I'm sitting here in Babin's Seafood place thinking about all I am grateful for: the wonderful little rescue Westie; the cozy, modern apartment; my wonderful friends and coworkers; the job that keeps me in society when I'd rather immerse myself in a massive writing project, alone and crazy. I'm grateful for my health, and I pray I continue in life physically and mentally strong.

Babin's reminds me of a typical California restaurant with the dark interior, plush and cushy seating, and the sense that you are invited to linger and enjoy cocktails, desserts, and good conversations. The relaxed atmosphere lends itself to thinking, and I know most of us in our quiet, thankful moments wonder about the pain of the Ukrainian people, how they sustain life in the face of evil and death. I'm not sure that if it were me, that I wouldn't sit down on the curb and beg for a bullet.

If I lost my home, my pets, my family, all of my belongings, and I faced a bleak and meaningless new landscape of destruction and dust, massive holes in the ground, and dead bodies scattered all around me, my work and culture and land, all wasted, my mind would probably turn against me. The constant shelling and gunfire, the fear of dying in horror, in a nightmare, would end it for my sanity. 

At the moment my biggest complaint is that some of my green beans are discolored. While I sit here and gaze on the green beans, I wonder how many people that Putin has destroyed or murdered. How many people has he starved?

I noticed on Twitter that some really vulnerable African nations seem to understate the threat that Putin represents to them. Putin is a Nazi white supremacist to the extreme. It is no accident that he interrupted the Ukrainian planting season. Putin's evil will win if we don't predict his moves months in advance. Putin's evil will win if we fail to meet his brutality with equal force. It's a large picture, not a small one. 

Many of our weak minded politicians are now, and have been, capitulating to Putin's evil. To capitulate seems a lesser threat. These cowards are lining up to save themselves, and at the same time they are lining all of us up as a grand sacrifice. If we succumb to "Tucker Carlson" style fascism, we too will be killed off. 

I know most of you feel skeptical. But, several times lately, Putin squeaks out a whimpering threat about nuking us. You realize, of course, that a nuke there is a nuke everywhere. He already has exhibited his artsy mosaic of human atrocities, even shooting up a nuclear disaster site. Why are we not convinced?

Ukraine, over the past 50 days, requests airplanes. But they can't have them because we are lining up for a disastrous ending of the free world, and signing on to a new, and more heinous form of authoritarianism--with certain death and suffering. While we capitulate and lolly gag around, Putin is raising the stakes. Write to whomever you need to in order to encourage the delivery of world class weapons to Ukraine, including fighter jets. Help Ukraine get everything they need now, or succumb to fascism later.