Keeping Up With The Russian-Ukrainian War

Thing about war, as it's happening, is that there's too much going on to keep up with it.

Keeping up with news sources like NPR or AP News helps, and I follow those links when I can. It's been suggested to follow these sources to keep up with the minute-by-minute madness:

Kyiv Independent (Ukrainian newspaper)

Terrell J Starr (Twitter feed for Foreign Policy correspondent)

I'd also keep an eye on Adam L Silverman at Balloon Juice for his insights.

The other thing about war is, you want to do whatever you can to stop it. Even as one person you want to help the innocent caught in a war zone, overwhelming as the whole situation can be. (There IS one person who can stop any war, but it's the warmonger who started it and Putin does not look like he's willing to agree to that any time soon).

There's been chatter on social media, and I've even met one in person, with those who've trained and deployed in the U.S. military willing to hop onto a plane to fly over to Ukraine (or close enough) and offer their services. Thing is, that's not a smart idea: You're just adding one more person to a chaotic situation that will need to get clothed and fed and treated for wounds. You're better off - most of us are better off - staying where we are and offering help through other means.

The blog I read early and often - Balloon Juice - created a webpage of links where you can send in aid and make sure things like warm food get to the Ukrainians who need it most. 

World Central Kitchen (on the Ukraine border with Poland)

Leleka Foundation (US group that partners with Ukraine)

National Bank of Ukraine Fund for Ukraine Armed Forces

Tim Snyder: Ways to Help Ukrainians

Kyiv Independent List of How Foreigners Can Help

Carole  Cadwalladr: Ukraine Crisis Media Center

List Recommended by Gin & Tonic

List of Other Ways to Help Ukraine

People need help, always. And not just in Ukraine.

Syria has suffered a decade-long civil war with no end in sight and thousands of Syrians struggling as refugees. They'll need help too.

Afghanistan is struggling under Taliban rule again, and the population are facing famine and lack of resources across the board.

There are several other places in need of aid as well. The www.unhcr.org and rescue.org links should provide more information.

As for all the current news I've heard: Russia refuses to honor any ceasefire deals to help evacuate besieged cities, as their convoys driving into Ukraine are running into supply and logistics nightmares. There's been social media buzz that any day now the invasion force will run dry, but I'll believe it when that actually happens.

In the meantime, go fuck yourself Putin. #PutinIsAWarCriminal 

Liveblogging Tonight's Florida Primary Results August 2016 Edition

So here goes, with the polls closing at 7:00 PM and with the help of Baynews 9 I hope to track the resu...

DAMMIT FLORIDA REPUBLICANS YOU'RE PUTTING NO-SHOW RUBIO BACK ON THE BALLOT /headdesk

It's not even 1 percent of the results in and it's looking like blowouts for Rubio on the GOP side and Murphy on the Dems. Still, we'll get a better idea of how the results should really play out by the halfway point.

Be right back.

update 7:40 PM: One thing to track is the state referendum on the solar panel tax exemption. Right now it's at 74 percent approval, which is good going this early on. The rule of state amendments is that it has to clear a supermajority of 60 percent, at this rate it should be passing easy peasy.

update 8:40 PM: Here it is one hour later and the Baynews 9 people are kinda calling it. There's at least 73 percent of the precincts in and the candidates in the lead are pretty much mathematically confirmed.

That means for the US Senate race the Republican candidate is Marco "No-Show" Rubio (the hell, Republicans, his lack of attendance would get him kicked out of real jobs) and the Democratic candidate is Pat "Oh No The BernieBros Are Gonna Think He's Too Centrist" Murphy.

The news site isn't calling the state amendment just yet, but it's been holding steady at 73 percent Approval: outside of a late rush of No votes, this should make the 60 percent cutoff...

update 10:00 PM: Baynews had overlooked the voter tally for the Libertarian Senate primary race until now. Having just a couple thousand people voting in it makes it a little... underwhelming. If there's anything to say about it, Stanton is winning it with 2000 or so votes to Invictus at 1000 votes. It's pretty much all done except for the tears. The good news, none of the official candidates running for the Senate seat are known threats to goats at a local or global level, so we're cool. We're good.

The Congressional and state election races are too numerous to go into detail for now. There may be an upset or two worth talking about, but I can follow that tomorrow. I'm gonna call it a night.

Breaking News

In breaking news this morning, the major news networks all agreed unilaterally to not cover any one damn bit of this 2016 Presidential cycle.

To quote one prime time producer from CNN, "I mean, c'mon. Look at the date. It's April First. Is there anything crazy we can report on that anybody would believe was a real news story? No. So why bother? This season has been crazier than a Florida Man on a Wednesday naked road trip to a strip club bingo night."

When reached for comment, Rachol Meddow* growled at the cameraman and pulled the bedsheets over her head, shouting "Damn you, non-stop press coverage of increasingly deranged campaigns! I JUST WANNA SLEEP AND DREAM OF HAPPY LLAMAS."

A reporter from C-Span refused to comment on-air, instead giving a statement through handwritten notes passed under the bathroom door that read "No more coverage. No more crazy from that one campaign. You know who. I'm sick of his egomania and incoherent ranting. I haven't taken a proper sh-t in days."

"Are you kidding? We need this break," emailed Olevia J. Nozzi** from an undisclosed location we later found out was a seaside rest spa. "I can't take it anymore. Especially that one campaign. I won't even say his name, we gave him so much coverage and all he does is come up with the craziest unbelievable outrage and nonsense we end up shaking our heads at. I mean, we could report him quitting the race to go raise a llama farm in Utah or something and nobody would believe us."

She added in a follow-up email "And his followers, ugh. Half the time I'm terrified they're going use me for pinata practice, the other half of the time I can't interview them because they're foaming at the mouth and ready to bite someone. So much freaking stress. So screw it, we're taking the day off."

Shap Smithee*** reportedly unplugged the camera of the team sent to interview him, and without independent verification uttered "Get away from me with that sh-t, son, I'm not in the mood for it."

In other news, the Presidential candidates were seen hastily tackling tourists wandering the streets of New York City so they could have cameras to shout at for YouTube uploads.

Also, llamas.

* Not a real name
** What, you wanna get sued?
*** I mean, seriously, I don't have a lawyer on retainer.

Just Can't Even Focus On The World Right Now

There just gets to be a point where the current events out there - the civil wars raging across the Middle East, the Ebola crisis in Africa, the Ukrainian-Russian border war, our immigration crisis along the U.S. border with kids and families trying to flee the violence of Central America, the climate change disasters affecting everything from California's drought to methane holes blowing open in Siberia - just overwhelm me.  Writing about even one of these things just gets me into a sad AND angry mood.

There's something I can write about tomorrow, but it's more history than anything else... you'll see...

How The Month Of May Slipped Away, And Other Thoughts

It seemed like there was one crazy thing after another since the last time I posted.  The shooting of Bin Laden.  The aftermath of Obama's long form certificate finally getting released.  The aftermath of tornadoes in Alabama.  Massive flooding on the Mississippi, the worst in 20 years.  The ongoing Arab Spring uprisings now embroiling Libya and Syria and Yemen.  The ongoing nuclear disaster in Japan.  Canada voting Conservatives back into power even though the last Conservative government LIED to everyone.  The Republican Party here in the U.S. struggling to find a viable primary candidate while the likes of Romney, Pawlenty, Ron Paul, and Herman Cain make the party leadership weep.  The Paul Ryan plan to privatize AND gut Medicare (as well as gut Medicaid) while granting 4 TRILLION in tax cuts to businesses and the rich somehow riling up enough voters to where a special election in New York may get a Democrat elected in a gerrymandered conservative district.  Everybody waiting - and laughing - about yet another Rapture claim happening on May 21.  Justin Timberlake and Lady Gaga shredding SNL for about the first near-perfect night since the "More Cowbell" skit.

And oh, my personal disaster of unemployment and job hunting in a state with double-digit jobless numbers and little growth in the near future.

As you can see, there's been a lot on my mind and regarding my opinions over the past month: I couldn't focus on a single damn thing.

The other thing bothering me was that this was going to be Post 299 of this blog.  The next blog entry is Numero 300: a decent anniversary number if ever their was one.  And it's coming at a time where I'm mulling over whether or not to keep this going.

Let's be honest: traffic here is minor at best.  The responses to my entries are equally meager.  The most I ever get are when I blogged specifically about Florida amendment proposals, at which point I got a few interested blog readers.  But past that...  I think part of it is due to how I've got the Comments section lined up.  I have to where you need to login with an ID of some kind: it's this way to reduce Spam traffic (I got so many Chinese spammers on my other blog it got sickening).  But that seems to scare off anyone who wants to show up to blog anonymously (cowards, I call you: provide a name or working links and then you'll back the courage of your convictions) or with relative ease.

I've been asking about Wordpress, although the mechanics of that service is way different than blogger.com.  I've wondered about options for comments here, but I'm not seeing many alternatives.  If there's another online free blog service with easy Comment options, I'm listening.  Just post a Comment here... and... and... sigh.  Email me at p.warten AT gmail.com and let me know.  Cool. Gratz.

Now, for my 300th post:  I'm thinking an re-invigorated list of Amendment ideas for people to mock...

I Read The News Today (5/13/10) Hoo Boy

And though the holes were rather small /
I had to count them all /
Now they know how many holes it takes /
To fill Ruth Eckard Hall /
I'd Love To Turn Your iPad On........

Okay, enough with the silliness, here's some updating I need to highlight:

• The Republican Party has selected Tampa to host their 2012 Presidential National Convention of Eternal Peril.  That noise you just heard was my dad spinning his wheels out of the driveway heading off to the Convention Center to wait in line for tickets.
• There's a small and insignificant oil spill going on in the Gulf of Mexico, if by small and insignificant you mean an ecological disaster that will doom most of the gulf shoreline for generations (also worth mentioning are the 15 missing and presumed dead platform workers), justifying every DFH that complained that off-shore drilling was too risky and hazardous to the environment.  The odds of the Far Right, already deep inside the pockets of the Oil corporations, insisting we need to drill MORE to compensate for all the billions of gallons lost to sea... and shorelines... and rivers... ahem, well the odds are so obvious that there's no need to bet on it.  How this oil spill could affect Florida isn't fully known yet, but the way things are going the spill can reach the Panhandle and affect both the beach tourist trade and the local fishing communities.
• With Crist fleeing the state's Republican Party, seeing how the wingnuts have driven him out, mention needs to be made of how Utah's state convention voted out a standing incumbent Senator Bob Bennett; of how Maine's state convention passed a party platform that highlighted every teabagger concept and conspiracy fears; of how John McCain is sucking up on anti-immigration efforts in Arizona in an obvious attempt to beat back a wingnut primary challenge; of how the GOP keynote speakers at every gathering are going after people in their own party; I mean, Lindsey Graham isn't conservative enough?!  Keep watching the Republican Party, and all you see is a purity purge that has to be SHRINKING voter support, right?  Except for some goddamn reason, pollsters still think the Republicans have a good shot at reclaiming Congress this autumn.  What... The... Hell?
• Oh, and my book Last of the Grapefruit Wars is now on Kindle, Nook, and eReader.  Buy my book!  Buy my book!...