So . . . Jail Again

{From now on, I will be posting/transcribing for Stuart. Hopefully, his family will occasionally post for him as well. Until I hear otherwise, expect postings for Stuart to be made by me. I will relay as quickly as possible. Oh, & who am I? I am Stephanie!)

So, jail again. Not really part of the plan but sort of inevitable once you begin indulging in certain activities. Certainly not the high point of my life.

Actually, I shouldn't say, "jail again" because this is really the first time in "jail." Before, I was in "prison" and there is a HUGE difference between the two. Jail is where they put you in for storage between your arrest and either heading out or your trial. Prison is where you go to serve you sentence.

When I use the word "storage" that is exactly what I mean. Rack them in. Feed them the minimum required. Ignore them as much as possible. (NOTE: when I speak of jail I am speaking of the one I am in. Some others are better, some are worse. This is according to the testimony of the many "professional" inmates here.)

There are no education opportunities. Medical care is VERY limited (more on that later). Dental care can only be received if you have been here for at least 6 months and then all they will do is pull the tooth. Reading material is limited to 2 books at a time and you can't get a new book without turning in your old one, and it has to be at least 30 days since you got it. (This is rough on avid, fast readers such as myself.) Religious sermons here consist of a couple Pentecostal ministers who come once a week for a rousing tongue speaking fest. (Not really my thing.) There is a television. They will (if they think about it) change the channel twice a day. Needless to say, lowest common denominator TV is the rule. Not that you can hear it anyway over the talking, yelling, barking, cursing, etc. that is constantly going on.

A brief description of the living facility. I am in a bin, triangular concrete & metal space with 9 cells holding up to 6 men each in two tiers on the back wall. The day room is filled with metal tables with attached little round seats. If you walk around the perimeter of the room (something I do lots of) it is 35 full strides around. This is referred to as the "hamster wheel." It is the only sort of semi-aerobic exercise you can get in here. It can be enhanced with trips up and down the staircase (until a guard tells you to get off), or by doing lunge steps or something while walking. Pushups are pretty common. I am holding steady at about 200 a day. More exercise than this is discouraged.

In the 6 months I have spent here I have had "yard call" maybe 10 times. This consists of being taken to an enclosed paved space where you can sit, or walk in a circle. You can see the sky but nothing else. The four windows in the facility have been painted over with orange paint that allows in light but you can't see out (except in places where the paint has peeled off). The guards yell at you if you spend too much time near the windows.

The cells are about 16'x10' with three metal bunk beds, and a stainless steel toilet/sink combo. You get a thin mat, 2 sheets & one blanket for sleeping. The good thing about this place is that it has A/C unlike many other country jails.

There are three showers for the cell block of which only one works. It is a push button thing that sprays water (REALLY REALLY HOT WATER!!!) for 3-30 seconds. Well, until last week when it broke and now won't turn off (creating a fungus ridden sauna in the shower room). Oh well.

More later.

Ukraine

Oh gods the Ukraine.

Things there are on the knife edge of doom.  I am not trying to be alarmist here but more of a realist.  Protests are one thing, Even huge protests.  But when major cities, (Lvov) begin to declare their "autonomy" from the central government and send police detachments to support the protests in the capital....  Well that is another thing all together.

Then President Victor Yanukovych, flees the capital to his home province, and denounces Coups in the capital.  Well that ratchets up the pucker factor a lot.  The odds of full scale civil war are somewhat beyond even right now and they hang on two groups.  The Ukrainian military and the Russians.  If the military decides to back Yanukovych then the odds actually go down a bit I think.  there will be a lot of chaos and killing but probably not Civil war.  Now if part of the Military backs him and part doesn't, well that is a formula for war.  The elephant in the room is Russia.  If the Russians intervene to support Yanukovych then war (and the potential partition of the country) is HUGE.  I would say the EU/US could have an influence but really they don't.  There is no chance that they will intervene militarily.  Even if (or perhaps especially if) the Russians do.  I do not see Europe being willing to militarily challenge the Russians over the Ukraine.

It is really all in Putin's hand right now.  And that is not a pretty secure place to have things.  Since I currently have a nephew serving a LDS mission in the eastern Ukraine (the Russian part) this worries me more than a little bit. 

As an aside, I asked him what people there thought of the protests a month or so ago.  He said many people there are expecting a civil war to happen eventually.  Not a good place to be.

Greetings to all

To all the old readers who may drop by to see if I am alive and to any strangers who roll thorough,  Merry Christmas to you all.  If you aren't a Christian or otherwise don't celebrate Christmas, have a good whatever.  It has been a hell of a year politically, socially, and personally.  I hope yours has been better than mine.
Enjoy yourself.  Go out and take a look up into the night sky and allow yourself to feel wonder at the spectacle.  Have a drink of something and here's to you.

Exmi

Syria

Ok, first things first. I do not see any real reason at all that we (the USA)should involve ourselves in a a civil war in Syria. There is NO upside for us at all. That being said, if our President is going to go out and tell the world that there is a RED LINE. There is this thing that if you do it, we will come and gobsmack you. In this case that line being the use of Chemical Weapons. Once it is proven that the Syrian government used the weapons, (and that proof can be problematic, even more so with the clear evidence that our intelligence services will bald faced lie to us when ever they feel like it.) But at that point,our President has an obligation step up and gob smack somebody. That is what Leaders do. What men of principle do. Sadly, President Obama isn't really a Leader. He is very smart, he is good and working behind the scenes, he can influence, and nudge with the best of them But at no point in his Presidency has he stepped up in front and LED. He didn't do for Health Care reform, he didn't do it for immigration, he didn't do it for gay rights, he certainly isn't dong it for the economy. And he is not doing it for his own RED LINE in Syria. In fact, he has now declared that he didn't set a RED LINE, the world set it. (the world is undoubtedly surprised to learn this since they, like me, hear Pres. Obama set it himself.) He gave a pretty good talk this week about why we should bomb Syria, although he then added at the end that we weren't going to bomb them now because there might be a diplomatic solution. (that sort of ends this call to arms on a low note) What he should have done was give a slightly different version of that speech the morning after the missiles flew. Which should have been as soon as possible after PROVING to his satisfaction that the Syrian government had launch the chemical attack in question. There should not have been debate, there should not have been waffling, there would have been no wishy washy asking for permission from Congress. Congress declares wars, Presidents, dare I say Leaders, launch punitive strikes. If he really feels that this is something that needs to be done, then he should have done and faced the political consequences afterwards.

Excuse me Mr. President,

Dear Pres. Obama, You are correct. We cannot have 100% security, and 100% privacy (Liberty), with 0% inconvenience. I understand that. However, if I may be so bold, I would like to suggest that we lean to the side of Liberty. I, and many others in this great country, am perfectly willing to sacrifice some Security for Liberty. Let's be honest, we have a better chance of being killed by lightning than we do by terrorists. A much much greater chance to die in a car accident. Terrorism is a threat, but our Liberty is more important than that threat. Sincerely Exmi. The tree of Liberty needs to be watered from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. T. Jefferson.

Wow. Yesterday Hamid Karzai called into question the legitimacy of the Durand Line, the British created border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. I did a post a couple of years ago on that issue and why it is a REAL flash point in the area. Durrand Line It is suspected that Karzai is pulling this out to try and pull the country together before the elections next year and make it easier for his chosen successor to get the office. If he keeps it up he may instead seriously inflame relations between the two countries. Of course that begs the question, Could their relationship really get much worse? (Short of actual Open War)

You know, four years ago I was pretty involved posting about the Presidential election in the US. I cared. this year as anyone who may have glanced at this place can tell I am no. Frankly, I find it very hard to get enthused about the election. Neither of the major candidates impresses me at all. The President has pretty much failed to get out of the blocks in the past four years. His big success is a health care plan that is a kludge. I have no real faith that it will do anything at all except increase bureaucratic chaos in the long term. and it took him nearly two years to get it done with a majority in both the House and the Senate. That is a failure of leadership. Mitt Romney, Darn I would really LIKE to support Mitt but I just can't find the enthusiasm. I really liked him when I first heard about him Then he started whoring himself out to the extreme right wing of the Republican party. I know, I know, if you want to make it in the Republican Primary you have to feed the idiots. But still. Frankly the entire Republican Party has pretty much moved so far out that I can't support them at all. I quit calling myself a Republican a long time ago when this migration to Limbaugh Land began. But they are so far out now that I can't even.... You know in the state of Georgia, Republicans in the state legislature took a Drivers License renewal system that was quick easy and efficient and turned it into a monstrosity that takes on average 4-6 hours to complete. A friend showed up at 2:30 one day and was told to go home because he would get through the line before closing at 6PM. And they did this to fight Illegal Immigration. Because so many illegal immigrants already have Georgia drivers licenses and need to renew them. Morons. Sigh I hate them all.