This week a terrorist army ran amok in Syria.

the horse has (already) left the barn from the Free Dictionary:

It is too late to prevent, change, or rectify some problem or situation, as the ill effects have already been wrought.

They blockaded the 110 freeway in Los Angeles:

Once upon a time, when I was a teen, some school teachers and rich students went to the USSR. My parents could not afford for me to go. I heard how the KGB followed them closely. The food was hideous. If you flushed a commode in room 231 in a 10 story hotel, every floor room of that 31 number, 431,531, 631, etc...flushed as well. So, nobody could sleep because of the flushing commode noise.

And about 6 years ago, I made that trip to Russia I had always, since a teen, wanted to make.

Let me start with my general impressions.

American tourists were treated like we were precious. I made forever friends with the guides.

An elderly guide taking us through a WWII military installation, a converted church to house soldiers, said this:" With our history, what we know is that we will accept reality and deal with it. What we hate is sudden change. We love consistency, even if it is very difficult."

I learned public drunkenness, the caricature Russian wobbling down the street full of vodka, is loathed. I actually saw one. Vodka is their pride, but for them, it is expensive, penalties for over doing it is great.

Religion was verboten, but now, Russians are militantly Christian, and tolerant of other faiths, because they finally got to practice theirs, let others know that freedom.

Moscow is nationalistic. St. Petersburg is European. Totally different atmospheres.

USSR is gone, Russia is capitalistic, no trace anywhere of communism. Part of Red Square that was under construction was that part where they took Stalin's tomb away, had to repair the floor.

Beets are easily pickled, as at example. Any food pickled will get people through the ferocious Russian winters. That elderly guide at the military facility stressed, "The real Soviet General that defeated the Germans in WWII is never mentioned. His name is General February."

We were a gang of 4, and we joined a tour group to travel from Moscow, down the Volga, ending the tour at St. Petersburg.

I am a strictly amateur photographer, and these were taken to trigger my memory.

Here we go down memory lane...

A nice picture from Red Square:

While Hamas et al. are in the third day of fighting, some Ukrainians are going off-script:

Russia Seeks to 'Frame' Ukraine with 'Trophy' Western Weapons in Gaza: Kyiv

Not only is this an admission that the Russians have been capturing gobs of Ukrainian weapons, but it's a suggestion that great US gifts of weaponry to Ukraine are going to find their way to the Middle East.

The Russian economy was supposed to collapse in 2022 because of our sanctions. After all, we illegally seized more than $300 Billion and plan on using it to rebuild Ukraine, while NATO bankrupts Russia in its war against Ukraine.. This was supposed to crush Russia and bring it to heel.

After a month-long journey covering events in Russia, Pepe Escobar has returned with a deeply-felt message of the utmost importance.

Below, I’ve excerpted some of the highlights of his Diary; the bolded emphases are mine. With every word, one can sense the intensity with which Escobar is addressing us. He wants us to feel and understand the emotions and courage shown by the leaders and representatives of the Global South and Eurasia — a majority of the world population — as they come together to actively organize their independence from the cruel, psychopathic domination of the United States.

During these past four weeks, a firm line has been drawn in this World.

During this same four weeks, our rogue Federal Government has continued to smear its twisted propanganda, bullying and demeaning resistant nations, and launching its world-wide covert missions of destabilization and chaos in order to protect its greedy hegemony, all the while imposing the dystopian dictatorship of the elite upon all nations of the world.

Escobar's Diary also answers the question, "What happened when XI travelled to Russia to meet Putin?" The question was never answered in Western media. The American people were misdirected to believe that the meeting was about Ukraine, and included wild speculation that Xi would tell Russia to end the war, or Xi was there to help Russia win the war. The most depraved among the US and EU politicians used the moment as a publicity stunt, where they sternly warned XI not to sell weapons to Russia. As if.... The State Department created a counter publicity stunt where the President of Taiwan was invited to the White House to meet with the sloganized, mentally-impaired US President. Desperate times, indeed.

So, yeah, the Russians brought down a drone which was spying upon territory occupied by Russia. The video below gives us the response of Lindsey Graham, senator from everyone's fave state South Carolina, to this incident.