A Pigs' Funeral for a Dog's Breakfast - and other Christmas Tales

As Christmas comes to Ukraine and it approaches the second anniversary of its 'new' freedom,  there is not much changed to distinguish it from the mess the Maidan made.   While it is questionable that Ukraine would have changed had it not 'gone crazy' - twenty years of doing things wrong didn't teach many lessons about doing things right - for the mistakes, rather than being undone,  are  now magnified, more numerous and far more violent than they were before.

Neo-EUkraines' singular failure was to use the nationalist right wing extremists to unseat the former government.  No matter what 'cleansing' -  purely superficial -  the 'euro-technocrats' did to clean-up for the EU and the 'free world',  the fascist rump rules the country -  and terrifies them.  The touted 'reforms' - largely to mollify foreign investors and open Ukraine up to economic exploitation - fly directly into  the 'national power'  objectives of the right wing. The notion of making Ukraine strong by selling out to the IMF may play well with expatriots in the west, but to those Ukrainians at home, now being weaned forcefully from the 'ravages' of socialism, the switch to the higher start-up costs of a fee economy stand a good chance of forcing many of them to use an EU visa (if they ever get one) to head west like their 'betters' do, and have traditionally done.

In an apparent replay of a traditional Ukrainian form of protest, farmers descended on the Rada building two days before Christmas #1 and the 'festivus for the rest of us'   celebrated by 40 percent of Ukrainians. The funeral of a pig was meant to epitomize the effect of a new 'tax' system and the budget, on Ukrainian farmers. Farmers, formerly an 'honored' estate in the country,  are now not only expected to supply their sons for the siege of the east, they're expected to sell for less - to feed the revolution and to help the entrepreneurs sell something in Europe. Russia stops buying Ukrainian produce completely in January. Ukrainians can't afford to pay Russian prices and the EU would need an even deeper discount to take food they already don't need.   It could be the farmers see the advent of another economic 'Holodmor' more clearly than they see the coming of Christ. Both are equally as frightening - or 'redeeming', if you're 'doing lunch' in the Rada restaurant.

Meanwhile Poroshenko is off in Israel keeping warm (and looking for money)   He made a point of apologizing on front of the Knesset for the 'history' of the heroic cleansing of Ukrainian (communist) Jews during the last war. Things got a little 'out of hand' then, too.


 Meanwhile 'at the front' in East Ukraine:

                           “Adolf Hitler is together with us, Adolf Hitler is in each of us, 
                   and an eagle  (America?) with iron wings will help  us at the right time,”


Merry Christmas and more of the same next year? 

What a Month it Was

"Bless us fadda, it has been a month since me last"  post, but a lot like a confession this one will be.

Ukrainia  continues to fester over low heat. The situation is reminiscent of the joyous Christmas season (Ukrainian Catholic) with desultory shelling around Donetsk, east of Mariuople and a steady report of casualties on both sides. There are no 'trapped' garrisons to be rescued and resupplied (or eliminated). So there shouldn't be be any 'massive tooth breaking offensive' written-off as humanitarian mission, but that doesn't mean there won't be.

Kyiv has a 'new' army some 35 000 youngsters 'called to the colors' during and since the last fiasco. And what's the sense of having an army of heroes-in-waiting and not using it? I would imagine, however, that even  patriotic arms-refurbishers are demanding greenbacks up front before taking government orders these days. The only weapons Porko has been seen 'giving' to the new army, just drove off a USAF C-17 in the form of "non-lethal hardware". But we'll see. A good fight is always better than a bankruptcy.



Meanwhile the handcart has come off the rails elsewhere (Or, things are working out according to plan.). What was looking like the same old, same old in Yemen has turned into another 'coalition exercise'. This time the Saudis have taken the aggressive bit between their teeth and are practicing what America preaches on  Houthi rebels who "overran" the western part of the country and 'illegally couped' the former almost-elected President in favor of the son of the previously president 'legally couped' by AQ.  None of this, however, is in any way comparable to , say, Ukraine, for this is all about Iranian "hegemony" in the Red Sea don'tcha no?  Or illegal estoppage thereof.

America is 'officially' sitting this one out, but restocking the Saudi arms bunker,  in order to see what transpires - maybe it will be peace and good times. But a close eye is being kept lest the Ayetolleh tries to 'putin' the situation by sending in volunteers, armor, or any of that 'humanitarian' assistance. Needless to say, the civilian population, of any stripe, has been taking the rap on the nose, as the military try to avoid actually wrecking any of the expensive hardware America has so thoughtfully  provided to both sides.

A couple of interesting factoids coming out of this:  the Malaysians (of MH17 fame)  have almost done a back-flip denying that they are any part of 'the coalition', after an Malaysian aircraft landed in Saudi Arabia to rescue Malaysians trapped in Yemen and the media were told it was full of Moslem seamen, or something.

Another recent development was a unilaterally-declared halt in the bombing coming from Riyadh. While ostensibly for 'humanitarian reasons', the halt was more like the interval while the dentist changes the drill bit -you know what's coming. And it did, after 'quiet' 5 days during which the UN was able to fly about 5 tonnes of supplies in to Sanaa, the 'boom boom' restarted with an Arab 'adler tag'.

Meanwhile the Iranians continued to be thwarted trying to get 2500 tonnes of supplies in by ship.  At last report it was steaming for Djibouti, of all places,  for an international inspection. That's no guarantee 'the coalition' will allow it to dock in Yemen.  My guess?  Not!.

Porko Sings!

The finale of the recent NATO conference in Wales came when President Obama announced his latest 'coalition of the willing' to go to the support of another non-member that had been attacked. He found 9 patsies who were willing to take the fight to the  latest creation of the US State Department - ISIS, ISIL or whatever it is they call themselves.  But the penultimate announcement was far more entertaining, for NATO wannabe Petro Porkoshenko did a solo 'My Way' on a ceasefire .

Porko take it the mike

Coming off a telephonic miscommunication earlier in the week, Porko let the world know that, not only was he right about Putin 'caving' to his demands, he had the Russki by the 'short curlies' and had added 5 more steps to the 'peace plan' that he had developed long before Putin mentioned it two days ago.  Along with the 'liquidation' of the terrorists in his inaugural speech, as President of all the Ukrainians, he had indicated that peace would come from the mouths of his cannon forcing the 'rebel' supporters to saddle their steppe ponies and leave EUkrainia.

Once there were no armed 'opposers',  peace would be 'laid' on the east and they would be able to do whatever their hearts desired to become as Ukrainian as the good guys of the Maidan, or something like that.  Rather than anything punitive, he was willing to add a new law so they could speak any language they liked in the east, follow any culture they wanted. Those things would be 'protected'. But the Ukrainian 'first language' law still stands and they had better look up the Ukrainian versions of their children's names, for that's what's going on the birth certificates.

He said  was willing to forgive and forget - make an amnesty (except he hasn't mentioned those 'responsible' for deaths). I'm pretty sure there will be a few show trials of the real 'traitors', the Kyiv crowd wouldn't settle for anything less.  No sense winning war on terror without hanging a few - just to prove you were sincere. I'm surprised he's not demanding the extradition of  Yanukovich.

Porko was so magnanimous you'd almost think he won something. Actually he can't afford to not win something; the Maidan crew would have the balls off him, were they not all in punitive battalions out east. If they ever do get back home, they might well still try. That 'eastern land for of veterans' thing might be in labor camps.

Twelve hours into the ceasefire and you have the ATO (Anti-terrorist operation) forces firing celebratory rockets into Donetsk and the 'terrorists' attacking an innocent unit of the government-sponsored Adar Battalion as they  partake of a Saturday 'outing'.

Adar in trouble

Mr. Poroshenko isn't going to get the same result as he got the last time he ceased fire. And he probably got the message NATO won't be helping him reconquer the east.

Sell that on the Maidan.