The Russo-Ukraine War: Four Horrifying Years In

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 Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. ― Margaret Mead

They’re dying, Russians and Ukrainians. I want them to stop dying. And I’ll have that done — I’ll have that done in 24 hours. Donald Trump during a CNN town hall in May 2023.

Three years ago, one year after the Tussian attack on Ukraine, I wrote, When Ukraine stopped the initial Russian attack, a year ago, and then drove several Russian elite units back across the border, it seemed to me that the war would be over soon… Now, a year after it started, it looks like this war will go on forever. It seems everybody is digging in for the long term, and the killing will go on.

The killing and maiming did go on, and it is still going on. Just how many soldiers have been killed and maimed on each side is hard to pin down; still, all the numbers point to Russia having about 1.2 million casualties, including well over 200,000 deaths. By outside accounts, Russia is now losing soldiers at a rate that is higher than they can recruit replacements. As somebody on the podcast Ukraine Today said, “More and more Russians are starting to realize enlisting is a one-way ticket.” But changing from a voluntary army to a conscription army will not be popular.

In the meanwhile, Trump has attacked Iran, ignoring such niceties as running the idea past Congress (atleast, he didn’t call it a Special Military Operation, like Putin did). I could rant and rave about it, but not as well as Congressperson Ocasio-Cortez, so I’m going to quote her.

The American people are once again dragged into a war they did not want by a president who does not care about the long-term consequences of his actions. This war is unlawful. It is unnecessary. And it will be catastrophic.

Just this week, Iran and the United States were negotiating key measures that could have staved off war. The President walked away from these discussions and chose war instead. President Trump flippantly acknowledged the possibility of American casualties, stating “that often happens in war.

Mr. President: this was not an inevitability. This is a deliberate choice of aggression when diplomacy and security were within reach. Stop lying to the American people.

Violence begets violence. We learned this lesson in Iraq. We learned this lesson in Afghanistan. And we are about to learn it again in Iran. Bombs have yet to create enduring democracies in the region, and this will be no different.

The whole thing is sad more than scary, as of March 3, 2026, about 787 Iranians have been killed, 6 American Army grunts – well, one officer, four sergeants, and one spec 5 – and 11 Israelis. Trump may be right that this carnage will end in a week, he certainetly has more information than I do – well, access to information , anyway, much of which he seems to ignore – but wars usually take on a unplanned and often unwanted trajectory and I don’t think this will be an exception.  

Jim Compton

Current Affairs, Family

Don’t mope, take action.
Accept mistakes, lessons learned.
Every day, something good.
Help others, humor.
A project. A random note from Jim Compton to himself.

Jim Compton, my sister Paula’s husband, died earlier this year after a long bout with Parkinson’s disease. Without him, the world is a dimmer, less fun, and less interesting place.

Jim was born Dinsdale Michael James Compton in London in 1930, but he was known by almost everyone as Jim Compton. When The War started, Jim, along with almost all of the other school-aged kids, was sent to the country to get them out of range of the German bombers. Jim was smart, exceptionally smart, and that led to his being accepted into a boarding school, established in the 1400s, that educated children from working-class or poor families. From there, he was accepted into Oxford, where he earned a PhD in Chemistry, and then went on to a postdoctoral position in Canada. His research spanned physical chemistry, solid-state physics, and medical technology.

According to Paula, “Jim always said that he would rather do a bit of everything than become a distinguished specialist in a single field.” Although he rarely spoke to his family about his scientific accomplishments, his professional footprint was significant; he filed at least 7 patents and published more than 30 papers, ranging from “Neutron capture cross-section measurements for U-238 between 0.4 and 1.4 MeV” – whatever that means – (published in The Journal of Chemical Physics with W. G. Schneider and T. C. Waddington) to developing methods to use radioactive isotopes to visualize and measure how air and blood flow through the lungs, providing a critical diagnostic tool for identifying lung diseases and blockages (I think I was on the other end of that paper when I was tested at Sequoia Hospital for asthma; thank you, Jim).

More importantly than his academic accomplishments, in my opinion, Jim had a contagious love of life that was hard not to catch when he was around. He lived in the moment. He was curious about everything, kind, and funny. Jim Compton was a remarkably nonjudgmental man. I’ll miss him, we’ll all miss him.

AI Bubble

Americana, Current Affairs

It’s not about how much you earn. It’s about what you’re worth. And who’s worth the most? Companies that lose money. Pinterest, Snapchat, no revenue. Amazon has lost money for every fucking quarter for the last 20 fucking years, and that Jeff Bezos is the king. Russ Hanneman in the HBO fictional series Silicon Valley.

The photograph above is of my first car on California Highway 395. In my car log, now lost on a hard drive on a computer I will never use again, I described it as A 1948 Pontiac 4-door sedan: faded blue with chrome stripes on the hood and an Indianhead hood ornament that lit up; powered by a flathead straight 8. It was my maternal grandmother’s car that I was asked to buy (for $300) when she got too old to drive. She had covered the seats with thick plastic seat covers, so when I got the car, it was an 8-year-old beater with new gray wool – derogatorily called mouse fur – seats. About this time, I started camping, and this car did many uncomplaining miles on dirt roads. The car had a good life. It eventually died on a dirt road near Longs Peak, Colorado, while being driven by the second owner after me. He, fittingly in my opinion, left it by the side of the road to exfoliate back into the earth.

I don’t remember ever taking this car this far south on 395, though. I also don’t remember the Velociraptors, but it was a long time ago, and I didn’t take the picture. I did, however, make it, or at least direct Gemini to make it. And the fact that an 85-year-old, computer-illiterate person can do this in about 15 minutes surprises me. Even more surprising is that this is just the start of the AI revolution, maybe iPhone 2 level. It is still early enough in the cycle that anything seems possible, and the stock market reflects that.

Just before Christmas, I heard the tail end of a speech by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez – more commonly known as AOC – on November 18, 2025, during a House Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee hearing. AOC said we are probably in an AI bubble and that, when that bubble pops, the Government shouldn’t bail out Wall Street or AI companies. My first reaction was surprise that she knows so much about both AI and the Stock Market since I know so little about either. About a month later, I had lunch with a friend who pays close attention to the Market, and he felt the Market was acting strangely.

It led me to rethink AOC’s speech and credentials. I knew she graduated from Boston University in 2011; what I didn’t know or forgot was that she graduated summa cum laude with a double major in Economics and International Relations. I also went back and listened to earlier parts of AOC’s speech.

AOC said there is an AI bubble that poses a significant threat to the U.S. economy. She pointed out that 40% of U.S. economic growth and 80% of stock gains in 2025 were attributed to just seven major tech companies. Many of these companies, including OpenAI, Anthropic, the creator of Claude, and xAI, Elon Musk’s AI company, among other AI companies, have yet to turn a profit and might never make a profit. She argued that their current valuations are based on “promises” rather than actual returns and warned that the broader economy’s exposure to this single, unproven sector creates a massive stability risk.

    A couple of days ago, I read in the Washington Post that Michael Burry, the fund manager made famous in the book and movie The Big Short, is now saying he thinks we are in an AI bubble, so I’m convinced we are all in for an AI shock. I’m also convinced that Russ Hanneman, quoted at the top, is right, even though he is not real.

    What A Difference 15 Years Make

    Americana, Politics

    Fifteen years ago, in early January 2011, about when the top picture was taken, a shooter shot Representative Gabrielle Giffords in the head and killed six bystanders. President Obama led a national moment of silence.

    It is easy to compare that presidential reaction to President Trump’s reaction to Renee Good being publicly executed by ICE Agent Jonathan Ross. But I don’t want to do that. It won’t change anything any more than calling Trump names will change anything other than making me feel righteous. Trump was elected because a large portion of our population didn’t think our government – their government – was helping them or even paying attention to them (and I think they are right).

    They voted for change and authenticity over talking points from a teleprompter and more of the same inaction because “it’s too soon” or “too expensive”, and change and authenticity is what they got. Maybe some people are still thrilled with Trump, but I don’t think most Trump voters expected the change and authenticity to come with such assholery, and that assholery, especially without any of the promised financial relief, has soured a lot of people on Trump.

    People haven’t wanted politics-as-usual for more than a while. In 2008, they wanted change so much that they even voted for a Black guy with a name that sounded like the most notorious terrorist of the day. When they didn’t get the promised change, they voted for Trump, a guy who said he was already rich, so, unlike other politicians, he wouldn’t need to steal their tax dollars. He said he would end our endless wars and even make his voters, if not rich, at least less poor. They got Trump, who, it turns out, does need to get even richer and is now talking about fighting wars in Venezuela and Greenland.

    If that sounds hopeless, I don’t mean for it to be. Trump is a nasty, evil man and is doing a tremendous amount of damage to a lot of people as well as the country in general, but I am actually pretty optimistic about our future. First, Trump and his band of followers are inept and often sound like they are getting more done – or doing more damage, if you prefer – than they really are. Additionally, Trump’s manner of governing – for lack of a better word – makes for lots of headlines but results in relatively ephemeral changes, not the kind of long-term structural changes he would have gotten if he had run his stupid and fascist ideas through Congress and changed the actual laws. More importantly, or at least as importantly, our governmental and societal antibodies are waking up. Trump is losing legal challenges at higher levels of the court system, and his Congressional support is starting to weaken.

    Most importantly, in my opinion, the people, the electorate, still don’t want politics as usual. Trump hasn’t delivered the economic change they are asking for, and they are still pissed and still looking for change. In New York, a city with a large Jewish population, they were even willing to vote for a Muslim with a beard. He is also a Democratic Socialist who says he’ll govern as a Democratic Socialist. Actually, there is a growing group of potential and already elected legislators who are willing to run from the left with the aim of actually bringing the change we so desperately need. Reactionary powerhouses like AIPAC are losing power, and their campaign money is even becoming toxic.

    I’m not saying Trump isn’t dangerous and won’t continue to be dangerous and nasty, but I’m optimistic that the tide is turning. Just like the little Agave in the top picture has grown into the huge Agave in the picture below, and is getting ready to bloom.

    Happy New Year.