Christian Frank

No change to report; the Tsar is still targeting and murdering civilians in Ukraine.

Also, the latest news mentions that the Tsar plans to enlist 500.000 more soldiers this year. All these young Russians will be sent to their deaths so that he can continue his dream of being a powerful ruler.

What cruelty and waste of precious human lives!

The latest Covid-19 variant (XBB.1.5) seems to be a lot more transmissible than earlier variants and can easily bypass the immune reactions from the current set of vaccines. Why exactly are we reducing the recommendations to wear a mask?

On the climate emergency, the fight for Lützerath was the most significant issue this week.

Last year, the state of NRW and the company RWE Power struck a deal that gave RWE rights to burn more coal and make more profit; the state got nothing in return. Nevertheless, the state is using all its might in the form of riot police to drive climate activists from the lignite mine.

As if that was not bad enough, the ruling Greens, after having been duped by a powerful corporation, still defend their decisions and blame the climate activists instead. It would have been such a welcome change in the behavior of politicians had they admitted their mistakes.

(Sound truck, Lützerath, 1/14/23)

Orthodox Christmas: The Tsar announced a unilateral cease-fire and didn’t keep it. Not that anyone believed that he would – he simply keeps murdering people.

Covid-19 is exploding in China, causing many deaths that could have been prevented; travel advisories are being implemented.

January is way too warm in Europe, and ski tourism is suffering. Maybe that’s something that will get people to understand the climate emergency.

People who are still utterly tone-deaf regarding our climate and global heating are our Greens. They struck a pretty ugly deal with RWE to bolster RWE’s profits at the expense of our future. I’m not entirely sure what they got in return – lucrative positions in the future, maybe?

All I can say is, “Lützerath bleibt!” – the Greens will need to call in many riot police units from all over the republic to fight with climate activists and hand over their gift to RWE.

(RWE Destroyer, Lützerath, 12/31/22)

Christmas 2022: Ten months ago, the Tsar invaded Ukraine and, to this day, continues to slaughter the Ukrainian people and destroy their civil infrastructure.

What has begun as a “special military operation” has officially become a full-fledged war and will leave both countries utterly devastated for decades. All because of one deluded male who wants to secure his place in history.

The Tsar has few remaining allies; one is Iran supplying weapons to Russia to kill more Ukrainians while simultaneously killing their people for protesting.

And my government is still not sending tanks.

This week I learned that “Carol of the Bells” is a beautiful Ukrainian song Щедрик, sung on New Year’s evening.

Covid is ravaging China, and our hospitals are fully occupied.

Also, the Greens are still poised to help RWE burn more coal.

(1.5-degree border, Lützerath, 12/17/22)

The Tsar is continuing to murder Ukrainians and destroy civil infrastructure without any reason, aim or goal. In his latest move, he’s trying to drag Belarus into his war as if there wasn’t enough suffering already.

And our government is still not sending tanks.

The man-child is destroying Twitter, much like the Tsar is destroying his country. Males without conscience.

And: The Greens are partnering with RWE to burn more coal.

Wait, what?

Yes, the Greens are supporting RWE to extend and use the Garzweiler lignite mine and are preparing to use riot police against climate activists.

(Garzweiler open-pit mine, Lützerath, 12/17/22)

Winter is here, and the people in Ukraine are freezing. Can there be anything more cynical than the Tsar continuing to destroy the remaining civilian infrastructure? And murdering innocent people?

My last shreds of sympathy for Russia and its people are gone now – let them have their iron curtain back and leave the rest of us alone.

Two other ultra-conservative strongmen face opposition in their respective countries (Iran and China), too, and are violently quelling unrest, causing massive harm and suffering for the people.

And then there is our make-believe strongman, slowly destroying social media out of spite. The bird had already left my home screen; I also removed it from my bookmarks.

Not to forget Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (Turkey) and Viktor Mihály Orbán (Hungary).

Why is it always the males of our species causing so much harm to others for their gain?

(Wedding, Cologne, 12/3/22)

The Tsar is not stopping his relentless assault on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine, killing many and hurting even more.

This week he met with the mothers of fallen Russian soldiers. Soldiers he sent to conquer Ukraine and murder its people to foster his ambitions. And he expressed sympathy for their loss. That he caused. Can you be more cynical and more out of touch with reality?

Equally out of touch is the belligerent child emperor, who announced an “Amnesty” for people banned from his platform for hate speech this week. He also criticized executives from major advertising platforms for not paying him anymore.

His next big task will be to convince the alt-right to buy his EVs – if you’re a little bit open-minded, you wouldn’t want to be seen with a $70,000 MAGA hat, would you?

His actions have given federated social media networks a considerable boost, and I think our society and the Internet will unintentionally greatly benefit from it.

(Jason Weiser, Mastodon, 11/19/22)

After the liberation of Kherson by the Ukrainian forces, the Tsar continued its war of attrition against the people of Ukraine and bombed civilian infrastructure, murdering countless people.

The Tsar gets help from the regime in Iran. Not only do they slaughter the brave women who rise against decades of oppression, but now they have also started to help the Tsar by sharing weapons and technology to enable him to slaughter even more civilians in Ukraine.

Amid all of this, there is the soccer world cup in Qatar. In a shameful act of cowardice, our national team has reneged on the promise to display at least a small token of solidarity with the oppressed minorities in Qatar.

And there was COP27. The nations of the global North agreed in principle to set up a fund for Loss and Damage, which is progress, but no consensus was reached on phasing out fossil fuels.

(Boycott Qatar stage, Cologne, 11/20/22)

The best news of the week: The ЗСУ (ZSU) was able to liberate the city of Херсо́н (Kherson) and the people there from the Tsarist invaders! I am very happy for Ukraine and will continue to support them on United24 and Patreon.

Also, the Red Wave in the US did not materialize, and Democrats did not lose as heavily in the midterms as it was projected.

It was an excellent week for Democracy!

Alas, another big Narcicisst is wreaking havoc on public spaces and destroying a lot of communities in the process. If it weren’t so sad, it would be almost comical to watch the Chief Twit destroy his newest toy and sink 40 Billion Dollars in the process.

One man’s trash is another man’s treasure – there’s a great community starting on Mastodon, and it’s exhilarating to watch, almost as if a new city was born. It still has an issue with diversity and representation, though.

From the workplace: I doubled the main memory in my daily driver (ASUS Fanless Chromebox) and am very happy with the increase in speed and reliability.

(top output, crosh, 11/12/22)

The Tsar is continuing with his atrocities, murdering civilians and destroying vital public infrastructure in Ukraine. All because he wants to punish Ukraine for not succumbing to his wishes. Who could have thought that the people of Ukraine would not be happy to live in an authoritarian regime?

We observed the same behavior with Elon this week: He bought himself a shiny new toy, publicly tore off its head and limbs, and then faulted others for not wanting to play with it anymore.

That logic is almost Trumpian.

What is wrong with the males of our species?

On the other crises: There will be a central rally to protect our climate in Lützerath on November 12th.

And on a personal note, I got my BA.4/BA.5 boosters this week.

(Coffee and gift, Berlin, 11/5/22)

The Tsar has expanded his murderous spree and given up on all pretense to target military installations. During the last weeks, he has been trying to destroy all civilian infrastructure and bomb the people of Ukraine into submission.

Despicable. But some people in our government circles still want to negotiate with him, both from the far right and far left. Our aid is only half-hearted, and we’re sending much less weaponry than we could.

A very positive development this week was that Brazil elected a progressive candidate for president. Excellent news for the people of Brazil and the Amazon rainforest!

Not so good was that Twitter now has an alt-right owner and started laying off engineers and dismantling content moderation immediately. If you are on Mastodon and would like to follow me there, here’s my handle: @chfrankcgn

Even more devastating news came from Seoul, where many people were killed in a mass panic during the Halloween celebrations.

Let’s hope next week will bring some good news – the second season of To Your Eternity has started simulcasting on Crunchyroll!

(Yumoto Hakone, Redbubble & teenage engineering, 10/30/22)