Meaning of Putin's given name

From my decades old Russian text's my guess that Putin's given name Vladimir means conqueror of the world.

His problem is that the tilt of the Ukraine to the west is taking away his buffer from NATO.  And NATO was created as a buffer to the Soviet Union.

Ironically Zelensky's given name Volodymyr seems to me to mean the same thing.

Still here!

 I'd almost forgotten this blog.  It even took me awhile to find it.

If you know me, please let me know that you are reading this.

We have been in a senior apartment for almost two years.  Long ago I had regular coffee in a group that included three residents in the complex.  It is the only senior housing that I know of that is in walking distance of the university, of a public library, a post office, a super market, and more.

 One of the annoyances/amusement is a company that has made quite a few pages and touts them as great improvements for its customers.

Reading through the guide, I found lots of weasel works like "exciting new".  Why am I not excited?

 One, they made some changes that took away some things that I found convenient.

Two, they offered some alternatives with a certain logo but the alternatives did not have that logo.  Fortunately, the alternatives were in walking distance of the site I had been using.

I keep telling myself to send a letter to the executives enumerating what doesn't excite me.

If you are in Duluth, you may know the company.

Anybody here?

 There were a few peeks at this blog, but apparently not by anyone I know personally

Still here

 Here I sit in our apartment at Pines I.  Taking lots of long walks, reading online newspapers, and watching DVDs.

If you know me, please let me know that you are reading this.  If you do, I might just add some thoughts about the neighborhood, the local and national reactions to the pandemic, and all the various politics helpful and detrimental.

Hello, Loyal Readers

I'm still here, but so many newspapers to read.

One problem is that I can't find where I keep the URL for this page.

 If I don't get back online soon, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Vote! If you don't vote will you get even worse candidates?

 I'm still here.  But I don't get to see much about the traffic here.  I just haven't figured out just what I have to reset.

 We have settled into senior housing after selling our house.  We are in a location where we can walk to almost all the places that we need to go. 

We have cast our 2020 ballots at city hall.  We were surprised that we had to wait, not long, but it sure beats standing in line on November 3.

We are also happy that we live in a state that honors vote integrity.  We can see this by the way parties keep switching around.  I would like to vote Republican, but I haven't seen any real Republicans since Arne Carlson replaced a child molester on the ballot for Governor.

See also Dave Durenburger's book When Republicans Were Progressive.

As for the title of this article: Hilary Clinton may have won the popular vote, but would she gotten the Electoral College vote if 90% or more had shone up?  The less than 70% vote was not worthy of a democracy.

If you are an American be sure to vote.  Sorry, you don't get to vote twice this year for not voting in 2016.

Masks and government

I find it amazing that so many people don't want to wear masks because they don't want "government" telling them what to do.  Can we assume that they don't want to stop for red lights or stop signs?  Government is telling them what to do to protect others from their actions, whether its stop signs, wearing seat belts, or wearing masks.

As part of Independence Day they should read the Declaration of Independence.  There are copies all over the web including at senate.gov.

One key point of the signers was "That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed..."

Of course, all the governed aren't going to agree to each point of the "just powers",

And your right not to wear a face mask ends where my nose begins (paraphrase of Supreme Court Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., a Republican, your right to move your fist ends where my nose begins).

Test of new format

I wonder how "exciting" this new format is.  I do know the print I type is small.  I can increase the size of what I see.