As a rootless former newspaperman turned blogger I have the unfortunate habit of doomscrolling the Innertubes as though I were still slumped at a copy desk, trolling for eye-grabbers to dump onto the front page.
This was bad enough when the choices were limited to The Associated Press, a smattering of lesser wire services, and the local sots slobbering into their keyboards after an early dinner of budget lager with a side of Marlboro.
Today the well is bottomless, and anyone with a cheap phone can haul up a bucket of something better left unseen and unremarked upon.
But now and then something of another quality entirely turns up, and the search proves worthwhile.
Case in point: At The Atlantic, Anne Applebaum writes that Ukrainians, like the Irish, have long been the subjects of other empires and have evolved something of a go-fuck-yourself attitude as regards authority, duly constituted or otherwise.
And according to The Guardian, that’s exactly what a baker’s dozen of border guards on Snake Island told the Russian navy when it came calling and ordered their surrender.
They died for their impertinence. But man, what a way to go.
Mad Blog Media 
Not quite the response or results of General McAuliffe who was the acting commander of the 101st Airborne Division defending Bastogne, Belgium. But the sentiment was the same.
And the there’s this…
https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2022/feb/25/ukrainian-woman-sunflower-seeds-russian-soldiers-video?CMP=fb_gu&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR3uu3SLbb3ft6VGZThOeLCYtBffoAuU6D9hyK_jQdGfzwl-vrivKarRArg#Echobox=1645808131
Ho, ho. Apparently the sunflower is Ukraine’s national flower. Don’t tell Graham Watson. Or Charles Pelkey.
Its complicated. Good Applebaum piece.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/explainer-why-putin-uses-wwii-to-justify-attacks-in-ukraine/2022/02/24/c84a10c0-95a2-11ec-bb31-74fc06c0a3a5_story.html
Applebaum’s article was ver good. Thanks. Gee, governments of corruption and greed. No wonder manafort and rudy were attracted like moths to the streetlight.
Yeah, that was a good read. I keep thinking I’m gonna croak my Atlantic subscription, but then I stumble across something like that and go all like, “OK, so not yet, maybe.”
I just renewed my subscription. Great magazine. I had dropped it for a while and that was a mistake.
Looks like the Ukraine Army will be doing the Thermopylae gig. Sadly.
Here’s another interesting piece from The Guardian: Bill McKibben arguing for a high-speed move to renewable energy to dethrone petrostate potentates like Putin.
Good article that describes what people have known for decades but have been unwilling to act on. Everything we need for a vibrant economy and energy security exist in the US, Canada, and Mexico. With the right cooperation, we could be strongest economic triumvirate in the world. Political vision is limited to two years and delusions of independence from the world economy. Russia and Kingdoms in the middle East take advantage of our stupidity.
Yeah, Bill’s been singing this tune for a lot of years now. Alas, the other fellas don’t want thee and me to have security of any sort. They’d rather we were all scared out of our wits and buying shit we don’t need with borrowed money.