You need to start walking on the sunny side of the street.

In case anyone is still confused about Russia's aims: " "Despite Russia’s battlefield difficulties, Mr. Putin hasn’t given up on aspirations to seize all or most of Ukraine, and sees the campaign for Donbas as just a stage in this grander plan, Ukrainian and U.S. officials say. Senior Russian government personalities and Russian TV propaganda continue to call for eliminating Ukraine as a sovereign state. “The very concept of Ukraine should not exist in the future, and neither should the concept of a Ukrainian,” Oleg Matveychev, a senior lawmaker from Russia’s ruling party and former Kremlin adviser, said last week."--The Wall Street Journal, May 12.

More reporting from the WSJ, about how civilians in the Kyiv region helped their troops: NOVYI BYKIV, Ukraine—As Ukraine’s forces fought to repel Russian troops from the Kyiv region, Ukrainian villagers along Highway 7 battled in their own way: calling in Ukrainian artillery strikes on a vital lifeline that Russia had mapped out for its assault on the capital. At great risk to themselves, the villagers shared tips and Google map locations with local authorities, turning the highway that runs between the Russian border and Kyiv into a big logistical defeat for Moscow. The intelligence they gleaned helped bring Ukrainian fire on numerous Russian units. The strategy underscored fierce Ukrainian resistance as villagers put themselves and their homes on the front lines, turning quiet village life into an uneasy and sometimes deadly coexistence with Russian troops. “Everyone here was doing all they could to get Russian troop movement across to our boys,” said Natalia Mohilni, a homemaker in Novyi Bykiv, who had called in soldier locations in and around the village, where locals said the Russians had set up a mobile crematorium to discard the dead. Destroyed hospital at Novyi Bykiv village, Chernihiv region, near the Kyiv-Sumy highway. Destroyed ambulances at the hospital at Novyi Bykiv village, Chernihiv region, near the Kyiv-Sumy highway. Ms. Mohilni’s own two-story house was shelled during exchanges, and a firefight with Ukrainian soldiers ultimately leveled the village’s main hospital, where Russian troops had stored ammunition and armored personnel carriers. “No one wants the destruction, but we wanted the Russians even less,” she said. “Not having a chimney means we need to wait to use the wood oven, but that’s fine.” The strikes against the incoming Russian formations prevented crucial reinforcements and supplies from reaching Kyiv from the east, leaving Moscow’s troops undermanned and undersupplied, said Ukrainian officials and defense analysts. By the end of March, Russia had decided its attempt to seize Kyiv had failed and repositioned its forces in the country’s east..."

Amusing. You cite "World Socialist Web" as a source. Do you think this is an objective news source???? If you actually read the Amnesty report, it includes reviews of both the areas controlled by the Ukrainian government and the areas controlled by the Russian separatists. The Kyiv government review is not that different from what Amnesty finds in many countries around the world including Western countries.

We never hear a word in opposition to the Communist Chinese? I think the government passed some sanctions in response to the Uighur concentration camps. Biden and Congress have been vocal in the support of Taiwan. Our problem is we buy enormous amounts of Chinese stuff instead of buying it from our allies or making it ourselves. Admitting China into the WTO was a horrible mistake.

Apparently, the troll farm pays its troll overtime pay. 1. Being outraged over murders of civilians, bombing civilians hiding in a basement, rape of women and children, leveling entire cities, is not "moral posturing." It's moral outrage. Unless you're a sociopath. 2. There is a general consensus that Russia tried to take Kyiv in order to depose the government and install a puppet. They failed. 3. China has intended to take back Taiwan for a long time and hasn't because they've been afraid. 4. The only thing that Russia has going for it militarily is their nuclear arsenal, and that has been demonstrated conclusively in the Ukraine war, which has illustrated shocking deficiencies in the Russian military; I think I posted an article about this. 5. The US found oil and natural gas supplies in the U.S. and became less dependent on Saudi oil. It had little to do with green energy, although the use of wind and solar has increased. 6. The U.S. does not have to go to war with China over Taiwan; we only have to supply Taiwan with the right weapons for their defense. Taiwan also could do more to beef up their defenses. 7. The U.S. never had an "empire" like the British or the Ottomans or the Romans, although it's true we have meddled in other countries, such as Iran and also Latin America, when we shouldn't have. We have also fought stupid and illegal wars, such as Vietnam and Iraq. Those mistakes don't equate with being an "empire." It may seem like semantics, but the aforementioned empires didn't just go to war with other countries; they exploited them financially for centuries. 8. I'm trying to think of who could be described as a worse autocrat that Putin during the last 25 years but no one comes to mind.

Interesting story in the Journal today about elderly Holocaust survivors in Ukraine having to be evacuated to Germany: “I can’t believe I’m in Berlin, the capital of Germany,” said Sonya Tartakovskaya, a Holocaust survivor who was evacuated in April. Ms. Tartakovskaya, who lost her father during World War II, relived the childhood trauma of having to flee under heavy shelling after her hometown of Irpin, just outside Kyiv, came under heavy Russian attack in the early days of the invasion. The 83-year-old hid in her small apartment during the first three weeks of the campaign as artillery strikes cratered the streets and turned most of the buildings around her house into charred ruins. Heating, water and electricity were cut off and Ms. Tartakovskaya slept in her boots and winter coat, surviving on occasional handouts from a neighbor and a Jewish charity. ... As Ukraine came under attack, Ms. Kolomoyska, a retired chemist, had a flashback of how her father put her on his knee when she was around six and told her there would be no more fruit to eat as the family fled to Russia to escape the German advance. Two of her elder brothers were killed by German troops. “I never ever imagined that Russia could wage war on Ukraine, it is simply too horrible to comprehend,” she said. They now live in Munich, in a former castle that has been converted into a care home run by Catholic nuns.

I took a look at your history of comments. What an unhappy, miserable person you seem to be.

Funny; today I briefly considered going over to Ukraine as a volunteer driver to shuttle people or supplies, to and from the front or between Ukraine and Europe, as a UK-based group is recruiting. I figured if I can manage the California freeways I'm probably qualified. Then I remembered that I'm supposed to be getting spinal surgery, and spine problems and being in a war zone don't mix. It's interesting that you obviously think I would never go clear landmines as a volunteer, but in fact it's the kind of thing I would do. I have done volunteer work in a war zone before, although it didn't involve clearing land mines.

Huh? The Russians who you support planted those land mines. But you're blaming Ukraine for...having to get rid of them?? And why shouldn't women clear land mines? You're obviously not sad about those women, because you think it's ok for Russian soldiers to rape and slaughter them. At least try to be consistent.

From the Wall Street Journal today: "When Russian tanks were shelling the nuclear core at the Zaporozhskaya power plant with live rounds, not all of the shells exploded because they were too old and decrepit. This story, told to me by Piotr Kotin, head of the company that owns the plant, is a metaphor for Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine.... The incompetent and corrupt Russian army blundered into this war. Soldiers picked the wrong roads. Broken tanks littered the thoroughfares well before contact with the enemy: mired in mud, out of fuel and, above all, lost. In the 21st century, with satellites dotting the sky, the Russian army was using outdated Soviet paper charts with towns that had changed names and roads that no longer existed. Why weren’t Russian troops using the Global Positioning System or its Russian counterpart, Glonass? It seems, among other things, that the Russian army fell victim to its own propaganda. Before the war, Mr. Putin had been fascinated with the acquisition of new weapons. Among the most important were electronic countermeasures, or ECM. They were supposed to be a game-changer that could be used to black out GPS, disrupt communications, and take over drones or deliberately crash them into the ground. ECM units were indeed marching with all Russian columns as they entered Ukraine. But they didn’t work as planned. Instead of knocking Turkish drones out of the skies, the ECM units blacked out all communications, including the Russian army’s. “This is the problem of ECM. It either isn’t working, or, when it’s working, it’s wrecking your side much more than the enemy’s,” says Victor Kevluk, a military expert with Ukrainian Center for Defense Strategies. The Russian army blinded itself on foreign land, while the Ukrainians knew their way in the dark. So instead of relying on new technology, the Russians turned to an old tactic: mass terror. Russian soldiers raped Ukrainian women and executed Ukrainian men. Mariupol is being razed to the ground. Former Ukrainian General Staff Col. Oleg Zhdanov vividly described to me in an interview how, in Berezovka, “the dug-in tanks made a shooting range with fleeing civilian cars as targets.” The mass terror was the direct consequence of mass lying, for it is easier to expend ammunition on a bunch of fleeing civilians than to engage a real military target. Even the looting has become organized. Ruslan Leviev, founder of the open-source-based Conflict Intelligence Team, claimed in an interview that soldiers are driving stolen cars laden with loot to Russia to sell them on improvised markets, and they pay part of the proceeds to their officers.... How did Mr. Putin think he could win this war? The answer has to do with state delusion. It is easy to mistake Russia for a military state. It isn’t. It’s true that the Russian state is run by siloviki (roughly translated as “the enforcers”), but those strongmen are from the Federal Security Service, known as the FSB, not the army. Mr. Putin, himself a former KGB officer, has long been highly suspicious of a possible army coup. The incompetence of the Russian military is at least partly intentional—designed to reinforce that the FSB, not the army, was in charge of running Russian society. The FSB and its political allies told Mr. Putin what he wanted to hear: namely, that Russia had an extensive network of sympathizers in Ukraine who would hand the country to him on a platter...." Ms. Latynina was a journalist with Echo of Moscow and Novaya Gazeta, Russian press outlets that have been shut down during Russia’s war with Ukraine.

WTF does this have to do with anything on this thread? Start your own thread to talk about Cuba.

One more excerpt from the Journal, on Russia's denial of Ukrainian identity: " "The idea that Ukrainians aren’t a real people and that Ukrainian nationhood is an artificial construct has long been mainstream in Russian culture, literature and politics—including among liberal luminaries like Brodsky, who died in 1996. President Vladimir Putin’s views on Ukraine, which he expounded in an essay last year that was read to Russian soldiers preparing for the invasion, are no outlier. They follow a lengthy tradition that helps to explain the continuing support for the war among Russia’s citizens. This blind spot dates to the beginnings of the modern Ukrainian quest for sovereignty more than a century ago. “The Russian democrat ends where the Ukrainian question begins,” said Ukrainian writer and playwright Volodymyr Vynnychenko, who served as prime minister of the short-lived Ukrainian National Republic in 1917-18. It has become one of the best-known phrases in Ukrainian politics. Nobel Prize-winning Russian poet Joseph Brodsky in 1994. PHOTO: KEITH BEATY/TORONTO STAR/GETTY IMAGES In Russia’s historical narrative and literary tradition, Ukrainians have often been depicted as dimwitted but good-natured peasants who speak with a funny accent, and whose quest for an independent future can only be the product of foreign intrigues. Mikhail Bulgakov, born in Kyiv to parents who had moved from Russia, mocked the Ukrainian language in his novels, with one character arguing that Ukrainians can’t have a word for whale because, unlike Russia, Ukraine doesn’t have oceans. Natives of Ukraine who achieved undisputed artistic or scientific success, from the painter Kazimir Malevich to the father of the Soviet space program, Sergei Korolyov, have been appropriated as Russian."

From the Wall Street Journal (which we all know is a flaming liberal newspaper): "Russia at the end of March switched its immediate objectives from taking Kyiv and ousting the elected government to seizing chunks of territory in Ukraine’s east. But any success in severing Ukrainian units’ supply lines might not be decisive, analysts say, because Russian forces would be vulnerable to Ukrainian counterattacks and face tough urban fighting....Russia has quickly thrown together the remnants of units that were decimated in fighting around Kyiv in the first weeks of the war and sent them into fighting in the east. That has left Russian forces there without sufficient logistical and other support, preventing a significant breakthrough, the U.K. Ministry of Defense said Wednesday, describing Russian advances as minor." As Russia has now bombed railways as well as hospitals, and has put land mines in farms, it does not look like they are particularly interested in preserving Ukrainian infrastructure. It's interesting because in WWII, many Japanese soldiers died because they had devastated the areas they invaded and there was no food.

Apparently SteveAJones likes Putin because Putin has fashioned himself as a gangsta in a music video. This is an example of the decline of western cultural standards. There is exactly one thing that Putin is right about, and that is that the West has been experiencing a cultural decline. Our pop culture for the last 30 years has been worshipping criminals and whores. But that doesn't mean our military still isn't the best in the world, nor does it mean our democracy is failing even though it has deep flaws. In fact this war in Ukraine has reminded me of the ways in which I'm still proud to be an American. Congress and the President have pulled themselves together and at least temporarily pushed aside their partisan bickering in order to help defend our allies, Europe in general and democracy. So many people I know are devoting their time to helping the Ukrainians. It goes to show that most Americans share the same values, and the two political parties have to manufacture bogus issues to drive us apart. We're coming out of the pandemic in much better shape than China, despite all the temper tantrums about mask-wearing. We're much more energy-independent than Europe. We are a net exporter of food. Our political system has stood for over 200 years. Despite a Hollywood culture that exalts materialism, conspicuous consumption, misogyny and the lowest elements of our culture, we're going to be around long after Russia and China collapse.

So many things to respond to... 1. Of course Russia wanted to take Kyiv; that was their first target. They RETREATED from Kyiv to fight a more limited war in the east and south. Why didn't they carpet the bomb the place or send more troops? Well, if they carpet-bombed the place, that would go against their propaganda that they were liberating Ukraine and would be welcomed with flowers. They now have abandoned both their goal and, it seems, the propaganda. One wonders how this is going over in Russia. Probably not well. 2. Who gets to decide what a "real" country is, the people who live there or Vladimir Putin? 3. Although it's disturbing that there are far right groups in the U.S. that identify with Putinism, they don't represent the majority of the Republican Party and even Trump has repudiated Putin, so I don't think we should make these people out to be more important than they are. The fact is this war has created an amazing level of bipartisan cooperation in the U.S. One silver lining, along with strengthening NATO. 4. Putin has been quoted saying the collapse of the Soviet Union was a "tragedy." There's proof positive that he doesn't see the independent countries that rose from the ashes of the Soviet Union as real. This is some type of delusional level of denial. 5. Zelensky is an elected leader who clearly has the support of his people and the military. It's the Ukrainian military who's running this war, however. As for him being "obviously" a "coke fiend," that's pretty funny. Aside from the fact that he is too personable, chubby and even-tempered to be a coke fiend, why would anyone care? Jimmy Page was a heroin addict for awhile, but that didn't stop any of us from listening to Led Zeppelin. 6. Thanks for the Who video. I've been thinking about how the novel most representative of this war is Lord of the Rings. The Ukrainians openly refer to the Russian soldiers as orcs and Russia as Mordor. It fits in so many ways, from the disorganized and occasionally fratricidal behavior of the orcs/Russian soldiers, to the top down organization of both militaries, to the all powerful leaders, to the brutality. In both stories there is also an unlikely diminutive hero (of sorts), efforts to shake sense into the kings of the west to make them realize war is on their doorstep whether they wish it to be or not, but most of all Gandalf's observation that the Shadow always takes another form and rises again...

It must be very difficult for you to understand how people can value democracy more than air conditioning. What is true is that there is nothing original about how Putin is conducting this war. All of the atrocities being committed have been committed in history before. Unprovoked invasion, bombing hospitals and schools, bombing ambulances, torturing and murdering civilians, rape, siege...I have to say I haven't seen so many being committed at one time before.

It's pretty shocking, although, I'm not sure how representative those individuals are.

I'm just not certain that this is true. Do you have evidence that Christian right-wing groups support Putin? Please supply a link or references of some type.

"John Osbourne" is not a member of the Christian right-wing in the U.S. He is a Russian troll.

rm2551 is absolutely correct; good job summing things up. There's currently a truce in Yemen. If you want to help in that area, you could donate to the UN World Food Programme, one of the UN's programs that does something effective. I was part of a discussion today with the head of the Ukrainian Psychological Association and another psychologist in Ukraine, sponsored by one of the APA branches here in the U.S. They are still doing their jobs. They asked for resources for specialized work with sexual assault victims, pregnant women and families with children with disabilities. Pregnant women have lost healthcare resources and so have the children with disabilities. If you are a mental health professional and would like more information from the talk, send me a message. Speaking of the latter, a friend of a good friend of mine is doing an independent initiative to help families with children with disabilities in Ukraine. If you would like to help her, I will provide her contact information. Send me a message. There is no overhead because she is not paid a salary and is doing this in her spare time as a volunteer. She speaks Russian and I think Ukrainian. She is helping them with transportation and housing.

I don't particularly care for Newsom, but as I often say to people, "sure, he's a jackass. But he's the best jackass we've got." There seems to be a shortage of good politicians in California. I have been puzzled by Biden's behavior in this catastrophe. He seemed at first to be on the ball in terms of warning that Putin was going to invade, then very slow at getting Ukraine the weapons they need. Maybe the strategy is to prolong the war, which Zelensky seemed to hint at, without mentioning the US by name. Ultimately though I think Biden is a classic US politician, who is ignorant about the world despite 8 years as Vice President, because he's still in his small town mentality where politics is backroom deals, backslapping, getting bills passed through compromise, being friends with the opposing party while denouncing them in public. US Presidents, as well as UK and European leaders, constantly misunderstand dictators and tyrants. They don't seem to grasp that these people are not playing by the rules of politics as played in Scranton, Pennsylvania. I have a funny story I could share about Members of Congress that my father encountered when he worked for the CIA.

Wow, the personal insults from "John Osbourne" are really piling up! Too bad he can't provide any credible sources for his numerous accusations against unnamed US officials. Since he's an American, I'm waiting to see the evidence that he so deeply cares about the Yemen conflict that he keeps talking about. Come to think of it, why didn't he start a thread about it? How about some photos from a protest he attended?

1. We now see that there IS a legitimate security interest of the West in NATO, which by the way is more than "a military alliance with former Soviet bloc nations." It started with our traditional allies of Britain and France. So in your view, because NATO expands, Russia has to devastate the nation of Ukraine, killing tens of thousands, wiping out hundreds of billions of dollars in real estate, causing vast environmental degradation, displacing millions, disrupting the world food supply, etc.? How about diplomacy? Oh wait... it's difficult to negotiate with an actor that is also trying to undermine your country by planting disinformation and meddling in our elections. Negotiations have to be based on trust. Sadly Russia, or rather Putin, has shown himself to be untrustworthy and invested in destroying democracy wherever he can. 2. As for your whataboutism regarding Saudi Arabia, I already told you that I've been opposed to the US alliance with Saudi Arabia for years. I write to my representatives regularly. I would ask you when YOU have protested Saudi Arabia's assault on Yemen, but then you aren't living in a country that has democracy, so it wouldn't be possible for you to do any advocacy that might upset the powers that rule you. I'd like to know however what type of protests you engage in. Probably none, because they would land you in jail. 3. Huh? The sanctions were because of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. I do agree that the West won't be able to destroy the Russian economy. I didn't advocate for that. I advocated that we crush their military. 4. But you are only proving my point. Autocracy and repression are on the rise around the world. I believe the most important step to ending this is for Western countries to become more self sufficient. We made a disastrous error in welcoming China into the WTO. Instead of liberalizing China, China became more totalitarian as it became richer. But China is dependent on the West to buy their merchandise and to provide cheap labor. The US needs to reconfigure our economy and bring manufacturing home. Europe needs to become energy self-sufficient. These are the long term solutions to the growing totalitarianism around the world. We need to trade with smaller countries and help them develop their democracies. They are afraid that the West is in decline (which is part of Russia and China's propaganda). That actually isn't true. China has huge debt problems and depends on other countries for food. Russia has two major exports, grain and fossil fuels. The US is still stronger than both of them. Our problem is our fractious partisan politics. I can see that you are now resorting to the last resort of the troll, name-calling.

One of the biggest myths around this war is that somehow the West provoked it by encouraging former Soviet bloc countries to join NATO. No one forced these countries to join NATO; they ran to NATO because they were afraid of Russia! Now everyone can see why! Another myth is that the US, or the West, or the smaller countries of the world, have no "interests" in Ukraine. Already we can see that the Russian invasion has disrupted the world food supply as well as causing unimaginable suffering to the people of Ukraine. It is causing environmental degradation and disrupted lives of school children. Russia itself is suffering, but its leaders don't care. And as I already pointed out, Russia has been engaged in a war with the US for some time, a disinformation/disruption war; they (Putin and the Russian elite) see our way of life as a threat to their domestic power. The US has every interest to crush Russian power because they are attempting to destroy us from within. As for the rest of the world, the Economist magazine had some good articles in the last issue. "Mr. Putin's belief in the dominance of great powers will not be limited to the battlefield...If Russia is allowed to prevail in Ukraine, bullying, lying and manipulation will further permeate trade, treaties and international law--the whole panoply of arrangements that are so easily taken for granted, but which keep the world turning....That vision may suit China, which is impatient to shape the world in its own interests...It would certainly suit tyrants, who want free rein to abuse their countries and terrorise their neighbours." This really is a war of good v. evil.