A miserable day here in Yorkshire – quite cold and drizzly rain all day. Suits the mood of the country!! Our recovery from Covid is not quite complete! We are both feeling lethargic and I still have some sinus problems and phlegm. Apart from that we are back to normal!!
I decided to stay inside, work on my latest poetry book and listen to some outrageous Fugs. A day not wasted!
Meanwhile, out in Coronaland, things go from bad to worse. The war in Ukraine is raging with cities being pounded into rubble with missile attacks and heavy artillery.
According to Putin this was a mission to save the Ukrainian people from slavery under a neo-fascist government (that they elected). It seems that Putin has the same philosophy that the USA had in Vietnam. These people need killing in order to save them.
The Ukrainians were supposedly brothers!! Now brothers can be quite competitive and they can even develop a jealous, haeful relationship but this is taking sibling rivalry to a whole new level. This is vindictive madness.
Did Putin really expect the population of Ukraine to welcome him in??
The trouble with these things is that once the genie is out of the bottle there is no telling where things will lead.
Putin is now a rat trapped in the corner. He can’t see a way out. He did not expect the rest of the world to utterly condemn his aggression and take these massive steps to isolate him and starve him of cash. As Lavrov said: ‘The West imposes sanctions and then a week later they are back crawling for business’. Not this time I think. Not only are they shutting the banking system, pulling out of Russia and freezing the cash supply, they are looking to break their dependence on Russia oil and gas. Hopefully this will accelerate the move towards green energy and do away with gas and oil altogether. Not only would it be great to break our ties with Russia but also those loathsome regimes in the Middle East.
Putin has bitten off more than he can chew.
Not only that, but the world can clearly see the limitations of the Russian military. One of the greatest powers in the world – not! Bogged down, blown up, logistically inept. Ukraine, with it’s limited resources is showing it up. They are reduced to using the same horrendous tactics they used in Syria – mass, long-range use of missiles and artillery to kill civilians and reduce cities to dust and rubble.
How long can he pour resources in and suffer these casualties and costs? We’ll see!
What it has done is to create a unity in the world and a renewed determination to make Russia pay for these atrocities. Hopefully they will.
But, like that trapped rat, Putin is dangerous. He is hitting out. In Russia there is extreme suppression of news, shutting down of criticism and legislation to oppress people. This is a return to Stalinist repression. No alternative views are allowed. And he dares to call Ukraine neo-Nazi? Incredible!!
He is threatening nuclear war and as an extreme act of stupidity actually attacking, shelling a nuclear plant. How can a nuclear power plant put up resistance?? How can that be a legitimate target?
Insanely, in true Orwellian double-speak, he is blaming it on Ukrainian subversives. He’s gone nuts.
Having an unstable madman in charge of the country is not a good thing. We know. We’ve got one ourselves! Johnson is quite on a par but he is an inept loony.
The one thing we can be grateful for is that we don’t have Trump in charge. He’d either be in there with his mate Putin invading Ukraine or we’d already be in the midst of a nuclear conflagration.
So where is this going? Who knows? It’s going to be one of a number of things:
A third world war nuclear madness in which Russia, Europe and the USA get wiped off the map
A protracted war of attrition (like in Syria) with the complete destruction of Ukraine and uimpoverishment of Russia
A negotiated settlement
We’ll see.
Meanwhile, while all this is going on, our useless clown is laughing his head off. Everyone’s forgotten about the MET report, parties, Sue Gray, the lies, sleaze and corruption. They are worrying about being instantly vapourised. Johnson, miraculously, lives to fight another day.
Mind you, another major problem has come along for this crime syndicate masquerading as a government: the public have found out that they are being funded by the Russians and are knee-deep in Russian sleaze. It has resurrected the whole Russian business – the sleazy deals, the donations, the meddling in elections (Trump, Johnson and Brexit), the oligarchs in the House of Lords, money laundering and dirty Tory profiteering. We’ll see where that goes. No doubt, with the media in their back pocket, it’ll melt away back uner the carpet along with everything else. The problem is that the carpet is now bulging up to the ceiling!! They can’t get much more under it!!
We’ve all forgotten we’re still in the midst of a pandemic. Johnson said it was over and everybody conveniently agreed. We didn’t need science or facts. All very Trumpian!! Just talk bollocks and everyone will agree with you.
We are now living with the virus – though there has been no debate, no guidance and no scientific input – Just Johnson sorting his own job out. The new cases have gone up to 45,683 new cases today with another 194 deaths. We are told it’s going down though!!
I’m OK. Having just had it I’m not in immediate danger of catching it and neithwer will I be spreading it for a while to come.
Stay safe!! Caught between a nuclear melt and the ventilator – not a great choice!!