Before the LinkSwarm itself, an observation: On the drive home from Houston to Austin this weekend, I saw a Prius with a “Repeal ObamaCare” sticker. Truly the tide has turned…
Posts Tagged ‘Vladimir Putin’
LinkSwarm for March 31, 2014
Monday, March 31st, 2014The Return of Johnny Nuance
Sunday, March 2nd, 2014So Russia is conducting a piecemeal invasion of Ukraine.
And the American state department’s response?
President Obama made it clear we are prepared to work with #Russia to help people of #Ukraine. There are many alternatives to invasion.
— John Kerry (@JohnKerry) March 2, 2014
Ah, yes, “working with Russia.” I’m sure that has Putin quaking in his boots. How are we supposed to “work with” them? By helping them carry the loot back to Russia? Can you imagine George H. W. Bush threatening to “work with Iraq on Kuwait” after Saddam invaded?
If Russia invades another country, will we work with them some more?
We're going to continue to engage diplomatically. It's the time for diplomacy. Nobody wants this to spiral in a worse direction.
— John Kerry (@JohnKerry) March 2, 2014
I’m sure at this point, Putin must be quaking in his boots in fear at the thought of Kerry deploying more diplomacy to his tanks. Likewise, I’m sure the people of Ukraine are deeply grateful for those C-130s filled to the brim with diplomacy we’re sending…
Given Kerry’s repeated threats of deploying yet more diplomacy to stop Putin, it’s time to break out Iowahawk’s classic Johnny Nuance, the story of a man fighting outlaws in the old west using only diplomacy:
Johnny Nuance! Johnny Nuance!
From the shores of Martha’s Vineyard he rode his horse out West,
With a treaty in his holster and a medal on his chest,
Bringing law and justice to a wild and violent land,
Talking was his creed and sanctions were his brand!
It goes about as well as you would expect…
Ukraine Update for February 21, 2014: Yanukovych Caving? Actual Peace?
Friday, February 21st, 2014Early reports indicates that Yanukovych may finally have gotten a clue:
Viktor Yanukovych conceded to the major demands made by protesters, he announced Friday on his website. He had been holding out against their raging street demonstrations for months.
Yanukovych said he has initiated new presidential elections and a return to the old constitution that would cut presidential power, and also form a national unity Cabinet.
Now word is comning down that Euromaidan leadership has signed off on the agreement.
Great news, if it holds.
There are also unconfirmed reports of police either leaving or coming over to Euromaidan. Presumably these are the regular police and not the Berkut riot police.
Now the question becomes: What will Yanukovych’s puppet-master Vladamir Putin do? He met with his security council, and the discussion sounds more than a little ominous:
“Putin emphasized that it is imperative to immediately stop the bloodshed and take urgent measures to stabilize the situation and suppress any extremist and terrorist sorties.”
Is Putin willing to go to war to keep Ukraine is Moscow’s orbit?
Stay tuned…
Tweets
Police have now joined the opposition and vow to stand between Berkut and the protesters |PR Photo #euromaidan pic.twitter.com/4dzSMuXGxh
— Euromaidan PR (@EuromaidanPR) February 21, 2014
Police have now joined the opposition and vow to stand between Berkut and the protesters |PR Photo #euromaidan pic.twitter.com/4dzSMuXGxh
— Euromaidan PR (@EuromaidanPR) February 21, 2014
233 PMs (out of 226 needed) voted for resolution 2 stop police activities, send troops back to their bases and re-open all roads #euromaidan
— Euromaidan__ENG (@Euromaidan__ENG) February 20, 2014
#Euromaidan crowds mass on Independence Square in #Kiev, #Ukraine. Credit: @reuterspictures pic.twitter.com/dajXENPeZI
— Jack Stubbs (@jc_stubbs) February 21, 2014
Updated map of dead people on #euromaidan in #Ukraine pic.twitter.com/mqEqEIzoRf
— Euromaidan PR (@EuromaidanPR) February 21, 2014
Afternoon Ukraine Update For February 20, 2014
Thursday, February 20th, 2014A super-brief update on Ukraine:
Video
Battle footage with CNN talking heads:
More random fight footage:
Military base torched:
More Tweets
PHOTO via Reuters: The Ukraine Hotel turns into a makeshift morgue as protesters, police clash pic.twitter.com/SyIzQYhsmf
— ABS-CBN News Channel (@ANCALERTS) February 20, 2014
Ukraine continues to spiral out of control. Meanwhile Obama & Kerry offer the usual empty rhetoric & condemnations http://t.co/LUTvlmTc7n
— Herman Cain (@THEHermanCain) February 20, 2014
Ukraine's Interior ministry says 67 police troops have been captured by protesters in Kiev.
http://t.co/EJmXafo45U
— Yahoo News (@YahooNews) February 20, 2014
#euromaiden from my workstation – flames still raging pic.twitter.com/mBNLJpCXwJ
— Blogs of War (@BlogsofWar) February 19, 2014
And holy fark is Gary Kasperov pissed:
@Kasparov63 please explain. Obamas watch, in Asia??
— Michael Woods (@Woodsy1069) February 20, 2014
Yes, Obama could sell his red lines on eBay as new. They are all in mint condition, never used!
— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) February 20, 2014
Pussy Riot Whipped
Thursday, February 20th, 2014That happens sometimes, when you try to escape your country’s harsh political bondage, despite the clamps and chains Putin’s police state has forced on dissidents, reformers and lesbians…
(Hat tip: Moe Lane, who doesn’t seem to have realized the glorious keyword trolling possibilities…)
Evening Update on Ukraine for February 19, 2014
Wednesday, February 19th, 2014A truce has been declared between Euromaiden and Yanukovych’s forces. This is good news, as it means there’s fierce probably internal resistance in the armed forces to carry out the traditional “slaughter everyone with reach of a machine gun” method of putting down dissent. It may also mean that Putin isn’t quite willing to cross the Rubicon by intervening militarily to prop up his puppet.
Also, Obama finally condemns the violence in Ukraine and threatens vague “consequences” if it gets worse. It’s a start.
I’ve done so much Ukraine reporting today that I think I’ll just put up this short blurb for tonight, unless all hell breaks lose again…
Morning Ukraine Update For February 19, 2014
Wednesday, February 19th, 2014On the diplomatic front:
Some videos:
PC carrier tries unsuccessfully to breach Euromaidan lines in a hail of molotov cocktails:
Another view:
Scenes from the fighting:
An overview of the fighting:
More clashes:
Livestream again, though it looks like mostly video clips right now:
Ukraine Update for January 28, 2014
Tuesday, January 28th, 2014The good news from Ukraine: most of the totalitarian laws suppressing free speech have been repealed and prime minister Mykola Azarov has resigned.
The bad news: brutal thug and Putin toady Viktor Yanukovych is still President, and opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko is still imprisoned.
Says one writer in the Moscow Times:
The Yanukovych administration is marked by two main features. First, Yanukovych is essentially a small-time criminal, and such people have a unique profile. They are typically rather dull, always looking for an opportunity to steal and incapable of anticipating the long-term consequences of their actions.
Second, Ukraine is actually ruled by Yanukovych’s eldest son and his friends — all filthy rich. Since coming to power, Yanukovych has fired all of his original associates and alienated his initial sponsors, such as oligarchs Rinat Akhmetov and Dmytro Firtash.
Current map of the situation:
Updated map 18.00 of Ukrainian people protest, by Sergii Gorbachov. http://t.co/bLQUOVIdJU | #euromaidan #Ukraine pic.twitter.com/2LlCCe3bXJ
— Euromaidan PR (@EuromaidanPR) January 27, 2014
Other Ukraine/Euromaidan news
During the less than four years of its rule, Viktor Yanukovych’s regime has brought the country and the society to the utter limit of tensions. Even worse, it has boxed itself into a no-exit situation where it must hold on to power forever – by any means necessary. Otherwise it would have to face criminal justice in its full severity. The scale of what has been stolen and usurped exceeds all imagination of what human avarice is capable.
On a lighter note, all I could think of when viewing this pic was “Ukraine’s furry contingent has joined the fight for freedom!”
What’s Going On In Ukraine Right Now?
Monday, December 2nd, 2013Amidst Thanksgiving weekend festivities (which for me included visiting with family, eating copious amounts of food, shopping for books, and watching the Rockets beat the Nets and Spurs), I kept seeing reports of unrest in Ukraine pop up on my Twitter feed.
Ukraine’s current president, Viktor Yanukovych, is a toady for Putin’s Moscow, and in that role he rejected a trade deal with the EU in favor of closer ties with Russia. Ukrainians, tired of centuries of Russian domination, were naturally pissed, and took to the streets to protest. Those protests continued to grow during the weekend, with the attendant clashes with police and volleys of tear gas, and even some members of the ruling coalition quitting in protest. Even John Kerry’s ineffectual State Department was forced to issue one of its toothless, pro-forma protests.
What it boils down to is the latest incarnation of a very old struggle of Ukrainians trying to throw off the yoke of Moscow’s rule. It looked like they had succeeded in the Orange Revolution in 2004-2005, but then Putin’s catspaws managed to slither their way back into power, all part of Russia’s attempt to assert control in its “Near Abroad” (i.e., the other states of the former Soviet Union). Then there’s that little issue of the Soviet Union killing between 4 million and 14 million people in the Holodomor.
Will Democracy succeed? Never underestimate the willingness of authoritarians (or totalitarians) to murder their own people when push comes to shove. But Yanukovych can only do so much. There’s no love lost between Ukraine’s armed forces and their Russian counterparts, so I sincerely doubt they would back Yanukovych in an actual revolution or civil war.
Would Russia intervene militarily in Ukraine? I never put anything past Vladamir Putin (remember, he’s almost certainly the guy who ordered the poisoning of Yanukovych’s rival Viktor Yushchenko with dioxin), but invading the Ukraine would probably be a bridge too far for even the squishy EU.
Recent reports have troops moving in toward the protestors.
Russia Today has regular updates on the situation. (Note that’s Russia Today, not Ukraine Today, and adjust for bias accordingly.)
Greenpeace Activists Shocked To Discover That Actions Have Consequences
Wednesday, October 9th, 2013Via Borepatch comes news of some super geniuses in Greenpeace who can’t understand why they’re sitting in a Russian jail. They illegally boarded a state-owned oilrig as part of a protest and were promptly arrested for piracy.
“They had never expected that they would face such consequences for their peaceful protest in a democratic state.”
There are two tiny little problems with that statement:
- Illegally trespassing on someone else’s property is not exactly “peaceful.”
- Russia is not a democratic state, it’s dictatorial state with a thin veneer of democratic trappings. Did they not notice all the people that Putin has had bumped off over the years?
Now they’re sitting in jail awaiting trail, wonder why they haven’t received the slap on the wrist they regularly get from other countries.
Real activists should expect to do time in jail. Vaclav Havel spent plenty of time in jail, as did Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King. And they were pushing for real social change, not pie-in-the-sky trust fund environmentalism.
Actions have consequences. Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time…