This Blog is created to stress the importance of Peace as an environmental directive. “I never give them hell. I just tell the truth and they think it’s hell.” – Harry Truman
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It is costing something like $50 million per day or something to shut down the restaurants and pay the people that worked there. Some of those people may be moving to surrounding countries. They should seek out employment in those countries with McDonalds as soon as they get there.
Those same people are going to be new consumers once they get their feet under them. They will be looking to settle into housing at least temporarily. That is a lot of new consumers for those countries as well as refugees. They are also bringing children for McDonald's Playland.
Those same people once employed again will need Amazon and all the other resturants and merchants in their new place to live for right now. Perhaps, someday, they will return to Ukraine, but, until then they will be more than refugees, but, additional consumers as soon as they find work.
This is just one of Putin's Big Lies.
Now Russia (click here) accuses US of 'experimenting with bat coronavirus samples' and carrying out research on ANTHRAX in Ukraine as White House warns Putin could use chemical or biological weapons after spreading 'preposterous propaganda'
Mass graves, the method resorted to when dictators rule. This is ethnic cleansing. I will tell you why. It is one thing for a powerful country to demand land as it's own and warn the people they have a certain amount of time to decide to stay or leave. It is something else to simply decide a local civil war isn't accomplishing it's goal and invade ruthlessly and relentlessly to kill as many people as possible with hatred measured only by a death count.
They are dead and their children and grandchildren dead because Putin doesn't want insurgents. He wants the land, not the people.
Putin wants his own DMZ (demilitarized zone).
He wants the port for whatever reason he thinks it is important. There won't be much trade going to The West out of that port now or in the future. He expected The West to look the other way because their money was more important than these peoples' lives.
President Zelenskyy may be correct. The West might be looking the other way at World War Three. Could be. The question is does Vladimir Putin love Russian people more than his hate wants to kill everyone else? He lies to them on a regular basis, he doesn't seem to think their opinion is important at all. He is probably so far gone in his ideology he just sees his power as a vehicle rather than a presidency.
Graphic images (click here) show mortuary workers digging trenches 25m long at one of the old cemeteries in the besieged port city of Mariupol, and making the sign of the cross as they pushed dead bodies wrapped in carpet or bags over the edge
...there are more than 20,000 battle hardened soldiers that have volunteered to President Zelenskyy's call.
This is interesting.
Russia is likely sending paid mercenaries into Ukraine to help along its invasion of the country, a British government ministry said.
This is being reported today, about TWO days ago the cases of financial abuse I am following of elderly women in the USA had an uptick within an hour of each other. I suppose one can read that for what they want, but, within an hour as if a call went out and the men needed money? Really. One man is in Somalia, the other in Turkey and the third in Doha, Qatar. Two European white guys and an Arab that claims he is a USA citizen.
It is anyone's guess.
The government of President Vladimir Putin “almost certainly maintains extensive links” with Russian companies that sell mercenary fighting services, the U.K. Ministry of Defence.
I always thought there was a sovereign country involved in this mess. I should post that, especially now.
Such mercenary services already operated in eastern Ukraine prior to Russia’s current invasion, according to the U.S. government.
President Biden hasn't met with Xi yet, has he? Quite possibly Xi wanted Trump in office, too. I think The West has to come to terms with their own idea of promoting Wall Street and capitalism as a tool to peace has failed.
It seems to me the communists have closed ranks and are moving to a greater expansionism to a global order far different than democracy has seen as a vision. The West is dealing with ideologues. There is no peace here. There is no possible peace if they have a far different agenda than The West has understood.
I think we are headed right back to the Cold War and the Era of Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev. That is where Putin wants to be. No one can deny that.
I do not believe COVID-19 was developed for germ warfare on the entire planet. That was caused because an incompetent Donald John Trump decided the USA should stop paying scientists to tend to issues within the population of China. What people don't understand about the Chinese government is a crime. I swear.
Never measure the sophistication of a country by it's elite, measure a country by it's poor. Both China and Russia are Third World countries and chronically welcome The West to assist in their domestic affairs when it comes to the well being of it's people. At least until the last few years. When Trump pulled the scientists out of China, no one replaced them.
The poor of any country is very close to serious and profound poverty that causes famine, death and disease. Lifting up the poor improves the world for all of us and makes Earth a much safer place to live.
China and Russia have some very profound poverty in their country, much worse than the poverty found in the USA. I mean, the Chinese are eating wild animals like civets and the viruses are crossing species boundaries. In Russia, during the Olympics, Russians lost their homes in order to build the stadiums in Sochi. Russia didn't improve the housing or living standard of those displaced, they simply displaced them and basically wished them well to find a new place to live if they can.
The so called "Russian Occupied Territories" aren't doing any better with the influence of the Russian government than before they were occupied. The elite are happier, but, the people generally are not. There is a reason why Mariupol is emptying out of citizens. Putin doesn't care about those people, he wants the port to call his own. He doesn't care if there is a building standing.
Ideologies as a national standard is about politics, not a workable governance. What is going on with Ukraine is ideology. Ukraine wanted to trade with Russia. The Post Soviet Countries wanted to trade with Russia. Russia did not want to trade with them. Why? Because in his hearts of hearts Putin only saw communism as the one true god and The West is poison to it.
There are lots of ways to povide a so called "buffer zone" to a country's borders. Walls if that is an idea that actually works, but, also mutual economic benefit is a huge way to build national security without owning real estate. Mutual economic benefit is about jobs and national debts and deficits. It is a gigantic sense of security regardless the borders of a country. That measured, Russia and China should be great allies. They aren't and if they don't see the light of day by now, they never will.
I think in the issue of Ukraine, China will probably be unhelpful. I hope I am wrong, but, basically Xi is a dictator now as is Putin and they like it that way. In 2000, China and Russia signed "The Friendship Pact." I think that says it all. South Korea has a new president, by the way. I haven't read up about him yet, but, let's hope it isn't one that Bannon decided to make money on. Otherwise, we are stuck with another ideologue to deal with.
March 9, 2022 By Ian Johnson
...China's current system (click here) was launched in the late 1970s under Deng Xiaoping, who was willing to relax Communist Party control over society to allow China to flourish. Deng's two hand-picked successors, Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao, had their flaws but possessed relatively similar ideas about broadening the Communist Party's appeal and pursuing better ties with neighbors.
Xi has none of these instincts. Raised by one of the country's founding fathers, he is the first leader to be born and raised in the People's Republic. He has a relatively limited education -- not his fault because it was due to the political turmoil of the Mao years -- but still telling. Once the turmoil ended in the late 1970s, his well-connected father put him on a track to success, with one careerist job following the next.\
Xi's vision is essentially to recreate the Chinese Communist Party of his father's generation. Soon after the party took power in the 1950s, so the myth goes, it was incorruptible, popular, and firmly in charge of society.
To that end, Xi's main goal is to strengthen party control over the economy, politics, education, and minority areas such as Xinjiang, or relatively autonomous regions, such as Hong Kong. In its own way, Xi's vision is ambitious in his effort to turn the clock back on 40 years of reforms, but it is a limited and inward-focused ambition. As the Australian scholar Geremie Barmé puts it, it is an "empire of tedium."...
This is exactly what occurred in Syria. There is no conscience in their warring. This is completely unconsionable in a civilized country. All of it is, but, this is completely barbaric.
This is ethnic cleansing. There is no other possible description for it.
Syria was all about chemical weapons and strikes on hospitals. The Ukraine military should be outfitted for chemical weapons release. Putin is not above any measure. He is full of hate.
March 9, 2022
Mariupol - A Russian airstrike (click here) devastated a maternity hospital Wednesday in the besieged port city of Mariupol and wounded at least 17 people, Ukrainian officials said, amid growing warnings from the West that Moscow’s invasion is about to take a more brutal and indiscriminate turn.
The ground shook more than a mile away when the Mariupol complex was hit by a series of blasts that blew out windows and ripped away much of the front of one building. Police and soldiers rushed to scene to evacuate victims, carrying out a heavily pregnant and bleeding woman on a stretcher.
Another woman wailed as she clutched her child. In the courtyard, mangled cars burned, and a blast crater extended at least two stories deep....
The long lines at gas pumps is due to consumers seeking the lowest price. It has nothing to do with scarcity.
The list of companies leaving Russia in it's dust has grown at last by two, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Pizza Hut. Congratulations on joining the community of humanity.
NASA is seeking assistance in guidance as to how to best keep the ISS in service without Russian help. It is a good chance for entering into a contract for service to NASA if the qualifications match the need. No Russians need apply.
President Joe Biden (click here) announced a ban on Russian oil imports on Tuesday as Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine continues to drive gas prices to record highs. But will this latest move spike prices even higher?
“We will not be part of subsidizing Putin’s war,” Biden said in a televised statement on Tuesday, adding that Americans should expect gas prices to continue their steady march upward. “I’m going to do everything I can to minimize Putin’sprice hike here at home.”
Bay Area residents are particularly feeling the pinch in one of the most expensive metro regions in the country, with average gasoline prices topping $5.50, over $1.30 more per gallon than the national average, according to A A A . Average gas prices in California were $4.68 a gallon one month ago, and $4.80just a week ago...
States need to investigate their petroleum market for price gouging and corruption.
March 9, 2022
Gov. Gavin Newsom touted California (click here) as an economic powerhouse leading the way on vexing issues from chronic homelessness, a warming climate and improving public education in his State of the State speech Tuesday and promised relief as the state’s already high gas prices hit records.
“People have always looked to California for inspiration,” Newsom said in remarks at the Natural Resources Agency headquarters in Sacramento. “And now, in the midst of so much turmoil with stacking stresses and dramatic social and economic change, California is doing what we have done for generations, lighting out the territory ahead of the rest, expanding the horizon of what’s possible.”
Republicans have called on Newsom and his fellow Democrats to give motorists a gas tax holiday as average prices hit about $5.50 a gallon. The governor proposed pausing the gas tax increase that would kick in this summer in his budget but said “it’s...
As far as I am concerned this is price gouging. Demand for fuel has not spiked and the Russian supply of oil to the USA is only 8 percent. It is ridiculous to believe the price of fuel has nearly doubled in less than 2 and a half months.
It is price gouging at the pump as fasciliated by a hungry Wall Street that has deeply missed it's oil commodity which acts no different than cash in it's ability to be liquid.
The problem is that Wall Street is feasting on the idea of a gasoline shortage. That is nonsense. The demand for fuel has not spiked and the supply has not dwindled to the point of scarcity. This entire idea that somehow the cost of "fueling up" has to double because of scarcity is all artificial. I am not saying the local fueling station is gouging the consumer, it is the big boys on Wall Street that seek profit at any cost regardless the reason.
The petroleum industry supplied commodities that act like cash in it's value and return as well as it's ability to be sold in an instant to facilitate oher transactions. During the pandemic when fuel was abundant, did the cost come down? No. So, why now is the cost of the products from the petroleum companies skyrocketing?
This is nothing more than greed at a time that supplies excuses such as the invasion into Ukraine by Russia.
In a statement, CERN said it 'will not engage in new collaborations' with the Russian Federation and its institutions 'until further notice'.
CERN also said it will promote initiatives to support Ukrainian collaborators and Ukrainian scientific activity in the field of high-energy physics....
Russia has proved itself unworthy of trust. I don't know if that level of trust will ever return. Russia has clearly demonstrated it does not have good governance to allow a single man the power of killing a vast number of ethnic people, including the elderly and children. Not only that the science involved here is at the pinnacle of many achievements. The science community needs to protect the integrity of such projects and not allow discoveries to be used for nefarious purposes.
Russia has clearly demonstrated it can live to existances at once. A nation of people completely unaware of a war against peace loving people in Ukraine and a Duma that is the servant to Putin, the mad dictator. That was mad and not insane.
This episode with Russia has opened the eyes of many and caused the world to sink into dispair over the dead in Ukriane. So many have died in such a short time it is completely impossible to look the other way. It could be any one of a number of countries that can fall to Putin's hate filled aggression. A a community of human beings the global community should have reigned in the killing in Syria and perhaps this would never have occurred in the first place. The global community is far to tolerant of violence and too scared of spawning nuclear war. Putin chronically uses nuclear brinkmanship tto carry out wayward purposes of his military and this is not the first time.
Perhaps Russia is a terrorist state, it certainly without doubt is a rouge state.
