Trying to find my way without a cost to my soul

Mark Sumner of Daily Kos reported that Ukraine president Zelenskyy visited the recently liberated city of Izyum to thank the troops for their work in freeing the Kharkiv region. Then Sumner discussed what “mopping up” means in this case. There were Russian soldiers on the front lines for several months and in just a couple days the front lines shifted several tens of kilometers behind them. Some surrendered, some tried to cover the lost territory back to their countrymen, some attempted to hold out, which isn’t working out well. The Ukrainians have to get to every village and town, assess local conditions, help citizens who have been under Russian control for months, deal with sick and wounded, start restoring infrastructure, and sort through the piles of ammo and equipment Russia left behind. In a previous post Sumner wrote that Lyman was liberated. Actually, Ukrainians are only at the southern suburbs. And taking the whole city might be a fight. Sumner also wrote (and I repeated) the town of Kreminna had declared itself liberated and raised the Ukrainian flag. Alas, overnight Russians returned. They tore down the flag and turned off the local internet. We can’t find out what is going on. Sumner included a tweet from Igor Kyivskyi that shows the speeds of several animals. From slowest to fastest are cat, dog, ostrich, horse, cheetah, and Russian soldier. Sumner began a second post with:

Russia has hit the dam at Kryvyi Rih with what is reported to be at least six ballistic missiles. The impact created sizable damage to a dam over the Inhulets River, resulting in a flood that for some time was raging downstream. Reportedly, several bridges have already been swept away, and a number of towns and villages on both sides of the river have experienced flooding as water levels rapidly rose. However, additional reports indicate that local authorities have moved quickly to address the damage, and while water is still flowing from the fractured dam, the scale of the disaster has been greatly decreased. For the moment, at least, the threat of massive damage downstream appears to be on hold. Like the recent attack on electrical infrastructure, this was absolutely a criminal act on the part of Russia. They aren’t going after military targets; they’re hitting civilian infrastructure as part of a direct effort to generate misery and outrage. Because somehow, seven months in, Vladimir Putin thinks that if he just hurts enough people, Ukraine will quit fighting. It is a definitive act, not just of state-sponsored terrorism, but of a terrorist state.

One reason to bomb the dam and flood areas downstream would be to sweep away any of Ukraine’s pontoon bridges. But it is also an attack on electrical generation, drinking water, and water for agriculture and industry. And if the damaged dam should fail there would be a lot more damage to bridges and towns along the river. Kos of Kos wrote about how the effects of colonialism are playing out now that Russia is seen as weak. Kos began the story in Africa where colonizing countries drew lines to please themselves rather than the tribes who actually lived there. Ethiopians were split into Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Djibouti. That split has meant the region has suffered near-perpetual war. That same dynamic is being played out in Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Georgia. It has also affected Donbas, Crimea (became part of Ukraine in 1954), and Transnistria along Moldova’s eastern border. Add in Russian meddling in the form of forced deportations and moving Russians in creates animosity. And without Russia able to keep a lid on (when it doesn’t want to exploit the conflict) these central Asian countries are attacking each other. Also, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are firing at each other. And China appears to be Kazakhstan’s new best friend. Kos quoted a thread by Kamil Galeev saying Moscow and St. Petersburg are not economic or cultural centers, they are cities built around the expenses of the ruling family. The family puts out all effort to maintain their quality of life. Because of that these cities are parasites on the rest of the country. I read through Galeev’s thread. He showed how many towns and cities away from Moscow had empty grocery shelves because Moscow sucked up all the food. So there were “sausage trains” where town residents would go to Moscow to buy food. Then Galeev explained another problem of Moscow is its location. It is not near a major waterway, like Rio de Janeiro, Chicago, or Tokyo. This access keeps the citizens cheaply fed. It isn’t in a fertile area, like Mexico City and Delhi where the abundance of food makes them sustainable, though poor. Also, Moscow is significantly farther north than any other major city. Moscow is expensive to feed, but because of the royal family it is fed – to the detriment of the rest of the country. Mike Luckovich, cartoonist, for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, tweeted a cartoon: “Ukrainians fighting for their democracy. MAGA Republicans fighting against theirs.” Nneka Okona, an author of self-care books, tweeted:

I don’t remember who tweeted this but: it is really true when you start to deeply decolonize patriarchy & capitalism’s grip on your life that it makes it really hard to be in any sphere that does not center kindness & care. I legit cannot overwork my body at the expense of rest or stable mental health anymore. I cannot allow myself to be exploited or abused by employers. Life feels so much harder because I’m clear on how society depends on me as Black woman being wrung dry all the damn time with nothing to show for it—and I refuse. It’s also maddening that so many people and entities never really cared about me and only valued me for the production I offered—production that I churned out while never sleeping, drinking too much and having disastrous mental health. ... I wonder if I’m being too sensitive to feel all this so deeply and be struggling to hold it all. Everyday feels like a new torment. I’m trying to find my way without a cost to my soul.

David Solnit describes himself as an artist-organizer. He tweeted with a video and a link to order supplies.

Pasting #BlameWallStreet posters, as fires burn & climate chaos harms. Wall Street fuels climate chaos-investing trillions in coal, oil & gas. We’re using art to stop them.

Michael Harriot, black historian, tweeted a thread about Aretha Franklin. This was prompted by the unsealing of Franklin’s FBI file. Yep, she had one. Since the FBI was created all prominent black people had a file. The FBI was afraid of a black uprising. And black entertainers were of special interest because they funded the civil rights movement. Aretha through her singing, her father CL Franklin through his preaching. When the Montgomery bus boycott happened how did black people get to work? By using cars funded by and donated by Franklin father and daughter. They went on to give significant support to Martin Luther King.

Confusion is part of the strategy

I finished the book The Relentless Moon by Mary Robinette Kowal. This science fiction novel is the third in her Lady Astronaut series. I’ve read the other two but didn’t write about them. The first book, The Calculating Stars is about Elma York and her husband Nathaniel. This book is where this timeline diverges from our history. In 1951 a meteor hits Chesapeake Bay and wipes out a good deal of the Mid Atlantic coast, including Washington, DC. As the federal government reconstitutes itself in Kansas City scientists determine global climate catastrophe will be coming fast (much faster than in our world). An International Aerospace Coalition is soon created to figure out how to get as much humanity off earth as quickly as possible. Along the way Elma is part of the first female astronaut corps and she gets the designation and media appearances as the Lady Astronaut. Nathaniel is one of the chief rocket scientists. They launch people into space a lot earlier than in our timeline successfully start a colony on the moon before 1960. Yeah, it is interesting to see how the author works with 1950s technology. One thing I appreciate about this story is how multi racial and multi cultural the major players are. And how many are women. It is good to read a story about rockets and space from a woman’s point of view. The second book in the series is The Fated Sky. This time Elma is part of a crew on a ship to Mars. In addition to all the scientific things going on Elma deals with a mission commander who she sees as a misogynist. There are also the usual difficulties along the way. The third book is concurrent with the second. So it is narrated by Nicole Wargin rather than Elma. I with I had read it a lot closer to the time I read the other two books because what happens in the two books is a bit interrelated. Nicole is one of the original Lady Astronauts and her husband Kenneth is governor of Kansas with intentions of running for US President. Nicole describes her tricks of being the dutiful and devoted political spouse. The effort to establish colonies off earth has, of course, its opponents, the Earth First group. They object to this effort because they know a lot of people won’t make it off earth. Better to improve life on earth. They are present in all three books, though most pronounced in this one. Though she is the wife of the governor Nicole is slated for a rotation to the colony on the moon. And she goes. As she lands there she discovers there is a saboteur from Earth First trying to make the colony fail so the IAC will abandon it. The rest of the story is about trying to figure out who it is. Helping her are Helen, a Taiwanese woman who is great at chess, and Eugene and Myrtle, a black couple. Eugene ends up appointed interim colony administrator, something quite rare for 1963, and Myrtle is another astronaut. What is relentless about this story is the attempts at sabotage keep coming – over 500 pages of them. After a while I began to think they could have left a few out (and in the Acknowledgments the author said the first draft was much longer). Even so I enjoyed this story. And I read it only because I had enjoyed the first two books. It is a series I recommend to those who love science fiction. In a Ukraine update Kos of Daily Kos wrote about some of the former Soviet colonies who see an opening. In the news now is Azerbaijan. Its current government is definitely not a democracy and two days before Russia invaded Ukraine the head of Azerbaijan and Putin signed an alliance treaty. One of the provisions sounds like it would be a good idea for Azerbaijan to come to the aid of Russia in a war. But when the UN General Assembly held a vote two weeks later to condemn Russia’s invasion Azerbaijan was notably absent. And now Azerbaijan has agreed to supply the European Union with natural gas, partly filling the shortfall Russia isn’t sending. Kos explained:

Russia’s new ploy is simple: Starve Europe of natural gas and watch their unity and resolve crumble as the weather turns cold and Europeans struggle to heat their homes. Ukraine knows this, hence the long-running preparations to go on the offensive in September. There is a very real possibility that the map in December would be frozen for years … until the next war. But if Azerbaijan can help fill the natural gas gap (along with increased supplies from places like Oman and the United States), Russia’s energy leverage would be severely compromised or even outright eliminated. The West can continue supporting Ukraine without the fear of a domestic political backlash from having to wear sweaters indoors this winter. (Remember, people lost their s--- over having to wear a cloth over their faces. We’re not the most resilient society.) By directly undermining Russian strategy, Azerbaijan’s action “damage[s] the strategic partnership and allied relations of the two states,” and thus violates the treaty. Essentially, Azerbaijan is tearing it up. In normal times, Russia would be able to threaten its way to compliance, but like so many other suddenly frisky neighbors, Russia has lost its military and economic leverage.

Kazakhstan is also feeling frisky. They’re switching from the Cyrillic alphabet to the Latin one we use and students are to learn English as well as Russian. Soso Dzamukashvili of Emerging Europe wrote that alphabet decision came in January 2021, a year before Russia invaded Ukraine, and will be done over a stretch of time because Kazakhstan has a large Russian population. Even so, they see the need to switch to establish their own cultural identity. Back to the war. Kos is one of many, including in the Ukraine military, who see Russia’s logistics problems (including so many weapon depots going boom) will come to a head around mid-August. Which is why Ukraine is building to start its big counteroffensive to start about then. The goal is to retake lost territory before the European heating seasons brings pressure for a cease fire that would preserve Russian gains. Republicans in Kansas are playing a dangerous and deceptive game they just might win. The state’s constitution has a provision mandating abortion be available. Republicans have a provision on the ballot to amend that bit of the constitution to allow the legislature to decide the issue. They’re selling it by saying citizens should have a choice, through their representatives on whether abortion should be banned or not. Their messaging says this amendment does not ban abortion. Christopher Reeves of Kos said that’s right, it doesn’t, though confusion is part of the strategy. But the Republicans have a bill already written that would ban abortion after six weeks ready to be passed as soon as this amendment is certified. Also, this vote is during a low turnout primary, not the November general election. Georgia Logothetis, in a pundit roundup for Kos, quoted several voices with the general theme of Republicans have been saying whether to permit or ban abortion should be a state’s right. Yeah, they don’t mean it. Many of them will be campaigning on enacting a national ban on abortion. A good story to end today. Lily Levine of Kos Prism reported California passed the Free School Meals for All Act. They’ll be implementing it for the 2022-2023 school year. Yes, that means all students, not just those from poor families, will get free meals at school. This will be both breakfast and lunch. The reasons for doing it include: The current need based system requires families to apply and too many kids who need the free food don’t get it. Families that earn a few dollars more than the cutoff still struggle. When some kids get free meals, those that do feel stigmatized, though that means the food has to be good enough that all kids will want to eat it. Finally, this is a help for poor families who now have to afford only one meal a day.