This week I’m “liveblogging” my trip to Ukraine. Unlike traditional reports, these posts will be shorter and more frequent.
I’m starting my trip to Kyiv with breakfast at the United Polaris Lounge at Los Angles International Airport.
Polaris Lounge LAX Breakfast – Surprisingly Excellent
United offers cheap one-way fares from Los Angeles to Warsaw ($449 for basic economy), which I upfared to W-class for $200 more so that I could be upgraded. My upgrades from Los Angeles to Chicago cleared instantly and I used 40 PlusPoints to upgrade my Chicago to Zurich flight (upon reaching Zurich, I’ll travel in economy class on SWISS to Warsaw).
When traveling same-day in Polaris Business Class on United, you have Polaris Lounge access (United’s premium lounge) at all points of travel.
I got a bit of a late start when I realized 10 minutes into my drive to the airport that I had left my AirPods at home. With a lot of travel time ahead, I returned home and picked them up. Even that 20-minute diversion meant a lot more traffic, so by the time I parked at Mark’s place and walked to LAX it was already after 7:00 am.
Reaching the LAX Polaris Lounge, I ran into Bruce, who gave me a warm greeting. He’s such a treasure to United and his colleagues were excellent as well…the LAX ground team is superb and the Polars Lounge agents are gems.
With onbaord dining questionable these days, I figured I’d eat in the lounge ahead of my flight to Chicago. No matter what is served onboard, this was a smart move and the current menu is quite appetizing.
I began with a cappuccino and a smoothie (kale, avocado, apple pineapple), then enjoyed a bowl of Greek yogurt with blueberries and an egg-white omelet with vegetables. Delicious.
Then I decided to try something new on the menu, which is “Turkish eggs” (poached eggs, garlic yogurt, Aleppo butter, dill).
Wow, wow, wow! This dish was a winner. United should consider serving this onboard. This is a delicious dish I would make at home or order at a restaurant.
Boarding time: next stop Chicago.
You can say hi to our moron fake president while you’re there.
Dude is Ukraine obsessed
Guess $100 billion wasn’t enough. Straight money laundering at this point until they can’t get away with it anymore.
Biden announces $500 million in new military aid to Ukraine during surprise visit. “Together, we’ve committed nearly 700 tanks and thousands of armored vehicles. 1,000 artillery systems, more than 2 million rounds of artillery ammunition, more than 50 advanced launch rocket systems, anti-ship and air defense systems, all to defend Ukraine,” Biden said. “And that doesn’t count the other half a billion dollars we’re announcing with you today and tomorrow that’s going to be coming your way.”
What could America do without an America last president.
If only you were born earlier, you could have been a big Lindbergh supporter for his position that we should let Hitler do what he wants in Europe
Wut. Not today, satan. Not today.
Don’t want to defend your position that all the Ukrainians trying to defend their sovereignty should just be left to be slaughtered? I understand, I would want to defend that either
I support the Ukrainian people. Not the evil government[s] who put them in this mess to begin with. And I certainly don’t trust the same to get them out of this.
Even Rosie O’Donnell agrees on Ohio. Ukraine > Ohio for your boy. https://www.instagram.com/reel/Co4-1U4gNAd/
Biden* is obsessed. Not Matthew. I’m looking to Matthew’s reports despite having a panic attack about his safety when trying to sleep last night
You’re obsessed with Biden
Actually I try to avoid any and all news of the dementia patient when possible. But he’s destroying multiple countries at once–it’s important.
Wah wah wah. You lost the election. Suck on it
Future headline? I met Billy Bob from Alabama in Ukraine
Thank You! Silly republicans, they hate everybody!
I got something you can suck on. Ask your mom about it. She’s a big fan.
Your party has absolutely no plans to do much different other than picking on trans & gay people while the country falls apart. Oh, Your party is banning great literature for the sake of purity. This isn’t 1950. Progress always happens irregardless of how far back in time you want to take us. The entire world has been suffering from the effects of Covid shutdowns yet you blame one person. How narrow minded, mean spirited & evil you guys are! Really.
Not sure where to begin on this one but apparently you live under a rock. Biden’s set the world back by a few centuries at this point. All we need is an EMP attack from one of our enemies to seal the deal to really set us back to the stone age.
Additionally, Trumps economic policy was wayy better than this build back better BS. Furthermore, what has Biden done for POC? Not much. This is an actual plan and wayy more than what the current admin is doing:
https://cdn.donaldjtrump.com/public-files/press_assets/president-trump-platinum-plan-final-version.pdf
“No plans?” See all of the bullets on page two. Looks like a plan to me.
“For decades, Democrat politicians like Joe Biden have taken Black voters for granted. They made you big promises before every election—and then the moment they got to Washington, they abandoned you and sold you out. The Democrats will always take Black voters for granted until large numbers of Black Americans vote Republican.” –45
Furthermore, I am gay and not a Republican. And even still I am aware enough to know the trans movement is out of control. I am just so sorry that a majority of Americans are against the chemical castration of children and the forced mutilation of their bodies.
With regard to COVID shutdowns, Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. is the “one person” who mandated an unsafe vaccine on millions which let to even more of The Great Resignation and countless other crimes against humanity. You trusted the experts who told you the air had COVID in it and you couldn’t go outside to exercise.
At the end of the day, it’s not about left versus right anymore, or Democrat versus Republican or Black versus White, or any other divisive tactic.
It’s about good versus crazy. Good versus evil.
Glad to know what side you are on.
President Trumps’ plan is only a “promise” also – perhaps an empty one as well. Regarding how Black Americans have fared under Democrats, Trump’s assertions are not supported by statistics. It is an oversimplification, but looking at income and employment numbers during each party’s president’s reigns show the opposite: https://scholars.org/contribution/under-democratic-presidents-minorities-make-economic-gains-and-so-do-whites
“Under Democratic presidents, black families’ incomes grew on average $895 dollars annually, but grew only by $142 dollars under Republicans. The black unemployment rate fell by a net 7.9 percentage points across the 26 years of Democratic leadership, but went up by a net of 13.7 points during 28 years of Republican presidencies…”
On track record alone: Trump’s promises > Biden’s promises. I personally don’t trust scholars.org myself. These types of fact check articles so often stem from the overt marxist control of education. Scholars.org is backed by donors Robert Bowditch, Jr. and David desJardins, both of whom are affiliated with the progressive Democracy Alliance. Kinda speaks for itself, for me.
However, the excellent documentary Uncle Tom (8.3 on IMDb) explains much of the black communities plight, and how we got to where we are today. This film takes a different look at being black in America through interviews with some of America’s most provocative black conservative thinkers. Free on TUBI and worth watching. I found it excellent. LMK if you end up watching it.
https://tubitv.com/movies/667499/uncle-tom
Thank you for sharing your thoughts, and the video link. Yes, I watched it shortly after it was released, and I thought it was excellent and informative. I very much agree with the ideas of victimhood mindset being an unhelpful, additional obstacle working against progress, and self-empowerment being the key for progress. I also appreciated the way it framed the racist and political calculations (from both sides) that do exist. However, my point was that, from a statistical standpoint, President Trump’s comments regarding outcomes for Black Americans under Democrats is false. I do understand, and share, your skepticism about political motivations of sources – I would pay attention only to the numbers, which can be peer-reviewed by other academics of any ideological leaning.
Glad you’ve seen it and I agree on your points about it. I can’t go back to it right now but I believe there were discussions about statistics/’the numbers’ as it relates to tax code changes and other points. There are many variables and as I’ve said before, I give little credence to gov figures. If you trust them then I respect that but I can’t say that I do or ever will. A good amount of my friends and colleagues are black, I went to high school in a very diverse neighborhood, my significant others have been black, best friend is black, and they all agree Trump > Biden when it comes to economic policies/outlook. Perception is reality for most, especially over progressive talking points that never seem to align to reality, imo. My initial point was responding to T about “no plans”, as it was incorrect statement to say there are no plans. Most importantly, I haven’t seen anything even remotely close to the Platinum Plan from The Democrats. And who got criminal justice reform started with The First Step Act? Why didn’t Obama? The list goes on and on.
I appreciate you sharing the anecdotal preferences regarding the people in your circle. I would only highlight that anecdotal data usually offer a very thin slice of experiences and often do not reflect the majority.
Regarding The First Step Act, I completely agree that it was a significant step forward towards a fairer criminal justice system, and President Trump is the president who signed it into law. However, it must be pointed out that President Obama tried to push through an almost identical law in 2015, and which had overwhelming bi-partisan support, but wasn’t able to get Senator McConnell to bring it up for a vote in the Republican controlled Senate.
McConnell is a swamp creature who needs to go. He is doing America no favors. That being said, unemployment numbers always have been bogus AF for various reasons..this is well known, so I don’t consider those.
As far as the $900 a year extra, if true, really isn’t that much, and again, is likely due to tax code changes, child tax credit, or whatever else in those years, if I had to guess.
People said the same about vaccine injuries being anecdotal, but now those are being proven, so it does seem anecdotal data does have some meaning.
Also when it comes to numbers and stats you can seemingly find anything to support any hypothesis or conclusion
https://www.forbes.com/sites/mikepatton/2020/10/19/which-party-is-best-for-employment-data-points-to-republicans
I don’t put a lot of trust in big data for this reason
Without anecdotal evidence, what does he really have? Nothing.
Wrong..we have a lot. Watch Uncle Tom and get back to me. Also, watch Official Secrets while you’re at it.
I have some family members who are teachers for a reputable charter school foundation in one of the poorest inner cities up north, so I’m well looped into progressive and marxist positions. None of those poor families living in poverty, who can’t even afford basic essentials, would say they made an an extra $900 per year under Dem leadership. It’s laughable and they would also laugh at the claim. Even if they did have an extra $900, it’s gone with inflation now, thanks to our amazing leadership.
Present > past
Real world examples > biased political data
Aaron, this is what Marianne Williamson said today. I agree.
“America has strayed in far too many ways from our foundational principles. Over 40 years ago, America took a detour onto a path that has shattered that democratic ideal. What FDR had described as “forces of greed and lust for power” were loosed among us. Short term increase of corporate profits, no longer democracy, became our governing principal, America’s new bottom line.
The poor, the near poor and the afraid of becoming poor now make up as great a portion of our population as was true during the Great Depression. Their economic circumstances are only callously addressed by those who have never known the pangs of hunger, and have taken no time to try to imagine it. Washington is run by political car mechanics, technically proficient at times but with seemingly no idea what road we have been on, what road we should have been on, or what road we should be on now. They are the last people we should be looking to to get us out of the ditch they drive us into.
It’s time for the American people to take hold of the wheel now. The political class has been a poor substitute for the will of the people as the driving force of our governance, so corrupted have they become by the legalized bribery of corporate and billionaire donations.
This is not a time for politics as usual, for politics as usual has failed us. Our ship of state must turn around now, carefully and responsibly yes, but with no further obeisance to the corporate masters who have steered it so heedlessly into dangerous waters. A soulless, unethical politics has led us to a very dangerous place.
Neither political party can congratulate itself at this point. What matters now is that the house of our democracy is on fire, and we don’t have time to spend all our energy on identifying the arsonist. What matters now is that we save our house.
It is a challenge that is ours to confront, and with God’s help we can.”
Thank you for the Forbes article – it was very interesting. I believe in both sets of statistics, given the parameters and contexts each defined. They are for different time periods and durations – and, yes, it is very easy to cherry pick data to support ones preferences, so one must look closely at the parameters chosen. I would put more weight on the Forbes data because it covers a more recent period (up to 2020) versus 2012 for the scholars paper. Even so, and considering only unemployment, the Forbes shows a wash between Democratic and Republican presidencies for Black Americans. The more interesting data in the article is regarding control of congress, which shows very large advantage for Republicans. I find all this very interesting and will be looking for additional material on the topic.
Sounds good, Jake. Thanks for being patient with me. I’m glad you’re into the data piece. Some numerical data makes me feel like an emotionless robot. I can do a VLOOKUP, but ultra complex financial models–I’m all set. I am certainly not calling you a robot, but I just glad that someone has an interest in big data. I need to find things interesting to really drive into them.
I guess we can agree that from MBTI you are the T & me F?
T-weight on objective principles and impersonal facts
F-weight on personal concerns and the people involved
Kind of like the state of the world right now: TF.. lol
He’s in Floridirt, not Ukraine you moron. You people just can’t help yourself from showing the world how stupid you are can you?
We’re doing just fine in Florida, southeast of Alabama.
Looks good but would poached eggs translating well to the ovens in the air
I actually had poached eggs on United once from Singapore to Hong Kong back in the Fifth Freedom days. Was really quite excellent:
https://liveandletsfly.com/united-airlines-intra-asia-meals/
Interesting, thanks for the link. I see similar horrifying United casserole dishes were around then too, for the eggs, as was Aaron—lol. Wish I found your blog a long time ago though. Found you during COVID. Have missed a lot. 9k+ articles is a lot to try to catch up on. Perhaps you should do a recap series of interesting articles through the years you’d like newer readers to be aware of.
Have me jealous, counting down the days until I go back into that lounge! LOVE LAX Polaris lounge!
Wait, what happened to the healthy travel diet?
As I said in that post, all bets are off when I travel, which I am increasingly finding difficult to reconcile.
Not too late to change your mind from this dumb (and selfish) idea to go to Ukraine. Just because Biden does it, doesn’t mean it’s safe or reasonable for you to be doing it.
Great breakfast! Lots of vitamin D, all in all healthy if the butter was reduced a bit.
Why no yolks in your omelet? Seems reasonably low carb if the yoghurt was full fat.
I went to Kiev in 2018 to see Liverpool play and flew via Warsaw from ord as well. Took uia from Warsaw to Kiev. Alsways had a morbid interest to know if the planes I flew included the one that was shot down 🙁
I eat five eggs per day. I try to limit cholesterol as much as I can.
Don’t limit yourself too much. Having worked in medicine and spoken to doctors about this, dietary cholesterol is much less of a concern than people think, especially for someone healthy like you. Both western medicine and alternative/holistic seem to be coming to agreement on this, too:
https://health.clevelandclinic.org/why-you-should-no-longer-worry-about-cholesterol-in-food/
Ultimately it’s similar to being a war zone journalist. Perhaps more unsafe than usual but exciting and people want to read about it.
How risky do you think it actually is to be in Kiev?
Doug who went last fall said this about his experience there: https://liveandletsfly.com/ukraine-trip/#comments-674526
Wrong link sorry. here: https://liveandletsfly.com/ukraine-trip/#comment-674526
Oh yeah. That’s helpful. Thanks! Medrail lol
You’re welcome:)
Except Matthew isn’t a journalist.
Debatable. Citizen journalism, also known as collaborative media, participatory journalism, democratic journalism, guerrilla journalism or street journalism, is based upon public citizens “playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing, and disseminating news and information.