BS: Long Night in Ukraine - Feb. 23, 2022

Subject: RE: BS: Long Night in Ukraine - Feb. 23, 2022
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 23 Apr 22 - 12:45 PM

here you go!!

Subject: RE: BS: Long Night in Ukraine - Feb. 23, 2022
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 23 Apr 22 - 11:51 AM

Could you give us a link to the source of that information please, Bonz?

Subject: RE: BS: Long Night in Ukraine - Feb. 23, 2022
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 23 Apr 22 - 11:32 AM

Ethiopian men are queuing to fight for Russia - we should not give that banana republic a penny in aid.

Subject: RE: BS: Long Night in Ukraine - Feb. 23, 2022
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 22 Apr 22 - 11:02 AM

I unfriended a woman on Facebook who forwarded propaganda from a Russian English-language source that was intentionally publishing misinformation. She "trusted the friend who shared it" and was unwilling to examine the source of the information. Goodbye.

This Nazi group may well exist in Ukraine that but isn't why Russia is invading. It's a sparkly distraction, Dick.

Subject: RE: BS: Long Night in Ukraine - Feb. 23, 2022
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 22 Apr 22 - 03:33 AM

See, you CAN do links :-) Now all you need to do is provide an indication of why you linked the item and maybe an argument based on the content and you may start to be taken seriously!

Subject: RE: BS: Long Night in Ukraine - Feb. 23, 2022
From: The Sandman
Date: 22 Apr 22 - 02:55 AM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SBo0akeDMY
BBC NEWSNIGHT 2014

Subject: RE: BS: Long Night in Ukraine - Feb. 23, 2022
From: Donuel
Date: 21 Apr 22 - 12:05 PM

Biden orders short of a billion dollars of weapons for Ukraine.
It has gone from simmer to medium heat.

Subject: RE: BS: Long Night in Ukraine - Feb. 23, 2022
From: Donuel
Date: 21 Apr 22 - 08:32 AM

War reporting is mistaken with repeating an endless stream of numbers.

Subject: RE: BS: Long Night in Ukraine - Feb. 23, 2022
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 21 Apr 22 - 07:48 AM

Looks like you forgot to quote your source again Dick.

Subject: RE: BS: Long Night in Ukraine - Feb. 23, 2022
From: The Sandman
Date: 21 Apr 22 - 04:07 AM

More than 25 nations have joined in purchasing and delivering weapons to support Ukraine’s war effort. The U.S. has sent billions of dollars in missiles, ammunition and other items to the front. The EU signed off on a €500 million ($551 million USD) package — a first for the 27-country European bloc — to help arm Ukraine. And both Finland and Germany have rewritten long-standing policy that barred exporting weapons into war zone
Sweden has sent weapons to a country at war: Ukraine. The shipments include 5,000 anti-tank weapons manufactured by Saab, plus 5,000 helmets, 5,000 body shields, and 135,000 field rations.
So far, Australia has announced AUD 116 million ($86.7 million) in military support.

EU member states exported weapons to Russia after the 2014 embargo

Despite the ongoing embargo, ten member states exported € 346 million worth of military equipment, according to public data analysed by Investigate Europe. Some of these weapons could be used against Ukraine now.

Subject: RE: BS: Long Fight in Ukraine - April 16, 2022
From: Donuel
Date: 20 Apr 22 - 10:24 AM

If this was chess, Ukraine is playing for a draw.

Subject: RE: BS: Long Night in Ukraine - Feb. 23, 2022
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 20 Apr 22 - 10:09 AM

An update from the Wall Street Journal:

Russian Offensive Bears Down on Donbas as West Races to Supply Ukraine With More Weapons
Ukraine is reinforcing units as it also counterattacks southeast of Kharkiv

In the Donbas port city of Mariupol, besieged by Russian forces since late February, the remaining Ukrainian defenders warned that time was running out and asked to be evacuated to a third country, alongside the wounded and the civilians sheltering in the shrinking area under Ukrainian control. Russia has insisted on an unconditional surrender and kept pounding the Ukrainian forces—who are mostly holed up in the sprawling Azovstal steel plant—with artillery and airstrikes.

Ukraine’s General Staff said in its Wednesday briefing that Russian forces had tried to attack the Ukrainian-controlled part of Donbas from the north and northwest, with artillery barrages followed by probes of weak points in Ukrainian defenses all along the front line. After seizing the town of Kreminna over the weekend and advancing toward the villages of Torske and Zelena Dolyna, Russian forces are regrouping ahead of a renewed push toward the town of Lyman, northeast of one of the main cities in Ukrainian-held Donbas, Slovyansk, the Ukrainian military added.

Large cities in the east have rubble where large apartment buildings used to sand, but Ukrainians are thinking ahead:

Pointing out that a new development plan for London was designed in 1943, after the British capital was ravaged by Nazi bombing, Mr. Terekhov said that he now is working with British architect Norman Foster on a project to rebuild Kharkiv once the war ends.

Photos in the article are striking. Perhaps most awful is the fire rescue crew preparing to zip up a body bag to move to the vehicle. The only parts of the body in view are a hand, part of a pants leg, and most striking, a stream of blood running away from the body in the street's gutter.

They've been asking for weapons for weeks.

“If we had obtained in the first week of the war what we are receiving today, it would have been much more useful for Ukraine and the cause of freedom in Europe,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his Tuesday night address.

He notes that if that equipment arrives now it will save lives.

I suspect western powers thought Ukraine would crumble and weapons wouldn't be of use, only be captured. Now they're getting the idea Ukraine means business. Better late than never.

Subject: RE: BS: Long Night in Ukraine - Feb. 23, 2022
From: Donuel
Date: 20 Apr 22 - 09:59 AM

btw, war has always driven ~half the sane participants crazy with PTSD and often ends badly with suicide epidemics. Brave new world push button war included.

Subject: RE: BS: Long Night in Ukraine - Feb. 23, 2022
From: Donuel
Date: 20 Apr 22 - 09:18 AM

I can only hope we don't let hate win.
The lucky few know how they will personally do this.
The rest of us will require soul searching for their own way to not let hate win, not only regarding war but every aspect of life.
The challenge is that natural compassion and empathy is absent in 20% of us. War is the wholesale carnage of hate.
The heartless Soviet style Putin is not that different from our own local bigot.
Social psychopaths are selling it. Buy into it at your own peril.
Its better to be clever.

Subject: RE: BS: Long Night in Ukraine - Feb. 23, 2022
From: Donuel
Date: 20 Apr 22 - 08:29 AM

Similar to the US, the Russain troops are mostly composed of those in poverty and ethnic minorities. As those Russians see first hand full pharmacies and grocery stores in Ukraine some eyes have been opened as to the standard of living in contrast to Mother/Putin Russia.
This will pose even more opposition to Putin in the long run on a grass roots level as those troops will obviously blame Putin for their plight and poverty.

Subject: RE: BS: Long Night in Ukraine - Feb. 23, 2022
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 20 Apr 22 - 04:20 AM

It is not nitpicking to remind you, again, that it is never "the Ukraine." That is regarded as offensive by many Ukrainian people and should never be used. Just "Ukraine" is the name of the country.

If Putin had thought that invading Ukraine was economically advantageous, well the first few days of the invasion would have disabused him of that. He has met stern resistance which will continue long after any "victory" he achieves. To gain economic advantage, he needs a complicit population. That will never happen. In addition, he has trashed so much of the infrastructure of the country that it would cost him many billions to restore. Finally, he is facing massive sanctions that will economically damage Russia for decades to come and, at least in part, prevent him from raising the military resources need to continue his expansionism. The invasion of Ukraine is grounded in pro-Soviet ideology. That's what drives him. He might try to annexe the smaller Baltic states, but that will start a war with Nato that will staunch his expansionism for good.

Subject: RE: BS: Long Night in Ukraine - Feb. 23, 2022
From: The Sandman
Date: 20 Apr 22 - 03:24 AM

Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Belorussia, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Latvia, ...
Rain dog. explain the resources in each of these countries that you think Putin is after.

Subject: RE: BS: Long Night in Ukraine - Feb. 23, 2022
From: The Sandman
Date: 20 Apr 22 - 03:17 AM

He does not have to restore the soviet union to access resources.The resources he is after, imo are in the ukraine.

Subject: RE: BS: Long Night in Ukraine - Feb. 23, 2022
From: Rain Dog
Date: 20 Apr 22 - 02:00 AM

"The need to obtain certain resources. why would Putin want to restore the soviet union."

Well once he restores the Soviet Union he has access to all the resources.

You keep on answering your own question.

Subject: RE: BS: Long Night in Ukraine - Feb. 23, 2022
From: The Sandman
Date: 20 Apr 22 - 01:50 AM

I find Bidens analysis flawed.
There is no economic advantage to Putin in restoring the Soviet Union. There are economic advantages to invading the Ukraine. There are also long term economic advantages in waging war, again if we use historical comparisopns which are based on fairly recent historical experience
e.g the UK economy after the second world war.

Subject: RE: BS: Long Night in Ukraine - Feb. 23, 2022
From: The Sandman
Date: 19 Apr 22 - 05:06 PM

So two Historical similarites between dictators, The need to obtain certain resources. why would Putin want to restore the soviet union.

Subject: RE: BS: Long Night in Ukraine - Feb. 23, 2022
From: The Sandman
Date: 19 Apr 22 - 05:01 PM

I based my comment on past experience, Hitlers invasion of Poland, was for resources, the polish coalfields
The Ruhr was an important industrial region of Germany close to the border with France and also home to many coalfields which were vital to Germany's industrial production and, therefore, its ability to pay reparations. Germany would sometimes

Subject: RE: BS: Long Night in Ukraine - Feb. 23, 2022
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 Apr 22 - 12:46 PM

Let's stop with the insults and unsolicited insults. Dick's post was *that close* to being deleted except I was waiting to see if the claim about mining titanium had anything to do with all of this. Don't feed the trolls.

From an AP update comes this tidbit:

KVIV, Ukraine — Russia has begun dropping bunker-buster bombs on a Mariupol steel plant where Ukrainians are refusing to surrender, the commander of the Azov Regiment of the National Guard said Monday.

Russia is bombing the plant even though civilians are sheltering in the plant’s tunnels. “Russian occupational forces, and their proxy ... know about the civilians, and they keep willingly firing on the factory,” he said.

Russia estimated that 2,500 Ukrainian troops and about 400 foreign mercenaries were dug in. The U.S. said nearly a dozen Russian battalion tactical groups have been tied up trying to defeat them. . . . Ukraine estimates that 21,000 people have been killed in Mariupol. Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk warned Russia on social media that refusing to open humanitarian corridors will justify war crimes trials. The Russians, for their part, said “neo-Nazi nationalists” have hampered evacuations.

Link (though AP links don't stay live for long).

Subject: RE: BS: Long Night in Ukraine - Feb. 23, 2022
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 19 Apr 22 - 12:19 PM

There's really no need for a gratuitous insult, Mr Miles.

This from Fox News (yes, I do look around...):

I've read most of everything he’s written," President Biden said of Russian President Vladimir Putin last month. "He has much larger ambitions in Ukraine. He wants to, in fact, reestablish the former Soviet Union. That’s what this is about."

Many experts believe that Biden is right. In an often cited and perhaps highly revealing comment years ago, Putin said that he believed the fall of the Soviet Union was the greatest geopolitical tragedy of the 20th century.

Good to know that Joe Biden shares at least one of my fantasies!

Since 2008 Putin has annexed South Ossetia, taken Chechnya (whilst razing its capital, Grozny), annexed Crimea, attempted to occupy tracts of eastern Ukraine and is now trying to take the whole of Ukraine. You can bet your bottom dollar that his next target will be the extremely vulnerable Kuwalski gap, the short border between Poland and Lithuania. He needs to take that border in order to connect the strategic Russian enclave Kaliningrad with Russia - and to cut off Lithuania from other NATO countries. The Lithuanian people are living in mortal fear.

I won't call you naive, Dick, but let's just say that Putin's aims have become more and more transparent, though you appear not to have noticed...

Subject: RE: BS: Long Night in Ukraine - Feb. 23, 2022
From: The Sandman
Date: 19 Apr 22 - 10:11 AM

Steve Shaw , how do you know what Putin thinks. how do you know that Putin wants to restore the soviet union, is this another of your fantasies
.USGS estimates that Ukraine produced 525,000 tonnes of titanium mineral concentrates last year.

Subject: RE: BS: Long Night in Ukraine - Feb. 23, 2022
From: robomatic
Date: 19 Apr 22 - 03:30 AM

Interview of Volodymyr Zelensky in The Atlantic

Subject: RE: BS: Long Night in Ukraine - Feb. 23, 2022
From: robomatic
Date: 18 Apr 22 - 08:30 PM

For an example of life in a post-Soviet neverland:

Journey to Transnistria: Inside Russia's Disinformation Bubble

Subject: RE: BS: Long Night in Ukraine - Feb. 23, 2022
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 Apr 22 - 02:45 PM

Cormac McCarthy should write an account of the war in which Russia attacks Ukraine. ala Blood Meridian.

Subject: RE: BS: Long Night in Ukraine - Feb. 23, 2022
From: robomatic
Date: 17 Apr 22 - 02:28 PM

Just read Masha Gessen's https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/04/18/the-holocaust-memorial-undone-by-a
in The New Yorker. It has several items I want to remember word for word:


"The problem with Putin's revisionist history is not just the centrality of the Soviet Union and Soviet military glory; it's that, like all Russian propaganda, it intentionally sows chaos. The effect is to produce a preferred historical narrative and a sense of nihilism - a consensus that good and evil are indistinguishable, that nothing is true and everything is possible."


This is a technique that is not new, but is made much more prevalent via the internet.


It goes beyond the old saw: "The first casualty in war is the truth."

Subject: RE: BS: Long Night in Ukraine - Feb. 23, 2022
From: Donuel
Date: 15 Apr 22 - 01:10 PM

You sunk my battleship!

Subject: RE: BS: Long Night in Ukraine - Feb. 23, 2022
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Apr 22 - 09:36 PM

Since you wrote about the ship being damaged it has sunk. A major symbolic blow in a tragic war.

Subject: RE: BS: Long Night in Ukraine - Feb. 23, 2022
From: robomatic
Date: 14 Apr 22 - 02:49 PM

As of now the main news sources (BBC,PBS,CNN) are reporting that Russia is lining up resources for a major (re)incursion in the Donbass. This was a territorial ambition of Putin/ Russia since the seizure of Crimea, as it allows a land connection from Russia proper to its purloined territory. This is the location of the existing conflict between Russian backed 'separatists' and Ukrainian forces since the Russian takeover of Crimea in 2014.

Meanwhile, the Russian cruiser Moskva has been badly damaged. The Russians reported a major fire and removal of its crew, which is about 500. There are various reports of its current status. Some reports are that it has sunk. Others that it is under tow to Sevastopol.

The Ukrainians are claiming it was hit by their missiles. In any case it is at the least an embarrassment to Russia.

With all the reports of war crimes, rocket attacks, columns of tanks and that this is the greatest land war in Europe since WW2, this is still a limited war. But it is right on the literal bleeding edge of becoming something even more horrendous and damning.

Subject: RE: BS: Long Night in Ukraine - Feb. 23, 2022
From: gillymor
Date: 14 Apr 22 - 09:53 AM

Putin's getting his ass handed to him in the Ukraine, how's he going to expand elsewhere. He's calling up conscripts who have been out of the service for 10 years and putting 17-18 yr. old cadets into the field. He'll likely be moving into a personal survival mode soon, if he's not there already.

Subject: RE: BS: Long Night in Ukraine - Feb. 23, 2022
From: Donuel
Date: 14 Apr 22 - 09:19 AM

Donald Trump would be happy to agree with you and wants America to be a great nuclear power again and use them. That blather is for his base and not his pal 'Vlad the Assailer'.

Subject: RE: BS: Long Night in Ukraine - Feb. 23, 2022
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 13 Apr 22 - 06:17 PM

That's just a pretext. Ukraine knows, and the west knows, that there is no prospect of Ukraine joining NATO. His mission is to restore the Soviet Union. A big worry is NATO's Achilles heel, the Suwalki Gap between Poland and Lithuania. It's a short stretch of border, but if Russia can take control of it, it will give Putin two advantages: first, it will enable him to connect the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad to Russia, and it would cut off the small Balkan NATO states, starting with Lithuania (any bets on their being his next target?) What's not to like, Vlad?

Of course, stepping on that border would breach the west's red line. But I think
Putin thinks we're too weak to escalate, should he do it.

Subject: RE: BS: Long Night in Ukraine - Feb. 23, 2022
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 Apr 22 - 12:41 PM

Putin makes an issue of Ukraine wanting to join NATO as a reason for his invasion; on the PBS Newshour last night they had an interesting story about how this action in Ukraine is liable to push Sweden and Finland to join NATO.

Finland, Sweden move toward possible NATO membership amid Russian war in Ukraine. Finland is prepared.

Subject: RE: BS: Long Night in Ukraine - Feb. 23, 2022
From: robomatic
Date: 16 Mar 22 - 06:51 PM

Last week Fresh Air had Masha Gessen on for the full show. I'd been waiting to hear her take, because she's reported and written on the phenomenon of Putin and the Russian/ Ukraine war extensively. It was quite interesting, just not too cheerful.

Last night (15MAR2022) the PBS show Frontline covered Putin's Road to War.

Subject: RE: BS: Long Night in Ukraine - Feb. 23, 2022
From: peteglasgow
Date: 15 Mar 22 - 11:51 AM

we should have an advantage as we have a daughter who works for a ukranian business in tallinn. we are hoping they can put us in touch with someone or two who needs help

Subject: RE: BS: Long Night in Ukraine - Feb. 23, 2022
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 15 Mar 22 - 08:09 AM

You can only register if you know the names of those you are offering space to. Bit of a waste of time really.

Subject: RE: BS: Long Night in Ukraine - Feb. 23, 2022
From: Senoufou
Date: 15 Mar 22 - 07:43 AM

I read this morning that the website for UK people wanting to offer some living space to Ukrainian refugees has crashed due to overload. This is very generous of all those who have offered. But the Visa-processing by the UK Border Agency is going to hold things up for ages.

Subject: RE: BS: Long Night in Ukraine - Feb. 23, 2022
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Mar 22 - 10:50 PM

I think it was former Labor Secretary Robert Reich who wrote today about Russia on the verge of defaulting on paying millions on loan interest. They can't get the dollars with which it must be paid.

Subject: RE: BS: Long Night in Ukraine - Feb. 23, 2022
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 14 Mar 22 - 09:36 PM

I doubt very much whether sliding into a wider war would do anything to reduce the number of Ukrainians killed. World Wars just don't work like that.

In a world with nuclear weapons there is no prospect of victory for anyone in such a war. The only way the Putin regime will lose power is if his backers and supporters turn against him. Humiliation in Ukraine is the way that could come about, and more direct involvement of Nato serves to preserve him.

Subject: RE: BS: Long Night in Ukraine - Feb. 23, 2022
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Mar 22 - 07:01 PM

Family stories are interesting, but if you ever watch Henry Louis Gates' Finding Your Roots, they're made to be debunked. And as an NPS interpretive historian at Ellis Island leading tours and answering questions, it was one we most frequently had to tell people was wrong. With all of the stuff people keep, there was never a shred of evidence that turned up saying "your new name is X."

Subject: RE: BS: Long Night in Ukraine - Feb. 23, 2022
From: Donuel
Date: 14 Mar 22 - 06:57 PM

Without more evidence if my family's name was a myth its one they all agreed upon. I only met all the survivors together just once in Boston and I was young. Although I didn't know why at the time I got the impression that blonde hair and blue eyes was unacceptable. They were not a tall people but skilled. Grandad was babe Ruth's collision mechanic and business was good. (hic) One of the sons born in the US owned the first super glue factory. The tour was smelly and dangerous.

The classical station featured all Ukranian music all day. Cable news is 24/7 Ukraine war. There may come a day that Ukraine joins the long
of countries torn by war.

Subject: RE: BS: Long Night in Ukraine - Feb. 23, 2022
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Mar 22 - 06:12 PM

And this - they have a point:

Cloudflare and Akamai refuse to pull services out of Russia
Cloudflare claims if it shuts down operations in Russia, it would be a victory for the Russian government.

Cloudflare and Akamai have each confirmed they will continue to operate in Russia, despite being urged to do otherwise.

Both companies have argued that if they were to pull their services, they would be hurting Russian citizens who are trying to access information from outside of the country, but said they condemn Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.

Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince wrote in a blog post acknowledging that the company has received "several calls to terminate" all of its services inside Russia, including by government.

"Our conclusion … is that Russia needs more internet access, not less," he said.

"As the conflict has continued, we've seen a dramatic increase in requests from Russian networks to worldwide media, reflecting a desire by ordinary Russian citizens to see world news beyond that provided within Russia."

He continued: "Indiscriminately terminating service would do little to harm the Russian government, but would both limit access to information outside the country, and make significantly more vulnerable those who have used us to shield themselves as they have criticized the government".

Subject: RE: BS: Long Night in Ukraine - Feb. 23, 2022
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Mar 22 - 06:10 PM

Ukraine reportedly adopts Clearview AI to track Russian invaders
The facial recognition technology has not been made available to Russia.

On March 13, Reuters reported that the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine had adopted the firm's facial recognition engine.

Clearview CEO Hoan Ton-That offered the US company's assistance to Kyiv, and according to the news outlet, the AI tech is being used to "potentially vet people of interest at checkpoints, among other uses," for free.

The startup has not offered the same to Russia, of which President Putin calls the war a "special military operation."

Clearview offers facial recognition technologies to law enforcement for criminal investigations. The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) awarded the company a patent in January for using publicly-available data -- including mugshots, social media profiles, and news sites -- to match "similar photos using its proprietary facial recognition algorithm."

See also: Ethics of AI: Benefits and risks of artificial intelligence

Over two billion photos have been grabbed from VKontakte, a Russian social network, but over 10 billion are reportedly available for use.

As well as flagging Russian individuals of interest to authorities, it is possible that the Clearview AI search engine could be used to identify misinformation and propaganda online, to identify refugees and family connections, or potentially as a means to try and identify fatalities.

Subject: RE: BS: Long Night in Ukraine - Feb. 23, 2022
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Mar 22 - 03:31 PM

That's a myth that names were changed at Ellis Island, and the story tends to be told about the turn of the last century era. By the time of your family's transit here, as you tell it, Ellis wasn't processing immigrants or refugees, that stopped in 1924 when embassies took over that work and all of the documents were letter perfect and the shipping companies kept detailed manifest records. If the name was changed, your ancestors changed it. If people arrived by ship they disembarked with their proper papers, and if they arrived by plane the same at the airports. Only an official at either place to check documents.

Subject: RE: BS: Long Night in Ukraine - Feb. 23, 2022
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 14 Mar 22 - 03:04 PM

My Dad's mum was born in Bialystok that is. Not my Grandad'# Mum

Subject: RE: BS: Long Night in Ukraine - Feb. 23, 2022
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 14 Mar 22 - 03:02 PM

My Dad was from the same area, Donuel - Bialystok in Poland, close to the border with Belarus. His Dad was from Krupotkin on the Kuban River, in Russia but close to both Ukraine and Georgia. His Mum was born in Bialystok but her Dad was a much decorated Officer of the Russian Tzar's army who met his wife while stationed in Poland! I was born David Polakow but my parents anglicised our surname when I was young. I grew up with true tales of both German Nazi and Russian Communist oppression. Little wonder I despise extremism and get very narked by the right wing factions on here when they accuse me of being a left wing extremist :-(

I experienced a Russian troll on Faceache the other day. Said he was a history professor in Brazil and proceded to explain that because my family fled Soviet oppression in 1945 they must have been Nazis! I blocked him of course but had fun shredding his nonsense first :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Long Night in Ukraine - Feb. 23, 2022
From: Donuel
Date: 14 Mar 22 - 01:38 PM

My Dad's Dad never really knew if they lived in eastern Poland or western Russia as they put it. Between Hitler and Stalin the family was killed off leaving only 6 who escaped to Boston. At Ellis Island they were asked their name but grand dad responded in a yiddish euphemism which sounded like it ended in ahkem so the clerk wrote down Hackman. We don't know what the actual name was anymore. We do know the euphemism roughly translated was 'stop banging my head like a teapot'. My biodad was Gene Hackman's 1st cousin so we had Hackmans on both sides of the family. So my connection with now Ukraine is as tenuous as my connection with ancient Scotland and England. The English name was Black or Blagg depending on the accent.

Putin will possibly end up with a divided Ukraine that mostly hates Russia and a few who love the Russian 1%.
China will wisely take generations to take Hong Kong and Taiwan but with more harmony over time. Putin wants immediate violent results but he will suffer from his impatience and destruction.