Peter and Paul Church in Lviv


(click for larger image>

They only recently finished a round of renovations and removed all the scaffolding from the interior.

They also have a few English-language masses every week, though the one I visited seemed to have only parts of it in English.

It’s a Greek-Catholic church, and they had these open confessionals along the sides.

They also had a display honor fallen Ukrainian soldiers.

Website: https://kapelanstvo.info/

They take donations: https://kapelanstvo.info/donate/

Russian influence over alt-media expressing itself again

In the famous “deception was my job” interview of former KGB officer Yuri Bezmenov, he describes that the KGB spent most of it’s time and resources inserting messages into foreign presses.

Detailed ists of influencers

They do the same thing today. There is complete continuity between the KGB and present day FSB.

85% of KGB’s time is spent on controlling messaging: https://youtu.be/jbabq23UbGw?t=4100

0:00:00 Introduction
0:01:27 Part 1 – Life Under Soviet Collectivism
0:27:20 Part 2 – Propaganda and Mind Control
0:54:23 Part 3 – Cultural Subversion and Escape
1:07:29 Stages of Ideological Subversion
1:09:08 1) Demoralization
1:13:50 2) Destabilization
1:14:38 3) Crisis
1:14:49 4) Normalization
1:17:16 How To Save America From Ideological Subversion

Family Moments

My son has a flare for drama. We make combat planes from bristle blocks. He asks me to use my plane to defeat his, which he breaks into pieces and drops to the sound of explosions. Then he asks me to celebrate my victory, and as I do so, he makes dramatic tones and slowly reveals another ship of his which he’d hidden before the first battle, and of course this one avenges his loss.

We’ve done this four or five times already.

***

At gymnastics my son like to pay the trainer after his lesson. My wife asked him if he wants exact change, or a bill that needs change. My son asked for the bill that needs change. So he paid with his 200 hryvnia note (about $7), and received 50 hryvnias in change (about $1.80). My wife let him add the change to his wallet. I think he has about $30 worth of hryvnias.

When I was putting him to bed at night, he asked me if he’s going to be poor because he has so little money. I told him that he wouldn’t because I’d give him money. He seemed relieved. “Like when I’m 10?” He asked. “No, probably when your 18, and again when you’re 21,” I said. Then I correct myself, “probably I’ll start giving you money when your 18 and then keep giving it to you little by little. The trick for you will be not to lose it. Or, even better, to figure out how to make it grow.” Then I again I found something to add: “If you make it grow nicely, you’ll be able to then help your own children.”

He thought about this. “When I have children,” he said, “I think I’ll let them play on their tablets all day without any limits, and I’ll let them use their mother’s telephone too if they want to.”

Belarusian General presents strange map

Belarus announced joint drills with Russia to be held in February aimed against Polish, Lithuanian and Ukrainian military build-up. Lukashenko: “Ukraine keeps concentrating its radical nationalists from the National Guard next to our border. They are even worse than NATO troops”.

***

WAX seal on Art museum door

It seems to have been recently used – probably as a part of the Covid tyranny, shutting down cultural centers.

The museum was open. As you can see, the seal is broken.

Sadly, they would not let enter the museum without these ridiculous certificates they started mandating a couple of months ago.

Thankfully, most restaurants have begun ignoring them. It’s also easy to make fake ones – many of my friends have done so. But I won’t. I think compliance only emboldens them.

The restricting of museums definitely reduces Lviv’s appeal.

“am”

My 1 1/2 year daughter uses her vocabulary of three words to great effect. She’s grown quite confident and comfortable with her three words. I even wonder if her development will progress at all because her needs are so adequately met my her three words. They are “ma ma”, “ka ka” (which means dad), and more interestingly “am”.

“am” is by far the most interesting. It may mean a few things:

feed me
give me
take this

So, the other day, I was slicing a tomato in the kitchen — a little bit distractedly as my eggs were already in the pan. Marichka was in her grandmother’s arms, and she said “am”, then again, “am”, and then . . . as loudly and angrily as I’d ever heard her say anything, “AAAAMMMM!”.

Shocked, and realizing she was addressing me, I turned toward her. She appeared a bit embarrassed and reverted to her typical angelic countenance, and, having gotten my attention, said in a small, sweet, modest voice, “am”.

I gave her all the slices of tomatoes she wanted.

edit – I guess she has a fourth word in her vocabulary: “pa pa”. Goodbye.

Ex-President Poroshenko Defiant As He Returns To Ukraine To Face Treason Charges

This can cause the political instability which Russia is waiting for.

Former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has returned to Ukraine to fight treason charges he rejects as politically motivated.

“We are here not to defend Poroshenko. We are here to defend Ukraine,” he told a crowd of hundreds of supporters gathered at Kyiv’s airport after arriving on a flight from Warsaw on January 17.

“We have to unite to show that Ukraine is strong and is able to stand against [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s aggression,” said Poroshenko, who has been out of the country since December.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s State Bureau of Investigations (DBR) said it had tried to serve a subpoena to the 56-year-old former president, who it claimed refused to take the documents.

Later on January 17, a Kyiv court is expected to rule on whether to remand Poroshenko in custody pending investigation and trial.

https://www.rferl.org/a/poroshenko-ukraine-treason-/31657338.html

Senate Democrats BLOCK Ted Cruz’s bill to impose sanctions on Russia for the Nord Stream 2 pipeline as talks with Moscow over Ukraine disintegrate

Senate Democrats defeated a bill Thursday sponsored by Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz that would sanction businesses associated with Nord Stream 2.

The vote on Cruz’s measure sanctioning operators of the pipeline was 55-44, short of the 60 it needed to pass.

Democrats denounced the bill as a GOP political gesture that would have harmed relations with European allies.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10403249/Senate-Democrats-BLOCK-Ted-Cruzs-bill-impose-sanctions-Russian-gas-pipeline.html

EU launches investigation after Russia’s Gazprom reduces gas supplies to Europe

By the end of 2021 and in January 2022, Gazprom’s supplies dropped sharply. In the first days of the new year, the company was delivering to the EU only 54 million cubic meters per day – half as much as on the same dates a year earlier.

Due to reduced supplies, storage facilities in Germany and Austria were depleted. At the beginning of 2022 there was less gas in them than at the end of the heating seasons of the last five years.

“There are significant elements of shortage in the European gas market due to Russia’s actions,” said the head of the International Energy Agency, Fatih Birol.

. . . .

Russian President Vladimir Putin during a large press conference on December 21 said that the reduction in Russian supplies is due to a lack of demand from European consumers. “What is there to supply if there are no purchase orders?” wondered Putin.

A week later, at a meeting on gas issues, he said that Russia would increase gas supplies as soon as the EU approves the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.

http://uawire.org/eu-launches-investigation-after-russia-s-gazprom-reduces-gas-supplies-to-europe

Italian public TV @RaiUno has been broadcasting reports from occupied Donetsk

For the last three days, Italian public TV @RaiUno
has been broadcasting reports from occupied Donetsk. In these reports, Russia is praised for rebuilding the city, war is described as between Russia and the US, and Ukrainians are called fascists.