Ah, blessed confusion this morning! We harvest this week a multitude of “news” that we have ceased to follow as “breaking items.” Like you, we have been awaiting the start of the spring offensive in the eastern provinces of what used to be eastern Ukraine. Someone decided to blow the dam on the big river that flows from Europe down to the Black Sea. In size, they say it is about the same volume as the Great Salt Lake out in Utah. A big deal in terms of water release, and one that directly affects drinking and agriculture supplies down in Crimea, the Oblast seized by the Russians eleven years ago.

Did the Russians or Ukrainians blow it up? Still unknown at this point, but it will disrupt movement and determine who will come out of the blocks first on the Summer fighting season. Management came down pretty hard on coverage of the kinetic events that surround it. Accordingly, we stopped listening to the people who populate the flat-screen in the morning. It makes our coverage a little thinner than usual, but that is how /spring works in the transition to something else.

One thing we agree about is the misery imposed on those who have to pick up arms and bludgeon one another. It is most akin to the sort of fighting last known more than a century ago in something called “The Great War.” It is cold and wet, which is no way to start the day. A world away, or at least half of one, Chinese, Japanese Korean and American ships are taunting one another and we may have another maratime conflict emerge.

Great Wars and Two Front versions unusual in modern times could erupt. We will keep you posted on progress, but that would mean having to turn on the TV again. We think that could be unwise, but there is a lot of that sort of thinking going around at the moment. They said this was going to be interesting, and there is no indication that they were exaggerating!

Copyright 2023 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com