In pursuit of his happiness Biden has brought up the matter to UNSC.



India's response:




This 'abstained' or abstinence has no effect as the Security Council requires just 10 votes to go ahead and discuss the situation in Ukraine.

Security Council member countries with US:

UK - Boris Johnson who needs a war to keep his hob
Ireland - ?
Norway - large exporter of weapons
France -
Brazil - borderline drug country
Mexico

What I like about Brazil is: 'possessing drugs for personal use is a crime that does not carry a penalty of imprisonment. Those convicted of the charges can be subject to the following penalties: a warning, community service, or attending an educational course.' - the free education.

Countries with Russia:
China


Countries - neutral
India
Kenya
Gabon - Gabon who?

"You are either with us, or you are against' - old American saying

So India's position of neutrality, although we have hostile relations with China; is now questionable.

India's reason for abstaining: "This is nothing but a PR stunt, a classic example of ‘megaphone diplomacy’ (propelled by US determination to declare sanctions and more)."

Personally, I think Ukraine should continue as it was, without NATO weapons on its lands.

I also think that US has already won the first round since Ukraine's defense system has been strengthened with hi-tech weapons and ongoing training. A few steps closer to acquiring the NATO shield.

[If one looks at Ukraine's location, NATO missiles there will be like a knife touching the belly of Russia]

To paraphrase from what Boris Johnson recently said, 'In the event of war, Ukraine will be reduced to 'no-man's land' and as Russia claims that citizens from both countries share 'Slav ethnicity'; not in Russia's interest at all'.

Unfortunately Boris, your recent behavior has been irresponsible - or so projected by Media & in the UK Parliament that your intentions are questionable.

They are waiting for Sue Gray's report / interpretation of events.

We have been tracking the Pandemic since April 2020 - https://mingle2.com/topic/597622

beginning from the 4th post on this topic and from the time NYC Mayor Blasio refused to cooperate on covid mandates.

I sent a message under contact in Lloyd Doggett's website and while I did not receive acknowledgement, the referred page has been removed. Thanks.

This is what Herbert Marshal, English actor once wrote after he got an artificial leg fixed after several painful ops and went back to work. He was injured in WW I.



- Source Wiki on Herbert Marshall

What else could Uncle Bogey do? While he had lost his son, nephew Herbert was alive!

Herbert learnt to walk, returned to the theater and starred in over 10 movies in the 1920s.

I think empathy, or expressions like 'somebody walked in someone's shoes'are inadequate to explain what Uncle Bogey did for Herbert - or the relief Uncle Bogey sought by helping Herbert - but it begins to explain (to me) why in Mingle people share well wishes, 'sensitive appreciations'; although they have never met.., and will never meet.

From BBC:
In reality Russia wants Nato to return to its pre-1997 borders

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-56720589

President Biden has threatened Russia's leader with measures "like none he's ever seen" if Ukraine is attacked. So what would they involve?

1. Disconnecting Russia's banking system from the international Swift payment system.

2. President Biden has warned that he would consider personal sanctions on Vladimir Putin, if Russia invades Ukraine.

3. Prevent the opening of Russia's Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline in Germany, and approval for that is currently being decided by Germany's energy regulator.

By the way,



Reasonable to expect Google / YouTube algorithms to vary from country to country

Thanks !

Thanks Rock for pointing out:

The MAP IS as of Nov 26

and the tiny squares scattered show the then
'newly arrived Russian troops,

mainly inside Belarus as: 9000 (new)
and on Russia-Ukraine border as: 6000


Your link gives an update as of 23 Jan 22:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-01-23/russian-troops-ukraine-threat-war-global-stakes-west-power/100772162

If we go as per Map - then 50,000 Russian troops were spread along the border in Nov and,

Since most news reports give the updated figure as 100,000 the additional 50,000 may have been deployed in Dec / Jan Still a cause for deepest concern.


For Indians reading this,
abc.net.au link is blocked in India by ministry here.

Sue Gray, a senior government official, is currently investigating all such allegations.

The 8,500 are presently invisible to Russians.

If Kyiv, as Boris Johnson predicted, is the target for 'lightening Russian raiding force' (and the reason for US embassy evacuation) then the closest troops would be the:

5000 Russians (see map below) from Belarus Russian border.

Russian deployment:


Alternatively, here's another root cause that the New York Times reported on Nov 12 - 2 months ago



https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/12/world/europe/lukashenko-putin-belarus-russia.html

German Navy Chief resigns over remarks in India on Ukraine, Russia


https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/german-navy-chief-resigns-over-remarks-on-ukraine-russia/article38312659.ece


42nd IISS Fullerton Lecture - Germany's Chief of Navy, Vice Admiral Kay-Achim Schönbach

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PG26J-GD3DQ

Personally,

I've a feeling - that the way US developed and managed it's foreign policy - it does not have the foundation of deep thought as in 'Constitution' . Practically foreign policies work not, like any home policy. In a home policy, 'if desired results are not generated, govt. may amend or even rescind it'. A rude example is US immigration policy / Southern Border control - under Trump and now Biden. Maybe reversed again in 2024 - no hard feelings.

foreign policies however - once you've dropped a bomb on a city / country, however justified; the largest damage is how the victim country perceives it - whether they erase or modify history.




Japan is a close US ally but do they perceive their history like Germany?




It's a long list and one way to reduce if not erase history is to bridge gap between the two polar powers: US and Russia

Trump could see this.

Extremely worrying.

Moreover, Ukraine is a failed economy. Large farms that were maintained by former government machinery are now without capital and farmers have let their lands go waste. W/o agro-export economy, the govt. needs a bailout.

What's surprising is EU has not played any pro-active role. Seems Europe wants to move NATO shield forward to Ukraine-Russian border - maybe thereafter EU may invest in assets. Seems Ukrainian politicians are stalling; unsure of direction to take.

Drunk Moms are not so much a worry as Dem Moms. Like this one who taught her kid to make an impression of DT. a 9 sec clip.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9dL7cXW34I

A Teacher asked her young students to get their parents to tell them a story with a moral at the end of it. The next day, the kids came back and one by one, began to tell their stories. There were all the regular type of stuff. But then the teacher realized that only Janie was left. "Janie, do you have a story to share ?'
''Yes madam......My daddy told me a story about my Mom "
"OK, let's hear" said the teacher.
"My Mom was a Marine ...


"My Mom was a Marine pilot in Operation Desert Storm in Iraq and her plane got hit. She had to bail out over enemy territory and all she had was a flask of whiskey, a pistol and a survival knife. She drank the whiskey on the way down so the bottle wouldn't break ..

and then her parachute landed her right in the middle of 20 Iraqi troops."

"She shot 15 of them with the pistol, until she ran out of bullets, killed four more who managed to close in - with the machete. Then the blade broke and the last one she had to kill with her bare hands."

Pin drop silence in the class !!

''Good Heavens" said the horrified teacher "What did your Daddy tell you was the moral to this horrible story ?"

"Stay away from Mummy when she's drunk......!!!!"

Funny how 'alone' one is these days when one is sick. Not that we are strangers to fevers and stomach infections; it's just that times seem 'reversed'. One worries more about catching Covid at the clinic rather than right diagnosis / medicines for current infection. And when a neighbor enquires about your health, alarm bells seem to go off.

For those of us who brushed with recent sickness and experienced a load of anxieties, here's a message from Jay Leno.



First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant.

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes.

Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright colored lead-based paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking.

As infants &children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, booster seats, seat belts or air bags.

Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.

We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank Kool-aid made with sugar, but we weren't overweight because,

WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.

No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We did not have Play stations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVD's, no surround-sound or CD's, no cell phones, no personal computer! s, no Internet or chat rooms.......

WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.

We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.

We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and, although we were told it would happen, we did not poke out very many eyes.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them!

Little League had try outs and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!

These generations have produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!

The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL!

If YOU are one of them CONGRATULATIONS!


- Jay Leno

- posted by a long time silent admirer of 2KM, her paintings and hi-energy posts.

If you had not taken a long vacation you may have noticed some of us are having a conversation here wherein your points are already covered and we were getting to the finer points that determine outcomes.

To Mr. Guy,

Interesting.
D4F spells Daunte as Daute; like calling a guy with a last name of Quill .., as Kill.

Now you justify Potter's shootout as "putting a car on drive" and-- her remorse, heartfelt, raw and sincere as grounds to lighten her sentence. Why not? A pickaxe .., she mistook for her plastic toy.

It is ancient knowledge here in India that in moments of crisis, deep seated prejudices erupt. Racism, gender and so on; erupt. A black man when considered a dangerous threat; readily loses his features; he has no personality; just black. Chauvin's actions rose from prejudices he had kept in control till that one day when it broke lose.

Then there are moments of 'perceived crisis'; where the threat is not loss of one's life; but of one's prestige and place in society. Here again deep seated prejudices surface - they don't necessarily erupt and swamp but present themselves as a choice. The decision to kill and cover it under accident was one such spot on decision.

Again, my views are based solely on two separate bodycam evidences and not on the trial. The videos do not need careful analyses; just commonsense. The entire jury exhausted all options before arriving to the 'guilty' verdict.

For all it's worth, Potter may be left out on Probation after a year. It hardly matters. It does not bring Daunte to life.

For those concerned, Mrs. Vimla Narayan, the wife of the gentleman in this story, passed away in the morning of 9th.

We need to know more about developing this kind of pressure. May be taught in schools.



Note: In India, we have our own history / news of police brutalities and I'm beginning to believe that police reforms need to start from the top. My views on this case are solely from the videos I saw on YT and not on the trail. Also, let's back up, so that we can also find out how and who escalated the situation.

Somebody did not like the air freshener dangling from the rear view mirror and so the car was stopped. The patrol car was more on a training mission and Daunte's vehicle - freshener - made for a nice exercise.

As per Potter's bodycam:
Daunte had already got outside his car as per the sergeant's orders; had his hands across his back as part of submission to being handcuffed but the man's hands were long; like a ball player's and the sergeant was having difficulty holding and handcuffing.

It was at this moment Potter moved forwards and added new instructions to the sergeant; probably some cuss words because the sergeant looked surprised - all in the video.

It was also at this point, on overhearing Potter; that Daunte jerked free his hands from the sergeant's grip and slipped back to the driver's seat. (By this time, Daunte had already explained he was driving his mother's car - in fact he was talking to her on the cell phone to assure the officer it was her car - and so on.

The likelihood of a weapon in the glove compartment would have implicated his mother who was now on the cell phone waiting for her son to hand over the handset to the officer.
===

A trained police officer with 26 yrs of experience - is well aware that there may come a moment when she would have to erase a citizen / suspect who may compromise her to the authorities. In this case, the suspect had nearly got handcuffed and then broken free on hearing provocative words she had used - and these may now come out during an investigation / hearing.

A trained police officer who has the experience of working under pressure also knows how to camouflage her intent with clear spaced out words: 'Taser, taser, taser' - warning all her men to stand clear.

This also warned off the men to clear the path of the 4200lb car can be just as deadly as any gun,

All this while Potter was leveling the Glock.

What Potter's 26 yrs of experience did not prepare her for, was her bodycam view angle. In most cases, body cams are tilted towards ground and so end up taking pictures of a suspects shoes as he's been handcuffed.

Potter's bodycam was fitted at the right angle for best field view - so that the training assignment can be recorded / replayed. The MIC was muted when she gave instructions to the sergeant and then switched back on, when she warned 'Taser'.



I have not studied Noir's case but makes one wonder how many such cases of unnecessary manslaughter by cops are covered up by the police chiefs as negligence - being committed by one of their own.