Tag: russia

They Were Asking For It

trump, the felon in chief and first rapist of the fascist states of america, yesterday claimed that Ukraine started the war with Russia. Despite, you know, the solid fact that Russia started the war when they invaded their neighbor.

Given his rapist history, it’s no wonder that the fucker claimed Ukraine was asking for it, just like I’m sure his rape victims were all asking for it. Obviously. I mean, they all had vaginas so of course they were asking for it.

Also, about half of the voters in the nazi states of america agree with his statement.

We are so beyond saving.

Here’s a cat picture to enjoy while we still can.

Thankfully Europe is Big

I spent my lunch hour reading up on the situation in Ukraine. Once again it’s really hard to tell which reports are real and which reports are propaganda or misinformation. It sounds like “Russian warship, go fuck yourself” is real. I don’t think the ghost of Kyiv is real though. Despite how much I want it to be real.

I was a good student in Junior High and High School Geography classes. The map of Europe looked massively different back then, but even if it didn’t I never saw a map that was drawn to scale so distances are all hypothetical, know what I mean?

There’s a war going on in Eastern Europe. Bellana is in Western Europe. She’s not anywhere close to the conflict, is she? How far is it from The Netherlands to the Ukraine?

Google Maps. I searched for a route from her school to Kyiv. It’s a 21 hour drive. I wasn’t nervous about it at all, and yet I am still feeling a serious sense of relief. Irrational, yes, but when is anything to do with war rational?

Western Europe needs to keep my step daughter safe. Good work so far. Keep it up.

Absent Minded Doof

Two things.

First. On Wednesday the dietician told me to wait an hour after eating before having anything to drink. Three hours later I am sitting at my desk having lunch and the minute I was done eating I was guzzling a water bottle. I was still gulping water when I realized what I was doing. Like… dude… she just told me! Yeah, that one is going to take some getting used to. I managed to do it right all day yesterday, but come on. The first day!

Second. I’ve been using the CPAP machine every night since, what… early 2019? Years. Literally years, plural. Like… multiple years! Every night! The only exceptions being nights where I was sleeping in a room that the CPAP machine wasn’t in. I can probably count them on one hand. Last night at 11:00ish, I put down my iPad and curled up in bed and went to sleep. I woke up an hour and a half later and thought that it was weird to wake up that quickly. I woke up again at a little before 3:00am and realized I never put the damn CPAP machine on. It was sitting on the table next to the bed looking all lonely and dejected and ignored. Years! I’ve been doing it for years and I just plain forgot last night. I even woke up without it on and it didn’t register! What the hell, Robert? Years!

In other news, February is continuing its theme of being a dick. I think we’re up to three instances where a super warm day was followed a day or two later by a legitimate snow storm. It was in the mid 60’s on Wednesday and today, two days later, we’re getting a foot of snow. Nice. Way to be a dick, February.

In other news that is actually important to the future of human civilization, I am sad to realize how little I know about Ukraine. They were a Soviet Republic and an American fascist tried to use them to rig the 2020 election and got off scot free because the United States government is broken and getting close to the point where it’s not worth saving anymore. I thought they were to the South of Russia but when I looked at a map I realized everything I thought I knew about Ukraine was probably actually about Georgia. Wikipedia just confirmed that. I thought Eduard Shevardnadze was the first post-Soviet president of Ukraine, but he was president of Georgia. Shit.

I keep reading stories about heroic stands by the Ukrainian army. They took back a city, they took back the airport in Kyiv. Things like that. Every time I read something good I try to find reports to back it up and I always find one report confirming and one report confirming the opposite. In the age of instant knowledge, I really hate not knowing what’s going on.

I have a huge confirmation bias regarding this war. It’s Russia. The superpower that stood against us for all of those years. The only nation that could match our massive military machine. How can Ukraine fight them off? It’s impossible, right? Then I try to convince myself otherwise. The Soviet Union I was so afraid of is gone. Sure, Russia retains most of that might, but Ukraine was a Soviet state too. They were part of that military. Who knows, maybe they were a bigger part of it than I realize. I’m wrong about everything else so why not that too? Then I read that the US government expects that Ukraine will fall within days. Damn it. Sometimes, not often, I hate being right.

Ukraine

I haven’t had much chance to keep an eye on what’s going on in Ukraine today. It’s almost all bad news. Russia hit them from three directions and attacked a handful of major cities. As usual, it’s impossible to tell what is real information and what is propaganda from one side or the other.

I know the West put some serious economic sanctions on Russia and apparently their markets have had a seriously bad day. I know there have been major anti war protests in Russia even though I believe it’s illegal. How much of that is real and how much is misdirection? I don’t know. I saw a few headlines about Ukrainian forces driving Russian forces out of a couple of towns. I really like the sound of that but at the same time, that reeks of propaganda.

This is literally my worst fears of my early teens coming to life in front of us. Russia invading their neighbors. Granted back then Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union so now Russia is just trying to get back to the good old days? Didn’t Putin used to work for the KGB? Or was it GRU? something like that.

I like to think of myself as a pacifist. I don’t know if I qualify, or if maybe I have too much of a temper. Who knows. I am against war in general and the last thing I would want is to see us pulled into something that gets my fellow Americans hurt. Having said that though… have we considered inviting Ukraine to join NATO today? That’s what this is about, right? One of Putin’s demands was that NATO agree to never offer membership to Ukraine? What would happen if the entire might of the Western world showed up in Ukraine tomorrow? I actually know the answer to that question. The answer would probably be Russian nukes.

Fucking Russia.

All of Those Childhood Fears

Fucking Putin.

Too late to start prepping for nuclear winter now. I guess we’ll just have to wing it.

Some Notes on a Saturday

How long does a modern TV last? This morning Jen started thinking about a new TV. We don’t need a new TV, I said. When did we buy our current living room TV, she asked. Off to the blog I go!

The blog holds all the answers. The new TV was purchased on September 28, 2014. Just shy of six years ago. The blog is wise. The blog knows.

So then we asked how long do TVs tend to last these days? Off to Google Jen goes! 5-7 years. Well, that settles it then. Conspicuous Consumerism dictates that we need a new TV. We’re going to hold off until Christmas… I think. We agreed to that, but Jen is hovering around BestBuy.com which means maybe she won’t be able to wait.

Second Saturday note: UPS again… oh boy. Just when I came to grips with the fact that I was going to have to file a claim with GuitarCenter.com over the amplifier that will never be shipped, UPS updated the tracking number to say that once again (take three) it is on a truck and out for delivery. The estimated delivery date/time is today by 9:00PM. I’m taking bets on what time this afternoon they change that date to Monday. Anyone?

The third Saturday note is the only actually important one. There is a story suggesting that Russia paid bounties to the Taliban for killing American soldiers. It is also being said that trump knew about it and did nothing.

I don’t know if any of it’s true. I’ve only seen it on Twitter. I haven’t read any of the source articles. I don’t know if it is true or not. I just know this:

Change of Plans

For the first time we are skipping Weight Watchers. It has nothing to do with fear of the scale. Nothing to do with the fact that we threw a birthday party for an 11 year old last Sunday, and that the cake was gigantic and absolutely magical in It’s deliciousness, and therefore is gone.

No. We are skipping the weigh in and the meeting because the USA vs Russia hockey game starts in 13 minutes. You can take the Cold War out of the international political climate, but you can’t take the Cold War out of the Olympic Ice Hockey fan.

USA! USA! USA!