UN officials are once again expressing hope that fighting which has raged in the Libyan capital of Tripoli over the past two weeks is over, with the announcement of a new ceasefire between the UN-backed “unity” government and a militia. The two sides have been fighting through several ceasefires in that time, and has centered on southern Tripoli. At least 61 have been killed in the fighting, including a large number of civilians, with another 159 wounded.
Five months into the year, more than 1,000 people have been shot in Chicago and there have been more than 200 homicides, according to data kept by the Tribune. As of early Monday at least 1,071 people have been shot this year, below the last two years when violence hit record levels in the city but well above other recent years. There have been at least 202 homicides, the data shows. Chicago crossed the 1,000 mark after the long Memorial Day weekend, when seven people were killed and 32 were wounded by gunfire.
Just two weeks in Tripoli? (Actually endless in Libya, due to USA involvement.) …. (Yet) Endless in Chicago? (Also) Each city is a war zone! (Yes?)
Looks like a cease fire is needed in Chicago?
This is just one American city; How about others in the same boat?
UN officials are once again expressing hope that fighting which has raged in the Illinois capital of Chicago over the past several years, with the expected announcement of a new ceasefire between the UN-backed “Pro American” government and a inner-city militia…
Interesting thought…
Yes, Chicago and many US cites are a war zone according to technicalities that enforce said behavior…
Amazon stock briefly hit a $1 trillion market cap Tuesday before falling off and leaving Apple as the only publicly traded U.S. company above the benchmark.
Still struggling from the flue and other issues in the last month, but this morning I was able to walk again and it felt good….it also is getting cooler. Fall is here the trees are starting to change and I still never found summer. I called, I looked, I even turned over rocks and logs. Never found summer…
Tidbit Time:
In Russia connecting a business with the west is considered a good move…
Example…
I like it and the coffee cup on the sign is a cowboy from the Lone Star State (Texas) and his revolvers are croissants… 😉 LOL…
As I walk, one of my favorite spots is a pathway down the middle of a boulevard…
Kinda looks pretty evil? Right? Yes, I am asking a question to all you wannabe haters of Russia… Evil lurks behind all trees in Russia…
Gotta go! I think Svetochka wants to ride bikes tonight and I have a bunch to do before we do just that…
“The weather whispers to borrow but jump.”
Saying in Russian aeroclubs.
Hi,
That was a sunny day… I was one in the group of thirty, people who was ready to make there first parachute jump. I knew I was crazy but I knew I would make it. I was ready, I was ready already for a year to make the parachute jump to see that I became a new person, person who afraid of nothing in the life. And even more parachute jump for me was like symbol of trusting to Life. And I already knew that when you trust Life Life will trust you and help provide your great ideas to become true…
And it was long lecture before we got our landing parachutes we was told how to count seconds 1001, 1002, 1003, we were told how to pull the ring – to open parachute, how pull ropes to manage the flight how to land and not to break legs and a lot of another necessary things. And maybe the main thought was repeated and repeated again: “You decided to jump – you jump!”
And we were standing in the line already wearing parachutes and our instructors checked again and again our equipment. Then we were sitting in a tiny airplane AN-02 and it’s running very very fast on the strip and ah! we already flying very fast and almost vertical. And all blood in the body ran like crazy and fear and admiration because you already know you will made it, you don’t have any chance. And our parachutes were fasten to the line in the selling of the plane and command “Stand up and, first – go, second –go, third -go…” And I at the edge of the plane and instructor’s slap on my shoulders and command to go! And Earth so far from you that you even don’t think about the distance to the ground, and the Step – step out, step out of you, step to meet uncertainty…. (Later when I thought about it I found just the only thing alike this Step and we all made it! It was when we left mothers body to live in the World.)
And admiration and happiness – I made it! And thought what came after I must count seconds 1001, 1002 and parachute was opened by automatics (so my admiration took a time 😉 ). And the flight and my attempts to pull the parachute ropes what was not a necessary really I did it just to do something and a little boy who was running below on the Ground, saluting me. And landing, and caring parachute (20 kg) in arms for 3 kilometers and waiting another people and talks about nothing.
And riding home and incredible feeling that your Soul is so clean like you just got birth, and the Jump was like shower for Soul – good long shower, and Past does not exist anymore and Future means nothing to you: no plans, no expectation – just happiness and realizing that all in your life will be good.
And when I was felling asleep this night I’ve seen bright blue sky and myself in it. And scared thought that one day I would remember about it like old almost forgotten dream….
It’s a sunny day in Moscow, my birthday coming, Kyle offer to write something to his blog. I decided to tell world about my first parachute jump what I made three years ago. I think that’s the greatest experience of my Life what I could share with you. And one more thought I will ask Kyle to let me one more jump with parachute as my birthday present.
FAQs:
Q: Is it dangerous to jump with parachute?
A: Yes, that’s very dangerous! A friend of mine remarried and gave birth a son after his first jump ;).
Q: Is it good to jump with parachute?
A: I think it is. Modern Buddhists think that person loose 10% of karma when he makes this step.
Some of them telling about stop of consciousness/mind when you step out.
Q: Are you going to jump with parachute professionally.
A: No. I made 3 jumps with parachute and am going to make 5 or 7… I heard that the fourth jump is most scared and I want to try it to step over my fear and I heard that the 6th jump is already boring who knows.
Q: When are you going to make new jump.
A: I don’t know yet. Maybe this weekend, maybe next, maybe in autumn. Kyle will be with me and take a lot of pictures, I told you how it was inside and he describe how it will be from outside ;). I so love him!
Could someone please remind Pompeo and Bolton that al-Qaeda are the bad guys? After six years of a foreign-backed regime-change operation in Syria, where hundreds of thousands have been killed and the country nearly fell into the hands of ISIS and al-Qaeda, the Syrian government is on the verge of victory. Assad is hardly a saint, but does anyone really think al-Qaeda and ISIS are preferable? After all, how many Syrians fled the country when Assad was in charge versus when the US-backed “rebels” started taking over? Americans should be outraged that Pompeo and Bolton are defending al-Qaeda in Idlib. It’s time for the neocons to admit they lost. It is time to give Syria back to the Syrians. It is time to pull the US troops from Syria. It is time to just leave Syria alone!
August is vacation month and I mean vacation month. Yes, Russians have lots of holidays and lots of other vacation times, but August is almost like a mandatory, take a vacation month and many take the whole month. In Russia people get a full month or more of vacation off of work and paid for….some break it up into small vacations and some take it all at once…
This makes August one of the most wonderful months to live in Moscow, everyone is gone. Gone fishing, gone to Turkey, gone to Tunisia, gone to the villages, gone to the dachas, gone drinking, gone anywhere, but mainly gone from Moscow and other big Russian cities…
School started for the Moscow monkey’s yesterday…
I talked about how everyone was back. Well yesterday, yes a Saturday, school started. Tidbit: school runs basically six days a week, but shorter hours a day…
“Today is September 1. As it happened it’s a day off, Saturday, and in many schools classes will start only on September 3. But we always mark September 1 as the Day of Knowledge as a holiday.” Putin said addressing to the students of the Sirius educational center in Sochi.
Putin also said, “I cordially congratulate you and all students of our huge country on this holiday, on the Day of Knowledge.”
Big day in Russia…
Moscow is packed, no room to park, kids crawling all over the city and mothers, fathers, grandparents & adults in general trying to catch and corral the free running all summer kids…. 😉 Then get them in school…
I have spent two days in shock. What use to be a leisure walk has become a Indian Jones escapade from the movies…
Could you image having a month vacation, a month that you have to take, a month vacation that is paid for and if you take the whole month (at least two weeks of it) at once, they pay even more money than if you break it up…
Now yesterday, kids carried flowers to their teachers and I mean all kids carry flowers. We have a teacher in our building and her and her husband made ten trips to the car to carry up armload’s of flower bouquets. It is nuts, forget that apple to the teacher, grab the flowers…
All day families walking their kids to school. I mean grandpa, grandma, mom, dad, uncle, aunt, the dog, the cat and the local hedgehog all traipsing around taking pictures and just in general having a party hearty day. School is a big thing in Russia and kids here love school…
What made yesterday even worse? Glad you asked; It was some birthday of the city of Korolyov, the city we live in in the Moscow area. Fireworks all night and yes, party hearty…
Svetochka loves her Sammy the Volga and no other car matters! And that is just right….but…
The largest Russian automobile exhibition, the Moscow International Automobile Salon – MIAS 2018, started on August 29 in the capital’s exhibition complex Crocus Expo. The leaders of the mass segment are returning to the exhibition, promising premieres and novelties, and the highlight of the auto show will be the world premiere of the Russian “luxury” Aurus cars, developed within the framework of the “Cortege” project. The seventh Moscow auto show began its work with press and business days on August 29 a
MOSCOW, August 29. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin said in his televised address on Wednesday the retirement age for women should be 60 rather than 63.”The retirement age for women should not increase more than for men. That’s why I believe it is necessary to reduce the increase in the retirement age for women proposed by the law from 8 to 5 years,” Putin said.The president said the draft bill on the pension reform suggests increasing the retirement age for women by eight years and for men by five years. “That wouldn’t do, certainly. This is wrong,” Putin said.
We got home safe and sound. Traffic in Moscow really, really, really and did I say Really? Sucks. But we got home. You have to understand, everyone is coming back from the villages and dachas….school time!
Last night the playground at our flats was packed to the gills with screaming monkeys. all let loose at once. 😉
Other than that all is good in Moscow. Life is a bowl of cherries and yes there are pits as in everywhere…
The Tiny Russian Village:
Lets start with Vova….he is in love and actually has found someone that really cares for him. I have mentioned her before (Natasha) and she really does like him. So Vova is getting fat, sassy and happy. Love does that and Natasha can cook very good…
But as with all wonderful news, Vova is still fighting with Nina the other full timer in the village. I suspect that one day I will go to the Tiny Russian Village and find these two at the bottom the well dead, having killed each other as they fight over the well issue. They also fight over anything that is available to fight about and they fight over things that make no sense. Yes I should be there and take care of the well, then they would live longer…
Vova and Nina are just too much alike and that is too many in one place….Nina needs a boyfriend?
Father Pavel with the monastery is a happy camper and since Bishop Matt has left for Rome, Italy, he has had to spread himself very thin, but he is happy and that is what counts….it has slowed down the monastery development though….like it stopped! But they did come up and mow the grounds. The last winter Boza and I were at the village, it got so cold. Remember -50 + wind chill? The bees all died. They have not been able to recover from that, so we have no special Monastery Honey this year. Interesting, I had people call me out for lying about the cold as I lived in the Tiny Russian Village….but it was bitterly cold and Boza and I danced along just fine….I miss Boza… 🙁
City people still come to the village on weekends and party to the point of passing out on the sides of the roads. This at least is a safe place to pass out, due to lack of traffic and such. You also have who’s boots are under who’s bed constantly in the Tiny Russian Village. I watched one married gal who came alone, wonder to several different village homes, several nights for a week and then finally her husband showed up after she made the rounds of the village. Took about a week….then when he showed up they partied two nights almost all night and kept us up….I would rather it was just her and she slinked off every night… 😉
No truck to deliver groceries this year. Not enough people at the village…
We worked on Nicolai’s place, he is the one who died recently and after cutting the grass, fixing some fence issues and placing rat poison against those pesky (полевые мыши) field mice. Nice home and it looks like Sveta and I will do the paper work on transferring the ownership of that property. Nicolai’s widow, has no desire to ever go back and since Nicolai and I were very good friends, we will be basically given it. The only thing we have to do is deal with the year plus paper work and costs of doing it. This is a long process in Russia, bureaucracy is fun here….We brought a painting back this trip for Larissa his widow, that is about all she wants?
We have an elder lady who comes now just for the summer and she is over 90 years old now. 90 plus and still self sufficient. She plants gardens, digs it herself. Cleans and works her yard and bosses around her younger bother, like a good girl should do!
90 plus years old! If only I could make it that long? I am pushing it now with my genetics and background…
Our yard had white lilac trees growing good, a healthy rose plant, a perfect pine baby pine growing, a survivor new chestnut tree and more apples than you could ever want….we have bags of them right now at our Moscow home. Svetochka could not leave them and I kept finding her getting apples and filling plastic sacks. 😉
Russia has a serious apple crop this year. Apple trees grow wild everywhere in our place in the world and this year apples are abundant… Yummy
Speaking of crops:
Soybean fields everywhere. Wheat fields everywhere. Sunflower fields everywhere. New fields being opened up. Agriculture has become a serious business in Russia and from what I see Russia is sending unbelievable amounts of soybeans to China. Oops, do not tell anyone I said that! Don’t want any disillusionment from the west about what they want to believe…
The Tiny Russian Village has garnered a reprieve in life. The families of the elders, long since gone have finally discovered the village again. The homes are being rebuilt, the yards cleaned and even new places are being built and or enlarging homes. I am very glad to see this, we even had a family from St. Petersburg come down and do lots of work on their old place…
That is what the Tiny Russian Village is about. Getting back to your roots…
Look close and see a dust devil… Sveta learned a new phrase that day…
UN officials are once again expressing hope that fighting which has raged in the Libyan capital of Tripoli over the past two weeks is over, with the announcement of a new ceasefire between the UN-backed “unity” government and a militia. The two sides have been fighting through several ceasefires in that time, and has centered on southern Tripoli. At least 61 have been killed in the fighting, including a large number of civilians, with another 159 wounded.
Still struggling from the flue and other issues in the last month, but this morning I was able to walk again and it felt good….it also is getting cooler. Fall is here the trees are starting to change and I still never found summer. I called, I looked, I even turned over rocks and logs. Never found summer…
That world is Russia…
All day families walking their kids to school. I mean grandpa, grandma, mom, dad, uncle, aunt, the dog, the cat and the local hedgehog all traipsing around taking pictures and just in general having a party hearty day. School is a big thing in Russia and kids here love school…
MOSCOW, August 29. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin said in his televised address on Wednesday the retirement age for women should be 60 rather than 63.”The retirement age for women should not increase more than for men. That’s why I believe it is necessary to reduce the increase in the retirement age for women proposed by the law from 8 to 5 years,” Putin said.The president said the draft bill on the pension reform suggests increasing the retirement age for women by eight years and for men by five years. “That wouldn’t do, certainly. This is wrong,” Putin said.
