The Баба-яга

[Deleted member 365]

Way too many things to write in a short forum post. The upshot is that Ukraine is a beautiful place, and if you pay cab drivers to take you around the city and tell you what they think about their country you get a real sense of the multi-generational struggle that has taken place there to forge and maintain an identity that is separate from the Russian Empire/USSR/Russian Federation. You also get a real firm notion of the long-term psychological impact that constant corruption and the ongoing threat of Russian occupation can have on a people. This is a society that had a relatively bloody revolution less than five years ago, and sometimes feel like nothing changed and nothing might ever change. Given that context, the machinations at the 2016 GOP convention, to sell these people out in exchange for Russian cooperation with the campaign, and the ongoing possibility that our administration may formally recognize Russia's territorial claims on Ukraine, feels particularly cruel and unfair. These people are real and they matter.

Also, we need restaurants that serve Georgian food in the United States. Five-star cuisine all the way around.

Pretty striking given the actions of Republicans since 2016 regarding Ukraine. They’ve done everything possible to exploit that country, blackmail their president, and sway the war to Russia. JD Vance in particular, seems to harbor a special hate for President Zelenskyy. It’s still crazy to me that voters knew (or should have known) that Trump would **** over the Ukrainians and yet last fall they shrugged their shoulders and put Trump back into the White House. I guess egg prices and getting rid of the brown people was too large a temptation to resist. Plus, Kamala was black and female.