MICHAEL WALSH: ‘Events, Dear Boy, Events.’

And so, just like that, Covid hysteria has suddenly receded, the manifest limitations of “green energy” have revealed themselves, and “gun control” suddenly doesn’t seem so urgent in light of plucky little Ukraine’s citizen-soldiers. Inflation is soaring, pocketbook issues are back on the table, and the outbreak of a real shooting war in the Ukraine , in which people are fighting and dying, has suddenly yanked the word “catastrophic” back from the realm of mental illness and into reality. As the late British prime minister Harold Macmillan is supposed to have replied when asked what was his greatest challenge: “Events, dear boy, events.”

Amazing what happens when reality bites. The small stuff, the transient concerns, the self-indulgence in lunacy and cultural suicide suddenly slips away, revealing bedrock truths beneath. The prolonged propaganda assault by the national media, led by the unabashedly racialist New York Times, on the traditions and institutions of this country has screeched to a halt as people stare in disbelief at supermarket receipts and gas pump prices and watch the shelling of Kiev on their televisions. Perhaps now words like “assault” and “hostile environment” won’t be thrown around with such gay abandon:

So much for the dreaded “assault” rifles, which now seem to have some usefulness after all. Note as well that these “assault” rifles aren’t firing themselves, but are instead wielded by responsible adults in an actual hostile environment in defense of their lives, their families, and their homelands—exactly the conditions under which the Congress and the several  states ratified the second amendment.

Exit quote: “‘There is a great deal of ruin in a nation,’ observed Adam Smith in the 18th century. But how much ruin, exactly? Russia is testing that proposition now, and the United States under Biden is not far behind. Events, dear boy, events.”

LEE SMITH: Ukraine’s Deadly Gamble.

Just as Russiagate seemed to be coming to a close in July 2019, U.S. national security officials injected yet another Ukraine-related narrative into the public sphere to target the American president. This one appears to have been initiated by Ukrainian American White House official Alexander Vindman and his colleague Eric Ciaramella, a CIA analyst who had served as Vice President Biden’s point man on Ukraine during the Obama administration. When Vindman told Ciaramella about a phone call in which Trump had asked the Ukrainian president for information regarding allegations about the Biden family’s corrupt activities in Kyiv, they called on help from U.S. intelligence services, the State Department, the Pentagon, Democratic Party officials, and the press. Quick, scramble Team Ukraine—Trump is asking questions!

In order to cover up for what the Bidens and perhaps other senior Obama officials had done in Ukraine, a Democratic Congress impeached Trump for trying to figure out what American policymakers had been doing in Ukraine over the past decade. As for the Ukrainians, they again put themselves in the middle of it, when they should have stayed home.

The end result was that the Ukrainians had helped weaken an American president who, unlike Obama, gave them arms to defend themselves against the Russians. More seriously, they reinforced Putin’s view that, especially in partnership with the Democrats, Ukraine did not understand its true place in the world as a buffer state—and would continue to allow themselves to be used as an instrument by policymakers whose combination of narcissism and fecklessness made them particularly prone to dangerous miscalculations. The 2020 election victory of Joe Biden, a man whose family had been paid by the Ukrainians to protect them, can have done little to quiet Putin’s sense that Ukraine needed to be put in its place before it was used yet again as a weapon against him.

Earlier: Stealth Hunter: Biden’s tangled business dealings are becoming hard to ignore. Influence-peddling is Washington’s ‘spectator sport’ — but now there’s an interest in taking a closer look at the president’s son.

BIDEN VOTERS POSTING THEIR L’S ONLINE: Elite investors have formed a quiet consensus: 2022 is going to be very, very ugly for the stock market.

LISTEN, SUG: DON’T FORGET TO SAY YOUR PRAYERS — AND WEAR A MASK.

Here’s a link to the referenced document if you want to see it for yourself.

Flashback: The Unexpected Return of Duck and Cover.

(Classical allusion in headline.)

CLAUDIA ROSETT: Why Did Russia’s UN Ambassador Mention a ‘Dirty Bomb?’

Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has been giving the world a crash course in Kremlin techniques of propaganda, misinformation, disinformation, and misdirection — for anyone not already well aware. We have heard plenty about this in recent weeks, not least from the Biden administration, which has been declassifying and releasing to the press information on what they’ve called Russia’s playbook.

A big feature of this playbook is projection: in this case the process of displacing onto someone or something else what Russia itself is actually planning, or doing. We saw this in spades during Putin’s runup to the invasion of Ukraine, as he mustered his strike force along Ukraine’s land borders and coastline. Russia accused Ukraine and NATO of threatening its security, broadcasting a narrative that at the extreme suggested Russia was in danger of an invasion from Ukraine, or NATO. The opposite was true: It was Russia threatening and preparing to invade Ukraine, threatening NATO, and staging provocations.

Russia’s narrative was patently ridiculous, but for Putin such things have their uses — for domestic propaganda, for muddying the waters, for distracting the debate from the realities, and for laying the groundwork for Russia’s staged provocations. In this case, Russia stirs up trouble and blames it on Ukraine, as Russia has been doing for years in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region.

In that vein, there’s an item that caught my attention last Friday, near the end of a United Nations Security Council emergency meeting on Ukraine. I mention it here not because I have any further information on this score. I stress that this is solely a heads up, in light of Russia’s record of projection and staged provocations.

The setting was the UN Security Council chamber, Friday evening, Feb. 25 — two days after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine. Russia has the rotating presidency of the Security Council for the month of February, and Russia’s ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, was presiding. He described Russia’s invasion as a justified humanitarian intervention, saying Russia was not bombing cities or targeting civilians.

In addition to dirty bombs, there’s this sci-fi scenario: Russian space chief threatens International Space Station over sanctions. “After President Biden announced Thursday that the U.S. would sanction major Russian banks and impose export controls on Russia to curtail high-tech imports, Roscosmos Director General Dmitry Rogozin tweeted that the ISS’s current location is under Russian control. ‘If you block cooperation with us, who will save the International Space Station (ISS) from an uncontrolled deorbit and fall into the United States or…Europe?’ Rogozin said in one of his tweets. ‘There is also the possibility of a 500-ton structure falling on India and China. Do you want to threaten them with such a prospect? The ISS does not fly over Russia, therefore all the risks are yours. Are you ready for them?’ Currently, there are four NASA astronauts, two Russian cosmonauts and one European astronaut onboard the outpost, according to CNN.”

DON’T UNDERESTIMATE JOE’S ABILITY TO F*** THINGS UP: Biden says he hopes his legacy ‘is that I restored the soul of this country.’

In a wide-ranging interview with progressive political host Brian Tyler Cohen, Biden said that he hoped he would be remembered for restoring “some decency and honor to the office” of the presidency, rebuilding America’s middle class and repairing partnerships with other countries.

“I hope my legacy is that I was able to restore some decency and honor to the office; I was able to bring the middle class back to a place where they had real opportunity*, given an even chance to succeed; and I was able to reconstruct our alliances**, which had been frayed so badly, internationally, and that I was able to bring people together,” Biden said during the interview. “Bring the politics of America together.”***

“And I think we’re making slow progress,” he added.

Biden has continued to suffer low approval ratings in his first year in office, including on his handling of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

A Washington Post-ABC News poll released on Friday found that only a third of Americans approved of Biden’s handling on the conflict, in comparison with 47 percent who disapproved and 20 percent who had no opinion.

* Having the country effectively locked down at the start of your administration is certainly a great way to pad your stats.

** Showing weakness in the face of the Taliban, which led to Putin deciding to roll the dice with World War III helps in that department.

*** Flashback: White House Christmas message to unvaccinated: You’re looking at a winter of death for yourselves and your families:

UPDATE: Stealth Hunter: Biden’s tangled business dealings are becoming hard to ignore. Influence-peddling is Washington’s ‘spectator sport’ – but now there’s an interest in taking a closer look at the president’s son.

21st CENTURY HEADLINES: Elon Musk, urged by Ukraine to provide his Starlink satellite internet to the embattled country, responds later in the day by doing exactly that.

EU BANS RUSSIAN AIRCRAFT, STATE MEDIA IN SWEEPING NEW SANCTIONS: “‘The state-owned Russia Today and Sputnik, and their subsidiaries, will no longer be able to spread their lies to justify Putin’s war,’ [European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen] added. ‘We are developing tools to ban their toxic and harmful disinformation in Europe.’”

DON’T GET COCKY: Biden dooms Democrats as SOTU and midterm elections loom, new poll shows.

BIDEN SAYS HE’S MADE EVERYTHING AWESOME, BUT AMERICANS HAVE A ‘PSYCHOLOGICAL’ ISSUE WITH BEING HAPPY:

Just when you think Joe Biden can’t possibly say anything more ridiculous than the last time, he proves you wrong. Lesson: Never underestimate our intrepid president and his ability to stoop to new lows of silliness, causing you to spit your liquid refreshment all over your computer screen. Or wherever. No, really.

The latest hysterical case in point, which was posted to Twitter on Saturday by our friends at the Republican National Committee, speaks for itself, but I can’t stop myself from transcribing the damn thing.

Ready? This — with a Barney Fife-like straight face, mind you:

There’s a phenomenal negative psychological impact that COVID has had [COVID! Of course!] on the public psyche. And so you have an awful lot of people who are, notwithstanding the fact that things have gotten so better for them economically, uh, that they are thinking, but, how do you get up in the morning feeling happy? Happy that everything’s alright.

Here’s Joe, America.

Biden claims he's made things better but people are “psychologically” unable to "feel happy." pic.twitter.com/AxgSGBvgZa

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) February 26, 2022

Earlier:

● Biden pauses new oil and gas leases amid legal battle over cost of climate change.

● Fed’s favorite inflation gauge up 5.2% for biggest annual gain since 1983.

● VP Kamala Harris admits a ‘level of malaise’ in US over COVID, gets compared to Jimmy Carter.

● Is failure a byproduct or an aim of Democratic policy?

Embrace the healing power of “and.”

DEPEND UPON IT, SIR; WHEN A MAN KNOWS THE MIDTERMS ARE IN NOVEMBER, IT CONCENTRATES HIS MIND WONDERFULLY: CDC Discovers New Masking Science Right in Time for Biden’s State of the Union.

BIDEN VOTERS POSTING THEIR L’S ONLINE: Economic concerns hurt Biden’s approval, keep Democrats in peril ahead of midterms: Poll. “A career-low 37% of Americans approve of Biden’s job performance overall, with 55% disapproving. That includes just 30% approval among political independents and 10% from Republicans. Even in his own party, nearly a quarter of Democrats either disapprove of Biden (19%) or are withholding judgment (4%),” ABC reports.

TRUMP BLAMES BIDEN’S WEAKNESS FOR EMBOLDENING RUSSIA, SOUNDS ALARM ON DOMESTIC DECLINE.

UKRAINE FORMING FOREIGN LEGION WHILE RUSSIA OFFERS TALKS, THREATENS NUKES.

Related: Demented Putin Angry The Invasion Going Slow Adds Nukes To Possible Attacks.

FRANCE MOVES TO OUTLAW PRO-TERROR PALESTINIAN GROUPS. They respond that calling for murdering Jews is a “human right.”

CRISES BY DESIGN: Biden pauses new oil and gas leases amid legal battle over cost of climate change.

In September of 2019, after CNN’s seven hour “climate change town hall,” Bryan Preston wrote, “Seriously, if you see all of the above — which is just a sample — and vote for any of these people for any office at any level, it’s on you. If you like Venezuela, voting for any of them will bring you a whole lot of Venezuela.”

And as Kate of Small Dead Animals wrote after the CNN horror show, “Don’t make the mistake of thinking they don’t mean it.”

Flashbacks:

● Aren’t California’s High Gas Prices What The Left Have Wanted?

● NBC, the Washington Post, and the New York Times in lockstep call for higher gas taxes.

● 2008 L.A. Times headline: “The joy of $8 gas.”

Exit quote: “Under my plan, energy costs will necessarily skyrocket…”

In other words, Obama administration retreads are following the same playbook as the original Obama administration: “We’re going to keep at it to ensure the American people are paying their fair share for gas,” is the perfect Kinsley Gaffe for an Obama administration retread like Biden:  As Steven Chu, Obama’s then-incoming energy secretary, told the Wall Street Journal in the fall of 2008: “Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe.”

So is it fair to ask if Biden is on the payroll of Putin? As Walter Russell Mead wrote in 2017:

If Trump were the Manchurian candidate that people keep wanting to believe that he is, here are some of the things he’d be doing:

Limiting fracking as much as he possibly could
Blocking oil and gas pipelines
Opening negotiations for major nuclear arms reductions
Cutting U.S. military spending
Trying to tamp down tensions with Russia’s ally Iran.

“Yep,” Glenn added in late 2019. “You know who did do these things? Obama. You know who supports these things now? Democrats.”

Related: Biden tormented by Republican guerrilla campaign and ‘I did it’ stickers.

Also: 100Pcs I Did That Biden Funny Car Stickers. #Resist #CommissionEarned

CLAUDIA ROSETT: Ukraine in the Colosseum.

It’s not as if the U.S. and its NATO allies have failed to react to Vladimir Putin’s amplifying threats and current onslaught against Ukraine. We’ve seen months of frantic U.S.-led diplomacy, European visits to the Kremlin, speeches in Munich, additional U.S. troops dispatched to reinforce NATO, UN Security Council meetings and new sanctions on top of old sanctions.

Nonetheless, it’s hard to escape the sense that the mighty democracies of the West are not so much standing with Ukraine as sitting like spectators at the Colosseum — watching Ukraine do single combat against Russia.

Read the whole thing.

REPORT: Kremlin website is down: Russian state websites including media watchdog crash and TV channels ‘are hacked to broadcast Ukrainian songs.’

DISPATCHES FROM THE GAZPACHO POLICE: Marjorie Taylor Greene addresses white supremacist conference ahead of CPAC.

RICHARD FERNANDEZ: Putin’s Failure. “Ukraine has not won; not in the military sense. It has lost territory, suffered significant losses to soldier and civilian, endured massive property damage. But crucially it has not lost — and that may be enough. Attention is now turning to the possible danger that may attend Putin’s fall. While he appears to remain firmly in power, the ex-chekist cannot but be weakened by the massive failure of his gamble…The crisis in Ukraine, while not over, is likely to evolve into a crisis in Russia. We shall soon see who is more to be feared: a Putin in Kyiv or a Putin raging in the bunker.”

AMAZING: Kyiv Is Still Holding out, and Putin Is Reportedly Furious.

LEE SMITH: Ukraine’s Deadly Gamble. By tying itself to a reckless and dangerous America, the Ukrainians made a blunder that client states will study for years to come.

NARRATOR VOICE: IT WON’T: Scoop: CNN to dull its liberal edge.

Under new chief Chris Licht, CNN will dial down the prime-time partisanship and double down on the network’s news-gathering muscle, top sources tell me.

Why it matters: Ratings are secondary to credibility, in the view of Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav, who’s taking over CNN.

Jeff Zucker’s successor at the CNN helm will be Licht — showrunner of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” and a popular, pioneering producer who knows his way around America’s top control rooms.

• The selection of Licht, a regular at Zaslav summer parties in the Hamptons, was reported first by Puck News’ Dylan Byers. Licht will be named next week.

• Licht — CBS’ EVP of Special Programming — succeeded with three very different programs: Colbert rose on his watch to become the most-watched network late-night show, with live shows for big news … “CBS This Morning” got a ratings jolt when he was E.P. … and he was co-creator and original E.P. of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

As Joe Concha of The Hill tweets, “if you believe that the former executive producer of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and MSNBC’s Morning Joe is going to steer the network away from prime-time partisanship given that track record… OK then.“

IT’S COME TO THIS: China shared U.S. intelligence on Ukraine crisis with Russia.

China’s government took U.S. intelligence provided to convince Beijing to join American-led efforts to head off a military attack on Ukraine and shared it with Russia, according to a person familiar with the activity.

Intelligence-sharing with a major U.S. adversary is unusual but was part of repeated diplomatic efforts by the Biden administration to gain support from China in dissuading Russian President Vladimir Putin from invading Ukraine.

However, the Chinese government repeatedly rebuffed the efforts and instead turned over the intelligence data to Moscow, an indication of the growing ties between Beijing and Moscow.

Other than half the country, who could have expected that?

THE CBC MORPHED INTO THE BABYLON BEE SO SLOWLY, I HARDLY EVEN NOTICED: The trucks have left Ottawa, but ‘phantom honking’ lingers for many downtown.