The absurdities of this historical moment, as embodied by President Zelensky, point us to the deeper truths of Ukraine’s messy identity, which is proving to be a more powerful construction than Putin’s authoritarian nostalgia. //

Ukrainians voted for a mixture of Benny Hill and Boris Johnson, and somehow wound up with Churchill. //

It is surely no accident, comrades, that the “neo-Nazi” Ukraine that Putin desires to subjugate and cleanse for the sin of resisting his embrace, is led in battle by a president, a minister of defense, chief of administration, and a mayor of Kyiv who all have Jewish blood and roots. All of which signals the ratification of a country that does not look back to any hoary, folk conception of Ukrainian political ethos, but rather to the internationalism, cosmopolitanism, and historicity of a particular Ukraine in reality. This modern vision of Ukraine has won, regardless of the destruction that the superior weaponry of a demoralized and disorganized Russian army inflicts on it. It is proving so with a heroism much more universal than the doomed and narrowly anti-imperialist heroism of a Khmelnytsky or a Petlura.

Russians are worried, she said, not only about external isolation, but that a new Iron Curtain is about to be imposed internally by the Putin regime. She thinks a lot about the ancient Jewish question: When is it time to go? New events that feel old: If you’re looking for a possible summary of Jewish life, that’s one.

Yet, while people are going so far as to ban cats and cutting opera singers, the Biden Administration is still buying Russian oil while cutting our ability. They’re still using a Russian negotiator in what is sure to be yet another horrible Biden mistake: coming to a new Iran nuclear deal which, as we reported, is very close (and very awful).

Ted Cruz
@tedcruz
This is absurd.

BOYCOTT Russian oil & gas.

Leave the cats alone.
The Washington Post
@washingtonpost
International Cat Federation bans Russian cats from competitions
https://wapo.st/3Ca0pHS
12:51 AM · Mar 4, 2022

If there is an off-ramp that might prevent what now appears to be the inevitable reduction of Ukraine to rubble, then Western leaders should not block it with bellicose talk and weak half-measures.

The people of Ukraine have a chance because they are armed. Imagine if they had been training with these weapons their whole lives. //

The world is captivated by Ukraine’s resistance to Russian invasion, especially since much of Ukraine’s resistance comes from ordinary citizens taking up arms in defense of their homeland.

Ukraine has a fighting chance in part because it has taken dramatic steps to provide its people firearms. More than 25,000 automatic rifles and 10 million rounds of ammunition have been distributed to volunteers in Kyiv.

In the United States, even supporters of draconian gun control are announcing they “stand with the brave Ukrainian people” in their armed resistance. The glaring contradiction between these positions — supporting gun confiscation one day and gun distribution the next — seemingly hasn’t dawned on many of these ideologues. //

Ukraine is certainly moving in the right direction on gun rights, something that can’t be said of the entire United States. The chairman of Ukraine’s parliament, Ruslan Stefanchuk, says the new law is meant “to ensure that every citizen receives the sacred right to self-defense.”

The people of Ukraine have a chance because they are armed. It’s a lesson the world should never forget.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine threatens to pile further pressure on chip manufacturing as a squeeze on the supply of rare gases critical to the production process adds to pandemic-related disruptions.

Ukraine supplies about 50 percent of the world’s neon gas, analysts have said, a byproduct of Russia’s steel industry that is purified in the former Soviet republic and is indispensable in chip production. //

When Russia invaded Crimea in 2014, neon prices shot up by at least 600 percent. Companies have said they can tap into reserves, but the rush to find suppliers that are not in eastern Europe is causing shortages and price hikes, not only of neon but also other industrial gases such as xenon and krypton.

Forty percent of the global supply of krypton comes from Ukraine. The price of the gas, which is used in semiconductor production, rose from ¥200-300 ($1.73-2.59) per liter to nearly ¥1,000 ($8.64) per liter by the end of January, according to Date. //

Gas mixtures that include neon are used to power lasers for etching patterns into semiconductors. Shifting away from Ukraine is difficult because it has to be refined to a 99.99 percent purity, a complex process that only a few companies around the world can do — including some based in the Ukrainian port of Odessa.

The ability to mobilize civil society, through media in particular, can tip the scales towards victory or defeat as much as bombs and tanks.