BlackMoria

Russian Official:  *snorts a rail of coke off of the stripper's ass*  "uh...yes"

It looks like strippers and cocaine are popular amongst the Belarusian higher ups as well.  🤣

It looks like strippers and cocaine are popular amongst the Belarusian higher ups as well.  🤣

Among the very orthodox, affixing a holy relic or icon to a person or object is believed to provide protection as a blessing from god.  It obviously didn't work.  Just like all superstitious beliefs.
Just another sign of how utterly bizarre this war has become.
 

I checked out joining the International Legion when it was first was announced but at age 65 and 25 years out of the military, naturally it was a polite 'no'.  Too old, not current or recent military and my medical history was a guaranteed 'no' but I tried.
So I did the next best thing.  I had a $1500 DJI drone.   I sent it to Ukraine as a donation in my stead.  If I can't do my part, at least my drone can.  I wonder at times every time there is a Ukrainian drone video, if it is my bird.  That helps me get through all of this.

About as well as their bridging operations...🤣

About as well as their bridging operations...🤣

About as well as their bridging operations...🤣

Russian Official:  *snorts a rail of coke off of the stripper's ass*  "uh...yes"

Russian Official:  *snorts a rail of coke off of the stripper's ass*  "uh...yes"

Russian Official:  *snorts a rail of coke off of the stripper's ass*  "uh...yes"

I checked out joining the International Legion when it was first was announced but at age 65 and 25 years out of the military, naturally it was a polite 'no'.  Too old, not current or recent military and my medical history was a guaranteed 'no' but I tried.
So I did the next best thing.  I had a $1500 DJI drone.   I sent it to Ukraine as a donation in my stead.  If I can't do my part, at least my drone can.  I wonder at times every time there is a Ukrainian drone video, if it is my bird.  That helps me get through all of this.

I checked out joining the International Legion when it was first was announced but at age 65 and 25 years out of the military, naturally it was a polite 'no'.  Too old, not current or recent military and my medical history was a guaranteed 'no' but I tried.
So I did the next best thing.  I had a $1500 DJI drone.   I sent it to Ukraine as a donation in my stead.  If I can't do my part, at least my drone can.  I wonder at times every time there is a Ukrainian drone video, if it is my bird.  That helps me get through all of this.

The most madding aspect of this war to me is the delusion the Russian nationalists/imperialists/knuckle draggers have that they still can "win" this war, despite all evidence across a wide spectrum on a wide range of metrics that it simply isn't going to happen.  Russian isn't a great power anymore - it has not met that definition pre-Feb 24 and even less so now.  That is got to be some fantastic 100 proof hooch that is being served up in tanker trucks that is being swilled in the power structures of Russia to continue to believe that all their stated objectives will be met by their beaten to crap army.  Completely ignore that the expected 3 day op and a parade in Kiev is now 4+ months in.  And everything is 'going to plan' we keep hearing from Kremlin talking heads.  It is like they are snorting lines of coke off of a stripper's ass and then getting in front of a camera and proclaiming everything is going as planned and victory is just around the corner....yeah, right <eye roll>.
Except that dream is a nightmare now.  Except they don't see it or accept it.  And the dying on all sides just goes on and on.

Huba, you have my profound and heartfelt respect.   Seriously....respect.

I checked out joining the International Legion when it was first was announced but at age 65 and 25 years out of the military, naturally it was a polite 'no'.  Too old, not current or recent military and my medical history was a guaranteed 'no' but I tried.
So I did the next best thing.  I had a $1500 DJI drone.   I sent it to Ukraine as a donation in my stead.  If I can't do my part, at least my drone can.  I wonder at times every time there is a Ukrainian drone video, if it is my bird.  That helps me get through all of this.

I checked out joining the International Legion when it was first was announced but at age 65 and 25 years out of the military, naturally it was a polite 'no'.  Too old, not current or recent military and my medical history was a guaranteed 'no' but I tried.
So I did the next best thing.  I had a $1500 DJI drone.   I sent it to Ukraine as a donation in my stead.  If I can't do my part, at least my drone can.  I wonder at times every time there is a Ukrainian drone video, if it is my bird.  That helps me get through all of this.

I checked out joining the International Legion when it was first was announced but at age 65 and 25 years out of the military, naturally it was a polite 'no'.  Too old, not current or recent military and my medical history was a guaranteed 'no' but I tried.
So I did the next best thing.  I had a $1500 DJI drone.   I sent it to Ukraine as a donation in my stead.  If I can't do my part, at least my drone can.  I wonder at times every time there is a Ukrainian drone video, if it is my bird.  That helps me get through all of this.

I checked out joining the International Legion when it was first was announced but at age 65 and 25 years out of the military, naturally it was a polite 'no'.  Too old, not current or recent military and my medical history was a guaranteed 'no' but I tried.
So I did the next best thing.  I had a $1500 DJI drone.   I sent it to Ukraine as a donation in my stead.  If I can't do my part, at least my drone can.  I wonder at times every time there is a Ukrainian drone video, if it is my bird.  That helps me get through all of this.

I checked out joining the International Legion when it was first was announced but at age 65 and 25 years out of the military, naturally it was a polite 'no'.  Too old, not current or recent military and my medical history was a guaranteed 'no' but I tried.
So I did the next best thing.  I had a $1500 DJI drone.   I sent it to Ukraine as a donation in my stead.  If I can't do my part, at least my drone can.  I wonder at times every time there is a Ukrainian drone video, if it is my bird.  That helps me get through all of this.

I checked out joining the International Legion when it was first was announced but at age 65 and 25 years out of the military, naturally it was a polite 'no'.  Too old, not current or recent military and my medical history was a guaranteed 'no' but I tried.
So I did the next best thing.  I had a $1500 DJI drone.   I sent it to Ukraine as a donation in my stead.  If I can't do my part, at least my drone can.  I wonder at times every time there is a Ukrainian drone video, if it is my bird.  That helps me get through all of this.

The most madding aspect of this war to me is the delusion the Russian nationalists/imperialists/knuckle draggers have that they still can "win" this war, despite all evidence across a wide spectrum on a wide range of metrics that it simply isn't going to happen.  Russian isn't a great power anymore - it has not met that definition pre-Feb 24 and even less so now.  That is got to be some fantastic 100 proof hooch that is being served up in tanker trucks that is being swilled in the power structures of Russia to continue to believe that all their stated objectives will be met by their beaten to crap army.  Completely ignore that the expected 3 day op and a parade in Kiev is now 4+ months in.  And everything is 'going to plan' we keep hearing from Kremlin talking heads.  It is like they are snorting lines of coke off of a stripper's ass and then getting in front of a camera and proclaiming everything is going as planned and victory is just around the corner....yeah, right <eye roll>.
Except that dream is a nightmare now.  Except they don't see it or accept it.  And the dying on all sides just goes on and on.

I checked out joining the International Legion when it was first was announced but at age 65 and 25 years out of the military, naturally it was a polite 'no'.  Too old, not current or recent military and my medical history was a guaranteed 'no' but I tried.
So I did the next best thing.  I had a $1500 DJI drone.   I sent it to Ukraine as a donation in my stead.  If I can't do my part, at least my drone can.  I wonder at times every time there is a Ukrainian drone video, if it is my bird.  That helps me get through all of this.

Huba, you have my profound and heartfelt respect.   Seriously....respect.

All right guys, this is a post where I spill my guts in quite an emotional manner, please move along if your're not up for it.
I'll start with stating that I'm really fond of this community that I accidentally found thanks to @Der Zeitgeist. While we differ in perception of some minutiae of the events unraveling in front of us, we all seem to share the same view on whats right and moral in this context. And that is really a lot, more that I could expect from most of my average 'real', 'physical' acquaintances.
For my whole life, since I was an 8 years old kid listening to my grandpa's war tales, I was deeply interested in all things military related. It is easy to get a young boy interested  in this kind of stuff - the power, the agency, the feeling of purpose this provides is unmatched by anything else in the world. Of course  when you're still an adolescent, your understanding of what war/ armed conflict means cannot be deep enough. As I was entering my adulthood, even studying military history academically, I grew to hate the very notion of armed conflict and violence. I guess getting the real grasp of what war means to a regular person was too much to me at this point. I retained my interest, but didn't really pursue it apart from theoretical knowledge. Especially, I dodged the last years of draft i Poland - neither me, nor Polish civil society in general was really ready for it in early 2000's. I was living my life happily since then, like if "The End of History" was and undisputed fact of life.
And it really changed with the start of war in Ukraine. I could easily picture myself in the position of average Kyiv or Kharkiv citizen, a guy in his late 30s, with a reasonable career in IT, concentrated on making a living for his wife and young kids, who is suddenly confronted with the need to physically fight for all that is important for him. 
Of course, in this great community we mostly  concentrate of relatively coldly analysing what is going on, trying to get a grasp of events the way a historian narrates the Battle of Kursk - it is of course THE WAY to practically understand the events and be able to draw conclusions. That's how a commander should look at it, putting his feeling aside. This however isn't the only way to talk about war, especially it isn't the only "right" way to do so. 
On a personal or local society level, what this war is is the fight between right and wrong, between liberty and slavery, between good and evil. Of course, if you are a mature individual, you understand that the good and bad are very relative terms, and it's best to avoid such violent situations at all. Yet, it if comes to the conflict like this, for me the only true way to talk about the people on the very front line, in the trenches facing The Enemy, is poetry and epic prose. The cold analysis is of course important to practical understanding of the situation, yet it doesn't do justice to a person giving his or her life for a greater cause. Having said that, I run at a few videos kept very much in the spirit I outlined here:
A music video to Sabaton's 40:1 song, really fitting the evens of the first few weeks of war. We might've forget it already, but the first days were about the grassroots citizen resistance that in many cases stopped the orcs. Videos from February and March are really reminding of what it is all about:
Here's an Azov oath from 2015, it's as powerful as it gets:
And a subtitled Ukrainian anthem:
There's a conclusion to this rant - today I sent a letter to my local Territorial Defense brigade. They are overflowing with volunteers at the moment, but I'll should be able to join in the winter, early next year at the latest.
It's OK, I'll have the time to get used to morning jogs I guess.