They're all scrambling, visibly uncomfortable, all the pundits coming on all the talk shows on cable news, contradicting one another and stepping on one another's narrative.  The hosts have become so used to having a storyline to parrot that they can't stand it.  They're practically begging to be told the "right" tack to take!  But Ukraine/Russia isn't following a path that anybody predicted.

Biden and his administration are no help at all, given he's the one who practically invited Russia to come on in, then got upset about it.  It's not clear whether we're heading into WW3, watching a mild skirmish that will end soon, whether Putin has lost his marbles or is being crafty and smart, or helping "free" some break-away sections of the country.  It's not clear whether Zelensky is an installed puppet (apparently by the WEF) or the brave patriot he's currently appearing to be, ready to stand and fight for his country.

The various retired U.S. military generals and other "experts" making the talk show rounds aren't helping.  One lays out the scenario that restricting Russia from the SWIFT banking system will break Putin.  Another demands we set up a no-fly zone.  Yet another says it's all historical — that the whole thing started before the year 1000, and we just don't understand.  Another says since Ukraine was in bed with Hitler in WW2, it's still a hotbed of Nazi sentiment, and Putin is just weeding that out at long last.

We're told that some of the border provinces are "more Russian than Ukrainian."  We see that the populace is arming itself, picking up guns from local police stations, and there may be a guerrilla war to come.  We watch in horror as a tank tramples a car, then we learn — maybe — that it was not a deliberate action.  We are also told that the Russian soldiers really don't want to kill civilians, then we see the bombed-out apartment building.  We learn that Russia captured an airfield...but maybe the Ukrainians took it back.

Then someone mentions that when asked to give up their nukes years ago, it's possible Ukraine hid some at Chernobyl.  After all, what better place to keep them?  Then we learn that Russia took over that site, and now there is a massive upsurge in detected radiation from it.  Um...about that — what's going on?

Image: Ukraine street scene.  YouTube screen grab.

We don't know what it all means, but it makes us all profoundly uncomfortable.  Do we have sympathy for the underdog Ukrainians, when we also know they have a pretty crooked society (think Hunter Biden and Burisma)?  Or do we have a little sympathy for Putin, who, after all, has been a relatively mild autocrat in Russia for many years?  Or do we heed the rumors that he's losing it mentally as Biden is?

Then there's Biden, who has exhibited so profound a lack of leadership that he even bragged intelligence to the Chinese — who turned around and shared it with Putin.  Biden has clearly got no idea of a path forward.  First, he agreed to Nord Stream, then he did an about-face.  He stripped us of the ability to take care of our own energy needs and has been buying from Russia.  Therefore, he's monetarily supporting Russia in its foray against Ukraine, all the while impoverishing the U.S. — not to mention he appears to want to defend Ukraine's borders but couldn't care less about our own.

Am I confused?  Heck, yeah.  Who wouldn't be?  I long for the clarity of someone like Ric Grenell and the strength and knowledge (yes, knowledge) of how to proceed that I'd get from Donald Trump (we wouldn't be watching war, of course, if he was in charge).

I long for a country that gets its head out of its nether regions, puts the current administration on administrative leave (without pay), and brings back some sanity.  I know that will never happen, sadly.

I can read a hundred different stories online.  Can, if I want, attend a passionate rally of Ukrainian-Americans in San Francisco, and yell and scream my protest.  I know I can go to RT News and get its propaganda.  Really, what's most interesting there is that the comments aren't censored at all, unlike here in the repressive USA.  Not that there's any unanimity of opinion there, either, but it does make one think.

In the meantime, the story has conveniently supplanted obsessing over COVID.  Too bad it won't supplant inflation, albeit the escalating price at the gas pump will now be conveniently blamed on this war.  That's one storyline, at least, that the leftist cable stations can all agree to push on us as if it were true.