#1st anniversary of russian aggression

[tomorrowusa]

^^^ Almost exactly a year ago, we saw one of the most impressive moments in the history of the internet featuring one of the most impressive heads of state in modern history.

Wars don’t go away because people in third countries get bored with them. Ukraine needs our support today as much as it did on 24 February 2022.

Putin is still a dangerously delusional autocrat who has broken international law in a big way just because he felt like it. And having started Europe’s biggest war since 1945, he certainly can’t be trusted to uphold any future agreements. He believes he’s the 21st century Peter the Great; though the original Peter would probably cringe at the suggestion.

The only outcome that can result in peace in Europe for the next few decades is for Putin to be pushed out of Ukraine entirely. Anything less than that leaves the door open to attacks on other neighbors based on flimsy historical pretexts which long ago were superseded by international agreements.

[brookston]

Holidays 6.4

Holidays

Apple Computer Day

Audacity to Hope Day

Banker Day (Moldova)

Battle of Midway Anniversary Day

Born in the USA Day

Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim Day (Estonia, Finland)

Carnation Day (French Republic)

Cavity Prevention Day (Japan)

Children’s Day (Vietnam)

Day of Remembrance of the Children Who Died as a Result of the Russian Federation’s Armed Aggression Against Ukraine

Demise of Imam Khomeini (Iran)

Devon Day (UK)

Dunkirk Evacuation Completion Day

Emancipation Day (Tonga)

Epsom Derby Day (UK)

Fat People’s Day (Aleutian Islands)

Festival of the Sticky Penis (Queens, NY)

Finnish Defence Forces Day (Finland)

Flag Day (Estonia; Finland)

Freedom and Civil Rights Day (Poland)

Gies A Scots Phrase Day (UK)

International Corgi Day

International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression (UN)

International Seaweed Day

International Spoiler Day

Killdozer Day

Lassie Day

Luilak (Lazybones Day; Netherlands)

Minimum Wage Day

Mom’s Equal Pay Day

MS St. Louis Voyage of the Damned

National Christian T-Shirt Day

National Civic Day of Hacking

National Clean Beauty Day

National Day of Mourning for George Floyd

National Day of State Symbols (Kazakhstan)

National Hug Your Cat Day

National Punk Day

National SAFE Day

National Troll Day

National Unity Day (Hungary)

Old Maid's Day

Pulitzer Prize Day

Shopping Cart Day

604 Day

Solar Eclipse Day

State Symbols Day (Kazakhstan)

Tiananmen Square Protest Memorial Day

Trianon Treaty Day (Romania)

World Day for Assistive Technology

World Day of Fertility

Food & Drink Celebrations

Applesauce Cake Day

National Cheese Day

National Cognac Day

National Mexicue Day

Roquefort Cheese Discovery Day (1070)

Independence & Related Days

Tonga (from UK, 1970)

1st Tuesday in June

National Healthcare Recruiter Recognition Day [1st Tuesday]

Taco Tuesday [Every Tuesday]

Women’s Golf Day [1st Tuesday]

Weekly Holidays beginning June 4 (1st Full Week)

Wheel of Cheese Week (thru 6.9) [Always begins 6.3]

Festivals Beginning June 4, 2024

Barcelona Rock Fest (Barcelona, Spain) [thru 6.7]

Jimmy Fund Scooper Bowl (Boston, Massachusetts) [thru 6.6]

Stockholm Early Music Festival (Stockholm, Sweden) [thru 6.9]

Feast Days

St. Benedict (Positivist; Saint)

Betty Lou’s Mommy (Muppetism)

Bream (a.k.a. Breague; Christian; Saint)

Burian of Ireland (Christian; Saint)

Cougar Day (Pastafarian)

Day of All Things (Unification Church)

Fernand Leduc (Artology)

Festival for Hercules Custos (Ancient Rome)

Filippo Smaldone (Christian; Saint)

Francis Caracciolo (Christian; Saint)

Iris’s Day (Pagan)

Jarila’s Day (God of Sun/Fertility; Asatru/Slavic Pagan)

Metrophanes (Christian; Saint)

Natalia Goncharova (Artology)

Nenooc (Christian; Saint)

Optatus of Milevis (Christian; Saint)

Petroc of Cornwall (Christian; Saint)

Plynteria (Festival to honor Athena; Ancient Greece)

Quirinus of Sescia (Christian; Saint)

Ramendan begins (Pastafarian)

Robert Fulghum (Writerism)

Robert Jacobsen (Artology)

Saturnina (Christian; Saint)

Val McDermid (Writerism)

Vandrilles (Christian; Saint)

Vincent Gerosa (Christian; Saint & Virgin)

Walter (Christian; Saint)

Well-Dressing Day (Celtic Book of Days)

Werner Klemperer Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

Hebrew Calendar Holidays [Begins at Sundown Day Before]

Jerusalem Day (a.k.a. יום ירושלים, Yom Yerushaláyim) [27-28 Iyar]

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Sensho (先勝 Japan) [Good luck in the morning, bad luck in the afternoon.]

Very Unlucky Day (Grafton’s Manual of 1565) [29 of 60]

Premieres

Asterix and Obelix vs. Caesar (Animated Film; 1999)

Born in the U.S.A., by Bruce Springsteen (Album; 1984)

Buena Vista Social Club (Documentary Music Film; 1999)

Butterscotch and Soda (Noveltoons Cartoon; 1948)

Charlie Chan in Egypt (Film; 1935)

The Devil’s Advocate, by Taylor Caldwell (Novel; 1952)

Flagellatenzug, by Karl Bleyle (Symphonic Poem; 1904)

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Film; 2004) [#3]

The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, boy Carson McCullers (Novel; 1940)

In the City, by The Jam (Song; 1977)

Julien (a.k.a. The Poet’s Life), by Gustave Charpentier (Opera; 1913)

Julius Caesar (Film; 1953)

Jungle Blues, recorded by Jelly Roll Morton (Song; 1927)

Killers (Film; 2010)

Let Go, by Avril Lavigne (Album; 2002)

Load, by Metallica (Album; 1996)

Miracle on 34th Street (Film; 1947)

Mrs. Miniver (Film; 1942)

The Nutty Professor (Film; 1963)

Ohio, by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (Song; 1970)

Piano Jazz (Radio Series; 1978)

Poltergeist (Film; 1982)

Porky the Fireman (WB LT Cartoon; 1938)

Rabbit’s Feat (WB LT Cartoon; 1960)

The Reivers, by William Faulkner (Novel; 1962)

The Sea Chase (Film; 1955)

The Silent Passage, by Gail Sheehy (Book; 1992)

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (Film; 1982)

Surfing’ Safari, by The Beach Boys (Song; 1962)

Sweets For My Sweet, by The Searchers (Song; 1963)

Sweet Tooth (TV Series; 2021)

Taxi-Turvy (Fleischer/Famous Popeye Cartoon; 1954)

Terms of Endearment, by Larry McMurtry (Novel; 1975)

The Three Lives of Thomasina (Film; 1964)

To Sir, With Love (Film; 1967)

To Spring (Happy Harmonies Cartoon; 1936)

Tweety’s Circus (WB MM Cartoon; 1955)

A White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean, by Jimmy Buffett (Album; 1973)

Woodpecker from Mars (Wood Woodpecker Cartoon; 1956)

Today’s Name Days

Christa, Iona, Klothilde (Austria)

Kvirin, Spomenka (Croatia)

Dalibor (Czech Republic)

Optatus (Denmark)

Toivo, Tõivo, Tõivot, Tõivotu, Tõivu (Estonia)

Aadolf, Toivo (Finland)

Clotilde (France)

Christa, Eva, Iona, Klothilde (Germany)

Martha (Greece)

Bulcsú (Hungary)

Isabella, Querino, Quirino (Italy)

Elfrida, Frederika, Gaigala, Sintija (Latvia)

Dausprungas, Deimena, Kornelijus, Vincė, Vincenta (Lithuania)

Heid, Heidi (Norway)

Bazyliusz, Dacjan, Franciszek, Gościmił, Karol, Karp (Poland)

Atal, Camasis, Filip, Zotic (România)

Lenka (Slovakia)

Francisco, Noemí, Rut, Ruth, Saturnina (Spain)

Holmfrid, Solbritt, Solveig (Sweden)

Martha (Ukraine)

Cora, Coral, Coretta, Corey, Cori, Corina, Corine, Corinne, Corrigan, Corrin, Cory, Homer, Kori, Korey, Korin, Korrigan, Kory (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 156 of 2024; 210 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 2 of week 23 of 2024

Celtic Tree Calendar: Huath (Hawthorn) [Day 24 of 28]

Chinese: Month 4 (Ji-Si), Day 28 (Ji-Hai)

Chinese Year of the: Dragon 4722 (until January 29, 2025) [Wu-Chen]

Hebrew: 27 Iyar 5784

Islamic: 27 Dhu al-Qada 1445

J Cal: 6 Blue; Sixday [6 of 30]

Julian: 22 May 2024

Moon: 5%: Waning Crescent

Positivist: 15 St. Paul (6th Month) [St. Benedict]

Runic Half Month: Odal (Home, Possession) [Day 11 of 15]

Season: Spring (Day 78 of 92)

Week: 1st Full Week of June

Zodiac: Gemini (Day 15 of 31)

[brookstonalmanac]

Holidays 6.4

Holidays

Apple Computer Day

Audacity to Hope Day

Banker Day (Moldova)

Battle of Midway Anniversary Day

Born in the USA Day

Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim Day (Estonia, Finland)

Carnation Day (French Republic)

Cavity Prevention Day (Japan)

Children’s Day (Vietnam)

Day of Remembrance of the Children Who Died as a Result of the Russian Federation’s Armed Aggression Against Ukraine

Demise of Imam Khomeini (Iran)

Devon Day (UK)

Dunkirk Evacuation Completion Day

Emancipation Day (Tonga)

Epsom Derby Day (UK)

Fat People’s Day (Aleutian Islands)

Festival of the Sticky Penis (Queens, NY)

Finnish Defence Forces Day (Finland)

Flag Day (Estonia; Finland)

Freedom and Civil Rights Day (Poland)

Gies A Scots Phrase Day (UK)

International Corgi Day

International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression (UN)

International Seaweed Day

International Spoiler Day

Killdozer Day

Lassie Day

Luilak (Lazybones Day; Netherlands)

Minimum Wage Day

Mom’s Equal Pay Day

MS St. Louis Voyage of the Damned

National Christian T-Shirt Day

National Civic Day of Hacking

National Clean Beauty Day

National Day of Mourning for George Floyd

National Day of State Symbols (Kazakhstan)

National Hug Your Cat Day

National Punk Day

National SAFE Day

National Troll Day

National Unity Day (Hungary)

Old Maid's Day

Pulitzer Prize Day

Shopping Cart Day

604 Day

Solar Eclipse Day

State Symbols Day (Kazakhstan)

Tiananmen Square Protest Memorial Day

Trianon Treaty Day (Romania)

World Day for Assistive Technology

World Day of Fertility

Food & Drink Celebrations

Applesauce Cake Day

National Cheese Day

National Cognac Day

National Mexicue Day

Roquefort Cheese Discovery Day (1070)

Independence & Related Days

Tonga (from UK, 1970)

1st Tuesday in June

National Healthcare Recruiter Recognition Day [1st Tuesday]

Taco Tuesday [Every Tuesday]

Women’s Golf Day [1st Tuesday]

Weekly Holidays beginning June 4 (1st Full Week)

Wheel of Cheese Week (thru 6.9) [Always begins 6.3]

Festivals Beginning June 4, 2024

Barcelona Rock Fest (Barcelona, Spain) [thru 6.7]

Jimmy Fund Scooper Bowl (Boston, Massachusetts) [thru 6.6]

Stockholm Early Music Festival (Stockholm, Sweden) [thru 6.9]

Feast Days

St. Benedict (Positivist; Saint)

Betty Lou’s Mommy (Muppetism)

Bream (a.k.a. Breague; Christian; Saint)

Burian of Ireland (Christian; Saint)

Cougar Day (Pastafarian)

Day of All Things (Unification Church)

Fernand Leduc (Artology)

Festival for Hercules Custos (Ancient Rome)

Filippo Smaldone (Christian; Saint)

Francis Caracciolo (Christian; Saint)

Iris’s Day (Pagan)

Jarila’s Day (God of Sun/Fertility; Asatru/Slavic Pagan)

Metrophanes (Christian; Saint)

Natalia Goncharova (Artology)

Nenooc (Christian; Saint)

Optatus of Milevis (Christian; Saint)

Petroc of Cornwall (Christian; Saint)

Plynteria (Festival to honor Athena; Ancient Greece)

Quirinus of Sescia (Christian; Saint)

Ramendan begins (Pastafarian)

Robert Fulghum (Writerism)

Robert Jacobsen (Artology)

Saturnina (Christian; Saint)

Val McDermid (Writerism)

Vandrilles (Christian; Saint)

Vincent Gerosa (Christian; Saint & Virgin)

Walter (Christian; Saint)

Well-Dressing Day (Celtic Book of Days)

Werner Klemperer Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

Hebrew Calendar Holidays [Begins at Sundown Day Before]

Jerusalem Day (a.k.a. יום ירושלים, Yom Yerushaláyim) [27-28 Iyar]

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Sensho (先勝 Japan) [Good luck in the morning, bad luck in the afternoon.]

Very Unlucky Day (Grafton’s Manual of 1565) [29 of 60]

Premieres

Asterix and Obelix vs. Caesar (Animated Film; 1999)

Born in the U.S.A., by Bruce Springsteen (Album; 1984)

Buena Vista Social Club (Documentary Music Film; 1999)

Butterscotch and Soda (Noveltoons Cartoon; 1948)

Charlie Chan in Egypt (Film; 1935)

The Devil’s Advocate, by Taylor Caldwell (Novel; 1952)

Flagellatenzug, by Karl Bleyle (Symphonic Poem; 1904)

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Film; 2004) [#3]

The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, boy Carson McCullers (Novel; 1940)

In the City, by The Jam (Song; 1977)

Julien (a.k.a. The Poet’s Life), by Gustave Charpentier (Opera; 1913)

Julius Caesar (Film; 1953)

Jungle Blues, recorded by Jelly Roll Morton (Song; 1927)

Killers (Film; 2010)

Let Go, by Avril Lavigne (Album; 2002)

Load, by Metallica (Album; 1996)

Miracle on 34th Street (Film; 1947)

Mrs. Miniver (Film; 1942)

The Nutty Professor (Film; 1963)

Ohio, by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (Song; 1970)

Piano Jazz (Radio Series; 1978)

Poltergeist (Film; 1982)

Porky the Fireman (WB LT Cartoon; 1938)

Rabbit’s Feat (WB LT Cartoon; 1960)

The Reivers, by William Faulkner (Novel; 1962)

The Sea Chase (Film; 1955)

The Silent Passage, by Gail Sheehy (Book; 1992)

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (Film; 1982)

Surfing’ Safari, by The Beach Boys (Song; 1962)

Sweets For My Sweet, by The Searchers (Song; 1963)

Sweet Tooth (TV Series; 2021)

Taxi-Turvy (Fleischer/Famous Popeye Cartoon; 1954)

Terms of Endearment, by Larry McMurtry (Novel; 1975)

The Three Lives of Thomasina (Film; 1964)

To Sir, With Love (Film; 1967)

To Spring (Happy Harmonies Cartoon; 1936)

Tweety’s Circus (WB MM Cartoon; 1955)

A White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean, by Jimmy Buffett (Album; 1973)

Woodpecker from Mars (Wood Woodpecker Cartoon; 1956)

Today’s Name Days

Christa, Iona, Klothilde (Austria)

Kvirin, Spomenka (Croatia)

Dalibor (Czech Republic)

Optatus (Denmark)

Toivo, Tõivo, Tõivot, Tõivotu, Tõivu (Estonia)

Aadolf, Toivo (Finland)

Clotilde (France)

Christa, Eva, Iona, Klothilde (Germany)

Martha (Greece)

Bulcsú (Hungary)

Isabella, Querino, Quirino (Italy)

Elfrida, Frederika, Gaigala, Sintija (Latvia)

Dausprungas, Deimena, Kornelijus, Vincė, Vincenta (Lithuania)

Heid, Heidi (Norway)

Bazyliusz, Dacjan, Franciszek, Gościmił, Karol, Karp (Poland)

Atal, Camasis, Filip, Zotic (România)

Lenka (Slovakia)

Francisco, Noemí, Rut, Ruth, Saturnina (Spain)

Holmfrid, Solbritt, Solveig (Sweden)

Martha (Ukraine)

Cora, Coral, Coretta, Corey, Cori, Corina, Corine, Corinne, Corrigan, Corrin, Cory, Homer, Kori, Korey, Korin, Korrigan, Kory (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 156 of 2024; 210 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 2 of week 23 of 2024

Celtic Tree Calendar: Huath (Hawthorn) [Day 24 of 28]

Chinese: Month 4 (Ji-Si), Day 28 (Ji-Hai)

Chinese Year of the: Dragon 4722 (until January 29, 2025) [Wu-Chen]

Hebrew: 27 Iyar 5784

Islamic: 27 Dhu al-Qada 1445

J Cal: 6 Blue; Sixday [6 of 30]

Julian: 22 May 2024

Moon: 5%: Waning Crescent

Positivist: 15 St. Paul (6th Month) [St. Benedict]

Runic Half Month: Odal (Home, Possession) [Day 11 of 15]

Season: Spring (Day 78 of 92)

Week: 1st Full Week of June

Zodiac: Gemini (Day 15 of 31)

[socialistcurrent]

The EU is Rewriting WWII History to Demonize Russia | Dissident Voice

From 10/25/2019. The Soviets were NOT responsible for starting WWII and Europe is a nazi basket. Choice cut:

"Last month, on the 80th anniversary of the start of World War II, the European Parliament voted on a resolution entitled “On the Importance of European Remembrance for the Future of Europe.” The adopted document:

Stresses that the Second World War, the most devastating war in Europe’s history, was started as an immediate result of the notorious Nazi-Soviet Treaty on Non-Aggression of 23 August 1939, also known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, and its secret protocols, whereby two totalitarian regimes that shared the goal of world conquest divided Europe into two zones of influence;

Recalls that the Nazi and communist regimes carried out mass murders, genocide and deportations and caused a loss of life and freedom in the 20th century on a scale unseen in human history, and recalls the horrific crime of the Holocaust perpetrated by the Nazi regime; condemns in the strongest terms the acts of aggression, crimes against humanity and mass human rights violations perpetrated by the Nazi, communist and other totalitarian regimes.

For 75 years, we have been told that the war started on September 1st, 1939 when Germany invaded Poland, even though the Pacific Theater between Japan and China began two years earlier. Now we are to understand that it actually began eight days prior when the German foreign minister visited Moscow. Take no notice of the inherent doublespeak in the premise that a war could be the consequence of a peace agreement, which without any evidence provided is said to have contained “secret protocols”, not provisions. You see, unlike the other pacts signed between European countries and Nazi Germany — such as the Munich Betrayal of 1938 with France and Great Britain to which the Soviets were uninvited while Austria and Czechoslovakia were gifted to Hitler for the courtesy of attacking Moscow — Molotov-Ribbentrop was really a confidential agreement between Hitler and Stalin to conquer Europe and divide it between them.

This is pure mythology. The fact of the matter is that neither the Soviets or even Germany drew the dividing line in Poland in 1939, because it was a reinstatement of the border acknowledged by the League of Nations and Poland itself as put forward by the British following WWI. Even Winston Churchill during his first wartime radio broadcast later that year admitted:

Russia has pursued a cold policy of self-interest. We could have wished that the Russian Armies should be standing on their present line as the friends and allies of Poland, instead of as invaders. But that the Russian Armies should stand on this line was clearly necessary for the safety of Russia against the Nazi menace.

Yet according to the EU, even though Moscow was the last country to agree to a peace deal with Hitler, it was all part of a hidden plot between them. In that case, why then did Germany choose to invade the USSR in 1941? The EU leaves this question unanswered. Forget about its racial policies of enslaving slavs or that Hitler openly declared in Mein Kampf that Germany needed to conquer the East to secure theLebensraum. Nevermind that in the Spring of 1941, less than two months before Operation Barbarossa, Stalin gave a speech to the Kremlin at a state banquet for recent graduates of the Frunze Military Academy to give warning of an imminent attack:

War with Germany is inevitable. If comrade Molotov can manage to postpone the war for two or three months through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, that will be our good fortune, but you yourselves must go off and take measures to raise the combat readiness of our forces.

The EU has redacted that the entire reason for the signing of the Nazi-Soviet pact in August 1939 had been to buy time for the Red Army’s attrition warfare strategy to adequately prepare its armaments against a future invasion by the Wehrmacht. The Soviet leadership well understood that Germany would eventually renege on the agreement, considering that in 1936 it had signed the Anti-Comintern Pact with Japan and Italy directed at the Communist International. For six years, the USSR was thwarted in its attempts to forge an equivalent anti-fascist coalition and to collectively defend Czechoslovakia by the British and the French, whose ruling classes were too busy courting and doing business with Germany. It had been the Soviets alone who defended the Spanish Republic from Franco in the final rehearsal before the worldwide conflict and only when all other recourses had run out did they finally agree to a deal with the Hitlerites.

Just a week prior to the signing of the neutrality treaty, Stalin gave a secret speech to the Politburo where he explained:

The question of war or peace has entered a critical phase for us. If we conclude a mutual assistance treaty with France and Great Britain, Germany will back off of Poland and seek a modus vivendi with the Western Powers. War would thus be prevented but future events could take a serious turn for the USSR. If we accept Germany’s proposal to conclude with it a non-aggression pact, Germany will then attack Poland and Europe will be thrown into serious acts of unrest and disorder. Under these circumstances we will have many chances of remaining out of the conflict while being able to hope for our own timely entrance into war.

This latest resolution is part of a long pattern of misrepresentation of WWII by the Anglo-Saxon empire, but is perhaps its most egregious falsification that truly desecrates the graves of the 27 million Soviet citizens who were 80% of the total Allied death toll. Earlier this year, for the commemoration on the 75th anniversary of the Normandy landings, Russia and its head of state were excluded from the events in Portsmouth, England. As if the ongoing absence of Western European leaders from the May 9th Victory Day ceremonies held annually in Russia weren’t insulting enough, while it’s true that the Eastern Front was not involved in Operation Overlord, Russian President Vladimir Putin had previously been in attendance at the 70th anniversary D-Day events in 2014. No doubt the increase in geopolitical tensions between the West and Moscow in the years since has given the EU license to write out Russia’s role in the Allied victory entirely with little public disapproval, though many of the families of those who volunteered in the International Brigades were rightly insulted by this tampering of history and voiced their objection.

The EU motion‘s real purpose is to fabricate the war’s history by giving credit to the United States for the liberation of Europe while absolving the Western democracies that opened the door for the rise of fascism and tried to use Germany to annihilate the USSR. History itself should always be open to debate and subject to study and revision, but the Atlanticists have made this formal change without any evidence to support it and entirely for political purposes. Like the founding of the EU project itself, the declared aim of the proposal is supposedly to prevent future atrocities from taking place, even though the superstate was designed by former Nazis like Walter Hallstein, the first President of the European Commission, who was a German lawyer in several Nazi Party law organizations and fought for the Wehrmacht in France until his capture as a POW after the invasion of Normandy.

Rather than preventing future crimes, the EU has committed one itself by deceptively modifying the historical record of communism to be parallel with that of the Third Reich. Even further, that they were two sides of the same coin of ‘totalitarianism’ and that for all the barbarity committed during the war, the Soviets were equally culpable — or judging by the amount of times the text cites the USSR versus Germany, even more so. It remains unclear whether we are now to completely disregard the previous conclusions reached by the military tribunals held by the Allies under international law at Nuremberg of which all 12 war criminals sentenced to death in 1946 were German, not Soviet."

[esprit-de-corps-magazine]

ON TARGET: Canada Must Denounce Glorification of Nazis

By Scott Taylor

On 28 April approximately 250 people marched through the streets of Kiev, Ukraine to commemorate the 78th anniversary of the WW2 Waffen SS Division Galicia.

That’s right folks, hundreds of people gathered despite the threat of spreading the COVID-19 virus, to commemorate Ukrainian soldiers who took an oath of allegiance to Adolf Hitler and fought for Nazi Germany.

This parade drew an immediate backlash from Germany’s ambassador to Ukraine, Anka Feldhusen. She tweeted “Waffen SS units participated in the worst war crimes and the Holocaust during WW2. No volunteer organizations fighting and working for Ukraine today should be associated with them.”

This blatant display of Nazi glorification was also condemned by the Israeli ambassador in Kiev and the Israeli Foreign Ministry. Sadly, there was no such reaction from the Canadian embassy nor from the Canadian Armed Forces. Canada presently has over 200 military trainers assisting the Ukrainian armed forces in the face of Russian aggression.

For the regime in Kiev to not only allow a tribute to Hitler’s SS to take place, but to also provide the marchers with a police escort, flies in the face of all those Canadian soldiers who fought and died in WW2 to defeat the Nazi regime.

For the record, and before the apologists claim this event was an exercise in ‘free speech’, Ukraine has cancelled this year’s May 9 traditional celebration of Victory Day WW2 due to COVID19 concerns.

Ukrainians were prevented from gathering to celebrate the defeat of Hitler, but allowed to parade in commemoration of Ukrainians who volunteered to fight for the Nazis?

The U.S. State Department did not directly condemn the parade but in a statement to The Nation they noted “We welcome [Ukraine] President Zelensky’s strong statement condemning the march.” However, they added the comment that the U.S. State Department “continues to monitor and systematically refute a longstanding Russian disinformation campaign that conflates support for Ukrainian sovereignty with support for neo-Nazi and fascist ideals.”

Here is a little bit of free advice for those concerned about Russian disinformation: just put an end to parades and events that glorify Hitler’s Waffen SS.

While I can understand that Ukrainians are proud of their heritage, I cannot fathom why young nationalists seek to glorify those who took up arms to enforce the Nazi’s ideology? Yes, I understand that Stalin imposed ruthless measures against the people of Ukraine and that they suffered horribly under the Soviet regime.

However, the fact that Ukrainian men took up arms to fight the Red Army as members of the Waffen SS does not change the reality that Hitler’s Nazis perpetrated the Holocaust.

Of all the incredible accomplishments that Ukrainians have achieved throughout history – music, literature, cuisine, art etc, I cannot fathom why it is a flawed military unit that fought for Hitler, which these young Ukrainians have chosen to revere.

Formed in 1943, the SS Galicia Division only really fought one major engagement against the Soviets in the Battle of Brody in July 1944.

The SS Galicia was soundly defeated and it was subsequently relegated to fighting against partisans, first in Slovakia and then in Yugoslavia.

For those who would paint the SS Galicia volunteers as fighters for Ukraine’s independence, this theory cannot be justified in view of the fact they actually fought against civilian patriots in Slovakia and Slovenia to enforce Hitler’s Nazi occupation.

In the final days of the war, the SS Galicia changed their name to the 1st Ukrainian Division prior to surrendering to the allies in Austria.

After a lengthy internment in Italy, many of these Ukrainian SS veterans emigrated to Canada. There is actually a memorial erected to the memory of the SS Galicia division in Oakville, Ontario.

That said, it is estimated that over 40,000 Ukrainian Canadians served in the Canadian military during WW2, fighting to defeat Hitler.

It is those brave, patriotic Ukrainian- Canadians that Canada needs to remember. It will make it far easier for our government to publicly denounce any future Nazi-glorification in Ukraine.

[surrendertotherush]

REALLY LONG  CHARACTER  SURVEY.

RULES.  repost , don’t  reblog  ! tag  10  ! good  luck  ! TAGGED. @xicproceed​ TAGGING. @portalipsis​ @moonxgazer​ @astrumpilot​ @hcliosed​ @stonedeafdog​ @solrising​ and whoever more feel like doing this.

FULL NAME : Giovanni Saraceno NICKNAME :  Isolde (task name), Queen (nick name given by his squad friends), Gio, Nini (his youngest sibling can’t spell his whole name) AGE : 29y/o BIRTHDAY : November, 1st ETHNIC GROUP : n/a NATIONALITY : Italian, Earthian LANGUAGE / S : Italian, Spanish, English, Russian, French, Alliance’s Lingua-Franca  SEXUAL ORIENTATION : Homossexual ROMANTIC ORIENTATION : Homoromantic  RELATIONSHIP STATUS : Widower, Single CLASS : Puts on a low class demeanor, but it’s rich by his family’s part HOME TOWN / AREA :  Santa Maria, Italy CURRENT HOME :  Sleipnir PROFESSION :  Alliance Elite Navigator

PHYSICAL.

HAIR : long, straight, somewhat messy, silver-blond hair EYES : lilac colored irises and round eyes. FACE : Delicate features, diamond shape LIPS : Thin lips, bottom lip is slightly bigger than the top one, soft and always well treated. COMPLEXION : Pale BLEMISHES : n/a SCARS : one scar on his right outer thigh and another on the end of his cervical bones TATTOOS : n/a HEIGHT : 181cm WEIGHT :  65kg BUILD : Athletic, specially strong on his legs. FEATURES : doesn’t seem to have aged since his 22th anniversary ALLERGIES : n/a USUAL HAIR STYLE : Tied up on a ponytail or left loose over his shoulders USUAL FACE LOOK : Serene and friendly, but also very observant. USUAL CLOTHING : Navigator’s uniform with the Fighter’s jacket wore by Tristan before his death.

PSYCHOLOGY.

FEAR / S : being responsible for the deaths of those he loves ASPIRATION / S : live in peace and forget all that happened during his years as a Navigator; open an orphanage or an animal shelter. POSITIVE TRAITS : loyal, passionate, wise, resourceful, intuitive, trustworthy NEGATIVE TRAITS : self-destructive, secretive, vengeful, chaotic ZODIAC : Scorpio TEMPERAMENT : Phlegmatic. The phlegmatic temperament is fundamentally relaxed and quiet, ranging from warmly attentive to lazily sluggish. Phlegmatics tend to be content with themselves and are kind. They are accepting and affectionate. They may be receptive and shy and often prefer stability to uncertainty and change. They are consistent, relaxed, calm, rational, curious, and observant, qualities that make them good administrators. They can also be passive-aggressive. SOUL TYPE / S :  Leader (17) - It would be hard to imagine you being anything but the leader in any group. In fact, taking any kind of subservient role may feel demeaning to you. As a Leader type, you have a natural air of authority, and a charisma that makes you stand out in a crowd. You bring to this life an innate wisdom, which is why people will look to you for advice. You may sometimes make decisions on your own without thinking to involve others, and once you’ve made up your mind, you may be reluctant to change it. This may work in an emergency, but in other circumstances it can give the impression that you are arrogant or condescending.

VICE HABIT / S : inadvertently pries on other people’s feelings due to his high empathetic nature and can become the crankiest person in the whole space ship if he doesn’t have his daily dose of sugar. VIRTUES / VICES: charity, diligence, temperance, lust, envy, anger FAITH : n/a GHOSTS ? : yes AFTERLIFE ? : yes REINCARNATION ? : yes ALIENS ? : yes (they do exist in Starfighter and he fought a number of them, so...) EDUCATION LEVEL : doctorate degree in languages

FAMILY.

FATHER :  n/a MOTHER : n/a SIBLINGS : has seven siblings EXTENDED FAMILY : n/a NAME MEANING / S : n/a HISTORICAL CONNECTION ? : n/a

FAVORITES.

HOLIDAY : Christmas MONTH : October SEASON : Fall PLACE : Hangar and observatory WEATHER : rainy days SOUND : rain SCENT / S : morning dew, roses, sea salt TASTE / S : sugary products FEEL / S : hugs, cuddling, warm bodies after intercourse, sharing meals with his friends ANIMAL / S : baby seals COLORS : black and white

EXTRA.

TALENTS : Distorting his own words, keeping secrets, piloting, fighting, taking care of animals and administrating files BAD AT : Hiding his feelings from those he likes, communicating his emotions to others, showing his care for those who aren’t close to him TURN ONS : confidence, dominance (prove that one can dominate him), muscular backs, emotional bond  TURN OFFS : rude people, food play (solids), pain, too much body hair, talking of other partners HOBBIES :  Reading, physical training TROPES : denies when he’s in love, mysterious boy with heart of gold TAG AESTHETICS : Space, sea, roses, flower fields, music, books, rain

FC INFO.

MAIN FC / S : Isolde from  ALT FC / S : Marlene / Joshua from Coyote OLDER FC / S : n/a YOUNGER FC / S : n/a VOICE CLAIM / S : n/a GENDERBENT  FC / S : I don’t do genderbend.

[uk-news-talking-politics]

Hidden history: The Nazi-Soviet pact which Russia now tries to deny

By Dan Kaszeta

Russia rightly embraces various anniversaries of the Second World War. The Soviet Union made great sacrifices to defeat Nazi Germany and it suffered greatly during the war. Heroism was displayed by millions. But it's also worth remembering the aspects of that period with the Russian government tries to pretend never happened.

Eighty years ago tomorrow, Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin signed a Nazi-Soviet non-aggression treaty known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop agreement.

You can read the text of the treaty in English here. From the very beginning of the Second World War until the Nazi invasion of the USSR in June 1941, the Soviet Union was on the same side of the war as Hitler.

Everyone remembers Hitler invading Poland on September 1st 1939. A lot of people conveniently forget that the USSR invaded Poland from the east only a few weeks later. Indeed, Soviet and German troops staged a joint parade at Brest, along their newly defined frontier.

The Soviet occupation of Eastern Poland meant that 200,000 square kilometres of Poland and over 13 million Polish citizens found themselves under the yoke of Soviet oppression. A quarter of a million Polish prisoners of war found themselves in Soviet camps, not German ones. Many were massacred at Katyn in 1940. The German Gestapo and Soviet NKVD even held a series of conferences on how to cooperate in the oppression of occupied Poland.

The alliance was economic as much as geopolitical. The amount of trade between the two nations during the 1939-1941 period was staggering. Massive amounts of raw material flowed from the USSR to Nazi Germany, including 1.6 million tons of grain and 900,000 tons of oil. The fascist army that invaded France, Belgium, and the Netherlands was literally fed by communist grain. Bomber planes over London were fuelled by communist oil.

In return, Stalin received a low interest loan from Germany for the equivalent of billions in modern money and bought technology and manufactured goods. Soviet factory orders actually took high priority in Germany, right up until the invasion. German technology was incorporated in the Soviet T-34 tank. A Kriegsmarine heavy cruiser, the Lützow, was sent to the USSR and it became the Petropavlovsk. The USSR was Hitler’s ally up until the day that the Third Reich invaded it in June 1941.

The pact carved up much of Eastern Europe. Poland was partitioned. Stalin invaded Finland, as it was firmly assigned by the treaty to the Soviet sphere of influence. Finland, greatly outnumbered and outgunned, fought the Red Army to a standstill, but had to eventually concede defeat and give up various border regions to Soviet control. The region of Karelia remains under Russian control to this day, a testimony to the lasting impact of the pact. By the end of the fighting in early 1940, over 100,000 Soviet soldiers and 25,000 Finnish soldiers had died.

What is now the nation of Moldova was carved off from Romania in 1940. Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia were 'given' to the USSR by this agreement, which had no right to do so. Based firmly on the agreement, these three Baltic states were forcibly annexed into the USSR in 1940. Soviet occupation in the three Baltic states was fierce - both in its original 1940 incarnation and when they were re-occupied in 1944. It stayed that way until 1991.

Russian nationalists should find this episode in history deeply embarrassing. It was official policy in the USSR after the war to deny it ever existed. It wasn't mentioned in books or lectures.

But at the time, it wasn't secret. It was widely reported around the world.

In an attempt to retrospectively quash history, the very existence of the pact was ignored for decades. It was only in late 1989 that the Gorbachev government officially acknowledged that it ever existed. The Russian-language copy of the text of the treaty was not published in Russia until 1993, after the end of the USSR.

There is a curious mixture nowadays of people who either defend the pact or deny it ever happened. President Putin is in the former camp. He made the case for it in meetings with Chancellor Merkel in 2015. On the other side of the spectrum, one Russian citizen was fined 200,000 rubles by a Russian court for pointing out that the USSR had, in fact, invaded Poland in 1939. Russian textbooks play down the existence of the pact and insist that the Second World War started in 1941.

The pact helps explain the political geography of Eastern Europe to this day.  It divided up much of the region between Germany and Russia.

Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and the part of Romania now known as the nation of Moldova were 'given' to Stalin in this treaty. The borders of Poland, Romania, Finland, and Belarus are affected by the treaty. Karelia is still in Russia. Many cities that were once Polish are now in Ukraine or Belarus.

For the peoples stuck between Germany and the USSR, this pact became a symbol of the rest of the world throwing them under the bus. It sealed the fates of millions of people for many decades. The 23rd of August became a rallying point for the independence movements in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

The official denials of the treaty do not square up with the memories of people who had been alive at the time and do not match the daily reality of Baltic residents. If the pact did not exist, why were they in the USSR?

In one of the largest acts of passive resistance in human history, approximately two million people formed a human chain in 1989 which stretched 600 km from Tallinn in the north, to Vilnius in the south. This amounts to one person in four. Everything came to a halt for these people to protest a treaty that their occupiers still claimed did not exist.

It was a powerful symbol that is now part of the modern political history of the Baltic states and catalysed the independence movements in all three countries. The following year, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania all re-asserted their independence.

We should remember this pact for what it was – a tragic and cynical alliance between despots that had horrific effects on millions of people. It is no coincidence that the European Union declared in 2009 that 23 August is European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism. Let us commemorate that day and not let them wipe it from history.

[chocolateheal]

19 Things Nobody Told You About Abstract Expressionism Picasso | abstract expressionism picasso

The artisan Robert Ryman, who has died age-old 88, produced his aboriginal white paintings while alive as a bouncer at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Accepting spent hours staring at colourists such as Cézanne, Matisse and Picasso, he began to acrylic in 1954, creating assignment that, at aboriginal glance, appears ascetic in the extreme. Consequently, attenuate specks of colour, alteration ablaze altitude and the artist’s advised about-face in acrylic appliance booty on outsized importance. For this 60-year activity of abstruse white paintings, Ryman is admired as the articulation amid abstruse expressionism and minimalism.

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“If you acquittal coffee on a white shirt, you can see the coffee actual clearly,” Ryman said in a 2007 interview. “If you acquittal it on a aphotic shirt, you don’t see it as well. So, it wasn’t a amount of white, the colour. I was not absolutely absorbed in that.”

His work, which anon accelerating from painting on canvas to a array of abstracts including wood, Plexiglass, aluminium, chestnut and gauze, was characterised by a action in which Ryman aboriginal produced a painting in a array of hues, afore overpainting with white, a action he referred to as “subtracting”. It is a address he developed through balloon and absurdity as a self-taught artist.

Orange Painting, a connected assignment from 1955 which he admired as his aboriginal able work, was the aftereffect of assorted attempts, abounding of which can be discerned on abutting inspection. An underlayer of blooming is arresting in the top larboard bend of the orange square; a slight birr of chrism in the basal right. Using white acrylic about accustomed a greater about-face of ablaze to comedy on the apparent of a work. The “challenge” of his work, Ryman argued, was to “make article happen” with the minimum of palette.

Born in Nashville, Robert was the son of William, an allowance salesman, and his wife, Norah (nee Boston), a teacher. As a boy Robert spent hours aggravating to acquisition applesauce on the radio back all the bounded frequencies were bedeviled by country music and, at the age of 18, he took up the tenor saxophone. While his mother was an abecedarian pianist, neither ancestor was ardent by the abstraction of their son acceptable a able musician.

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Nonetheless Robert advised music, aboriginal at Tennessee Polytechnic Institute (now Tennessee Technological University), in Cookeville, and again for two years at the George Peabody College for Teachers in Nashville.

In 1950 he enlisted with the army, stationed in Fort Rucker, Alabama, arena in a aggressive band. After two years, accepting abhorred actuality alien out to the Korean war, he was demobbed and went to New York, renting address adverse Bloomingdale’s administration abundance from a Russian cellist. He acclimated his acquittal money to booty acquaint with the applesauce pianist Lennie Tristano. After alive as a agent and in a mailroom, Robert got a job at MoMA in 1954, as a allowance guard. Additionally on aegis duty, earning $80 a week, was the artisan Dan Flavin; Sol LeWitt formed in the bookshop.

The job accepted to be his apprenticeship in art. “When I aboriginal saw Rothko, I didn’t apperceive what to accomplish of it,” Ryman acclaimed in 1972. “There was this actual naked canvas with no anatomy on it and not alike a strip, not alike tape, you know, aloof the canvas. I was actual afflicted by that.”

While still arena applesauce jams at Arthur’s bistro in Greenwich Village, Ryman apparent his aboriginal painting. After accustomed the appellation To Gertrud Mellon, it was bought by the philanthropist in 1958 from a MoMA agents exhibition. In April 1964 Ryman’s assignment was called by Flavin for admittance in a accumulation show, Eleven Artists, at the Kaymar arcade (an exhibition declared by the New York Times at the time as “provocative”), and two years after the British babysitter Lawrence Alloway included him in the affecting appearance Systemic Painting at the Guggenheim Museum.

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Ryman had larboard his job at MoMA in 1960 and, accepting accustomed up music, pursued art abounding time. At his aboriginal alone show, in 1967 at the Paul Bianchini gallery, he showed 13 bedding of algid formed steel, anniversary aloof beneath a accent and a bisected aboveboard and analogously corrective with white apply besom acclamation addition in alongside from larboard to right.

Though none of the works sold, Ryman affronted the absorption of several European galleries, and in 1969 was arrive for alone shows in Düsseldorf, Munich and Paris. The aforementioned year the babysitter Harald Szeemann included him in his seminal accumulation exhibition Back Attitudes Become Form at the Kunsthalle Bern in Switzerland, alongside such artists as Joseph Beuys, Bruce Nauman, Eva Hesse and Yves Klein.

In the backward 1960s Ryman frequently corrective on paper, adhering the works unframed with appearance band beeline to the arcade wall. By the time of his attendant at the Whitechapel Arcade in London in 1977 he had started to use harder surfaces and arresting clips, bolts and screws, abacus a sculptural affection to his work.

Arrow, 1976, one of 22 pieces the artisan donated to the Dia Art Foundation’s abiding accumulating in 2017, appearance a Plexiglass console corrective white and absorbed to the bank with four analogously placed brackets.

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Within the constraints of his palette, Ryman begin countless means to experiment. A 1984 painting on fibreglass was apparent horizontally, accurate on continued attenuate metal legs; in his aftermost works he alone his constant adjustment of underpainting the white compositions.

In 1993 the Tate Arcade and MoMa accordingly staged a Ryman attendant of added than 75 works, which additionally travelled to the Reina Sofia in Madrid, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Walker Art Centre, Minneapolis.

Ryman is survived by his wife, the painter Merrill Wagner, whom he affiliated in 1969, their sons, Will and Cordy, and by his son Ethan, from an beforehand alliance to the analyzer Lucy R Lippard, which concluded in divorce.

• Robert Ryman, artist, built-in 30 May 1930; died 8 February 2019

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[investmart007]

BRUSSELS | Pompeo dives in at NATO on 1st trip as top US diplomat

New Post has been published on https://goo.gl/MCtjCg

BRUSSELS | Pompeo dives in at NATO on 1st trip as top US diplomat

BRUSSELS  — Newly minted U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo hit the ground running on Friday at NATO headquarters on his first trip abroad as America’s top diplomat.

Just hours after being sworn in, Pompeo flew to Brussels where the alliance’s foreign ministers are meeting to prepare a leaders’ summit in July.

“I did come straight away, I was sworn in yesterday and I hopped on a plane,” Pompeo told NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg as he arrived. “There’s good reason for that. The work that’s being done here today is invaluable and our objectives are important and this mission means a lot to the United States of America. The president very much wanted me to get here and I’m glad we were able to make it, and I look forward to a productive visit here today.”

Stoltenberg said Pompeo’s presence at the meeting so soon after taking the reins of the State Department was “a great expression of the importance of the alliance and the importance we attach to the alliance.”

“I very much look forward to talking with you, on the need to adapt NATO to a more demanding security environment,” he added.

A senior U.S. official says Pompeo’s aim is to ensure that NATO maintains a unified position of “no business as usual” with Russia and to prod members, particularly Germany, to meet their commitments to spend 2 percent of their gross domestic product on defense by 2024. That commitment was made in 2014 and thus far only six of the 28 countries who made the pledge meet the goal. Nine have produced realistic plans for reaching it by 2024, but the rest, including Germany, have not.

That spending level, frequently incorrectly referred to by Trump as a contribution to NATO itself, is particularly important given the allies’ need to combat increased Russian aggression, said the official, who was not authorized to preview Pompeo’s meetings publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The official said the U.S. delegation would make the point that NATO is more relevant today that at any point since the end of the Cold War. Russian efforts to destabilize Western democracies as well as encroach on neighbors like Ukraine will be a major theme of the meeting, the official said. The ministers will hold sessions on Russia, Afghanistan and NATO’s “open door policy” for accepting new members.

In addition, Pompeo will have separate talks with the foreign ministers of Italy and Turkey. Relations with the latter are notably strained. The senior official said one of Pompeo’s main goals with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu is to refocus on coordination in northern Syria, where Turkey has been attacking Kurdish rebels supported by the U.S. That coordination was started by Pompeo’s predecessor, Rex Tillerson, who was fired by Trump last month, and had languished in the absence of a new secretary of state.

Pompeo will also renew calls for the release of a jailed American pastor accused by Turkey of espionage, and encourage Turkey not to pursue the purchase of an advanced air defense system from Russia.

From Brussels, Pompeo will travel on to the Middle East, visiting Saudi Arabia, Israel and Jordan, where the future of the Iran nuclear deal and the conflict in Syria will be significant agenda items, officials said.

Pompeo will arrive in Riyadh on Saturday ahead of a series of events that could potentially plunge the region into deeper disarray, including Trump’s decision by May 12 on whether to pull out of the Iran deal, and the opening of the new U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem two days later. The embassy move is deeply opposed by the Palestinians, who on May 15 will mark the anniversary of what they term the “nabka,” or catastrophe, when they fled or were driven from their homes during the 1948 Palestine war.

Looming over Pompeo’s trip is uncertainty over Trump’s policy on Syria, which has shifted between a speedy all-out withdrawal of American forces from the country and leaving a lasting footprint to deter Iran from completing a land bridge from Tehran to Beirut.

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By MATTHEW LEE, AP Diplomatic Writer,By Associated Press – published on STL.News by St. Louis Media, LLC (A.S)

___

[tomorrowusa]

One year ago, the world was bracing for the fall of Kyiv. Well, I have just come from a visit to Kyiv, and I can report: Kyiv stands strong! Kyiv stands proud. It stands tall. And most important, it stands free.     When Russia invaded, it wasn’t just Ukraine being tested. The whole world faced a test for the ages.     [ ... ]       President Putin is confronted with something today that he didn’t think was possible a year ago. The democracies of the world have grown stronger, not weaker. But the autocrats of the world have grown weaker, not stronger.      [ ... ]       We’re seeing again today what the people of Poland and the people all across Europe saw for decades: Appetites of the autocrat cannot be appeased. They must be opposed.      Autocrats only understand one word: "No." "No." "No."        "No, you will not take my country." "No, you will not take my freedom." "No, you will not take my future."

President Joe Biden, speaking outside the Royal Castle (Zamek Królewski) in Warsaw on Tuesday to mark Friday’s 1st anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Via the White House press office.

With our aid to the defense of Ukraine against Russian aggression, we are protecting people like these. Putin killed their mom in the early days of the war.