Lot of “number 2s” in the news this morning. They even rhyme, in a crude sort of way. Which is interesting, since we have been counting the number of flash points in today’s world in the number “3.” We have been muttering about that for months, and readers have only complained moderately.

Rocket was unusually agitated. His normally sleek hair was mussed, and his eyes tinged crimson. He had apparently been listening to the antique shortwave in the night, a quotation from old times. “Ukraine, of course, erupting in massed artillery fire as we slept in America. The Olympic peace in Beijing now subsiding as the closing ceremony has concluded. The Taiwain question remains, not that many of us alive today remember when the question was last asked in earnest.” He issued an emphatic “harumph” in conclusion.

Splash was contemplative. He said “That is how things have looked before. In Ukraine this morning it appears to be binary, a matter of ones and twos: Little chunk of territory or The Big Deal.”

There was general nodding around the circle. Buck looked thoughtful. “Some of us, even the academic circles, have been there to experience the consequences of these things. Like the great Chinese Civil War.” He went on in a professorial manner. “One of them involved an international treasure on an island in the South China Sea.”

Splash responded quickly: “One time, I was standing in front of the National Museum in Taipei- second visit there. I got to talking to a guy in a suit who had good English. We talked about a bunch of stuff- I had walked through some of the galleries of exquisite art, all jammed into together, much more stuff than what had been intended when the Japanese tried to rule the island.” He stopped and took a sip of coffee. “The guy turned out to be a curator on break and he agreed. He said the only way they could display the collection was to rotate the exhibits on a quarterly basis.”

“Why didn’t they build it bigger in the first place?”

“Chaing Kai-shek didn’t know he was going to have to move the National Museum in Peking off shore to protect it from Mao’s people.”

“So, are you saying somehow that Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is somehow like that?”

“No, not exactly. But the place we are calling Kyiv these days, like we call Peking ‘Beijing’ was important to the development of a different Russia, and it appears that both Russia and China are asserting some sort of eternal sovereignty over things that happened a long time ago?”

“Reminds me a little about how we are supposed to be concerned about things that happened here 150 years ago while modern states continue to trade in human traffic.”

“They have an open border to do the same thing here again but we are not supposed to notice. But which war is it you want to talk about this morning?”

“The one in progress would be a logical start. This is a little different, since digital warfare has been going on for more than a week. The problem we had with the Colonial Pipeline and the gas shortage last year demonstrates there are real kinetic consequences to digital tomfoolery, and that is only part of a conflict that also features the traditional use of regular high explosives.”

“And that is the news this morning?” DeMille was attempting to get organized.

Buck continued in a sort of classroom order. “So it seems. The developments yesterday followed some of the events from last week when they were predicting war to break out last Wednesday. The two ethnic Russian oblasts in Eastern Ukraine were reported to be under systematic oppression by the Ukrainian central government. Yesterday, Mr. Putin declared his support for their independence by occupying them. Sorry, re-unifying them with the Motherland. Last night he demonstrated his commitment by commencing mass artillery barrages all along the northeast border of a state as large as Texas.”

“Speaking of that, there seems to be rising support to Beto O’Rourke in his run against Governor Abbott.”

Melissa tossed a strand of blonde hair over her shoulder. “One war at a time, OK? The Germans just announced they would oppose the Russian pipeline that would bring them gas now that America decided to stop exporting it. This is after they committed to the Green energy program to rely on the sun and the wind and shut down their coal and nuclear generators in the middle of winter.”

“Those decisions were made when it was warmer. Doesn’t it seem like there is a bunch of stuff all coming unraveled at the same time? There is the stuff here, and artillery firing with tanks moving in Europe at the same time?”

“Yeah. If we went any further we would have to get the Attorney out of bed to ensure we are not critical of the officials who have allowed all this to unfold, step by step.” There was a groan from the direction of the unisexual wing of the Bunk House. Loma looked over to see if the Attorney was on station yet. He is normally grumpy in the morning, but he seemed particularly out of sorts on this one.

“Right. We all support that. We have to, according to the people we used to work for. But still, it makes me wonder about how we used to be the number one exporter of energy in the world, and now we are pleading for the Saudis to pump more oil?”

“We were asking the Russians, too.”

“Must have been something lost in translation.” DeMille waved his tablet in the air. He seemed to want to get the morning Production Meeting going while avoiding legal consequences. But he was confronted with a dramatic challenge to maintain order in a morning that was filled with the number “2.”

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