636 Comments

My reactions to:

1. ¨All Russians will be hated.¨ No. Just as I don't hate all Americans because of Trump, McConnell and the others who are our Putin and his thugs.

2. ¨...a population in Russia gradually coming to realize they have fallen under the iron hand of a dictator as the government cracks down on dissent.¨ This is how I view Americans who refuse to see what the Republicans have become. It will be too late by the time they realize.

3. What an insight into the lives of Russians who have never felt that they have been under a dictator. They have ¨nice, good, warm, comfortable, cozy things¨. We tend to think that the people of Russia and China have miserable lives.

4. I wake up every morning thinking of all of the dead and displaced Ukrainians. One morning they kissed their children good bye to go to school. Their husbands and wives went to work. They had plans for the weekend. And. Just. Like. That. Their world ended because of one man. Anyone who thinks it can't happen here Just. Like. That. needs to wake up.

4.

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A chilling letter, Heather; it must have been a difficult one to write on both fronts. Putin and his army's blood curdling crimes are mirrored by those that tfg and his lackeys are capable of committing.

"They were just little things, those silly schedules and the articles about some deluded plan to decertify the state election results, littler than the many other norms Trump had broken. They were easily ignored or explained away by those who supported the president as well as by those just eager to see him gone. And yet, it turns out we should have been paying better attention: they were the signs that we were on the verge of losing our democracy.'

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This quote from the article could just as easily be about folks in America watching Fox News as their only major source of information: “It’s much easier to watch TV and absorb the government propaganda. It’s easier to not think…. You have this vast country with many people who are poor and who have never travelled abroad. They are very isolated, with no communication, only their television. They work hard all day, come home exhausted and the TV is their only source.” Putin & Trump are the same kind of animal. Trump and his cabal must be dealt with...Ukraine is the preview of how far it can go. It's all there for us to witness and resist.

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Apr 3, 2022·edited Apr 3, 2022

Oh my God. From a Russian: Everything I hear, I'm not sure, is true or not?

This is what a world run by authoritarians is all about. You will do as I say. You will not question. You will do or die. You choose.

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"The president will depart the White House at 6:10PM for a victory rally in Dalton, GA". Now, what victory would he have been rallying about, on 3rd/4th January? Why is this man still on the loose, 15 months later?

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I think the biggest news here is that the Russians (police? the Army?) are accused of removing as many as 400,000 Ukrainian civilians from Ukraine and spiriting them off to.... where? Russia bordering Ukraine? Refugee camps? Prison camps? Death camps? Siberia, perhaps? Russia has a long and disgraceful history of imprisoning and eventually killing entire populations based on their ethnicity and beliefs (Alexander Solzhenitsyn knew a lot about this and wrote it down).

I think we in the relatively safe and comfortable West need to be ready for a long, nasty and wasteful conflict with Russia. It will cause many of us great anxiety and a fair amount of economic hardship, but Putin needs to be thwarted and frustrated to the point that Russia is on its knees economically. Once the Russian people understand why they are suffering more than usual and who's responsible, they will take care of their own business. Direct military intervention by NATO is to be avoided because Putin cannot be trusted not to shoot nukes at us, as he has threatened to do in an "existential" crisis. As poker players know, calling someone's bluff does not always work out.

The price the world will pay for failing to eliminate nuclear arms when that might still have been possible and preferring economic competition between sovereign states over the establishment of a cooperative, tolerant and peacefully coexisting international community will be borne by all of us, but in unequal measure.

And climate change/global warming will finally gain the world's full attention just about the same time we discover that we have waited too long.

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Putin is a sadist! His ego has turned Europe, a continent of 600 million plus, upside down. The USA of around 333 million is at each other's throats helped by Republican, Russian, Chinese, and North Korean disinformation. The continent of Africa is going to have a lot of people suffering even more hunger and death due to the impact on food sources, but the despots running many countries there are in Putin's pockets. I know that some are often looking to Europe for new alliances, but are understandably wary. The world is in turmoil. Is peace a luxury, like clean air and water, that we will no longer have? I hope not! I am grateful each day that Joe Biden, even on his worst day, is in charge. The situation we find ourselves in call for experience and intelligence. Joe has both. World populations are shifting. What I find difficult about this shifting is that it changes the voting, and having so many people from undemocratic, and very conservative countries populate your country all of a sudden can shift the voting patterns as they become citizens. We see this in action in our own country. Europe has been more measured in letting people in, and while it is viewed as a fault it might help control the right shift. Russia hardly lets anyone in. Perhaps that is why its population does not get enough exposure to other ideas. Too bad! I do sense a growing dissatisfaction there, but it is slowly growing. like a rusty, rusty machine that needs oiling to get the gears cranking. Meanwhile we need to vigilantly fight the disinformation of the Republicans, Russians, Chinese, North Koreans and their social media paid agents and bots here at home. I am heartened that there is slow movement towards revealing Trumps crimes, which we hope leads to bringing him to justice. Enough that we see more and more Republican movement away from his camp. I am glad that an LGBTQ+ backed lawsuit in Florida is taking on the Trump-bot of a sadistic governor DeSantis. As I said the other day. We need to be very vocal for democracy. Many groups are trying to do just that. We need to simultaneously take care of business here at home while trying to support Ukraine against Putin's sadistic assault.

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President Biden called Putin a ‘murderer.’ Indeed, he is a murderer of Stalinist proportions.

In the early 1930s Stalin, by selling Ukrainian wheat to buy machinery for his Five Year Industrial Plan, starved to death between 3-to-6 million Ukrainians. Putin has invaded Ukraine and is killing countless thousands Ukrainians while destroying major urban areas.

Putin is callously killing and destroying to force President Zelensky to accept an imposed ‘settlement’ that would permit Putin to claim ‘victory’ from his disastrous military campaign.

Whatever the long-term American, NATO, and European strategy, Zelensky is confronted with an ongoing human tragedy.

Putin, his siloviki, and his unbridled military in Ukraine must be held accountable for their war crimes. Meanwhile, my heart goes out to brave Zelensky, who is facing a ‘Sophie’s choice’ decision.

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I remember seeing Daniel Dale’s daily tweets with the former guy’s schedule: essentially empty, devoid of appointments, and with that ridiculous statement about him working through the day and doing many things. It seemed like a joke! I envisioned the evil one sitting in front of the t.v. all day, eating his burgers, and barking orders from time to time. Well, I interpreted that empty daily schedule incorrectly. He obviously did have some planning meetings and took calls on his burner phone. Many calls. Important calls. It does, indeed, involve many meetings and calls to plan a coup.

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I just read an article in this week’s New Yorker referencing historian Caroline Elkin’s research into the horrific abuses in British colonization. The key point that makes this relevant here is the destruction of the records of atrocities hiding this, the lapses in files, information gaps- for nearly a century. The transparency of government is essential. A healthy press counters propaganda.

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"Our democracy" has been on a slippery slope since the Reagan administration.

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Apr 3, 2022·edited Apr 3, 2022

The photos coming from the Bucha region are horrific. The streets are strewn with dead bodies of civilians, many with their hands tied behind their backs, shot in the head. Victims’ pockets have been emptied, so identifying bodies will be difficult. There is ample evidence of rapes, even of children. It is beyond me how soldiers can exercise such brutality and kill innocent people by the thousands. What Putin and his complicit military are doing is barbaric.

We can’t look away. Media all over the world need to show these photos and tell these stories, as difficult as they are to see. It is important for people to bear witness and to act decisively.

Most of us feel helpless to do much, but we can continue to make donations and call on our representatives to keep the pressure on and send meaningful aid. We can’t get numb to the atrocities and genocide, as the war grinds on, day after day. I don’t know what is going to get Russia to stop. There must be more and broader sanctions that can be imposed. At a minimum, companies still doing business in Ukraine - and there are dozens - need to be pressured to pull out completely.

What else? This is unbearable. “Never again” needs to truly mean something.

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And let's not forget voter fraud by Mark Meadows himself as he registered a home address in trailer that I understand he never visited. Talk about Ghost voters.

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“President Trump will work from early in the morning until late in the evening."

Now that sentence is the most hilarious sentence I have read in probably 30 years.

"Trump" and "work" in the same sentence???

Brouhaahaaaahaaaaaaaaa

Trump never worked a minute in his life.

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Heart sinking information. Horrible war atrocities in Ukraine. Sickening activity within our own government. I hope you can step away from it and give yourself a chance to recover from the thoughts of it all. The stress I feel from briefly reading and hearing about it all must be minuscule compared to what your mind goes through! Please take time for yourself! Thank you for this, Heather!

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Thinking it better to have Hitler in the government than as an outside agitator, Vice Chancellor von Papen said "Within two months we will have pushed Hitler so far in the corner that he'll squeak.” Paul von Ludendorf, telegrammed President Hindenburg “…you have handed over our Fatherland to one of the greatest demagogues of all time … Future generations will curse you in your grave for this action”. History almost rhymed January 6th, but the GOP could still snatch autocracy from the jaws of democracy!

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