Everyone reading this one?  Good.  It means the Russians haven't hacked this shares base yet out of retaliation for our continuing our solidarity with Ukraine at this time.  The Heir heard what The Circus had to say on Colbert with Putin, and even though there's only one thing he disagrees with, he doesn't disagree with the rest, but he believes The Circus is taking too small a world view on the Invasion and making public radio-ish over-generalizations about Biden.  The thing the Heir disagrees with is the contention that Putin "keeps winning and winning and winning," because the Heir has yet to see any evidence that Putin has ever won -anything- except the righteous indignation of that portion of the global populace that still believes in principle.  He actually did -not- win the war over Crimea, because the Heir still recognizes Crimea as part of Ukraine, not part of Russia, and he doesn't care what the maps say.  Those maps that show Crimea as part of Russia the Heir sees as pro-Kremlin and not representative of a global world view.  But the Heir notices that The Circus along with too many elements of self-commentary style media makes glaring omissions such as Russia's unholy alliance with China and what that means for the world as a whole.  Because once China supports Russia through the sanctions apparently free of charge, it's because China and Russia see the more principled West as their primary adversary in their pursuit of a global personal corruption for the world.  Also, what about active measures?  Speaking of personal corruption, the next time you see a disorderly person running around going "I can do anything I want" and committing offenses and offending people, it's more than justified to suspect a pro-Kremlin operative fighting the concept of principle, and is not necessarily of Russian heritage, but -is- in agreement with the Kremlin's apparent stance in favor of personal corruption.  Don't think for a second it's a "druggie."  As for The Circus's insistence that Putin is trying to make Biden look "weak," Putin actually achieved the opposite.  Not only is NATO and much of Europe and the West united in their stance against the Invasion, so are many ordinary citizens living in those countries.  The Heir was -stunned- when he saw a good few thousand people on video in St. Petersburg (in Russia no less) -also- protesting the invasion, defying authorities' attempts to intimidate them into silence.  But we Inside Tropical Soul don't have any illusions (at least not the ones we're aware of).  This solidarity in favor of Ukraine and against the Invasion we see as -not- shared globally.  The Heir sees South America as 90% pro-Kremlin, and the African subcontinent as 40% pro-Kremlin, including Angola, and those countries with a Putin-like strongman in power.  Asia the Heir sees as mixed.  Certainly Japan and South Korea may condemn in the Invasion in some form, as well as India, but he's not sure about Southeast Asia, and he's pretty sure most Arab countries are -for- the invasion.  Qatar the Heir thinks may be an exception.  For the time being, though, this appears far from a World War III of any kind.

Today We Are All Ukrainians

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The Heir momentarily considered telling the world, "See, we told you so," but he's aware of impending loss of life and refugee crisis, and he figured it would come off as insensitive.  So he's merely going to take the position that what's resulted comes as no surprise to him, but also that one "observer" on public radio that expressed skepticism of an invasion as a way of trying to make Biden look paranoid about the Kremlin the Heir holds as coming out *wrong.*  What did strike the Heir was hearing on audio how Jim Himes in Congress vowed to hold to account any and all persons/groups that have assisted the Kremlin in the past.  This may very well include the radicalist movements of the 2010s such as Julian Assange, and Ed Snowden, and the Anonymous hacking group.  The first two's ties to the Kremlin are well documented, but the Heir now suspects that Anonymous may have gotten material support from the Kremlin in their attacks.  Yet another reason for the progressives to denounce such groups and not try to live down how they supported them out of what the Heir sees as their hostility to Funny Named Skinny Kid as well as moderate registered Donkey citizens (about possibly 90%).  This is all the Heir has to weigh on with, but certainly make sure to come back for more.  In the meantime, let's hope for the best for Ukrainian citizens.

In the unaccountable backdrop of Russia's eminent invasion of Ukraine and the antivax protestors in Canada, one thing apparently flew under the radar.  The Heir only found out through looking at Colbert on YouTube that Prince Andrew made a settlement with Virginia Giuffre, whom the Heir is 90% certain Prince Andrew assaulted years ago.  Even though the Heir feels -somewhat- relieved by Ms. Giuffre's lawyer pointing out that the settlement by itself does not give Prince Andrew a get-out-of-free-jail-card, he also does not concur with the media's apparent belief that this settlement is necessarily all that good of a thing for survivors.  Pro-assault groups like the Cosby Cult always try to portray survivors as "gold diggers" who are only in it for the money.  Of course as far as the Heir's concerned on that one, it takes one to know one.  But he's worried about settlements in general as reinforcing the "gold digger" myth.  He's also concerned that as of this writing, the exact amount of the Giuffre settlement is kept confidential.  He's not sure why the public somehow does not have a right to know how much the settlement is for, and in any case, he's pretty sure that when it comes to Prince Andrew, whom the Heir believes owns 1/5 of the UK's entire GDP, any settlement amount would actually be spare change for the Prince and amounts to what the Heir sees as hush money on the media.  "I already paid money to settle the case, so why is the media still coming after me?" the Heir believes Prince Andrew will end up saying somewhere between 6 months and 5 years from now when he's back in the news in not a good way that might not even involve Ms. Giuffre or Jeffrey Epstein.  It's almost like a bribe the way the Heir sees it, and he should have known about it on audio first thing in the morning.  But he's wondering if the settlement was announced on a late afternoon or an early evening, and the news sources dusted the story under the rug the next morning.  Was -that- part of the agreement in the settlement (?), the Heir wonders.  Settlements like this are only meant to involve an accuser and a defendant, not third parties like the media.  The -Heir- never agreed not to go after Prince Andrew, so therefore he intends to do so in the future when warranted.

The Heir's wondering whether the Associated Press should be renamed as the Associated Putin after that coverage of that "show your proof" reporter.  They don't want to do research on their own, as it seems to the Heir, of those times in the past when Putin did use a false flag.  That's how he took over Crimea, and the Heir does not recognize Crimea as a part of Russia.  He still sees it as part of Ukraine, unless they want to be a separate country entirely, telling both Russia and Ukraine, a pox on both your houses.  This at a time when the Heir sees the AP as *really* getting a black eye for giving oxygen to those anti-vaxxers in Canada, and that one thumbnail seemed to the Heir as having been cropped so as to make it look as if there were more anti-vaxxers at that rally than there probably were.  Also, what about coverage of counter-protestors pushing *for* a vaccine mandate?  And while Russia's in the news, both Russia and China showed their true stripes in forming what we Inside Tropical Soul see as an unholy alliance.  Two wrong countries like that are still wrong no matter what kind of alliances they make.  The Heir wishes that *individual citizens* in the world have the ability to join NATO, and not just whole countries.  Where does the Heir sign up for his personal NATO membership card?  Where does he get his own Ukrainian flag to stand in solidarity with?