Poland - Revenge!

 

Draw Your Own Conclusion

Birds sing, roosters crow, someone's grill fills the air with the smokey aroma of BBQ and all's well with the world. Well, not really, but this little part of it's doing alright even though gas has shot through four bucks a gallon and looks set to climb higher still.

Whatev, here in the North Central Texas Military Zone all's pretty much under control, for now. But what about Poland? Here's this, from the American Conservative:

 

Ten weeks after the conflict began, it is instructive to re-examine the strategic picture. The war against Russia in Ukraine has evolved, but not in the way Western observers predicted. Ukrainian forces look shattered and exhausted. The supplies reaching Ukrainian troops fighting in Eastern Ukraine are a fraction of what is needed. In most cases, replacements and new weapons are destroyed long before they reach the front.

Confronted with the unambiguous failure of U.S. assistance and the influx of new weapons to rescue Ukrainian forces from certain destruction, the Biden administration is desperate to reverse the situation and save face. Poland seems to offer a way out. More important, Polish President Andrzej Duda and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky have both expressed the desire to erase the borders between Poland and Ukraine.

Unconfirmed reports from Warsaw indicate that after Washington rejected the proposals for a no-fly zone over Ukraine, along with the transfer of Polish MIG-29 aircrafts to Ukrainian pilots, the Polish general staff was quietly instructed to formulate plans for intervention in the Ukrainian conflict by seizing the western part of Ukraine. Naturally, military action of this scale would require Kiev’s approval, but given Washington’s de facto control of the Zelensky government, approval for Polish military intervention should not be a problem.

 

OK, Col. Douglas Macgregor takes a dim view of the Ukraine's chance of success but his point is that Poland, with tacit US approval, moves to, ahem, assist the embattled NATO proxy and so widen the scope of the war. Big drinks, massive checks all 'round and thank Gaia Raytheon's so green.

By way of context. There's little love lost between Poland and Ukrainian nationalists. Cast your mind back to the Volyn Tragedy of 1943 onwards, in which the UPA (Ukrainian Insurgent Army) tortured and killed between 50,000-100,000 Polish men, women and children, mostly women and children. Stepan Bandera, once and present Ukrainian nationalist hero, leader and Nazi collaborator encouraged this ethnic cleansing. Why? 

Because he wanted a pure Ukrainian state and Poles weren't part of this vision, partly because of that nation's history of control over large parts of what we now call Ukraine. "They ruled and enslaved us," thought Bandera and now we kill them. His people sure did. 

Yes indeed. Poland hasn't forgotten Volyn, or the Russians. Again, I leave you with this:

Cheers,

LSP

Happy 4th! Civil War Special

Here at the Compound we're wishing everyone a happy 4th of July, even as the Second Civil War rages around us. 

Pause for a moment in your celebrations to reflect on the pain, agony and grief of the conflict as revealed in this short selection of letters from the front.

Yes, war is hell. Don't forget to raise a glass to our heroes while BBQ sizzles on the grill.

Cheers,

LSP

Storm Front

Maybe it's because we don't pay enough carbon tax and don't have a ban on hi-cap magazines, but for whatever reason, it seemed like we were losing the War on Weather this morning. 

The sky began to turn green and the air became still in the Ozlike light. Very much the calm before the tornado which didn't come, although the rain did. Like a deluge. That meant I didn't go visiting this morning because I had to make the compound's sturdy tornado bunker (basement) available to the public.

Then the storm passed over and I made my rounds, visiting the sick, the dying and the bereaved. There's no shortage of these, unfortunately. But still, it meant stopping by a fine restaurant.

It also meant gauging the exponential growth of a chicken operation, and running cattle, to say nothing of pondering the militia presence in the local Walmart car park. 

It's all going on in the countryside, I tell you.

And the the storm is by no means over.

LSP

Sunday Hunt

I'd no sooner recovered from the pleasurable ministry of gun blessing, than a friend turned up from Dallas to go hunting. Nothing fancy, just an evening attempt to call coyotes.

So what happened? That's simple; we loaded up my truck, headed out to the fields, got into cover downwind and started to call. But the coyotes weren't buying, unlike the frogs, which were. Too bad we weren't on a frog hunt.

That's not to say the wiley beasts weren't there and we did hear a distant pack, yapping and howling into the night. Then, as we were loading back up to go, a lone howl cut through the starlit night, not too far away, though distances can be deceptive. Should we stay or should we go?

We left, and got a bite to eat at Dickey's BBQ Pit. This is a chain that started in Dallas and it serves "Q", which is fine by me. They were playing Waylon & Willie, which is also fine by me, as was the pulled pork sandwich, mac & cheese, and fried okra that I decided to buy.

"What's your special?" my friend asked Dickey's.

"Everything," Dickey's replied, impertinently.

You see, Dickey's does not have a Sunday "special" though your kids can eat there free, one per adult, if they're under 12. 

Ponder that.

LSP

Posh Guns

A gun I can't afford

Interesting visit to a member of the legal profession in Dallas viz. probating a will - interesting because he had an immaculate collection of Lee Enfields, Mausers and the odd American .30 in his office. A Texan variant, I suppose, of magazines in the dentist's waiting room and altogether more enjoyable - to me, anyway. After that it was a trip to the Beretta Gallery in Highland Park and a gaze at shotgun's I'll never be able to afford; beautiful bits of kit for the wealthy shooter and, at the 'doable' end of the spectrum, lots of Tikka/Sako variants. Didn't buy anything but it was uplifting to be in the proximity.

Then of course there's Climategate; ten out of ten Soylent Green points for fraudulent 'science' and a terrifying vision of, er, present day reality.

Don't eat those wafers, chaps - eat BBQ instead, better for you.

LSP

Good Time Had By All

Had a great time at a parishioner's place the other evening, there was plenty of land and an interestingly twisted tree.

A cacophany of pick-ups

Delicious BBQ and an all round good time thanks to the hospitality of Bud & Jimmie Monroe both of whom are one time rodeo champs (bronc & barrel riding) but now do something with cattle and, happily for me, support the Church. They're also supporting a colony of hogs who're swinishly breaking into the acreage to root about along a creek bed, so they'll be baited and brought to BBQ justice - but first I have to go to Anaheim to write about the General Convention of The Episcopal Church (TEC). Nightmarish prospect and an unwelcome hiatus from the riding and shooting regimen, still, duty calls.

More anon.

LSP

PS. Check out the excellent Rabbit Stew for a good riff on the perniciously Manichean PETA.