I became dizzy and disoriented, as looking at troop build-ups on both sides in Russia-Ukraine and troop build-ups (as in the above photo from today) in Canada blurred more and more together.

Violence is the glue that holds government power together.

As ever, the battlefield was not only on the ground. Competing media narratives also battled it out, though the dominant (Washington/MSM) view in both situations was firmly in control of the microphone.

Biden told us today that he now (finally – after weeks of wrong predictions) knows that – for sure this time – Putin was going to sack and plunder Kiev with an army of hundreds of thousands (the number keeps increasing from one telling to the next). Asked how he is not finally convinced, he answered "we have a very good intelligence capability." Well, considering its recent performance, that is a matter for debate.