For almost a year now, I've been hearing from the news and certain internet voices about how Ukraine has been kicking Russia's ass. But the Washington Post recently published this account of the state of the war:
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What the world needs, right now, coming into this holiday season is, less war, less pestilence, less famine, less hate. The world needs more peace, more love, more economic justice, and less Useless Parasitic Eaters. Right now.

Would it not behoove the world to shed itself of that which causes those blights that threaten its existence?

Shed itself of that which, in light of peak oil and climate change, is a major cause of both maladies. Those that fly private jets to all points of the world. Those that flaunt a lavish lifestyle while calling for austerity for all we Bob Cratchits and Tiny Tims of the world. Those that control the largest consumers of oil and the biggest cause of climate change, the militaries. Those that point fingers at the common folk of the world as they rape the planet. Those that eat kobe steak while suggesting the world eat insects. Those that use their wealth to stomp on the necks of their misplaced ideation of the great unwashed. Those that want the world as their oyster at our expense. Those that want far less competition for the remaining resources that they see as their own. Those that want it all because they consider themselves the crown of creation, as they sit upon their piles of ill-gotten wealth.

We, the world, need less Klaus Schwab, less Yuval Harari, less Bill Gates, less WEF.

The News and Assange:

Recently there was some mention amongst US and international media giants of Julian Assange, his imprisonment, the conditions he's kept under, and the horrific treatment given to him by the US and its lackies.

A week and a half ago I related my telephone encounter with a three-voice team of scammers who tried to con me into buying a prepaid debit card and giving them the numbers for cashing it --in order to avoid having my electricity cut off. I left it implied that my power was never cut off, but I have to admit that my wife and I put together a backup plan, just in case. We would have spent the weekend at a hotel.

The "RAD" - Asheville's creative center known as the River Arts District.