Why is this even an issue?

The West has been selling all sorts of things, including military hardware, to Ukraine and it was all legitimate. May items The West comes with instructors so the purchaser knows how to properly use the item. The West isn't interested in jihad warfare so much as correct use of such merchandise. Why does Putin think he has anything and who in their right mind would trust his findings?

23 April 2022
By Will Stewart and Adam Soloman and Laurence Dollimore

Warring Russian President Vladimir Putin (click here) has today launched a search for British SAS forces alleged to be fighting in western Ukraine.

The Kremlin's Investigative Committee (IC), often referred to as Putin's personal CIA, said Saturday it will look into 'the facts of the activities of British SAS saboteurs in Ukrainian regions,' in particular Lviv, according to state-controlled outlet RIA Novosti.

It comes as Kremlin-backed soldiers encircle the last remaining defenders of Mariupol to the east, with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky vowing to pull out of peace talks with Russia if any of his soldiers are killed in the last stand in the strategic port city....

A question for the January 6th Committee.

Of all the indications that Trump put forward a coupe against the new president and the USA Consititon, of what that he capitulated as classified military information to Russia was to perfect it's nuclear capacity?

Because if there was significant information provided to Russia that assisted in higher military technology, the coupe wasn't just a coupe, it was a resignation of the USA's power and strength to the communists. Trump wanted to remove the USA government, I have absolutely no doubt it. The question is how successful was he to that goal?

Did Trump wait as he kept others waiting? (click here)

Putin's latest so - called perfected dildo shaped human extinguisher to make Russia feel good about itself.

March 3, 2018
By Dave Mosher

During Vladimir Putin's annual speech (click here) on Thursday, the Russian president played videos that unveiled brand-new nuclear weapons with startling capabilities.

Putin announced an "unstoppable" nuclear-powered "global cruise missile" that has "practically unlimited" range, then showed an animation of the device bobbing and weaving around the globe. He also played a computer animation of a high-speed, nuke-armed submarine drone blowing up ships and coastal targets.

"Russia remained and remains the largest nuclear power. Do not forget, no one really wanted to talk to us. Nobody listened to us," Putin told a crowd in Moscow, according to a translation by Sputnik, a Russian-government-controlled news agency. "Listen now."...

Indeed, Satan's favorite minion.

The date March 16, 1979 is commemorated in the current flags on Ukrainian flag poles.

The Soviet Union was once a power to contend with and this was the height of it's military power. Putin daydreams of this. He blames himself as a KGB in any failure of the Soviet Union. The more land a country holds, the more people it can claim as citizens to press into service of the military. The Soviet Union was a huge piece of land. It was primarly ungovernable. The size of the Soviet Union alone with it's long borders was an unstable aspect to the country.

There are several March 16, 1979 that can be called upon and now of them are good. 

Washington D.C., March 16, 2020 - (click here) During the Cold War, false alarms of missile attacks were closely held matters although news of them inevitably leaked. Today the National Security Archive revisits the false alerts of the Jimmy Carter administration when on four occasions warning screens showed hundreds and hundreds of Soviet ballistic missiles heading toward North America....

The Old Communist Guard is finding new legs in a far different world.

India and the Soviet Union today (click here) demanded “an immediate, unconditional and total withdrawal of Chinese troops from the territory of Vietnam.” A joint communique issued at the end of the Soviet Premier, Alexie Kosygin’s six-day official visit, also stressed that the “two sides considered it necessary to exert further efforts in the interest of strengthening peace in the Asian continent, of developing cooperation among all Asian countries on the principles of sovereign equality and independence, non-use of force, inviolability of frontiers, territorial integrity of states, no interference into internal affairs and on other generally recognised principles of inter-state relations”. The two sides also favoured a “comprehensive and just settlement of the West Asian problem on the basis of the complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from all Arab territories occupied in 1967, the securing of the legitimate rights of the Arab people of Palestine, including their right to establish their own state as well as the ensuring for all states in the area the right of independent existence and development”....

A defending USA figure skating champion is replaced by a Russian.

Vienna - Vladimir Kovalev of the Soviet Union (click here) regained the world figure skating title tonight after Charles Tickner of Littleton, Colo., the defending champion, gave a brilliant exhibition of free skating but failed to make up ground on the leaders....

Nothing in March 1979 from the USA State Department (click here)

NATO is used to the culture of the Atlantic, most of which are victories and peace. The complete opposite of that is the Pacific with Asia and war. The Pacific is a far different theater than the Atlantic. The folks from NATO are used to the idea of peace being the pinnacle of a society's victories. To have a country like Russia under Putin, come into the peace and prosperity of the Atlantic is unconscionable. But, to the Pacific cultures there are long standing wars that have yet to meet with victory. Peace is not a culture in Asia.

I find it a bit laughable that China still considers Japan an aggressor country so much so that it has radar for missiles. Japan was disarmed for decades following WWII. It's society and culture are completely different under a democracy instilled there by the USA after the war. One of the industries during reparations by the USA Japan was given whaling. Whale meat is full of PCB and all sorts of ocean pollution because of the blubber, but, it is still considered a delicacy in Japan. That was a method of returning an economy to Japan. The country really needs to stop the silliness of hunting endangered species. But, as far as an aggressor country? Japan? It has developed a national defense, but, aggression is not in it's vocabulary anymore.

Democracy is a fairly new concept, but, war definitely is not. So, for countries far older than the USA settled by Europeans, war is a mainstay. Putin finds it helpful to reach back in Russian history to stake a claim for the future and his legacy. Rather than having a legacy of freedom and democratic principles in governing, Putin rather be remembered in the shadows of Lenin in bringing about war. But, Lenin wasn't about war, he was about revolution. That is a completely different paradigm.

The entire world has a problem and it is about the communists in the Pacific and their resistence to democracy, peace and prosperity. Peace and prosperity go together, but, war robs the people of a greater prosperity and quality of life to compensate the national defenses of any country. If North Korea were to give up it's nuclear prusuits it could feed and educate many more people. Nukes are expensive and completely irrelevant for life on Earth.

Nukes = Fear, Fear = Control, Communism = Control, hence, fear is good.

Putin is deploying nuclear missiles within months. He means it. The West needs to decide about Putin and Russia and their nukes. Just because the Russian military made a poor showing in Ukraine, doesn't mean the nukes are something to ignore.

What the USA sees in expansionism of democracy isn't about destroying land and killing people. It is about business and Wall Street. Since the time of Nixon it was about business and never about taking over China. I do not remember a race for president of China whereby an American was a candidate. As we honor the Ukrainians and their survival in the face of genocide, that same principle holds true for all countries. Ethnics are important and no one wants to kill Russians or Chinese. It would be genocide if that was the ideology of the democratic West. Maybe the leaders of Russia and China don't 'get it.' As a matter of face, they absolutely don't get it, otherwise there would have been no violence in Hong Kong or threats to Taiwan and border threats to Post-Soviet Countries.

Freedom and democracy are not about control. They are about happiness. They are about food, blankets and clothing that fits the season of the year. 

Democracies invest in learning and education. They love new ideas and investigation for those new ideas. They like big ideas at a societal level. There is very little a democracy is interested in that is controlling except whatever malady brings about illness or suffering.

The current political right wing of the USA is about control and that means trouble for democracy. Their interest in control is based in greed and that is a princple that does not play well in democratic societies. I have no doubt Republicans like less taxes, until there are threats of war and God help our enemies. So, to justify the end of social programs and allowing hunger for the sake of a political experiment to expose laziness there is no space for that in a democracy concerned with every vote being as powerful as every other vote. Anything other than that is corruption.

   

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No more appeasement.

Putin is an ideolog and his power is contained in hubris and ceremony. The Russian flag used by the soldiers belongs to the Russian Empire, not the country of Russia.

People carry red flags (click here) and banners as they take part in the Immortal Regiment march during the Victory Day military parade in Moscow on May 9, 2015. Russian President Vladimir Putin presided over a huge Victory Day parade celebrating the 70th anniversary of the Soviet win over Nazi Germany, amid a Western boycott of the festivities over the Ukraine crisis.

The flag to the left reflects the failed Soveit Union and the colors of the failed Russian Empire. The black, gold and white colors are from the Russian Empire. The flag raising is for propaganda of Victory Day.

China is probably on the same page as Russia and they are looking to a global conflict that involves nuclear weapons. There is no more being friendly with communist countries. They are toxic to the world order and will kill at will if they believe they can attain their goal. Putin has already declared war. The "talks" are stalemated with no compromise from Russia. Russia will not be hemmed in.

China holds a great deal of value in old wars, old enemies and old desired victories. The children of communists believe they can do better than their ancestors.

April 22, 2022

By Michael Wa Siura

Russian soldiers (click here) have begun raising Soviet-era flags in recently occupied areas of Ukraine. On April 19 in the southern city of Kherson, troops from a Rosgvardia police unit hoisted the red "banner of victory" up the main flagpole in the city's "Alley of Glory," a park dedicated to the memory of locals who fought in the Red Army during the Second World War.

In the runup to Vladimir Putin's February 24 invasion of Ukraine, Russian domestic media frequently made light of Western claims that the Russian president was seeking to reestablish the Soviet Union. However, when the "banner of victory" was raised in Kherson, Kremlin-controlled television channels were quick to praise the development.

During its noon news broadcast on April 20, Russia's First Channel featured a laudatory segment that began: "May 9th is fast approaching, and the red flag under which fascism was crushed in the 20th century again flutters above Kherson's Alley of Glory. It is a symbol of the great feat of the Soviet people, one which local residents again recall with a special feeling."...

The Spring 2022 Forecast in the USA.

NOAA issued it's U.S. Spring Outlook today (click here) and for the second year in a row, forecasters predict prolonged, persistent drought in the West where below-average precipitation is most likely. NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center — part of the National Weather Service — is also forecasting above-average temperatures for most of the U.S. from the Desert Southwest to the East Coast and north through the Midwest to the Canadian border from April to June.

“NOAA’s Spring Outlook helps build a more weather and climate ready nation by informing local decision makers and emergency managers of this spring’s hazardous weather, such as extreme drought,” said NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad, Ph.D. “NOAA’s seasonal outlooks provide advanced warning of the conditions to come, enabling communities to make preparations that boost their resilience to these hazards.”...

Drought in South Asia - May 2021

May 5, 2021

Devastating droughts (click here) are ravaging South Asia just about every year. The countries affected include Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Nepal and Bhutan. All of them are subject to the most damaging outcomes of droughts like agricultural land destruction, an increasingly dehydrated population with little access to clean water and growing social distress.

In cities like Karachi, Pakistan the Water Board can only provide half the required amount of clean water needed to sustain the city. According to research by Sewwandhi S.K. Chandrasekara, over three million hectares of rice fields are destroyed annually in Bangladesh. Nepal suffered a 17 per cent decrease in crop production at a national level in one year. Sri Lanka had a 56 per cent decrease in crop production over 40 years, with acute social repercussions. Lack of water has also brought a growing demand for a black market, creating societal tensions between rich people who buys clean water illegally and people who can’t afford it. The prices are gauged by third-party opportunists and civilians are puncturing governmental water circuits to pump their own water. A remote city could wait almost a week before a water truck shows up and reservoirs are emptying at a rapid rate. The question is, why is this happening?...

Drought in Somalia, Kenya and Tanzania - January 2022

 Link: (click here)

Drought in Western Mediterranian - February 2022

 Link: (click here)

Drought Impact for Agriculture of Ethiopia - January 2022

When Ethiopia suffers from drought, there is always the chance for famine to take hold.

Drought Observatory Europe - April 2022

 

Drought Monitor USA April 18, 2000

 

Drought Monitor USA April 21, 2022

 

Returning function to the homeless.

This San Jose housing effort could be a model for other cities. Jobs and job training is a part of returning the homeless to function and function well. Affordable housing is a country wide issue and should be addressed in a way that resolves the problem for individuals and families forever.

How rent has changed (click here) in 1,500 counties across the United States since the start of the pandemic

...Although few places in the United States have escaped recent hikes, rental spikes have been particularly pronounced along the Sun Belt and in Florida. The state is home to the three metro areas where monthly rent jumped the most: Naples, Sarasota and Tampa. Monthly rents in those cities are up between 29 percent and 39 percent in the past two years, according to CoStar....

Housing increases are a two edged sword. On one hand increased values for homes and property is a boom for the owner(s), but, with an increase in value comes an increase in local taxes and that is passed on directly to those that rent. So, should there be rent control? Or should there be a process to determine what is an appropriate increase in rent vs. exploitation leading to inflation in the market place? 

April 22, 2022
By Grace Hase

A 2020 ballot measure approved by San Jose voters (click here) to fund affordable housing and the city’s burgeoning homeless crisis has brought in a surprising bonanza — a $65 million surplus.

Measure E — a real estate transfer tax for properties over $2 million — was estimated to put $40 million a year into the city’s coffers in both fiscal 2021 and fiscal 2022.

But the city’s initial estimates have exceeded expectations, bringing in $50.5 million in fiscal 2021 and $90 million for the current fiscal year.

With the surplus of funds, the San Jose City Council on Tuesday voted unanimously to spend some of the dollars to support homeless programs, including the construction of interim, prefabricated homes....

Lying matters.

Steve Bannon was never "in it" for the goverance, he was always "in it" for the money. It was he that willfully attacked and still attacks democracies through their freedom of speech and expression. He appears to be in favor of a candidate that he will mentor to victory, but, he is a "hire" and not a supporter. He has no value of life in the way democracies seek quality of life. 

Trump abused power in pardoning Bannon to protect himself and his friend. Trump assaulted and continues to assault the USA Constitution that he rather see as a weak governance rather than one of the people. The only reason Trump sees democracy as weak is because he is so successful in committing fraud within it. That is a criminal and not a constitutionalist. 

April 22, 2022
By Shayna Jocobs

New York - Brian Kolfage, (click here) a disabled veteran who headed a $25 million fundraising effort for a U.S.-Mexico border wall with the help of former Trump aide Stephen K. Bannon, has pleaded guilty in connection to defrauding donors for his own gain.

Kolfage, an amputee who lost three limbs serving in Iraq, could serve more than five years in prison. He was accused of using more than $350,000 in donations on personal expenses such as home renovations and vehicle payments, after telling “We Build the Wall” campaign contributors that he would not take a cut of the collections or give himself a salary. On Thursday, in federal court in Manhattan, he admitted to siphoning off money for himself and also pleaded guilty to tax crimes for failing to report that income.

The Florida resident told U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres that the organization met roadblocks in carrying out its original mission of subsidizing the construction of a border wall but that he “continued to raise funds and promised I would take no salary and would not take a penny in profits.”...

A fatal flaw that is Twitter.

I am sure Elon Musk realizes there is dearly little to replace Twitter with another system that is similar. But, the challenge exists.

Twitter became an instrument of control by the dictator named Donald John Trump. He weaponized it. You know there is a limit to free speech. Free speech is not reckless speech. Reckless speech and hate speech are a problem for the democracies of the world and their national security. It is reckless speech we witness with the Trump Republicans. They turn dictionaries on their head.

Much of the defense of reckless speech and at times hate speech lies in colloquial speech. Words that are used off of their definition in attempts to incorporate emotion into words. I don't think colloquail speech is as well defined as it should be. There is a profound need to understand speech far better than it is understood today. 

I think as democratic societies go, there is a profound right to protect the democracy from wrongful use of speech that causes issues related to national security. Free expression is not always free speech. They are different. Free expression demands free speech, but, does it also need reckless speech and hate speech to define freedom of expression?

I think what is being obversed with democracies is saturation of wrongful intent. It is similar to the idea of free access to guns. Gun Violence escalates among the best of democracies and the power of gun violence can and has changed the political face of countries. We have seen countries with free access to guns not only change it's politics, but, along side of that is increased deaths and injuries in a free and open society.

There are emotional dynamics in all these issues. Do free societies/democracies need to understand the danger of deleterious dynamics that oppress them in the name of freedom of expression and/or speech. We already know deleterious racial names and epithets carry with it actions in the physical world resulting in human suffering and/or death. I think members of democracies need to understand themselves better to realize the power of society to have far better outcomes through taming of the emotional end of words. There are consequences when freedom of speech becomes oppressive and elicits adverse outcomes to governance in maintaining its constitution. We witnessed such impacts on January 6th in the USA.

Is a polite society a good society?

Being polite brings with it subtile threatening alarms as well as pause.

Today in the USA is Earth Day.

On April 22, 2022 the CO2 level is 417. (click here)

That is too high.

Let's all just look the other way when it comes to high end sports, okay?

Forbid the candy asses on the tennis courts have their presious lives distrubed. If Djokovic is so set on playing communist players that compete while their countries are carrying out genocide then go to Russia and Belarus and play.

Djokovic states he experienced war as a child. Then he should know how it feels and to go forward with "War Particpants" is to state the children of Ukraine that died are just an acceptable loss in the game of tennis.

April 21, 2022

Novak Djokovic (click here) has hit back at Wimbledon's decision to ban Russian and Belarusian players over the invasion of Ukraine, describing the move as "crazy."

Wimbledon announced on Wednesday that it had barred all Russian and Belarusian players from this year's championships due to the invasion.

The grass-court Grand Slam is the first tennis tournament to ban individual competitors from the two countries, meaning men's world No. 2 Daniil Medvedev from Russia and women's fourth-ranked Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus will be banned from the competition.

Djokovic, who grew up in war-torn Serbia, said the athletes had nothing to do with the ongoing conflict.

"I will always condemn war; I will never support war being myself a child of war," Djokovic told reporters after narrowly beating compatriot Laslo Dere at the Serbia Open on Wednesday.

So, let's just give it lip service and it will all be okay. Of course, Putin and the Chechen King and the Belerus dictator will listen to Mr. Djokovic, right?

The real shame to Mr. Djokovic's indulgence of Russia and Belarus is that the Ukrainians are too busy to make it to the tennis court. Mr. Djokovic has LOST UKRAINIAN PARTICIPANTS THAT could beat him and show the world what a real champion looks like, but, oops he is dead from a Putin missile.

See, Mr. Djokovic's problem is not the war. It is not the war at all. It is his ego that will be bruised if a win means there is some doubt because some Russian and Belarus players are banned. I think Mr. Djokovic needs to step aside and let people with strong beliefs in life play and win at Wimbleton this year. I really do believe he is in the way of a real champion.

I heard reports that Russia was consulting with China within the window this missile was planned to be launched.

April 21, 2022
By Mark Trevelyan

London - In a show of strength two months into its assault on Ukraine, Russia test (click here) launched a new nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missile which President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday would make Moscow's enemies stop and think.

Putin was shown on TV being told by the military that the long-awaited Sarmat missile had been test-launched for the first time from Plesetsk in northwest Russia and hit targets in the Kamchatka peninsula, nearly 6,000 km (3,700 miles) away.

The test of the Sarmat, under development for years, did not surprise the West, but came at a moment of extreme geopolitical tension. Russia has yet to capture any major cities since it sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24.....

China is talking the talk, but, not walking the walk (click here).

In talks of Ukraine, Russia is not coming to grips with reality. Putin is counting on bullying his way through this and it is not well received. 

Putin needs to stop the killing which includes the bombing and allow the Ukrainians to return. They will not view him as their leader since he killed so many of them. Putin has to make the effort, otherwise, the outcomes to this is very poor.

There are too many people dead. There is no stepping away from that.

Putin is still looking for appeasement without realizing he has moved far beyond that possibility. His politics demands global resignation to his power. He will not be able to bridge that gap of reality with propaganda. The launch of a missile is supposed to bring the world to his feet in awe of his power. That is what that is about. Xi Zinping knew this was going to happen and evidently consented to it to force the issue of surrender.

The communists are vastly miscalculating. 

Nuclear brinkmanship was always a dialogue without credibility. This genocide has turned the communists into a danger on Earth. They are capable of disregarding all that is peaceful. Their values are not at all what The West has expected of them. They have little to no value of life. Power is their's to use as they see fit without overrating the enormously tragic outcomes. They are not calculating their moves in meaningful ways to even engage in peace talks. The dialogues have words but no meaning except to bide time and propagandize legitmacy of hate to the Russian people.

Putin has an achilles heel with the people of Russia and he is trying in every way to hide it and make excuses for all that has transpired. That is not a leader seeking peace. That is further aggression against his own people. There is a reason Navalny had a hearing before the invasion and that was to make opposition feeble in appearance.

They are really miscalculating and these are the leaders of these countries. There is no place for them to blame a misunderstanding. There is no safe place for them. They are fully invested in their propaganda and wrongly so.

It is one thing to be Goliath with arrogance of victory by the sheer appearance of strenght and it is another thing to be Goliath and approach a fight with the possibility of losing. The communists have got this wrong and they can't see the forest for the trees. That is impossibly dangerous.

The West demands peace. Appeasement has always been overrated when it comes to communists. Appeasement is not a weakness, it is a measured policy to peace. The communists have got this completely wrong.

I never thought I would ever see such carnage again.

The godless communists. Breaking every international law to protect life is disregarded. They have no conscience and now, with this highly illegal genocide by Putin, we know what to expect from them regardless of their pandering otherwise.

To take this back to the G8 that decided to expel Russia, I thought it would matter. I thought having trade relations mattered. Obviously, it doesn't and never did. They were playing The West for fools. It was all an experiment that carried with it hope of a peaceful planet with prosperity abounding, but, it was a failed experiment from the beginning with this generation of communists.

Hu Jintao and Jiang Zemin were interested in peace. No one will convince me they weren't. There were human rights violations in the country, but, China could be approached at that time to establish policies to improve those violations. Today, that conscience is dead. I do not believe there is any reason to believe a communist country is capable of great humanity. The HOPE is over.

I remember the first Olympics in Beijing in 2008. We were seeing a very different China. The people and their leaders were proud of every moment and they had a right to be. It was events like that which brought The East and West together. The hope of establishing a profound peace across the globe was real. I know it was. 

The communists in Russia began to build power within the country that was unexpected. It was they that brought about the tragedies of 2014 in Ukraine. Even then I never expected this. Never. I still shake my head at the thought of all those dead and wonder why this is even happening. It is Putin's politics. He has to be right to bring about a powerful communist state. 

I think the invasion into Iraq was a turning point as well. But, that is a turning point that occurred in 2003. I can understand the communists measuring their power versus that of the USA as the invasion into Iraq was not consented to by major powers in the world and provided a platform to step back from peaceful optimism, but, to assign the displaced right to genocide is still uthinkable in any measure.

There were a lot of options open to Russia and China given the general displeasure with the USA by most every other country. This was not realized at all to be a possiblity. I thought genocide was put to rest with Hitler. Never would I expect Russia to carry out such depersonalized warfare that would kill the people of an entire nation.

This idea of power by the communists is wrongfully assessed. This blatant power to kill is an overreach of any possible outcome to the world. There is no sense to any of this. There are so many other options. Death carries a high definition with communists now. They have opened Pandora's Box. They have no means to back away from it now. They are playing high stake games with life on Earth and that is completely wrong and very arrogant. This will not end well. It already hasn't.

April 21, 2022

Since it began March 1, (click here) the Russian military has pummeled Mariupol relentlessly with artillery barrages and air raids, flattening most of the once-bustling city. The indiscriminate bombardment has hit homes, hospitals and other public buildings, killing thousands. That includes about 300 people killed in an airstrike on the Mariupol Drama Theater that was being used as a shelter, with officials inscribing the Russian word for “CHILDREN” in huge white letters on the pavement outside.

Mayor Vadym Boychenko told The Associated Press that at least 21,000 people were killed in Mariupol, with bodies “carpeted through the streets.” He said Russia deployed mobile cremation equipment to methodically dispose of the remains in order to destroy evidence of the massacre and prevent international organizations from documenting “the horror the Russian army is responsible for.” He alleged bodies also were dumped into mass graves outside the city.

He estimated that 120,000 people remain in Mariupol out of a prewar population of about 450,000...