“... in moments of crisis our thoughts do not run consecutively but rather sweep over us in waves of intuition and experience...” - John Le Carré

Russia - a few things of note:

• Two weeks ago, we were convinced this would happen

• Last week, we heard a good argument (from a George Friedman interview) on why Russia *would not* do what they just did (and subsequently had less conviction)

• Last night, we set up a Russia-focused Twitter List for the purposes of following coming events

The Friedman interview is still worth listening to, as it contains valid takes on expected Western responses to this event.

For those unfamiliar with George, he’s had - in the past - US / Russian / Asian / Euro Generals (among others) on payroll as sources; he probably (still) does today.

A final note re/Russia: for those who want photographic updates, Robert Cooper (this guy) - a friend from South Texas - is on assignment as cameraman for journalist Will Cathcart.

They’ll get unreasonably close to the action. Hopefully, not too close…

Re/ our overdue China work: we’ve amassed too much to publish in email form; TBD on how we will publish it, but it will not be coming imminently -