I started to watch Morning Joe, this morning, but all the talk, for some reason, was about Susan Rice and her unmasking of names of Americans inadvertently caught in intelligence reports. It is not unusual for a Security Adviser to do this, but the claim is that she did it for political purposes. If that is so, she was remarkably unsuccessful.
Republicans hate her for telling the truth about Benghazi (that it started because of a negative movie trailer about Mohammad). Later it turned into a terrorist attack. No matter that there have not been anti-Mohammad books, Koran burnings, or movies since and there have been no embassy or consulate attacks. At any rate, I’ve heard all those lies before that have been kept up for years. Why don't Republicans focus on the two Embassy attacks under Ronald Reagan (Lebanon and Kuwait), both of which were much bigger with more deaths than Benghazi, to say nothing of the Marine base Beirut bombing from which Reagan cut and ran. Oh, that's right, Reagan is Sainted. This is where I came in so I deleted my recording of Morning Joe and haven’t listened to a political TV program since. I deleted my recording of Andrea Mitchell without looking at any of it.
Whatever happened to the Russian involvement in our presidential election?
Apparently the House Intelligence Committee wants to interview Susan. Well, I guess I can't blame Kevin Nunes because he foresees his role as defending the President, and he seems to be doing a good job of it. He has even got some Democrats sidelined on the Susan Rice business.
You know that the Trump group may just have noticed the Russian misinformation campaign and thought it would make good political fodder so they used it. No one claims that what you say in an election campaign needs to be true so that would be no crime. I've heard that things said in political campaigns may not be even admissible in court. If so, why doesn't the Trump administration just say so and get it over with? I guess because it does go far beyond that. The latest involves Betsy DeVos's brother Erik Prince. Why do all Trump roads lead to Russia?
Has anyone noticed that Trump doesn't seem to like democracy? He won't say a bad word about Putin, he shakes hands with the dictator of Egypt but not the leader of the Western World Angela Merkle, and, in the past, he has even said what he thinks are some kind words about the dictator of North Korea (strong leader).
Well at least one good thing has come out of all this from our standpoint in that Trump hasn't dared to get rid of the sanctions against Russia.
Wake me if there is anything new on the Russian interference in our recent Presidential election.
Showing posts with label Putin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Putin. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 5, 2017
Wednesday, March 5, 2014
THE BREADBASKET OF EUROPE IS NOW A BASKET CASE
The title of this piece, that regards Ukraine,* is not original with me, but I couldn't resist using it. But I am getting increasingly upset with certain politicians who insist on undermining our President in foreign relations. Prominent, of course, is senile John McCain who seemingly never saw a war he didn't like; however, when pressed by Charley Rose as to what should be done over the Soviet, I mean Russian, occupation of the Crimea said that the first thing he would do is to freeze the foreign assets and visas of the Russian oligarchs, something that Secretary John Kerry has mentioned as a possibility.
I'm also disappointed in Lindsey Graham, Senator of South Carolina, for his comments making fun of the President in a serious international incident, as, at times, he has shown some statesmanship. Supposedly the reason he is doing this is because of his Tea Party challenge in his reelection bid. Unfortunately, this puts his reelection ahead of his country. He seems to think that we should have bombarded the leader of Syria even after the promise of getting rid of the poisonous gases. Unfortunately, there are no good solutions in Syria as if Assad is overthrown the real civil war will begin with the likelihood that the country will become a conservative Muslim state like Iran. As awful as the situation is in Syria, perhaps the best state is a status quo.
At the age of 82, I do remember some things in the lead up to WW-II, and the Russian occupation of the Crimea to "protect" the Ukrainian citizens of Russian heritage reminds me a lot of the Nazi occupation of the Sudetenland** to protect citizens of German heritage at the very beginning of WW-II. I don't recall any news about threats to the Russian speaking peoples anywhere in Ukraine. And Putin does seem to be trying to generate an excuse for more occupation of Ukraine by having some of his soldiers shoot over the heads of some Ukrainian troops:
But not every scene was so calm. Video showed more than 100 unarmed Ukrainian troops trying Tuesday morning to return to Belbek air base north of Sevastopol, only to have Russian forces fire warning shots over their heads.***
As the situation in Ukraine is still in flux, I have little more to say at this time.
History of Ukraine:
Crimea has had a long and complex history but more recently for more than 300 yrs it was a part of Turkey, then in 1783 became a part of Russia, more or less, and then of the Soviet Union. Mysteriously, Kruschov gave the Crimea to Ukraine in 1954. Speculation is that he was drunk at the time. Crimea has spent little time as an independent nation though it was called the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. It became recognized as a part of Ukraine by Russia in 1997. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Crimea).
Eastern Ukraine has been largely Russian since late in the 17th century. In 1991, 75% of ethnic Russian said they no longer identified themselves as Russian and 55% voted for Ukrainian independence. Many Russian speaking Ukrainians bemoan the fact that Russian is not an accepted official language of Ukraine. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russians_in_Ukraine)
Western Ukraine likewise has a complicated history and was a part of Poland most of the time for several hundred years which ended in 1939. After WW-II, Ukraine became the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic with some independence from the Soviet Union. West Ukraine is largely west looking. Though the country is largely of the Eastern Orthodox religion, around 4 million Roman Catholics are present, mainly in western Ukraine. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Ukraine; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ukraine)
* http://www.infoplease.com/askeds/bread-basket-europe.html
** http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_occupation_of_Czechoslovakia
*** http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/04/world/europe/ukraine-russia-tensions/
I'm also disappointed in Lindsey Graham, Senator of South Carolina, for his comments making fun of the President in a serious international incident, as, at times, he has shown some statesmanship. Supposedly the reason he is doing this is because of his Tea Party challenge in his reelection bid. Unfortunately, this puts his reelection ahead of his country. He seems to think that we should have bombarded the leader of Syria even after the promise of getting rid of the poisonous gases. Unfortunately, there are no good solutions in Syria as if Assad is overthrown the real civil war will begin with the likelihood that the country will become a conservative Muslim state like Iran. As awful as the situation is in Syria, perhaps the best state is a status quo.
At the age of 82, I do remember some things in the lead up to WW-II, and the Russian occupation of the Crimea to "protect" the Ukrainian citizens of Russian heritage reminds me a lot of the Nazi occupation of the Sudetenland** to protect citizens of German heritage at the very beginning of WW-II. I don't recall any news about threats to the Russian speaking peoples anywhere in Ukraine. And Putin does seem to be trying to generate an excuse for more occupation of Ukraine by having some of his soldiers shoot over the heads of some Ukrainian troops:
But not every scene was so calm. Video showed more than 100 unarmed Ukrainian troops trying Tuesday morning to return to Belbek air base north of Sevastopol, only to have Russian forces fire warning shots over their heads.***
As the situation in Ukraine is still in flux, I have little more to say at this time.
History of Ukraine:
Crimea has had a long and complex history but more recently for more than 300 yrs it was a part of Turkey, then in 1783 became a part of Russia, more or less, and then of the Soviet Union. Mysteriously, Kruschov gave the Crimea to Ukraine in 1954. Speculation is that he was drunk at the time. Crimea has spent little time as an independent nation though it was called the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. It became recognized as a part of Ukraine by Russia in 1997. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Crimea).
Eastern Ukraine has been largely Russian since late in the 17th century. In 1991, 75% of ethnic Russian said they no longer identified themselves as Russian and 55% voted for Ukrainian independence. Many Russian speaking Ukrainians bemoan the fact that Russian is not an accepted official language of Ukraine. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russians_in_Ukraine)
Western Ukraine likewise has a complicated history and was a part of Poland most of the time for several hundred years which ended in 1939. After WW-II, Ukraine became the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic with some independence from the Soviet Union. West Ukraine is largely west looking. Though the country is largely of the Eastern Orthodox religion, around 4 million Roman Catholics are present, mainly in western Ukraine. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Ukraine; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ukraine)
* http://www.infoplease.com/askeds/bread-basket-europe.html
** http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_occupation_of_Czechoslovakia
*** http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/04/world/europe/ukraine-russia-tensions/
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