Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, Dec. 17, claimed that Russian forces have seized the strategic initiative along the entire front line in Ukraine, while pledging to expand Moscow’s so-called security buffer zone and continue developing new weapons systems.

Speaking at a meeting of Russia’s Defense Ministry board, Putin said 2025 marked a “significant milestone” in the broader military campaign.

According to him, Russian troops have occupied more than 300 settlements this year and are capable of accelerating offensive operations in “strategically important areas” of the front.

At the same time, Putin dismissed warnings of a potential Russian attack on Europe as “lies and nonsense,” accusing European politicians of fueling hysteria and “driving fears into people’s heads” about an inevitable confrontation with Russia.

Briefing allies at Tuesday’s 33rd Ukraine Defense Contact Group (Ramstein) meeting, Ukraine’s top military commander Oleksandr Syrsky, described the situation as “difficult” but said Russia has failed to achieve major operational gains. 

He claimed Ukrainian counterattacks had pushed Russian forces back in Kupyansk, with Ukrainian troops regaining control of nearly 90% of the city. Source-Kyiv Post

Rynek Christmas

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas, just like the ones I used to know. Unfortunately, living in Poland, I can't remember the last time we had one. Oh, well.

Gabriela came today for Joan and during our conversation, she told us she is leaving for Christmas with her family and won't be back until January 7th. That's OK, Paige will fill-in for her while she is gone.

Then she said she would be leaving for Lisbon, Portugal for four months as a participant in the Erasmus program. After that, she is moving to Warsaw, permanently, to take advantage of the job market for pharmacists. It's good for her, but Joan is going to miss her. They get along very well together. We’ve been fortunate to have her and I hope we keep in touch.

While I was out today, I stopped to take pictures of how the Rynek is decorated for Christmas. I would take Joan there, but it's too cold now for her to be outside for a long time. The best thing I could do was take pictures and show them to her at home. It was a spur of the moment idea. I didn't have my camera, so I had to make do with the cell phone pictures. They are not bad, but I still prefer a camera. On the large screen TV as a monitor, I'm sure she will like them. Maybe Saturday, I will bundle her up and take her in the early evening for a quick trip there when the lights are more dominant.

I miss having that Christmas feeling, family, wigilia, midnight mass, and snow. It must be my age now.

Shopping Day,

The young woman above is Diana Savita Wagner.  

Wagner's bravery and selflessness have been widely recognized, with many praising her dedication to helping others. She was buried in Kyiv with military honors.

Paige was coming today to sit with Joan, so I thought I would do the food shopping at 11:30 while she was here.

I have been getting up at 06:30 for the past few years to do it, and today I thought I would change. Unfortunately, I woke up at 6:45, couldn't get back to sleep, and decided to go. The cost for this week was $57.

During my 3-hour break, I stopped at Cafe Lokum and talked with Ken about his recent marriage in Las Vegas. He said all went well except the photographer charged him more for the pictures taken then they agreed upon.

Zbyszek's daughter confirmed she will come and visit with us after Christmas. She lives in Bulgaria, but is coming back to Poland to spend time with her brother and his family.

I'm still waiting for our friend, Trent, to confirm when he will visit us. 

Meanwhile: Ukraine

Five Russian oil refineries set ablaze, four airfield strikes, a Lukoil offshore rig ablaze in the Caspian Sea – all in one night – noisily contradicted Trump’s claim that “Ukraine has no cards.”

On Dec. 11, 2025, the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) launched its largest-scale, widest-reaching and most ambitious combined kamikaze drone operation against its giant northern neighbor, Russia, of the entire Russo-Ukrainian War.

Overnight, nearly 300 drones of various types, along with cruise missiles, struck targets across western and central Russia – a stretch of some 2,000 km (1,243 miles) including Moscow, according to Russian and Ukrainian sources reviewed by Kyiv Post. Consistent with Ukraine’s increasingly effective bombardment campaign of Russia’s fossil fuel industry that Kyiv kicked off in July, the Ukrainian main effort for the night appeared focused primarily on five Russian energy production facilities, igniting fires at all of them. Secondary attacks hit four military airfields. Source-Kyiv Post

 

Monday Night.

 It's Monday night, and this is usually the night I have to prepare the menu for next week's food shopping and make out the shopping list. I try to get it done early, but usually, I don't get it done until 10:30 or 11:00 at night. I've got a whole stack of recipes that I go through, and pick six menus for the week. Now and winter, it's a little quicker because I pick out at least one soup that will last for 2 days. We don't need it day after day; instead, I alternate the second helping for a second or third day of the menu. I don't like eating the same thing two nights in a row, nor does John.

Our Christmas tree is already decorated, has been for the last week. It's the same tree we've been using for several years because it's a plastic tree. I gave up buying a real tree because it makes more sense to use the plastic one and save the life of at least one tree.

They added a new person to my conversation list, the brother of my friend me how. He would like some help with his English, and so we will talk on Mondays and Wednesdays at 11:00 for 1 hour each time. Today was our first meeting.

In the afternoon, John and I watched NFL football highlights, and then, because she hasn't been outside of the house for 3 days, we went to Kandulskis for Costco and coffee. It's the same place that Zbyszek introduced us to many years ago. For several years, we used to meet there at 3:00 in the afternoon and have some conversation for about an hour or two. Unfortunately, he died 3 years ago this past November, and so we no longer meet.

Christmas is only nine days away, but I have no presents to buy, so it's not a problem of rushing around trying to find presents. Joan and I stopped buying presents for each other several years ago. It was sad to read the news that Rob Reiner and his wife were killed yesterday. Of course, I didn't know either of them personally, but we've enjoyed his talents in movies and the old TV series where he was called Meathead.

Ukraine News

 

THE CZECH REPUBLIC SUPPLIED UKRAINE WITH 1.8 MILLION PIECES OF LARGE-CALIBER AMMUNITION: The Czech Republic has achieved its goal of transferring Ukraine 1.8 million rounds of high-caliber ammunition, former PM Petr Fiala posted on X. The Czech Republic, along with the US and the UK, has become one of the leading suppliers of ammunition to Ukraine.

RUSSIA DEPLOYES ORESHNIK COMPLEXES IN BELARUS, TARGETING EU: The construction of military facilities in Belarus for launching an Orshenik missile is underway, Oleg Ivashchenko, head of Ukraine’s Foreign Intelligence Service, said. The Oreshnik missile is a Russian medium-range ballistic missile that is difficult to intercept, equipped with six warheads, and capable of speeds exceeding 12,300 km/h.

RUSSIAN OIL EXPORTS DECLINE: Although Russia continues to increase its crude oil shipments, sanctions and market restrictions are contributing to a downward trend in its maritime exports, according to the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine. This comes as prices for Russian oil are falling, which reduces their overall profitability. A large amount of Russia’s cargo goes unloaded, and the US sanctions against Rosneft and Lukoil have caused the demand from the Global South to decrease. This all comes as inspections at Chinese and Russian refineries are increasing.

Haircuts & Ukraine

Yesterday was haircut day for both of us. We have been going to the same stylist for four or five years now. The best haircut I can remember was in Spain, 5 years ago. Thanks to my friend, Radek, who told me about Markus at LeGrand Salon in Poznan. After the first haircut, we have continued using him. He also did an excellent cut of Joan's hair, so that solidified him as our stylist in Poznan. 

The weather has been more like early Spring instead of Winter. 55-60 F is way too warm for the middle of December. More than likely, it will be another Christmas without snow. I suppose it's my age that makes me want snow.

Meanwhile, Ukraine.

Ukraine's domestically produced cruise missiles could help deal a devastating blow to Russia's air defense production, enabling increasingly effective long-range drone strikes against other targets inside Russia, a new report published on Dec. 12 says.

The report from the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) and titled "Disrupting Russian Air Defence Production: Reclaiming the Sky," identifies "significant vulnerabilities" in the production process of several of Moscow's most important air defense systems.

Alongside stricter export controls on critical Western machinery and sanctions on raw materials used in radar production, the report calls for prioritizing strikes on "critical nodes within air defence production that are vulnerable to deliberate attack."

It highlights the concentration of facilities used to manufacture and assemble the Pantsir air defense system in Tula, Russia, just 350 kilometers from the Ukrainian border. Source-Kyiv Independent

A leading German research center and think tank, the Kiel Institute is closely affiliated with Kiel University but is organizationally independent. Analysts in and outside Ukraine generally consider The Institute’s meticulously-researched Ukraine Support Tracker be the gold standard information platform recording foreign assistance promised and delivered to Ukraine since Jan. 2022.

According to the Kiel Institute’s most recent findings compiling data through end of Oct. 2025, since the US ended military and financial support to Ukraine in Feb. 2025, Europe has allocated only about €4.2 billion ($4.92 billion) in new Ukraine assistance – a cash flow not nearly compensating for the support yanked away by the Americans.

Probably even grimmer for Ukraine’s future, non-US assistance to Ukraine following a White House policy shift towards supporting the Kremlin against Europe appears to be plummeting, having fallen from a wartime three-month peak €20 billion ($23.44) from April through June 2025 to €11.5 billion ($13.48 billion) for July through September 2025, new Kiel Institute data showiv Posted. Source-Ky

Can you handle the truth?

Like it or not, this is what we are facing. It is NOT Donnie Trump. Read it all!

 

Stop Waiting for Trump to Die

US Fascism doesn't end with him.

Christopher Armitage

Dec 09, 2025

 

Bottom Line Up Front for the Hardcore Activists (BLUF-HA): The GOP has spent 50 years building a machine to end democracy, funded by oligarchs who will outlive any single president. They want us to believe this ends with one man. It doesn’t. We don’t need false comfort right now; we need real clarity. That means acknowledging that as long as the seditious and openly criminal Republican Party exists, we are fighting the same machine that built him, protected him, and will replace him the moment he’s gone.

 

We have spent ten years personalizing a systemic crisis around a single figure. That personalization is itself a form of control. It lets us imagine that removing him solves the problem. It lets us fantasize about accountability and a soft landing. It lets us wait for rescue instead of doing the work.

Robert Reich recently argued that Trump’s end is imminent. The MAGA base is falling apart, he wrote. Congressional Republicans are finding their backbones. The ground is finally shifting.

 

I respect Robert. He’s been a consistent voice on the proper side of this fight for decades. So let’s take his argument seriously. Let’s look at the evidence he’s citing and ask what it actually tells us.

The polling decline is real. Trump’s approval has hit 36% in Gallup tracking, his second-term low.¹ A CNN poll found 61% of Americans say his policies have worsened economic conditions.²

 

These numbers are bad.

 

But context matters. Trump’s all-time low was 34%, right after January 6. His first-term average was 41%. He never once reached 50% approval in his entire first presidency.³ The mid-30s is not a collapse. It is his floor, and the floor is holding.

 

But context matters. The Republican Party’s project is not to be popular or win elections. It is to make elections unnecessary for holding power. Gerrymandered maps, voter suppression, a captured judiciary, and the procedural stranglehold of the Senate filibuster all serve the same function: insulating Republican rule from democratic accountability. Trump’s approval among the broader public matters only if that public can translate disapproval into political consequences. The party has spent decades building the infrastructure of preventing democratic functioning.

 

The November 2025 elections were a Democratic sweep. Spanberger won Virginia’s governorship by 15 points.⁴ Sherrill carried New Jersey by 13.⁵ Mamdani became New York City’s first Muslim mayor.⁶ Exit polls showed 55-69% disapproval of Trump across every major race.⁷ These results are significant.

But this is swing voters responding to chaos. This is the suburbs recoiling. This is not the MAGA base defecting. The coalition that carried Trump to victory in 2024 has not abandoned him. Voters at the margins have. That matters electorally. It does not mean the movement is collapsing.

Reich points to Republican fractures. Some are grumbling about the budget. Some reject the tariff dividend proposal. Some want to extend ACA subsidies. Hawks dislike the Putin courtship.

 

But grumbling is not governing. When it came time to vote on the Big Beautiful Bill, two Republicans out of 273 voted no. That is a 1% defection rate. The tariff dividend was never even brought to a vote. 

The ACA subsidy debate remains unresolved because leadership won’t allow a floor vote. The fractures are nonexistent in practice. The grumbling itself is the performance, a way to maintain the fiction that Republicans aren’t voting in lockstep while they vote in lockstep.

 

And then there is Marjorie Taylor Greene. After Romney. After Cheney. After Kinzinger. After the party systematically destroyed every Republican who broke ranks. After years of enforcing total loyalty, his most devoted defender finally walked away. One more name on a short list that keeps getting shorter as the party purges dissent.

 

She was his most loyal defender. She voted with him 98% of the time.⁹ She spent millions on his campaigns. She flew from her father’s brain surgery to vote against his second impeachment.¹⁰ And when she broke with him over the Epstein files, he called her a traitor within days. She also announced her resignation, timed to within a few days of her congressional pension beginning.¹¹

This is not a crack in the foundation. This is the foundation demonstrating how solid it is. The apparatus that destroyed Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, and Mitt Romney’s political future did exactly what it was designed to do: enforce total loyalty and obliterate dissent.

 

So let’s say Reich is right about all of it. Let’s say the polling collapse accelerates. Let’s say 

 

Republicans lose the House in 2026.

 

Let’s say Trump’s health fails, his mind deteriorates further, or he simply dies. He is 79 years old. It could happen tomorrow.

 

Here is what does not change:

 

The 43 Republican senators who acquitted him after he incited an insurrection remain in office or have been replaced by others who would have done the same. The Supreme Court that ruled him above the law serves for life. The federal judiciary, packed with Federalist Society judges, will shape American law for decades. The 47% of Project 2025 already implemented does not reverse itself.¹² The 200,000 federal workers fired or forced out do not return to their jobs.¹³ The gutted agencies do not rebuild overnight. The dismantled regulations do not reassemble themselves.

 

The Varieties of Democracy Institute, the world’s leading authority on measuring democratic health, identified the United States as undergoing the fastest episode of autocratization in modern American history.¹⁴ Director Staffan Lindberg stated in March that if the current trajectory continues, the United States will no longer qualify as a democracy when they assess 2025.¹⁵ That trajectory is not about one man. That trajectory is about captured institutions and a party apparatus committed to single-party rule.

 

We tried the institutional remedies. We impeached him twice. The Senate acquitted him twice. A jury convicted him of 34 felonies. No judge sentenced him. The Supreme Court granted him immunity.

 

We voted him out in 2020. He came back and won by a wider margin.

Four years of Biden have changed nothing structurally. The courts remained captured. The gerrymandered maps remained intact. He was able to make marginal progress that was obstructed at every turn, overturned by SCOTUS, or immediately undone by Trump. The filibuster remained in place, allowing Republicans to block voting rights legislation with unified opposition. We followed the rules. They ran out the clock. And at the end of it, we got a second Trump term that has done more damage in ten months than his entire first four years.

 

Trump did not build this. The Heritage Foundation wrote Project 2025. The Federalist Society built the judicial pipeline. The Republican National Committee enforces party discipline. The conservative media ecosystem manufactures consent. State legislatures draw maps that let them choose their voters. 

 

Dark money networks fund the whole operation.

 

Trump is their most effective instrument. He normalized what was previously unthinkable. He proved what was possible. He moved the ball further down the field than anyone before him. But he is still an instrument. When he is gone, everything he proved remains proven. Every precedent he set remains set. 

Every norm he shattered remains shattered.

 

The Republican Party has been building toward this for 50 years. The Powell Memo.¹⁶ The Heritage Foundation. The Federalist Society. Gingrich is burning down congressional norms. The Southern Strategy. Gerrymandering. Voter suppression. McConnell is holding a Supreme Court seat hostage for a 

year.¹⁷

 

Trump did not break the system. He is the product of a party that spent half a century crafting the tools to end American democracy.

 

As long as the Republican Party exists, our democracy remains under threat. That was true before Trump and will remain true after him. The party must be dismantled. Not defeated in one election. Not moderated. Dismantled and its leaders incarcerated for sedition and corruption.

So when the headlines tell you the ground is shifting, maybe something is happening. When pundits tell you the MAGA base is cracking, maybe the margins are eroding. When Trump eventually leaves the stage, it will feel like relief. We will want to exhale. We will want to believe the worst is over.

 

Do not exhale.

 

The day after Trump is gone, we have the exact same work to do. The same captured courts. The same gerrymandered maps. The same consolidated media. The same oligarch class. The same party apparatus that protected him through everything will find another vehicle for their project before his body is cold.

 

And the next vehicle will be less repugnant. Someone who passes the same fascist laws and strips away the same freedoms but with less spectacle, someone who makes it all look more professional, and then people stop paying attention. Trump’s repulsiveness keeps people in the streets. But the Republicans are the ones passing the policies anyway. They’re the ones telling him what to support. A polished version pushing the exact same agenda without the daily outrages will be far more dangerous. The next one gets a grace period while the world celebrates, and the fascism continues while everyone exhales.

He covered a lot of ground for them. That doesn’t all reverse with him gone. The project does not end with him, and if we act as if it does, we hand Republicans a free pass for everything they built while we were staring at one man.

 

We have spent ten years personalizing a systemic crisis around a single figure. That personalization is itself a form of control. It lets us imagine that removing him solves something. It lets us fantasize about accountability that will never come through the institutions they have captured. It lets us wait for rescue instead of doing the work.

 

Stop waiting for Trump to die. The fight is the same either way.

 

So what actually works? Three things. First, states must investigate, prosecute, and criminally indict corrupt politicians at every level and refuse to hand those cases up to federal jurisdiction. If we don’t hold these people accountable ourselves, no one will. This should be done through an interstate anti-corruption compact where states work together to rid our federal government of criminal actors. Second, states must build social safety nets at the state and multi-state levels that actually improve residents’ lives, because the federal government has been captured and isn’t coming to the rescue. Third, multi-state non-compliance with bullshit SCOTUS and federal decisions. That’s it. That’s what needs to happen. It takes political will, and it takes us demanding it from every state official we can reach.

Heroine.

·Friends, this is the Heroine. Real Ukrainian Heroine.

Friends, this is Natalia.

She is a mother of four!! ️children and she absolutely voluntarily went to the Front.

Natalia comes from lysičanskaya. When the full-scale invasion began, she realized that her place was where the country was protected.

Thanks to her determination, the woman managed to get into the combat unit.

After learning about her medical education, the command offered Natalia to become a combat medic.

She has saved hundreds of lives in that position!! ️of our Warriors.

She had to drag the fighters 12 kilometers!! ️ to save their Life.

Just an incredible Woman.

Absolutely unbreakable, strong and Brave.

Our Ukrainian girl. Our Guardian Angel.

Honor and respect to Mrs. Natalia.

Honor and respect to the incredible Ukrainian heroine

Gabriela=Paige

Gabriella couldn't come today because she had a class, so I called her alternative caregiver, Paige, and she arrived at 10:30. It has been about a month and a half since we last saw her because she was on vacation in the United States visiting her family. John likes both of them, so it wasn't a problem.

Gabriella called later in the afternoon, and said that she was ill and didn't think it was a good idea for her to come on Wednesday. I called Paige, and she said she would be here.

After she arrived, I took my phone, my Spanish book, and my glasses, and I drove to Radek's house for our time together. We usually alternate meetings, so this week it was time for me to go to his house for the meeting. I spent the usual first hour speaking in Spanish English, and then the second hour was only Spanish. It helps a lot that I recorded the lesson, because sometimes I get a little foggy, and it's good for me to be able to listen to the lesson again. It's also good to have the lessons recorded because there are times when he's gone for a week or two, and we have no lesson. I usually that I usually spend that time re-listening to the old lessons. We are almost done with the first Spanish book, and probably, we will go in start it all over again just to keep refreshed on things that have been forgotten.

Earlier this morning, I woke up at 6:30, and made the usual trip to Carrefour to do the weekly food shopping. The cost this week was 220 PLN. ($61).

In the evening, we watched highlights of several of the NFL football games that were played yesterday, and unfortunately, are Chicago Bears team lost. However, later I read that there were several calls by the referees that were incorrect, and it was so severe that when complaints were made to the commissioner, all seven of the referees were suspended. Now, there is to be an investigation into the complaints. It will be interesting to see if anything happens because of it.

Meanwhile: Ukraine

During a state visit to India on Friday, Putin declared that Russia would seize Donbas and other land “by force” if Ukraine refused to withdraw.

But the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) has projected that, at the current pace of operations, it would take several more years for Russia to fully occupy the entire region and Moscow’s victory is still far from guaranteed. 

In remarks published Monday, Zelensky told Bloomberg News that negotiations over the US-led peace proposal remain blocked on “sensitive issues,” especially security arrangements and control of the Donbas.

He added that the negotiators still lack a common stance on Donetsk and Luhansk.

“There are visions of the US, Russia, and Ukraine – and we don’t have a unified view on Donbas,” Zelensky said.

“There is one question I – and all Ukrainians – want to get an answer to: If Russia again starts the war, what will our partners do?” he added, arguing that Kyiv needs strong assurances of security. Source-Kyiv Post

Join or Die.

 

My friends, read closely, because this moment demands our full attention.

There’s an old drawing from 1754, a simple cartoon by Benjamin Franklin. You’ve probably seen it before: a snake cut into pieces, each part representing a colony, with the words “Join, or Die.”

That warning echoed across the colonies then, and it echoes across our country now.

Franklin drew it to remind people that division is deadly. That, when our future is on the line, unity isn’t optional; it’s everything. And today, as resistance movements rise across the United States, I can’t stop thinking about that image.

Because let’s be honest: we have so many groups, so many movements, so many organizations fighting for justice, for rights, for truth, and yet, we’re fractured. We’re passionate, but we’re scattered.

If Franklin’s cartoon were redrawn today to represent the modern Resistance, that snake would have dozens of parts. Maybe hundreds. And the threat we face wouldn’t be a faraway king. It would be right here at home, embodied in the rise of Donald Trump and the powerful influence of the Heritage Foundation.

The message is the same now as it was then:
Join together, or watch democracy die.

And make no mistake, our democracy is already in serious danger.

But let me be clear: I’m NOT asking you to leave your group, your cause, or your community. Your group is part of who you are. Your work matters deeply.

What I am asking, what I am urging, is that we recognize a simple truth:
When we stand together, we are powerful. When we act as one, we are unstoppable.

A general strike, a coordinated effort across groups and causes, becomes world-changing when enough people take part. Research shows that when about 3.5% of a population participates in sustained nonviolent action, a society can shift. Governments can change. Futures can be rewritten. And we have seen it happen in country after country.

But we cannot reach that level alone. Divided, we are weakened. Divided, we lose ground. And we’ve already witnessed the damage: to Medicaid… to scientific research… to foreign aid… to immigrant families… to climate protections… to our alliances… to the integrity of our judicial system. The list is long, and it keeps growing.

So I am asking, no, I am calling on you:

If you are an administrator, ask your members to join a general strike coalition like GeneralStrikeUS.
If you are a member, urge your admins to join, or step forward and join yourself.

This coalition already has more than 402,000 people. That’s powerful. But it’s not enough. We need more voices, more courage, more unity. We need you.

Furthermore, we are not one single organization, but rather a network of groups committed to a General Strike once we reach 11 million Americans committed. Our goal is to unite the movements for racial, economic, and climate justice under a shared, collective action so that we may revolutionize this country. We believe that if working people went on strike together, we could achieve all our demands for a just economy, a truly democratic political system, and a safe planet for all.

If you are an organization or influencer fighting for change, follow these instructions to add a Strike Card to your website and track incoming data in real time. Folks who sign up via your website will be visible to you. If we work together, we’ll get to 11M strikers in no time. Email info@generalstrikeus.com for more info on how to join this coalition.

The message from 1754 still speaks the truth today:

Join, or die.
Not as a threat, but as a warning. A reminder. A call to action.

Our democracy is worth fighting for.
Our future is worth uniting for.
And together, we can rise to this moment.

Thank you.

Boots & Revolution

 Because I'm always thinking of Joan, I thought I'd take her to buy a pair of boots today. It wasn't because she needed them to walk in the snow; it was more about her feet staying warm when she was outside. You know she doesn't do much walking anymore because most of her life is either in the recliner or in the wheelchair. But, nevertheless, I'm always concerned about her warmth when we are outside. So, I took her to the little shopping mall called Pestka, and there we went in to try on different kinds of boots.

She picked up one pair that seemed would look good on her, but when she tried them on it was too difficult to get them on. So we went back to the shoe racks, and she looked at another pair. The first pair were kind of short boots, but the second pair were higher up her leg. The last time I bought her any shoes, she wore what's called a size 39. However, when I tried either pair in size 39, neither one of them would fit. I went back to the racks, picked out a pair of size 42, and took them back for her to try on. They both fit much more easily, and since she didn't really need them to walk on, she decided they were a good fit. And she decided that a taller pair of boots would be better, which I was happy about. Originally, they were 179 PLN, but when I took them up to the cashier, the price was 125 PLN. So I was happy about that. Now she has new boots.

Back at home, we started a new documentary series developed by the documentarian, Ken Burns. It is called the American Revolution, and it has 12 parts. Each part is 1 hour long, so we decided to watch one party today. After watching the first part tonight, I think it is something all Americans should watch. I think it would be especially good for anyone who voted for Trump to see how the country began, the struggles they had, the difficult times ahead, and the problems they had to solve to form a democracy. You can find it on the YouTube channel. All 12 parts are available.

The Tree.

 Maybe it's too early to put up your Christmas tree, but ours is now up. I escaped having to decorate the tree by asking Gabriella to put up the lights and ornaments. She did a pretty good job, except she didn't put all of the lights on that we have. So later in the evening, I brought out the other lights and added them to the tree. I guess we're ready for Christmas.

Earlier, before Gabriella came, I did a little vacuuming and put up the ornaments, well, not really ornaments, more like decorations around the house. It does make it look a little more festive now.

During my 3-hour break, I went to Auchan to check if they had dates for sale. The last time I was there, on Tuesday. They had dates, but the price for 1 kg was 27 PLN. Normally, I can buy them for 10 PLN You can buy them for 10 PLN, but you have to go on Thursday or Friday before they are sold out. This time I bought 2 kg. When I told Gabriella I could buy one kilogram of dates for 10, she didn't think it was possible. So, when I returned home, I showed the packet to her. It's a little strange because the same company that sells them for 10 PLN, also has a 1 kg pack next to it for 27 PLN. I don't see what the difference is in the dates. They both look the same to me.

After I was done, I went to Cafe Locum, and had a coffee latte while I read the latest garbage news about the United States. I'm trying to pull back a little from my involvement because I don't know if it makes a difference.

John's been going to bed early. Tonight, she said she was ready for bed at 7:30. I told her that was a little early and because of it she would probably wake up too early, so, she stayed up for another hour and a half and went to bed at 9:00. She's losing more of her sense of logic in conversations and her short-term memory is really getting bad. I noticed this week, even her long-term memory is starting to disappear. 

Sleepy & Ukraine

Another sleep in day, this time until noon. I don't know if it is because I am so tired, or whether it is my life doesn't change much day to day.

The sun was shining today and a little warmer, so I took Joan out for a little while to break the monotony of sitting at home every day. 

We visited Kandulski and had what has become our usual pastry there. It's called Migladowa. The components sliced pecans on top of a creamy substance sitting on top of a layer of Carmel. Below low that is a bed of cake mix. The coffee is better than at Sowas, so that's also a plus.

The snow is gone now, and one can only hope it will return for Christmas. 

Concerning Ukraine:

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte insisted on Wednesday that the alliance has no reason to contemplate a “Plan B” in the event that talks collapse and Washington halts weapons deliveries to Ukraine.

“I don’t think we have to think about that,” he replied when pressed by a reporter during a Brussels news conference following a gathering of NATO foreign ministers convened after pivotal US-Russia discussions.

Rutte underscored that the US remains “very consistent” in backing Kyiv, while stressing: “We expect Europeans and Canadians to step up when it comes to paying for it.”

He also voiced confidence that Ukraine’s partners will have amassed $5 billion in commitments by the year’s end for the purchase of US-manufactured arms – funding intended to keep matériel flowing to Kyiv despite Washington’s freeze on direct military aid. Source-Kyiv Post

Future Ukrainians.

This project began with the messages you sent to me in April of 2025. Back then, it was your commitment that gave this work its shape. People from different countries, different ages, different lives, all choosing to stop for a moment and write something for children you will never meet. The care you placed into your words gave this project a soul. Every message is an act of courage and a way of saying that the world still has people who stand with Ukraine, even from far away.

 

This book is dedicated to everyone who lives far from Ukraine yet carries our pain as if it were their own.

 

To those who cry with us, hope with us, and stand with us, even from distant places. Your hearts have never been far from

this land.

 

Viktor Krachuk

 

To the Ukrainians of the Future

 

We are speaking to someone who will be holding this book in the year 2045. Someone who was not alive when these words were written. Someone living in a Ukraine that exists because people fought for it twenty years before you took your first breath. Not only the people here on this land, but people from all over the world who chose to stand with your country.

 

The world you know was not guaranteed. The peace you live in was not automatic. Many of us did not know what the years ahead would bring. We did not know what your life would look like, or what kind of country you would inherit.

 

We only knew that one day a young Ukrainian would open this book and find us here. So this work is dedicated to you.

 

To the child who grew up in a nation rebuilt by the courage of your parents and grandparents. To the one who needs to understand that your country survived because Ukrainians refused to lose themselves.

 

And also because people far from here refused to look away. They pressed their governments. They marched in the streets. Not only that, but they placed Ukrainian flags in their windows. They supported Ukrainian writers and artists. They gave to Ukrainian causes they barely knew the names of, but were critical of so many times. Furthermore, they did all this because they felt that your country deserved to live.________ _______________________________________________________________________ I was happy to see my letter included. If you want a copy of the book, go to this URL

https://buymeacoffee.com/vikvkravchuk/e/484087

 

David Piekarczyk