Early on in the invasion, there were accounts indicating that some Russian soldiers received rations that had expired in 2015. Most companies responsible for providing food to the Russian military are connected to Yevgeny Prigozhin — the patron of PMC Wagner
Several years ago, Prigozhin’s companies were accused by Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny of forming a cartel and gaming the state’s bidding system for defense orders, receiving contracts for several hundred million dollars. The quality of food and housing in the Russian military is reportedly worse than in its prisons, with unreasonably small meals and some carrying harmful Escherichia coli bacteria.
So what's the score so far on the Russian invasion of Ukraine?
The UN Security Council voted that Russia should immediately stop its attack on Ukraine and withdraw. The vote was 11 for the resolution, three abstentions and only Russia voted against it.
The UN General Assembly voted on what was roughly the same resolution. Russia got a little more support. 141 members voted against Russia, there were 35 abstentions, Russia, Belarus, Eritrea, North Korea and Syria were the only ones to support Russian actions.
US citizens very broadly approve of taking vigorous anti-Russian actions. 74% support the idea of establishing a no-fly zone over Ukraine (Actually a very bad idea) and 80% think that the US should stop buying Russian oil (Done). Approval of Biden's actions was 34% last week and is 45% this week.
Corruption is something that Russian President Vladimir Putin has permitted and winked at for many years. For instance, the people who were supposed to buy top-of-the-line French tires for armored vehicles purchased some cheap Chinese knock-offs instead. Buying cheap tires meant that Russian officials could afford more European sporting event tickets, dachas on the Black Sea, etc., but it also meant that in the field, Russian soldiers had to make do with equipment that broke down and got stuck in the mud more easily. The feared 40-mile long column of Russian tanks and other vehicles that's been heading towards Kyiv (old name - Kiev) has suffered badly from broken-down equipment and lack of food and gas.
Speaking of food:
Amazingly, as Russia had intended to conduct a blitzkrieg that would quickly occupy both of Ukraine's two largest cities, Kyiv and Kharkiv, both cities are still in Ukrainian hands.
At this point, Westerners are looking for some face-saving way for Putin to call off the whole thing, but to not appear weak to Russian citizens.
How do ordinary Russians feel about the war? We have plenty of anecdotes, but no real idea.
Ukrainians are fighting with gusto and enthusiasm, even though thy know the odds of victory are stacked against them.
The refugee problem is the worst in Europe since World War II, with number of Ukrainians fleeing their country reaching two million. As I pointed out here, their plight is greatly eased because Ukrainians look just like Americans/West Europeans, meaning they don't have to deal with the same assimilation problems faced by Middle Easterners or Africans. Still, it's an immense logistical problem for countries in the immediate vicinity of Ukraine. Moldova has a popultion of over two and a half million, but has recieved over 82k refugees.
Speakers from Grannies For Peace.
There are at least two kinds of propaganda, the Joseph Goebbels kind that inspires hate and fear and the Queen Elizabeth I kind that tells people they're fighting on the right side. For Ukrainians to feed a captued Russian soldier and to help him call his mother is a sterling example of QEI-type propaganda. Ukrainian surgeons are also working to save wounded Russian soldiers. By Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appearing on camera dressed in military-type clothing in his usual office in Kyiv, he's sending a strong signal that he's with the people, he's undergoing the same risks they're undergoing and he's not going anywhere.
Warnings of nuclear war.
TFG (The Former Guy) is trying to take credit for the Ukrainian defense being as strong as it is. That requires rewriting the history of Trump's relationship with Zelensky. In reality, the events that led to TFG's first impeachment greatly weakened Zelensky's position politcally and probably helped convince Putin that an invasion wouldn't get much resistance from the West. Why didn't Putin invade before he did? Apparently, he was waiting to see if Trump would win a second term. Former National Security Adviser John Bolton states that, in that case, TFG would have simply handed Ukraine over to his good buddy Putin.
I like this woman's scarf! There were a few masks here and there. I wasn't wearing one as we were outdoors.
On gas prices, President Biden has a short and simple message. They're going to go up and no, there isn't much he can do about that.
Good comment:
There
are 2 stories on TV right now. One is about the grotesque shelling of
civilian hospitals in Ukraine and the massive refugee crisis.The other
is about the immense pain and suffering of Americans dealing with the
horrors of rising gas prices. Each is equally tragic apparently
Press Secretary Jen Psaki explains why gas is so expensive.
Tch, tch, tch! Sign in Ukrainian translates to "Putin's a dick-head."
The good news is that Congress finally passed a $107 billion bill to fix a number of problems with the Postal service! What's confounding is that the vote to break the filibuster was 63-10 (of course, they couldn't do that for voting rights). The final Senate vote to pass the bill was 79-19. So why was there a filibuster in the first place? The answer is that Republicans have been using the filibuster on a routine basis for about the past 15 years! It has long since been a completely wasteful procedure and should have long since been thrown out.
Infuriating headline from CNN:
Millions of kids face risk of hunger if Congress doesn't extend pandemic school lunch waivers
Why does CNN use the vague term "Congress" when it's completel obvious that it's the Republican Party that's the hold-up? The writer explains "Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is blocking the extension of the waivers."
A long-time press critic asks:
Is there any other way for a college student to break into the NYT op-ed pages than to write woke-panic claptrap like this?
He goes on to uncover facts tha the NY Times couldn't be bothered to discover for itself.
Your heroic narrator/photographer.
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