Month: February 2014

Ethnic Cleansing–Ukraine Style?

Inkwell Institute

Eurasian Desk

A little personal history before we move on to the meat of the post……please bear with me.

I am sure that there are many readers that may ask why I get so wrapped up in world affairs…….a little professor history here……Most of the regulars here at IST know that I was in the US Army and spent two tours in SE Asia……and I became radicalized because of that exposure to one of the most obscene things humans can endeavor themselves to doing…….I returned to my studies and became fascinated with war….the causes more specifically and that lead to further studies from international relations to political philosophy and political history.   I think that we all need to watch wars and the causes, not just from a historical perspective but rather the causes…..maybe after all we could cure ourselves of the abortion of war.

Shall we move on?

Ethnic cleansing…………..Now that is an ugly, ugly term…..ethnic cleansing……but unfortunately it has been with us since time began…..the Bible speaks of it when Joshua attacked Jericho and put the town under the sword……Turks eliminating Armenians during WW1……and everyone knows of the Germany thing…..and Africa there seems to be an ethnic cleansing every year…..the Balkans of the 1990’s….there have been many other incidents of the use of the tactic but those most readily come to mind……now I ask could Ukraine be the next?

Just a quick thought…….

Viktor Yanukovich isn’t the only thing absent in Kiev. There’s also no new government, something that interim leader Oleksandr Turchinov had indicated would be in place today. That timeline has now been pushed to Thursday, with Turchinov saying more time was needed to ensure a “coalition of national faith” was installed—a statement made alongside another warning of the “serious threat” of separatism, reports the BBC. Pro-Russia regions have seen protests against Yanukovich’s removal, and in Crimea’s Sevastopol (where Russia operates a sizable naval base), protesters yesterday yelled “Russia! Russia!” outside city hall, and swapped a Ukrainian flag for Russia’s. More:

  • But speaking of Sevastopol, officials there say they have no clue where Yanukovich is, though a local TV station claimed he was holed up in the naval base and intended to sail for Russia. In the Guardian’s telling, there are few facts regarding his whereabouts, but plenty of rumors. Interim interior minister Arsen Avakov says Yanukovich was seen leaving a home in Balaklava around midnight on Sunday with a few bodyguards who remained loyal to him. (A girlfriend may have gone along, too, notes the New York Times.)
  • Avakov seems to be leading the hunt for Yanukovich, and issued a plea on Facebook that citizens and border guards stop any attempts Yanukovich might make to leave. The Times reports that he is believed to have severed “all forms of communication,” and has been fleeing by car and helicopter. By last night, the stories were coming fast and furious: He was in Sevastopol, or still in Balaklava, or on his yacht, or hiding in a monastery near Donetsk.
  • Who did Yanukovich have contact with in the US before vanishing? Joe Biden. The AP reports that Biden “was at the forefront of the delicate diplomatic maneuvering” on behalf of the White House, and spoke to Yanukovich by phone nine times during the three-month crisis, which the AP terms “an unusual level of contact.” Biden last spoke with him two days before he fled Kiev, and hung up uncertain as to Yanukovich’s next move.
  • As far as foreign governments go, Russia spoke out today, reports Reuters, with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warning that the country shouldn’t be forced to side with either Russia or the West. “It is dangerous and counterproductive to try to force upon Ukraine a choice on the principle: ‘You are either with us or against us.'”

Let’s return to the map of the ethnic divisions within the country…….

The map illustrates just how divided the country could become……..it also illustrates the lines that will be drawn if all this turns to a civil war………

Not like it would be something new for the Ukraine.

During WW2……..

The German invasion of the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa began on June 22, 1941, and by September the occupied territory was divided between two German administrative units the General Government and the Reichskommissariat Ukraine.

Many Ukrainians chose to resist and fight German occupation forces by joining the Red Army or the Soviet Partisans. However, particularly in the Western Ukraine assigned to General Government, loyalty to the Soviet State was low due to the fact that it had been under Soviet control for a brief period of 2 years after the Soviet occupation of Eastern Poland under the Hitler-Stalin-agreement following September 17, 1939. Although the Ukrainian SSR did give the population the national and cultural autonomy that neither the Second Polish Republic nor the interwar Romania did, it came at a price. In 1933 millions of Ukrainians starved to death in the infamous famine, the Holodomor and in 1937 several thousand intelligentsia were exiled, sentenced to Gulaglabor camps or executed. The negative impact of Soviet policies helped garner support for the German cause, and in some regions, parts of the nationalist minority initially viewed the Germans as allies in the struggle to free Ukraine from Stalinist oppression and achieve independence.  (Thanx to wikipedia)

The tactic is there…will they, Ukrainians, choose a democratic state or will it dive into a civil wr and all the horror that comes with it?

I will be watching….don’t know if I will be alone or not…..but I have to….it is in my genes.

Everything you know about Ukraine is wrong | PandoDaily

I have been watching most news reports on the situation in Ukraine……there is a wealth of opinions…..and one can have too much info to make a learned opinion of their own……however I read this piece a few minutes ago and thought I would let my readers decide some things for themselves……

An excellent and interesting article….well worth the read if you are interested…….

Everything you know about Ukraine is wrong | PandoDaily.

The Opposition Wins!

Ukraine is fascinating….especially after my post on my “Linch Pin” prediction……..

It appears that the Ukrainian opposition has won the day…..they protested, some pretty violent, and drove the sitting president from office and he is now on the run facing multiple arrest warrants for human rights violations, violence and murder……in essence the opposition rule the day……but now what?

Now I ask….who is the opposition?  Keep in mind that we, America, supported blindly the opposition to Assad in Syria and look how that worked out……

It seems we have to have a good guy and a bad guy….unfortunately it is NOT that simple in international relations…..my worry is that some with their blind hatred and suspicion of Russia will get behind the wrong people in this situation.

What I am going on about?  A good question that deserves a good answer…….let me use Sen. McCain as an example…I use him because he and his cohort sen. Graham have set themselves up as the spokesmen for the GOP on foreign affairs…from the past their track record is not all that good….they supported the opposition in Libya that turned out to be bad people with lots of weapons….then they supported the opposition in Syria and part of that opposition is Islamist that are aligned with AQ, not all but a sizable portion of the opposition.

Okay why do I doubt their logic…….McCain recently made a pilgrimage to Ukraine before the hostilities started and met with Oleh Tyahnybok a political leader of a party in the opposition to the now defunct government….I know so what?  His party is Svoboda……

Svoboda (which means freedom in Ukrainian) is one of those reconstructed modern European far right parties — it is aligned with the British National Party and the French National Front, for example — and it has gained some kind of electoral legitimacy, winning 10 percent of the seats in Ukraine’s parliament in 2010.

However, the party’s past is seriously murky. When it was founded in 1995, the party called itself the Social-National Party of Ukraine (SNPU), and it had a swastika-like logo. While it eventually split from its more right wing members, the party remained focused on celebrating Ukrainian ethnic identity in opposition to Russia and Communism.

John McCain Oleh Tyahnybok

Man on McCain’s right is the person in question……..

He gave a speech in 2004…..

Tyahnybok himself was expelled from the Our Ukraine parliamentary faction in 2004 after giving a speech demanding that Ukrainians fight against a “Muscovite-Jewish mafia” (he later clarified this by saying that he actually had Jewish friends and was only against to “a group of Jewish oligarchs who control Ukraine and against Jewish-Bolsheviks [in the past]”). In 2005 he wrote open letters demanding Ukraine do more to halt “criminal activities” of “organized Jewry,” and, even now, Svoboda openly calls for Ukrainian citizens to have their ethnicity printed onto their passports.

This could have a major influence on the situation and the theater to come.

There is so much more to this story…..

One of the “Big Three” political parties behind the protests is the ultra-nationalist Svoboda, whose leader, Oleh Tyahnybok, has called for the liberation of his country from the “Muscovite-Jewish mafia.” After the 2010 conviction of the Nazi death camp guard John Demjanjuk for his supporting role in the death of nearly 30,000 people at the Sobibor camp, Tyahnybok rushed to Germany to declare him a hero who was “fighting for truth.” In the Ukrainian parliament, where Svoboda holds an unprecedented 37 seats, Tyahnybok’s deputy Yuriy Mykhalchyshyn is fond of quoting Joseph Goebbels – he has even founded a think tank originally called “the Joseph Goebbels Political Research Center.” According to Per Anders Rudling, a leading academic expert on European neo-fascism, the self-described “socialist nationalist” Mykhalchyshyn is the main link between Svoboda’s official wing and neo-Nazi militias like Right Sector.

Right Sector is a shadowy syndicate of self-described “autonomous nationalists” identified by their skinhead style of dress, ascetic lifestyle, and fascination with street violence. Armed with riot shields and clubs, the group’s cadres have manned the front lines of the Euromaidan battles this month, filling the air with their signature chant: “Ukraine above all!” In a recent Right Sector propaganda video [embedded at the bottom of this article], the group promised to fight “against degeneration and totalitarian liberalism, for traditional national morality and family values.” With Svoboda linked to a constellation of international neo-fascist parties through the Alliance of European National Movements, Right Sector is promising to lead its army of aimless, disillusioned young men on “a great European Reconquest.”

John  McCain is looking for a black and white solution…..it will not be that easy…..he needs to pay attention or keep his mouth shut…….

Just look at the map of the ethnic divide in Ukraine and you will see the possibilities that could make the news in the near future……

What will be the next move for the US?  Or the EU?  Will we try to pacify or dictate?  What roll will the IMF and World Bank play in this situation?

The Increasingly Unequal States of America: Income Inequality by State, 1917 to 2011 | Economic Policy Institute

I know that there are some that do not want to hear this….that some of these people are lazy or fraudulent……but the fact is whether anyone wants to hear it or not…….the inequality is growing…..and if you pay attention to history that inequality could lead to much more than we are willing to handle……

The Increasingly Unequal States of America: Income Inequality by State, 1917 to 2011 | Economic Policy Institute.

Half Of The United States Lives In These Counties – Business Insider

If this info is true….why don’t political parties concentrate their efforts and cash in these counties….seems it would be money well spent during a national election……check out the other data that is linked in on the bottom of the article….that is if you are interested in the demographics……….

Half Of The United States Lives In These Counties – Business Insider.

Another Nuke Deal?

We have had to sit through the nuclear age…..we made, we dropped it and then the race was on….the USSR was next….and on came China to join the club…….then India/Pakistan……next would be North Korea….and then along came Iran, who does not have a bomb…yet….but the possibility is there and of course the world went into a deep depression because of Iran and its seeking to join the nuke club.  Much has been said, done and accused because of Iran’s desire…..

All the hoopla about Iran made this story even more bizarre, at least to me……

President Barack Obama has approved an agreement for civilian nuclear cooperation between the US and Vietnam in a sign of deepening ties between the former foes. The US and Vietnamese governments reached agreement in October. Congress now has 90 days to review it. If lawmakers do nothing, the deal will take effect. The “123 agreement,” approved by Obama on Monday, allows US firms into Vietnam’s civilian nuclear power market. Russian and Japanese companies are already planning to build reactors there. Under the US agreement, Vietnam is committing to rely on the international market for its nuclear fuel supply rather than enrich uranium or reprocess plutonium itself. Some lawmakers have expressed concern over the terms of the agreement and over Vietnam’s human rights record.

It all sounds reasonable….but is there anything reasonable in today’s world affairs?

Think about it though…….we will help Vietnam,  a communist country,  get nuke power…..am I the only one that sees a potential problem?  Think spent fuel and what it could be used for in the future if the desire is there……

Winter Comes And Winter Goes

My hodge-podge day……

For over a month we have been beat about the head and shoulders with the winter weather that has grip some of the states……we have the polar vortex or the Siberian Express or the Alberta Clipper….what ever you want to call these weather patterns…..I mean it is bad enough that we have sunk to given a winter storm a name…..here is my suggestion when this all first started…….”it does not need a name…it already has one……WINTER!”

But that has not made the media ease up any….we have all sorts of disastrous reports of snow, sleet and ice….you know those issue that occur almost every winter…….but this year it is a disaster…….but did you know this?

This may be hard to believe if you live in the Eastern US, but that was the fourth-warmest January ever for the overall planet, the New York Times reports. The Goddard Institute for Space Studies actually pegs it as the third warmest since 1880, behind only 2002 and 2003, according to AccuWeather, which notes GISS data merges land and ocean surface temps. The perpetually storm-afflicted East Coast was indeed one of Earth’s coldest areas compared with seasonal norms, but things were balmy elsewhere; California and Alaska saw temperatures as much as 15 degrees above normal. Besides, the US makes up just 2% of the surface of the world, so its experience paints a limited picture. It’s been unseasonably warm in most of Europe, Africa, Australia, and China. Of course, unseasonable warmth is getting awfully routine; it was the 347th straight month with temperatures above 20th-century averages.

I will not go into the climate change thingy…there are enough people that want to argue about it from all points…..just saying…./it was not as cold as it could have been.  Take that for what it is worth……and good night.

SCOTUS Strikes Again

For us dweebs that spend our leisure time watching politics and the country around us we have been thrilled or outraged by a lot of SCOTUS and their rulings…….Citizens United comes to mind….their stand on same sex marriage or a whole array of issues…….there has been outrage from both sides of the spectrum……and the court never fails to amuse or surprise……

The latest news coming from the justices…….

In a blow to the NRA, the Supreme Court has opted not to hear a trio of cases challenging federal and state gun laws. Two involved NRA-backed challenges to laws limiting gun rights for people under 21, Reuters reports. One of those was a Texas law banning 18- to 20-year-olds from publicly carrying guns; the other addressed decades-old laws against gun sales to those under 21. A third case involved consumers’ ability to challenge gun-sale laws. The high court didn’t offer comment on its rejection of the cases, the AP notes. In other court news:

  • Justices rejected an alleged drug lord’s appeal against a Virginia retrial for capital murder. Justin Wolfe’s initial conviction was overturned due to prosecutorial misconduct.
  • Nor will justices hear an appeal by a man who was convicted under federal gambling laws. Lawrence DiCristina of New York says the laws cover only games of chance, whereas the game his underground group plays—poker—is about skill.
  • So what is the court hearing? Arguments are taking place today over an Obama administration rule on pollution. The EPA requires companies developing pollution-boosting industrial sites to assess their carbon output. The Chamber of Commerce, which is challenging the measure along with some GOP-run states, says it “may be the costliest, most intrusive regulatory program the nation has yet seen.” Several other states, as well as environmental groups, are backing the White House.

I am sure that there will be a wealth of opinions flying around with these newest decisions on the part of SCOTUS…….anyone care to start that ground swell of opinions?