Monday, April 4th 2022
War crimes
Zielinsky’s commentary
And Zielinsky speaks to the American press about how little trust Ukraine has that the Americans are really on their side.
***
It’s 2:00 a.m. and I’m just not sleeping. Too much on my mind and too much free time.
The plan is for the weather to get warmer over the next few days. I’ve got to get some water tanks. I feel I’ve made a mistake and I should have been catching water already. We are going to have a deep drought this year. I believe in this as sure as the sun comes up in the morning and either I’m collecting water when we do get it or I’m going to be stuck pulling water from the groundwater which is already too low to support the forest.
If we can’t stop doing what we’re doing and start paying attention to some more sustainable forms of agriculture, we’re going to burn like California and this nice beautiful Forest is going to light up like a match and take this whole town with it.
Global warming is real and as far as I can see we are not doing anything about it. All we get is sideshows and distractions. All we get is bickering and people doing anything they can to distract us from the real problems of the planet. We just demand to stay stupid. We just demand to stay high all the time. We just demand to believe that we are supposed to get 24-hour service and be able to eat whatever we want whenever we want. We just demand our entitlement and we don’t give a damn about the cost.
We have to learn to live lighter. We have to learn to lighten our carbon footprint. We have to learn to live peacefully with each other and with our environment and we have to learn to take less. There is no other way to continue. We have to learn to take less.
***
Well it’s 9:30 a.m. and I am in the kitchen working on my coffee. Breakfast today was very simple. My last two pieces of toast and a little bit of fried cabbage and onions with A touch of spice and held together by a few shakes of oatmeal. I know, I know, I am supposed to be out of cooking oil. I could have steamed the veggies just as easily and perhaps I will start doing that. This frying business is a bad habit. And my nose is now stuffy as a thank you for my choice.
There is a manly man YouTuber out there who is a big, rough and tough guy with a big beard who makes videos as if he lives a Paleo life. He makes his own stone tools and weapons and he makes use of nature as if he is a caveman out on his own.
In the video, he made a big deal about some fried bread or campfire cooked bread. I get that he’s working on a brand and I guess that most people would see him exactly as I described in the first paragraph. A real manly man. He’s got a big bushy beard and a barrel chest. In this video, he talked about how much he loved putting duck fat on his campfire cooked bread. He genuinely needed to explain that mixing flour and water and cooking it produced bread. It’s a brand.
But as I was watching this manly man of the naturist mixed duck fat with his campfire bread, I couldn’t help but notice how much phlegm he was hawking as he was talking. Every few sentences he would do that reverse snort where he pulls an excess amount of snot that’s settling itself inside his nasal cavity. Personally, I think that might be the single most disgusting habit one could share during a cooking show. Perhaps he thought that letting loose an extra gummy wad of spit directly into his cooking surface might somehow help grease the pan. And he’s really fat.
This is of course a vegan’s view. I kind of liked the idea of the guy hanging out in nature and working with stone tools. But his obviously paleo diet does not really seem to have him in optimal manly health. When he films as he walks, he wheezes and shows that his breath is short. This would not only be a lack of cardio but an excess of phlegm in his respiratory system. Too much animal fat? Well, he’s a manly man.
However, there is the argument about the lack of testosterone that goes along with the paleo diet or the carnivore diet. Perhaps he’s big and tough enough that he doesn’t really miss these sorts of chemicals running through him. I, on the other hand and quite thrilled with my body chemistry these days. I am sort of off all medications right now and yet I still don’t seem to catch colds and the only time I ever need to blow my nose is when I get lazy and use cooking oil. Take that oil out, and I am as clean as a bell and seem to have amazing powers of recovery.
I am not measuring myself against this guy. I’m sure if we actually got to boxing I would get my ass kicked. I am not in fighting shape and truthfully, I don’t practice very much. In fact, I don’t practice violence of any kind even despite some rather egregious thoughts I have towards people I just don’t like very much. This YouTuber is not on my hate list. I’m not really that thin in the skin. I’m just saying that either your body is free to do what it wants to do or it’s blocked up. And if you’re eating things that are causing you to hawk up phlegm and wheeze when you walk, perhaps your caveman diet might not be optimal after all.
In putting together my catalog yesterday, I left out a few pieces. I wrote a play last year sort of in the form of Shakespeare. I’m not particularly proud of this as a theater play but as a way to fill pages and a creative outlet for a particularly creative moment, I was happy to be able to do it. I would actually much prefer to be doing art riding than this incessant blogging. I don’t hate the blogging and I’m happy to have it because it’s rather compelling and makes each day interesting. But I would much rather be involved in projects. Let me say that another way, I would much rather be involved in projects that had some kind of beneficial end. A commission, a theater waiting for it or even something completely ridiculous like a paycheck.
But among the things that did not make it into this particular edit of the catalog was a bunch of YouTube films that I made as advertisers for my English class. I did not draw a lot of views, to me, I was not really interested in continuing this filmmaking production which I truly did not enjoy. It was an amazing amount of hours sitting on my ass and staring at a screen. The subtitles were the worst. I learned to hate it almost as much as I learned to hate hand-writing a website. Just the amount of time to get my text up online was enough to break the deal completely and especially so with no money or thanks or even any appearance of effect to come along with it.
But those films were a good catalyst for me in a way. I started making them around the time that I broke up with my ex and started making the transition from Minsk back to Pinsk. More than how miserable the act of putting together these films, I got a really good look at myself on film. I absolutely did not like what I saw.
I’m not talking about fashion or any lack of style. What I noticed is that I was very fat and very out of shape. I would make videos while walking somewhere and talking about some point to philosophy and I would notice exactly what I saw in this woodsman’s video. I was wheezing and breathless and it was obviously difficult for me to move around. I didn’t have any fluidity or athleticism in my body. I was an absolute mess.
When I got to Pinsk, I took up bicycling again. I am a lifetime bicyclist but when we lived in Minsk, I just took public transportation and walked. My ex-girlfriend probably had something to do with this because she was not a bicyclist and didn’t even want my bike in our house. Free of the situation though, I was back on wheels and immediately my health improved a little bit.
Of course The story goes that this was also where I had my Epiphany about going vegan while thinking hard and looking for the truth in medical journals about heart health. It was also where I quit drinking alcohol. It was definitely a time of rebirth for me.
Maybe if I had been making films about health instead of pushing Practical English, I would have genuinely had something as a filmmaker. If I was making maybe two films a week about heart health and veganism and things you can do to bring some life back to your life, I might have actually had a winner there.
Unfortunately, I was just trying to make a living and looking for students. Teaching English was my career and it never even occurred to me to make a shift over to health. Thinking about it now, I probably could have done the exact same philosophical diatribes, exactly what I do right now, but on film and I could have kept track of my weight and my physical health. Maybe that would have been a winner.
If you are interested in checking out any of these films, my YouTube channel is still online and it can be found here:
https://youtube.com/channel/UCML5OyuDv7JKqY2Cj-ivo5A
One or two of them were not so bad and I ended up being a bit experimental, sometimes using different types of filmmaking and storytelling. No, under the current circumstances I would not even dream of going back to filmmaking. I would consider it if there was a team involved and either I was simply writing the texts or using myself as some kind of on-screen talent, maybe I would do it. But to take the entire responsibility of doing all of it myself and that includes the editing and subtitles, no way. It’s not worth it.
But I wish you could see what I’m looking at right now. I’m not quite finished building my garden yet. It’s still pretty cold but it’s not too cold to work and I think I’m going to use today to bolster the sides of some of my raised beds and possibly to do some path digging and box filling. I still have two or three boxes depending on how you count them that need their original layer of garden topsoil. I know where I’m getting my planting soil from but this is just the base that sits on top of our forest leaves and twigs, our base of organic material.
I am more than a little proud of how much work I got done this year. I really didn’t think I was ever going to be able to physically do as much as I am doing this year again. I genuinely thought this particular part of my physical life was finished a long time ago. Again, I’m not going to try to compete against any able-bodied people or younger men who could obviously run circles around me. I’m just saying that I’m doing all of this by hand, using a hand saw for all the cutting and setting it up without using any animals or any gasoline powered instruments whatsoever. And I think it’s really going to be something beautiful when everything starts to grow and everything changes from brown to Green.
I really don’t know why I can’t get away from cooking oil. When I eat steamed food, I like it better. Truthfully, I like dried toast more than I like oily toast. I don’t particularly believe that using olive oil or extra virgin is all that big of a difference though there is a quality argument. And I am much, much happier getting my fats from nuts and nut creams and nut milk than I am from any refined cooking oils. I don’t know why I keep going back. I guess I have to put it in one of my “I do not do this anymore” thought processes. I just have to say no, remember that I said it and deal with however long it takes to get out of my system.
Anyway, I guess it’s time to blow my nose, get on a sweater and start measuring and cutting boards. These boxes are going to need a little bit of strength on the sides.
***
Speaking of videos that are worth watching if you are concerned about your health and the health of the planet, here is a video about the dairy industry and it’s cost on our environment.
This documentary is called “Milked” and it is by New Zealand filmmaker Chris Huriwai who takes the deep dive into the big bad dairy business hunting for the truth. I don’t know about you, but I like people who hunt for the truth. The truth is a very good thing to know.
***
I’ve got all of the wood cut to stabilize the sides of my raised beds. They are not expensively built and I only used cheap material but I’m not really worried about it. When they break, they break and we can take out the wood and spread them around and start again in a different format.
I’m talking to my ex partner about water containers. The first tanks that she showed me were $100 for a 250 L tank and $200 for 500 L tank. Then she showed me a barrel that could hold 200 L that was for sale for only $15. My first thought was to buy 10 but then she told me there was only one available so we are still looking. We have to keep the cost down because there’s just not that much money to play with right now. But we’ve got to save our water or we are not going to have a decent Garden. I don’t trust the groundwater situation and I definitely can’t spend a lot of money.
So far so good and we are on the case. I guess that’s the main thing.
Okay, now I’m off to shore up my boxes.
***
Just a brief break. All the boxes are now tied together. I still want to do some garden set up and path making. This of course will put a layer of dirt in the final two remaining boxes. Two or three boxes.
My ex partner has significantly lowered the cost of what they are calling Euro cubes. These are square tanks within an aluminum cage that hold up to a thousand liters each and she has some very good prices on these. There are some that are food grade and some that are less than food grade and of course, less than food grade is cheaper. Also, she has found some barrels also at a very inexpensive price. So for this we are in business.
And speaking of being in business, how about some reading for these cold early spring evenings?
I know this author well and I hear that he is known for his honesty and fairness and love for justice.
***
This from the Twitter account of Sergej Sumlenny
https://mobile.twitter.com/sumlenny:
THREAD: Russian state-owned propaganda outlet RIA published the new programmatic article with the title “What Russia must do with Ukraine”. The article reveals a detailed plan for a genocide, starting from full elimination of Ukrainian state. Details below.
- It calls almost every Ukrainian a Nazi who deserves death. “Nazis who took weapons, must be killed in numbers as much as possible… Not just the elites, the most of the people are guilty, they are passive Nazis, Nazi enablers. They supported these elites and must be punished”
- It foresees tyrannic approach to culture. “Further denacification of the mass of the population is to be reached through ideological repression (oppression) of Nazi ideas and through harsh censorship: not only in politics, but in culture and education areas”.
- It foresees economic and political destruction of Ukraine: “Ukraine must pay for its guilt towards Russia. It must be treated as an enemy, and therefore may develop only in dependency to Russia. No “Marshall plan” may happen. No “neutrality” both ideological or practical”.
- A tyrannical future emerges: “Personnel providing denazification in new denazified republics (plural! – Sumlenny) cannot act on another way but only with direct military-police and management support from Russia. Denazification must be a Deukrainisation”.
- Ukraine is the enemy: “The history has proven: Ukraine may not exist as a national state. Any attempt to create it leads to Nazism. Ukrainism is an artificial anti-Russian construct… De-banderisation is not enough… Denazification of Ukraine must be De-Europeazation of it”.
- Deliberate targeting of civilians: “The Bandera-elites must be liquidated, they cannot be re-educated. The social “swamp” who supported them must experience terror of war and learn the lesson, and pay for its guilt”.
Well, I expect from those who supported Russia in its war and who found excuses for Russia, to find excuses for these plans. And also for the purchases of Russian gas. The link to the article for those who want to google translate the whole text: https://t.co/9KevJMy72r
***
Back when I was teaching regularly, after the students got a basic handle on English and we no longer needed either children’s books or graded material, I used to move people over to screenplays. I like them because they divided the English up into either action blocks or stage directions and dialogue and the dialogue was of course spoken English. I thought it was a nice compromise and of course they could always cheat and watch the movie.
I have been thinking of one such moment from my friend Sergei. This is one of the good sergeis and he and I have a long history of very interesting things between us. Probably, I could count him as one of my best friends.
I remember that he said something during the reading of the screenplay Casablanca. Like most of my stories, I get the feeling that I’m repeating myself and have already mentioned this elsewhere in the last 2 million words or so that I’ve written. But it’s still worthy of mention.
Sergei had a complaint about the Nazis in the film. He called them Hollywood Nazis and not real Nazis. He said this because they were really negotiating with Laszlo as much as they were forcing him and my friend simply did not believe in this. He said that anyone who grew up on the territory of the Republic of Belarus knew exactly who the real Nazis were. They didn’t negotiate and they didn’t make deals. They killed everyone and they burned everything.
I remember him being quite solemn while saying these words. Anybody who grew up here has had a very good education as to what happened here during the second world war.
I just find the above article and this entire line of propaganda so horrifically ironic. No one who grew up here has not been through several yearly ceremonies remembering the people who died here. The actual number, and this is not counting the Jews by the way, is something like 35 or 40% of the entire population. They simply massacred and raped and burned.
They say that those who do not learn history are condemned to repeat it but again, we talk about it every year. Every year we remember the horrors of the Great Patriotic War. What has happened to us so suddenly that nobody remembers this. What is going through the minds of the Russian people and the Russian soldiers that they would even consider civilian atrocities?
My friend has been listening to the transmissions intercepted by Russian soldiers. They brag about looting. They brag about bringing home spoils of war. They are bragging about the ruthlessness. How could we have possibly allowed something like this to happen. How could we have so completely lost our way?
There was another shooting at a traffic stop in the United States. Some poor black man named Antoine Cooper was shot to death in Miami for some reason. There is the usual tongue wagging going around about how his real crime was driving while black and there are the usual statistics of how black people get stopped more often and of course how often these stupid stops end up in murders.
I have an answer to this. This is an answer that not only all black people could use but everybody. We cannot drive cars anymore. I know it seems that we would rather argue about profiling and violence and racism and racial problems but if there is a possibility of a gunfight because of a police traffic stop, don’t be in a car. I mean nobody should be in a car if there is a possibility of gun violence from the police or gun violence from road rage or a mistake while driving and causing vehicular manslaughter or your own death or the death of your family.
Yesterday I put up my book Being Had and that whole thing started with incredibly stupid driving that could have ended up hurting people including me. We’re not even talking about the corruption that followed just like inevitably corruption will follow one of these shootings. Maybe you just shouldn’t be in cars anymore. Maybe the cars are the problem.
It’s also the answer for this ridiculously sadistic genocide going on right now. We just can’t stop driving cars. I don’t know the truth about how many countries the Russians are still selling oil to but there still is an oil business in Russia and they are still making money. And they’re going to make a lot more money when rebuilding time comes and nobody is really doing anything except perhaps arming the ukrainians to give them half a chance if they actually go into battle and start shooting Russians.
Maybe the answer to all of this bullshit, all of this killing and sadism is to just not be in cars anymore. Maybe if we all just decided that this oil business is more trouble than it’s worth, things would get kind of quiet and the Russians would have absolutely no reason to bother the ukrainians. Or to slaughter innocent civilians. Or to practice genocide on basically their own people.
I quit my last car 25 years ago and I have never regretted the decision. I quit smoking cigarettes for the last time more than 30 years ago, really 40 years ago and I’ve never regretted the decision. I quit drinking alcohol and I don’t feel one bit bad about it and I quit eating meat and I don’t feel any distress. Some things are just not really good for us. Some things that we believe we are entitled to cause more harm than good. Some of these things make us absolutely crazy. It’s drugs. It’s just really bad drugs and we never seem to be able to come to the decision that’s the best idea simply to stop and put them away.
***
It’s about 10 minutes to 9:00 and I am calling it an evening. I actually quit this day a bit early because I was pretty tired. This morning I went out and did some necessary physical labor but it was a bit more than I could handle. I did my job and I did what I thought I had to do and I did the best I can. But I’m not really so young anymore and it was really hard. After I finish a couple of chores, I was done. My body just didn’t want to do anymore. I had some dinner and then came into the warm room and crashed. When you’re done, you’re done.
I know I have some chores to take care of and I know how to do my job. Probably the only problem that I’m really worried about is getting the gutters up on the barn. It’s got a bit of an overhang, this is the first time I’ve tried to hang gutters and I’m going to have to build some kind of a false soffit in order to get the brackets up. My thought is to do with wood, one friend tells me that I should manufacture it with steel and somewhere in my mind I would be pretty happy to farm the job out to somebody who knew what they were doing. If I could afford it that is.
Two things really weighed me down today. One was the war which turned exceptionally ugly and the other was watching all of that water come off that roof and my not having anything in place to catch it. The idea of putting gutters on that Barn started more than 6 months ago and we’re still not done. Every time I looked at how much water was coming off that roof, I just felt sick for not having finished it already.
I guess I felt the same sorts of emotion when I was reading the news about the Russian war crimes during their withdrawal. It’s just looking out a situation that simply should not be. It’s like you failed or everybody failed. The job to do was right in front of your face and all you had to do was do the work to get it done and yet all there is is a mess and a waste.
Somebody told me that they were expecting this blog to be fun or funny. Maybe even I expected it to be something to enjoy. Meeting like-minded people and maybe doing some traveling around the country to visit different kitchens and talk about agriculture with some intelligent people. That was probably supposed to be fun. But the truth is we’ve had the hottest year in the history of History about 12 times in a row and we’re probably going to have the same thing again. But instead of doing the work to fix that, we do everything we can to bring as much misery into the world as possible. There’s nothing sadder than failure. And it’s all we do.
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