At the last minute, over the Easter Weekend, Michele and I drove down to Bakersfield, over to Mojave, and then up to Lone Pine, and finally, to Stove Pipe Wells in Death Valley. We were looking for wild flowers as much as anything else, but we were really trying to get out of the cold.

More later, but Happy Belated Easter for now.

Propaganda: noun 1.information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view.”he was charged with distributing enemy propaganda” Google’s English dictionary, provided by Oxford Languages.

One way to look at propaganda is that the propagandist is projecting what he/she/it thinks the propagandee wants to hear. But we may want to hear something else; it’s only their projection. By telling us what they think we value, they are telling us what they value.

In Putin’s case, it’s hard to think of anything, but Putin wants to be a Russian Czar. A Czar who is above the fray, encased in opulence. As an aside, the video obviously comes from Moscow, but the music may have been added later. However, a couple of people in the comments section said that the music was in the Russian original. End aside.

Zelensky, on the other hand, is humble in the metaphorical trenches with the heroes. As an aside, I have never seen a President or any leader of Zelensky’s stature in a room with so many armed people. Every man and woman who came up to be given a medal had an assault rifle casually hanging from their shoulder. End aside.

8:38 p.m. Seven Oscars for “Everything Everywhere All at Once” — let the backlash begin! Just kidding. No matter the film, sweeps are always a mixed bag — a bit hard on the live audience (so many films left behind), a bit boring for the television audience (so many speeches by the same people), but it’s always amazing when a movie that is so beloved by the audience finds that echoed at the Oscars. Mary McNamara in the Los Angles Times  

“The world is opening up to the fact genius does not stem from individuals like us, standing on stage. Genius emerges from the collective. We are all products of our context.” Daniel Kwan, I think, although it is possible that it was Daniel Scheinert, one of the Daniels – as they call themselves – during their acceptance speech of the Best Director Oscar for ,

We got hit with another only-once-in-a-hundred-years- storm several days ago; it was one week to the day after the last once-in-a-hundred-years- storm. This time the rain gauge registered four inches of rain over about three days. Until then, I was planning on writing about the Academy Awards, but, both times, our power was knocked out (and the second time, we had no water). Usually, our power outages are in the summer when the days are long, the nights short and warm, and the Diablo winds are blowing from the Sierras to the Pacific. This time, it was very wet and freezing (OK, 44°may is not freezing for everybody, but it is freezing for us, although inside the house, it only got down to the mid 50°s). I don’t remember this ever happening before, but Michele reminds me that about 30 years ago, we were growing? babysitting? collecting? Killifish and we had to heat water on the stove to keep their tanks warm. She doesn’t remember, but the indications point to a winter blackout.

Whether this happened in the winter before or not, we were miserable in the cold dark. At one point, over working on a puzzle by camping light, one of us said, “how could this be more miserable?” The other answered something like, “Well, if we were in Kyiv, the windows could be blown out with it snowing outside.” “And no fireplace or gas stove…” “…and Russians randomly shooting rockets at us.” Trying to put together a puzzle in dim light may not be optimal, but it is almost infinitely more manageable than what some people, my age or older, are going through right now in Ukraine.

We had no TV, but we had the Academy Awards to think about, and I love the Academy Awards even when it is a bit boring. This year, it did help that the only horse I had in the game was Everything Everywhere All At Once, and, this year’s Academy Awards were mostly about Everything Everywhere All At Once.  I have no idea if it was the best movie released last year, but it was the best movie I saw and Michele and I saw several good movies (we even saw Top Gun on the big screen).

Except for Tár and Elvis, both of which we want to see and hope to see soon, we saw all the Best Picture nominees. The Fabelmans, All Quiet on the Western Front, and Top Gun: Maverick were all good movies, but none of them seemed to me to be what I would call Award Movies. Still, they were typical Award Movies back when The Academy used to only like big-budget movies made by prominent directors with big stars. That’s changed, however, this year, Everything Everywhere All At Once won -duh! – last year, the winner was CODA, and before that, Nomadland, and before that, Parasite.

The last two movies nominated for Best Picture did fit the new paradigm, Women Talking, which I thought was excellent, and The Banshees of Inisherin. We saw The Banshees of Inisherin primarily because it was Irish and Michele has been on an Irish kick recently by way of preparation for going to Ireland this summer. Banshees starts charmingly and we – I, at least – sort of expected a homier version of In Bruges but it isn’t. Banshees is more of a parable of the Irish Civil War which we can often hear in the background. Watching the movie, the sad and senseless actions by the characters seemed to only escalate the conflict, so I guess it is an effective parable for war but it was not my favorite movie by far.

The week before the Academy Awards, we watched Everything Everywhere All At Once again and loved it. In a way, it is a throwback to big Hollywood movies like Titanic and Gladiator, but it is also intimate and, in the end, very moving. Michelle Yeoh, as expected, was terrific in the lead, but Jamie Lee Curtis and Ke Huy Quan were also great. If you haven’t seen it, check it out.

President Putin’s craven lust for land and power will fail.  And the Ukrainian people’s love for their country will prevail. Democracies of the world will stand guard over freedom today, tomorrow, and forever.  For that is what’s at stake here: freedom. Excerpt from a February 22, 2023 President Biden speech in Poland.

The Luhansk People’s Republic has been liberated from the neo-Nazis almost completely. Fighting in the Donetsk People’s Republic continues. Over the previous eight years, the Kyiv occupation regime created a deeply echeloned line of permanent defenses. A head-on attack against them would have led to heavy losses, which is why our units, as well as the forces of the Donbas republics, are acting competently and systematically, using military equipment and saving lives, moving step by step to liberate Donbas, purge cities and towns of the neo-Nazis, and help the people whom the Kyiv regime turned into hostages and human shields. Excerpt from a speech by Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered on Wednesday, February 22, 2023.

Today I would like to praise the warriors of the 15th regiment of the National Guard who are defending the Luhansk region and not only defending our positions, but also destroying the enemy in such a way that they are really limiting the offensive capabilities of the invaders in a particular direction. Thank you, guys!..In the area of Maryinka in the Donetsk region, the warriors of the 79th separate air assault brigade are particularly effective, holding off enemy attacks every day and night. Almost half of all attacks in this area take place in that area. Our warriors stand strong. Thank you! Excerpt from a speech by President Zelenskyy on February 22, 2023.

This horrible war by Russia has been going on for over a year with no end in sight. I want to comment on the war, if for no other reason than to mark the anniversary, but what is there to say that people who know more than I do haven’t already said? This is the most documented war in history, everybody has a video camera, and hundreds, probably, thousands of people are recording their daily lives, both on and behind the front.

I do want to comment on the first sentence in the paragraph above, however, in which the most horrifying part is no end in sight. When the American Civil War started, people in the North thought it would not last very long. They thought the war’s end was just one decisive battle away, but four years later, the same people thought, “Just one more battle.” I don’t know, but I suspect that all wars seem like they will be over soon when they start. And, sometimes, that may be true, but not usually, and not in this war. Usually, the wars go on and on until both sides are exhausted, and one side is decimated, then, maybe, only six months more. The countryside is left in ruins, and the people that are left are traumatized. As much as I don’t want it to be true, the Ukrainian war will be no different.

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, just like the Northerners before the Civil War, I thought that with just one more decisive battle, the war might be over. The needless terrorizing of random Ukrainians might stop. In early May, with the Battle of Kharkiv, then again in September with the Russian rout, it seemed an Ukrainian victory was just around the corner. 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.

All this butchery because of a violent sociopath who is intent on destroying the whole of Ukraine rather than what? being wrong? being embarrassed? Pretty much all Putin has left is to push untrained, poorly led, and under-equipped troops into the Killing Zone, where tens of thousands are being slaughtered by the better-trained and superbly led Ukrainian Army. According to David Petraeus, former CIA director and US Army general, Putin thinks that Russia can out suffer the West. Of course he is not the one suffering. Don’t get me wrong, Putin is still scary and what makes him scary is that he seems to believe his own bullshit.

He is wrong, however. Ukraine will out suffer Russia. I have no doubt about this. Ukrainians have no choice but to take all the suffering that Russia can deal out; they have nowhere to go. However, that is not the only reason Ukraine will win; they are killing Russians at a much higher rate than Russia is killing them; Ukrainians are much more motivated, and the Ukrainians have higher morale. Russia is stuck in the past, refighting WWII and Ukraine is the future. Slava Ukraini!