It seems to me, that ever since I learned about the news and politics, that the Russian government has been this paranoid, threatening, pain in our collective asses.

Do you remember when Nikita Khrushchev took his shoe off in the United Nations meeting and pounded it on the desk?   Do you recall when he uttered, “We will bury you!” at ambassadors from other countries? Or his actions in positioning nuclear missiles in Cuba, ninety miles from Florida, aimed at the USA in response to our adept President Kennedy’s handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis? https://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/nikita-sergeyevich-khrushchev  That is, by the way, why I am in-favor of requiring all of those who run for President of the United States to have some military experience.  I digress.

What is it with the Russian people, who cannot seem to get out of their own way when it comes to electing moderate leaders of their great land, who will play nicely with their neighbor countries here in the “future”?  I don’t recall that Yeltsin or Gorbachev made any threats against the world and it was under their watch that the U.S.S.R let those countries who wanted to be independent be free! Gorbachev must have said or done something to get the attention of President Reagan which led to the famous, “tear down that wall…” speech.

It was Mr. Yeltsin who made the now infamously asinine choice of Prime Minister in 1999.

Because of that mistake, we have this latest reincarnation of Stalin’s Holodomor https://www.britannica.com/event/Holodomor in the crooked, wicked and slimy flesh of Putin, our latest Russian despot having a Hitler-Hissy-fit at a time when the world is just recovering from the two-year Covid-19 plague. A being incapable of remorse, empathy, contrition, compromise or any kind of human feeling; a demonic beast of which my generation has not seen! I have watched him, lo since he forcefully re-inserted himself into their Presidency and forced the more moderate guy to step aside in 2008.  I never trusted this “former KGB spy” guy; Russian people, rise UP!  You must do better in choosing your leaders!  Or…are you guys still closet Commies or something like that?

Here is when I wish my World War II-experienced farther would have been more forthcoming with the kind of stories and experiences which might assuage the heartbreak feel for my kindred spirits; the friends I met over the past ten (10) years in the beautiful, independent country of Ukraine. I wish my Korean War-experienced uncle’s voice was still alive to tell me again, “Putin’s time shall come…”  OK, how about the” time” is NOW.

How did they live through the threat of Hitler’s mass-murders of the Jewish people thousands of miles away?  How do we continue when we see Putin’s ordered indiscriminate slaughter of the people, culture and heritage of Ukraine now?  Who is HE to say they cannot determine their own destiny?!

All of which is to introduce this video sent to me by a friend in Ukraine, who I met online at LinkedIN prior to me traveling to Kyiv nine years ago, where we hung out in-person.  At 00:21 you’ll briefly see a mirror-glass skyscraper on a main Boulevard (I think its called) Kikvdze, which I think I walked by a couple of times during my stay – now recently scarred by Russia’s indiscriminate bombing campaign.

My eyes well with tears because this is all sooo needless, my friends are under siege and hurting; it is heartbreaking for all of us and ultra-threatening to our general peace on Earth since World War II. Please help any way you can. Arnold Schwarzeneggar’s video was spot on, Great! Need more similar. This is when Muhammad Ali, Dennis Rodman or someone from the entertainment world, who the despot admired, would make a trip behind the iron curtain to gain an audience with him and maybe talk some sense into the senseless or gain insights. Surely there is some such person these days? I’ve read where actor Steven Segal is admired by Mr. Egomaniac; so when is the high-profile athlete/thespian/sports celebrity like может быть. Maria Sharopova, going to step forward and use their voice and influence and make this needed sojourn?

Please remember to check out our music-only satellite blog, https://achilliadsmyvinylrecordshoppe.wordpress.com/