No Pictures today

Coming up with the correct words to describe my thoughts is hard.  Not because of the obvious, but an inability to express the depth of horror at this man's actions.  This blameless sovereignty is being attacked and destroyed simply because of Putin's ambitions to recreate the Soviet Union. It is a "because I can" mentality.  Families are being split apart.  Women and children are being packed into train cars to escape to friendly Poland and other locales.  Their receptions have been gratifying to see.  But there is the question from them, what did we do?  The bravery of their president is remarkable and he does not expect to survive with 2 assassination attempts already.  The government has put contingency plans in place.  What a sad statement.

There have been numerous demonstrations of tyranny in recent memory, in Southeast Asia, in Africa and others.  These have become footnotes in the history books if they made it at all.  Did we not notice them because of the skin pigmentation of the oppressed?  Media then was far less pervasive, so if the story did not sell, we did not see it.  We now see minute by minute scenes of unfolding events.  Online content sources have far surpassed print sources because of their immediacy.  WWII was presented to the public on radio or news reels before the double feature at the Saturday matinee.

Is the outcome of this attack a foregone conclusion?  We can only back fill the Polish Air Force with plane and can seize the assets of his buddies the oligarchs,  the cash, the homes here and freeze their funds.  We have locked out all the sports teams from international competition.  I fear none of these reprisals will halt his onslaught.  Regular Russian citizens are not at fault here.  A few have stood up against him receiving his wrath.  Others are probably are hiding afraid to speak out against this tyrant.  He really thought this exercise was going to be a walk in the park with the people and army of Ukraine lying down and surrendering to his might. He was wrong and he is pissed about it.  These are truly brave and patriotic people.

For once, the partisans in our government are in agreement.  It's unfortunate that this turn of events is what brought them together to speak in one voice to support the people of Ukraine.