tree.  Easier than assaulting reporters.

Rather than negotiate with the Players Association, Major League Baseball locked out spring training and has begun to cancel games.  Because it's just possible to squeeze a few more dollars out of the great American pastime.

Stand down, Ukraine, the invasion is just fulfilling prophecy, according to Pat Robertson.  Armageddon any day now, as usual, Ezekiel, flying chariots, I don't know what all.  Looks like resistance is useless.  

In other news,

it's Mardi Gras!