This has quickly become an international war.

The quick walkover didn't pan out.

As usual with Russians there's no plan B.

Germany is delivering sophisticated anti-aircraft and 

anti-tank weapons in large quantities. 

Canada Poland Estonia Sweden the United States and now Australia. These are doing the same. 

Other nations are sending medical supplies.

Several nations have approved for their citizen to volunteer to fight in Ukraine against the invasion.

Like Spain in their Civil War.

None of the above did Putin count on. 

Intelligence has internal Russian documents 

expecting it all to have been over by last Friday.

That list of Ukrainians to be arrested or outright killed 

would right now be in use if that happened.

Ukraine is the size of Texas with 44 million people.

It's not Hungry in 1956.

Nor is it Czechoslovakia in 1968.

In the end it will be more like Afghanistan in the 80's.

Good fucking luck.

 

I don't mean to glorify war in these posts.

I've mixed feelings on this and all war issues. 

However, my dad and uncles fought the Nazis the Axis.

I would have done the same. 

Sometimes the evil is so big you have to fight it.

All the wars since then have been grey in morality. 

However sometimes things are a bit clearer. 

I'm anti-war but even more anti-invasion. 

I was watching British volunteers.

These going to the Ukrainian Embassy to join up. 

One was a guy 60 years old. 

He's a retired medical officer from the British Marines. 

However, he might be able with his skills to save lives. 

The reporter asked if that would include Russians. 

Without skipping a beat, the old soldier said..."Yes."

 "The Geneva Convention demands it."

I'm with that guy.

 

There are equipment abandonments happening in part of the front by Russians.

There may be a growing moral problem in the ranks.

They did not know they'd be fighting a war till they got to the border. 

They were told it’d be a two day walk over. 

So captured Russian troops say. 

Above a couple of regular guys from a nearby farm.

'Happened on an intact Russian abandoned tank.

More videos like this are turning up.

 

I should finish that Cathedral while there's still time.

I mean Putin has gone nuts after all.

Tinkered on it for some years.

I lately calls it the First Church of Amazing Bewilderments.

That's what I'd call my storefront temple if I ever got one.

All welcome. Free Wi-Fi cake ice cream and palm readings.

We'd wear funny hats and quote from our favorite comic books as scripture.

 

"...1925~2018"

Two covers 1925~2018. Amazing what only 93 years can do. Our Constitution was designed for slow change. Fast ones cause chaos...they do. However, this was just a tad too slow. Btw still working on them months of backed up New Yorkers.

Thanks for the sub Cuz!

“…variant”

A momentary digression from the current episode of the end of the world. Twice in the last month I forgot to wear my mask. I think this was unconscious weariness with all of this. I got vaxed and boosted been at home for two bleeping years and got infected anyway by the latest variant. I’m going to be 72. I’m tempted to just give up on it and go about my business since I haven’t much time anyway. Well, okay I won't...but still. We continue with the opening of a potential WW3 which is already in progress.

From Ami McNee.

 

Some of my Russian friends have had their livestream cut. Their webpages and even FB pages frozen. I went just now to a friend's page. It's up but if I try to post on it the image flips and my computer shuts off. I tried a few times. Same with others. The neutral pages are fine. Scale model hobby site I like is cool. All the political/social pages dark. So far some are still on Twitter. Starlink, which the Russians can't so far touch, may be the only line open soon.

"...yet"

Another day another sunset. Days go by. For years we’ve lived in a haze of confusions hurts hopes. Life goes on days go by we do what we can. I see my own country in rages over trivia the minutia of incidental events. Viewed through the tunnel vison of our tribal divisions. Liberal and rightist media each in their ways biased. each creating false alternate worlds. Neither understanding the harm they are doing.

Now this. A major war in Europe. The first since WW2 near 80 years ago. The Long Peace as it was called unraveling before our eyes. There are constant war in many parts of the world some of them have gone on for near decades…and no one notices. The 2nd Congo War killed upwards of Five Million people. Most don’t know it happened. Most don’t know there was a first war…this because of where it was and who it was.

This new war. This kind of war between industrial nations in Europe is another matter. This as they have the habit of engulfing the planet in World Wars. I woke today to the Russian head of state putting his nuclear arsenals on alert. Defcon Two…Defcon one is nuclear war.

Madness prevails. I sat here thinking what I’d do if the Emergency Broadcast signal came across all of our devices. What could one do? What could that Ukrainian family do when that tactical rocket crashed into their apartment block and killed them.

Read the Guns of August or watch the film below. It shows how the 20th century’s 100 years’ war began. The first act being WW1 the last the War on Terror. None of the kings’ emperors or Prime Ministers wanted it. However, could not stop it as it took on its own reality. It became a self- aware entity. Much as this war is before our eyes.

I have no answers. Like you I’m just watching things unfold that are vastly out of my control. The world does not want this. Even the Russian people don’t want it. Many thousands arrested for going into the streets to protest the madness. Even their billionaires their money threatened have come out for it to stop. Yet it continues.

 

This Russian Ukrainian catastrophe

Has me deeply mixed morally.

I'm a peacenik.

have been since birth Queers generally are.

I want this to stop. I want those Russian boys to go home.

I want them and the Ukrainians to be sisters and brothers.

If you really scan the images the death is graphic. Death is death no matter which side you are on. This is the work of a disturbed man and the powerful rich men that back him. Just them and no one else. It's always like this. Soulless kings' and demagogues lead whole peoples into hell. The peoples of the world want this to stop. 

Most want all to be safe free and at peace. However, what do you do when a rocket comes through your window and kills your family. It did yesterday in Kiev. An apartment building hit.  

This is war. More real to us we as we see it real time on our devices. A country is fighting for its very existence. This puts our long hateful American culture war in perspective. This is what the civil war some want so bad would look like.

These days these last five years are a trauma not imagined in the near past. What do we do? Plague social chaos and now the makings of a world war at our doorstep. 

J.R.R. Tolkien – The Fellowship of The Ring

“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo. “So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

 

The United States offered to evacuate 

Ukrainian President Zelensky.

He chose not to be another leader abandoning 

his nation via chopper from a roof top. 

He refused to leave his country and people to the Russians.

Said Zelensky:

"I need ammunition not a ride."

The Jerusalem Post reports:

A Ukrainian Lviv based brewery switched 

from making beer to making Molotov cocktails.

A rough translation of the label sez:

"Putin is a Dickhead"

Though I suspect the message was actually harsher.

Lviv-based Pravda brewery switches to making Molotov cocktails. - The Jerusalem Post (jpost.com)

 

'Watching Associated Press stream

of attempted peace march in Moscow.

Broken up by cops. 

Injuries arrests.

Like Khrushchev said to Nixon.

"...Salt water or fresh...shit floats"

 

Tintin in Warsaw.

Here boarding the Kiev Express.

On his way to do his bit for what's right.

 

The face of war is always the same.

No matter who or where.

(Images New York Times.)

Another gaudy sunset over old Brooklyn.

397 years as an urban entity. 

About 5000+ years as a human settled territory.

 

The battle for the Kiev airport continues tonight.

They've fought off the Russians for three days. 'Not the walkover Putin thought.

He needs that strip to land troops and tanks to take the city.

That maniac Putin doesn't know his own history.

Ukrainians themselves are saying if his army enters the city, it will be a new Stalingrad.

This is an unthinkable nightmare.

 

As battle rages this moment

in Kiev on live streams Cathedral bells ring. 

As was said tonight.

"The only difference between you and a refugee...is luck.

 

I'm old enough to remember the Russian invasion of Hungry.

My mother was the seamstress for the wife of the Hungarian U.N. ambassador.

Before he was recalled after the fall. I was in high school when Russia invaded Czechoslovakia.

I was there for our sins as well.

I was in my early teens when we went to war in Vietnam.

In my middle years for our war on terror.

Both of these ended with our puppets escaping by chopper from a roof.

Now as an elder I'm seeing it all again.

 

I'm in contact with two more of my Ukranian FB friends. 

One like my pal Sergiienko took shelter 

in the underground Metro during the rocket and bombing attacks. The other went to family in Romania.

Above, this evening's Brooklyn sunset.

Life is sacred life goes on.

 

I just was contacted by my artist friend  Sergiienko in Kiev. Had not been able to contact my pals over there since this started. He's safe and well. He messaged that he and his friends are staying put. They sheltered through the day and night during the bombing and missile attacks.

Still haven't heard from several other Ukrainian pals. Some of their webpages are down but so far FB is still running. Sergiienko said there's the sound of jets over the city all the time. Both Russian and Ukrainian. Sez these are fighting each other. When they shoot each other down the wreckage falls onto housing blocks.

Unbelievable.

I feel so helpless. All I could offer my friend were wishes for his safety. Still, I'm happy at least one of my pals is okay but I've gone nuts anyway. I was just out on my fire-escape. This in the mess of snow and rain tonight. I sat on the window ledge in a sweatshirt wind ice whipping. I was numb and didn't notice.

Knowing people on the business end of a real war has put me in a mild shock. World Wars have started over less. I'm so exhausted like we all are. The world has been through so much...now this. Take care be well loves ya all.

Pretty much.

 

Except for Brighton Beach.

Also not Russia.

 

Trying to reach my Ukranian friends.

Some are queer artists some performers.

Most pages are down. A few on FB still there.

However, tried all day.

No reply.

 

'And just like that the world has a new war.

 

This series isn't a parody anymore.

On Covid race violence now this they're on da money.

 

"...rocks"

Coney Island off season.

I snapped these a few years before Covid.

As you can imagine.

I don't get out much these days.

1,034 days in partial solitary.

This isn't funny anymore.

I wanna go to da fucking beach off or on season

It could be a bleeping Blizzard.

I wanna go!

I'll sit in the Boardwalk snow drifts.

I'll chow on Hot dawgs

ice cold Root fucking Beers

and throw rocks at da seagulls! 

"...fok"

Going to about 70f today. It will go down to 22f in two days. Everything is fine. Nothing to see here. Move along show over. That climate stuff is a liberal Queer trannie Chinese hoax. 

Like Merlin said...in da movies.

Like he sort'a said:

"It is the doom of men that they forget."

Locally we've totally forgot Storm Sandy.

The fucking Atlantic Ocean smashed through living room windows. High risers in Brooklyn and Queens

became isolated Archipelagos.

Many subway stations went underwater.

The Manhattan shoreline pushed back 

to its 18th century pre-landfill levels.

Water Street and Front Street we learned

were named these for a reason. 

There was water and it was da waterfront.

Duh!

Yet we have stone cold fucking forgot all about it.

We got a big reminder during that September Hurricane. 

A storm that had planetary changes writ all over it.

Hell, I thought my digs were fucking toast. 

Rain with the force of massed firehoses blasted in windows...cracked some of mine. The emergency door was shot off its hinges on our roof level. Yeah, that got our attention. 

The whole of the Emerald City got the message.

But then a mere five months later.

Storm...rain what when? Wot you talking about?

That and our new Mayor shelved those anti-flooding measures.

Least till we get hit again...till then we'll just forget. 

So... good fishing and skiing on da way.

"...nuts"

Just came across an early 1960′s Band-Aid advert. Touted as “Flesh Tone”. Oh, the old days. Ten cent comic books tail fins milk delivered in bottles our money backed by silver and Band-Aids for white folks. Well, being calm about it. I mean I have to, if I blew a gasket, I'd have a heart attack.

Anyway, it was likely the unthinking assumptions of the times. Prejudice by any group for any reason is quietly insidious. They may not have had a meeting to deliberately exclude. This since there was a common assumption as to who their customers were. 

Johnson and Johnson was as most brands were at the time. Oblivious to the true nature of their market. It may not have occurred to them they were offending a whole paying demographic. I recall the unfortunate adverts and products were pulled. This when it became clear what a fucking boner it was. They later issued multicolored band-aids. This only made it worse as they didn't match any existing ethnic group. Swell. They figured anything dark would do...dummies.

In time they issued those rainbow animal band-aids for kids and called it a day.

Btw a few brands like Pepsi were “woke” back then. Integrated ads in the early 60’s. This before “woke” or being aware of racism became reverse racism. My family was in the Civil Rights Movement when I was a child. So all the ugly static we have now is to me confusing and nuts. I think Dr. King might say the same.

Skipper in 2020 2021 and 2022 so far.

Skipper on her meds.

 

While it lasts this is still Black History Month. They set aside the shortest coldest most sunless month for us. We get the message. America is complicated. Perhaps every month should be Human History Month. We all have stories we all have history. To the point. We all have worthy ancestors. The bones in those sunken Slave ships are some of mine.