Putin is trying to restore the decrepit Soviet empire of his youth. He doesn’t care how many Ukrainians or Russians have to die for his delusional fantasy.

In the article (archived) at the Journal of Democracy, Renée de Nevers and Brian D. Taylor view the invasion, now almost 14 months old, as an attempt at recolonialization by Putin’s Russia.

[C]alls for Ukraine to cede territory in exchange for peace follow the maxim of the ancient Greek historian Thucydides: “The strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.” Given the size of Russia’s population and economy, not to mention its nuclear arsenal, the reasoning goes, Ukraine has no choice but to yield territory. It may be unfair, according to these international relations “realists,” but that’s just how the world works.

Yet this is not how the world today works. Russia’s aggression—a naked attempt to recolonize Ukraine—is a violation of the norm of territorial integrity and a throwback to the age of imperialism. It’s a jarring anomaly, and possibly unique, in the post–World War II era. Putin announced in September 2022 that Russia had annexed four more Ukrainian provinces—Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia. As NATO secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg pointed out at the time, this was “the largest attempted annexation of European territory by force since the Second World War.”

Stoltenberg is right. The Ukrainian territory that Russia has forcibly seized and declared Russian territory since 2014, including Crimea, encompasses more than 135,000 square kilometers—that is larger than Austria and Switzerland combined.

This is not a simple territorial dispute as Ron “Pudding Fingers” DeSantis called it. And border disputes are settled by arbitration, negotiations, and treaties like the  Webster-Ashburton Treaty – not by one side starting a genocidal war against the other side. This is a blatant land grab whose basic aim is to eliminate Ukraine as a national entity. Putin wants Ukraine back as a Russian colony and most Ukrainians strongly oppose this. 

The story of the Russia-Ukraine War is different. It is, in essence, a war of recolonization by the former imperial power. Further, and a critical and consequential feature of this case, Ukraine is a full-fledged member of the UN whose 1991 borders were explicitly affirmed by Russia on no fewer than four occasions before 2014: the Alma Ata Declaration (1991), the Budapest Memorandum (1994), the Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation, and Partnership between Russia and Ukraine (1997), and the Treaty Between Russia and Ukraine on the State Border (2003). This last treaty was signed personally by Vladimir Putin. As recently as 2008, Putin said, “Russia has long recognized the borders of modern-day Ukraine,” and “Crimea is not a disputed territory.”

Russia’s invasion is in violation of numerous treaties. Yet, brainless tankies and pro-authoritarians in the West insist on immediate negotiations. Presumably such negotiations would result in a treaty which Russia would soon violate just like the ones it is violating now. We’ve seen this film before, in the 1930s. 

The international community would set a terrible precedent if it pressured Ukraine to give up multiple provinces—lands on which Russian forces have committed genocidal acts, including taking thousands of Ukrainian children and sending them to Russia. The return to business-as-usual with Russia after the 2014 annexation of Crimea emboldened rather than deterred Putin’s larger territorial ambitions. Ukraine is right to insist that the norm of territorial integrity be upheld. We should not accept that forcible territorial conquest is legitimate in the twenty-first century. It is, in fact, extremely rare and viewed with opprobrium by most of the world’s states. After Putin declared Russia’s incorporation of the four Ukrainian provinces in September 2022, the UN General Assembly denounced the move by a vote of 143 to 5, with 35 abstentions.

Borders, of course, are made by humans and thus imperfect. But respect for existing borders is central to the UN-led international system of sovereign states. On the eve of Russia’s invasion in February 2022, the Kenyan ambassador to the UN, Martin Kimani, noted that after independence Africans chose to “settle for the borders that we inherited” rather than descend into decades of war, and that they “rejected irredentism and expansionism on any basis.”

Africa may have its share of problems. But one problem it does not have is countries going to war with each other over old colonial borders. Putin’s war of aggression is a regression to the archaic era of imperialist colonialism.

Imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny recently made a similar point. He stated that Ukraine’s 1991 borders were recognized by Russia at the time and should be recognized by Russia now. “Nearly all the borders in the world are accidental and cause someone’s discontent,” he declared. “But we cannot fight to change them in the twenty-first century. Otherwise, the world will plunge into chaos.”

Kimani and Navalny are right. And the “realists” who want to pressure Ukraine to trade territory for peace are wrong to believe that doing so would work. If Ukraine capitulated, Putin would simply pocket his gains and seek to further subjugate the country in the future. Moreover, by backing such a “resolution” the West would become complicit in undermining the UN system of sovereign states and respect for territorial integrity. Finally, if a powerful state is simply allowed to change its mind about existing borders and treaties, invade and bomb its neighbors, and seize territory by force, what’s to stop others from doing so in the future? Do we really want to turn back the clock to the age of conquest?

In the short run, it’s always easier to do nothing or to let bullies have their way. But that inevitably leads to more and even worse problems. The 1938 Munich agreement tossed Czechoslovakia to Hitler and shut him up for a few short months, it also made World War II more likely the following year.

A victory for Ukraine would end Russia’s attempts to recolonize its former empire. There won’t be a secure peace in Europe until Russia learns how to act like a normal country.

The myth of Russian humiliation

Looking back over the past quarter-century, it isn’t easy to name a Western policy that can truly be described as a success. The impact of Western development aid is debatable. Western interventions in the Middle East have been disastrous.

But one Western policy stands out as a phenomenal success, particularly when measured against the low expectations with which it began: the integration of Central Europe and the Baltic States into the European Union and NATO. Thanks to this double project, more than 90 million people have enjoyed relative safety and relative prosperity for more than two decades in a region whose historic instability helped launch two world wars.

These two “expansions,” which were parallel but not identical (some countries are members of one organization but not the other), were transformative because they were not direct leaps, as the word “expansion” implies, but slow negotiations. Before joining NATO, each country had to establish civilian control of its army. Before joining the European Union, each adopted laws on trade, judiciary, human rights. As a result, they became democracies. This was “democracy promotion” working as it never has before or since.

But times change, and the miraculous transformation of a historically unstable region became a humdrum reality. Instead of celebrating this achievement on the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, it is now fashionable to opine that this expansion, and of NATO in particular, was mistaken. This project is incorrectly “remembered” as the result of American “triumphalism” that somehow humiliated Russia by bringing Western institutions into its rickety neighborhood. This thesis is usually based on revisionist history promoted by the current Russian regime — and it is wrong.

For the record: No treaties prohibiting NATO expansion were ever signed with Russia. No promises were broken. Nor did the impetus for NATO expansion come from a "triumphalist" Washington. On the contrary, Poland's first efforts to apply in 1992 were rebuffed. I well remember the angry reaction of the U.S. ambassador to Warsaw at the time. But Poland and others persisted, precisely because they were already seeing signs of the Russian revanchism to come.

When the slow, cautious expansion eventually took place, constant efforts were made to reassure Russia. No NATO bases were placed in the new member states, and until 2013 no exercises were conducted there. A Russia-NATO agreement in 1997 promised no movement of nuclear installations. A NATO-Russia Council was set up in 2002. In response to Russian objections, Ukraine and Georgia were, in fact, denied NATO membership plans in 2008.

Meanwhile, not only was Russia not "humiliated" during this era, it was given de facto "great power" status, along with the Soviet seat on the U.N. Security Council and Soviet embassies. Russia also received Soviet nuclear weapons, some transferred from Ukraine in 1994 in exchange for Russian recognition of Ukraine's borders. Presidents Clinton and Bush both treated their Russian counterparts as fellow "great power" leaders and invited them to join the Group of Eight — although Russia, neither a large economy nor a democracy, did not qualify.

During this period, Russia, unlike Central Europe, never sought to transform itself along European lines. Instead, former KGB officers with a clearly expressed allegiance to the Soviet system took over the state in league with organized crime, seeking to prevent the formation of democratic institutions at home and to undermine them abroad. For the past decade, this kleptocratic clique has also sought to re-create an empire, using everything from cyberattacks on Estonia to military invasions of Georgia and now Ukraine, in open violation of that 1994 agreement — exactly as the Central Europeans feared.

Once we remember what actually happened over the past two decades, as opposed to accepting the Russian regime’s version, our own mistakes look different. In 1991, Russia was no longer a great power in either population or economic terms. So why didn’t we recognize reality, reform the United Nations and give a Security Council seat to India, Japan or others? Russia did not transform itself along European lines. Why did we keep pretending that it had? Eventually, our use of the word “democracy” to describe the Russian political system discredited the word in Russia itself.

The crisis in Ukraine, and the prospect of a further crisis in NATO itself, is not the result of our triumphalism but of our failure to react to Russia’s aggressive rhetoric and its military spending. Why didn’t we move NATO bases eastward a decade ago? Our failure to do so has now led to a terrifying plunge of confidence in Central Europe. Countries once eager to contribute to the alliance are now afraid. A string of Russian provocations unnerve the Baltic region: the buzzing of Swedish airspace, the kidnapping of an Estonian security officer.

Our mistake was not to humiliate Russia but to underrate Russia’s revanchist, revisionist, disruptive potential. If the only real Western achievement of the past quarter-century is now under threat, that’s because we have failed to ensure that NATO continues to do in Europe what it was always meant to do: deter. Deterrence is not an aggressive policy; it is a defensive policy. But in order to work, deterrence has to be real. It requires investment, consolidation and support from all of the West, and especially the United States. I’m happy to blame American triumphalism for many things, but in Europe I wish there had been more of it.

Here is famous jewish-russian poet Iosyf Brodsky reading poem dedicated to Ukrainian proclaimation of independence (translated by Artem Serebrennikov, but without his commentary).

Brodsky is considered one of the geniuses of modern russian poetry. He has a number of awards (including the Nobel Prize), and he had to flee from the Soviet Union due to the fear of state presecution. So, you know, a classic russian liberal.

Dear Charles XII, the Poltava battle*

Has been fortunately lost. To quote Lenin’s burring rattle,

“Time will show you Kuzka’s mother”*, ruins along the waste,

Bones of post-mortem bliss with a Ukrainian aftertaste.

It’s not the green flag, eaten by the isotope*,

It’s the yellow-and-blue flying over Konotop*,

Made out of canvas – must be a gift from Toronto* –

Alas, it bears no cross, but the Khokhly* don’t want to.

Oh, rushnyks* and roubles*, sunflowers in summer season!

We Katsapy* have no right to charge them with treason.

With icons and vodka, for seventy years we’ve bungled,

In our Ryazan we’ve lived like Tarzan in the jungle.

We’ll tell them, filling the pause with a loud “your mom”:

Away with you, Khokhly, and may your journey be calm!

Wear your zhupans*, or uniforms, which is even better,

Go to all four points of the compass and all the four letters.

It’s over now. Now hurry back to your huts

To be gang-banged by Krauts and Polacks right in your guts.

It’s been fun hanging together from the same gallows loop,

But when you’re alone, you can eat all that sweet beetroot soup.

Good riddance, Khokhly, it’s over for better or worse,

I’ll go spit in the Dnieper, perhaps it’ll flow in reverse,

Like a proud bullet train looking at us askance,

Stuffed with leathery seats and ages-old grievance.

Don’t speak ill of us. Your bread and wheat we don’t need,

Nor your sky, may we all choke on sunflower seed.

No need for bad blood or gestures of fury ham-fisted,

Seems that our love is up, if it at all existed.

Why should we plow our broken roots with our verbs?

You were born out of earth, its podzolic soils and its herbs.

Quit flexing your rights and laying all the blame on us,

It is your bloody soil that has become your onus.

Oh, gardens and grasslands and steppes, varenyks filled with honey!

We’ve had greater losses before, lost more people than money.

We’ll get by somehow. And if you want teary eyes –

Wait ‘til next time, guys, this provision no longer applies.

God rest ye merry Cossacks, hetmans*, and gulag guards!

But mark: when it’s your turn to be dragged to graveyards,

You’ll whisper and wheeze, your deathbed mattress a-pushing,

Not Shevchenko’s* bullshit but poetry lines from Pushkin*.

For decades the conossieurs of russian culture has defended Brodsky and denied his authorship of the poem, until this video popped up in 2015. Oh but not russians tho, they don't deny it. They're proud of it! This particular translation I've found on an english website dedicated to popularisation of russian culture :) And of course it had a xenophobic comment expressing support of Brodsky and hatered towards ukrarinians ^)

So yeah, I think we have more than enough reasons to say that any person who claims that russian invasion of Ukraine came out of nowhere and/or that it was not motivated by xenophobia and imerialism towards ukrainians, is full of bullshit.

[context/references explained under the cut, buckle up for a long lecture]

Poltava battle was one of decisive clashes between Sweden and Russia during the Great Northern War. Initially Ukraine was fighting this war on the side of the russian empire as its vassal, but before the Poltava battle we switched sides. There were several reasons for this choice, among the most important - russian emperor breaking the treaty between the Hetmanate and Muscowy. Important context - the head of then ukrainian state, Ivan Mazepa, was very close to russian emperor - you could say, he was his father figure. Mazepa educated tzar Peter in European manner and helped him start the europeisation of the Muscowy. russians see this battle as a huge personal betrayal (the fact that Peter I betrated Mazepa first is always omitted, in russian culture, unlike ukrainian, the person higher than you on hierarchy doesn't owe you shit but has absoulte power over you). That was 300 years ago and russians are still salty about it. and Mazepa is probably the second most hated ukrainian historical figure after Bandera.

"Show you Kuzka's mother" - a phrase meaning "show them hell", famously used by the ussr general secretary Michael Khrushchev adressed to american politicians in 1959.

"Eaten by isotope" - reference to the Chornobyl nuclear disaster.

Konotop - a small city in Northern Ukraine, famous for the Konotop battle that happened between cossacks and muscowytes in 1659. In the modern russo-ukrainian war it became famous for witches that curse russian soldiers with erectile dysfunction. Interestingly enough, a "Konotop witch" has been a phenomena even before that, as refered in a short story of the same name by Hryhorii Kvitka-Osnovianenko, thus giving even more substance to the threat.

Toronto - canadian city, probably mentioned here due to the fact that many Ukrainians flead from the ussr to Canada, thus creating one of the biggest ukrainian diasporas in the world. Canadian ukrainians are known for being very politically active, publishing ukrainian literature at times when it was impossible to do so at home, and fighting soviet propaganda. As a result, Kremlin began a smear campaign painting all canadian ukrainians as nazis, which is effective till this day.

Khokhly - a common slur used against ukrainian. Most probably comes from old slavonic "xoxolъ" that means "bangs" and refers to the hairstyle typically worn by ukrainian men, that russians found funny.

Rushnyks - an embroidered decorative towel, used in home decor and some rituals [examples]

Roubles - russian currency.

Katsapy - common slur used against russians. They will want you to believe that the word comes from phrase "как цап" - "like a goat" and refers to the type of beard worn by russian men at old time, but this is purposeful misleading from the true origin of the word. Katsap comes from arabic "qassab", which means literally "butcher". A legend states that this comes from a single incedent when russian army, after promising to spare a city's residents if they surrendered peacefully, cut down every single person there. But different sources attribute this to different battles (some of which verifyably did not end with the city surrendering), so I don't think this can be bottled down to a single event.

Zhupans - a type of outer clothing popular in Ukraine and Poland [example, another example] Funny trivia - Word of Darkness tabletop universe used this word to describe a subtype of vampires from Eastern Europe, which is incredibly funny for me. Gimme mysterious british vampire warlocks called pullovers.

Hetmans - a military and political head-of-state in some medieval and Renaissance Eastern European countires, including Ukraine (known as Hetmanate back then).

Taras Shevchenko - perhaps the most influential ukrainian poet, artist, ethnografist and political figure, the metaphorical spiritual father of the country. His influence on the modern ukrainian culture is incomparable - half the things in Ukraine are named after him. He is also among the people who have the biggest number of monuments erected in the world - 1384. Taras Shevchenko's life story is extremely dramatic and deserves its own post - born in slavery, bought out of it thanks to his unique artistic talent, imprisoned for criticism of russian monarchy with an explicit ban on writing and painting, spent the second half of his life in exile. He wrote a lot about freedom and things we would call today anticolonialism and antiimperialism.

Alexander Pushkin - one of the "founding fathers" of russian literature, who is attributed with setting the standard of literary russian language. russians call him "our everything", but as far as I am aware he is hardly known outside the countries smeared by russian imperialism with the exception of some black classic literature fans due to being 1/4 black.

HMS Royal Sovereign - 1804

She was a yacht built in 1804 for King George III how used her from 1805-1820. On 25 June 1814, a naval parade was held at Spithead to celebrate the Treaty of Paris.

The model here was created by an unknown builder and shows the yacht not only from the outside but also from the inside. It is not known whether it served as a presentation object for the king or whether he owned it himself as a decorative model.(x)

The day after the parade, the Prince Regent, the King of Prussia and the Emperor of Russia embarked on the Royal Sovereign and led the 15 ships of the line and 31 frigates to sea where battle manoeuvres were observed from the flagship of the fleet.

In October 1824, the Duke of Clarence used the Royal Sovereign for a tour of the fleet at Spithead, where the ship's to and fro forced a warship, the brig HMS Redwing, to fire the royal salute seven times. Clarence used the yacht to visit four ships on this occasion.

On 19 February 1838, Captain Samuel Jackson transferred from the liner HMS Bellerophon to command the Royal Sovereign. He was both master of the ship and commander-in-chief of Pembroke Dockyard. He retained command until he was promoted to Rear Admiral on 23 November 1841.

The Royal Sovereign was commissioned as a depot ship in Pembroke Dockyard in November 1849 and was broken up a year later.

Republicans:

If you don't support Israel, a foreign country on another continent, your American patriotism is void.

If you support a Palestinian State you are Antisemitic and support terrorism and should be publicly censored and sanctioned, regardless of Constitutional free speech protections.

At least a third of the party is virulently Antisemitic based on racist conspiracy theories, but if you tell them to shut up, YOU are oppressing their God-given freedoms, and so are the REAL Nazi.

Russia is evil and we have to be prepared to confront them, but only when it's time to fund the Department of Defense. When Putin actually attacks Ukraine and attempts to annex it, which includes him firing missiles over Poland, a NATO treaty member we are pledged to defend, this is a foreign war we shouldn't get involved in, because Putin is telling the truth about how Ukrainians are secret Nazis led by a corrupt Jewish leader.

We only hate Ukraine because Donald Trump claims to believe a conspiracy theory about how Ukrainians hacked American voting machines to make him lose the Presidency. He knows this isn't true but it was part of his attempt to save face when he lost the last election. But saying you also believe it is a loyalty test to him personally, and he owns the Republican party now.

All anti-government protests, which are protected by the First Amendment, should be banned and broken up by force.

...Unless you stormed the capital as part of Trump's botched coup attempt, where you tried to find and execute politicians. Then you are just a noble patriot who was exercising your First Amendment rights, and them arresting you for insurrection is unlawful oppression.

When Trump finally wins again, he needs to invoke the Insurrection Act, declare martial law, and jail or kill anyone who dares question him.

No wonder everyone in the House is getting so frustrated! This isn't a political party so much as an unsupervised junior high.

Tankies when presented with multiple posts about why txttletale is shit, with comments:

"Yeah no I'm just gonna read the screenshots of the posts I myself have reblogged.Nope no bad opinions here. Oh those other people are saying something about our saint Txttletale ? Yeah I don't hear it. All she did was some class analysis! Why do you mean her class analysis is wrong and not based on reality? But it looks exactly like the one in our handbooks! Marxist theory can never be wrong!!!! Oh actual Ukrainians are saying her arguing to stop arming Ukraine and sign a peace treaty with Russia on any terms offered is harmful and completely unrealistic! You poor brainwashed babies! The Evil USA is just using you in a proxy war! You need to gain class consciousness! No war but class war!"

Sigh.

Maybe I should've highlighted some shit to help them a bit? Broken it down some?

Then again I was tired and to quote my grandpa:

When a man's an idiot it's for a long time.

"Kerensky: Past Defeat And Future Hope"

(Newspaper article by Dave Harrison - Oct. 20, 1967 | Kalamazoo College Index)

"Alexander Kerensky at 86 displays a clearness of mind and an optimism towards life that is surprising. He came to Kalamazoo College Thursday as a living monument of the past but left as a foreteller of the future - "there will never be a third world war" - and a keen dissector of both the world he once knew and the world today. Above all, Alexander Kerensky is a man who has made history and has been forced by circumstances to defend his actions of 50 years previous. And he performed that task quite forcefully and effectively Thursday night.

Kerensky masked none of his bitterness against the Leninist regime that unquestionably altered his life and the lives of the people of the country he loves so dearly. He called the movement that put his government into power and overthrew the czar in February of 1917 a "revolution" because it was a "spontaneous movement of free people," but classified the Bolshevik takeover in October of that same year as a "conspiracy, a coup d'etat," but definitely not a "revolution."

Obviously feeling that Nikolai Lenin misled the Russian people, Kerensky stated that Lenin's dictatorship of the proletariat was not "free" and was never intended to be; that if Lenin had told the Russian people what he really believed (that he hated the idea of Russian democracy, according to Kerensky), then Lenin's movement would never have succeeded because the Russian people are such great lovers of freedom.

Kerensky marked the beginning of the Russian democratic movement, under the control of the intelligensia, as 1902, although he said that the question of large and profound social reforms had been an issue in Russian history since the 18th century. To Kerensky, a lawyer, a new democratic Russia was very important. He visited many Russian towns, defending the politically persecuted and organizing consultations with people of different classes and parties. He said, "I knew Russia better than the people who stayed in town and read books," an obvious thrust at the Marxist elements.

To the former Russian premier, World War 1 was a confrontation of two irreconcilible positions. It was fought for permanent peace and democracy, but in the end it accomplished the formation of totalitarian dictatorship. Kerensky criticized the Treaty of Versailles as the factor which kept World War 1 from being the war to end all wars, labeling it as even more merciless than the Russo-Germany peace of Brest-Litosvk.

Kerensky entertains no notions that any revolutionary movement will overthrow the present Communist regime but said only that the Russian people "will not forever be enslaved by Communism." There is ideological change in the U.S.S.R. today; the people are more audacious, and they are beginning to understand the doctrines connected with the teachings of Marxism. He believes that when the system of teaching the doctrines is broken, the system of government will be broken also. "The Communist government will not be changed by fights in the streets but by changing relations between men in power and men out of power."

No comparative analysis was made by Kerensky between the effectiveness of his government and that which has developed in Russia since 1917 except in his statement that Lenin was a "destructor" and not a "constructor" of governments. He finds reason for the continued existence of the totalitarian regime in Russia in the fact that the western armies during World War II defeated other totalitarian regimes (Hitler in Germany and Mussolini in Italy) but acted as Russia's ally.

Alexander Kerensky at 86 stood up well under the ordeal Kalamazoo College put him through. We were indeed, as Dr. Moritz put it, "happy to be this close to one of the great figures in history." One must marvel at the dynamic, political capable personality he must have been in his own time.

Dramatic to the end, and quite taken by the reception given him by Stetson Chapel full of enthusiastic students, Kerensky ended his speech with a plea which has been the credo which he has set before the world all of his life: "Go forth and be defenders of freedom, social justice, and peace.""

The First Sign of the End Times

Daniel 7 describes this “abomination” and how to recognize it.

God told the prophet Daniel that when the end is near, many seemingly enigmatic verses will become clear. Probably because as the events prophesied are increasingly fulfilled, the more clear other signs will become.

As Daniel concluded his prophecy in chapter twelve, he asked God to let him in on the timing of the end-time events. God deflected his request in verse four: “But you, Daniel, close up and seal the words of the scroll until the time of the end…” (Notice that when the end is near everything will become more clear).

Daniel then asked the two angels standing nearby, “How long will it be before these astonishing things are fulfilled?” An angel replied in verse seven, “It will be for a time, times, and half a time. When the power of the holy people has been finally broken, all these things will be completed.”

The terms, "time, times and half a time" and the corresponding 3.5 years and 1260 days and 1290 days, are explained in the Book of Revelation. Daniel confessed in verse eight that he still did not understand so once again He asked the Lord, "My Lord, what will the outcome of all this be?"

God replied in verse nine, “Go your way, Daniel, because the words are closed up and sealed until the time of the end…. None of the wicked will understand, but those who are wise will understand."

So, rest assured that discerning spiritual men and women in the Body of Christ will be able to read the signs—and will be happy to share what they see with you. Notice I said, “spiritual men and women.” Jesus predicted that near the end of time many false individuals will confuse many (this, of course, is another sign in itself).

But, don’t stop by depending on the insights of others. Do your own homework. Be a biblical “self feeder” and check these things out for yourself.

So that you won't have to go searching to get started, I've listed below the basic prophetical books and passages in order to help make your study a little easier.

Signs and Events of the End Times Explained in Scripture: 

Psalms 2

The Psalm of the battle of Armageddon: Nations rage; God laughs; and the exaltation of Christ as Lord

The Book of Daniel

An over view of God's dealing with human governments

A time line of events from the days of Daniel, 598 B.C. to Palm Sunday, April 6, 30 A.D.

An overview of the last seven years before the Second Coming known as the Great Tribulation which begins with a peace treaty between Israel and a confederation of European states and ends with the Battle of Armageddon  and the return of Christ

Ezekiel 37

The prophecy of the return of Jews from all over the world to the land of Israel to reestablish the nation of Israel (the dispersion occurred in 70 A.D. and against all odds, the return took place in 1948 A.D.)

The battle between Gog, from the land of the north (Magog), that is directly north of Jerusalem (Russia??) and the nation of Israel. Gog, who is allied with a number of African nations is soundly defeated. The battle probably occurs before the time of Great Tribulation.

Zechariah 12:10-14

The Israelites weep and repent when they see the nail-scarred hands of Christ at the second coming.

Matthew 24

Known as the Olivet Discourse, Jesus answers the Disciples' questions about the end times and the future destruction of Israel.

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

A description of the rapture when Jesus comes "for His saints" and takes them to Heaven.

The swiftness and stealth of the Second Coming is detailed.

2 Thessalonians 2:1-12

Beware of the coming Antichrist who is revealed when he sets up the Abomination of Desolation.

The Antichrist has deceptive tools to fool the world.

When "that which restrains" (either the Holy Spirit or the church) is removed from earth, the Lord's wrath is unleashed.

1 Peter 4:7-11

An outline of how to behave during the last days

2 Peter 2

A description of wicked men during the last days

The Second Coming time table is right on schedule. God is not delaying.

"The elements will be destroyed by fire."

Jude

A picture of the destruction of ungodly men and women at the Second Coming

The Book of Revelation

A three-fold picture of what man does to destroy mankind (7 Seals); what Satan does to man (7 Trumpets); and what God does to mankind (7 Bowls of Wrath)

A description of the person and ministry of the Antichrist.

The Battle of Armageddon

The Great White Throne Judgment

Tossing Satan into the Abyss of Hell

The millennium and the new Heaven and Earth

Cartoon by Ruben L. Oppenheimer

“Recent developments in Ukraine suggest Russian military commanders have exhausted their ability to effectively respond to a Ukrainian escalation in fighting, which is expected any day. An influx of 300,000 new soldiers over the winter has done little to improve the fighting of Russian units, and the reported appearance of 1950s Russian tanks near the battlefield confirms Russian materiel is running out. President Vladimir Putin's bombing campaigns have not broken Ukraine. It is becoming clear, in my view, that the only way he can meet escalation with escalation is by introducing nuclear weapons.

Moreover, during the past 12 months, Putin has laid the groundwork for using a tactical nuclear weapon in Ukraine. He has removed domestic and operational barriers to doing so and has created justifications, fabricated and real, so that his people support him. In speeches and interviews, he has made the case that Russia is under existential attack — a situation, under Russian policy, that warrants the use of nuclear weapons. He has reshuffled his military leadership accordingly, assigning the three generals responsible for employment of tactical nuclear weapons to command his “special military operation” in Ukraine. He already has tactical reasons to explode a nuclear weapon: saving Russian soldiers’ lives, shortening the war, destroying Ukrainian forces. He also has strategic reasons: rejuvenating the deterrent value of his nuclear arsenal and proving that he is not a bluffer.

(…)

In fact, the evidence is strong that the problem is urgent and I argue that Putin will use a tactical nuclear weapon in his war in Ukraine. Western leaders need not wonder about Putin's nuclear-use red lines and how to avoid crossing them while supporting Ukraine, in my view. Putin is not waiting for a misstep by the West. He has been building the conditions for nuclear use in Ukraine since early in the war and is ready to use a nuclear weapon whenever he decides, most likely in response to his faltering military's inability to escalate as much as he wishes by conventional means. This article will not consider exhaustively what may prompt Putin's decision, but we should not fool ourselves by thinking we can prevent it. Instead, we should prepare responses for a new world in which the nuclear genie is out of the bottle.

(…)

Russian military and security experts have been encouraging this greater reliance on nuclear weapons for years. In 2000, responding to the U.S. bombing of former Yugoslavia, Russian international affairs expert and former lawmaker Alexey Arbatov advised that Moscow should “enhance its nuclear forces to deter not just nuclear, but also, large–scale conventional attacks of the type demonstrated in the Balkans.”He predicted a plan some say Putin has embraced: “a suicidal threat of nuclear escalation [that] could present a credible deterrent against a full-scale, theater-wide conventional aggression — including major ground warfare.”

(…)

In February, he signed a law “suspending” Russia’s participation in the strategic nuclear arms treaty New START. This step officially ended joint inspections of American and Russian nuclear weapons sites and released Russia from limiting its number of strategic nuclear weapons, Russian promises to remain limited notwithstanding.

In March, Putin announced that he would station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus this year, building a storage facility to house them, to be completed as early as July. Since Russia has already deployed nuclear-capable Iskander ground-launched missile systems and thousands of troops to Belarus, this would put nuclear delivery systems and warheads in close proximity to one another, greatly reducing the warning time of their use. Putin noted that Russian trainers would also train Belarussian forces to use the weapons. Analyst Dmitri Trenin, former director of the now-defunct Carnegie Moscow Center and a retired Soviet military officer, observed that the Belarus deployment “demonstrates that the conflict between Russia and the West is developing into an armed clash between Russia and NATO, and is a signal to Washington that further American/Western involvement in the military conflict in Ukraine could lead to the use of nuclear weapons.”

(…)

Putin has also made clear to the Russian people that Moscow's red lines for the use of nuclear weapons, spelled out in its official documents, have all been crossed in the conflict in Ukraine. These include “aggression with conventional weapons against the Russian Federation, when the very existence of the state is threatened.” Putin has repeatedly claimed that the very survival of Russia is at stake in the current struggle. At this month's Victory Day parade, he claimed that the West’s “goal is to achieve the collapse and destruction of our country.” He asserts that Crimea and other Ukrainian lands are Russian territory, meaning that, from Putin’s perspective, battles that were occurring on Ukrainian land one day are suddenly happening on Russian land. Another of Russia's officially designated red lines for nuclear use is “attacks … against critical governmental or military sites of the Russian Federation, disruption of which would undermine nuclear forces' response actions.” Russia has claimed that Ukrainian drones have struck Russian strategic nuclear bombers inside Russia, and that Ukraine and the U.S. are responsible for drones launched to assassinate Putin. All these claims, real and fabricated, are used to establish the pretext for Putin to use nuclear weapons when he decides.

(…)

Another sign of Russia’s increasing readiness to use nuclear weapons is the most recent change in the leadership of the war, which both underscores Putin's message that Russia is fighting for its survival and puts at the helm the very men who are in charge of Russia's tactical nuclear weapons. In January, Putin appointed his chief of the General Staff, Valery Gerasimov, to head the military operation in Ukraine. (Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said the change was connected to a coming “expansion in the scope of [the war’s] tasks.”) Not since the second world war has the chief of the general staff been in command of a military operation for Russia. Putin also appointed two generals to be Gerasimov’s main deputies in the war, Gen. Oleg Salyukov, head of Russia’s ground forces, and Gen. Sergei Surovikin, head of Russia’s aerospace forces. This is even more worrisome since, under Russian doctrine, the chief of the general staff and the heads of the ground and aerospace forces are the three officers who control all tactical nuclear weapons use in ground operations. Putin has now placed in direct control of the war the three senior-most officers who have the authority to employ tactical nuclear weapons when he gives the order.

(…)

None of this is to say that we in the West should pressure Ukraine to forgo its goal to liberate all seized territory. But it does mean that we should anticipate a nuclear weapon will be used and develop our possible responses accordingly.

As soon as Russia uses a nuclear weapon in Ukraine, the “fallout” will begin and spread. Tens of thousands of Ukrainians will be dead, suffering or dealing with the effects of the nuclear explosion. Hundreds of millions of Europeans will be bracing for war. But 7 billion others around the globe will go about their business, alarmed to be sure, but physically unaffected by a nuclear explosion in Ukraine. This last outcome of a Russian tactical nuclear strike may ultimately be the most dangerous to the international order. The image that many people have of nuclear arms as civilization-ending weapons will be erased. In its place, people will see these weapons as normal and, although tragic, acceptable in war. Just a “bigger bullet.” It is in this dramatically changed context that the United States will have to decide how to respond.”

Ukrainian sea drones are becoming faster, more accurate, and more powerful. With a range of over 1,000 km, they must keep commanders of Putin's Black Sea from getting much sleep.

Ukrainian naval drones Sea Baby have been modernized and can now carry almost a ton of explosives to hit a target over 1,000 kilometers away, Artem Dekhtiarenko, the spokesperson of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), said on April 14. "This means that the SBU can reach a target almost anywhere in the Black Sea," added Dekhtiarenko. In recent months, Ukraine has intensified its attacks on occupied Crimea, targeting Russian military assets in and around the Black Sea with domestically-produced sea drones and long-range missiles. Russia has illegally occupied the peninsula since 2014. As of early February 2024, 33% of the Russian Black Sea fleet's warships had been disabled by Ukraine, the Strategic Communications Center of Ukraine's Armed Forces recently reported. The SBU currently uses two types of sea drones — Sea Baby and Mamai, Dekhtiarenko said on national television.

"These are already new generations of drones, on the improvement of which the team of SBU specialists worked and continues to work together with other members of the Security and Defense Forces."

Ukraine continues to develop and upgrade its sea drone forces. When Russian missile launching vessels are forced to cower in distant ports, they are unable to launch attacks on Ukrainian maternity hospitals and schools.

Ukraine's ability to rule the waves of the Black Sea, despite having no real navy, is another example of its determination to fight off Russian invaders.

The only way to end the war is to make Ukraine safe from Russian aggression. Putin is already in violation of several treaties and other international agreements regarding Ukrainian sovereignty. Only a fool or MAGA supporter (basically the same thing) would expect Putin to respect any new agreement. Appeasement of Hitler did not stop World War II – it accelerated it.

If you're in the US, look up your member of the House of Representatives and demand that Russophile Speaker "MAGA Mike" Johnson quit blocking US aid to Ukraine which has already passed the Senate. And I'm talking to you – not the neighbor with the broken porch light.

Find Your Representative

If you have a MAGA zombie as a Representative, ask: Why do you hate freedom?

China Warns U.S. on Pelosi’s Visit to Taipei

LOS ANGELES (OnlineColumnist.com), Aug. 19, 2022.--Showing just how bad U.S.-Chinese relations have gone under 79-year-old President Joe Biden, China issued a stern warning about 82-year-old House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s 9D-Calilf.)  upcoming visit to Taipei.  China has been locked in a better fight to dominate the Island nation of Formosa, a refuge for Chinese nationalists fleeing the 1949 Maoist Revolution led by Gen. Chiang Kai Shek.  Biden officials led by 59-year-old Secretary of State Tony Blinken and 45-year-old National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan have so deeply insulted Beijing that there’s no room for error in U.S.-China relations.  No president in modern history has done more to wreck U.S.-Russian and U.S.-Chinese relations than Biden, for some unknown reason likes provoking 69-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin and 69-year-old Chinese President Xi Jinping.  Biden’s insults keep flowing like a broken pipe.

Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Zhao Lijian said there would be serious consequences if House Speaker Nancy Pelosi goes ahead with her expected entourage visit to Taipei in August.  “If the U.S. side obstinately clings to this course, China will definitely take resolute and forceful measures to firmly defend its national sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Lijiian said, acting like the Biden ordered a U.S. aircraft carrier and flotilla through the South China Sea.  Things have gotten so bad under Biden’s leadership, that the margin for error is minute.  Generations of U.S. president maintained close relations with Chinese Taipei.  Things changed dramatically when former President Jimmy Carter signed the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act, ending the 1954 Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty.  Since the Maoist Revolution, Beijing knows to keep its hands off Chinese Taipei.

Biden’s wise-guy attitude has leaked through every aspect of U.S. foreign policy.  Biden let his years as Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee get to his head, thinking he some kind of foreign policy scholar.  Biden is a shell of his former self, ravaged by age but protected by the Democrat Party defending the octogenarians like Pelosi.  While no decision is officials yet for Pelosi to lead a delegation to Taipei, Beijing watches U.S. moves like a hawk.  Pelosi is supposed to lead a delegation to Taipei, Tokyo, Singapore, Jakarta, spending some down time in Hawaii, something Pelosi thinks in the perfect summer vacation.  But give the volatile relations between the U.S. and Beijing, Pelosi and the Democrat leadership should not push things to the breaking point.  Biden said May 23, breaking a longstanding rule of “strategic ambiguity,” that he would defend Taiwan.

Biden’s comments about Taiwan throw gasoline of burning embers in Beijing, looking to pick a fight with the U.S.  Given the sate of world affairs with Biden fighting a proxy war against the Russian Federation, the White House can ill-afford  to provoke the Peoples Republic of China [PRC].  Biden’s State Department knows that China has entered into a strategic alliance with Moscow to counter U.S. supremacy.  Now fighting a proxy war in Ukraine against Putin, Biden has few options before the U.S. is at war witth the world.  Biden thought his Western Alliance against Moscow was enough to bring Putin to his knees but he sadly miscalculated.  Putin has found many allies to compensate for U.S. and EU sanctions against the Kremlin.  When it comes to China, Biden continues to ignite the flames.  Remember Biden said repeatedly that the Feb. 24 Ukraine War was “unprovoked and unjustified.”

Biden show astonishing tone deafness to what he does to antagonize Russia and China.  He can’t imagine that supplying Ukraine unlimited advanced U.S. weapons antagonized the Kremlin.  When it comes to the run-up to the Ukraine War, Putin asked Biden for months to renegotiate security arrangement for Ukraine, all of which rejected by Biden, calling Putin’s ideas “non-starters.”  So Biden likes to provoke Putin and Xi Jinping, then deny that he did anything wrong.  When it comes to Ukraine, look how the war morphed into not a border dispute between Ukraine and Russia into a U.S. proxy war to topple the Russian Federation. Biden expressed his views clearly March 26 in Warsaw, Poland, saying that Putin should not remain as Russian President.  Biden’s views were echoed by 69-year-old Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin who said April 26 that the aim of the war was to degrade the Russian military.

When it comes to Beijing, Biden is treading on thin ice with Pelosi planning a visit to Taipei in August, part of her summer vacation.  “The United States must be fully responsible for all the consequences caused by this,” said Lijian, warning the U.S. that Beijing will not take more U.S. provocation.  Beijing knows Pelsoi’s critical track record against the PRC.  If the U.S. wished to change its posture to Taiwan, they should rescind the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act, recognizing only one China, the one in Beijing.  Visiting Taipei kicks dirt in Xi Jinping’s fact, only making an already tense situation worse.  If China invades Taiwan, what is Biden going to say, China’s actions were “unprovoked and justified?”  Biden has enough on his plate to create a new critical incident in Beijing.  Whatever Pelosi’s vacation plans, she should reroute her itinerary away from Taipei holding her meetings on Zoom.

About the Author

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.

Was not gonna post this then I relized that you’re not a cop and if you were I wouldn’t give a shit cause fuck cops, i’m going to ramble about my eu4 campaign now

Ok so it’s a Muscovy to Russia campaign, also gonna do a eu4 to vicky 3 converter because the converter works with pirated copies of eu4, but i’m not there yet, anyway, it started well bullied Novgorod pretty quickly, but the problem with Muscovy for me is I’ve got no clue how to manage my economy before I get a good amount of the Novgorod node, meaning I had 12 loans totaling like 2k Ducats, and that is uhh bad, But bullying Novgorod helped me with that, and eventually I had to fuck with the golden horde so they’d stop taking money from me, unfortunately they were allied with fucking Uzbek, this sucked ass cause if I had my army (relatively small for the time but for russia) attack the horde in the south, Uzbek up north would come over and fuck me up so I got into a war with some other tribe up north and fucked em up so hard that they just didn’t recover, and annulled the treaty with Uzbek then the alliance was broken between the golden horde and Uzbek so I just bullied them, and focused on expanding east for a bit, just building up army and stuff, formed russia too cause I was behind on admin tech by now. I also couldn’t get access to the black sea cause the ottomans are bitches who got there before me, i’m gonna fuck em up round mil tech 19. Anyway at this point I had a problem, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, they were strong and they hated me, so I wanted to fuck em up, at this point I had a close alliance with sweden, so with their help I went into a war with em, and holy shit, I had like 100k man power and damn it was gone, was a rough war, luckily I did win with some solid territorial gains, then I bullied mideastern asia for another 50 years, First war with Orait was here, which was a huge pain cause it takes the armies so long to march and there was so much bs with them going 100 billion miles away and murdering my 2k armies cause I was carpet sieging, anyway I win and take a 1/4 of their land so that was fun, anyway back to europe and the common wealth was getting uppity again so I decided it was time for some more war, I wanted the baltic area for a mission this time so I target that area

Only image I have of right before this conquest, minor problem this time, Austria, they’re allied with the commonwealth, So it’s me and sweden vs commonwealth and austria and honestly this ones not bad cause they were also fighting some nerd ass war with some other countries. something interesting though, sweden got their ass handed to them so they were out and i needed austria out of the war, so when I peace out austria separately, I annulled all treaties with sweden, this is important, anyway I got the baltic region and the next this that happened is the ottomans bullied the commonwealth and they got a Mare Nostrum on the black sea. Fuck. Anyway can’t deal with that yet. I also get austria and timerids as allies, austria cause they’re strong, timerids cause ottomans scary. So I do a little bit of just managing my country and then someone interesting happens, sweden gets mad at me, i don’t know why, but this is important because sweden has finland, and I want finland, so war time, I kick their ass with like 5 armies it’s fucking incredible, I get all of finland and a lotta northwest sweden and that’s where I am now, it’s like 1605 or smth and i’m gonna finish off sweden, bully commonwealth some more (after I break their alliance to france, which, fuck) and bully asia more, And when the time comes, the ottomans will get a shovel to the head, But that’s it for now. if you read all of this, why?

Events 12.31 (after 1950)

1951 – Cold War: The Marshall Plan expires after distributing more than US$13.3 billion in foreign aid to rebuild Western Europe. 1955 – General Motors becomes the first U.S. corporation to make over US$1 billion in a year. 1956 – The Romanian Television network begins its first broadcast in Bucharest. 1961 – RTÉ, Ireland's state broadcaster, launches its first national television service. 1963 – The Central African Federation officially collapses, subsequently becoming Zambia, Malawi and Rhodesia. 1965 – Jean-Bédel Bokassa, leader of the Central African Republic army, and his military officers begin a coup d'état against the government of President David Dacko. 1968 – The first flight of the Tupolev Tu-144, the first civilian supersonic transport in the world. 1968 – MacRobertson Miller Airlines Flight 1750 crashes near Port Hedland, Western Australia, killing all 26 people on board. 1981 – A coup d'état in Ghana removes President Hilla Limann's PNP government and replaces it with the Provisional National Defence Council led by Flight lieutenant Jerry Rawlings. 1983 – The AT&T Bell System is broken up by the United States Government. 1983 – Benjamin Ward is appointed New York City Police Department's first ever African American police commissioner. 1983 – In Nigeria, a coup d'état led by Major General Muhammadu Buhari ends the Second Nigerian Republic. 1991 – All official Soviet Union institutions have ceased operations by this date, five days after the Soviet Union is officially dissolved. 1992 – Czechoslovakia is peacefully dissolved in what is dubbed by media as the Velvet Divorce, resulting in the creation of the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic. 1994 – This date is skipped altogether in Kiribati as the Phoenix Islands and Line Islands change time zones from UTC−11:00 to UTC+13:00 and UTC−10:00 to UTC+14:00, respectively. 1994 – The First Chechen War: The Russian Ground Forces begin a New Year's storming of Grozny. 1998 – The European Exchange Rate Mechanism freezes the values of the legacy currencies in the Eurozone, and establishes the value of the euro currency. 1999 – The first President of Russia, Boris Yeltsin, resigns from office, leaving Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as the acting President and successor. 1999 – The U.S. government hands control of the Panama Canal (as well all the adjacent land to the canal known as the Panama Canal Zone) to Panama. This act complied with the signing of the 1977 Torrijos–Carter Treaties. 1999 – Indian Airlines Flight 814 hijacking ends after seven days with the release of 190 survivors at Kandahar Airport, Afghanistan. 2000 – The last day of the 20th Century and 2nd Millennium. 2004 – The official opening of Taipei 101, the tallest skyscraper at that time in the world, standing at a height of 509 metres (1,670 ft). 2009 – Both a blue moon and a lunar eclipse occur. 2010 – Tornadoes touch down in midwestern and southern United States, including Washington County, Arkansas; Greater St. Louis, Sunset Hills, Missouri, Illinois, and Oklahoma, with a few tornadoes in the early hours. A total of 36 tornadoes touched down, resulting in the deaths of nine people and $113 million in damages. 2011 – NASA succeeds in putting the first of two Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory satellites in orbit around the Moon. 2014 – A New Year's Eve celebration stampede in Shanghai kills at least 36 people and injures 49 others. 2015 – A fire breaks out at the Downtown Address Hotel in Downtown Dubai, United Arab Emirates, located near the Burj Khalifa, two hours before the fireworks display is due to commence. Sixteen injuries were reported; one had a heart attack, another suffered a major injury, and fourteen others with minor injuries. 2019 – The World Health Organization is informed of cases of pneumonia with an unknown cause, detected in Wuhan. This later turned out to be COVID-19, the cause of the COVID-19 pandemic. 2020 – The World Health Organization issues its first emergency use validation for a COVID-19 vaccine.

TIMELINE

1905 - first Russian revolution, Freud's theory of sexuality, Potemkin incident 1912 - Stanislawski's acting method is created. 1914- assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, beginning of World War I. 1915- Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis 1916- Zurich, Cabaret Voltaire 1917 - Bolshevik Revolution 1918 - Assassination of the Tsar and the Romanov family 1922 - March on Rome and coming to power of Mussolini 1929 - Mayakovsky's bug. Prisypkin is frozen as a result of a fire during his wedding. 1930 - Mayakovsky's suicide. 1931- Second Spanish Republic 1932-33- Great famine in Ukraine, Holodomor (famine). Between 3 and 5 million people died. 1933- Hitler comes to power in Germany. 1936- Spanish Civil War. Murder of García Lorca. 1938 - Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass). 1939 - Invasion of Poland and beginning of World War II. 1940 - Torutra and execution of Vsevolod Meyerhold. 1945 - The US drops two nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. 1947 - For the first time, insects are launched into space: In 1947, the United States sends fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) into space aboard a V2 rocket. They were the first animals in space and were part of a series of experiments to study the effects of cosmic rays on living organisms. 1948 - Nakba, and creation of the state of Israel. 1955 - First documenta in Kassel. 1955 - First Israeli raid on Gaza. 1959 - First color TV broadcast 1960 - The contraceptive pill for women is marketed. 1961 - First man launched into space: Yuri Gagarin 1968 - Tlatelolco Tragedy, French May 1969 - Riots at the Stone Wall 1971 - Commercialization of the first Intel 4004 microchip. Abandonment of the gold standard by Richard Nixon. 1975 - Thrilla in Manilla, Muhammad Ali faces Joe Frazier. 1978 - The Russian-Afghan war begins. It will end in 1992. 1979 - Prisypkin wakes up. The Clockwise Experiment: This concept was first developed and tested in 1979 in Ellen Langer's "counterclockwise" study, which examined the psychological effects of turning back the clock on the physiological state of an older adult. The research question was, "If we set the mind back twenty years, will the body reflect this change?". 1981- AIDS crisis, Michelangelo Miccolis is born. 1989- Fall of the Berlin Wall. Tiananmen Square, protests and massacre. Francis Fukuyama publishes "The End of History". Creation of the World Wide Web. 1990 - Nelson Mandela is released from prison. 1992 - Maastricht Treaty 1997 - Death of Princess Diana of Wales. 1999 - Putin comes to power in Russia. 2000 - Y2K. Y2K was a computer glitch, or bug, that may have caused problems when dealing with dates after December 31, 1999. 2001 - 9/11 2003- Beyoncé releases "Dangerously in Love". Beyoncé is 21 and already dating Jay Z. 2007 - #metoo 2008 - War in Georgia 2009 - Ru Paul's drag race 2011 - Arab Spring. 11M 2014 - Russia invades Donbas and annexes Crimea. 2016 - Murder of eco-activist Berta Cáceres. 2017 - Hollywood's #metoo 2018 - First Fridays for Climate Greta Thumberg strikes. 2020 - COVID. Murder of George Floyd 2022 - Rihanna's son is born. Russia invades Ukraine and war begins. Decriminalization of sex work in Belgium. The first person who does not die is born. Jan Fabre is found guilty of sexual harassment. Spanish government approves trans law recognizing free gender self-determination. NOW 2030 - The increase in global temperature is irreversible. 2031 - Third Spanish Republic 2032 - There is one person left on facebook 2039- Crypto Crash 2050 - Ecological Collapse 2060- End of Capitalism 3,050 - Days lengthen by 1/30th of a second 10,000 - Extinction of humanity. The water level rises by 5 m in relation to the present.

2023 Green River Festival in Greenfield, MA - June 23-25

The Green River Festival in Western Massachusetts is a celebration of world class music, great local food, beer & wine, a handmade craft fair, and lots of family games and activities.

This year’s Green River Festival will take place June 23-35 at the Franklin County Fairgrounds in Greenfield, Massachusetts with a lineup that includes St. Paul & The Broken Bones, Cory Wong, Three Sacred Souls, The Wood Brothers, Sammy Rae & The Friends, Rubblebucket, Felice Brothers, Eilen Jewell, Winterpills, Little Feat, Sierra Ferrell, Wiskey Treaty Roadshow and many other acts.

Jim Olsen is President and Co-Founder of Signature Sounds.

LISTEN 13:25 https://www.wamc.org/podcast/the-roundtable/2023-06-19/2023-green-river-festival-in-greenfield-ma-june-23-25

Green River Festival Director Jim Olsen

Talk The Talk WHMP 6/21/2023 LISTEN @ 1:27

[ad_1] The Collective Safety Treaty Group (CSTO) -- which contains Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan -- determined to ship collective "peacekeeping forces" for a "restricted" time period "in view of the risk to nationwide safety and the sovereignty of the Republic of Kazakhstan," in line with a observation from Armenian Top Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who may be chairman of the alliance.The transfer follows an attraction from Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev for lend a hand from the alliance after unrest broke out throughout Kazakhstan on Wednesday, together with within the greatest town, Almaty.8 cops and nationwide guard workforce have been killed in riots in numerous areas of the rustic, in line with Kazakhstan's native outlet Tengrinews.kz. It additionally mentioned 317 officials and workforce have been injured, bringing up the click carrier of the Ministry of Inside Affairs."Within the towns of Almaty, Shymkent, and Taraz, makes an attempt have been made to assault akimats [local administration offices], the place home windows, doorways have been damaged and different subject matter harm was once brought about," mentioned a observation at the ministry's web site. "Stones, sticks, fuel, pepper, and Molotov cocktails have been utilized by the mob."President Tokayev mentioned "terrorists" had captured Almaty airport, together with 5 plane, and have been struggling with with the army out of doors town. Numerous infrastructure amenities in Almaty had been broken, Tokayev mentioned. He accused the protesters of undermining the "state machine" and claimed "a lot of them have won army coaching in another country." The protests have been ignited when the federal government lifted value controls on liquefied petroleum fuel (LPG) originally of the 12 months, Reuters reported. Many Kazakhs have transformed their automobiles to run at the gasoline on account of its low value.A national web blackout was once in impact in Kazakhstan early Thursday, in line with web freedom watchdog Netblocks. The rustic noticed a national web shutdown Wednesday afternoon prior to it was once partly restored, the watchdog mentioned in a observation. A journalist in Almaty informed CNN they have been experiencing web outage and lighting gave the look to be off in constructions close to the President's place of dwelling and mayor's workplace."Greater than 10,000 folks on the town management development, we name it the Akimat. They've encircled it," Serikzhan Mauletbay, deputy editor in leader of Orda.kz, mentioned. Mauletbay mentioned stun grenades have been used and there may be "some more or less fireplace," in line with an Instagram are living video he watched from the scene.Any other journalist described the scene as chaotic and mentioned they may listen and spot what they believed have been stun grenades going off and photographs being fired, however it's unclear what the firing sounds have been. A state of emergency has been presented during the rustic, state-run media reported. It'll be applied till January 19, with restrictions on motion, together with delivery, in 3 main towns and 14 areas.Oil-rich Kazakhstan, the arena's ninth-largest country via landmass, has attracted overseas funding and maintained a powerful economic system since its independence, however its autocratic manner of governance has now and then precipitated global fear and has observed government harshly crack down on protests, in line with world rights teams.Russia maintains shut members of the family with Kazakhstan and Moscow relies on the Baikonur Cosmodrome because the release base for all Russian manned area missions. The Central Asian country additionally has a vital ethnic Russian minority; the CIA International Factbook says round 20% of Kazakhstan's 19 million inhabitants is ethnically Russian.Amid the turmoil, Kazakh Top Minister Askar Mamin introduced his quick resignation.Alikhan Smailov has been appointed appearing Top Minister,

and contributors of the federal government will proceed to serve till the formation of the brand new cupboard, in line with a observation at the presidential web site Wednesday.President Tokayev mentioned quite a few measures aimed "to stabilize the socio-economic scenario" have been put into position, together with executive legislation of gasoline costs for a duration of 180 days, a moratorium on expanding software price lists for the inhabitants for a similar duration, and the distinction of hire subsidies for "prone segments of the inhabitants." On Tuesday, Tokayev mentioned on his reliable Twitter feed the federal government has determined to scale back the fee for LPG within the Mangistau area to 50 tenge ($0.11) in step with liter "with the intention to be sure that steadiness within the nation." Tokayev mentioned in a countrywide tv cope with Wednesday that he'll take regulate of the Kazakhstan's Safety Council -- a transfer that reputedly sidelines his predecessor, longtime President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who led the rustic because it was once a Soviet Republic till his departure in 2019, and has remained an influential however arguable determine at the back of the scenes and at the council since.America State Division's 2018 human rights document famous Kazakhstan's 2015 presidential election, wherein Nazarbayev won 98% of votes forged, "was once marked via irregularities and lacked authentic political festival."On Wednesday, State Division Spokesman Ned Value mentioned in a observation the United States "is intently following the location in Kazakhstan," including "We ask for all Kazakhstanis to appreciate and protect constitutional establishments, human rights, and media freedom, together with in the course of the recovery of web carrier."CNN's Nathan Hodge contributed to this document. [ad_2] #Russialed #army #alliance #CSTO #ship #peacekeepers #protesthit #Kazakhstan #Armenian