ScottinSoCal 🇺🇦 🕊 🏳‍🌈 @ScottSoCal@computerfairi.es

At what point do we stop focusing on the bad others are doing and concentrate on the good we can do?

Is complaining about the bird app here like being on a first date and only talking about my ex?

I’m Ukrainian and live in Ukraine all my life. I grew up in a russian-speaking family, both my parents and grandparents I grew up with were russian-speaking. My first language in school was russian, Ukrainian was added later as a ‘secondary’ language (it was already in mid 90s, after Ukraine gained independence). All of that was a result of decades-long policy of Soviet Union of depriving Ukrainians (and all other national respublics) of their native language, history and identity. They were pretty successful with it — most of Ukraine’s East and South are still mostly russian-speaking and many people have pretty loose connections to Ukraine’s history unbiased of Soviet/Russian propaganda of ‘happy common past’ and still operate in myths created around this common past. The primary myth was the victory over Nazi Germany: as long as I remember we never commemorated victory over Nazi Germany in WWII, instead we celebrated the ‘Soviet victory’. There was little known about allies role in this victory, this information was censored and oppressed, and so there was an impression that it was one and only The Great and Grand Victory of Soviet Union, which is not true. The more Ukraine re-established its national identity, the more it gradually moved away from these myths. Which was a real problem and a threat for imperialistic ambitions of Russia (supported by vast majority of Russia’s population). Few people in the West realize that modern Russia operates relying on this primary myth — most of the population believes in it, they believe that the West is degrading, and trying to oppress Russia and eventually take over their resources. On May 9 (that ‘Great Victory Celebration’ — yes, it’s not May 8 like for the rest of the world) they say ‘we can repeat’ and write on their cars ‘towards Berlin’ (reference to such signs being made on Soviet tanks). How it relates to the ongoing war in Ukraine? First, they believe that we, Ukrainians, betrayed them (by moving away from the ephemeral past and willing to become a modern democratic national state), second they realize that without Ukraine they cannot ’repeat’ — Ukraine is big country, rich in educated population, natural resources and industry, sharing same language and partially culture. So it was the first big decisive step in re-establishing Russian empire. … Russia is really fighting against the west. If Ukraine would fall — more threats would follow to the neighboring countries. Eventually they would really want to move ‘towards Berlin’. However crazy and dystopian it may sound that an unfortunate reality we found ourselves early in the 21st century, who could have thought? #HistoryForUkraine #history #UkrainianWarOfIndependence #soviethisory #RussianAttack #Ukraine #soviethistory

Jane Fonda says cancer is in remission, three months after revealing diagnosis - The actor described feeling ‘blessed’ to cease chemotherapy treatments for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma Three months after revealing that she’d been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, Jane Fonda’s cancer is in remission, the US actor and activist has announced.In a blog post headlined “Best Birthday... #theguardian

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/dec/16/jane-fonda-cancer-remission-non-hodgkins-lymphoma

Things just seem so crazy today.
I mean, can you imagine say in the 1930s if the richest automobile executive in America was also a media owner who used his platform to encourage anti-Semitism and allied himself with a foreign dictator waging a territory-expansion war in Europe?

In honor of #blackfriday l wanted to share the story of Sissieretta Jones. Never heard of her? Then please read on.

https://blogs.loc.gov/headlinesandheroes/2019/02/sissieretta-jones-world-famous-black-soprano/

I do not like to fill these airwaves with blather about the bird site and it’s dear leader, but my good god what’s going on over there is absolute bonkers. If we hadn’t just lived through the orange dumpster fire years, and coup attempt, I would have absolutely no context for what I’m witnessing. The Elmo comes off as an impulsive baby like tfg, but also like him, has serious plans for destroying civil society and taking over. This is not just silly social media shit. It’s high level serious.

Follow my colleague @maxnesterak at the Minnesota Reformer, who recently joined Mastodon. Here's a story Max and I did covering flaws in the Minneapolis Police discipline system a couple years ago. https://minnesotareformer.com/2020/12/15/the-bad-cops-how-minneapolis-protects-its-worst-police-officers-until-its-too-late/

I do not believe anything Elon says unless it is backed up by solid corroboration.

This is what I see when I log in to Twitter. I have not received any other explanation, nor identification of the rule supposedly violated.

Still better than Elf on a Shelf.

Happy Friday, everyone! Belated #introducion : I write for tv. Love #jigsawpuzzles and hate Nazis. #blackfriday #blackjoy #deadkennedys

Mastodon server admins tonight: