#pet army of ukraine

[anastasiamaru]

 Bakhmut

In the Bakhmut cold and death around

We pay the biggest price for our freedom

[fate221]

My homeland is drowning

On June 6th r*ssian army blew up Kakhovska HPP in Ukraine after it being mined by them since autumn. It’s not only another russia’s terroristic crime against humanity - it’s a global catastrophe, one of the biggest ecological and humanitarian disasters in the east of Europe. The consequences can be compared with the explosion of the nuclear bomb. It’s still hard to believe that my people have to go through of this, civilians specifically on the east have been bombed, occupied, stolen from, had to spent months without electricity and now a flood made them lose their homes. This is so damn unfair and my heart hurts for them every day, these people have been through too much pain and evil already. My relatives house was also flooded, just month since russia killed their daughter on Easter. And not only people suffer, a lot of animals and pets died because of the flood, a lot of cultural heritage - destroyed. And that’s only the beginning of the problem. The consequences to ecology are huge and horrifying, some of them we don’t even acknowledge yet.

It honestly drives me crazy to see people who actually easy swallow russian propaganda and think Ukraine did it with its own citizens, while Ukrainian officials literally YELLED that russians mined Kakhovska HPP since freaking november. While russians keep ignoring the danger telling that everything is okay but meanwhile shelling people who try to evacuate. While the whole zoo of 300 animals was flooded, caused terrible death to all of them, but russian media just said that “there was no zoo in Nova Kakhovka”. This is beyond evil and I have no idea how there’re people who still didn’t understand it. Their military came to our land destroying everything, killing people and animals without a thought, they blew up the dam because they were afraid Ukrainian army will kick them out, without caring about civilians or ecology. Well, why should they care, they can’t even care about their own people, their nature. Freaking monsters.

I beg you please share the info about what happened, tell the world that russia did it, this is the only way to justice, they have to pay for all the pain of Ukrainian people. Currently russian propaganda works fast and tries to hide the facts, but the dam was under russian occupation since last year, and mined by them for more than half of the year. The world has to see who did all of this and make them to pay.

Here’s the full info about the consequences of this disaster

Help us spread the word!

[ammg-old2]

A new sound wafts through the open windows at night in this town near the front line: children hollering at each other down the block, even long after dark.

The markets are full. Sales are surging at the local bike shop. Red tulips, planted by hand, are bursting open everywhere.

It is remarkable — “Unrecognizable,” one city official said — how different this small town in eastern Ukraine feels from a year ago. Last summer, Pokrovsk was a spooky landscape of boarded up houses and bushy yards. No one was around. Now it’s hard to take a few steps without passing someone on the sidewalk.

Nothing has changed outside Pokrovsk. The front line is still 30 miles away. Ukrainians are still dying in droves. One of the biggest armies in the world, that of the Russian Federation, is still bombing cities while they sleep and trying to take as much territory as it can, at a terrifying cost.

But what has changed — and it reflects something broader happening in small towns across this vast country — are people’s calculations. How much danger are they willing to accept? What is the best for them and their families? How should they accommodate the war on a daily basis? The answers to these questions seem different this year, and without consulting each other, many people have reached the same decision.

It is resilience, yes, but perhaps also something a little less shiny: resignation.

“The war is here. There is no safe place in Ukraine. So you might as well get on with it,” said Dr. Natalia Medvedieva, a family doctor who tried living in a safer place in western Ukraine with her son but came back here a few months later.

And home is home.

“It’s hard to describe what is so special about home,” said Pavel Rudiev, an engineer at Pokrovsk’s small train station. “It’s where everything is familiar, where you know people, where you have friends.”

When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, this principle didn’t hold. More than 13 million Ukrainians — a third of the country — fled from their homes. But as time went on, it became harder to stay away.

“I was running out of money,” said Iryna Ilina, a fitness instructor and beautician, sharing a common struggle of the displaced. She recently returned to Kramatorsk, another city not far from the front line where she owns an apartment. She was having trouble covering her rent in Pavlohrad, the safer city where she had been staying.

Many people said that when they were displaced, it was hard finding work. “And I need to work,” Dr. Medvedieva said. “I have my life.”

Since last summer, at a pretty steady rate, Ukrainians have been returning. More than 5.5 million have gone home, according to the International Organization for Migration, and not just to large cities like Kyiv, the capital, or Dnipro, but to small places as well, even those right behind the front line. While the exodus at the beginning of the war was dramatic and widely covered, the homecomings have been more gradual and haven’t generated nearly the same attention.

Of course there’s concern. Dr. Medvedieva keeps a bag packed with her documents, money and some clothes. Viktoriia Perederii, a veterinarian, who returned to Pokrovsk last year after trying to live in central Ukraine, said that many families bring her their pets to get clean health certificates for international travel in case they need to leave in a hurry.

“It’s difficult to evaluate the risks,” she said. “There is no safe place in Ukraine. Look at Uman,” she added, referring to the recent missile strike that killed 25 people in a city that, until that moment, many Ukrainians had considered perfectly safe.

At this time of year, Pokrovsk is basking in spring. White cherry blossom petals delicately flutter through the air and pile up along the curb in handsome drifts. The long side streets, lined by modest one-story homes with peaked roofs, smell of freshly turned earth. In the gardens out front, women in aprons and headscarves plant flowers — not something you do if you’re about to pack up and flee.

“Business is good,” said Larysa Titorenko, a seed vendor at Pokrovsk’s busy central market. Her racks of happily decorated packets were moving fast — marigolds, melons, radishes, carrots and about eight varieties of cucumber.

Then tears flashed in her eyes. Her daughter’s house had recently been destroyed in a frontline town not far away. “I’m OK, really,” she insisted, wiping her eyes with her sleeve.

This duality is everywhere. People in war do something that most in the world don’t have to — they keep two big thoughts running in their heads at all times: live life as fully and richly as possible and, at the same time, plan for it to be turned upside down.

Since last summer, the Russians have sliced away at Bakhmut, pushed closer to Avdiivka and leveled Marinka — all towns about an hour’s drive away. The front line is inching closer. You constantly hear dull thuds, almost like doors closing.

But people carry on as if it’s a faraway thunderstorm. At a pond-side park near the town center, teenage girls make halos out of dandelions, as they have for eons, and TikTok dance videos.

Nearby, men pump iron at an immaculate outdoor gym with rows of high-quality weight machines, exercise bars and even padded arm-wrestling tables. With wide stances, they strut around, cheeks red, chests puffed out. If you Photoshopped out the occasional tank getting towed past on a car carrier, it might look like California.

Before the war, the population was about 50,000. It dipped to around 30,000 last spring, when so many people across the country fled west. Now it’s back up — to 57,000, actually, said Serhiy Dobriak, the head of Pokrovsk’s military administration. Beyond the residents who have returned, others from surrounding hot spots, Avdiivka or even Mariupol, have flocked in.

Before the war, Pokrovsk had big plans. A billboard rising from a muddy intersection shows a schematic drawing of new office towers and lots of lights. “But we got to be realistic,” Mr. Dobriak said. “We will most likely be a militarized zone.”

No one here expects the war to end soon. “Years” is the reigning prediction. Some worry that the acceptance of it, this notion that life should go on regardless of it, means there will be less pressure to end it.

A military convoy chugged past an intersection, leaving behind a wake of diesel haze. Not far behind, a boy pedaled furiously on his bike, determined to catch up to his friends.

It was evening, warm, and the air was crisp, feeling wonderful on exposed skin. It is such a magnificent time of year that no one wanted to go inside, even with curfew approaching.

[w-armansky-blog]

Charred wheat on Ukrainian fertile agricultural land

A wheat field is one of the Ukrainian symbols. Ears of wheat have long carried the energy of fertility and wealth. Almost 60 percent of the territory of Ukraine is covered with fields on which grain crops are grown. The quality and fertility of Ukrainian black soil (chernozemic soil) were once ‘confirmed’ by the Germans, who transported it in wagons from Ukraine during the Second World War.

Currently in the Ukrainian regions of Zaporizhzhya, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Kherson and Donetsk the wheat fields are burning due to the explosions or the red-hot fragments of artillery shrapnel. With shelling Russia deliberately set wheat fields on fire, severely damaging crops.

The widespread destruction of the Ukrainian wheat fields that is under way now remains the Holodomor—the man-made famine orchestrated by Josef Stalin in the early 1930s to crush Ukrainian resistance to farm collectivisation. Stalin ordered the Soviet army to strip Ukrainian peasants of whatever food stores they had—even their pets. An estimated 3.9 million people died.

“The Russians are blowing up grain elevators. They are hitting cold storage facilities. There are even reports of them destroying farm equipment. There’s a very targeted approach to what they are doing.”

“Some people can’t fertilise their crop because the Russians are shooting everything that moves . There are reports of them mining the fields, the roads to the fields, not to mention a lot of unexploded ordinance and bodies in the fields. I think wheat yields will be on the floor—maybe a third or a quarter of what they’d normally be.” - Jonathan Clibborn, an Irish immigrant moved to Ukraine 15 years ago with just the shirt on his back, and now farms 3,000 hectares  in the region west of Lviv, near the Polish border.

“Ukraine will not be able to plant corn. The winter wheat in the ground will not be fertilised, and the harvest sharply reduced. That’s a real danger. They are a country of 40 million people, but they produce food for 400 million. That’s the reality of a globalised world. We are all in this together.”  - Arif Husain, chief economist at the UN World Food Programme.

source: https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/history-and-civilisation/2022

[warwidcw]

ABOUT THE MUSE.

General Information

Legal Name: Natalia Alianovna Romanova (Russian: Наталья Альяновна Романова)

Nicknames: Nat, Natasha, "Tasha", "Talia", Tsarina, Red

Aliases: Black Widow (Russian: черная вдова) / Natalia Shostakova (Russian: Наталья Шостакова) / Natalie Grey / Nadine Roman / Nancy Rushman / Natasha Romanoff

Date of Birth: Unknown, 1928

Age: 28 (physically) / 95 (chronologically)

Place of Birth: Stalingrad, Russia, USSR

Gender: Cis woman (she/her/hers)

Hair Color: Red

Eye Color: Blue

Height: 5'7

Weight: 131 lbs

Current Location: San Francisco, California / Little Ukraine, New York City, New York

Citizenship: Russian, Soviet (defected)

Education: Degree from Moscow University / various others / school-issued Certificate of Completion of Secondary Education

Affliction: The Avengers / SHIELD / KGB (formerly; 1962-1991) / Red Room Academy (formerly; 1956-1962) / Red Army (enlisted; 1943-1945)

Faceclaim(s): Alina Kovalenko (primary) / Rebecca Ferguson (secondary)

Family

Siblings: Unknown

Parents: Father (deceased) / Mother (deceased) / Ivan Petrovich Bezukhov (adoptive father, deceased)

Children: Rose (daughter, deceased [stillborn])

Extended family: Unknown

Pets: Black cat named Liho

Relationship Information

Relationship Status: Divorced

Spouse(s): Nikolai (deceased) / Alexei Shostakov (divorced)

[leeenuu]

Iryna and Viktor Dudnyk weep over the body of their son Dmytro, 38, killed in a Russian rocket attack in Kherson, on Saturday, December 10, 2022. (David Guttenfelder/The New York Times)

A Ukrainian soldier pets a dog as he rests inside a house near Bakhmut, Donetsk region, Ukraine, Thursday, December 22, 2022. (AP Photo/Libkos)

Ukrainian soldiers and civilians collecting water in a district of Kyiv on Friday, December 16, 2022. (Laura Boushnak/The New York Times)

A war prosecutor observes collected parts of Russian rockets which were used to attack the city of Kharkiv, in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Thursday, December 22, 2022. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Ukrainian soldiers fire a Pion artillery system at Russian positions near Bakhmut, Donetsk region, Ukraine, Friday, December 16, 2022. (AP Photo/LIBKOS)

An elderly woman walks along a street against background of a graffiti depicting General Valery Zaluzhny, head of Ukraine's armed forces and writing ""God is with us and commander Zaluzhny" in the area of the heaviest battles with the Russian invaders in Bakhmut, Ukraine, Tuesday, December 20, 2022. (AP Photo/Andriy Andriyenko)

An explosion illuminating the sky as a small surveillance team for the Ukrainian Army scanned the horizon over Bakhmut on Friday, December 9, 2022. (Tyler Hicks/The New York Times)

Children dance at the Dzherelo rehabilitation center during celebrations for Saint Nicholas Day, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, December 19, 2022. In a country where children have seen the horrors of a 10-month war, there are people trying to bring some peace and happiness to kids, at least for a moment during this holiday season in Ukraine. That has been happening this week in the outskirts of Kyiv at what used to be the upscale Venice hotel. Now it’s a rehabilitation center housing children who have experienced the horrors of the Russian invasion. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Ukrainian soldiers rest near their position in Bakhmut, Donetsk region, Ukraine, Saturday, December 17, 2022. (AP Photo/LIBKOS)

Ukrainian State Emergency Service firefighters work to extinguish a fire at the building which was destroyed by a Russian attack in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine, Friday, December 16, 2022. Russian forces launched at least 60 missiles across Ukraine on Friday, officials said, reporting explosions in at least four cities, including Kyiv. At least two people were killed by a strike on a residential building in central Ukraine, where a hunt was on for survivors. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

[mariacallous]

Two days after Russian troops retreated from Kherson on November 11, Ukraine Railways CEO Alexander Kamyshin arrived in the city accompanied by Ukrainian special forces and a small team of railway workers. They reached the central train station even before the regular army arrived to secure the city, and got to work. Six days later, the first train from Kyiv rolled into liberated Kherson.

“It was a magic day,” Kamyshin says. “We saw the faces of the people seeing the train, crying, waving their hands. Trust me, it was unforgettable. That’s one of the days to remember forever.” 

Since Russia began an intense assault on Ukraine a year ago today, Kamyshin and his colleagues have worked ceaselessly to keep Ukraine’s trains running. They’ve moved 4 million refugees and more than 330,000 metric tons of humanitarian aid, sending trains right up to—and sometimes beyond—the front lines of the conflict. With air travel all but impossible, Ukraine Railways has brought at least 300 foreign delegations into Kyiv in a program it calls “iron diplomacy.” Earlier this week, a train dubbed “Rail Force One” secretly carried US president Joe Biden to the Ukrainian capital for a symbolic visit.

All that work has taken place under near constant attack. “[The Russians shell] tracks, stations, bridges, power stations, cranes, they shell everything,” Kamyshin says. “Two hundred and fifty people died, 800 people injured. That’s only railwaymen and women. That’s the price we paid in this war.”

Speaking over Zoom from Kyiv, Kamyshin is taciturn, with a ready supply of one-liners. (Asked how it was possible to get trains into Mariupol, a city being flattened by Russian bombardments, he said simply: “very fast.”) He says Russia’s full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022, wasn’t entirely unexpected, and the government had contingencies in place in case of war. “Institutions like Ukrainian Railways always have a plan. The problem was, that plan was on paper. It was totally irrelevant.”

Kamyshin and Ukraine’s rail workers have had to make countless small, but enormously consequential decisions that weren’t part of the pre-invasion script. They abandoned ticketing so anyone who needed to travel could do so immediately. They slowed down the trains to limit casualties in the event of derailment or sabotage. They changed the rules on pets so that evacuees could bring them as they fled—Ukraine Railways estimates 120,000 animals have traveled over the past 12 months.

During the first three weeks of the war last year, as Russian troops pushed into central and southern Ukraine, the railway’s main focus was on evacuations and on moving humanitarian aid into towns and cities being bombed and shelled. Passenger trains went west toward the Polish border carrying refugees, then returned to the front filled with supplies. 

In Mariupol, a port city on the Black Sea close to the Russian border that was bombarded relentlessly until resistance finally collapsed in May 2022, rail workers managed to get trains in and out several times before the tracks were destroyed. The stranded crews were able to evacuate by road, but two trains are still stuck there.

Since the momentum of the war tilted last fall and Ukrainian forces began to retake huge areas of the country, Kamyshin’s focus has changed to reconnecting liberated towns and cities. “It’s important because it gives freedom to travel for people who have been captured for a long time. We bring humanitarian aid [at] scale … And it’s bringing the economy back to life,” he says.

As Russian forces have retreated, they’ve changed tactics, focusing their attacks on civilian infrastructure. Kamyshin says the past year has seen 12,000 strikes on the railway that needed to be fixed. He says maintenance crews have had to innovate to get ahold of parts and make repairs under fire but declined to give details. “Sharing creative solutions means giving ideas to Russians. Not the best idea at this moment,” he said.

As Russian strikes on power stations have become more common, Ukraine Railways has pressed old diesel locomotives into service. When an electric train gets stranded, a diesel engine goes out and rescues it. In blackouts, stations fire up backup generators, and when that fails, the railway can turn to a stock of 15,000 cubic meters of firewood. “We’re pretty well backed up,” Kamyshin says.

With nonmilitary flights over Ukraine all but impossible, Kamyshin and his colleagues have had to manage the flow of foreign leaders and diplomats heading to Kyiv to meet with the government. The journey from the Polish border to the Ukrainian capital takes 10 hours, and few leaders stay long before turning around. “President Biden spent 20 hours on the train and only four hours in Kyiv,” Kamyshin says. “We were interacting with him more than anyone else. So his opinion about my country was formed on the railways as strongly as it was formed in the city.”

Biden’s first words when he stepped off the train were “It’s good to be back in Kyiv.” His visit a few days before the anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine was an important piece of political theater that took weeks of planning. The president and his entourage boarded a train at Przemyśl Główny in Poland just after 9 pm, traveling overnight to arrive in Kyiv at 8 the next morning. 

Proud as he is of the iron diplomacy program, Kamyshin admits to a little frustration. Rail Force One, as it has become known, caused delays of up to 90 minutes to other services on the line. “That was painful for me and my team,” he says. “I apologized to my customers because that’s not the proper level of service we should provide.”

[brookstonalmanac]

Holidays 4.18

Holidays

Adult Autism Awareness Day

Anal Sex Day (Jim Jeffries)

Army Day (Iran)

Banyan Tree Birthday Party (Maui, Hawaii)

Battle of Dybbøl Day (Denmark)

Bilberry Day (French Republic)

Celebrate Ben Solo Day

Coggia’s Comet Day

Coma Patients’ Day (Poland)

Day of Historic and Cultural Monuments (Ukraine)

Day of Secretaries (Belgium, Netherlands)

89ers Day (Oklahoma)

Ernie Pyle Remembrance Day

Friend’s Day (Brazil)

I Love CSU Day (Colorado)

International Amateur Radio Day

International Day For Monuments and Sites (UNESCO)

International Erasure T-Shirt Day

International Juggler's Day

International No Declaw Day

Ianthe Asteroid Day

Invention Day (Japan)

Laundromat Day

National Columnists’ Day

National Exercise Day

National Financial Advisor Day

National Lineman Appreciation Day

National Lydia Day

National Poem in Your Pocket Day

National Send Nudes Day

National Sleep Apnea Awareness Day

National Transfer Money to Your Daughter’s Account Day

National Transgender HIV Testing Day

National Velociraptor Awareness Day

Newspaper Columnists' Day

Paul Revere Day

Pet Owners Independence Day (a.k.a. Pet Parents’ Day Off)

Piñata Day

Real People Day

Red Cross Society Day (Ukraine)

Respect Your Mother Day

Robanukah (Futurama)

Scouts’ Day (Armenia)

Sleep Apnea Awareness Day

Smile Big and Say Hi For No Particular Reason Day

Superman Day

Third World Day

Ushibuka Haiya Matsuri (Dance Festival; Japan)

Victory Over the Teutonic Knights in the Battle of the Ice (Russia)

World Amateur Radio Day

World Artisan Day

World Heritage Day

World Trifle Day

Youth Homelessness Matters Day

Zhabdrung Kuchhoe (Bhutan)

Food & Drink Celebrations

Animal Crackers Day

World Food Travel Day

3rd Thursday in April

Ask An Atheist Day [3rd Thursday; also 9.16]

Biomedical Research Awareness Day [3rd Thursday]

College Student Grief Awareness Day [3rd Thursday]

Get To Know Your Customers Day [3rd Thursday of each Quarter]

High Five Day [3rd Thursday]

International Pizza Cake Day [3rd Thursday]

National D.A.R.E. Day [3rd Thursday]

National High Five Day [3rd Thursday]

Sumardagurinn Fyrsti (1st Day of Summer; Iceland) [1st Thursday after 4.18]

Throwback Thursday [3rd Thursday]

Weekly Holidays beginning April 18 (3rd Week)

Cleaning for a Reason [thru 4.24]

Consumer Awareness Week [thru 4.23]

Health Information Professionals Week [thru 4.24]

National Osteopathic Medicine Week [thru 4.24]

Police Officers Who Gave Their Lives in the Line of Duty Week [thru 4.23]

Independence & Related Days

Earth’s Kingdom (Declared; 2020) [unrecognized]

Pinang (Declared; 2018) [unrecognized]

Republic of Eire (Formal Proclamation; 1949)

Zimbabwe (from UK, 1980)

New Year’s Days

Lao New Year Holiday (Laos)

Myanmar New Year Holidays (Myanmar)

Festivals Beginning April 18, 2024

Atlanta Wing Fest (Atlanta, Georgia)

Grape Day (Temecula, California)

Love the Burger Battle Contest (Luverne, Minnesota) [thru 5.25]

Roadburn Festival (Tilburg, Netherlands) [thru 4.20]

Taste of St. Croix (St. Croix, US Virgin Islands)

Feast Days

Agapitus (Christian; Saint)

Agia (Christian; Saint)

Apollonius the Apologist (Christian; Saint)

Bun-Bun Brothers’ Day (Muppetism)

Carista: Day of Peace in the Family (Pagan)

Corebus (Christian; Saint)

Cyril VI of Constantinople (Eastern Orthodox Church)

Eleutherius, Antia & His Companions (Christian; Martyrs)

Festival of Matsu (a.k.a. Mazu; Taoist Sea Goddess)

Festival of Rama-Navami (Hinduism; Everyday Wicca)

Fox Tail Burning Day (Ancient Rome)

Galdino della Sala (a.k.a. Galdin; Christian; Saint)

Gustave Moreau (Artology)

Idesbald (Christian; Saint)

Jeanne-Elisabeth Chaudet (Artology)

Lady Macbeth Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

Laserian (a.k.a. Laisren or Molaisse; Christian; Saint)

Ludwig Meisner (Artology)

Make Faerie Rocks Day (Starza Pagan Book of Days)

Laserim, Bishop of Laighlin, Ireland (Christian; Saint)

Max Weber (Artology)

Molaise of Leighlin (Christian; Saint)

Nihilism Day (Pastafarian)

Perfectus (Christian; Saint)

Plato of Sakkoudion (Christian; Saint)

Three Impossible Mixtures Day (Celtic Book of Days)

The Underlings (Muppetism)

Vitruvius (Positivist; Saint)

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Shakku (赤口 Japan) [Bad luck all day, except at noon.]

Tycho Brahe Unlucky Day (Scandinavia) [18 of 37]

Unglückstage (Unlucky Day; Pennsylvania Dutch) [15 of 30]

Premieres

Absolute Beginners (Film; 1986)

Alice’s Circus Dance (Disney Cartoon; 1927)

Apes of Wrath (WB MM Cartoon; 1959)

Baggage Buster (Disney Cartoon; 1941)

Barnyard Olympics (Disney Cartoon; 1932)

Beyond This Horizon, by Robert A. Heinlein (Novel; 1948)

Chess-Nuts (Betty Boop Cartoon; 1932)

Dog Trouble (Tom & Jerry Cartoon; 1942)

Fancy Free, by Leonard Bernstein (Ballet; 1944)

Forgetting Sarah Marshall (Film; 2008)

Four Quartets, by T.S. Eliot (Poetry; 1943)

Gorky Park, by Martin Cruz Smith (Novel; 1981)

Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln (Disneyland Animatronic Exhibit; 1964)

Holes (Film; 2003)

Kongo-Roo (Phantasies Cartoon; 1946)

Legend (Film; 1986)

Little Johnny Jet (MGM Cartoon; 1953)

Mare of Easttown (TV Series; 2021)

Manifestoes of Surrealism, by André Breton (Book; 1924)

Master and Commander, by Patrick O'Brian (Novel; 1969)

Muscle Tussle (WB MM Cartoon; 1953)

The Razor’s Edge, by W. Somerset Maugham (Novel; 1944)

The Saint in Trouble, by Graham Weaver (Short Stories; 1978) [Saint #47]

Sheikh of Araby, recorded by Sidney Bechet (Song; 1941)

The Simple Things (Disney Cartoon; 1953)

Speaking of Animals Down on the Farm (Animated Antics Cartoon; 1941)

Straight Shooters (Disney Cartoon; 1947)

Teen Titans: The Judas Contract (WB Animated Film; 2017)

Three Little Wolves (Disney Silly Symphonies Cartoon; 1936)

Uncle Joey (Terrytoons Cartoon; 1941)

Winged Migration (Documentary Film; 2003)

Today’s Name Days

Werner, Wigbert (Austria)

Viktor, Viktoriya (Bulgaria)

Atanazija, Eusebije, Hermogen, Roman (Croatia)

Valérie (Czech Republic)

Eleutherius (Denmark)

Valdek, Valdeko, Valdemar, Valdo, Valdu, Valdur, Valmar, Valmer, Voldemar, Volli, Volmer (Estonia)

Valdemar, Valto (Finland)

Parfait (France)

Werner, Wigbert (Germany)

Eirene, Eirini, Irene, Irini, Nikolaos, Nikoleta, Nikos, Nicholas, Nicolas, Nick, Rafael, Rene, Rena, Renia, Rhenia (Greece)

Andrea, Ilma (Hungary)

Galdino (Italy)

Dana, Hildegarde, Jadviga, Laura, Nameisis (Latvia)

Apolonijus, Eitvilas, Girmantė, Undinė (Lithuania)

Eilen, Eilert (Norway)

Apoloniusz, Bogusław, Bogusława, Flawiusz, Gościsław (Poland)

Ioan (Romania)

Valér (Slovakia)

Perfecto (Spain)

Valdemar, Volmar (Sweden)

Anthea, Ayana, Ayanna, Warner, Werner (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 109 of 2024; 257 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 4 of week 16 of 2024

Celtic Tree Calendar: Saille (Willow) [Day 5 of 28]

Chinese: Month 3 (Wu-Chen), Day 10 (Ren-Zi)

Chinese Year of the: Dragon 4722 (until January 29, 2025) [Wu-Chen]

Hebrew: 10 Nisan 5784

Islamic: 9 Shawwal 1445

J Cal: 19 Cyan; Fryday [19 of 30]

Julian: 5 April 2024

Moon: 76%: Waxing Gibbous

Positivist: 25 Archimedes (4th Month) [Strabo]

Runic Half Month: Man (Human Being) [Day 9 of 15]

Season: Spring (Day 31 of 92)

Week: 3rd Week of April

Zodiac: Aries (Day 29 of 31)

[anastasiamaru]

Rex

This dog lost their family.Now this guy in Ukrainian Armed Forces

Carries ammunition for Ukrainian Airborne troops.

[chill-llihc]

Help Ukraine!

There’s a helpful resource with all helpful information and initiatives that can help in a war time. Please share it as it can help someone.

https://zoya-movement.notion.site/Zoya-Hub-69a60f562ccb48c3a17172620e06a9c2

1. UKRAINE. There is the helpful information on how to keep yourself and your family safe from bombing and at war overall, links to the most important news sources right now, and a bunch of help initiatives (army help, medical and humanitarian aid, help with relocation, and job, psychological aid, pets and animal aid, women, kids, and LGBT aids also)   – it also must be useful for people who not only need help but also want to help the country and its people.

2. BELARUS. Belarus has been under the regime for a long time, but in the last 2 years after protesting, it got the way worse. At this block you can find the information about how to be safe in this country right now and not let your sons/brothers/fathers go to war, all non-gov news sources that still exist, the ways and help on how to leave the country if you are under repressions and initiatives that help protesters.

3. RUSSIA. Here’s some information on how to talk with your family members/friends who believe in Putin’s gov-propaganda, how to be safe at protests, the list of anti-war movements, the information on how to not go to war if you are a soldier or in a group of people who are under conscription rules and list of legal initiatives that can help you if you’ve got caught in hands of the regime. Also, there’s a list of ways you can help Ukrainians if you are in Russia (as it’s illegal to do right now in the country).

4. INTERNATIONAL. It’s the block for people all around the world with donation links. Also, you can check the Ukrainian block for more help initiatives.

[an-undercover-bi]

I posted 8,094 times in 2022

127 posts created (2%)

7,967 posts reblogged (98%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@friendofthecrows

@virginiaisforhaters

@daughter-of-ophelia

@refractedglade

@arsnof

I tagged 3,653 of my posts in 2022

#videos - 506 posts

#lmao - 196 posts

#need to show parents - 167 posts

#tw food mention - 150 posts

#need to show friends - 138 posts

#tw food - 132 posts

#art - 101 posts

#for later - 89 posts

#cats - 84 posts

#need to remember - 81 posts

Longest Tag: 140 characters

#definitely more so than those who are spouting bullshit about how you shouldn’t support ukraine’s army during the invasion or other gross bs

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Going to meet a kitten today to see if she’s a good fit for my folks’ and my house. Wish me luck!

22 notes - Posted October 28, 2022

#4

29 notes - Posted February 20, 2022

#3

Y’ALL!!! I GOT A DJUNGELSKÖG!!!! HE’S HERE HE’S HERE HE’S HERE!!!

He’s so much larger than anticipated!!! Pip the smallheaded bear is here for scale.

486 notes - Posted February 21, 2022

#2

Look on your local bed and you may find a Friend and Boy.

528 notes - Posted January 24, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Bucky just pushed a random nickel towards me from under his belly??? My cat just gave me money?? Where did he get this??

???

Reblog for your pet to bring you loose change, I guess???

1,085 notes - Posted January 8, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[brookston]

Holidays 4.23

Holidays

Alfred G. “Alferd” Packer Day (Colorado)

Aragon Day (Spain)

Army Reserves Day (US)

Asian Corpsetwt Day [Every 23rd]

Boice Day (South Korea)

Book Day (Canada)

Book Day and Lover's Day (Spain)

Bulldogs Are Beautiful Day

Castile and León Day (Spain)

Children’s Day (Turkey)

Community Day (Spain)

Content Creator Day

Copyright Day

Day of Aragon (Spain)

Day of Books and Roses (Catalonia, Spain)

Drive It Day (UK)

Electric Mixer Day

English Language Day (UN)

Flag Day (England)

George Castriota Day (Albania)

Hawthorn Day (French Republic)

Impossible Astronaut Day (Dr. Who)

International Choro Day

International Creator Day

International Day of the Book

International Fibrodyysolasia Ossificans Progressive Awareness Day

International Nose Picking Day

International Pallas Cat Day

International Pixel-Stained Technopeasant Day

International Share a Secret Day

International Sing Out Day

Jurgi Day (Ancient Latvia)

Khongjom Day (Manipur, India)

La Diada de Sant Jordi (Catalonia, Spain)

Linnaeus Day (Sweden)

London Marathon Day (UK)

Lover's Day

Movie Theater Day

National Bryan Day

National Email Day

National Grief-in-Public Day

National Lost Dog Awareness Day

National Lover’s Day

National Lugaw Day (Philippines)

National Read Me Day

National Sovereignty and Children’s Day (Turkey, Northern Cyprus)

National Take a Hike with Nick Day

National Vagina Appreciation Day

Navy Day (China)

Penny Day

Pet Tech CPR Day

Psychologist Day (Ukraine)

Public School Day

Sigurd the Dragon Slayer's Day

Slay a Dragon Day

Spanish Language Day (UN)

Take a Chance Day

Talk Like Shakespeare Day

Teach Your Children To Save Day

Veterans Day (Estonia)

Visalia Priora

Wild Hyacinth Day

World Book Day (UN; except Ireland, UK)

World Book Night (Ireland, Germany, UK, US)

World Laboratory Day

World Table Tennis Day

YouTube Day

Food & Drink Celebrations

Allagash Saison Day [original date]

Bavarian Beer Day

Biertag (Germany)

Cherry Cheesecake Day

German Beer Day

International Cava Day

International Reinheitsgebot Day

National Asparagus Day (UK)

National English Muffin Day

National Licorice Day

National Picnic Day

National Taffy Day

New Coke Day

St. George's Day (traditional end of Bavarian lager brewing season)

4th Tuesday in April

National Library Day [Tuesday of Library Week]

National Library Workers Day [Tuesday of Library Week]

School Bus Driver’s Day [4th Tuesday]

Weekly Holidays beginning April 23 (4th Week)

Global Road Safety Week (UN) [thru 23-29]

National Princess Week (thru 4.29)

Independence & Related Days

Australland (Declared; 2021) [unrecognized)

Conch Republic (Declared; 1982) [unrecognized)

Israel (a.k.a. Yom Ha’atzmaut; Declared; 1948)

National Sovereignty Day, Day 2 (Turkey)

Festivals Beginning April 23, 2024

Les Printemps de Bourges (Bourges, France) [thru 4.28]

London Marathon (London, England)

Feast Days

Adalbert of Prague (Christian; Saint)

Antoine Vollon (Artology)

Cervantes (Writerism)

Chance Day (Shamanism)

Cynical Bastards Day (Pastafarian)

Day of the Glorious Fuckup (Church of the SubGenius)

Feast of Hephaestus (Greek Blacksmith God & Brewer)

Felix, Fortunatus, and Achilleus (Christian; Martyrs)

Festival of Saint Sarah the Egyptian (Sara Kali the Black Queen; Les Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, France) begins [until 25th]

George [England, traditional end of Bavarian lager brewing season] *

Gerard, Bishop of Toul (Christian; Saint)

Giles of Assisi (Christian; Saint)

Gerard of Toul (Christian; Saint)

The Goddess is Alive Day (Everyday Wicca)

Ibar (a.k.a. Ivor) of Beggerin (or Meath; Christian; Saint)

Ji-Young (Muppetism)

J.M.W. Turner (Artology)

J.P. Donleavy (Writerism)

Miltiades (Positivist; Saint)

Shakespeare Day (Starza Pagan Book of Days)

Snood Day (Celtic Book of Days)

Toyohiko Kagawa (Episcopal and Lutheran Church)

Vinalia Urbana (a.k.a. Vinalia Prima or Priora; Ancient Roman wine festival)

Vulcan's Day (Ancient Rome)

Walpurgisnacht, Day I (Pagan)

William Shakespeare (Writerism)

Lunar Calendar Holidays

Full Moon [4th of the Year] (a.k.a. ... 

Awakening Moon (Neo-Pagan)

Breaking Ice Moon (Traditional)

Budding Moon of Plants and Shrubs (Traditional)

Egg Moon (Alternate)

Fish Moon (Alternate)

Flower Moon (Cherokee)

Gold Star Spouses Day

Grass Moon (Alternate, North America)

Growing Moon (Celtic)

Hunter’s Moon (South Africa)

Moon When the Ducks Come Back (Traditional)

Peony Moon (China)

Pink Moon (Amer. Indian, Traditional)

Planter’s Moon (Colonial)

Seed Moon (England, Wicca)

Southern Hemisphere: Blood, Harvest, Hunter’s

Wildcat Moon (Choctaw)

God of Medicine Day (Taiwan) [15th Day, 3rd Month]

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Prime Number Day: 113 [30 of 72]

Taian (大安 Japan) [Lucky all day.]

Premieres

The American Political Tradition and the Men Who Made It, by Richard Hofstadter (Political Theory; 1948)

Benny & Joon (Film; 1993)

Black and Blue, by The Rolling Stones (Album; 1976)

The Black Marble, by Joseph Wambaugh (Novel; 1978)

Cherrybomb (Film; 2009)

Dogville (Film; 2003)

Election (Film; 1999)

The Excursions of Mr. Brouček to the Moon and to the 15th Century, by Leoš Janáček (Opera; 1920)

Fall Out - Fall In (Disney Cartoon; 1943)

Frog Jog (Tijuana Toads Cartoon; 1972)

Gregory’s Girl (Film; 1981)

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou (Autobiography; 1969)

Indian Summer (Film; 1993)

A Jolly Good Furlough (Fleischer/Famous Popeye Cartoon; 1943)

Lemonade, by Beyoncé (Album; 2016)

Man on Fire (Film; 2004)

Merry Wives of Windsor, by William Shakespeare (Play; 1597)

Nexus, by Henry Miller (Novel; 1959) [Rosy Crucifixion #3]

The Penguin Parade (WB MM Cartoon; 1938)

Ramones, by Ramones (Album; 1976)

Return to Paradise, by James A. Michener (Novel; 1951)

Shadow and Bone (TV Series; 2021)

Sita Sings the Blues (Animated Film; 2010)

Snow Place Like Home (Chilly Willy Cartoon; 1966)

Sticky Fingers, by The Rolling Stones (Album; 1971)

The Stories of John Cheever, by John Cheever (Short Story Collection; 1979)

Symphony No. 1 in C Major, by Mily Balakirev (Symphony; 1898)

Symphony No. 2 in D Minor, by Mily Balakirev (Symphony; 1909)

Teen Titans Go! (Animated Film; 2013)

There’s Good Boos To-Night (Noveltoons Cartoon; 1948)

13 Going on 30 (Film; 2004)

Touch of Evil (Film; 1958)

Two for the Record (Disney Cartoon; 1954)

When I Was Cruel, by Elvis Costello (Album; 2002)

Who Scent You? (WB LT Cartoon; 1960)

Today’s Name Days

Adalbert, Georg, Jörg, Jürgen (Austria)

Toma, Tomislav, Tomislava (Bulgaria)

Adalbert, Đurđica, Đuro, Juraj (Croatia)

Vojtěch (Czech Republic)

Georgius (Denmark)

Georg, Jürgen, Jürgo, Jüri, Jürjo, Jürnas, Jüts, Ürjo (Estonia)

Jiri, Jori, Jyri, Jyrki, Yrjänä, Yrjö (Finland)

Georges (France)

Georg, Gerhard, Jörg, Jürgen (Germany)

Georgios, Giorgos, Thomas, Yorgos (Greece)

Béla (Hungary)

Giorgio (Italy)

Georgs, Jorens, Jurģis, Juris (Latvia)

Adalbertas, Daugaudas, Jurgis, Vygailė (Lithuania)

Georg, Jørgen, Jørn (Norway)

Adalbert, Gerard, Gerarda, Gerhard, Helena, Jerzy, Wojciech (Poland)

Gheorghe (Romania)

Vojtech (Slovakia)

Jorge (Spain)

Georg, Göran (Sweden)

George (Ukraine)

Brayan, Breana, Breanna, Breanne, Brian, Briana, Brianna, Brianne, Brielle, Brien, Briona, Bryan, Bryana, Bryanna, Bryant, Brynn, Bryon, Shirlee, Shirleen, Shirley (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 114 of 2024; 252 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 2 of week 17 of 2024

Celtic Tree Calendar: Saille (Willow) [Day 10 of 28]

Chinese: Month 3 (Wu-Chen), Day 15 (Ding-Si)

Chinese Year of the: Dragon 4722 (until January 29, 2025) [Wu-Chen]

Hebrew: 15 Nisan 5784

Islamic: 14 Shawwal 1445

J Cal: 24 Cyan; Threesday [23 of 30]

Julian: 10 April 2024

Moon: 100%: Full Moon

Positivist: 2 Caesar (5th Month) [Leonidas]

Runic Half Month: Man (Human Being) [Day 14 of 15]

Season: Spring (Day 36 of 92)

Week: 4th Week of April

Zodiac: Taurus (Day 4 of 31)

[hoursofreading]

A number of my blog readers have been asking me to lay out my broad moral framework. Usually I resist this impulse. As David Hume wrote, humans decide on right and wrong based on a confusing and often mutually contradictory jumble of moral instincts, and attempts to fit those instincts into a rigid, internally consistent moral code are generally an exercise in futility. But if I do have one consistent, bedrock principle about the way the world ought to work, it’s this — the strong should protect and uplift the weak. Nature endows some people with strength — sharp claws, size and musculature, resistance to disease. Human society endows us with other forms of strength that are often far more potent — guns, money, social status, police forces and armies at our backs. Everywhere there is the temptation for those with power to crush those without it, to enslave them, to extract labor and fealty and fawning flattery. “The strong do what they can, and the weak suffer what they must,” wrote Thucydides; this is as concise a statement as you’ll ever find of the law of the jungle, both the real jungle and the artificial jungles humans create for ourselves. A hierarchy of power and brutality is a high-entropy state, an easy equilibrium toward which social interactions naturally flow. I believe that it is incumbent upon us as thinking, feeling beings — it is our moral purpose and our mission in this world — to resist this natural flow, to stand against it, to reverse it where possible. In addition to our natural endowments of power, we must gather to ourselves what additional power we can, and use it to protect and uplift those who have less of it. To some, that means helping the poor; to others, fighting for democracy or civil rights; to others, it simply means taking good care of their kids, or of a pet rabbit. But always, it means rolling the stone uphill, opposing the natural hierarchies of the world, fighting to reify an imaginary world where the strong exercise no dominion over the weak. We will never fully realize that world, of course. And my morality is easier to declare than to put into practice; on the way we will make many missteps. We will make mistakes about who is strong and who is weak, punching down when we self-righteously tell ourselves we’re punching up. Like the communists of the 20th century, we will sometimes invert one unjust hierarchy only to put another in its place. And we will be corrupted by the power we gather, mouthing high principle while exploiting some of those we claim to protect; we will tell ourselves that we’re knights while acting like barbarians (just as actually existing knights often did). All these things will happen, and yet it is incumbent upon us to do the best we can, to keep fighting the good fight for a gentler, more equal world. This basic principle obviously informs most of the political views you’ve seen me express on this blog. It’s why I support using American power to help Ukraine defend itself from Russian conquest (and if anyone typified the exact opposite of my moral philosophy, the elevation of pure domineering bully-ism to the level of national guiding principle, it’s Putin’s Russia). It’s why I thought the Iraq War was a crime. It’s why I’ll always support trying to uplift the poor and working class — with welfare benefits, of course, but also with education, jobs, job training, better working conditions, and other policies that give them the power to support themselves and their families. It’s why I believe a just society is one where there is no outgroup. Now, I don’t deceive myself about my ability to produce any of these outcomes. I’m just some guy who writes a blog and hangs out with rabbits. I’m not very powerful by myself, but maybe to some tiny degree I can inspire you to use whatever power you happen to have to protect and uplift the weak. If so, then maybe I’ve done a tiny little smidgen of good with my minuscule allocation of time on this planet. There are so many tiny lives out there. Look out your window at the city around you — there are so many little rabbits living in those little apartments and houses, and so many people living there too. You will never know more than the barest fraction of them. But somewhere in that wild, infinite jungle, there is someone who needs your help. Somewhere there is a princess that someone else thinks is just a hamburger. It’s on you to find them and do what you can.

Why rabbits? - by Noah Smith - Noahpinion

[cyberbenb]

How Russian soldiers shared evidence of their own war crime

Editor’s note: This story is the first account of the Kyiv Independent’s contributor, Anthony Bartaway, who witnessed Russian shelling targeting volunteers during relief efforts following the destruction of the Kakhovka dam and the ensuing devastating flooding in Kherson Oblast.

After Russian forces destroyed the Kakhovka dam on the night of June 6, volunteers from all over the country and the world rushed to the flooded Kherson Oblast to save whoever and whatever they could. But the typical dangers of flooding were compounded by a constant drum beat of Russian artillery from just on the other side of the water, targeting rescuers and victims of the disaster as they were trying to receive much needed aid.

One such group was a team of German volunteers called 4Paws Rescue, which focused on saving animals. They went to Kherson to help those affected by the manufactured flood but ended up facing the dangers of being on the front line of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Their team, along with others at the same evacuation point, came under fire from Russian artillery. Myself among them. One volunteer was severely wounded.

Russian forces had been shelling Kherson since the city at the mouth of the Dnipro River was liberated from their occupation in November, but this incident proved somewhat unique. The Russian artillery crew responsible filmed and publicized their attack, providing direct evidence of their war crime.

Ominous day

I met with 4Paws at a guest house in Kherson that had become a hub for press, volunteers, and soldiers.

Some of their members had been volunteering in Ukraine since the early days of the full-scale invasion and were involved in animal rescue efforts in many places, including Bucha and Kharkiv.

For this trip, they communicated with UAnimals, one of the country’s largest animal welfare organizations. Their initial task in Kherson was to set up an animal shelter for UAnimals, but they ended up coming prepared and equipped to rescue animals directly from the flood.

British volunteer John Jones puts together an animal shelter along with other 4Paws Rescue volunteers in Kherson on June 14, 2023. (Photo: Anthony Bartaway)

The day of June 14 was a long one and might have been ominous.

The civilian relief efforts in Kherson were fairly chaotic and could be a complex web of permissions and coordinating who can get ahold of what equipment and when. After waiting several hours for a permit from the military authorities of the city to enter the flood waters, then came securing a metal boat from other volunteers that could handle the dangerous current of the swollen Dnipro River. By the time the actual work could begin, it was already late afternoon.

Sometime between five and six o’clock in the afternoon, the crew arrived near a boat launch in the southwest of Kherson, immediately to the west of the rail bridge across the Koshova River. In peacetime, the bridge was the primary freight connection to the dockyards and warehouses of the Korabelnyi neighborhood that drove much of the city’s economy. The Russian army is now perched on the opposite bank of the Dnipro, constantly shelling the area and making shipping impossible. With the Russian-made flood, Korabelnyi was swallowed by the deluge and was the focus of most of the rescue efforts within the city limits of Kherson.

Saving lives from Russia’s flood: Inside inundated, shelled Kherson

Since Russia’s full-scale war began, first came eight months of terror under occupation, then came seven months of intense shelling across the river, then came the river itself to Kherson. Over 24 hours after Russian forces destroyed the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant and its massive…

The Kyiv IndependentFrancis Farrell

4Paws had received information from sources working within the neighborhood about pets that had been left behind during evacuations and people waiting out the flood waters in the higher floors of multi-story apartments.

However, even at the gathering point roughly 500 meters from the boat launch, there had to be more waiting, and we got news of more serious trouble. Police at a block post on the scene warned that the Russians had set up a tank on the opposite side of the Dnipro that had targeted the area with indirect fire the day prior and that they had a clear shot down the length of the road leading to the river.

The team’s sense of worry was rising, and now we were running out of daylight. But, during the wait, we met with several other volunteers from other rescue groups: House of Hope and Kyiv Animal Rescue Group. They would soon prove to be invaluable.

While there was now much more trepidation than earlier in the day, the decision was made to proceed with the mission shortly before 7 p.m. The launch had only recently been covered by the then-receded floodwaters, so it was a big mud flat. After helping the team to disembark and get the engine working, some other members and I decided to vacate the area so the Russian drones would not see a large group of people to target.

Volunteers launch a boat during relief efforts in flooded Kherson Oblast following Russia’s destruction of the Kakhovka dam on June 14, 2023. (Photo: Anthony Bartaway)

After returning to the meeting point, we got word that the boat’s engine was stalling out and that we would need to retrieve the crew.

But then it came.

The telltale whistle of artillery shells ripped the air, followed by the explosions from their impact. Within the span of a few minutes, roughly five struck nearby.

Shortly thereafter, the House of Hope team sped back in the direction of the city, yelling to get to safety. As the rest of the group returned to the shelter at the meeting point, we learned that two of them had been hit. One was mostly fine, but that House of Hope van evacuated the other who had been grievously injured by shrapnel.

The man who had been hit was a British volunteer named John Jones, who had spent most of the war filling in to help with whatever aid group needed an extra set of hands and seemed to have friends throughout Kherson and Ukraine more broadly.

The area of the Russian shelling targeting volunteers during relief efforts in flooded Kherson. (Source: Google Maps)

As doctors later determined, the shrapnel shredded into the right side of his lower abdomen, breaking his pelvis but somehow missing any vital organs. A few centimeters in any direction, though, and it would have likely been fatal.

John described the incident with his signature good spirits: “After the explosion I looked down and saw raspberry jam in the water. It took me a moment to realize it was me. The next thing I know I was being carried off.”

The incident was an intense one, but not very special.

The Russians had been attacking rescue workers throughout the Kherson relief effort. According to the Interior Ministry, as of June 20, near the end of the flooding, Russian fire had killed five people.

What made it unique, however, came the next day.

Publishing evidence

On June 15, a new video was posted by the Russian military propaganda Telegram channel “The Disgusting 8.” It showed the exact moment of the artillery strike along with the description that they were attacking a group of “enemy infantry” who had been trying to cross the Dnipro at the Koshova bridge, only to be intercepted by “an artillery unit from PMC Livadia.”

The video was taken by the drone we heard buzzing overhead, spotting to find targets to shoot at. The production was complete with roaring music.

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The video of the Russian artillery attack on volunteers in Kherson Oblast shared on Russian Telegram channels on June 15, 2023. (Video: Omerzitelnaya 8/Telegram)

Livadia was initially reported on in Russian media at the beginning of 2023, described as a Crimean “volunteer battalion.” A piece by Russia 24 showed its members fighting in Kherson Oblast in February.

“The Disgusting 8” appears to be run by Russian soldiers deployed in Kherson Oblast, set up to show their “everyday work,” according to the Telegram channel’s description. It frequently publishes footage of drone and artillery attacks carried out by Livadia and calls its members “brothers.”

According to the Center for Journalism Investigations, a Crimean outlet currently working from Kyiv, the Livadia battalion is part of the Russian Combat Army Reserve, or BARS – specifically, BARS-30. BARS units are technically reservists in the Russian army, but in practice, they are often a way to legally formalize various irregular units, mainly private military companies. Through this organizational scheme, Livadia is considered a part of the 150th Motorized Rifle Division out of the Rostov region of Russia.

The Livadia private military company was reportedly founded by Sergey Aksyonov, the head of the Russian occupation authorities in Crimea, illegally installed in 2014.

According to multiple media reports, Livadia includes the Convoy private military company, an offshoot of the Wagner Group. Convoy is reportedly commanded by Konstantin Pikalov, aka “Mazay,” a close confidant of Yevgeny Prigozhin who had frequently handled Prigozhin’s business in various African countries.

Livadia is part of a network of a few different units referred to as the Aksyonovites, after their leader. The primary mission that the Aksyonovites were recruited for is to prevent Ukraine from liberating the peninsula.

Army of hired guns: How Russia’s ‘PMCs’ are becoming the main invasion force

Private armies are illegal in Russia, so naturally, Moscow has been using them for decades. Now, it’s making them the main invasion force. The rate at which Russia creates new private military company-like units sped up after 2014 but it really took off during the full-scale invasion of Ukraine,

The Kyiv IndependentIgor Kossov

More war crimes

Russian forces frequently fired on volunteers working to rescue people from the flooding. One of the more prominent examples was a team daring enough to attempt a rescue mission on the Russian-occupied left bank of the Dnipro. The Russian military fired on them, killing three and injuring 23, according to the Kherson Oblast Prosecutor’s Office.

Every other aid volunteer I contacted about incidents of Russian attacks on aid workers reported that the shelling got worse throughout the rescue effort, and most had close calls themselves.

There were no deaths from this particular incident, and John is well on his way to recovery. But the simple fact that Livadia posted video evidence of themselves targeting rescue workers, who themselves have video evidence from the other end of the attack, is a rare incidence of being able to directly tie a specific war crime to the specific group that carried it out.

Further investigations may possibly even find the exact Russian soldiers involved.

Sinking memories. Kherson residents recover after Kakhovka dam disaster (PHOTOS)

Editor’s note: The following is a photo essay and a personal reflection on the flooding of Kherson by Ukrainian photographer Anastasia Vlasova, a native of Kherson. Vlasova returned to her hometown days after Russia destroyed Kakhovka dam in early June, resulting in a catastrophic flooding of many c…

The Kyiv IndependentAnastasia Vlasova

[ricmlm]

Russian President Vladimir Putin often recalls the epic defeat that the Soviet Union imposed on Nazi Germany during World War II to justify his country's invasion of Ukraine. Yet, as scholars and military historians explain, Putin is committing some of the mistakes that doomed the German invasion of the USSR in 1941 – while using “Hitler tricks and tactics” to justify his brutality. There are, of course, significant differences between the current war in Ukraine and the confrontation between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. The Nazi war machine was formidable, agile and well trained. The Wehrmacht killed and wounded 150,000 Red Army soldiers in the first week of their invasion in June 1941. They took control of vast areas of territory and, in a "mega-siege", trapped four Soviet armies, capturing 700,000 prisoners from war. And there is no moral equivalence between Josef Stalin, the Soviet dictator, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Stalin was a sociopath (he once reached into a cage and killed a family's pet parrot because its chirping irritated him) who starved millions of Ukrainians to death and routinely murdered political rivals. Zelensky is a democratically elected leader who has rallied Ukrainians and inspired the world with his remarkable displays of courage and eloquent defense of democracy. But looking more closely at Putin's struggles in Ukraine reveals ironic parallels. Military historians say Putin is following Hitler's ill-fated blueprint in at least three areas. https://www.instagram.com/p/CpDle0HDP4O/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[ruminativerabbi]

George Santos Represents Me in Congress

Like most of my readers, I reside in New York’s Third Congressional District. In some ways, it’s a regular suburban place: a mixture of strip malls and fancy shopping malls and town centers, of wooded subdivisions and public parks and train stations. But in other ways, it is not that unexceptional at all. The residents of our district, for example, collectively have the highest median income in the state. (In the entire nation, only California Congressional District 17, which includes most of Silicon Valley; California Congressional District 18, which includes Palo Alto and Mountain View; and Virginia Congressional District 10, which lies just to the west of Washington, D.C., have higher median incomes.) Nor are we average in terms of our racial mix: our district has a higher percentage of white people than the American average (69.5% as opposed to 57.8% nationally), a dramatically lower percentage of Black people (3.1% as opposed to 13.6% nationally), a lower, but less dramatically so, percentage of Hispanic residents (10.6% as opposed to 18.9% nationally), and a much higher percentage of Asian-Americans than the national average (14.6% as opposed to 5.9% nationally). A mere 0.7% of the population of our district is constituted of people who do not self-define as belonging to any of the above groups.

We have sent many representatives to the House over the years. Egbert Benson, a jurist who had previously represented New York State in the Continental Congress, was elected in 1789 and then re-elected in 1790. 

He was replaced by Philip van Cortlandt, who had previously served in the Continental Army, and who was re-elected four times after his initial victory in 1793. Van Cortlandt was replaced by Samuel Mitchill, who resigned to become a United States Senator and who in turn was replaced by George Clinton, Jr., an unfortunate fellow who died as a young man of thirty-eight after serving in the House for just four years.

Most of our representatives have been long since forgotten by all. Or almost all. Perhaps some might recall Henry Warner Slocum, Jr., a Union general in the Civil War who fought at Bull Run, Antietam, and many other battles, and who later represented our district in Congress. Or perhaps some might recall that we were once represented in the Congress by James Monroe, nephew of President James Monroe, or by James I. Roosevelt, grandfather of President Theodore Roosevelt. For the most part, though, the names of the people who have represented our district in the House in days gone by would be unfamiliar to most—which is a shame, because among them were men—and they were all men—of great renown.  The more recent, on the other hand, would surely be known to all: between them, Robert J. Mrazek, Peter T. King, Steve Israel, and Thomas Suozzi have represented our district for the last forty years! (Mrazek was re-elected four times after his first win in 1982; King was re-elected ten times. Israel and Suozzi were re-elected once and twice respectively.)

And now we have somehow sent George Santos, or whatever his name really is, to Congress. How can we have come to this? It’s a good question!

We actually know more about who George Santos isn’t than about who he is. Contrary to his own press releases and campaign literature, he apparently

·       did not attend Horace Mann Preparator School,

·       did not attend Baruch College,

·       did not attend New York University,

·       did not work for Citigroup,

·       did not work for Goldman Sachs,

·       does not actually own any of the eleven properties he claimed to own,

·       was not the grandson of Shoah survivors from Ukraine via Belgium,

·       is not Jewish (or even really Jew-ish, whatever that means; maybe Jew-ish-ish-by-self-definition a little, but probably not even that),

·       did not found Friends of Pets United, which alleged charity the IRS says is unknown to them,

·       did not lose his mother in the 9/11 attacks, although she apparently was present in one of the towers when the planes struck,

·       had no employees who were killed in the Pulse Nightclub massacre in Orlando,

·       is not married, at least not officially, and

·       is not biracial.

So that’s a lot of things not to be. And what does that leave him being? That, at least, is easy to answer, at least with respect to his new day job: he represents us in Congress. God help us all! Even his name isn’t all that clear: he appears legally to be George Anthony Devolder Santos, but has also used the name Anthony Zabrovsky and Anthony Devolder as aliases. Oy. (Special note to Jew-ish-ish readers: oy is a word in widespread use among actual Jewish people to denote extreme dismay.)

Nor is mopping up after his own mess the sole problem Representative Santos is facing. The government of Brazil has re-opened a 2008 investigation regarding a stolen checkbook our Congressman allegedly used to steal clothing from a store in Niterói, a town near Rio de Janeiro. Nassau County D.A. Anne Donnely has announced an investigation to determine if Congressman Santos has committed any actual crimes by lying to the people he hoped those lies would get to vote for him. A few days later, the State Attorney General launched a separate investigation into the matter. And then, finally, it was revealed that a federal investigation into the whole affair had been undertaken by the Brooklyn U.S. Attorney.  The Republican Jewish Coalition, which under other circumstances would have welcomed Representative Santos with open arms, has instead barred him from future meetings. Leading Democrats like Hakeem Jeffries have been merciless in their condemnatory rhetoric. A few Republicans have followed suit. Marjorie Taylor Greene, on the other hand, said that she didn’t see why voters shouldn’t at least give the man a chance. I suppose I see her point: it’s not like lying has ever disqualified politicians from plying their trade! But, even so, this seems beyond the pale in terms of its acceptability to normal people…and particularly to the normal people whom he is now employed to represent, including most definitely myself. (Congressman Santos won 54.1% of the vote, as opposed to Democrat Robert Zimmerman who ended up with 45.9%.) Jerry Kassar, the chair of the Conservative Party of New York, summed things up nicely: “His entire life seems to be made up,” he said. “Everything about him is fraudulent.”

Is it a crime to lie to would-be constituents? It turns out to be more complicated a question than I would have thought, although the Supreme Court ruling of 2014 known as Susan B. Anthony list v. Driehaus seems to have determined that campaign lies are protected speech under the First Amendment. (To read more, click here.) In belated response, Bronx Congressman Ritchie Torres (D-NY) has announced a proposed bill specifically to make it a crime for candidates for federal office to lie about the details of their own past history, a bill he has whimsically named after none other than our own George Santos: The Stop Another Non-Truthful Office Seeker Act. You really couldn’t make this stuff up.

But although lying to constituents may be permitted, the U.S. attorney definitely has the right to investigate and prosecute violations of federal campaign laws. And that too seems to be an issue for Santos, who has yet to explain where the $700,000 he lent his own campaign came from exactly.

And where does that leave any of us? In a not good place! The chances of Santos being able to crawl safely out from any of this seem slim. But what seems certain is that this guy’s personal woes are going to take up a lot of the time he should be spending representing us in Congress. At this point, the most dignified path forward would be to make a full public confession, to agree to seek professional help from a trained mental-health professional, to give up his seat, and to call personally for a new election to find a replacement worthy of representing our district. Will that happen? Given the razor-thin Republican majority in the House, I doubt it. And, yes, some of the blame certainly must fall on the rest of everybody: the news media who swallowed his story whole without investigating, his opponent who failed to see through the smoke at the actual man facing him, the public who swallowed his story hook, line, and sinker as though none of us could imagine a politician fibbing to get him or herself elected. So this debacle touches all of us. But as I write these words, the only two real questions of the day yet remain unanswered: what is there to do about all this and who is going to do it?