Mikhail Gorbachev signed peace accords that led to a withdrawal of Afghanistan in 1989. The Soviet Union collapsed two years later, toward the end of 1991.

Russia very quickly reverted to a similar system to what it once had and under Putin's leadership, it recreated many of the institutions of the Soviet Union, such as the KGB. However, it has an economy the size of Italy and its capabilities of coercing former Soviet republics are limited to what we saw with attacks on Crimea, Ukraine, or Georgia. It can't recreate the Soviet Union as a union of 15 republics.

A frenzied U.S. flight from Kabul as chaos descends.   link

"A frenzied evacuation of U.S. diplomats and civilians kicked into high gear, while Afghans made a mad dash to the banks, their homes and the airport. Crowds of people ran down the streets as the sound of gunfire echoed in downtown Kabul.

When the Soviet Union fell, there was adulation everywhere around the world and it was seen as a sign of "the end of history." (See book by the same title.) Everyone rejoiced except for the right wing in Russia, which recreated many of the institutions that existed during the USSR and put Vladimir Putin in charge of the task. (See the book Black Wind, White Snow.: The Rise of Russia's New Nationalism)

Reeling with transgender

https://news.yahoo.com/olympic-athlete-speaks-participation-transgender-...

The ultimatum... shift your world champion weight class in a few weeks

https://fitnessvolt.com/tracey-lambrechs-change-weight-retire-laurel-hub...

Easy, right?

A business I work for got hacked and a forwarded racist rant message "Dr. Fauci's N!66ers" went viral. Various offensive documents with absurd, Ku Klux Klan sounding language were sent out under the auspices of staff. There was later a big apology for a security breach by the owner of the company.

‘I allowed myself to feel guilty for a very long time’: the teenage cashier who took George Floyd’s $20 bill

@ TheGuardian.com, May 23, two reporters there

has horrifying stat of which I had no idea

As usual, these are birth anecdotes, not statistics, so the percent they represent is hard to say, nor does it address things like sheer numbers, costs, etc. But still worth considering, keeping in mind AA's note about the number of medical mistakes annually (my wife's was very good, but it was overseas and we got to pick the country!). Also, read the comments.

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ellenoconnellwhittet/mothers-birth-...

There is a phrase in professional wrestling called "putting over." When you help sell another wrestler, that's putting them over. Jon Stewart helped put over Stephen Colbert over a very long period of time.

Nevertheless, when Stewart came to conclusions Colbert didn't like about the origins of Covid-19, Colbert started deriding him immediately.

The movie Forrest Gump popped in to my head recently. There's a scene, after having been wounded in Vietnam, where Forrest Gump's lieutenant, Dan, refuses to move or engage anything while in the hospital. He comes back to the United States and is homeless, wandering around, and, by the time him and Forrest set out on starting on a fishing business together, he's close to insane.

This is how everyone savvy is doing it, yes ALL SIDES now, not just alt-right. It's our new paradigm. How MSM outlets deal with it, whether they filter it and create balance, or end up feeding certain agendas by covering what the aglorithms rule are hot, that's the thing: