Russia’s Alexei Navalny, a fierce anticorruption campaigner who galvanized the country’s political opposition, has died in prison, Russian news agencies reported Friday. The cause of his death was still being established, said prison authorities, cited by Russian news agency TASS. Navalny had been serving sentences in a penal colony amounting to more than 30 years on various charges. He was 47 years old.

A statement from the prison authorities said that he had felt unwell following a walk outside and lost consciousness. The statement said a medical team was called on site but was unable to save him. Navalny had been behind bars since January 2021, when he returned to Russia from Germany, where he was recovering after falling ill during a flight inside Russia. German doctors concluded that he had been poisoned with the Soviet-era nerve agent, Novichok. Navalny blamed his poisoning on the Kremlin, which denied involvement in any attempt to harm him.

[WSJ]

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Alexi Navalny has been murdered by Vladimir Putin. Democracy is fragile. Not a drill. Rest in power.

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“Listen, I've got something very obvious to tell you. You’re not allowed to give up. If they decide to kill me, it means that we are incredibly strong.”

- Alexei Navalny

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"Everything will be all right. And, even if it won't be, we'll have the consolation of having lived honest lives."

Alexei Navalny (1976-2024)

Vladimir Putin: War Criminal

Bucha massacre

One of the butchers of russian "army" confessed to the murder of civillian in Bucha.On the beginning of March ruzzian "soldiers"shelled the car with civillian.They buried the dead body in the woods

russia is a terrorist state

if life went by disney channel logic all these politics and international crises could be solved with a dance battle. like I wanna see world leaders doin an uncoordinated cotton eye joe while putin pops n locks stiffly in a random greasy theater while the opposing sides in conveniently matching t-shirts enthusiastically fling unoriginal insults and words of encouragement from the crowd

Your regularly scheduled reminder of how Putin gained all the power he has in the first place:

The mad dog of the Kremlin faked a set of bombings and killed his own people to hoax a genocidal war on Chechens, victims of Russian imperialism going back to the 19th Century and the genocidal barbarism of Tsarist armies that raped, pillaged, massacred, and burned wherever they pleased. Ukraine is the logical culmination point of what began with this, in 1999.

There was never a 'kinder, gentler' Putin, there is a Russia that finally is run by the kind of vermin that the older Tsars used as the unlovely face of their power to promote the Batiuskha myth. Defending that killer cop was always a case of using someone else's genocidal tyrant for your cultural viagra.

it me

Russia is importing barrel bomb specialists from Syria to help with its faltering war in Ukraine. Russian forces, by committing war crimes, have helped keep Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad in power.

Barrel bombs – crude explosives packed in to a drum and dropped from a helicopter – were used to devastating effect throughout the Syrian war. The regime was also regularly accused of filling canisters with chlorine and dropping them on opposition held towns and cities, causing hundreds of deaths and sparking widespread alarm.

With no anti-aircraft weapons, the anti-Assad opposition had little to counter the Syrian military’s air supremacy, which was a big factor in the regime clawing back parts of the country after 10 years of war.

The situation is very different in Ukraine, however, where Ukrainian troops armed with lethal ground to air missiles can bring down Russian jets and helicopters, stalling advances and exposing ground forces to withering artillery fire.

The barrel bomb folks are not the first Syrian import by Russia into the Russo-Ukraine War. In April, Gen. Aleksandr Dvornikov, known as the “butcher of Syria”, was put in charge of the Russian military fighting in the current war.

But the thing about barrel bombs is that they are usually dropped from helicopters. The Syrian resistance never had much in the way of anti-aircraft weaponry. On the other hand, Ukrainians have been shooting down Russian helicopters at a steady rate. As of today, they’ve blown 170 Russian helicopters out of the sky. That’s in addition to 204 airplanes and 476 UAVs shot down.

So Russia is getting desperate. It wants its helicopter pilots to go on suicide missions against Ukrainian forces. When the first Russian helicopters carrying barrel bombs get hit by Ukrainian anti-aircraft fire, we’re going to see some spectacular fireworks. 💥

Update post:

The US has publicly stated that it has not found Israel to be violating International Humanitarian Law (IHL), in terms of how it uses its weapons, and not blocking humanitarian aid.

Yet for some reason, that doesn't seem to matter when it comes to how the US is currently treating Israel. At the UN Security Council, for the first time since the start of the war, the US has not used its veto to block a resolution that's anti-Israel. This resolution calls for an immedaite ceasefire in Gaza for the rest of Ramadan (half of this month has passed already), and while it does call for an immediate release for the Israeli hostages, it does NOT make that a CONDITION for the ceasefire. The operation in Rafah, since it hasn't happened yet, is not likely to happen during Ramadan, so the main thing this resolution is calling to stop, is the on going lower intensity fighting in places like the Shifa hospital, where at least 500 confirmed Hamas and PIJ terrorists have been arrested by Israel. In essence, this is a pro-terrorist reolution. The US did abstain, showing it knows this resolution is wrong. It's also meaningful that just a few days earlier, a similar resolution submitted by the US itself, which did make the release of the hostages a condition for the ceasefire, was vetoed by those great beacons of democracy, Russia and China.

Did I mention Hamas praised the passing of this anti-Israel UN resolution? I can't stress this enough, but if a genocidal, antisemitic, Islamist tererorist organization is glad this resolution passed, that should be upsetting to EVERY person who values life out there.

Right after praising the resolution, Hamas also rejected the hostage deal compromise suggested by the US, that Israel had agreed to, which would have seen 40 Israeli hostages freed, in exchange for about 800 convicted Palestinian terrorists let go. Hamas might have said no anyway, but we'll never know for sure what their answer would have been, had this resolution not been passed.

Maybe the most troubling part is that the US insists this UNSC resolution is non-binding, meaning it will have no real effect on Israel's ability to continue fighting during Ramadan. That means, the US abstaining from using its veto wasn't done for the sake of a real chance to help Palestinians. It was a symbolic anti-Israel step, a bone thrown to Israel haters. That's how Israelis understand it, that's how every political player in the international arena (including the overjoyed Hamas) understands it, that's how political analysts understand it, and it should be troubling to everyone, that the US can treat a democratic, self defending, IHL abiding ally this way.

In fact, at least one country is already using this resolution to put pressure on Israel. The President of Colombia has said that unless Israel complies with the resolution and accepts an immediate ceasefire, his country will cut off its diplomatic ties with it.

Just one more thing. This is resolution did not include a condemnation of Hamas and the massacre it perpetrated on Oct 7, and yet the US allowed it to pass. The other day, the UNSC immediately condemned the ISIS terrorist attack in Moscow, which left 137 Russians murdered. Nobody suggested that "context" should be brought into it, like that Russia has itself attacked Ukraine (which Putin has implied is behind the attack), or like that ISIS' animosity originates in Russia's protection of the Syrian regime of Bashar Assad, which caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands, including many ISIS terrorists. In sharp contrast to this, almost 6 months into this war, the UNSC has not yet adopted a single resolution condemning the Hamas massacre in which over 1,200 people in Israel were butchered, many raped, and over 250 were kidnapped and are still held captive in Gaza. This discrimination was called out by Israeli ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan. He pointed to another example of such discrimination, by reading the resolution that was passed in 2014, when Boko Haram (another Islamist terrorist group) kidnapped Nigerian girls.

This is 65 years old Rami Shani.

He's a journalist, working for an Israeli radio station. On Oct 7, he happened to be covering a bicycle event taking place in Israel's south, which is why he was already awake and there at 5:30 in the morning. At 6:30, the Hamas attack started. As Rami started getting information about the massacre at the Nova music festival, he abandoned his original task, and started driving in there and getting people out in his car. He said everyone he managed to get out of there was wounded, having been shot in their arms or legs, one woman was shot in the stomach. One of the people he saved was an Israeli Bedouin Muslim Arab, who worked at the party, and was crying as he had been shot in both his arms and legs. In one case, he managed to evacuate 8 young people from the scene while seeing a terrorist squad progressing in his direction. He kept going, until security forces wouldn't allow him to go back in. He saved a total of about 40 people, and has been visiting them in hospitals around the country since then. Whenever you hear anyone arguing that journalists at the scene of a disaster can just keep covering the news, without doing anything to aid the victims, please remember Rami.

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

How is this changed if the actions taken by Musk caused the deaths of soldiers in the alliance America is part of? And how is this changed if after having calls with Vladimir Putin, Musk starts advocating publicly for Ukrainian surrender? And what if he is making money off this? 

And what do we do with the reports that Musk privately acknowledged that he was “in” the Russia-Ukraine War—but not, per the evidence we currently have, on the same side as America?

Is there some reason the House GOP is scared to investigate this? Or DOJ? What am I missing here? 

How is all this inflected by the data confirming Musk complies with the demands of hostile foreign governments at a far higher rate than his Twitter predecessors did? And how is that inflected by the fact that his Twitter coowners are autocratic Saudi butchers allied with Russia? 

And in the midst of all this he comes out publicly and tells 150 million followers to vote Republican? At a time we know both the Russians and the Saudis have secretly interfered in American elections on behalf of the Republicans? And then he starts making all sorts of changes... 

...to what is more or less a public utility (even if it is privately owned) that benefit hostile foreign governments, agents of hostile foreign governments, American disinformation agents operating as “useful idiots” for hostile foreign governments, and anti-American Kremlinists? 

And as I recall, didn’t he at one point threaten to stop providing resources to the American government that he’d previously provided *while* he was simultaneously advocating for a Ukrainian surrender following multiple phone calls with Vladimir Putin? Like—that seems really bad? 

Again, I’m not an expert in this, but I’m asking at what point Musk runs afoul of FARA? Or the Logan Act? Or something rather more serious that relates to military conflicts in which the United States is involved? All of this seems really serious to me and everyone’s ignoring it. 

America just went through an eight-year period in which a narcissistic sociopathic far-right White male billionaire colluded with Russia and the Saudis to interfere in our elections and advance illegal Russian adventurism. Is it just me or is the exact same thing happening again? 

(PS) Obviously I’m leaving a ton of things out here, e.g. the fact that Musk, like Trump, has repeatedly been accused of fraud, or that Kremlin policy inside the U.S. is to foment racial and religious divisions to weaken America... and Musk has been doing exactly that on Twitter. 

(PS2) Are we sure we’re not in the middle of a national security situation here? Is it wrong to think the Senate Intel Committee should be holding hearings to find out what Musk has been doing secretly with the Russians—and whether or how it’s connected to Twitter and the Saudis? 

(PS3) If Elon Musk will do the bidding of Vladimir Putin in terms of disabling Ukrainian military equipment and proposing that Ukraine surrender a good portion of its land area to Putin and his war criminals, what *else* is he doing at the bidding of the Kremlin or Saudi royals? 

(PS4) When we see Musk simultaneously pushing the “Ban the ADL” hashtag even as hostile foreign agents intending to cause chaos in the U.S. are doing the same thing, and we know who Musk is holding secret calls with... uh, isn’t that all super concerning from a NatSec standpoint? 

(PS5) And not for nothing, but many of you will remember the major media report I just posted in which Musk confesses that he wants to “take over the world’s financial system.”

Uh, for whom? Will he seek to benefit Russia and Saudi Arabia and harm the United States in that, too? 

(PS6) Remember how Trump led with racism and antisemitism and other forms of ethnic and religious bigotry that caused *chaos* in the United States, only for us to learn he was in cahoots with Russia and the Saudis?

Does that not feel... familiar, now?

I have some concerns here. 

(PS7) I’ve never claimed to be an expert in these particular areas, which are a subspecialization within federal criminal practice that very rarely comes into play. But I certainly—as a citizen and voter—am wondering why the *hell* we’re not having congressional hearings on this? 

(PS8) There’s no question whatsoever that Congress has an obligation to exercise its oversight responsibilities very aggressively here—as if I’m understanding correctly Elon Musk has a defense contract. The revelations in the new book about him are therefore very f*cking serious. 

(PS9) And remember how Trump always accuses others of what he has just done or is about to do? Just as concerns that Musk could be doing the bidding of hostile foreign nations arise, he starts threatening to sue others for “controlled speech.” We have seen this playbook before...

(PS10) I would think the FBI, DOJ, FTC, FCC, NSA, SEC and *many* others would want to be all over this situation right now. Instead we are getting radio silence. Or, not radio silence, but Musk and his allies pushing racial and religious division inside the U.S. on a daily basis. 

Kremlin Drone Attack

Russia claims two Ukrainian drones attacked the Kremlin overnight in an attempt to assassinate The Butcher of Russia, Vladimir Putin.

During the broadcast of Sunday Evening With Vladimir Solovyov on Russian state TV, host Vladimir Solovyov proudly announced that he recently traveled to Damascus to interview President of Syria Bashar al-Assad to get his advice about how to interact with “crazed capitalist Western regimes” and “how to combat their lies.” After years of pleading for the attention of the fired Fox News host Tucker Carlson, Solovyov was able to snag the next best thing by interviewing Assad.

Unable to get his mind off Carlson’s ill-fated interview, Solovyov asked Assad for his prediction as to the outcome of the U.S. elections: “I’ll ask the same question that Tucker Carlson asked Putin: Biden or Trump?” Assad opined, “The analysis of the media and other information shows that Trump will win, but I always say that American presidents resemble one another.” He proceeded to assert that the unnamed figures behind the scenes—and not the U.S. presidents—determine the country’s politics.

During the interview, irony died a thousand painful deaths, as Russia’s most notorious propagandist, known for his hypocrisy, lies and nuclear threats, joined the butcher of Syria, known for committing war crimes and repeatedly lying about his actions. Disregarding Assad’s notorious use of chemical weapons against his own people, Solovyov claimed that the Syrian people “have freely made their choice.”

The Russian host alleged that the world is standing on the precipice of potential nuclear apocalypse, claiming that the United States and Israel are likely to be the first to use nuclear weapons against Iran.

Several times, Solovyov unsuccessfully attempted to extract the condemnation of the Oct. 7 terrorist attack against Israel. Taking a page out of Putin’s book, Assad insisted that it’s impossible to discuss that event without delving deep into the history of Israel and Palestine—the way Putin had to educate Carlson on Rurik’s exploits during their talk. The Syrian dictator made no secret of his inspiration for this approach. Assad asked, “Can you separate the war in Ukraine from a historical evolution? Can you describe Russia’s efforts of reunification with the Southern territories without delving into history? Can you separate these efforts from history? All the present is inextricably tied to the past.”

Quoting an unnamed commentator, Solovyov pondered why Russia, with a population of only 150 million, were not afraid to go against the entire NATO, but several billion Muslims can’t defend their Palestinian brothers. He asked, “Why won’t the Arab countries take the steps that would seem justified and necessary, in order to stop the bloody slaughter in Gaza?” Solovyov’s concern was most likely motivated by the well-known talking point among Russian experts, who believe that a wider escalation in the Middle East would distract the U.S. and allies from Ukraine. Assad disappointed him by bemoaning the lack of unity among Arab countries, coupled with strong Western influence in the region.

Solovyov asserted, “The West is constantly lying! This is why we see what is now happening in Ukraine not as our war against Ukraine. For us, this is a holy war and a religious war. We are confronted by Satanism, by the evil in its purest form. Everything that is rejected by our culture and our faith.”

Solovyov then made a comparison that was more damning than exculpatory, by aligning the global condemnation of Assad for his regime’s use of chemical weapons in 2017 with the Bucha massacre in Ukraine. The host stressed, “Our people don’t believe it. The Syrian people don’t believe it. They came out and supported you. Our people came out and supported our Supreme Commander.” In a truly grotesque moment, Solovyov asked Assad, “How do we fight against the lies that are so pervasive?” Assad proceeded to accuse the Western media of keeping everyday people in the dark. Gesturing towards himself and Solovyov, Assad asserted, “We are different. For us, the truth is above all! We are spreading the truth! Transparency is also crucial in politics and government.”

Solovyov brought up the upcoming presidential election in Russia, despite the fact that Putin has no real opponents and the main opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, conveniently perished in the run-up to the Kremlin-controlled election charade. He pompously asked, “How much does this election impact the future of the world and not just Russia?” Assad asserted in reply, “The fate of the world depends on Russia—for many reasons, not only because of the war in Ukraine.” He proceeded to explain why the change of leadership in Russia during its fateful war in Ukraine would be impossible to conjure up. Assad asserted that he doesn’t want to interfere in Russia’s internal affairs, but at the same time made it clear that Putin should remain in charge for the good of the country and the world.

Assad pondered out loud, “Does Russia have any other options that would guarantee the kind of policies that will return it to the position of global influence? Of course, not the same as the Soviet Union, but much stronger.” The Syrian dictator repeatedly reiterated that his vocal support for Putin’s continued presidency is merely “his personal opinion.” Solovyov chimed in to reply, “Your personal opinion is very important!”

After praising Putin’s leadership and asserting that it should not be subject to change, Solovyov and Assad awkwardly giggled together, as they jointly mocked and criticized the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky.

Solovyov asked, “Do you remember that you are a tyrant and a dictator, just like Vladimir Putin, just like Xi Jinping, just like the Iranian leadership, just like the leadership of [North] Korea? Meanwhile, in America and Europe, they are the democrats. You say that you should listen to the people, but they insist that everyone should listen to them. So who is the tyrant now?” Purporting to slam Western democracies, Assad sounded like he was describing Russia: “There is only one choice, there aren’t many options. The media and celebrities will make it seem that you elected the one you wanted.”

Solovyov repeatedly tried to draw the parallels between Russia and Syria, except for one glaring similarity. He failed to mention that both Assad and Putin are wanted for their war crimes.

The Kyiv Independent recounts the lengthy list of Russians and Chechens believed to have been murdered by Vladimir Putin and his puppet butcher, Ramzan Kadyrov since the 1990s. The only things I would add to this article are the November 1998 murder of Russian politician Galina Starovoitova and the 2000 unexplained death of Putin's former ally, Anatoly Sobchak.

Hamas is a tool of Iran and does not necessarily represent the majority of Palestinians in Gaza. When Iran issues an attack order to Hamas they carry it out and then use ordinary Palestinians as human shields. Naturally the Israelis counterattack and the Palestinians suffer due to the actions of Hamas terrorists.

Iran works closely with Putin and Russia. It’s now believed by many that Trump passed information about Israeli defenses to the Russians who in turn have it to Iran which passed it on to Hamas at joint planning sessions.

We know Israel’s treatment of Palestinians is not always fair and our own meddling over the years has not always been beneficial. But as usual Hamas, with the backing of Iran and Russia, and limited assistance from Hezbollah (Iran’s other client militia) launched this unprovoked massive attack.

Those of us on the left should be aware of the optics of denouncing Israel at this time as Hamas is beheading infants and toddlers ISIS style and taking hostages. Hamas is bringing this suffering on both the Palestinians and the Israelis. Hamas is acting as a proxy of Iran whose goal is to destabilize the region and distract from their benefactor Putin’s debacle in Ukraine. No state in the Middle East supports the Palestinians, they are used as pawns for corrupt, failing, theocracies and dictatorships.

Public sentiment in recent years among progressives has switched to supporting the Palestinians and they are in dire straits in need of assistance no doubt about it. But for those who read the state department briefings and dig deeper this switch was made possible by funding from Iran which has been waging a propaganda blitz, usually through public radio, in liberal communities and college towns. The Iranians and duplications Saudis have been spending millions to turn American public sentiment against Israel for their own geopolitical goals and it has been working. This can be described as asymmetrical warfare, turning the tide through disinformation and other non-combat means. We can’t go gung-ho against everything the right supports because sometimes we’ll just be shooting ourselves in the foot.

BLM should reconsider their dubious ties to the Palestinians because frankly it has nothing to do with their own goal or the goals of the rest of the left-leaning resistance against the Republikkkan fascists. Taking sides in Arab-Israeli conflicts is a lose/lose scenario for American progressive reformers. We are on the verge of losing our own democracy and sadly should focus on that until the Trumpian GQP threat has ended. The professionals at the state department will handle the Middle East. It may sound callous or insensitive but if we lose here it’s game over and we won’t even be able to help ourselves let alone others.

I’ve always seen what’s going on at home as a war for the future of this country. The Republikkkans have been waging it for decades against us and even today most of us still aren’t aware of it let alone its scope. I would never advocate abandoning anyone but we have to be cognizant of our end game. As stated we won’t be able to help,ourselves or anyone else if the GQP chaos caucus is calling the shots. The Middle East has been in turmoil for thousands of years and 99% of the public has only the faintest grasp of what’s going on. Don’t let the media or propagandists distract or divide you. We have to make winning on the home front our priority. Ordinarily I wouldn’t type this but we are living through an unprecedented attack on our way of life and the very survival of many of our brethren here at home is on the table.

Things to Come

It is the year 2024: Amazon wants to have wholly owned company towns to persuade poor people to enter into indentured servitude. There is an election between an old guy who's quietly doing a generally good job, and a very loud serial rapist conman who's being taken to court for his many crimes including treason. Somehow there is still a debate as to who will win.

It is the year 2030: There are now four Amazon towns powered off grid by Tesla batteries. There is no news in or out. People are starting to notice this. Jeff Bezos and Elon musk are having a public fight over who owns Mars. Bezos brought up Twitter and Elon's announced X-Mart a direct competitor to Amazon. The Cybertruck's been recalled again, this time after the 50th person was cooked alive by the burning battery pack, which also locked all the doors.

It is 2040: Elon's died on Mars ina. 8ft cabin from every cancer known to man and three that are getting named after him. Apparently he declared that radiation shielding wasn't needed because Mars is too far from the sun for radiation to reach it. Jeff Bezos freeze dried corpse is still circling hte earth as of two years ago. The world watches with glee as Amazon is torn to shreds by ten thousand parties all of whom are laying claim to the 3 trillion dollars held by the company. Nobody is trying to take over Space-X or Teslas due to the historic 1.4 trillion dollars in fines and debt they collectively owe. Mark Zuckerberg is replacing all his organic parts with life support machines to keep his brain alive until a perfect way to upload himself to the metaverse is available. The metaverse is still shit and has only 1008 concurrent users.

Is tis 2042: Donald Trump has choked to death in his cell. The rumour is it was corpophilia: This will persist even after a FOIA reveals it was a cold two day old Big Mac smuggled in to him. The world rejoices. There is still a 24/7 video feed of Elon musk slowly mummifying in the remains of X-Mars. Questions regarding the rest of the colonists are answered when a Marsbot finally accesses the dome and finds that Elon turned off the oxygen after the twenty three women in the first wave of colonists refused to breed with him. There were twenty eight colonists and four of them had received vasectomies two months before liftoff. They had to take an axe to the thing Zuckerberg because it wouldn't stop screaming. In the UK, all politicians from the last 30 years have been placed in Wadsworth prison and are tried and guillotined daily. The Scottish won't stop laughing. The Irish have been drunk of their tits for the last six months. The Welsh have banned speaking English. This is not going well but they get much respect for taking a stand.

2050: Republicans are now legal to be hunted for food if you have a bow hunting license. Guns are finally restricted. Republicans state that this will result in a civil war. Gun crime and school shootings are down 1000%. The most popular book in the US is "Eating the Rich" a combination how-to on bow hunting, butchering and serving human flesh. The rest of the world is watching this with interest. The Russian federation is taking special notes. This year 80 clones of Vladimir Putin are euthanised in their tubes and eaten.

2055: There is no civil war and surprisingly few instances of Kuru. Texas has built a wall around the entire state to keep "the left" out. All jokes about marrying your cousin are now attributed to Texas, now known as the Lone Surname State. They have still managed not to secede.

2060: Gender is abolished, not through decree but by common agreement of the third generation brought up by Millenials, Gen Z and Gen Blue: The Green Generation. Cities are walkable. It is considered weird if you cannot walk to the shops in bare feet safely for at least half a year. Air quality has improved, winters are returning. Urban deer keep grasses down and provide local meat. Men and women wear dresses, biological sex can now be changed trivially with around 60 months of treatment. Marriage is now merely a fun tradition and churches all pay tax after the 2056 ruling that if they cannot provide evidence for their god that they have no more claim to universal truth than a social club. World hunger is solved by levying back taxes on jsut three megachurches. Summers are brutal but can be managed by passive cooling, and thermal gradient power generators for cooling.

2070: Everyone has UBI. Work is 4 hours a day, 4 days a week for most people. Many people have two or three jobs, not for money, but because they have diverse interests. Most companies are profit sharing or Co-operatives. The biggest global trauma is the English wearing socks with sandals. Global temperatures have dropped. The kids are kind and bemused by their aging relatives. Texas is still Republican and angrily making memes about "This is the future the left want" that are still really cool and fun looking suggestions. The southen US has replaced it's statues with Dolly Parton, who's revered as a saint. 40% of men have great tits. The President of the USA is catgirl. Things are going to be OK. Tomorrow is the anniversary of the day the last Boomer died and everyone's going to get their grill out. Life's good: We're going to to be OK.

New Post has been published on Books by Caroline Miller

New Post has been published on https://www.booksbycarolinemiller.com/musings/a-curmudgeon-in-the-family-of-man/

A Curmudgeon In The Family Of Man

I was grateful to my neighbor for helping me with a technical problem.  He’s the resident guru on computers at the retirement center and far too modest about himself. Aware that I might need his advice in the future, I asked if he’d care to adopt me despite my advanced age.  A smile parted his lips as his gaze dropped to the carpet. “We’re all family here,” he said. I walked away thinking he’d uttered a beautiful notion, though I tend to reject sentiments that are warm and fuzzy.  I’m old enough to know that the history of “the “family of man” is dysfunctional. Since Caine slew Able we’ve worked to perfect the art of violence. Murder isn’t the kind of glue to hold society together, so we attempt to contain it by inventing rules. Murder on a grand scale we call war.  The rules on those occasions are those of The Geneva Convention. The smaller stuff we leave to religion, laws, politics, and the whims of tyranny. But, like the potter who leaves his fingerprints upon newly shaped clay, because we are flawed creatures, the systems we create can be weaponized and used to threaten others. Justice, after all, is the gloved fist of vengeance. Bill Clinton, our 42nd President, sees philanthropy as a better way to promote social cohesion. Philanthropy can help bust through political and cultural gridlock by showing what can be done. He has many true believers, so many that at his last conference on philanthropy, a thousand do-gooders had to be turned away.   Enthusiasm on this scale is heartwarming, but I’m a curmudgeon. I’ve never been keen to turn the world over to philanthropists.  Who are they, after all, but people otherwise known as oligarchs? Nick Caraway in The Great Gatsby told us about them. They are people who don’t think like the rest of us. I doubt any butcher, baker, cowboy, or tailor would choose to live in a Martian colony under Elan Musk’s rules. I place my faith in “we the people.” Democracy’s collective mind is where we are most likely to find common ground. Alexei Navalny, Vladamir Putin’s murdered opponent, was a man of the people. Having survived attempts to assassinate him, he warned his followers their fate didn’t depend upon his survival but upon their will. If it happens, if they decide to kill me, it means we are incredibly strong.  We need to use that power. (“A  Hero of Our Time,” by Mariam Elder, Vanity Fair, April 2024, pg. 34.) His words may seem like a whistle against the dark, but the Ukrainian people are a living example of that courage. Their David and Goliath story can set this curmudgeon’s heart to racing. Even so, dreams can become fodder for blind ambition.      Our Republican House has placed a chokehold on future aid to that country, reversing their past support.  They did it to placate their revenge candidate, Donald Trump, in the upcoming presidential election.  Trump holds a grudge against Ukraine and is happy to curry the favor of their invader, Vladimir Putin.  If elected, our former president promises to leave Ukraine to the Russians. The predatory world in which we live is Nature’s doing, but humans have wasted no time in making a hell out of the heaven they inherited.  Some attempt to escape the violence by turning to drugs or alcohol. Others rely on religion, mysticism, or conspiracy theories for the dopamine high that makes them happy. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and augmented virtual reality could provide other avenues of escape. Their illusions might help us create worlds so satisfying, that many won’t return to planet Earth. For proof of that possibility, observe how people are mesmerized by their smartphones. We humans aren’t algorithms, however. Wherever we go, we drag our dark side behind us like a beloved toy.  That’s a drawback to consider as we cheer the coming of augmented reality. Despite the challenges ahead, like Navalny, I have hope because….well, what else is there?  Fraternity, equality, and liberty are pretty good ideas. To obtain them all we have to do is curb our tribal nature, though some have argued it doesn’t exist. Whether Instinctive or learned, history confirms that group-think seems natural to us.  We desire to be among people who look like us and share our values.  That passion for conformity rivals our growing need to respect diversity and sometimes makes democracy seem like a fool’s dream.    Given my doubts about the future of mankind, I left the caring gentleman at the retirement center with one request.  “please don’t include me as a member of the community.  I prefer to be the resident alley cat.”

What is the best way for the west to help Ukraine regain its territory taken from Russia?

First, I am not an expert on military strategy, nor am I even vaguely familiar enough with the terrain or what resources both sides have, so this will be limited to what I can talk about with even a modicum of understanding: politics.

The most obvious thing to help would be if Putin and his government of sycophants all shuffled off this plane of existence…if God would like to provide a meteor or a Russian with a sense of humanity would like to place a grenade in the right place…either way works for me. I always think the sic semper tyranus option should be excised with any tyrant, be they on the far left or the far right.  

Here in America, the easiest way would be for Trump and his vile followers to follow the Putin model and fuck off; they don’t deserve to exist, they certainly don’t provide any benefit to humanity by existing, and we would all be happier if they just left. With all the obvious self-hatred within the movement, one wonders how they haven’t taken themselves out of the equation.  

Sadly, that probably won’t happen anytime soon. 

The next easiest would be for a handful of Republicans in the House to remember they swore an oath to America and the Constitution not to a mentally challenged orange fascist and force a vote on Ukraine funding either by threatening to switch parties or by actually doing it and remove the disgusting little bigot currently in the Speakers’s office out. 

In this, Biden could also start making some public appeal for the need for our support for Ukraine (one of Biden’s key problems is that even though he’s probably the most competent president of the 21st century so far, he’s also the one who least publicly announces his accomplishments the least…as opposed to Trump, the most incompetent president in the history of the nation who bragged the most). Public support and demands could make a few of the House Republicans do the right thing.  

Finally, our only option is probably to seize Russian funds and give them to Ukraine (which can then be used to buy the military supplies they need). The podcast below describes that method better than I could.

So the only thing individuals can do is call their house members and demand they do what is right…not that I have a lot of belief that Republicans are capable of that anymore.  

Now, I would love to find out that the Russian nuclear arsenal has been so poorly kept up that it is now useless, in which case NATO should immediately work to end the existence of the Russian military for all time…but regrettably, the last time we had that opportunity was in 1945, we didn’t do anything then and that let one of the worst butchers ever to continue to exist and give one of the worst nations to get nuclear weapons which has been protecting psychopaths for far too long