Local print media-more stories 2023

  Packers claim it will cost $7.5 million to host the 2025 NFL draft and expect to lose $$$ on the event. Two local state GOP politicians submitted a motion to the Wisonsin Legislature’s seeking a $2 million grant for Experience Greater Green Bay, a group that promotes tourism in the Green Bay area. Perhaps they should file for a loan to be paid back by 2026.  Sales tax revenue from tourists should cover this easily. 

June 2, 2023

Steve Garvey, former 1B for Dodgers and Padres, may run for the US Senate seat in California.

I forgot about this from 1989:  Cyndy Garvey was released from jail one day after she was arrested for refusing to allow her ex-husband, Steve Garvey, court-ordered visits with their two daughters.    In the same year SG admitted that he had fathered the children of two other women and one of them is suing him.

June 19, 2023

San Fran Mayor is mad about a GMA claim it’s ‘too dangerous to film’ in the downtown area, while Biden wants to hold fundraisers in the area in 2024.

July 6, 2023

Nearly 30 train cars crashed in Reeseville, WI in Dodge County, spilling grain and potash. No one was hurt. Another derailment occurred in Crawford County, WI in April. Where's "Mayor" Pete?

July 18, 2023

 Bandimere Speedway, a longtime stop west of Denver on the NHRA circuit, will be sold for residential development. It may be tricky finding another location for drag racing in the Denver area.

Aug 11, 2023

Big Ed's BBQ is expanding in the Midwest. Eddie Nero, the owner, got an early boost from some former Chicago Bears, Jason McKie and Devin Hester. Is the food tasty?

Oct 12, 2023

 CHICKEN FRIED DEVILED EGGS-tasty in local 21236 joint. The Local had some melt-in your mouth apps last night.  those eggs : buttermilk and herb marinade, B&B pickle relish, rosemary

hot sauce, chives. Hot sauce was sweet than kicked in hot.

Oct 24, 2023

  The Phandemic Brew, cool beer name, in Phillies' land. New Jersey brewery, Red White and Brew, has carved out a niche at Citizens Park. 

Dec 12, 2023

K Williams was arrested in Fort Calhoun, Nebraska on charges of homicide for knifing Rev S Cutsgell.  In 2007, SG pleaded guilty to embezzling 127K from an area church. He was sentenced to probation and ordered to pay restitution. Diocese reassigned him to another church. 

Dec 22, 2023

Black barbershops are creating a buzz − over books. So young readers can just 'be boys.

 Alvin Irby, founder of Barbershop Books, has been placing a popular series of children's chapter books in neighborhood shops, including the Germantown section of Philadelphia. 

Black boys are more than just their skin color. They want to read about trucks. They want to laugh. So many of the books that feature black boys don't give them a chance to be boys: silly or gross or funny." quote from Irby.

Jan 15, 2024

Bob Evans restaurant employees confronted Marquis Walker, a New Castle, DE resident, after he paid with a counterfeit $100 bill, but he started to argue with employees and refused to give back the change that he received. He gave back the change, took the counterfeit $100 bill. Delaware State Police chased him on foot and arrested him. He is charged with trying to pay a restaurant bill with a counterfeit $100 bill and with carrying more fake currency.

Jan 18 2024

Baltimore City supports passage of the Pava Marie LaPere Act in the Maryland General Assembly. It will eliminate “good-time credits” for first-degree sex offenders. 

Billingsley, who is is charged with the murder of Pava Marie LaPere, a 26-year-old tech company CEO killed in 2023, received credits following a 2015 conviction on a sex offense.

Billingsley was also charged with a west Baltimore arson in 2023, where investigators claim he raped a woman, handcuffed a man, and slashed their throats in the apartment and then set them on fire.

Jan 22, 2024

Claymont, DE man sentenced to only 6.5 years for blowing up and robbing ATMs in the Philly area in 2020. I can't find his name in the reports.

March 3, 2024

 In Norfolk VA, Port of Virginia opened a two-way passage allowing ultra-large container vessels to travel through and is dredging it and the Norfolk Harbor to 55 feet deep and the ocean approach to 59 feet deep. 

When $450M dredging project is done in fall, The Port of Virginia will have the deepest, widest channels on the USA East Coast.

It quite a site to be on a tour boat and ride by the aircraft carriers in that area.

March 8, 2024

What's that smell around Millsboro DE? Officials claim it's a rotten egg smell caused by the dredging of the Indian river. Others ain't buying that claim.

 Its bringing decaying organic material to the surface and dumping it in nearby wetlands.

April 10, 2024

Who are the good guys? Bull City United, a  Durham, NC-based group of violence interrupters and outreach workers, has issues.

Nicole Taybron, 40, a BCU employee, was arrested earlier this week on a charge of possession with intent to sell and deliver crack cocaine. 

May 18, 2024

 Pot plants were spotted amidst a tulip patch near the capitol building in downtown Madison, WI and removed . No comment yet from Gov. Evers.

May 24, 2024

Norfolk Southern, which did not admit wrongdoing, agreed to a proposed consent decree estimated to cost them  over $310 million to resolve a government lawsuit over a February 2023 train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.

June 3, 2024

Headed to NC this week and  I"ll be wary.   NC Highway Patrol pursued Kahshon Nahkiem Cunningham and Promise Allure Hope on several drug charges. The chase started in Wilson Mills off of U.S. 70 and went through Johnston County and  reached speeds of 145 mph. 

Suspects gave up peacefully and drugs were found on Hope.

June 9, 2024

In Raleigh, NC, a barber is required to complete 59 steps and 17 forms to open a barbershop.

June 29, 2024

Enjoying the lead-in line --Business heats up ----for South Raleigh,NC ice-making plant. Holiday Ice peak season.

July 29, 2024

Hopefully, UNC abides by a lawsuit settlement which includes a commitment to follow the state's open-meeting laws including discussions on  future conference alignment.

Missed this on -going news on this while I was in Chapel , NC in early June, 2024.about David McKenzie's lawsuit against UNC. He got 25K.

https://vaporvents.blogspot.com/2019/05/local-print-media-catching-stories-ive.html

Random pop-ups in Europe

 Pope Francis is visiting Hungary later this week, and I doubt he and Orban agree on migrants but may concur on Ukraine. In 2021 Orban met the pope asked him, "not to let Christian Hungary perish". He gave the pope a facsimile of a letter that 13th century Bela IV, the King of Hungary and Croatia between 1235 and 1270, sent to Pope Innocent IV asking for help in fighting the Tartars.

I wonder if the Pope will comment on Hungary's child protection law which the EU hates. That would be "rich" coming from a Vatican that gives cover for pedo priests.

April 27, 2023

So this confusing issue flares up again: Armenia claims that the Russian force has failed to keep open the Lachin corridor, the only land route that links it to Karabakh across Azerbaijani territory.

Russia is a major arms exporter to Azerbaijan and so is NATO member Turkey. 

Russia is a military ally of Armenia.

Toss in Ukraine war.

April 30, 2023

Armenia and Azerbaijan may hold a new round of talks in Washington on Sunday to try to normalize relations.  I guess because the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan will be in Washington DC this weekend. Otherwise, WTF are we, the USA, doing in this mess.

May 10, 2023

 Switzerland's military performed its largest exercises in more than three decades. Big deal for a long-time neutral country.

May 13, 2023

For all the climate change folks: Snow fell in parts of northern Spain yesterday after months of high temps and no rain.

June 3, 2023

Italian PM Meloni: The clampdown on charity ships stops them from acting as "ferry boats" for migrants, going "back and forth with human traffickers to shuttle people from one country to the other."

 Charities' ships are being impounded for ignoring the law.

And to counter so called ‘Pride Month’ Meloni’s has launched ‘Family Pride Month’ to promote the traditional family.

June 6, 2023

Romania is buying two second-hand British minesweepers and two French submarines. Probably to deal with its Black Sea naval fears.

June 18, 2023

Germany will transfer its Patriot missile defense systems, which are currently stationed in Slovakia, to Lithuania to protect the upcoming NATO summit on July 11 and 12.

Shifting gears, Belgian foreign affairs minister Hadja Lahbib is facing calls for resignation after granting visas to delegations from Iranian and Russian cities, which are in countries under international sanctions, to attend a convention of Mayors in Brussels.

June 23, 2023

Some Amsterdam residents don't want to see tourists coming for sex and drugs. You have prostitution museums. Gimme a break!

July 5, 2023

The amount of funds raised for the French cop who shot teenager Nahel M. is 4x the amount raised for NM's family.

Aug 2, 2023

A Scottish lawmaker has been , triggering a by-election that will indicate whether the opposition Labour Party is recovering support from Scotland's dominant pro-independence party.

Aug 1, 2023

Margaret Ferrier (SNP), one of a wave of SNP politicians who swept Labour from its one-time Scottish stronghold in 2015, was stripped of her seat yesterday in Britain's parliament for breaking COVID rules in 2020. Quite a tactic!

Aug 25, 2023

 Macron's advisers feel Le Pen could get elected in 2027 because she'll have the working class and middle class, but it's not due to questions on migration, Hello, runaway migration is a major factor in why she'll have those two groups.

Sept 7, 2023

Bear attacks on humans become an election issue in Slovakia. Over-protected?

Sept 23, 2023

Bulgaria: 115th anniversary freed from Ottoman Empire, also booted out Russia orthodox priest yesterday for being spies.

Sept 29, 2023

Sweden PM Ulf Kristersson called in the chief of the armed forces to help curb a rise in gang killings. New Trend?

Nov 2, 2023

A man tossed dyed rodents into a McDonald's in UK and screamed F^ck Israel. Reuters headline: apparent, anti-Israel protest😕

Nov 20, 2023

Orban's billboard message: let's not dance to Soros Jr and der Leyen tunes

Nov 28, 2023

A man from Kalipetrovo, Bulgaria grilled sandwiches in the office of the electricity distribution company in Silistra to protest that there was no electricity in his house for 24 hours.

Company officials promised the problem will be fixed and that power will be restored to his home within an hour and a half.

Dec 26, 2023

First kiosk in Lisbon opened in 1869 and these cafes are experiencing a revival.

Moorish-style kiosks provide chairs and shade and serve traditional snacks and drinks.

 Prime Minister António de Oliveira Salazar's laws that began in the 1930s discourage public gathering.

Jan 6, 2024

Sint-Truiden, Belgium: This Christmas season it moved its ice-skating rink inside Minderbroederse, an18th-century baroque church that doesn't host services.

Children skate across the nave of the church and past a nativity scene, with Christmas music filling the air and a starry night image projected on the ceiling.

Jan 20, 2024

To counter money laundering and terrorist financing, EU has reached a partial agreement, imposing a €10,000(10.9K USD) cap on cash payments. The agreement, struck between member states and the European Parliament, claims it will safeguard European citizens and the EU financial system from illicit financial activities.

Entities involved in financial services, banking, real estate agencies, asset management firms, casinos, and merchants will be required to adhere to the cash payment limit. And they will be required to verify the identity of individuals making cash payments that range from €3,000 to €10,000.

Jan 25, 2024

Sweden will have to wait until Feb 26 for Hungary to ok its accession to NATO. Orban told NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg that he’ll “urge” parliamentary approval “at the first possible opportunity."

Feb 1, 2024

EU Parliament President Roberta Metsola: "To the farmers that are outside. We see you and we hear you.". I dread these words at work cuz it's just a brush off.

Feb 4, 2024

Portugal moving to the Right ahead of the March 10 snap election. Chega Party is gaining ground in opinion polls. Open Borders and EU climate-mania ain't popular.

Feb 24, 2024

More farmer protests in France amid rumors that Macron invited environmentalist group Soulevements de la Terre to his scheduled debate with farmers' union representatives.

April 17, 2024

Emir Kir, mayor of the Brussels district of Saint-Josse-ten-Noode,  issued a ban on a conservative conference, claiming the far right is not welcome in the city.

"Police have instructed that they won't let people into the building but won't force them to leave," said Anthony Gilland of the MCC think tank, one of the organizations behind the event.

July 19, 2024

 Macron created the mess and appears to have prevented a Leftist nightmare.by working with the center and center-right parties. Communist lawmaker André Chassaigne may not get a top job.

Assembly Speaker ,Yael Braun-Pivet,  retained her post Thursday 

Aug 29, 2024

Here we go:  Starmer’s ‘Operation Reset’ starts with Germany  to undo hard Brexit despite his claims to the contrary.

Sept 8, 2024

High on a bullsh^t meter: Stamer on removing Thatcher's portrait. "This is not actually about Margaret Thatcher at all. I don’t like images and pictures of people staring down at me."

Sept 27, 2024

Tech companies Europe  pay more to comply with EU regulations than for R&D. AI will suffer there.

Oct  9 , 2024

National Rally, which has 125 seats in parliament, abstained from the no-confidence vote on France's PM Barnier, which caused its defeat.  Leader Marine Le Pen is giving the government a chance for the time being. Commies are pissed.

Oct 17, 2024

Hits keep coming at Starmer: Downing Street rejected suggestions that Starmer received Taylor Swift tickets as a “thank you” after she was given a taxpayer-funded police escort while in London. Also, no response on whether the PM met the singer at a show .

Oct 18, 2024

So now Columbus is not Italian but a Sephardic Jew from western Europe. However, DNA analysis is unlikely to validate a distinction between Spanish versus Italian or Sephardic Jewish ancestry. 

A documentary aired on Spain’s broadcaster TVE called "Columbus DNA: The True Origin,"  made these claims.

Oct 25, 2024

Starmer: "Regular" working folks who get additional income from assets such as shares or property, do not count as working people- per his definition. Taxman is coming.

Oct 31, 2024

 Keir Starmer : “those with the broadest shoulders” would have to pay more tax." Reeves wants increase in the tax businesses pay for employing people. F'n nuts

Africa- so much desert and more

 The building of the Mauritania’s Train du Desert which was completed in 1963 must have been brutal. The train system operates a daily service from the port at Nouadhibou on the Atlantic coast to the iron ore mines in Zouerat. A full journey runs along the border of the disputed territory of Western Sahara and takes around 20 hours. The train is made up of three or four diesel locomotives, one passenger carriage, and between 200 and 210 freight cars. 

Mauritania became an independent nation in 1960.

March 31, 2023

Pirates have abandoned Monjasa Reformer, a Danish-owned ship hijacked in the Gulf of Guinea last week, but have taken some crew members with them. Ransom demands expected shortly.

April 6, 2023

Gunmen in Nigeria's northern Kaduna state kidnapped eight school kids while Nigeria's military fights a long-running Islamist insurgency in the northeast. I know it's sounds like same old sh^t but it serves as a reminder.

May 8, 2023

Rumors of Russian paramilitary group Wagner looking to supply weapons to the RSF in Sudan in exchange for RSF-controlled gold mining resources.

June 4, 2023

Turkey, which sent forces to help the government in Tripoli ward off an assault by eastern forces in 2020, has previously deployed drones from bases in western Libya. Ankara has not commented the June 2 drone strikes by Libya's Government on the western regions of Zawia, Zuwara, Ajeelat, and Maya.  What are Ergodan and Libya's GNU goals?

BTW, this started me thinking about Hannibal fleeing to what is now modern day Turkey. Yes, I know Carthage, Hannibal's base, is in modern day Tunisia.

July 23, 2023

Morocco considers Western Sahara its own territory, but Algeria isn't happy and many some Algerians prefer WS to be an independent state. Is war coming?

July 28, 2023

On-going coup of Bazoum in Niger. Some folks outside the National Assembly waved Russian flags and chanted anti-French slogans.

Sept 8, 2023

Jihad steps up attacks in Mali while UN works on its exit.

Oct 14, 2023

UN forces exit Mali -Fighting intensifies-no surprise- between the army and separatist insurgents in Mali. 

Oct 23, 2023

  Elsewhere in Africa: Moroccan police seized 1.37 tons of cocaine in Casablanca. It was concealed in a cargo of imported frozen fish found at a distribution company and was imported from a Latin American country via Spain, the Moroccan police. Where's Bogey.

EU sanctions the junta in Niger.

Nov 21, 2023

Malawi President Chakwera suspended all foreign trips by government officials, including himself. Let's see how long this lasts.

Dec 2, 2023

Biden promised to visit Angola. He hopes to discuss the Artemis Accords, a pact designed to shape the rules for space exploration with Angola, which has a satellite program that has benefited from Russian support. Angola and Russia have not signed up.

Jan 2, 2024 

 Landlocked Ethiopia signed a memorandum of understanding with Somaliland, a breakaway enclave of Somalia, which give it access to the Red Sea. 

Ethiopia has offered the region a stake in Ethiopian Airlines and will officially recognize it as a sovereign state. Somaliland declared its independence in 1991.

Feb 25, 2024

Canada pledges $59M for the deployment of a Kenya-led multinational mission to support Haitian police in its battle to contain criminal gangs. Quite a path!

April 15, 2024

Sunak, Brit PM, is ready to exit ECHR if his Rwanda Scheme passes in Parliament. It paves the way for asylum seekers to be deported to Rwanda. 

 Rwanda needs to be treated by British judges as a safe destination, and it will also limit individuals' options for an appeal to only exceptional cases.

April 27, 2024

A portion of the USA. troops in Chad will move to Germany for now, but it's a temporary step. Hey, Pentagon spokesperson Major General Patrick Ryder hints they may return after the country's May 6 presidential election, and it sounds like they're sure Deby will win.

June 12, 2024

 Tunisia: Saied may use a decree to void the Article 25 statute which prohibits direct financing of the state budget by its Central Bank.  Abassi, the bank's governor, warns financing it will lead to a Venezuela scenario.

June 25, 2024

Kenya  is facing tax protests in the street. A proposed "eco levy" on most manufactured goods including sanitary towels and diapers has made the situation worse.

July 2, 2024

Libya fully reopens major Ras Ijdir border crossing with Tunisia. Nouri, Tunisian IM, states "reopened for all activities except smuggling". It gave me a chuckle-although probably not his intention.

This follows three months of armed clashes.

Sept 28, 2024

Kenya supplies more than 40% of the flower market in Europe, particularly fresh roses. Planes makes deliveries daily to various cities.

Unpaid overtime, harsh working conditions, and lack of protective gear on some flower farms , are among numerous  complaints to both the Kenya Flower Council and (KEPHIS).

October 8, 2024

Saied, the leader of Tunisia since 2019, has removed institutional and legal checks on his own power and claims not to be a dictator.  He's getting financial help from European countries worried about migration.

Oct 30, 2024

Macron offers more French investment for the Western Sahara in a speech to Morocco's parliament. Tension with Algeria will heighten.

Algeria has been imposing visa requirements on Moroccans, accusing some of its passport holders of "Zionist espionage".

Nov 2, 2024

Global demand for diamonds hurt Botswana and BDP, its ruling party for 58 years, just got knocked out of power by the UDC (Umbrella for Democratic Change). Masisi out,Boko in. 

Dec 15, 2024

Ghana- Incoming Prez Mahama promises to abolish nuisance taxes , such as the electronic levy on mobile transactions and a levy on carbon emissions produced by petrol or diesel-powered vehicles.

Jan 9, 2025

Chad: French soldiers leaving, Chinese diplomats visiting, Deby's military repels armed assault of presidential complex. 

Deby is in office via a coup. Plenty of oil in the ground.

Older blog:

https://vaporvents.blogspot.com/2020/10/africa-those-darn-wigs-and-gowns.html

India is on a rampage and more on Asia

  Indian tax officials examined mobile phones and laptops used by some BBC editorial and administrative employees during an inspection at the British broadcaster's offices in New Delhi and Mumbai. Some are claiming this is in reprisal for a BBC documentary that raised questions about Prime Minister Narendra Modi's behavior in the last 20 years.

India will raise seven new battalions of the Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) in the next few years to deal with brewing tensions with mainland China.

Feb 18, 2023

 On February 6 when a Filipino boat was attempting to take supplies to the Sierra Madre, a vessel that is used as a Filipino naval outpost in the South China Sea, a Chinese vessel intercepted it and used a laser device to temporarily blind the crew.

Laser weapons designed to damage eyesight are banned under UN convention, but when did Communist China care about bans.

Feb 26, 2023

Sometimes I forget about Japanese royalty. Naruhito, who was crowned emperor on May 1, 2019, after his father Akihito became the first Japanese emperor to abdicate in two centuries, gave his first public birthday address on Thursday.

March 8, 2023

 Joe Biden's legacy: Universities have reopened in Afghanistan but only for men.

March 20, 2023

China and Cambodia held military naval exercises for the first time in Cambodian waters. I started thinking about the Vietnam War, Mekong Delta, Khmer rouge. etc.

March 21, 2023

I'm a bit surprised that Japan PM Kishida is going as far as visiting Kyiv.  This follows Japan joining Western allies in imposing sanctions on Russia, sending defensive equipment, and offering refuge to those fleeing the Ukraine-Russia war.

April 13, 2023

I had to read this statement twice; Myanmar's military stated that if civilians were also killed in its air strike on a gathering in the Sagaing area, it was because they were being forced to help "terrorists".

April 17, 2023

Atiq Ahmed , former lawmaker in India's parliament who was convicted of kidnapping, was killed along with his brother while police were escorting them for a medical check-up. The assailants were posing as journalists. I keep thinking about Jack Ruby.

April 28, 2023

Many folks in India are offended and have been criticizing a cartoon in Der Spiegel, a German magazine, that they claim is racist and in bad taste. The cartoon shows a dilapidated Indian train, overflowing with passengers, overtaking a fancy Chinese train on a parallel track. Hell, the cartoon acknowledges India is surpassing Communist China. Gimme a break!

May 11, 2023

Ming Pao, a Hong Kong newspaper, will scrap Wong Kei-kwan's comic strip, which has been running since 1983, because it offends the mainland Commies. Censorship grows- no surprise.

June 8, 2023

EU is coming after palm oil and other products by demanding exact proof of which trees are cut down. Malaysia ,etc are its targets. Endless micro-management.

June 30, 2023

India and Philippines vow stronger cooperation dealing with mainland China’s regional claims in the South China Sea which center on a nine-dash line surrounding several islands and waters of disputed sovereignty. They've agreed to the placement an Indian defense attaché in Manila.

July 19, 2023

 Private Travis T. King of the USA Army "stumbles" into North Korea, but Kirby lectures us on abortion. What a Pentagon!

August 16, 2023

Spanish group Inditex will cut ties with Myanmar suppliers. Primark and Marks & Spencer did last year.  I doubt these moves will make the military junta snap to attention.

Sept 5, 2023

 Myanmar's junta will let Kyi rot in jail -her request for an outside physician denied.

Sept 25, 2023

The Philippines claim it will remove a Chinese floating barrier blocking fishing vessel access in the Scarborough Shoal. This will get ugly quickly.

Oct 11, 2023

Hong Kong’s business community struggles due to Beijing’s bounty on those with opposing views. Many in the legal sector are concerned about judicial independence, and some executives are concerned that Hong Kong is losing its business relevance to Singapore and Dubai.

Oct 17, 2023

Chinese and Japanese coast guard ships faced off in waters around disputed islands in the East China Sea

China claims it drove away several Japanese vessels that "illegally" entered territorial waters on Monday around islands, which it calls Diaoyu and is urging Japan to stop all "illegal activities" in the area. However, Japan controls the islands and calls them the Senkaku.

Oct 31, 2023

Pakistan has given illegal Afghan immigrants until November 1 to exit the country and will use force if the deadline is not met.

Nov 12, 2023

Burma Shave occurring too close to China.

Anti-junta offensive in Shan State, on Mynamar's northeast border near China, has displaced at least 50,000 people, with trade routes cut off and several towns seized.

China is asking for all sides to cease hostilities.

More China news: China detained Japanese executives Hiroshi Nishiyama, on suspicion of espionage in March, and he was arrested last month. This has Japanese employees wondering if it is safe to travel to China, Also, Japanese companies in China have been telling employees to keep a low profile.

Nov 27, 2023

South Korea suspends 2018 deal with North Korea and re-starts its aerial surveillance in response to the launch of a satellite by North Korea. NK has also had started to rebuild guard posts along the frontier.

Dec 15, 2023

 KMT Vice Chairman Andrew Hsia, a former Taiwanese diplomat and one-time head of Taiwan's China-policy making Mainland Affairs Council, visited the mainland hoping his party can narrow the DPP, the ruling party, lead ahead of the Jan. 13 presidential and parliamentary elections.

DPP response: "It is no wonder that international public opinion and Taiwan's people have questioned: does the KMT have to report everything to Beijing first?"

Dec 20, 2023

A Japanese court ordered the governor of Okinawa to approve the central government's modified plan for landfill work at the planned relocation site of a key USA Marine base on the southern island despite long running opposition by residents.

Jan 5, 2023

North Korea fired approximately 200 artillery shells into waters off its western coast. This led to an emergency evacuation order for civilians on the border islands of Yeonpyeong and Baengnyeong. The Joint Chiefs of Staff of South Korea confirmed the artillery firings which breached the maritime buffer zone that was set up to reduce border tensions.

South Korean military responded with live-fire artillery drills.

Jan 13, 2023

 William Lai, Keep Taiwan (Free of Communist China), is set to be Taiwan's next president. He is the first presidential candidate in Taiwan to get five million votes.

Jan 17, 2024

  Missiles from Iran targeted two bases in Pakistan of the militant group Jaish al Adl, a Sunni outfit. The Ayatollah is on a rampage in the area.

Jan 26, 2024

Kirin sees Japanese whiskey driving 50% export of premium brand, When I think whiskey Japan doesn't come to mind.

Feb 14 2024

 Myanmar Junta will implement military conscription and bring back retirees due to steep military personnel losses while it's battling a coordinated offensive by an alliance of three ethnic-minority insurgent groups.

Feb 20, 2024

Mainland China's top financial watchdogs' goal is to ensure that the sector adheres to Communist Party values- be wary Hong Kong! Their bumper sticker: socialist economy can work.

April 11, 2024

200 Myanmar military personnel withdrew to a bridge to Thailand on Thursday after a days-long assault by the anti-junta resistance in Myawaddy, a border town. 

Thailand, which remains neutral, is concerned about the fighting spilling into its airspace and is taking in refugees.

Nov 10, 2024

Communist China welcomed Hlaing, the Mynamar military junta chief, for talks, but it sure feels like the Junta is collapsing and this move will fuel the Burmese rebels.

prior blog https://vaporvents.blogspot.com/2021/10/focusing-on-asia-in-4q-of-2021.html

German middle finger, too

 Hans Modrow, the last Communist prime minister of East Germany, died at age 95. Many of today's news reports mention that he oversaw democratic reforms that opened the way to German reunification in 1989. However, they don't mention that in 1993 he was convicted of vote rigging in the municipal elections held in Dresden in May,1989. Or that he gave orders to destroy incriminating Stasi files.

It's quite interesting to consider Modrow's career path. He was a Nazi soldier in WW2 who the Soviets captured and sent to an anti-Fascist indoctrination camp. 

April 11. 2023

 Austria plans to extend checks at its borders with Slovenia and Hungary by another six months from May 11, when the current six-month suspension of free travel over those boundaries expires, and I bet Germany doesn't complain. Illegal immigration is a major world-wide issue regardless of the feelgood rhetoric.

April 20, 2023

"Flashes of Memory: Photography During the Holocaust" is an interesting exhibition that moved from Israel for the first time and is currently presented at Berlin's Museum of Photography. It's a reminder that photography during the Nazi era was used as a tool to manipulate the public opinion but also served to document atrocities for later war crimes trials. So kids, you gotta take the good with the bad. Learn from history, don't deny or erase it.

May 24, 2023

The Fehmarn Belt Tunnel, the world’s longest immersed tunnel, will link Denmark and Germany, and create a land route between Sweden and Central Europe that will be 160 kilometers shorter than it is today.

June 14, 2023

Germany boosts coal imports from Colombia while seeking to phase out fossil fuels at home.

July 12, 2023

 AfD, which is labeled the far right, has nationwide support in Germany of 20%., mostly due to the out of control migration problem. No one wants to work with them, nor address the migration problem. Demonization of AfD is not working.

July 24, 2023

Friederich Merz, the leader of center-right CDU in Germany, now claims he'll work with the AfD on the local level. His tune will change more.

Aug 7, 2023

AFD's polling numbers are on the rise in Germany while it calls the EU a failed project. Will CDU have to work with AFD?

Sept 22, 2023

Is Bavaria with its own border police, the "Texas" of Germany?

Oct 9, 2023

Free Voters and the AfD look set to claim around 30% of Bavaria's vote. Soder(CSU) needs an attitude adjustment. 1, 3, and 4 are center right to right. 

nov 18, 2023:

On November 12, the old 485s trains(Coke cans) took their last runs on Berlin streets. 

Jan 14, 2024

The Dortmund District Court in Germany is pressing forward with deportation proceedings for a Tajik national accused of planning the New Year's Eve terror attack on Cologne Cathedral.

I'm stunned.

Feb 21, 2024

Hamburg is testing debit card for asylum-seekers to prevent state benefits from being sent outside the country. And one recipient is mad because she can't send money back home to pay her debts.

Feb 23, 2024

Former Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, who is charged with making false statements to a parliamentary inquiry into alleged corruption, will receive the court verdict soon. He could get three years in jail.

April 9, 2024

Germany sends its first soldiers for a permanent Lithuania force to be named Panzerbrigade 45.

Lithuania has a border with the Russian Baltic Sea exclave of Kaliningrad and Belarus.

Suwalki Gap is around the border between Lithuania and Poland, and centers on the shortest path between Belarus and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad Oblast on the Polish side of the border. 

April 18, 2024

Bavaria asks: Get drunk, not high at Oktoberfest. In my party days, I'd say why not both.

June 5, 2024

Germany will likely deport Afghan migrants who pose a security threat back to Afghanistan, which runs counter to its usual stance of not repatriating people to countries where they are threatened with death. It's election time!

Interior minister Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said it must be done quickly.

June 24, 2024

   Djir-Sarai , one of Scholz' coalition partners, calls for a slash to benefits for Ukrainian refugees in Germany, while Scholz suggests Milei work on more socially acceptable policies in Argentina.

Sarai serves on the Committee on Foreign Affairs.

August 17, 2024

Nancy Faeser, the IM of Germany, gave a chilling response, to a German court provisionally lifting the ban on Compact, a right-leaning magazine. Basic Law "expressly provides an instrument to ban organizations in order to protect democracy from enemies of the constitution."

Aug 28, 2024

Germany’s AfD party is using opposition to renewable energy projects in rural areas to clinch its first wins in two east German state elections on 9/1/24.

It proposes tougher new planning rules for constructing turbines

Sept 5, 2024

AfD's record result in the eastern German state of Thuringia confuses so many folks. The center and mild right  refusal to deal with migration issues is the major reason for the AFD's success. 

Sept 16, 2024

Austria's Chancellor Karl Nehammer 's response to Germany tightening its border controls will be to send more people eastward towards the Balkans. No one is listening to the EU bosses.

Sept 25, 2024

 Nouripour and co-leader, Ricarda Lang, who took the helm of the German Green party in early 2022, are stepping down after disappointing  election results in eastern Germany. 

Sept 29, 2024

Germany has stopped approving war weapons exports to Israel, but continues to insist that there is no ban in place.

It appears many weapons' approvals were granted late in 2023 but  the spigot has been nearly shut in 2024.

Nov 8, 2024

AFD is pushing for Chancellor Scholz, whose coalition has disintegrated, to face a vote of confidence next week. I bet he won't.

Dec 5, 2024

Berlin to cut arts funding by 12% this year.  Recall this -"Berlin is poor, but sexy" — slogan by former Mayor of Berlin(2001-14), Klaus Wowereit. 

Jan 4, 2025

"There was a repeated 'no' to fundamental reforms this week," Meinl-Reisinger of the Neo-Centrists in Austria. New elections?? FPO back in play?

Jan 12, 2025

I bet Kickl (FPO) quickly works with the OVP to form a ruling majority in Austria. EU will likely try to mess things up.

Earlier blog on Germany:  

German middle finger

Protest news-free Saturday part 2

 Lunar year 2023 is a Year of the Cat on the Vietnamese zodiac, from January 22, 2023 to February 9, 2024. Cat is the fourth sign in the ancient Vietnamese Zodiac.  Did Al Stewart see this as a convenient title for his song in the late 1970s?? 

I had no idea these celebrations were so widespread in the USA. The congregation of St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta Parish at St. Therese Chinese Catholic Church in Chinatown-Chicago. watches as a lion dance is performed down the aisle to begin a Lunar New Year celebration before Mass on Sunday. It marked the beginning of the Year of the Rabbit. 

Al Stewart was born in Greenock, Scotland and has resided in Santa Monica, CA since the 1980s. The other Stewart tune I like to spin is Broadway Hotel.

Greenock reached its population peak in 1921 (81,123) and has been in the 40K range for a while. The French Vauquelin class destroyer Maillé Brézé blew up off Greenock with a heavy loss of life following an accident involving two of her own torpedoes.

Feb 18, 2023

I watched a good bit of Cleo from 5-7, a French new wave film(1962), which featured Corinne Marchand as a model wondering around Paris pondering her mortality. I was more intrigued by her buddy played by Dorothee Black. Photography of Paris was great.

March 13, 2023

A Flight to Berlin(1984), is a quirky, so-so flick, but Tusse Silberg as Susannah maintained my interest with her looks and her mannerisms, plus she was given solid lines. Susannah, who signed the hotel register as Marianne, may or may not have pushed a woman down the steps in England and flew to Berlin to see her sister. No answers given to the audience on the possible crime. Plenty of Berlin street scenes shown including.

May 7, 2023

I was caught off guard yesterday while flicking though the channels and found, The Sunset, a movie about milliners and more in 1913 Budapest. Lazlo Nemes, the director, filmed it in a style that reminded me of silent films with a heavy focus on facial expressions. Irisz Leiter, a milliner, returns to Budapest with the intention of learning more about her family, who once owned Leiter, a women's hat store. The dialogue is minimal, but you sense that the Austro-Hungarian  Empire is nervous about it 's future.

1) Is Irisz' newly discovered brother Kalman, an anarchist? 

2) Did he kill Count Redey whose wealthy, drug-addicted widow now hosts musical soirees for the cream of society? Yes, I would have liked more focus on the Countess played by Julia Jakubowska 

3) Is the Leiter store a grooming ground for courtesans?

I didn't get many answers but remain intrigued by the flick.

July 3, 2023

After watching a WW1 doc yesterday, I'm calling it a tie between Italy and Bulgaria for changing partners during the decade of 1910-1919.

July 9. 2023

Watching Vienna Blood and loving the outside shots that were filmed in Vienna and Budapest. The Vienna basin was a nodal point of ancient trade and military routes. It linked north and south along an ancient road that ran southward from the Baltic and linked east and west along the Danube.

July 29, 2023

Keeping it light: wooden nickels were common advertising tools in the 19th and 20th centuries that could sometimes be redeemed for a beverage, etc.

Sept 18, 2023

Four 1,900-year-old Roman' swords were discovered in a remote cave near the Dead Sea. They were possible stash from rebels in Judea.

Oct 5. 2023

Not sure what to make of Saint Laurent promoting the jumpsuit. Models paraded in sling-back heels, modeling pencil skirts, and roomy-legged trousers-cinched at the waist.

Oct 28. 2023

Pagan Peak, Gedeon Winter character remains intriguing. The sub plots of clashes between Winter(Austria) and Ellie(Germany) is over the top at times. Ritualistic murders in the German-Austrian borderlands and the frequent convening of a cross-border Soko provide a taste of slightly different TV possibilities. Some are great and some fall back into TV cop-show cliches.

Nov 19, 2023

I watched an episode of Paris Police 1900 on Amazon Prime and was intrigued by the wealthy ladies carrying small boxes with a syringe and a vial of heroin. The main themes are Police corruption and the rise of anti Semitism.

Evelyne Brochu portrays Marguerite Steinheil, a well-paid police informant.

Eugénie Derouand portrays Jeanne Chauvin, who eventually became a lawyer during a time period when women weren't allowed to become lawyers.

Dec 5, 2023

Pumpkin regattas- news to me. Tualatin, Oregon, Kasterlee, Belgium. 

Dec 14, 2023

 Parsa, a city in modern day Iran, was the capital of the Persian empire of kings Cyrus, Darius and Xerxes. It was eventually destroyed by Alexander the Great, and the once majestic city fell into ruin, known by locals only as “the place of the forty columns” for over 1000 years before being rediscovered in the 1600s.

March 10, 2024

Intrigued by Natalie Madueño in the Danish TV series, Those Who Kill.  She's a profiler and her interactions with her dad feel extremely cold. 

April 7, 2024

Kari Sorjonen, played by Ville Virtanen, is an interesting detective in the Finnish TV series BorderTown. The show reminds me just how thin the Russia/Finland border is.

Matleena Kuusniemi  plays  his wife.

June 2, 2024 

Hanne Mathisen Haga plays Maya Angell, a profiler in Outlier, a 2021 TV series set in Norway. She battles to solve  a  serial murder case, and it was refreshing to see her  portrayed warts and all.

Saddest part was when she was  having a booze pity party ,and the character Elle brought her info that  was helpful to solving the case and she never gave her the chance to state it. Elle left her house and later got in a car with the killer and became his last victim.

Aug, 4, 2024

The Riddle of the Sands, a 1971 flick about Germany's naval plans to invade England near Harwich in 1901 is amusing.

 British yachtsman Davies stumbles on a German naval plot to attack England while touring the Frisian Islands 

He and Carruthers manage to derail the plans  far too easily, but it's only a movie. 

I enjoyed seeing a young Jenny Agutter.

Aug 11, 2024

Jim Carrey as a Polish cop(Tadek) ,whose need for justice leads to his death ,was a bit over the top at times, but Dark Crimes(2018) is worth watching . Particularly for Charlotte Gainsbourg(Kasia).

 Tadek notices similarities between a cold case murder of a businessman and a best-selling novel by Marton Csokas (Kozlov) and is hellbent to nail him. However, he gets it wrong , loses his family, and drinks  a concoction that kills him while Kasia is telling him she is the killer .

Aug 18, 2024

Life in the Czech Republic or Austrian -Hungarian Empire was an occasional topic of The Prague Mysteries TV series set in the 1920s.

Inspector Budik , a city cop gets a top job on the outskirts of Prague and is not happy trading in his dress shoes for tall boots.

Decent plots. Great photo shoots of Prague. Sabina Rojková, who plays the step-daughter of Chief Inspector Budík is an intriguing actress.

Protest news-free   first blog

What would you do if ..continued

 A Roman-era cemetery was discovered in the Gaza Strip, but action on the housing project has continued. 

The Roman burial site is not far from the ruins of the Greek port of Anthedon now the Israeli city of #Ashkelon on the border with the Gaza Strip.

Among the discoveries: a tomb with polychrome paintings depicting crowns, garlands of laurel leaves, and jars intended for funeral libations.

Dec 27, 2022

In 1762 Denmark knows Peter III(Duke of Holstein-Gottorp) will use Russian troops to take back his ancestral lands. The Danes stood little chance of winning that battle. Then Catherine the Great, his wife, completed a coup and the two governments negotiated the transfer of ducal Schleswig-Holstein to the Danish crown in return for Russian control of the County of Oldenburg and adjacent lands.

Dec 30, 2022

About 10% of all German bombs dropped on Wales during WW2 failed to detonate, and local emergency services are called to deal with about 20 bombs a year.

 Wales was a major battleground because of the industrial targets along the Bristol Channel.

Feb 4, 2023

 The detection of a WW2 era bomb in the southern German town of Rastatt on the Karlsruhe-Basel route has disrupted services to the Swiss city of Basel. The bomb is 70 to 80 centimeters and weighs 250 kilograms.

March 6, 2023

What would you do if you saw a man level the gun at the head of a President-elect and get off one shot? On Feb 15, 1933 Lillian Cross grabbed the arm of the gunman, Giuseppe Zangara, an Italian anarchist, and deflected three more shots. FDR was not hurt.  Anton Cermak, the Mayor of Chicago, who was in Miami, Fla to ask for FDR's assistance, died a week later.

Zangara was executed on March 20, 1933.

March 28, 2023

A Roman mosaic, probably belonging to the Durobrivan group from the East Midlands, was uncovered during excavations last week at Olney, Buckinghamshire in England. The area is near the site of a Roman fort probably established between the Claudian invasion of 43 AD and the beginning of the reign of Vespasian in 69 AD. 

May 5, 2023

War events last forever. The pastor of the local church in Sopiv, western Ukraine told the German War Graves Commission of the remains of German soldiers buried in its backyard.  A German medical plane crashed near the village in the region of Ivanko-Frankivsk during WW2.

The German War Graves Commission was founded during the Weimar Republic in the 1920s to recover and bury the dead German soldiers from WW1.

May 18, 2023

This news is about a year old: 3D photos show that the Titanic ran over an emerged shelf of the iceberg, which was the first scenario proposed back in 1912. However, that story got buried under the idea of this 200 foot gash along the side.

Aug 8, 2023

The tradition of filling in the letters on tombstones at Normandy American Cemetery with Omaha Beach sand began in the 1950s. Perfect way to show gratitude!

Sept 6, 2023

Trinidad, a schooner that sank in Lake Michigan in 1881, was found intact. It was carrying a load of coal. Crew survived using a yawl boat.

Dec 9, 2023

 Romania will receive a maritime minesweeper from Great Britain in the next few weeks and will work with Bulgaria and Turkey to search for mines in the Black Sea.

April 29, 2024

An undetonated USA Army bomb from WW2 was discovered recently during renovation work deep within Mainz's soccer stadium in Germany during renovation work and later defused.

 The bomb, which weighed 500 kilograms, was unearthed during construction work for the expansion of a nearby university.

May 28, 2024

INAH, Mexico’s leading archaeology agency, wants  to know how the city of Guanajuato  mishandled the mummified artifacts during a museum renovation. An arm came off of one of the preserved corpses .

The corpses were originally buried in crypts in a dry, mineral-rich soil environment in the mining state of Guanajuato. Some of the corpses still have hair, leathery skin and their original clothing.

June 15, 2024

A Dutch roll is a combination of a plane's tail sliding side to side, and the plane rocking that causes the wings to roll up and down. The term is derived from a description of swaying movement sin a form of ice skating that was once popular in the Netherlands.

The Southwest pilots regained control of the plane and landed at Oakland. No reports of injuries on the flight, which carried 175 passengers and six crew members.

 This incident occurred as the jet cruised at 34,000 feet from Phoenix to Oakland, CA on May 25, 2024.

Aug 10, 2024

This is what the USA State Dept does when it realizes Iran is the threat:  lifts its suspension on certain transfers of air-to-ground munitions to Saudi Arabia

Aug 20, 2024

Great Britain stops Alan Turing's Delilah papers from being sold to a foreign buyer,  which allows time for a UK institution to buy them. He's known for cracking the Nazi's Enigma cipher device.

Sept 2, 2024

 When a WW2 bomb was found at a construction site at PKN Orlen of Litvinov,CZ a Polish oil company, experts decided not to transport the 550lb bomb to a safer place to dispose of it, because it contained a chemical mechanism designed to delay the explosion. They covered the bomb with hundreds of sandbags before the explosion.

 A few broken windows and no major damage from the detonation.

Sept 11th, 2024

Danube river's low level near Prahovo reveals hundreds of scuttled explosive-laden vessels  left by Nazi Germany's Black Sea fleet in 1944 as they retreated from advancing Soviet forces.

what would you do if

Hitch 24: I Ran so far______

 A large anti-government protest erupted in  Izeh, Iran on Friday Nov 18 at the funeral for 9-year-old Kian who was killed in a shooting that his mother blamed on security forces. These demonstrations have staying power despite the brutal clampdown by the Theocracy. Maybe the Mullahs should text Putin for military help? More to come, previous blog linked below.

Nov 20, 2022

Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah in Lebanon, is trying to distance his group from Iran, but the Gulf states who have given millions to Lebanon in financial support; and received little in return are not buying it.

Dec 12, 2022

The European Parliament suspended the powers and duties of one of its vice presidents, Greek socialist, Eva Kaili, in light of a Belgian investigation of a Gulf state's purchasing influence on decisions in the European Parliament.  Furthermore, it may delay a proposal to extend visa-free travel to the EU for Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, and Ecuador.

Jan 5, 2023

Iran is whining about France again! This time it's alleging cartoons in a contest ran by the Charlie Hebdo magazine are insulting. One of the entries depicts a turbaned cleric reaching for a hangman’s noose as he drowns in blood.

Feb 7, 2023

Perhaps Iran's cops were too busy killing unarmed protestors around the country to stop an attacker who broke through the Azerbaijan's embassy guard post in Tehran, killing the head of Azeri security with a Kalashnikov assault rifle.

Feb 25, 2023

From Michigan to eastern Europe to Iran: Mohammad Ibrahim Bazzi, 58, a Lebanese and Belgian citizen who is considered a key financier of the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah, was arrested Friday in Bucharest, Romania.

It's alleged that Bazzi convinced some folks to liquidate their interests in real estate assets in Michigan and covertly transfer hundreds of thousands of dollars in proceeds from the USA to accounts in Lebanon.

May 19,2023

Iran warns Afghanistan's Taliban rulers not to violate what it claims is it water rights on the Helmand River. This tiff could be noteworthy.

May 30, 2023

Iran may want to be buddies with Egypt, but let's look back.

Anwar Sadat cut ties to Iran after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Sadat welcomed Reza Pahlavi,  to Egypt just before his death and hosted his state funeral in 1980. Also, the shah's remains are entombed at Cairo's Al-Rifai Mosque.

Aug 22, 2023

Folks in southern Syria protesting against Assad chant: we only kneel to God.  Is Putin taking Assad's calls?

Aug 28, 2023

Iran claims Iraq has agreed to disarm and relocate Kurdistan "militants" in the autonomous northern Kurdish region. Easier said than done!

Nov 11, 2023

Palestine/Israel war, and Syria remains the world's proxy playground. Assad 😵

Dec 13, 2023

Arab energy leaders-oil here to stay so will COP28 fossil fuel reduction be effective?

They also stressed developing countries should be allowed to exploit their fossil fuel reserves.

Dec 18, 2023

We consider any armed action originating from Lebanese territory as an attack on national sovereignty,” Gebran Bassil, the head of the Free Patriotic Movement, a predominantly Christian party, said, rejecting the creation of what he called a “Hamas-land”.

Dec 18, 2023

 “Fatahland” returning? Hamas recruits in Lebanon.

  (PLO) under Arafat operated as a state within a state in southern Lebanon from the late 1960s to the early 1980s. The PLO used southern Lebanon to launch attacks against Israel and became an active in Lebanon’s civil war in 1975.

Jan 4, 2023

84 people killed and 284 injured after explosions occurred near the grave of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani yesterday, the anniversary of his killing, 

Source of the explosions: two bags carrying bombs that were likely set off by remote control.  No one has claimed responsibility, so far.

Jan 16, 2023

Iran extends Nobel laureate Narges Mohammadi prison sentence. Memo to all the pro Hamas/Palestine protesters.

Feb 3, 2024

Syria's 1-0 win against India and sealed its first ever spot in the knockout rounds of the Asian Cup(Soccer). Maybe the players want more time away from the endless strife at home.

April 23, 2024

Same day Iran struck Israel:  Clerical rulers in Iran cranked up arrests of women accused of flouting its strict Islamic dress code.

May 1, 2024

MSC Orion, a Portuguese flagged ship, sustained minor damage from a Houthis' drone hit far into the reaches of the Arabian Sea. Iran!

May 26, 2024

 Lebanese MPs threaten to reject the EU bloc’s 1B euro package which it views as a “bribe” to keep Syrian refugees in limbo in Lebanon. So it expects Europe to keep them or send them back home to Syria?

May 27, 2024

Cheers  to the British  government for saying the ICJ(UN) ruling over Israel's actions in Rafah will strengthen Hamas.

July 13, 2024

 Hague district court rejects a claim  to order the Netherlands to block all exports of F-35 fighter jet parts which could end up in Israel. It says the NGO claim is too broad.

Nov 29, 2024

 Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and other Syrian insurgents have gained control of the Scientific Research Center neighborhood, on the western outskirts of Aleppo, which is the closest they've been to the city since they were ousted from its eastern side in 2016.

Dec 7 2024

 Rebels' success in Syria has blindsided Russia, Iran,and Turkey. It feels like Assad may have to flee. Hama fell yesterday.

Dec 18, 2024

Anybody believe this? Assad claims went to a Russian military base in Latakia province "to oversee combat operations" , not to flee from Syria.

Dec 26, 2024

Syria is the biggest producer of Captagon, an addictive, amphetamine-like pill, which is sometimes referred to as "poor man's cocaine". Will the Rebels end its trade or become its new boss? 

Jan 3, 2024

Welcome to the new Syrian education curriculum: "Defending the nation" has been replaced by "Defending Allah".

Jan 14, 2024

 Nawaf Salam is leaving the ICJ( International Court of Justice) to be the PM of Lebanon. He has the support of Saudi Arabia and many Western countries, but Hezbollah legislators have never liked him.

Hitch 23

Soviet: Gorby style and more

 Gorbachev died Tuesday Aug 30, 2022 and while many have hailed him for working with the West, he used force to prevent Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania from seceding after they declared independence in 1990 from Moscow's rule.

Putin's response to Gorby's death was obligatory.

Previous blog :  https://vaporvents.blogspot.com/2013/12/mother-russia-its-pussy-riot.html

Sept 8, 2022

How I feel today about Russia/Ukraine war: The Ukrainian word shkematolog means someone whose idea of business is just constant scheming.

Sept 24, 2022

Russia recruits soldiers from Uzbekistan, an ex-Soviet nation with many young kids fluent in Russian. Meanwhile, Uzbekistan's state prosecutors warned citizens they can face prosecution for joining foreign armies, and Uzbek diplomats are working on a security deal with Iran. Are you confused yet? I am.

Oct 16, 2022

So why bother guessing about Putin's reasons for starting a war with Ukraine but he!! why not. Of course,, a lot has changed since 1654. Some elements of this old theory derived from, The Ukrainians, Unexpected Nation by Andrew Wilson, still resonate.

 Before 1654 Muscovy, which was centered in Moscow could only expand to the north and the east.   Ukraine opened the way for Russia’s drive to the south, and to the west because domination over Ukraine gave the Russian direct contact with Central Europe. Without such control, Russia is only a distant threat and Central Europe will be freer to determine its own affairs.

Nov 10, 2022

Interesting twists and tangled webs: On April 12, the Royal Court of Jersey imposed a formal freezing order on $7 billion worth of assets linked to Abramovich, and had the police carry out searches of premises suspected of being connected to him.

 The companies searched won a consent order dated Nov. 9 that the search warrants were obtained unlawfully. Abramovich has been involved in attempts to find a negotiated settlement to the war. 

Dec 4, 2022

Edward Snowden received a Russian passport December 2 and can no longer be extradited, and his wife is applying for a Russian passport.

Feb 4, 2023

Tossing a what if into the Ukraine mess. If Kiev had not been sacked by the Mongols in 1240, it might have developed into a powerful rival to the fledgling state of Moscow.

Feb 8, 2023

Russia asked Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters to speak to the U.N. Security Council today at a meeting requested by Moscow to discuss the delivery of weapons to Ukraine. Just another brick in the wall?

Feb 28, 2023

A morning chuckle: Putin bestows friendship award on actor Steven Seagal. In 2018 Seagal was a Russian Foreign Ministry humanitarian envoy to the United States and Japan.

April 2, 2023

Morning chuckle: Kremlin says all accredited foreign journalists could continue to work in Russia. Never mind Gershkovich's arrest.

June 27, 2023

Reading about Wagner group insurrection against Putin got me thinking about Cossacks which led me to reading about Wild Fields, the Pontic steppe in the territory of present-day Eastern and Southern Ukraine and Western Russia, north of the Black Sea and Azov Sea, which was wild because the Tatars raided the area constantly between 1450 and 1650.

Aug 20, 2023

Russia's first moon mission since 1976 failed after its Luna-25 space craft collided with the surface of the moon. Next up: India tries this week.

Sept 28, 2023

Ukraine saved European civilization from eastern nomads, Russian expansion, etc. Is this the case today?

Oct 13, 2023

Finland plans to use electronic notification of unpaid bills to speed the confiscation of Russian-owned real estate. Official Russian channels for debt notification have been dysfunctional.

Oct 19, 2023

  Putin orders armed MiG-31 aircraft to fly above the Black Sea in a neutral zone and claims, "this is not a threat." And that "we will carry out visual control, control with the help of weapons." 😅

Nov 3, 2023

 Ukrainian Piedmont dream- Third Reich used it as a tool in the late 1930s.

It became an instrument for using Ukrainian national political forces in its strategic plans, which included taking over the area.

Nov 4, 2023

 Sofia Church of St. Nicholas, AKA the Russian Church update: Bulgaria prosecutor's office conducted an investigation that uncovered that the Bulgarian state is the rightful owner of the church, despite a notarial deed issued in favor of Russia in 1997.  Here's where it gets interesting. The deed was created at the request of the Russian ambassador, dating back to a serf deed from November 7, 1898. The prosecutor's office found no evidence supporting the transfer of rights between different state entities within the Russian Empire.

The property investigation stemmed from the expulsion of Russian priests from Bulgaria in September, based on allegations of activities against the interests of the country.

Nov 29, 2023

Poland approved a Finnish request for troops to be deployed close to its border with Russia.

Finland has moved to close its border with Russia since 900 asylum seekers from nations including Kenya, Morocco, Pakistan, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen have entered Finland via Russia this month.

Dec 30, 2023

Vladimir Egorov, another Russian politician, falls from a window, and COD is heart problems.

Russia goes through Poland air spaces to drone drop in the Ukraine. Same old sh^t.

Jan 11, 2024

 Views of Ukraine area in 1914:  St Petersburg-‘Trans-carpathia’, beyond the Carpathians.

 Budapest or the local Rusyn movement: Pidkarpatska Rus ‘Sub-Carpathia’, below and to the west of the of the mountain ridges that marked the border with Galicia.

 To Hungarian nationalists: Felvidek (the uplands).

Feb 18, 2024

Putin prefers engaging with Biden over Trump, claiming Biden is predictable and old-school. More smoke screen from the bare chest.

March 13, 2024

Vladimir Solovyov, a Russian TV host, questioned the Pope's intervention in the affairs of two Orthodox countries.  History lesson?

March 23, 2024

USA admits its ability to develop intelligence against extremist groups in Afghanistan such as ISIS-K, who bombed the theater in Moscow yesterday, has been reduced since the withdrawal of American troops from the country in 2021. 

ISIS-K were responsible for an attack on Kabul's international airport in 2021 that killed 13 U.S. troops and many civilians during the chaotic American evacuation from the country.

Earlier this year, USA intercepted communications confirming the group carried out twin bombings in Iran that killed nearly 100 people.

In September 2022, ISIS-K militants claimed its member completed a deadly suicide bombing at the Russian embassy in Kabul.

Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K) is named after an old term for the region that included parts of Iran, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan, 

It emerged in eastern Afghanistan in late 2014 and ISIS-K sees Russia as being complicit in various activities that oppress Muslims.

April 14, 2024

Estonia's Interior Minister, Lauri Läänemets, plans to propose placing the terrorist label on the Moscow Patriarchate due to its strong ties with Putin. If approved by parliament, it will ban the Russian Orthodox Church from operating in Estonia. 

Läänemets claims a ban would not impact Orthodox practitioners in Estonia, since churches would be allowed to continue their operations.  Quite a tightrope!

July 17, 2024

Finland's  border guards are now allowed to turn back alleged asylum seekers  from Syria,Somalia , etc, trying to cross over the border from Russia.

Many  Fins view it as Russia's retaliation for Finland joining NATO.

July 20, 2024

Tariff wars:  Russia increased imports tariffs for  wine, beer, candies, biscuits and shampoo, produced in countries that support sanctions against Moscow, 

Hard hit: perfume, cosmetics and shampoo from Poland,- 35% of the customs value. wallpapers from Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia will rise to 50%.

July 26, 2024

parallel imports, Yandex.Market, : Russian businesses dance around Western sanctions

They have established a network of alternative supply chains to import restricted goods through third countries.

Aug 12, 2024

 UAE and Turkey, which did  not impose restrictions on trade with Russia, have been helpful conduits  in moving billions in dollar and euro notes to Russia.

Sept 3, 2024

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov: Harris is more predictable than Trump, neither will improve Russian relations with Washington. Oh well!

Oct 11, 2024

Putin provides a morning chuckle. He told a conference in Turkmenistan, "that a new world order was needed where wealth was more fairly redistributed and the opinions of each nation taken into account."

Oct 24, 2024

Wondering why Germany signed the 2x4 treaty in 1990, which Russia claims states no NATO nor foreign troops, nor any NATO military base, can be placed on the former East German territory. # Rostock