The Prague Spring

When everything old is new again.

Early in 1968, more than thirty KGB illegals slipped into Czechoslovakia, with orders from the KGB’s chief, Yuri Andropov, to sabotage the Czech reform movement, infiltrate “reactionary” intellectual circles, and abduct prominent supporters of the Prague Spring. Most of these agents traveled disguised as Western tourists, since it was assumed that the Czech “agitators” would be more likely to reveal their plans to apparently sympathetic foreigners. Among the targets were intellectuals, academic, journalists, students, and writers, including Milan Kundera and Vaclav Havel. It was the largest intelligence operation the KGB had ever mounted against a Warsaw Pact ally.

— The Spy and the Traitor, by Ben Macintyre, pp. 30 – 31

The heartbreaking denouement:

On the night of August 20, 1968, 2000 tanks and more than 200,000 troops, principally Soviet but with contingents from other Warsaw Pact countries, rolled across the Czechoslovakian frontiers. There was no hope of opposing the Soviet juggernaut, and Alexander Dubcek called upon his people not to resist.

— The Spy and the Traitor, p. 32

Ukraine could easily have gone that way, but instead its people chose to resist.

The Guardian, 25 May 2022: Male Afghan News Anchors Mask Up To Support Female Staff

The article was written by Zahra Joya:

Male TV presenters in Afghanistan are wearing face masks on screen to show solidarity after the Taliban issued an order that all women on news channels must cover their faces.

In a protest called #FreeHerFace, men on Tolo News wore masks to mimic the effect of the face veil their female colleagues have been forced to wear after a Taliban crackdown.

The Taliban’s ministry of propagation of virtue and prevention of vice ordered all Afghan media outlets to use masks for female presenters. The decision was final and there was no room for debate, it said.

It follows a decree issued in early May that all women must cover their faces in public and male relatives face fines or jail if they do not adhere. Many women in cities such as Kabul defied the order.

Lema Spesali, 27, a news anchor for ITV in Kabul, said she was given the news of the Taliban’s latest decree on arrival at work on Sunday morning. “Two Taliban members came to our office and said the decision on compulsory masks for female anchors must be implemented.

“We had an office meeting and had to accept the Taliban order, but decided that male colleagues should also wear masks and stand by female colleagues.”

How the Word Is Passed: Prologue

There are six words in the title of this post: She can link to the Six-Word Saturday Challenge, hosted by Travel with Intent. YAY!

After years of Black people being killed by police and having their deaths broadcast in videos streamed across the world, after a white supremacist went into a Black church in Charleston, South Carolina, and killed nine people as they prayed, after neo-Nazis marched in Charlottesville, Virginia, to protect a Confederate statue and reclaim a history born of a lie, after George Floyd was killed by a police officer’s knee on his neck, cities across the country have begun to more fully reckon with the history that made such moments possible — a history that many had previously been unwilling to acknowledge.

How the Word Is Passed, pp. 4 -5

Just One Person From Around the World: Redwood City, California

This Photo Challenge is courtesy of ThatTravelLadyInHerShoes:

I have stopped watching the news….I have dropped all social media, except for my blog, which I try to keep to positive vibes…. there are a lot of folks in the world, who are everyday folks, just trying to provide food and shelter and love……….they are trying to make a living…….keep their kids educated and basically just take care of their families, without an agenda.  Me too. I think there is more of us…. Just trying to live our lives….. So, I would like to take the time to focus on one person a week to bring us together, to celebrate ordinary folks.

Feel free to join Just One Person From Around the World  by creating your own post and then share your link in the comments! Also, add the tag JUST ONE PERSON FROM AROUND THE WORLD to your post so it is easier for me to find! Thank You!

After Parkland

WILL WE EVER LEARN?

March for Our Lives, March 2108: Courthouse Square, Redwood City, California:

This generation of kids has been through the wringer. How many of them, self wonders, had to start college on zoom?

Stay safe, dear blog readers. Stay safe.

Quote of the Day: from the Lafayette Overpass

A woman with a Trump placard and humongous American flag: “We have freedom of speech and freedom of assembly. It’s called the First Amendment.” — Fox News

Self thinks it is so cute when Trump supporters quote us. About protecting . . . white rights, lol.

Authorities told the protesters they were distracting passing motorists.

Remembering Parkland and March For Our Lives

14 students and three teachers probably woke up that Valentine’s Day thinking of chocolates and Valentine cards. Not a single one knowing they’d never get out of that day.

And now we have a person in Congress who’s saying it never happened. And nothing happens to her, the Truth Denier. She even stalks one of the teen-age survivors. Stalks him as he’s leaving class, yells at him as he’s walking along.

An adult is yelling at a teen-ager who survived a school massacre. And gets herself ELECTED TO CONGRESS. What is wrong with this picture?

Stanford Alumni Letter to SAA Board of Directors Regarding Senator Hawley

If you are a Stanford Alumna, you may sign your name here. Currently, 1244 former students have signed.

To: Board of Directors of the Stanford Alumni Association, Frances C. Arrillaga Alumni Center, 326 Galvez Street, Stanford, CA 94305 – 6105

January 7, 2021

Board of Directors:

We, the undersigned alumni of Stanford University, call upon the Stanford Alumni Association (“SAA”) to immediately expel United States Senator Josh Hawley ‘02 from SAA.

Senator Hawley’s words and actions on, and prior to, January 6, 2021 are a direct and unprecedented assault on our constitutional and democratic form of government. His baseless objection to the electoral results of Arizona and Pennsylvania, his overt support for the violent mob that swarmed the Capitol, and his relentless deceit in pursuit of power all demonstrate that Senator Hawley represents not merely a different political viewpoint, but a growing fascist threat to the United States. In light of such danger, SAA must deny Senator Hawley the privileges and benefits of SAA membership, and not allow Stanford alumni and resources to become complicit in advancing his harmful and unconscionable agenda.

Senator Hawley’s statements and conduct are also in direct violation of SAA’s Code of Conduct, which states in relevant part that “Stanford reserves the right to warn, suspend or ban any person from access to constituent resources and events whose behavior does not uphold the values of respect, integrity, honesty, and fairness.”

We, therefore, demand that the Board of Directors take action and expel Senator Hawley from the SAA without delay, including a ban on his attendance and participation in SAA events and activities.

Signed,

1,244 names as of January 7, 2021

2020: The Sea Inside

No commentary, just pictures that moved self as she looks back on the year ending. Most of the pictures are ones self took, except for: the still from Tenet; the still from The Expanse; the still from Black Panther; the ballet dancers in front of a Confederate monument (which she thinks is from AP)

Sea of Images 2020