The Golden Hoard

Gold no longer underpins many of the word's currencies, but it has not lost its importance in underpinning the 'national wealth'. The gold reserves of Ukraine are no small case in point.


 Current in the news is the matter of the "Scythian Hoard"  an number of gold objects taken from tombs in the Crimea and southern Russia after archaeological excavation of the sites of the 'Scythians' - a nomadic people often mentioned in Greek and Roman literature. The 'Scythian Hoard' is currently being displayed by museums in Holland.

The display originated in five formerly Soviet museums, one in Ukraine and the other four in Crimea.  The recent troubles there have turned the objects into a political football. The football has been 'inflated' by the downing of flight MH17.

When such displayed objects reach the end of their contract period they are, generally, returned to the loaning institution. The government in Kyiv is claiming the objects are belongings of the state, as opposed to the museums, four of which are now inside the Russian Federation. That there were a large number of Dutch citizens on board flight MH17 and that the Kyiv government accused Russia of responsibility for the airliner's destruction, means that there might be some ramifications for the return.

But more interesting is the matter of Ukraine's gold reserves.



The 'interim' prime Minister of Ukraine - Arseniy Yatsenuk  served as finance minister in the unseated Yanukovich government. No doubt he was concerned about the security of  36 tons of gold that Ukraine had 'inherited' - like the Crimea and some other territories, from the Soviet empire, even back then. Once of his first actions as interim Prime Minister was to pack-up the national gold reserve and have it flown to safety, somewhere else in the world. It is thought that Ukraine's gold is now, safe, where nobody can get at it, alongside the US reserve  in the vaults of US banks. There to rest, as collateral for the loans and future assistance needed to turn Ukraine into a bastion of freedom.

Maybe the Spaniards could make he case that some of the gold belongs to them. The Spanish Republican government sent the Spanish reserves to Moscow for 'safekeeping' during the Civil War. I don't know if that ever came back.

Germany's 3.5  thousand tons of gold, kept in New York, has yet to be returned. Even though the Germans have asked for it.

Giving the gold away is one thing, getting it back again might be a lot harder than retrieving the 'Scythian Hoard'.

There's a Definite difference in Delsey

'There's a definite difference' or so the old advertisement for toilet-paper went. Something you could feel.  Here are two videos from the current 'reduction' of the Gaza ghetto and the 'rocket rain' on Israel.

The Gaza thing is what we have come to expect from a massive explosion, anywhere: the numbed shock amid the silence of dust obscuring the horrors, with the gradual realization, among the hurt, that they are, and the dead who are beyond pain and caring. Then the chaos descends, as those unhurt appear to help and realize that the task at hand is beyond them. In the case of the Gaza clip, the new casualties were showing-up (weapons-bearing ambulances?) to help those of an earlier strike. But how was a 'humane' rocketeer, or artilleryman, or drone jockey, to know they weren't helping terrorists, or weren't terrorists themselves? 'Fog of war' it's called. 'Collateral damage.'  "We don't target civilians."

Gaza

 In Jerusalem the stage is set with sirens, multiple sirens rising and falling in warning of impending danger. A latter day 'Blitz' - with no Luftwaffe overhead. The Wailing Wall is deserted, but not by a rushing mob, chairs and lecterns are left,  waiting the return to prayer. Some adorers gather in an  alcove, hardly shelter from the shrapnel and flechettes (the two inch steel rockets) dispersed by the modern anti-personnel round. In Gazan rockets that might be ball bearings, buckshot or whatever scrap metal that can be found (but a rocket reaching Jerusalem from Gaza,  would have to be 'bare bones' to achieve such range).

To-day there is no shrapnel, or explosion either, for the crowd has run out to see 'Iron Shield' at work.  In the sky the videographer focuses on the single, gratifying, white 'puff' in the sky.  The 'bang of redemption',  another 'successful interception'. Or, perhaps, only the timed detonation of the Iron Shield missile, self-destructing at the end of a fruitless flight (wouldn't want them falling to earth and hurting someone jewish). As it is, the Wailing Wall remains scarred only by time, not the hot steel that works such 'magic' on the flesh, bone and pulverized stone of Gaza.

Jerusalem

Videography is wonderful. On the one hand, it's the ''evidence" of such a 'successful defense' in a war made almost enjoyable for Israelis. They we're told, have time to 'feel' for those killed by the dumb threat of faceless terror. In Gaza, the videography is proof that horrors happen, lest the 'humane soldiers of Israel' say that, "They've done it to themselves" when the world is told, daily, that, "Hamas is doing it to them." It's too bad Hamas is so able to 'hide' among them, so well.

But could anybody 'hide' in Gaza? That's up to the fickle fate of artillery strike, or some bad optics in a drone image. Too bad for them.

Like the fabled quality of bum-wipe, there is a definite difference in Israel's "justified defense of its people and its land" ( the most modern of excuse - the same as in Ukraine.) The difference lies between the sophistry and the sound bite, in comparison to what is actually being done to 'defend' Israel, and how much such defense Israel needs.

From a passing comparison it seems obvious that Gaza is in far, far greater need of defense than Israel.  There are, according to  the Israelis, deeper nuances about which we may not know, unknown 'observations' that 'force them' to double and redouble the deaths and destruction. To-day another division was being called up to join in the assault. 18 000 reservists to 'see the elephant' (become combat veterans) in relative safety in Gaza.

God help Israel should the people of Gaza, or Palestine, or any enemy, ever acquire such a 'defense' as Israel deploys. I'm pretty sure, should things ever get that bad, the majority of Israelis would abandon their new  'homeland' in very short order. They certainly wouldn't live without light, water and food amid so much death and blood. That's where the definite difference lies.

The Palestinians have no choice.

Eventually the Truth Comes Out

For the past week the world has been treated to a quadruple serving of some of the greatest calumny ever devised. A Malayan airliner was felled by what is believed to have been an air-to-air missile over the war zone in the eastern part of Ukraine. While the wreckage was still smoking the Ukrainian government intelligence service in Kyiv was distributing transcripts, in a number of languages, of what it said were "intercepts" of phone communications between rebels and 'Russian' commanders discussing the downing of an aircraft and then, later, attempting to 'cover up' by removing the supposed guilty rocket unit involved,  "back to  Russia."

While the wreckage cooled, apparently that was done and a series of out-of-focus and unclear photographs, ascribed to Ukrainian "spies" and observers were given as proof of the flight of the evildoers. Added to feeble and ill-coordinated attempts to deal with an humanitarian disaster dropped from the sky into the backwaters of an active battle field, the Eastern Ukrainians and their 'Russian' commanders were pilloried in the world press. Charged with everything from preventing observers from viewing the wreckage, to pilfering belongings, to abusing the dead, the few rescue workers (Ukrainian Rescue Service) and armed rebels on the scene were clearly overwhelmed by a crash site that extended over an area of 15 kilometers.

Almost first on the scene, aside from the local villagers, were the Ukrainian Rescue Service and firemen. They set up operations at the site and started work. At the end of day one they were criticized for not moving the dead to shelter. On day two, with the help of volunteer miners, they extended the search for the dead and began transporting some to facilities in Donetsk (the off-site dead, picked up from main streets, fields, and back yards, a nursery playground, a garden, a green house, etc. some 90 bodies in all.) On day three a supply of body bags permitted the gathering of corpses for transportation and on day four they were moved to a train of refrigerated cars pending transport to a larger centre. The Kyiv government claimed that moving the bodies was "tampering with evidence". That moving them on a truck was an indignity. The people at the scene were accused of removing parts of the aircraft and the black boxes and  refusing to let the international experts, waiting in Kyiv, attend the scene (government artillery began shelling an area within sight and sound).

After the bodies were removed, the site was virtually open to anyone - reporters from a number of organizations attended, one - from British Sky News -was filmed opening and sorting through a piece of luggage before he realized how inappropriate that was and stopped. Sky News made a public apology. Before they left (an observation made by OSCE) the Ukrainian rescue people had brought equipment in to move the larger pieces of wreckage, probably in search of bodies. That prompted more complaints from Kyiv, echoed in western media. Whoever ordered them to leave is not clear. The Rescue Service had been unaffected by the 'armed guard' and had not been interfered with. They seemed to be in contact with Kyiv.

Delegations from Malaya showed up first, and from Holland later the same day. The rebels released the bodies and the black boxes. The bodies were taken to Kharkov for 'preparation' by Ukrainian authorities - who were told they wouldn't be doing the forensics. The bodies were to be returned to Holland for identification and repatriation. The black boxes went to England.

 The site is apparently "deserted",  aeronautical experts from Malaya have appeared, but the Australian PM is 'demanding' that the UN mount an 'international force' to secure the crash site and the investigation. There are artillery battles going on in the immediate area - two more Ukrainian warplanes were downed nearby to-day. The site may fall into the hands of Ukrainian forces before an international force can get there.

The world is now being treated to the standard 'honoring the dead' thing that grew to such proportions during the Afghan War. That will probably take all week, to be followed by a protracted period which could last until Christmas, before all the dead are identified. Human interest stories on the dead are rife.

Playing counterpoint to it all however - the evil that is Putin and the badness he has done.

Slava EUkriainia! Smert to Everybody!

Syria is a non-sequitur, Afghanistan is another Eden, Iraq's just not happening fast enough,  the early season hurricane's a bust, might as well drum-up some hot poop on Ukraine.

The latest?  Poroschenko signed up for a dossier full of 'protocols' Eukrainia will have to develop, in order to start making the noises required to make it really 'European'. In the interim, that tweaked Putin's schnozzola, or so the Kyiv frei press would have us believe, so that's why the Russians continue to 'allow' fighters to enter eastern Ukraine to shoot at the good guys, and make the unilateral 'ceasefire' really unilateral.

Well no self-respecting president of a republic would stand for that, so the unilateral ceasefire is cancelled and the armored and artillery units moved into place, during the ceasefire, have the green light to really 'give it to them'.

Putin, inscrutable as always, reports that gas flows to western Europe continue at normal rates. He also 'demands' that 'Poro' and the patriots stop killing civilians. Well "Nyaaah .. nyaahh!"  to him. The 'putler's ' days are numbered, don't we know.

To show that he is really and truly in Earnest, Poro dumped his Minister of Defense - mental problems caused by the stress of the war on terror - and a few of the high command - failure to supply the troops, etc. Poro's making a world class 'Eukrowehr' and the first thing it needs is a good 'deworming' - apparently the grafters and 'corruptors' that pollute the rest of EUkrainia, have the armed forces by the supply wagons - if they haven't sold them for kindling, or Romanian 'dancin' lay-deez'. Poroschenko won't have his men sleeping on sperm-filled mattresses and eating moldy bread in garbage-bag 'tents'.  No sirree  - so he's taking presidential command of the US-supplied MREs - they're only for the brave heroes of the 'Liquidation'.

The new guy at the Defense ministry , a former police colonel recently risen to high rank,  is promising a cakewalk, followed by a vic'try parade ... in Sebastopol.

That world-class military IS going to be needed - even if Putin IS a putz.

The Known Unknown

Just watched the  documentary on Donald Rumsfeld. 'The Known Unknown'.

 As Secretary of Defense in the Bush administration, and in a couple of other existences in American Government, Rumsfeld was instrumental in turning America into the 'world beater' it is to-day.

He began his political career; after a stint in the US Navy, running for congress, in which he served three terms. He was given a portfolio and worked in the Nixon White House.  He was a 'useful' tool for Nixon but he ran afoul John Erlichman who attempted to torpedo him. It almost worked by Rumsfeld was assigned elsewhere and when the Watergate  scuttled Nixon and his 'plumbing department'. Rumsfeld happily dodged that bullet.

Which stood him in good stead as an aide to Gerald Ford. Working as Dick Cheney's boss, Rumsfeld claims to have changed Ford's idea of avoiding Nixon's mistakes by not having a WH staff. He and Cheney threatened to quit unless Ford saw things their way, Ford saw things their way.

When Ford lost the election to Carter, Rumsfeld spent some time in private enterprise as CEO of Searle Pharmaceuticals where he 'turned the company around by downsizing 60 percent of the workforce, raising profits and getting a 'boss of the year' award. He also positioned the company for a lucrative sale to Monsanto. He also worked for General instruments and Gilead sciences before making a return to politics as Secretary of Defense.

He had hoped to run on the ticket with Ronald Reagan but was 'delighted' to 'make way' for George Bush senior, and that Reagan had opted not to run with the ex-president as his running mate. Reagan  would use Rumsfeld to meet privately with Saddam Hussein - offering a handshake the Rumsfeld now describes as "iconic" -  and not enough help to have Saddam beat the Iranians. He was sent because he had no direct political connection but it was thought his prestige as a former SecDef would impress the locals. It did, they lost. And I'd say it started Saddam a-thinking as to what America really could do when needed. Hence Kuwait.

Even though he was carving out a career in free enterprise, generally by paring costs to the bone and negotiating successful buy-outs, Rumsfeld was never far from the halls of real power.  The Clinton years were lean but the prospect of another Bush White House was just the kind of thing the Chicago-school believers, Ayn Rand mifflins and Neocon pattern-bombers were slaverin' about. Bushco won and Rummy and pals got busy. Dick Cheney had 'surged' ahead  of his onetime boss into the navigator's seat as Vice President - he would put his mark on that office. Rummy was picked for Sec Def and the Pentagon - with its cadre of Neocon 'warfighters' became his bailiwick.

In the documentary he guesses at the hundreds of thousands of  'memos; he generated. Obviously at some point - after the invention of a portable recording device, Rummy became very adept at hearing himself talk. Talk, and word and language, it seems, took on a fetish-like quality for him. Constantly looking up definitions and relaying them to others with his 'slant'  you might almost swear he had his retirement fund invested in dictionaries.  

The war years were good ones for him. he claims to have gone to war with the minimum he thought would 'do the job'. So when the job started to head south and eventually became the 'quagmire' he said he didn't do, things started to turn rocky with the neocons.  They got him first. By resigning in protest at 'how the war was being run' and then blaming Rummy for the quagmire from the safety of new jobs in right wing think tanks. That bruised him.  Abu Gharib polished him off.

The publication of the notorious photos had the same effect on America's war effort in Iraq as the Tet offensive did in VietNam. For all the embedding and trumpets at sunset on the media, the mall-trotters got a look up -  'close and personal' - at something that made them doubt that things they were told were right at all. Saddam's WMD's never showed up and the premise for the war had to be changed from 'self defense of civilization'  to, well, probably a good idea anyway. As things continued to not go well Rummy developed the markings of a scapegoat for beleaguered administration - he resigned (for the third time) and Bushco took him up on his offer.  He was out, the new team was in.

So rummy got to watch the denouement of his adventures in Afghanistan and Iraq from the  corporate box and I'm sure he's glad he got out before more shi*t stuck to him. Mercifully the 'A' team didn't win, either. But he probably already knew that.

Rummy come across in the documentary as the personable, happy smiling guy he no doubt comes across as. But his is the smile of the Great White - if they do that  - the purpose is to distract you from the fact that he's constantly looking for an advantage, seeking the edge.   He strike  me as somebody who gets mad, but then  gets even too. He strikes me as a psychopath."

 Robert McNamara did the same kind of thing years after his work on VietNam.  When he did that, an older wiser man looking back on some serious mistakes he seemed to be  seeking some reconciliation and even redemption. He admitted to some errors. Rummy doesn't 'do errors'. The best he could do was call Abu Gharib ' sickening'. Sickening perverted guards doing 'sexo', but the fact that thousands of Iraqis were warehoused there to 'get the treatment' didn't bother him a whit.  If only he didn't have to hear, or see that stuff.

"The good lord only knows" but I don't think Rummy has a conscience.

Otherwise he couldn't life with himself.

Where Did it Go Gyorgi? Where did it go?

Just like that, hey! presto - the Ukraine is a non-topic for the world's media. After weeks of popping-up as key word on Google news, generating a pond of ink in papers and time in media 'analysis', it's gone! Piff-paff-poof passed-away! Like it never happened.

But why? Not much, apparently, has changed in Ukraine, except the new president. The 'interim' government still sits. 'Yats' is still the Prime Minister and  'Turchy' is still the 'Trotsky' of the new Ukraine  (What do you call what would have been 'the commissar of the armies' back in the day?). The army still surrounds Slavyansk and the indiscriminate shelling of that place goes on. Lugansk remains in the hands of 'separatists'  as do other places and installations. The separatists seem to have no intentions of turning themselves over to Poroshenko's justice and mercy. The people of the region, under fire, still seem to think that asylum lies east and not west. It could be the 'nationalists' - who also haven't gone away,  and seem to be showing-up more and more, well-equipped for battle, are causing that.  Sort of like the frontier negotiations in early North America with indian allies ... watching, and testing 'the edge' ... on scalping knife and tomahawk.

So why has the Ukraine gone away?  Well, actually it hasn't. Russian sources, and some European ones, continue to report on the gas negotiations and mention the 'war' situation. Kyiv Post continues to post its on-line teasers (you have to subscribe to get the whole story) about the wonderfulness that is Ukraine - good for tourists - and the 'badness' lying off to the east. Poroshenko has his 'pen in his hand' to sign on to the 'Euromarket' but they're having some procedural difficulty. All is 'good for the end of the month' - unless that war is still on. Not much of this shows up at first click, you have to do  a search.

So it looks like the west is killing the story, so the 'sheeple' don't get bored, or overly concerned, as the Ukrainian 'army' makes the 'big push'.

In news to-day the Ukrainian government was accusing Russian tanks of "crossing the border" - 3 of them, to be exact - videoed some 40 miles from the border - they were captured from the government forces ( oops Kyiv forgot to mention that) last week. The Russians had a motion coming before the Security Council and were accusing the Ukraine of firing 'indiscriminate' weapons into Slavyansk. Gas negotiations had stalled.

And what had knocked Ukraine off the boards  - well not much: Bowie Bergdahl was one; Boko Haram and their schoolgirls has been off and on; thinking about a future 'president' Hilary distracted America, as did the stealing of Kasey Kasem. Until the  (on-going but again largely-ignored for the past six months) 'situation' in Iraq took a noticeable turn for the worse yesterday, there was nothing much doing.


But since the bad news from Iraq, why Ukraine has reappeared as well. Bad news loves company, or maybe this will be a long awaited 'success' story.

I wouldn't be wagering the grocery money.

Hail to the Chief

Poroshenko, the 'Candy-Man' ,was anointed head of novo-Ukraine yesterday before the crowned heads - or rather elected officials -  of the EU and the 'free' world.

His keynote speech, heralded to-day in some circles, as a masterpiece of  "telling it like it is", or "standing-up to terror",  certainly doesn't give much hope for peace in Ukraine.


Coming off a media-inspired 'euphoric moment' because he actually crossed eyes with Putin at the beaches of Normandy luncheon and was welcomed by into the pantheon of "global leadership", Porochenko said nothing he hadn't said before - other than that another set of 'peace discussions' were in the offing. What he emphasized, however, seems important,  for it's unlikely to be 'bullshit'  as part of an inauguration speech, right?

 The first important thing is Crimea - Ukrainian,  past, present and future. That is a 'main aim' for his Presidency - getting Putin to give it back. He claims to have pointed that out to Putin, in France, if he didn't tell him anything else. I'd bet the Crimeans wouldn't need to be consulted, or care either.

Along with Crimea goes all the 'territorial integrity' of that blessed land. So the Poles won't be getting theirs back either.  Not without a fight.

And that brings up the notion of the 'existential threat' to Ukraine from its many surrounding 'enemies'.  (You've heard that song before?) Ukraine, according to ex-interim president (and current generalissimo and war spokesperson) 'Turchy' - is fighting "for the world" folks. Yeppers, those orange-ribbon dudes and dudettes are a global threat - to you and I!  So that's why we need to send money to  help Ukrainia 'liquidate' them for us.

The new President seems to be infected with that paranoia.

Job one, however, seems to be a need to 'redevelop' Ukraine's military industrial complex which, somehow, has fallen on hard times. Never mind that Ukraine, when it declared its independence, was home to some of Russia's largest, most modern and best weapons design and manufacturing installations. To  this day Ukraine maintains the Russian ballistic missile fleet and supplies weapons and ammunition around the world. But the 'complex' has been used as somebody's cash cow and now can't supply, nor equip, the forces needed to put down an essentially civilian insurrection.

Building all those weapons for the new 'punker-pan divisions' will put the Ukraine back to work! And back on easy street.

He'll have no truck with terror!  But he's all 'up' for  peace and doesn't even want any "revenge" (probably a mis-translation). Unless you're a 'bad guy' - like the guys 'running' the eastern regions who don't live in Europe or a five star hotel - the 'evil doers' who have "blood on their hands"  (presumably excluding the 'good guys' of Privaty Sektor and the phalangist militias who've been unofficially 'bleeding' lots of 'bad guys'). They won't be at any table he's at! They'll be 'at the wall'.

But what will Poroschenko do if those who do show up to 'talk', tell him he needs to stop the 'crap', like those who have already done that, twice, to 'Yats and Turchy'?

New boss - new 'discussions' - better invitation list?

Poroschenko is going to have to 'truck' with the gunmen ...  if he wants peace. What he really wants, however, is NATO to come fix things.

After the show was over it was outside to review the troops and what could easily have been an assassination attempt.  I'm pretty sure that notion passed through Poro's thick skull as he had to have noticed the young guardsman (video below) lower his bayonet (that sharp, 'pig-sticker' thingy on the end of his 'gun' to the uninitiated)  into his field of vision. Poroshenko, to his credit, 'sailed by' like the ship of state he now truly is. But I'll bet, had he had Akademi back-up, that kid would have been 'neutralized' on-camera,  and a splendid national moment thoroughly messed-up.

Next time, I bet, he will -  it was, security-wise, just too close a call.

Honor guard. Oops!

D-Day + 25 550

The world, it seems, is celebrating the 70th anniversary of the Invasion of Normandy by the Allied forces in 1944.  Some of the few remaining participants gather again to recollect that momentous day. And with them gather the 'global leaders' who either maintain the 'peace and  freedom' that invasion was meant to secure, or try to remove it, again. The validity of that  statement depends on one's perspective. This year, as in other years, it has absolutely nothing to do with the festering sore that remains the middle east. This year it has everything to do with the Ukraine, and more specifically the 'unwanted' guest, Vladimir Putin - world-pariah and President of the Russian Federation.

And what did Putin do to incur the wrath of civilization? Well not much at all. Other than upsetting a fairly well-designed American apple-cart. He messed with the 'democratization of the Ukraine'.

But holy moly bat-wanger wasn't the Ukraine already a democracy?

Well technically, since 1992, it has been - or at least it hasn't been a Soviet Socialist Republic - even though it had 'democracy' of a sort, then, as well. Problem is, that wasn't the right sort, and  neither, apparently, has the kind they've had since. It hasn't been made more perfect, like it should. You see friends, what's been wrong is that Ukrainians have insisted on electing themselves a series of 'kleptocracies' - democratic elections  of crooks who steal the country blind to  'get ahead'.

Now in some Ukrainians - particularly the oligarch class of Ukrainians - (Russians and a few other ex-soviets as well) that 'go-getting entrepreneurial spirit' is praised and rewarded with Cypriot bank accounts, lavish holiday homes in Spain and English football teams.  But what happened in practice is that Ukraine has  been "stolen into bankruptcy" and requires a massive bail-out, which, because it wasn't 'attached', wasn't necessarily coming from the west without an elaborate system of jumpin' through hoops. The Bank  of Ireland had offered to float a $15 billion dollar bond issue but wasn't guaranteeing more that a 10%  return to Kiev. That's when Putin reared his close-clipped head.

Putin, fresh from a world-class 'eclat' at Sochi,  was offering the necessary $15 billion but it came with strings attached. Those strings were a closer alignment to the newly-developed Russian-Asian trade bloc Putin was trying to set up between the former elements of the USSR. That orientation offended a number of Ukrainians who had been pushing for a 'pivot west' for EU and NATO membership. And it offended America.

An American  'investment' of $5 billion in 'democracy' got the Kievans and a few others out on the streets, starting in November, in an attempt to sway, at first, and then overthrow the administration of President Yanukovich. When the protest turned violent and after a number of people had been killed in Kiev, Yanukovich took flight and 'abandoned' his government. An interim group was self-ratified and took over.

One of their first actions  was  to pass legislation to enshrine Ukrainian as the only 'official' language in a country more than half populated by Russian speakers. The 'russian-ukrainians' in Crimea , who had already tried separating from Ukraine 4 years ago, 'took the bit between their teeth', blockaded Ukrainian military and government posts and declared their regional government the only legitimate one for them. They held a referendum on  separation, got a resounding 'yes' vote, declared independence and asked  to join the Russian Federation.

Putin was delighted.  Crimea is Russian again.

Of course that didn't delight everybody else, some claimed that Putin had actually "invaded" Crimea, held that referendum at gunpoint and then 'annexed' the place.  But the 'coup',  if there was a coup, was  far less bloody and destructive than the 'wilding' in Kyiv.  Ukraine, however, still wants its Crimea back ... or $90 billion in reparations.

At the same time, more or less,  the 'east' went sour.

One of the new 'interim' government's first actions was to deploy the Ukrainian 'nationalist militia' groups and the better units of the army to 'danger points' - Odessa in the West, the Crimean border, obviously, and the larger deployment into the eastern regions of the country. The ostensible reason for all  this was the loudly-bruited "imminent threat" of a Russian invasion of the Ukraine. When regional government,  loyal to Yanukovich, collapsed,  disorders followed in eastern cities between 'russians' (some  bussed-in from russia)  and 'western' Ukrainians (bussed-in from Kyiv,  Lviv etc)  for pro-Ukraine demonstrations.  Oligarchs were appointed to govern three of the regions. Disorders continued to spread and the Ukrainian forces were faced-down by local civilians - often surrendering weapons and equipment at civilian checkpoints. Armed groups removed the vestiges of Ukrainian control in a number of places in the east,  and set up local administrations on the Crimean model. One notable spot was the town of Slavyansk, which is located over salt mines that are used as one of the largest arms storage depots on earth. 

The response on the interim government was to call for a 'mobilization' (of the Maidan patriots into a National Guard)  and declare "war" on what they now termed  armed ''terrorists" in the east. The eastern army was immediately reinforced with 'ad hoc' NG units sent to spurious 'training camps' in the east -  as well as a deployment of heavy equipment. This has continued with deployment of a 'Special Forces' unit and, lately, 'volunteer militia units' - usually affiliated with one of the ultra-nationalist groups tasked with 'defending the motherland'. Last week tank units were being moved into  the two apparently "besieged"  'hotspots' around Slavyansk and Luhansk.

Surprisingly, none of this seems to be going well at all - with government forces receiving some sharp knocks and an apparent disconnect between regular forces and the 'auxiliaries' who seem to get the 'easy jobs' - shooting-up civilians rather than facing-down their opposite numbers.  It could be that a NG unit was responsible for a 'massacre' of 17 soldiers blamed on the 'terrorists'. The government gunships that shot-up the unit, after the attack, certainly didn't help and might well have killed some survivors. Just this week the 'rebels', now largely told-off as being 'interlopers' from Russia, seized a border crossing and security station just outside Luhansk, while separatists in the city did the same to two government outposts after a UAF strike fighter rocketed the city's administration center.

The government forces blockading Slavyansk continue to settle for bombarding the outlying areas rather than launching the 'final assault' they've been promising for a month. Maybe when the tanks arrive.

So, then, what all this got to do with D Day? While one part of the world focuses on Putin's purported 'evildoing' as, somehow, antithetical to the events of 70 years back, they aren't comparing the two 'invasions' at all. Although Putin's was smaller, infinitely less notable and actually as the result of an 'invitation' by the locals,  it wasn't as 'right' as the one that started the liberation of Europe. To hear it, he's 'enslaved' the Crimea and damaged the Ukraine for no good reason, his 'invasion' not at all like the one that took the Allies to France.

I'm inclined to think that Poroshenko, president-elect of the 'new' Ukraine, at D Day, is a real affront to  the spirit of that time. He represents a dimension of the Ukraine that sided with the Nazis to kill Russians (and Poles and Jews) to make a 'better', free -er Ukraine. That same evil spirit is being visited on the innocents, again, to-day. That, to-day, it is wrapped in 'democracy' and involves money,  is no reason it should be tolerated any more than it was on June 6th all those years ago.

Reenactors gone Nuts.

Years ago I drove into a civil war 're-enactment' area near Gettysburg in Pennsylvania. The fist indication of that was passing a 'convoy' of truck-towed horse trailers and  a flatbed with three 19th century field cannon, on the Interstate. The second was a group of  barefoot  'johnny rebs'  walking barefoot along the side of a tarmacked road running west from the Gettysburg National park. The industrialized campsite-cum-parkinglot-cum sutlers mart-cum battlefield hoved, shortly, into view and I just had to stop.

Reenacting in America is big business, and deadly serious. It is a 'celebration of heritage' engaged in by a growing number of American doctors, lawyers, indian chiefs and anybody else with the boodle to buy an outfit and two weeks annual holidays to travel to an 'engagement'.  Life 'as it was' is relived 'en bivouac'. There are babies born, marriages made and I'm pretty sure  - should somebody have the misfortune to pass away - that - along with reverend chaplain and the bugle serenade - he, or she,  could get the ministrations of the camp embalmer with his turpentine and formaldehyde enema machine - suitably corked, boxed  and shipped off to loving family for a hero's (sanitary) interment. It's a lifestyle.

That Sunday it was disconcerting to see a modern-day ambulance drive into a 19th century "cavalry melee" to pick up a participant wounded by a replica 19th century pistol-shot carelessly left in a replica 19th  century pistol by a 21st century 'hoss sojer'. The 'carefree' individual was never found - everybody was, after all,  dutifully discharging 'blanks' from whatever 19th century weapons (replicas) they had - as the PA system directed the battle ("From the right side of the field you will now observe Montgomery's Royal Peruvian Horse Marines storm the position known as the Candelabra - well done Captain Jack Pearson, of Pearson's Hardware in Muncie, Indiana - a valiant show, boys, a valiant show!")

The 'show' has spread to other historical periods, The Romans are again on the march -  'mille passus vivat'.   Roundheads still 'press pike' with Cavaliers.  Redcoats of all description take on all their historic foe(s). We even dig trench systems to go 'over the top' (watch for much more of this in the next four years) and reprise the 'Big One' - DubleyahDubleyah two .. on land sea and in the air.

Is it any wonder, then, that looking at the situation in Ukraine, it would be a surprise to see 'Taras Bulba' himself ranting in the Maidan?  Shaven topknots and wild mustachios being virtually 'de rigeur' in the 'new' Ukraine. Baggy pants and pointed boots are the rage - if you can get them.  The Russians have their cossacks in 'traditional dress' as well. That 'tradition' also plays into more recent, and far nastier, history - with 'nationalist' units sporting the uniforms and badges of their fascist grandsires and 'communist' units sporting the star and accoutrements of the the Red Guard. Indeed those old 'politics' are once again roiling the surface for 'payback'. The re-enactment that had a touristy,  educative sort of value, a few years ago, is now promising practical demonstrations of Cossack swordsmanship on the 'enemies and terrorists' opposing progress, or 'selling out to the west'. "Smert to_____" - fill in your own blank it is the EuroMaidan password.

If it wasn't for the tragedy involved, this  might be entertaining. For a lot of people in high places, I'm afraid that it is and was intended to be .. entertaining, or a distraction from something else, more important and far closer to home.  We'll have to wait and see why this is happening at all  and why  now? For the Ukraine, sadly, it's no reenactment - it's the real thing .... again.

Propaganda - as it Should be Propped.

 If there is any propaganda being slung around the 'free world' about the situation in the Ukraine - the world that will be expected to pull the Ukrainian irons out of its fire - it's NOT coming out of Russia. Objectively, nobody - including the Russians,  'need' the Ukraine as much as they require a brain aneurysm. The Ukraine is the economic millstone that could very well sink the world bank.  If it doesn't cause a war first.

But objectivity is in short supply when you're thinking about a one-world system with you in charge. So we have this from the US State Department. So's we all will know the dirty liars who  lie when we hear about it on Fox News.

No amount of propaganda can make right something that the world knows is wrong.” – President Obama, March 26
 
Russia continues to spin a false and dangerous narrative to justify its illegal actions in Ukraine. The Russian propaganda machine continues to promote hate speech and incite violence by creating a false threat in Ukraine that does not exist. We would not be seeing the violence and sad events that we've witnessed this weekend without this relentless stream of disinformation and Russian provocateurs fostering unrest in eastern Ukraine. Here are 10 more false claims Russia is using to justify intervention in Ukraine, with the facts that these assertions ignore or distort.

 

1. Russia Claims: Russian agents are not active in Ukraine.

Fact: The Ukrainian Government has arrested more than a dozen suspected Russian intelligence agents in recent weeks, many of whom were armed at the time of arrest. In the first week of April 2014, the Government of Ukraine had information that Russian GRU officers were providing individuals in Kharkiv and Donetsk with advice and instructions on conducting protests, capturing and holding government buildings, seizing weapons from the government buildings’ armories, and redeploying for other violent actions. On April 12, armed pro-Russian militants seized government buildings in a coordinated and professional operation conducted in six cities in eastern Ukraine. Many were outfitted in bullet-proof vests, camouflage uniforms with insignia removed, and carrying Russian-designed weapons like AK-74s and Dragunovs. These armed units, some wearing black and orange St. George’s ribbons associated with Russian Victory Day celebrations, raised Russian and separatist flags over seized buildings and have called for referendums on secession and union with Russia. These operations are strikingly similar to those used against Ukrainian facilities during Russia’s illegal military intervention in Crimea in late February and its subsequent occupation.

Since the Communist Revolution, and even before that, Ukrainians have served in the armies of Russia. They may have had their own linguistic units, but the traditions and other aspects of service are the same for both Ukrainians and Russians. Until the recent 'appointment revolution' Ukrainian forces used the same organizational structure and equipment and even trained with the forces of the Russian Federation  - some recently-displayed satellite imagery is purported to display Ukrainian forces on maneuvre in Russia.  The dress and equipment of these 'Russian agents' is no different from that carried in many cases by Ukrainian militias present at, or after, the Maidan protests. It certainly does not identify them as Russians (a complaint from the Crimea about "unidentified forces"). A check of correspondent sources and native footage from U Tube, will indicate that even considering the dress - these people are far from 'professional' or even 'trained' military. It's a jacquerie in camo. 

The Order of St. George was an old czarist award, the distinctive ribbon of which was resuscitated at the end of WW2. It, too, is common to Ukrainians as well as Russians.

2. Russia Claims: Pro-Russia demonstrations are comprised exclusively of Ukrainian citizens acting of their own volition, like the Maidan movement in Kyiv.

Fact: This is not the grassroots Ukrainian civic activism of the EuroMaidan movement, which grew from a handful of student protestors to hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians from all parts of the country and all walks of life. Russian internet sites openly are recruiting volunteers to travel from Russia to Ukraine and incite violence. There is evidence that many of these so-called “protesters” are paid for their participation in the violence and unrest. It is clear that these incidents are not spontaneous events, but rather part of a well-orchestrated Russian campaign of incitement, separatism, and sabotage of the Ukrainian state. Ukrainian authorities continue to arrest highly trained and well-equipped Russian provocateurs operating across the region.

There is no evidence of any of this. Russians are not being 'bussed in' for demonstrations. That would after all involve crossing a heavily-guarded Ukrainian border. The same cannot be said for 'pro-Ukrainian protestors' or police units bussed into the east from west Ukraine.

Ukrainian authorities continue to arrest, and detain without trial, a large number of 'subversives' - some right-wing Ukrainians but, for the larger part 'ethnics'- Russians, Poles and others.

3. Russia Claims: Separatist leaders in eastern Ukraine enjoy broad popular support.

Fact: The recent demonstrations in eastern Ukraine are not organic and lack wide support in the region. A large majority of Donetsk residents (65.7 percent) want to live in a united Ukraine and reject unification with Russia, according to public opinion polls conducted at the end of March by the Donetsk-based Institute of Social Research and Policy Analysis. Pro-Russian demonstrations in eastern Ukraine have been modest in size, especially compared with Maidan protests in these same cities in December, and they have gotten smaller as time has progressed.

There is no clear leadership, on a regional basis, of the widespread and diffuse protest movement in the eastern Ukraine, rather than a city-oriented media event, it is real and focused in the countryside.  Centralization of effort and a governmental structure  is a situation the protestors should try to rectify. The "appointed leadership" of the "revolutionary" government of Kyiv is out-of-touch,  not only with the local people, but also with local security forces. The Regional governor now holds court in a hotel rather than a government centre.

While the 'Maidan' protests against the Yanukovich government may have been larger,  the 'pro-ukraine' element is now missing from the demonstrations and the occupation of government facilities is an innovation. 

An 'appointed government' in Kyiv is, obviously, not what the 'Maidan protestors' of Donetsk wanted.

4. Russia Claims: The situation in eastern Ukraine risks spiraling into civil war.

Fact: What is going on in eastern Ukraine would not be happening without Russian disinformation and provocateurs fostering unrest. It would not be happening if a large Russian military force were not massed on the border, destabilizing the situation through their overtly threatening presence. There simply have not been large-scale protests in the region. A small number of separatists have seized several government buildings in eastern cities like Donetsk, Luhansk, and Slovyansk, but they have failed to attract any significant popular support. Ukrainian authorities have shown remarkable restraint in their efforts to resolve the situation and only acted when provoked by armed militants and public safety was put at risk. Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) observers have reported that these incidents are very localized.

Given the presence of large Ukrainian military formations, as well as the greater part of the new "National Guard"-in-training camps, stationed in the eastern regions there is every likelihood that, if local security forces cannot contain the protests, military force will be used. The President issued that threat himself yesterday. 

Should the Ukrainian armed forces fire on Russian demonstrators - the effect on 'russian sympathizers' in the local military and security units could be 'revolutionary'. Civil war is more than a  distinct possibility,  a counter-revolution could also be a reality. 

Right now the 'appointed government' could not win an election, let alone a regional  referendum. They can't survive (politically) another 'Crimea'. They'll fight - civil war. 

Their 'best case scenario' is getting the UN to send forces to bring the eastern regions (terrorists) to heel. The President made that request of the UN to-day.

The protests are under-reported. From what I have observed there is only one consistent western source at work in the Eastern regions at present - Vice News. Even that reporter has made note  of widespread resistance to the movement of Ukrainian military forces. One of these may have led to yesterday's reports of casualties in a clash between security forces and protestors. There are a number of checkpoints and roadblocks set-up by local 'authorities'. One was videotaped disarming a Ukrainian security unit on Thursday.

5. Russia Claims: Ukrainians in Donetsk rejected the illegitimate authorities in Kyiv and established the independent “People’s Republic of Donetsk.”

Fact: A broad and representative collection of civil society and non-governmental organizations in Donetsk categorically rejected the declaration of a “People’s Republic of Donetsk” by the small number of separatists occupying the regional administration building. These same organizations confirmed their support for the interim government and for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.

There is no "People's Republic of Donetsk',  although to some protestors think that should be the outcome of a referendum on independence to be held early in May. What "the broad and collective representation of civil society" will do remains to be seen. At present they aren't protesting the pro-russian protests.

6. Russia Claims: Russia ordered a “partial drawdown” of troops from the Ukrainian border.

Fact: No evidence shows significant movement of Russian forces away from the Ukrainian border. One battalion is not enough. An estimated 35,000-40,000 Russian troops remain massed along the border, in addition to approximately 25,000 troops currently in Crimea.

There could have been more Russian troops present for the military exercises just after the new year, we don't know how many were involved. By the same token we don't know exactly how many are there now. What we do know is that it IS Russian territory, so they're not where they should not be.  We also know that they are not present close to the border in any appreciable number - NBC send a news team that traveled, freely,  the length of the Russian side of the border with Ukraine and noted an absence of troops. Some were reported but they were small detachments and were known to be there - ie not hidden. 

Military logic would dictate that you don't telegraph your punches, or leave yourself open to a 'spoiling attack' when planning to invade an enemy, and if you just want to threaten, you don't hide your strength. Given the 'evidence' it would appear that the Russians are militarily incompetent. They're not hiding anything and what they do have is laagered, parked in the open, in  straight rows, with little obvious accommodation for personnel.

7. Russia Claims: Ethnic Russians in Ukraine are under threat.
 

Fact: There are no credible reports of ethnic Russians facing threats in Ukraine. An International Republican Institute poll released April 5 found that 74 percent of the Russian-speaking population in the eastern and southern regions of Ukraine said they “were not under pressure or threat because of their language.” Meanwhile, in Crimea, the OSCE has raised urgent concerns for the safety of minority populations, especially ethnic Ukrainians, Crimean Tatars, and others. Sadly, the ethnic Russians most at risk are those who live in Russia and who oppose the authoritarian Putin regime. These Russians are harassed constantly and face years of imprisonment for speaking out against Putin’s regular abuses of power.

Until the recent development of the revolutionary government, all Ukrainians seemed to suffer alike - the golden pheasants and oligarchs excepted. Language was no guarantee of a benefit. With the revolution the notion of some Ukrainians being 'better' than other Ukrainians came to the fore. Call them stupid if you will,  but one of the  very first edicts of the "revolutionary government" was making a minority language the 'lingua franca' of the new regime. Shutting Russian-speakers out may not be a direct threat, but assuming they all learned to speak Ukrainian - their names would still indicate their 'Russian-ness'. In good times that might not be a problem. With the soup line looming, and the memory of the Holodmyr now  a national treasure, it is.

8. Russia Claims: Ukraine’s new government is led by radical nationalists and fascists. 

Fact: The Ukrainian parliament (Rada) did not change in February. It is the same Rada that was elected by all Ukrainians, comprising all of the parties that existed prior to February’s events, including former president Yanukovych’s Party of Regions. The new government, approved by an overwhelming majority in the parliament -- including many members of Yanukovych’s former party -- is committed to protecting the rights of all Ukrainians, including those in Crimea.

Other than the two metrosexuals who are speaking for everybody, we don't know just what form the revolutionary government has already taken. We do know that some 'evildoers' have fled. We know from a televised fistfight that some Ukrainian politicians are disliked by other Ukrainian politicians in their revolutionary government. We also know that what goes on in Kyiv and the cities, bears little resemblance to what is going on in the country itself. It is very likely that Ukraine is too fractured to be maintained in its past form - even if all Ukrainians agreed.

9. Russia Claims: Ethnic minorities face persecution in Ukraine from the “fascist” government in Kyiv. 

Fact: Leaders of Ukraine’s Jewish as well as German, Czech, and Hungarian communities have all publicly expressed their sense of safety under the new authorities in Kyiv. Moreover, many minority groups expressed fear of persecution in Russian-occupied Crimea, a concern OSCE observers in Ukraine have substantiated.

The Jews of the Ukraine early on expressed concerns about the way the protests seemed to be headed. While they have since expressed their 'confidence' in the revolutionary government, figures of 'aliyah' emigrations processed from the Ukraine since March first are up more than 400 percent as reported by the Jerusalem Post. The Crimean Tatars were, supposedly, making a joint case with the revolutionary government, apparently the Crimean Tatars resident in Crimea  have made an agreement with the Crimean government. Sooooo? I'm sure the Poles would just love to 'assist' Ukraine by regaining their former eastern provinces, annexed  by the Soviets as in 1939 and attached to the Ukrainian SSR in 1954.

 Addendum: The UN human rights body yesterday announced it could find no evidence that Russians were under threat in the 'new' Ukraine. This report was developed over two visits lasting 4 days. Since then, two 'russian' presidential candidates have been publicly assaulted. A russian member of the legislature was removed while making a speech and there was a fist fight there started by Nationalist politicians after remarks made by a 'russian-speaking' member. A womens' group protesting the detention of 20-odd Berkut members was assaulted by a gang of nationalist toughs in the Maidan Square yesterday. Isolated instances perhaps, but evidence of some sort that all is not right. These things  weren't happening 3 months ago.

10. Russia Claims: Russia is not using energy and trade as weapons against Ukraine.

Fact: Following Russia’s illegal annexation and occupation of Crimea, Russia raised the price Ukraine pays for natural gas by 80 percent in the past two weeks. In addition, it is seeking more than $11 billion in back payments following its abrogation of the 2010 Kharkiv accords. Russia’s moves threaten to increase severely the economic pain faced by Ukrainian citizens and businesses. Additionally, Russia continues to restrict Ukrainian exports to Russia, which constitute a significant portion of Ukraine’s export economy.

Russia has for years supplied natural gas and fuels to Ukraine at well-below the market price in the EU. The Russians pipe their fuel to their EU markets through the Ukraine,  for which a royalty is paid. Part of this 'discount'  was to pay  'rent' on the Russian naval installation at Sebastopol (an autonomous administrative unit within the Ukraine). Both the installation and the autonomous unit of Sebastopol are now part of the Russian Federation - no further rentals are required.

For the past three years the Ukraine has been unable, or unwilling, to pay for the fuels that have been received, used or (if the 'revolutionary government' is to be believed) stockpiled. The bill now amounts to some 1.2 billion dollars.

So with the straitened condition of the Ukrainian revolutionary republic - waiting for an EU bailout package and other western loans - that fuel bill is more than outstanding. 

Add to that more 'stupid' comments from the 'revolutionary' government about not paying the bill and you have the Russians  wondering if there is an agreement they should be honouring at all. They have announced a rise in price to the EU level but  they have yet to turn off the flow of  'free' gas. That might well be a next step in 'calling the bet' as the west continues to up its Ukrainian ante.

Wasn't That a Party?

As Canada has now wound down its great Afghan adventure, the 'post mortems'  are beginning to appear. The standard, 'bringing down the standard' and 'bringing the boys back home' coverage is there,  some of it remarkably interesting.

Last week it was the standard fare about the ceremony at the embassy in Kabul, where the military entrusted the nation's flag to the diplomatic corps. That might have been the best idea 11 years ago. It certainly would have been less expensive.

The national papers are printing pieces  on how we can 'recognize the sacrifice' and 'pay tribute to those who served'. Military plans for such celebrations have beeen kiboshed by government announcements that, if the military wants it, the military will be paying for it.  The $10 million 'recognition assembly'  last year in Ottawa, to fete the Libyan humanitarian bombing, was billed to the D.N.D. The 'pols' will be there for the free canapes, and the people will be paying the shot, but it's coming out of the military budget. In much the same way as, I'd imagine, the 'tab' for  the Defence Minister  Julian 'il magnifico' Fantino (MPP and former 'chef' of the OPP) who's appearing, to-day, in Famagusta,  to welcome the last contingent 'decompressing' from Afghan service (I'm pretty sure they

weren't impressed to see that 'twat', with his 'service medals', rather than the other kind). According to the Cypriot press, Fantino was there to 'celebrate 50 years of Canadian peacekeeping' on Cyprus by opening a memorial museum and art gallery (another DND expense?). One would think if anybody would be paying for that,  it might be the Cypriots, they're the ones the peacekeeping was all about, no? And why a museum there, they've had first-hand experinece to remember. The Museum should have been in Canada.

The Prime Minister, not to be outdone, has announced he'll be on-hand to gladhand the boys as they alight in Canada. But that cost might be folded-into his 'succour the valiant Ukrainians tour'. He's also jetting-off to see if he can't get us into a shooting war with the Russians.


Naturally, too, there are a plethora of ruminations about the 'costs'.  One of the main causes of  Harper government's deficit-financing is a reputed $20 billion spent on warfighting. Now that figure is being 'attritted' down to the 12 billion dollar 'chump-change' region, as future costs aren't costs yet. All-in-all, this leaves the military in relatively worse shape than it was before they got the new desert 'cadpat' uniforms  and IED-resistant vehicles we won't be using, and in need of naval vessels and new aircraft we can no longer afford. At the same  time the government needs to come up with its first balanced budget - ever. So the sluice gates at the Department of National Defence have been pip-squeaked and Julian, having overseen many a tight police budget, is just the man for the buffet - sojers aren't invited.

One of the more poignant aspects is revisiting the families of the dead. For this 'war' had a real cost in broken lives. Sadly, one can almost hear the 'pols' and 'vets' moving-in to corner the 'honour' market. Not right now of course, they'd get 'shut up' in short order, but the families can't be trusted to 'honour the fallen' as their healthy comrades need it to be done. The benefits of all those little Afghan girls in school - whatever those may be (for we only know it's 'good');  the new-found freedom their women are 'working on'';  the stability of the gang of thieves and warlords we call their government;  the 'standing shoulder to shoulder to fight terror';  the best of intentions; etc, etc are all still trotted-out to justify 11 years of the second best bang-bang money could buy (our American cousins always do it better). Those 'loved ones' will eventually have to shut their cake-holes, or be ignored.

'Dying in vain' is such a lousy recruiting slogan.

Ukrainia

The Russian people of the Crimean peninsula voted overwhelmingly (93 percent of them) to remove themselves from Ukraine and join the Russian Federation.  Although the referendum is "completely illegal" - according to Ukrainian government in Kiev and its western supporters, there are no sanctions to be taken against the Crimea, or Crimeans.

Nor will we be seeing Ukraine trying to force a 'return to the fold'. It is every bit as likely that disorder in the Donetsk region of Ukraine will spread and become worse. This is the critical area for Ukraine where most of its economic resources are located. The western Ukraine is largely marginal land - scrub-forest-covered woodland with vast marshy areas and an irradiated area closed to population around the old Chernobyl plant.   That area, outside the urban centres, lately described in 17th century terms, is the 'showcase' of the republic's lack of development under the Orange revolution.

Average income in Russia is almost six times greater than that of  Ukraine which was, in past times, described as the 'breadbasket of Europe' and the industrial heart of the Soviet Union. While Russia's economy is no bed of roses, they aren't indebted to anybody - Ukraine 'lost' some 170 billion dollars in western loans over the past decade. It needs  money now to stay afloat - the latest amount is $45 billion - nowhere near what Putin offered ($15 billion) and what the Euros said a bond issue would fetch ($1.5 billion). But Ukraine doesn't need more loans it can't repay, in the short run it needs alms. In the long run it needs production and it needs markets. None of which are on the horizon.

And things can only get worse if the Russian population in the eastern regions  decides it's 'time up' and votes to secede. Even if they take with them their 'share' of the national debt, the 'Russians' will still be taking the means of production. One would think that sensible minds would be speaking carefully in Kiev.  That is far from the case.

First of all,  Russia is the demon here - at least according to Ukraine. Demonized they are - blamed for the government Ukrainians elected twice; for 'invading ' Crimea; for calling-down the revolution; for outing the involvement of outside forces at work, etc, etc.  But, failing the Russians, there is no one else to talk to about the Ukrainian problem. For all the willingness to sympathize and 'help',  Europe has no interest in taking-on a basket case - with the Russian bear breathing down its neck. America can do even less.

Russia has no great dependency on America for much else than fast food chains, American cars and 'investments'- all of which they can do without. Russia has nothing to lose, and the respect of the non-aligned nations to gain, by holding its ground - not to mention the benefits that will accrue from having the Donbass and Crimea back in the federation. There is nobody sensible willing to start a war over the Ukraine - except the Ukrainians - who might actually do something stupid if they don't get their way. They will however, lose - the equivalents of a few Ossetias for sure, maybe more.

So far the Russians seem to be the only power involved that makes any sense. Rather than threatening sanctions, or even leaving the Ukraine to starve in the dark by cutting the supply of natural gas, they're calling on the world to encourage Ukrainians to sit down together and reaffirm their independence - from all power blocs - as was intended when the country was formed. Independent Ukraine should not be part of the Russian Federation, nor should it be a  member of the EU or NATO. That was the original agreement. If that can be changed by a revolution, or a referendum, then what about anything else?

By the way -  the other  "important"  stories vying with the Ukrainian crisis in the news this week? A mystery airliner and the death of a TV comic

Whoo hoo! It's a Wing-Ding!

What a GREAT 3rd o' March!

Canada's off and running! We're "centre stage" in world affairs. We've got the iconic 'mayor' on US TeeVee and the Oscars are over in another blaze of glory for expat Canucks in sunnyside.

Big-Mouth Johnny Baird is back from his exposee in Ukraine and champing at the bit to 'disinvite' Putin from anything. After shaking hands with the non-entity who's been appointed maximum leader by somebody, and 'expressing' something from recently-released crook,  Julia Tymoshenko,  Baird has it all fingered-out.

The Russians have no business standing in the way of the victorious Ukrainian freedom fighters. (Mind you had anything looking like Ukrainian freedom fighters showed up, say, in suburban Montreal, as indeed' they did, not much more than a year ago, Johnny would have been taking 'the vapours' and calling for mass arrests, to go with the tasering, teargassing and 'riot control'. He did, actually.

But they were 'ungrateful' students protesting tuition hikes. They never armed themselves to start killing police squaddies, like the Ukrainians did. Instead of calling for civil order and fairness for all, John has decided he knows what's best for Ukrainians, including the sizable population that suddenly found itself living in somebody else's country when the Soviet Union fractured. Until now they, and obviously some 'real' Ukrainians, have been electing governments of  'their own choice' - most of which borrowed the country into a crisis.

But those who leaned east, instead of west, have become THE problem. Historically Ukraine has been 'autonomous' for a very brief period in the 20's and again, when associated as an SSR, with Russia. What parts of it were 'westernized' were  'provinces'  of  Poland and Austria in former times. But Baird thinks that Russia doesn't 'belong', although almost 40 percent of the Ukrainian population - Russians - do. They've just lost their voice to the 'real' Ukrainians, who, they fear, have an (legitimate?) ax to grind against Russia, and Russians. Like the Russian enclaves of gallant little Georgia, Mother Russia is offering them a self-determination denied by the 'free' west.

 If Johnny understands Quebec, he should understand Ukraine. In the same manner of thinking he should help the Quebecois declare independence. But that's somehow 'different' because this is Canada and we don't repress anybody - but rioting students.

Sadly, what Baird, and other 'great minds' before him, have done, is take Canada out of the middle ground. We are no longer able to talk to both sides. That hasn't made us better, or smarter  .. in fact it has cost a lot of needless death and suffering. If we're not careful it could happen again  and  even be much worse.

Canada needs Baird as much as we need Bob Ford.

The only substantial differences are that Ford admits to being a doper, a drunk and he doesn't  like gays. But he's getting the kind of press - in the absence of none - that Baird could only dream about. Toronto's disgrace is trotting his fat fanny out on American talk shows this week. Apparently somebody invited him to the Oscars -  and, (not being totally stupid, OK?)  he accepted. He did a 'mistaken walk-out' on the Kimmel Show last night, but is to be featured along, with a Muppet, tonight. Kevin Spacey passed a comment about him 'puking' all over the green room and so 'ramped-up' the interest in what 'ennertainment' is in store for this evening. No doubt his 'Onner' won't  let us down, eh?

I don't think Canada did  particularly well at last night's Oscars but it wasn't for want of a good time. The week-end papers reported on the 'pre-oscar' party for Canucks, featuring the grand old man of Canadian involvement in Hollywood - Mr. Norman Jewison. The tradition, dates back to the days of the government-funded - 'good-times' of special 'artistic' envoy to H'wood - her excellence, Kim Campbell. It gives Canadians a chance to dress-up in designer duds and tuxes, to meet, greet and schmooze with Canadians from all parts of the GWN, now-resident green card-holders and living in California. I would imagine that the Oscars might have been more fun had the Canadians had the good sense to lose a little more at the Olympics.

It's time for Oscar: Let the Madness begin!

Hollywood is 'bracing' for the annual bout of industrial-strength self-love. But aside from the promised riches of Ellen Degeneres' schtick and the value of presenters' 'swag bags',  the field of 'the art' this year is somehat formless and void.  Aside from piracy suits and a nudge from Netflix/rentals, there is no more 'boffo' to be gained from any of the 'winners'.

An unreamrkable field of best' film should be dominated by a cartoon. But it's not. Nor is the 'best' film, in my estimation, even mentioned. Instead we have another realistic-imaginary space film, a realistic Sgt. Rock star-spangled  war story about a freighter , a 'scam' movie - two actually - one almost legal, a peter-pull to Sari,  another AIDS saga  and a historical fiction a la  Civil war renactment movies - this one featuring a new, 'hot' back actress - topless and being whipped - all well-seen before and none outstanding - for anything - except perhaps the latter and the Wall Street 'blow jobs'.   'The Dallas Buyers Club' is the most interesting of those nominated. But even absent the much needed (I imagine) hi-tech biffy in Gravity, or those whipped ta-tas in '12 Years a Slave', the best film, unnominated,  was 'The Book Thief' -  but it has no 'cast' and it's about the literal redemption of a little Nazi, sooo.. it's not going to fly.

The female leads; Judy Dench in a 'tribute' nomination for the non-starter 'Philomena', Sandra Bullock for Gravity (more notice taken of her under-suit outfit than her acting), Streep and blanchett for ttheir 'craft' and the winsome 'newby' Amy Adams as a scam artiste, are run-of-the-mill this year. Adams should win it for her 'class'.

Male lead Christian  Bale stands out if only for the most elaborate comb-over in cinetomatographic history. Bruce Dern os nominated as an octogenarian  in 'Nebraska' - probably reprising the cxharacter of the dead biker he  played in the breakthrough 'The Wild Angels' long, long ago. Leonardo does Leonardo, again, in the 'Wolf of Wall Street' - a role nnotable only for its proffered 'suck offs' and a thespiation of the greed motive. McConaughey shows to what efforts artists will go for their craft and plays the thin man as if he was the only fixture in a changing world.  Chiwetel Ejiufor is ok in his role as a kidnapped slave, but his slavery is as meningful to modern audiences as 'Lincoln' was to the  moderns last year - mind you that effort won Day Lewis an award, didn't iit?

While on 'biographies. what happened tto "Jobs?  Maybe it was made-for -TV  but these days a movie is a movie isn't it? And the normally one-dimensional Aston Kucher actually tried acting like someone else, even to mimicking a walk! It deserved a look.

This year's  documentaries featured another look at the Afghanistan experince, or at least an examination of some of its dirty undergarments. In 'Dirty Wars' the muffed special forces raid on an Afghan  compound, that resulted in the deaths of a number of Afghans - two policemen and their wives,  during a misinformed 'night raid' is examined, without much result. This was the case in which the 'good guys' initially claimed to have almost saved two women from an honot killing. Turns out no such thing happened and tthe SF involved used their K-Bars to retrieve the bullets from tthe women thay shot. Even Addmiral McRaven, head honcho of all things special, makes a cameo as an apologist for the misdirected cause of freedom.

A better documentary  effort is "This is What Winning Looks Like' - like a night raid, it doesn't leave many loose ends. Maybe next year?

The count-down is oin to red carpet central. Ellen Degeneres is the hostess with the mostess and bets are being laid that a skirt may replace her  periennial pants. But how could she be as funny as Fey and Pollard in a skrt? I'm just wondering if she'll wear sneakers?

I really think somebody ought to talk about internet piracy, after all, if  Hollywood's net is actually 'up' this year, as iit us reputed to be, then it would hve been 'up' a lot more if culture thieves had had to lay oout $9 a pop to see the 'work'. Maybe Jodie Foster could replay the earnestneess with which she importanced her exit from the closet.

La Chaim - the 'Bulldozer' Busted out

One of the last original 'menschen' Ariel Sharon (nee Scheinermann), the conqueror of Shatila, Lord of Lebanon and Mitla, the Undoer of the Yom Kippur, the defenestrator of the Gaza Settlements and father to his nation, wall-builder par excellence and intafada-fighter numbers 1 thru 8, shuffled off the mortal coil last week after a short lifetime in a coma.

I was going to remark on his life and 'charmed' military record, but having Prime Minister Harper send a  'ground preparation committee' to the funeral - so that he can do  his pilgrimage a week later, upstaged the dead guy.

Representing Canada at the funeral rites were the 'new' ambassadorix Vivian Bercovicci and Canada's up-and-coming brain trust, Chris Alexander the kabob of Kandahar. 'Kid Rock', clad in the standard one-size-fits-everybody, goyische yarmulkeh, just like Joe Biden's,  even got to say shiva, or something.

But all that lumination didn't hold a templelamp to the Wise-Guy's eastern progress a week later. The Steverino was coming to town! As well as that were a number of hebrew MPs and a coterie of the Canadian rabbinate - some travelling on the taxpayers' dime. Apparently there was a literal 'skylane' of Canada-Israel flights - commercial and otherwise - to prepare the way of the lord.

Sadly, other than a check-off on a possible bucket list (I wershipped at the Wailing wall), Canada got little more than an opportunity to show how a Zionist friend we really were. And Steve got another award.

Mind you, there was a side trip to the West Bank and a foray into the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, America's little gunport on Syria. But why would one want to waste time in those places when the latter-day eden really 'hearts' you?

Sharon may be dead, but his course will be stayed, whether the Prime Minister of Canada, or anybody else for that matter, 'supports' it or not.  There is the 'survival' of a nation/race/religion at stake. The palestinians may continue to exist or not,  their call. Steve announced $12 million for something arabic, but I wouldn't be expecting the cheque.

And let's not forget the "million-dollar shot".

The Globe's 'unlisted' video

Backlog

I've built up a backlog of things to write about - my number two favorite p'leece force, again;  the Iranian stuff, the Syrians, Harper Inc, Afghanistan, books, movies, etc, but I'm no writer,  or not a disciplined one at any rate, so the notion of writing every day is something I've never considered. The muse comes on me in fits and starts. I'll have a fit to-day. We'll see what's  up tomorrow.

                                                                        Rosie?


 Rosie DiManno somebody I admire as a writer, but have detested as a 'girl writer' - she's well past the Bunty stage - has written an excellent piece about  Lord Bilgewater - his eminance Conrad  ' Daddy Warbucks' Black, on the occasion of a fluff job he did recently on Moses Znaimer's edumedia channel with Toronto's 'fat f*ck' the Mare. As she relates in her story, about meeting 'the man' for the first time, she remarked to him, "You sued me." I'm pretty sure he's in council with his counsellors again to-day. Rosie didn't have much  nice to say about his  grace.

                                                               'His Nibs' the Archbishop

                                                            His wereship the Mare


The incident that gave rise to all this was Conrad's 'cutting edge' visitation program on which he entertains newsworthy characters. The character on this occasion being  'his nubs', the defrocked mayor of Toronto, Rob Ford. Robbie went through his tale of  'whoa!' and his lordship mollycoddled his revealed peckerdilloes and the consequent apologies and promises to improve. Then they broached a topic dear to both their little hearts,  about how the media, left to its own devices, could be positively vindictive and unfair. That led his mareship to be somewhat vindictive and unfair  as he related a sad tale of being 'harrassed' across, as he claimed, his very own backyard fence. His nibs didn't bite with any advice about having the back fence 1/2 mile away from the house as he has been forced to do but he did commiserate and, with furrowed brow, took to heart the  Mayor's charge that photos taken of innocent toddlers (his) were involved.

 This tale has been well-told in the media as it was claimed threats were uttered, a cell phone was dropped and the police investigated a Star Reporter taking pictures of vacant public property of which the mayor was an interested prospective buyer. There were, at that time, no charges laid against  either the "trespassing" reporter or the incensed  'daddy bear'.  No  photographs that might have supported the Mayor's charges were recovered. Perhaps he was foolish, or mad enough, to have deleted them. Perhaps he was 'blasted' and not seeing straight. That incident now, is purely figmental in nature. The comment about  taking kiddie pictures and 'causing folk to wonder about the reporter', however, is the stuff of slander.

Unsurprisingly, two days after airing, in the absence of any apology, the Mayor was handed a lawsuit.

Since then Lord Connie's skills as an interviewer have been called into question . He is pleading ignorance of the Mayor's backyard brou-haha and how was he to know that there was no kiddi-diddling involved? He claimed he took the mayor, who has a  sterling reputation for apologizing when  caught in a lie, on his bona-fides if not his gallantry of the first water. People are wondering if the 'scholarly' Lord Connie had been read anything at all on his subject, before the show. Although no stranger to the slander case, he certainly doesn't seem know it when he hears it. Maybe he hears such 'nonsense' at home, every day.

Rosie laid all this out -  chapter and verse, she acknowledged her sources and detailed her instances. She's obviously done her research. And, barring a lawsuit from lady Black in re her possible surgical enhancements or choice of literary footwear, she was  kind to the Belle Dame. Other than a konterblast,  Lord Connie probably doesn't have a legal leg to stand upon and the Star's pockets are no doubt as deep as Mr Znaimer's.

   
Watch for Blackie's  show to be cut from the Vision TV  lineup. Everything the mayor touches turns to Sh1T.

"Rob Ford's TV Show Canceled After One Episode, Because Duh"  (HuffPo -11/20/2013)

Wir fahren gegen nach Damaskus (nichts!)

Well now we all know that the last blog was in vain.

Somebody was wise enough to know that waving the big stick around would bring the malefactor to heel. So when John Kerry slipped and said he wouldn't bomb Syrian, for the sake of the kids, if Bashir would divest himself of his phosgene and sarin collection, he must have been surprised when Assad took him up on it.  Diplomacy sure took a left turn! That was indicated by the bully chorus of, "Seems them threats  of mass scalpin' worked!" - when threats hadn't worked, with all  that consequential warfighting, up until then.

Since that, the UN got busy and dismantled the equipment needed for loading ammunition with such stuff - a process  slightly more complicated than ladling  it into a shell and screwing down a bursting charge. That singular  action left Assad with no real means of producing ammunition or attacking other than dropping drums full of precursor chemicals, and what preloaded ammo he has, on the enemy. In short, his chemical weapons are pretty well as safe as they're going to get. Which is only slightly less safe than all the chemical weapons awaiting destruction in the USA.


A funny  little eventuation occurred when somebody blabbed that the Norwegians had 'volunteered' to take all Assad's  chemical  junk for destruction. The Norwegians replied with a heartfelt, "Fu*k off."

And that matter was quietly dropped by the greatest force for good on earth.

In a  late move the 'Bomb Syria Club' are calling for a 'robust response' to Syria's wanting to keep a couple of chemical factories. All of a sudden the  WMD  folk decided they can't be trusted to make their own cleaning fluids and should be buying them from the more 'responsible' people who can. Like  Iran and radioactivity, there are some on earth who shouldn't be trusted. Not to mention any untrustworthy types who already have WMDs and radioactivity, or both. The 'eevul' has to be stopped somewhere, sometime.

And the funeral waltz continues, unabated, in Syria.