Best day

I had the best day I've ever had at this job. 
THREE things I have been working on came to fruition all today.
The most valuable, important person in the office was promoted. 
Someone who felt unloved, unwanted, unappreciated - was asked to give a presentation in Switzerland - and I made sure first that he was comfortable with public speaking.
Someone else who feels unloved, unwanted, and unappreciated - was given a spot bonus (unexpected bit of money) for doing an amazing job on something really hard earlier this year. 

Yes. That's me. Making a difference. 

This is tiny Tuesday's version of what I was going to post for yesterday's minimalism mono. Remember I had that little patch of grass in my windowbox, the only grass I was successfully growing, that I called my lawn? I have a planter on my stairs that I call my meadow. I've been watering some very tall plants without knowing what they were as the iPhone has given me different identifications at different times. This weekend I finally decided these were weeds and I was going to just pull them - when something flowered. This isn't the flower, but it is a neat shape. 

Yesterday night it was SO HARD to find positive news! Sometimes there is so much positive news I have to pick and choose. 

My commentary:  The importance of Crimea is that Russia stole it in 2014. The world basically did nothing. This is a perfect illustration of why you have to stand up to bullies, even if you don't want to. If you don't, they'll come back for more. Putin had no reason to think he couldn't get away with taking all of Ukraine given everything and everywhere the world has let him get away with it. 

If Putin loses Crimea it will be a massive loss of face. My speculation on what that would mean is no better than anyone else's. 

Back to the news:  There were two separate fires in the second attack in a week. One had massive explosions. This was an attack on an ammunitions depot. The railway was damaged, which could impede Russia's using Crimea to reinforce its troops. 

To continue Ukraine's beautiful trolling, Ukrainian Presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak tweeted, "A reminder:  Crimea (as a) normal country is about the Black Sea, mountains, recreation and tourism, but Crimea occupied by Russians is about warehouse explosions and high risk of death for invaders and thieves. Demilitarisation in action." (Russia has been calling for the demilitarization of Ukraine to create a buffer between it and NATO.)

Last week, Latvia declared Russia a "state sponsor of terrorism" for attacking civilians. To illustrate, the chair of Latvia's parliament's foreign affairs committee pointed out the activities in Syria, its downing of the MH-17 flight over Ukraine in 2014, and the poisoning of Sergei Skripal in the UK in 2018. 

Lithuania designated Russia a state sponsor of terrorism. Estonia may do so soon too.

There is now a bipartisan US resolution to declare Russia a sponsor of terrorism. It passed the Senate. Pelosi told our Secretary of State that if he doesn't move forward and call Russia a sponsor of terrorism, the House will pass the resolution. 

This would make Russia a pariah state like North Korea, Iran, Syria, and Cuba. It will allow even harsher economic sanctions. Anddrey Sidorov, deputy dean of world politics at Moscow State University, said, "Unquestionably, all the sanctions they can impose against us are already in place. That's not the scary part. What's going to hurt is that the families harmed by the country that is a sponsor of terrorism have the right to file claims in American courts. Masses of Ukrainian citizens will be able to file suits." Russia has $300 billion frozen by Western sanctions. 

My commentary:  it is now estimated that it will cost $750 billion to rebuild Ukraine. I don't think Russia should count on getting their money back.

News update resumes: Russia is having huge losses. The Luhansk People's Republic, or Lugansk People's Republic (LPR) is a part of Ukraine occupied by Russia. LPR fighters staged a revolt, refusing to fight. They want to go home.


Latvia sent six more M109 howitzers to Ukraine. 

Estonia will remove Soviet Union war monuments from a town on the border with Russia.