#Sikorski Memorial

[maryegallagher]

Road-Tripping from Spains Andalusian Coast to Gibraltar

by Deirdre Frost Taking a road trip to explore and savor the rich culture and history of the Andalusian region in Spain and Gibraltar is an exciting adventure through a colorful panoply of cultures. I set off this fall to explore this part of the Mediterranean Coast and experience some of its most exciting areas and resort destinations. Just a mere 87-mile journey included a beautiful mosaic of…

[awaiting-input]

The Advantages of Travel: Why You Ought To Pack Your Bags as well as Check Out the World

""

Taking a trip is greater than just an enjoyable method to escape your daily regimen. It's likewise unbelievably beneficial for your mental, physical, and psychological health and wellness. Whether you're taking a trip solo or with family and friends, discovering brand-new locations can assist you obtain a fresh point of view on life and also uncover your passion for living. From the adrenaline rush of attempting new tasks to the leisure and restoration of a getaway, travel can supply a series of experiences that can boost your total health.

Additionally, traveling can likewise broaden your perspectives and also expand your expertise concerning various cultures, practices, as well as methods of life. Learning about new personalizeds and also ideas can aid you end up being much more broad-minded and also tolerant in the direction of others, which can ultimately lead to a much more relaxed as well as unified globe. Whether it's trying brand-new foods, finding out a brand-new language, or involving yourself in a new environment, traveling can help you expand as an individual and also become a more well-rounded person. So why not take the jump as well as begin on your following adventure? The benefits of travel are unlimited, as well as the memories you create will certainly last a life time.

Read more here Click to Read More

[mariacallous]

Would the European Union’s eastern front-line states fight back like Ukraine if Russia attacked them? Unfortunately, this is no longer a hypothetical scenario: Hardly a day goes by without a Russian government official or pundit threatening Poland, Finland, or the Baltic states with missile attacks, an invasion, or both. In word and deed, Russian President Vladimir Putin has made clear that he seeks to restore Moscow’s former European empire.

The answer is probably yes, because the countries that have lived under the Kremlin’s rule know from their own long histories what Russian occupation entails. Those memories have been refreshed by today’s carnage in Ukraine, where the massacres of civilians by Russian soldiers in Bucha and Irpin served as a reminder that a loss of territory to Russia is not just a tactical setback, but also a prelude to barbaric violence.

The post-Cold War pretense that Russia would behave in a fundamentally different, more civilized way from its past practice is gone, reviving memories of more distant tragedies. Citizens of the three Baltic states remember mass executions and deportations at the hands of the Soviets in the 1940s, including the nearly 100,000 people who were deported to Siberia in 1949. Poles cannot forget the execution of more than 20,000 military officers in the Katyn Forest by order of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.

The list of Moscow’s crimes against its neighbors is long—and that list shapes Central Europe’s strategic posture today. As Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski recently vowed, Poles would “eat grass rather than become a Russian colony again.”

Unsurprisingly, therefore, 80 percent of Finns surveyed in a 2022 poll said that they were prepared to defend their country. That same year, the Warsaw Enterprise Institute found that 66 percent of Poles were eager to come to their nation’s defense, and many are now volunteering for basic training. Residents of other nations from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea are expressing a similar determination to protect their lands and fellow citizens from a Russian assault.

The will is there, but is there a way? It remains uncertain whether there will be enough soldiers to fight Putin’s forces. Europe’s front-line countries may have a much greater recruitment problem than what Ukraine faces now—a problem that goes beyond these states’ already grim demographic trends, which have shrunk their populations by millions of people in recent decades.

What the Russian invasion of Ukraine has made clear is that technology cannot take the place of soldiers in a major land war. They are needed to crew tanks and trenches, move and service artillery, fly planes and drones, and occupy and keep territory. Ukraine, for instance, needs thousands of new soldiers each month to rotate forces, replace casualties, and prevent further Russian advances. Even more would likely be needed (along with regular allotments of Western-supplied ammunition) for Kyiv to go back on the offense and push Moscow’s forces out of the occupied parts of Ukraine. A country’s ability to generate a large and steady stream of infantry is thus essential to deter and, if necessary, defeat a potential invader.

But no matter what they tell pollsters, many citizens of Russia’s potential targets may choose to leave when the prospect of war becomes real. Their westward migration would be much easier than it might have been when these countries were not yet members of the European Union. In addition, there is a demand pull from Western Europe, which faces its own population shortages and need for labor. If these factors are not addressed, the likelihood of an exodus casts doubt over these countries’ capacity to guard Europe’s eastern frontier.

Central Europe is a beneficiary of one of the EU’s greatest successes: freedom of movement. The absence of internal borders between most EU member countries allows an easy flow of people and goods, ensuring the rights of nationals and legal residents to live and work in other EU countries. Short distances, cheap flights, educational opportunities, and cultural affinity have created unprecedented mobility of EU nationals. Equipped with language abilities and fungible skills, many young people from Warsaw, Tallinn, or Helsinki feel more at home in Berlin, Amsterdam, or Barcelona than in their own countries’ towns and villages.

In recent years, many Central Europeans have also acquired second residences abroad. Poles, for instance, have been buying real estate in Spain in record numbers. If their rising prosperity and desire to diversify their savings is one reason, then unease about the future since the return of Russian aggression is likely another. In Spain, after all, they would be safe from errant missiles and artillery duels.

The second reason why Europe’s front-line states may have a recruitment problem if Russia attacks is that much of Western Europe would be more than happy to accept large numbers of young people from their eastern neighbors, even if the migration was induced by war. Western Europe’s own labor shortages—and the prospect of large numbers of skilled young migrants who are considered easy to integrate—would be as much of a motivation for Western European generosity as solidarity with a country under attack, as suggested by the reaction to the influx from Ukraine in nations such as Germany.

Europe’s demographic trends are by now familiar: The continent’s working-age population has been shrinking for 13 years, now down by almost 10 million people—from a peak of 270 million in 2011 to roughly 260 million now. Today, the worker shortage is acute. Out of the 27 EU countries, 19 have shortages of bricklayers, truck drivers, nurses, and other skilled laborers. At the end of 2023, three-quarters of small- and medium-sized European businesses reported that they were failing to find needed labor. Germany alone is set to lose as much as 10 percent of its working-age population over the next decade. Europe is aging fast and losing tax-paying citizens—a threat that, to countries farther from Russia, feels as existential as the threat of war in the east.

It follows that many EU countries would be more than happy to absorb working-age people escaping front-line states under attack. Instead of being an economic burden, these war refugees would be a boon to Europe’s labor-deprived economies.

What’s more, many countries across the West face military recruitment problems. There is simply a shortage of people willing to serve and fight if needed. Poland now plans to train Ukrainian citizens of conscription age living on its territory for potential deployment in Ukraine. But this would also create a precedent for establishing a foreign fighting force on Polish territory, which other states could follow as a way to replenish their demographically shrunken forces. In the past, it has not been unusual for a country to have military brigades or even divisions composed of foreign citizens from war-torn nations.

From a political and societal perspective, it will also be easier for Germany, France, or Italy to take in European refugees who have connections across the continent, share a similar culture, and are generally eager to integrate. For European politicians, this could be a way to promote immigration without the political backlash that was visible in the recent EU parliamentary elections, where parties campaigning against the current trend of mass migration from Africa and the Middle East polled a record share of the vote.

The EU’s front-line states, if under attack, may therefore face a soldier shortage considerably more dire than the one facing Ukraine. It is hard to have a nation under arms if the bulk of the nation can easily leave. Of course, the affected countries could always institute border controls to keep recruits from fleeing, which even EU law allows. But unless there is a firm and detailed plan, these kinds of controls would take days, if not weeks, to put in place—and they would likely be met with an outcry in Brussels and Western European capitals, since they would contravene one of the EU’s proudest achievements. And by definition, any plan implemented only as a last resort following an attack would come too late to deter Moscow from attacking in the first place.

As war-waging Russia advances westward, European countries on the front line need to plan how to retain their own people. The ability of an EU member to fight will depend on the timely imposition of border controls, but even more on the patriotism of its people. Like the Ukrainians now, many front-line Europeans will fight for their nation—and for their nation’s place in a free Europe. But if their fondness for other parts of Europe trumps the sense of duty to their country, then they may choose to enjoy the benefits offered across the continent rather than face the Russian armies on their native lands.

One of the tasks for Europe’s front-line countries is, therefore, to sustain a vibrant patriotism. Only a deeply shared sense of nationhood can overcome the temptation of an easy and comfortable exit—and engender a willingness to sacrifice. Without cultivating this sense of patriotism and duty, Europe’s front-line states may face a soldier shortage that they haven’t bargained for.

[wildmonkeysects]

War Profiteers

Remember President Dwight “Ike” Eisenhower, who after green-lighting the overthrow of Iran’s democracy in 1953 at the behest of petrochemical corporations, had a change of heart and warned about the Military Industrial Complex? Here are the top 100 USA Military Industrial Complex “defense” contractors, all corporate welfare queens mooching off the public, who have blood on their hands in Palestine and elsewhere:

Academi

Action Target

ADT Corporation

Advanced Armament Corporation

AECOM

Aerospace Corporation

Aerovironment

AirScan

AM General

American Petroleum Institute

Argon ST

ARINC

Artis

Assett

Astronautics Corporation of America

Atec

Aurora Flight Sciences

Axon Enterprise

United Kingdom BAE Systems

BAE Systems Inc

Ball Corporation

Ball Aerospace & Technologies

Barrett Firearms Manufacturing

Battelle Memorial Institute

Bechtel

Berico Technologies

Boeing Defense, Space & Security

Booz Allen Hamilton

Boston Dynamics

Bravo Strategic

CACI

Carlyle Group

Carnegie Mellon University

Ceradyne

Cloudera

Colt Defense

The Columbia Group

Computer Sciences Corporation

Concurrent Technologies Corporation

CSRA (IT services company)

Cubic Corporation

Omega Training Group

Curtiss-Wright

DeciBel Research

Dillon Aero

Dine Development Corporation

Draper Laboratories

DRS Technologies

DynCorp

Edison Welding Institute

[Israei]l Elbit Systems

M7 Aerospace

Ensco

United Kingdom/Military contractor Ernst & Young

Evergreen International Aviation

Exxon

Fluor Corporation

Force Protection Inc

Foster-Miller

Foster Wheeler

Franklin Armoury

General Atomics

General Dynamics

Bath Iron Works

General Dynamics Electric Boat

Gulfstream

Vangent

General Electric Military Jet Engines Division

Halliburton Corporation

Health Net

Hewlett-Packard

Honeywell

Humana Inc.

Huntington Ingalls Industries

Hybricon Corporation

IBM

Insight Technology

Intelsat

International Resources Group

iRobot

ITT Exelis

Jacobs Engineering Group

JANUS Research Group

Johns Hopkins University

Kaman Aircraft

KBR

Kearfott Corporation

Knight's Armament Company

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions

L3Harris Technologies

Aerojet

Brashear

[France] Lafayette Praetorian Group

Lake Shore Systems

Leidos

EOTech

Lewis Machine & Tool Company

Lockheed Martin

Gyrocam Systems

Sikorsky

LRAD Corporation

ManTech International

Maxar Technologies

McQ

Microsoft

Mission Essential Personnel

Motorola

Natel Electronic Manufacturing Services

Navistar Defense

Nextel

Northrop Grumman

Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems

Northrop Grumman Ship Systems

Northrop Grumman Technical Services

Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems

NOVA

Oceaneering International

Olin Corporation; also see John M. Olin and John M. Olin Foundation

Oshkosh Corporation

Para-Ordnance

Perot Systems

Picatinny Arsenal

Pinnacle Armor

Precision Castparts Corporation

Raytheon Technologies

Collins Aerospace

Rockwell Collins

Goodrich Corporation

Pratt & Whitney

Raytheon Intelligence & Space

Raytheon Missiles & Defense

Raytheon BBN

Remington Arms

Rock Island Arsenal

Roundhill Group

Ruger

Saab Sensis

Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC)

SGIS

Sierra Nevada Corporation

Smith & Wesson

Smith Enterprise (SEI)

SPRATA

Springfield Armory

SRC Inc

SRI International

Stanley

Stewart & Stevenson

Swift Engineering

Tactical Air Support

Teledyne

Teledyne FLIR

Textron

AAI Corporation

Bell Helicopter Textron

Trijicon

TriWest Healthcare Alliance

Unisys

U.S. Ordnance

Verizon Communications

Vinnell Corporation

Westinghouse Electric Corporation

[stillunusual]

Ah yes….Marie Antoinette, who was famous for saying "let them eat polonium"…. David Lammy became the UK's Foreign Secretary on 5th July 2024, following the Labour Party's landslide general election victory.

Sixteen years earlier, while appearing on Celebrity Mastermind, he responded to the question: "what was the married name of the scientists Marie and Pierre, who won the Nobel Prize for physics in 1903 for their research into radiation?", with the answer: "Antoinette"….

The correct answer was "Curie", but I see how he made the connection. 🤣😂

Lammy is probably also unaware that Marie Curie was Polish. She was born in 1867 in Warsaw, which was still under Russian occupation following the partitions of Poland at the end of the 18th century.

She was originally called Maria Skłodowska.

She studied at Warsaw's clandestine "Flying University", where she began her practical scientific training.

The Flying University (in Polish: Uniwersytet Latający) was an underground educational system which existed from 1885 to 1905 in Warsaw, and gave young people the opportunity to attend classes that operated outside the censorship and control of the Russian authorities.

She later said that "if I had not been taught chemical analysis by Professor Milicer and Dr Kossakowski in Warsaw, I would not have isolated Radium"….

Although she emigrated to France, graduated with degrees in physics and mathematics at the University of Sorbonne and married French physicist Pierre Curie, she never lost her sense of Polish identity and always referred to herself as Maria Skłodowska-Curie. She taught her daughters to speak Polish and named the first chemical element she discovered "Polonium" after her native country.

Maria Skłodowska-Curie emerged as the first female scientist to gain global recognition and undeniably stood among the great scientists of the twentieth century. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the first person to win a Nobel Prize twice, and the only person to win a Nobel Prize in two scientific fields (chemistry and physics).

Two days after being appointed to his new role, David Lammy flew to Warsaw for talks with his Polish counterpart Radek Sikorski. I wonder if he noticed any of Warsaw's memorials, murals and other tributes to Maria Skłodowska-Curie while he was there….

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Matt. Wuerker

* * * *

Trump's NATO comments reverberate across Europe.

February 13, 2024

ROBERT B. HUBBELL

Trump's anti-NATO comments over the weekend have focused attention on US foreign policy commitments. At a meeting of the EU on Monday, Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski reminded a reporter that the NATO treaty’s “mutual defense” provision has been invoked only once—to assist the United States after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. As reported in Politico,

Referring directly to Trump's comments, Sikorski underlined that “the [NATO] alliance is not a security agency,” stressing that NATO allies came to America's aid after the September 11 attacks and that Poland fought alongside U.S. troops in Afghanistan. “We didn't send the bill to Washington,” he said.

Dozens of readers posted Comments and sent emails noting that it is beyond hypocritical for Trump to pretend that timely payment of bills is grounds for abandoning an ally. Trump famously stiffs every lawyer, contractor, service provider, and vendor possible, leaving a string of unpaid debts and collection lawsuits in his wake.

Many major media outlets continued coverage of Trump's statement, notably the NYTimes, which ran a front-page “news analysis” titled, “Trump Steps Up, Helping Biden Just When the President Needs Him,” and a second story highlighting Trump's attack on Nikki Haley’s husband, Major Mike Haley, “Defending Troops, Haley Says Golf Course Is Closest Trump Has Come to Combat.”

The thesis of the Times coverage is that Trump consistently draws attention away from Biden’s age by injecting Trump's recklessness into the political equation. Per the Times news analysis,

The stunner from Mr. Trump over the weekend not only drew attention away from the president’s memory problems, as detailed in a special counsel report, but also provided a convenient way for Mr. Biden’s defenders to reframe the issue: Yes, they could now say, the incumbent may be an old man who sometimes forgets things, but his challenger is both aging and dangerously reckless. It was not the first time, nor likely will it be the last, that Mr. Trump has stepped up when an adversary was in trouble to provide an escape route with an ill-considered howler of his own. Mr. Trump’s lifelong appetite for attention has often collided with his evident best interest.

For Mr. Biden, that may be the key to this year’s campaign, banking on his opponent’s inability to stay silent at critical moments and hoping that he keeps reminding voters why they rejected him in 2020.

But Trump's dangerous views on foreign policy are not mere campaign fodder. They have infected his party, which is looking for a way to kill aid for Ukraine.

As the Senate moves closer to a final vote on supplemental funding for Ukraine and Israel, Speaker Mike Johnson preemptively rejected the bill because—wait for it—the foreign aid bill does not include US immigration reform and border security provisions!! See The Hill, Speaker Johnson fires warning shot as Senate prepares to vote on Ukraine aid

In case you have forgotten, Trump ordered congressional Republicans to kill a prior version of the aid bill that included immigration reform and border security provisions. Because of Trump's opposition to immigration reform and enhanced border security, GOP Senators voted down the combined bill.

Now that the Senate is sending a bill with foreign aid only, Speaker Mike Johnson is playing the legislative version of the “rope-a-dope” gambit where the American people and Ukraine are the victims of a bad-faith delaying strategy. 

While foreign policy rarely plays a decisive role in US presidential campaigns, Trump's threat to abandon NATO and encourage Russian aggression deserves the attention of every American who values global stability. If Ukrainian soldiers cannot contain Russia’s expansionism, the next country in Putin’s sights will be Poland—a NATO member.

[Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter]

[rockislandadultreads]

Read-Alike Friday: Hang the Moon by Jeannette Walls

Gods of Howl Mountain by Taylor Brown

Bootlegger Rory Docherty has returned home to the fabled mountain of his childhood - a misty wilderness that holds its secrets close and keeps the outside world at gunpoint. Slowed by a wooden leg and haunted by memories of the Korean War, Rory runs bootleg whiskey for a powerful mountain clan in a retro-fitted '40 Ford coupe. Between deliveries to roadhouses, brothels, and private clients, he lives with his formidable grandmother, evades federal agents, and stokes the wrath of a rival runner.

In the mill town at the foot of the mountains - a hotbed of violence, moonshine, and the burgeoning sport of stock-car racing - Rory is bewitched by the mysterious daughter of a snake-handling preacher. His grandmother, Maybelline “Granny May” Docherty, opposes this match for her own reasons, believing that "some things are best left buried." A folk healer whose powers are rumored to rival those of a wood witch, she concocts potions and cures for the people of the mountains while harboring an explosive secret about Rory’s mother - the truth behind her long confinement in a mental hospital, during which time she has not spoken one word. When Rory's life is threatened, Granny must decide whether to reveal what she knows...or protect her only grandson from the past.

The Bourbon Kings by J.R. Ward

For generations, the Bradford family has worn the mantle of kings of the bourbon capital of the world. Their sustained wealth has afforded them prestige and privilege—as well as a hard-won division of class on their sprawling estate, Easterly. Upstairs, a dynasty that by all appearances plays by the rules of good fortune and good taste. Downstairs, the staff who work tirelessly to maintain the impeccable Bradford facade. And never the twain shall meet.

For Lizzie King, Easterly’s head gardener, crossing that divide nearly ruined her life. Falling in love with Tulane, the prodigal son of the bourbon dynasty, was nothing that she intended or wanted—and their bitter breakup only served to prove her instincts were right. Now, after two years of staying away, Tulane is finally coming home again, and he is bringing the past with him. No one will be left unmarked: not Tulane’s beautiful and ruthless wife; not his older brother, whose bitterness and bad blood know no bounds; and especially not the ironfisted Bradford patriarch, a man with few morals, fewer scruples, and many, many terrible secrets.

As family tensions—professional and intimately private—ignite, Easterly and all its inhabitants are thrown into the grips of an irrevocable transformation, and only the cunning will survive.

This is the first volume of “The Bourbon Kings” series.

The Hotel Neversink by Adam O’Fallon Price

Thirty-one years after workers first broke ground, the magnificent Hotel Neversink in the Catskills finally opens to the public. Then a young boy disappears.

This mysterious vanishing—and the ones that follow—will brand the lives of three generations. At the root of it all is Asher Sikorsky, the ambitious and ruthless patriarch whose purchase of the hotel in 1931 set a haunting legacy into motion. His daughter Jeanie sees the Hotel Neversink into its most lucrative era, but also its darkest. Decades later, Asher's grandchildren grapple with the family’s heritage in their own ways: Len fights to keep the failing, dilapidated hotel alive, and Alice sets out to finally uncover the murderer’s identity.

Told by a chorus of Sikorsky family members—a matriarch, a hotel maid, a traveling comedian, the hotel detective, and many others—The Hotel Neversink is the portrait of a Jewish family in the Catskills over the course of a century.

The Roanoke Girls by Amy Engel

Lane Roanoke is fifteen when she comes to live with her grandparents and fireball cousin at the Roanoke family's rural estate following the suicide of her mother. Over one long, hot summer, Lane experiences the benefits of being one of the rich and beautiful Roanoke girls.

But what she doesn't know is being a Roanoke girl carries a terrible legacy: either the girls run, or they die. For there is darkness at the heart of Roanoke, and when Lane discovers its insidious pull, she must make her choice...

[news365timesindia]

[ad_1] The renewed tensions with Ukraine’s EU neighbor, which have punctuated relations even during the Russian invasion, underscore Kyiv’s difficult path toward Western integration in a time of war (Photo: Reuters)5 min read Last Updated : Oct 13 2024 | 1:44 PM IST By Natalia OjewskaUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was left seething after a meeting last month with Poland’s top diplomat, who made a show of putting the brakes on Ukraine’s ambitions for fast-track accession to the European Union.    During their exchange in Kyiv, Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski also brought up Warsaw’s demands that the victims of World War II-era massacres of ethnic Poles be exhumed from land now belonging to Ukraine — and tied it to EU membership talks, according to participants.  Click here to connect with us on WhatsApp The rift coincides with mounting war fatigue among Kyiv’s Western allies, with Russian troops making grinding advances in the country’s east. Zelenskyy’s push for Ukraine, a country bigger in size than France and an agricultural powerhouse, to gain rapid accession to the EU suggests a gap is widening with his most crucial supporters.  It comes as Kyiv also struggles to win support for its NATO bid — and faces shortages of weapons and money ahead of the Nov. 5 US presidential elections, in which the contenders offer drastically different views about the war’s endgame.  The renewed tensions with Ukraine’s EU neighbor, which have punctuated relations even during the Russian invasion, underscore Kyiv’s difficult path toward Western integration in a time of war. “Ukraine is in a very complicated situation and not just because of the war,” said Judy Dempsey, non-resident fellow at Carnegie Europe in Berlin. “It’s kind of unfinished business about the past.” Things looked more hopeful a year ago. When Donald Tusk returned to Poland’s premiership, he pledged to improve relations that had suffered under the previous nationalist government. That administration imposed a ban on Ukrainian grain imports in response to farmers who decried what they called a drop in prices prompted by a glut of wheat from the east.  Polish Farmers Protest Against Ukrainian Grain Imports A tank made from agricultural material during a protest by Polish farmers against imports of Ukrainian grain in Warsaw, on Feb. 27. Officials in Kyiv also placed hopes in Tusk, a former European Council president, to be an ally in shepherding Kyiv’s EU accession path, a labyrinthine procedure that can take decades.  But Tusk also had to navigate Polish politics. While he swore to rally support for Kyiv in his first speech to parliament last December, the premier made certain that he would display “cordial and friendly assertiveness” on issues that might place Poland’s national interests in jeopardy. Memories of Volhynia  If EU accession can be negotiated in a political forum, the issue of the 1943 massacres of Poles by Ukrainian nationalists in the Volhynia region is becoming far more than a debate among historians. An estimated 100,000 people, including woman and children, perished in the slaughter.  Deputy Prime Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz, who leads one of the junior parties in the ruling coalition, has said Ukraine’s EU accession was out of question until the dead are treated with respect. Tusk said as much as well. “There is a need to dig into this history if we are about to build a good future,” he told a news conference in Warsaw at the end of August. “As long as there is no respect for those standards from the Ukrainian side, then Ukraine will certainly not become part of the European family.”  To be sure, Poland continues to call for ever greater military support for Ukraine, tougher sanctions against Russia and has taken in almost 2 million refugees since the war began. But both countries have painful historical chapters to work through. The division of Ukrainian lands between Poland and the Soviet Union in the aftermath

of the World War I stoked ethnic grievances as Warsaw launched oppressive policies to assimilate new populations. Mounting hostilities culminated in the massacres of Poles in Volyhnia from 1943 to 1945 and the subsequent forced resettlement of some 150,000 Ukrainians. While Kyiv recognizes the Volhynia atrocities, it has also called on Poland not to politicize the issue — and to seek ways for a peaceful settlement. But Sikorski’s focus on the issue in the meeting with Zelenskyy, which was also attended by Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis, showed that any intention to leave it to historians was a non-starter in Warsaw.  Sikorski often veers from diplomatic niceties. Quizzed about the meeting, the minister said in a radio interview that he knows “how to state matters firmly” — and was given assurances that a solution will be found. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha met his Polish counterpart and President Andrzej Duda in Warsaw this month and said the talks were “constructive” and “pragmatic.”  ‘Skills of a Psychotherapist���   And while Ukrainians have expressed confidence that they’ve addressed the issue — Zelenskyy attended a church service in the region with Duda in 2023 — the Poles say they will stand by their demands. Leaving the issue unresolved creates an opening for extremists and undermines support for Kyiv, a Polish government official said.  Aleksander Kwasniewski, who served as Poland’s president from 1995 to 2005, said he worked with Ukraine to resolve the dispute when he was head of state, including a reconciliation agreement, working groups of academics and commemorations. The former president, whose father was a survivor of the massacres, said he warned Sikorski that missteps in resolving the issue would only inflame extremists — and encouraged him to take a more balanced approach. “It’s necessary to be a strong representative of Polish, European and Western interest — but also a very sensitive advocate of Ukrainian expectations,” Kwasniewski said in an interview. The effort requires “skills of a psychotherapist who understands the sensitivity of the whole situation,” he said.  First Published: Oct 13 2024 | 1:43 PM IST [ad_2] Source link

[news365times]

[ad_1] The renewed tensions with Ukraine’s EU neighbor, which have punctuated relations even during the Russian invasion, underscore Kyiv’s difficult path toward Western integration in a time of war (Photo: Reuters)5 min read Last Updated : Oct 13 2024 | 1:44 PM IST By Natalia OjewskaUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was left seething after a meeting last month with Poland’s top diplomat, who made a show of putting the brakes on Ukraine’s ambitions for fast-track accession to the European Union.    During their exchange in Kyiv, Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski also brought up Warsaw’s demands that the victims of World War II-era massacres of ethnic Poles be exhumed from land now belonging to Ukraine — and tied it to EU membership talks, according to participants.  Click here to connect with us on WhatsApp The rift coincides with mounting war fatigue among Kyiv’s Western allies, with Russian troops making grinding advances in the country’s east. Zelenskyy’s push for Ukraine, a country bigger in size than France and an agricultural powerhouse, to gain rapid accession to the EU suggests a gap is widening with his most crucial supporters.  It comes as Kyiv also struggles to win support for its NATO bid — and faces shortages of weapons and money ahead of the Nov. 5 US presidential elections, in which the contenders offer drastically different views about the war’s endgame.  The renewed tensions with Ukraine’s EU neighbor, which have punctuated relations even during the Russian invasion, underscore Kyiv’s difficult path toward Western integration in a time of war. “Ukraine is in a very complicated situation and not just because of the war,” said Judy Dempsey, non-resident fellow at Carnegie Europe in Berlin. “It’s kind of unfinished business about the past.” Things looked more hopeful a year ago. When Donald Tusk returned to Poland’s premiership, he pledged to improve relations that had suffered under the previous nationalist government. That administration imposed a ban on Ukrainian grain imports in response to farmers who decried what they called a drop in prices prompted by a glut of wheat from the east.  Polish Farmers Protest Against Ukrainian Grain Imports A tank made from agricultural material during a protest by Polish farmers against imports of Ukrainian grain in Warsaw, on Feb. 27. Officials in Kyiv also placed hopes in Tusk, a former European Council president, to be an ally in shepherding Kyiv’s EU accession path, a labyrinthine procedure that can take decades.  But Tusk also had to navigate Polish politics. While he swore to rally support for Kyiv in his first speech to parliament last December, the premier made certain that he would display “cordial and friendly assertiveness” on issues that might place Poland’s national interests in jeopardy. Memories of Volhynia  If EU accession can be negotiated in a political forum, the issue of the 1943 massacres of Poles by Ukrainian nationalists in the Volhynia region is becoming far more than a debate among historians. An estimated 100,000 people, including woman and children, perished in the slaughter.  Deputy Prime Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz, who leads one of the junior parties in the ruling coalition, has said Ukraine’s EU accession was out of question until the dead are treated with respect. Tusk said as much as well. “There is a need to dig into this history if we are about to build a good future,” he told a news conference in Warsaw at the end of August. “As long as there is no respect for those standards from the Ukrainian side, then Ukraine will certainly not become part of the European family.”  To be sure, Poland continues to call for ever greater military support for Ukraine, tougher sanctions against Russia and has taken in almost 2 million refugees since the war began. But both countries have painful historical chapters to work through. The division of Ukrainian lands between Poland and the Soviet Union in the aftermath

of the World War I stoked ethnic grievances as Warsaw launched oppressive policies to assimilate new populations. Mounting hostilities culminated in the massacres of Poles in Volyhnia from 1943 to 1945 and the subsequent forced resettlement of some 150,000 Ukrainians. While Kyiv recognizes the Volhynia atrocities, it has also called on Poland not to politicize the issue — and to seek ways for a peaceful settlement. But Sikorski’s focus on the issue in the meeting with Zelenskyy, which was also attended by Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis, showed that any intention to leave it to historians was a non-starter in Warsaw.  Sikorski often veers from diplomatic niceties. Quizzed about the meeting, the minister said in a radio interview that he knows “how to state matters firmly” — and was given assurances that a solution will be found. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha met his Polish counterpart and President Andrzej Duda in Warsaw this month and said the talks were “constructive” and “pragmatic.”  ‘Skills of a Psychotherapist’   And while Ukrainians have expressed confidence that they’ve addressed the issue — Zelenskyy attended a church service in the region with Duda in 2023 — the Poles say they will stand by their demands. Leaving the issue unresolved creates an opening for extremists and undermines support for Kyiv, a Polish government official said.  Aleksander Kwasniewski, who served as Poland’s president from 1995 to 2005, said he worked with Ukraine to resolve the dispute when he was head of state, including a reconciliation agreement, working groups of academics and commemorations. The former president, whose father was a survivor of the massacres, said he warned Sikorski that missteps in resolving the issue would only inflame extremists — and encouraged him to take a more balanced approach. “It’s necessary to be a strong representative of Polish, European and Western interest — but also a very sensitive advocate of Ukrainian expectations,” Kwasniewski said in an interview. The effort requires “skills of a psychotherapist who understands the sensitivity of the whole situation,” he said.  First Published: Oct 13 2024 | 1:43 PM IST [ad_2] Source link

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 9.30 (before 1940)

489 – The Ostrogoths under Theoderic the Great defeat the forces of Odoacer for the second time. 737 – The Turgesh drive back an Umayyad invasion of Khuttal, follow them south of the Oxus, and capture their baggage train. 1139 – A magnitude 7.7 earthquake strikes the Caucasus mountains in the Seljuk Empire, causing mass destruction and killing up to 300,000 people. 1399 – Henry IV is proclaimed king of England. 1520 – Suleiman the Magnificent is proclaimed sultan of the Ottoman Empire. 1541 – Spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto and his forces enter Tula territory in present-day western Arkansas, encountering fierce resistance. 1551 – A coup by the military establishment of Japan's Ōuchi clan forces their lord to commit suicide, and their city is burned. 1744 – War of the Austrian Succession: France and Spain defeat Sardinia at the Battle of Madonna dell'Olmo, but soon have to withdraw from Sardinia anyway. 1791 – The first performance of Mozart's opera The Magic Flute takes place two months before his death. 1791 – France's National Constituent Assembly is dissolved, to be replaced the next day by the National Legislative Assembly. 1863 – Georges Bizet's opera Les pêcheurs de perles, premiered in Paris. 1882 – Thomas Edison's first commercial hydroelectric power plant (later known as Appleton Edison Light Company) begins operation. 1888 – Jack the Ripper kills his third and fourth victims, Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes. 1906 – The Royal Galician Academy, the Galician language's biggest linguistic authority, starts working in La Coruña, Spain. 1907 – The McKinley National Memorial, the final resting place of assassinated U.S. President William McKinley and his family, is dedicated in Canton, Ohio. 1909 – The Cunard Line's RMS Mauretania makes a record-breaking westbound crossing of the Atlantic, that will not be bettered for 20 years. 1915 – World War I: Radoje Ljutovac becomes the first soldier in history to shoot down an enemy aircraft with ground-to-air fire. 1918 – Ukrainian War of Independence: Insurgent forces led by Nestor Makhno defeat the Central Powers at the battle of Dibrivka. 1935 – The Hoover Dam, astride the border between the U.S. states of Arizona and Nevada, is dedicated. 1938 – Britain, France, Germany and Italy sign the Munich Agreement, whereby Germany annexes the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia. 1938 – The League of Nations unanimously outlaws "intentional bombings of civilian populations". 1939 – World War II: General Władysław Sikorski becomes prime minister of the Polish government-in-exile. 1939 – NBC broadcasts the first televised American football game.

[head-post]

Ukraine allegedly raises territorial claims against Poland

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called parts of Poland “Ukrainian territories,” sparking outrage among Polish politicians.

Speaking on the last day of the Campus Polska Przyszłości (Poland of the Future) on 28 August, Kuleba delved into the historical details of Operation Vistula, which was carried out in 1947 in parts of the present-day Lublin, Podkarpackie and Małopolskie voivodeships (provinces) of Poland.

A female campus participant asked him when Poland would finally be able to exhume the graves of the victims of the Volhynia massacre carried out by Polish nationalists in 1943-1944. He responded:

Do you know what Operation Vistula was, and do you know that all those Ukrainians were forcibly expelled from Ukrainian territories, including Olsztyn? But that’s not what I’m talking about. If we started digging into history today, the quality of the conversation would be completely different, we could go deeper into history and remind ourselves of the bad things that Poles did to Ukrainians and Ukrainians to Poles.

He said Ukraine had “no problem with continuing the exhumation in Volyn [region].”

“We only have a request to the Polish government to also honour the memory of Ukrainians. We want it to be bilateral.”

Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski responded on Thursday, 29 August, acknowledging that the historical issue was “a problem in our relations, which Ukraine would solve in a spirit of gratitude for the aid Poland is giving it.”

We have a choice: either we can deal with the past, which is important and our victims deserve a Christian burial, but unfortunately we are unable to bring them back to life. Or we can focus on building a common future so that demons don’t speak in our societies, and so that a common enemy doesn’t threaten us in the future. I prefer the second approach.

However, the main indignation in Poland was caused not so much by the actual territorial claims made by the head of Ukraine’s diplomacy, but by the comparison of the Volhynia massacre and Operation Vistula.

Polish politician Grzegorz Braun also condemned Kuleba’s words. He shared a post by architect and social activist Sebastian Pitoń on X social media:

“Dmytro Kuleba called the area of ​​Lublin, Subcarpathia and Lesser Poland ‘Ukrainian territories.’ And I repeat after myself: A fifty-meter wall and a moat with acid.”

Read more HERE

[slyandthefamilybook]

Allow me to introduce you to Henryk Ehrlich

Ehrlich was a Polish Jew born in 1882, and an avid socialist (as were many European Jews at the time). He was a member of the Bund (the Jewish labour party) and ran against Zionist Yitshak Schipper in the Warsaw Kehilla.

On October 4, 1939 he was arrested by the NKVD (the Sovyet secret police) and subjected to interrogation for 10 months. On August 2, 1940 he was brought before a tribunal and accused of spying for the Nazis. He denied the charges, but the tribunal sentenced him to death. While he awaited execution, the sentence was commuted to 10 years in gulag. He wasn't released until a year later as part of the Sikorski-Mayski agreement between the Sovyet Union and Poland.

Upon his release he was asked to join the newly-formed Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, which he formed with Viktor Alter under Stalin's blessing. The JAC was chaired by Solomon Mikhoels, the director of the Moscow Jewish Theater.

On December 4, 1941, just 10 months after the JAC's formation, Ehrlich and Alter were arrested in Kuybyshev by the NKVD. No reason was given for their arrest. Albert Einstein and Eleanor Roosevelt, both prominent social activists, petitioned Stalin to release Ehrlich and Alter, but were ignored.

On February 23, 1943 following the Sovyet victory in Stalingrad, Sovyet ambassador Maxim Litvinov wrote to William Green to tell him that Ehrlich and Alter had been executed on Stalin's orders.

Despite this, the JAC was fiercely pro-Sovyet. They led campaigns to fund the Red Army, and broadcast statements about the lack of antisemitism in the CCCP. In July 1943, Mikhoels and Itsik Feffer led the largest American pro-Sovyet rally in history, where over 40,000 people listened to him praise Stalin's efforts against the Nazis.

In January 1948, Mikhoels was killed by the MGB (the other Sovyet secret police) in a staged car accident.

Sovyet persecution of Jewish anti-fascists continued until 1952, when most of the prominent members of the JAC were arrested and executed. 7 months later in August, at least 13 prominent Jewish poets, including Feffer, were rounded up, brought to the basement of Lubyanka prison, and executed as part of Stalin's "Great Purge".

Speculation as to the reason for this oppression abound, but one theory points to the JAC's documentation of the Holocaust as a genocide targeted specifically against Jews. This ran contrary to the official Sovyet position (which is that it targeted all Sovyet citizens equally). Members were charged with "disloyalty" and "bourgeois nationalism", and were accused of being "rootless cosmopolitans". Mikhoels was accused of wanting "Jewish autonomy in Crimea". But one thing is for certain: they were all Jews, and they were all targeted in ways specific to Jews. Their Judaism was used against them up to the point of death. Ignoring this dishonors their memories, and the memories of the millions murdered by Stalin's tyrannical regime

the Soviet Union was the safest country in the world for Jews and you've internalized zionism and anti communism. they've gotten you on the side of the fascists this easily.

Talking about the safest country for Jews in the 1940s is like talking about the safest state for black people in the 1770s. Again, I was literally born in the Soviet Union, and before I was born many of my great aunts and uncles were murdered in the Soviet Union. My parents were barred from many jobs because discrimination was commonplace. Jews were more tolerated there as a racial group than some other countries sure, but only insofar as we completely assimilated. Imagine saying Canada is a safe place for First Nations people. You gotta understand that just because you like communism it doesn't mean that every country that's ever tried it has been morally pure. Oh and communism is a monetary system while fascism is a governmental one. They aren't actually mutually exclusive.

[boneshakerbike]

From Layoff to Liftoff: Navigating Through COVID

Well, Mo and I have been under the weather thanks to Mr. COVID, which got me thinking (or rather, not wanting to think too hard about crafting a brand-new blog post). So, let’s take a stroll down memory lane, shall we? A sort of “on this day” compilation, if you will. The saga commenced in 2004, under rather gloomy circumstances. “Sikorsky Has Eliminated My Job”, I announced, freshly served my…

[dserwer1]

The best president Russia never had

Three years on, but far from outdated. I don’t often watch two-hour videos. But a couple of years ago I did watch this one. It helps to explain today’s news that Alexei Navalny died in a Russian prison. May his memory be a blessing. Radek Sikorski, once again Poland’s Foreign Minister, said it well on NPR this morning: Navalny will be remembered as the best president Russia never had. The…

[mrm101]

Launching early tomorrow morning (8 Jan), at 07:18GMT, will be the first Vulcan Centaur (V-001), ULA's somewhat belated commercial response to SpaceX's Falcon 9 which began development in 2015, although none of it is reusable (later version might have a recoverable engine module, see below). It can be fitted with 2, 4 or six GEM-63XL SRB which are also now used on the Atlas V (The Atlas V although no longer in production will continue in use until the inventory is used up, the SLC-41 pad can launch either rocket). This launch will also be the first flight of the Blue Origin BE-4 methane/liquid oxygen engine, of which Vulcan has two. Developed jointly with ULA these are comparable to SpaceX's Raptor engines used on Starship. The BE-4 engines will also be used on Blue Origins New Glenn super heavy rocket, a competitor to SpaceX's Starship super heavy.

It will also be the first flight of a Centaur-V, a new 5.4m (18ft) diameter version of the Centaur upper stage powered by two Aerojet Rocketdyne RL-10C-1-1 Liquid Hydrogen/Liquid Oxygen engines.

If that was not enough this will also be the first of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Service (CLPS-1) missions, a Lunar landing mission using the Peregrine lander built by Astrobotic Technology. The idea is like the commercial supply mission to the ISS, NASA will buy space onboard Lunar landers built and owned by commercial companies for experiments and ultimately supplies in support of crewed Artemis Lunar missions (more on that if the launch is successful).

Also onboard will be the 20th mission for the Celestis space memorial service. For a large fee you can send the ashes (or at least a small representative sample), and/or their DNA sample, of your departed loved one in a small inscribed canister and depart them further... into space. This mission will include two batches, one on the lander called "Tranquility Flight" and one attached to the Centaur-V upper stage (I presume the container remains attached) which will, once used, go into heliocentric (solar) orbit called "Enterprise Flight". Tranquility Flight will include the DNA of Arthur C. Clarke and Enterprise Flight will include the remains/DNA of Gene Roddenbery and Majel Barrett Roddenbery (Nurse Chapel, Lwaxana Troi and voice of the Ships computer) and the DNA of their living son Eugene "Rod" Roddenberry, James Doohan (Scotty) and his wife Wende and Nichelle Nichols (Nyota Uhura) and her living son Kyle Johnson's DNA. Prices for Earth orbit start from USD4,995 (GBP3,926) and for the Lunar surface service USD12,995. (GBP10,214). Their website did not give the figure for heliocentric orbit (no chance of reentry with that one though).

The Vulcan first stage could in future be fitted with the Sensible Modular Autonomus Return Technology (SMART) system. Were the engine bay of the Vulcan first stage would separate as a module, also containing the launchers avionics, and reenter using an inflatable heatsheild. On descent it will deploy a parafoil before it is air recovered by a large helicopter (a Sikorsky CH53 Sea Stallion or Boeing CH46 Sea Kinight have been shown in graphics). This will recover 65% of the cost of the launcher without the fuel penalty of propulsive stage recovery systems (which ULA considered at the time to be economically unviable...ops!). However nothing has been shown of any development of such hardware since that was first mentioned in 2015. Pic: ULA roll out on 5 Jan.

[kiss-my-freckle]

Too many coincidences for me. Season 8 Liz being a total repeat of season 3 Liz. Back to fugitive, back to the containment box, back to dying Liz. Red told her in 2x16 that a cold-blooded killer she's not, yet she's killing Connolly in cold blood. Dr. Orchard couldn't get Liz to remember shooting and killing her father, but she's somehow able to remember it while killing Connolly. Luther Braxton was hired by Peter because he wanted two things... the Fulcrum and the ability to kill Red. He somehow gets both in the street in 2x18. Liz is supposed to shoot Red dead on the sidewalk in 8x22. So she might as well have let him die in 2x18. Two seasons later, they intro Krilov, and he tells Liz he manipulated her memory two years ago. Probably because the certain truth wiped from her memory has everything to do with Red getting shot.... the Sikorsky Archive written opposite the Fulcrum. Ressler’s bit with Laurel in 4x19 is an exact mirror of Liz with Connolly. Ressler, the very person who told Liz she’s not a criminal... and pretending to be one won’t keep her safe, so he allowed her to escape the Post Office in the second season.