Monday, March 31, 2014

Americans Against the Tea Party


In the last few weeks, on Facebook, I began following an organization called Americans Against the Tea Party. You who follow my blog know just how right-up-my-alley such a site would be. The Tea Party is generally vile, selfish and hateful and, I believe, it represents everything that America isn’t.
by Charlie Leck
I recommend you look into Americans Against the Tea Party (Americans Against the Tea Party).

We need a strong movement in this country to counteract the bigotry, selfishness, hatefulness and propagandizing of the Tea Party. America is better than the Tea Party.

If the Tea Party bothers you as much as it bothers me, I strongly recommend you look into this organization that powerfully counters these ultra conservatives.



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Saturday, March 29, 2014

Alice Munro


This Canadian is one of the best short story writers I’ve ever come across. Get to know her!
by Charlie Leck

Alice Munro was awarded the 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature (“for the entire body of her work”). Until then I had never heard of her, but I committed myself to getting some of her short stories to read. Now, I am one of her biggest and most ardent fans. Her writing is really special and her stories are wonderful. At first, I might finish one of her stories and put it down and ask myself, “What was that?” Yet, the story stuck with me for hours and hours and I would keep thinking about it. Some stories seemed to be strange and mysterious, while others were simple, unvarnished and ordinary; yet they were always written brilliantly and it seemed they were always sticking with me. I just finished THE VIEW FROM CASTLEROCK and it was one of the most lovely and interesting books I’ve ever read. So, now I am looking for another of Munro's books. I haven’t been this intrigued with a woman writer since I went through all of Doris Lessing’s stuff back in the 70s.
Here's a pretty thorough bibliography of Alice Munro's work:

Dance of the Happy Shades and Other Stories (1968)
Lives of Girls and Women (1971)
Something I’ve Been Meaning to Tell You (1974)
Who Do You Think You Are? (1978)
The Moons of Jupiter (1982)
The Progress of Love (1986)
Fried of My Youth (1990)
Open Secrets (1994)
The Love of a Good Woman (1998)
Queenie: A Story (1999)
Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage (2001)
Runaway: Stories (2004)
The View from Castle Rock (2006)
Away from Her (2007)
Too Much Happiness (2009)
Dear Life (2012)

Several collections of shorts stories (selected from the works above) have also been published:
Selected Stories (1996)
No Love Lost (2003)
Vintage Munro (2004)
Carried Away (2006)
Alice Munro’s Best (2008)
New Selected Stories (2011)

Carried Away was the first of her books that I read; and the very first story in it is as cryptic as one can imagine. After that, her stories came easier and I figured out that I wasn’t suppose to find deep meaning in them; and I stopped trying to find all the symbolism and innuendo. I just sat back and enjoyed the beautiful writing.
So far, The View from Castle Rock, is my favorite. I just loved it. It’s a group of short stories that can be read alone or together viewed as something of a novel. The book held me captive from beginning to end.


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Thursday, March 27, 2014

What goin' on in Mississippi?


I don’t understand Mississippi. To quote the legendary Green Bay Packer coach, Vince Lombardi: “What the hell is goin’ on out there?” The Democrats should be powerful in Mississippi and they are not – not at all!
by Charlie Leck
Voting results in Mississippi are an enigma and have been throughout the state’s history! I thought the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1964 would change things in Mississippi. It has not.
In the 2012 Presidential election, Mitt Romney won in Mississippi by 11.5 points. Obama won only 43.8 percent of the vote.
37 percent of the population of Mississippi is black.
721,000 black citizens are eligible to vote in Mississippi.
The estimated turn-out of eligible black voters in Mississippi was estimated at 62 percent but that was actually higher than the percentage turnout of eligible white voters.
“What the hell is going on out there?”
This happened in a year when a black President of the United States was running for reelection. For whom were black voters in Mississippi voting?
I can see Obama losing in Mississippi, but he should not have lost by more than 11 points (as he did)! This is crazy stuff I’m trying to figure out here.
Why does Mississippi send some of the most conservative politicians to the United States Congress – politicians who do little or nothing for the black citizens of Mississippi? As of this past October, the unemployment rate in Mississippi was 8.5 percent. Unemployment among black Mississippi residents is currently 14.3 percent.
Mississippi is the poorest state in the nation.
Mississippi ranks first in the number of residents living below the poverty level.
“What the hell is going on out there?”
I need a top-notch political scientist to explain this to me.
Could it have anything to do with who is counting votes or how they are being counted in Mississippi!
With proper organization, Mississippi is ripe for a takeover by progressives and liberals (Democrats). This is a state that should not be in the red column. It should be a tooth and nail fight and election in every race, every year, but statewide democratic candidates to national positions should win.
Here’s how Democrats could get the upper hand in Mississippi (and the formula would probably work in George also)…
They must move their turnout of eligible black votes up to the 70 percent and even 75 percent point. Over 85 percent of eligible voters go to the polls in Minnesota. It sounds difficult but other states do it too, and much more is at stake for black people in Mississippi
Mississippi must get more of their black population eligible to vote. It shouldn’t be difficult when so much is at stake.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the 1964 voter registration project in Mississippi (a project in which I took part and have written about here many times). It would be a good year to again call on the nation to participate in a voter registration drive in Mississippi.
Mississippi should not remain a stagnant and forlorn state. It should not be in the blue column.
“What the hell’s goin’ on down there?”


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Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Biggest Big News


You may be amazed as you look at the newspaper and see all the big news, but there is one story to keep your eyes on closely because it holds the potential for great danger; and that is Mr. Vladimir Putin and the Russian nation.
by Charlie Leck
I’m not a scare-tactics kind of guy; and I do not frighten easily. That doesn’t mean I’m a tough guy, because I’m not. I often get wary about certain news items, but they don’t downright scare me. I’m just a chary kind of guy.
However, I’m a bit shaken these days as I read about the activities of the Russian military and the brazenfaced actions of the Russian president. I’m less afraid of Putin, who I believe can be handled properly and without violence; but I’m uncommonly afraid of certain segments of the American population and government which have become rather hawkish these days.
Their little nipping criticisms of President Obama have already begun over this Russian matter.
“Why hasn’t he stopped that son-of-a-bitch?”
“What we’ve got here is a president with no guts!”
“Ronald Reagan wouldn’t have allowed this Rooskie to get away with this!”
I’ve got some years on me folks; yet I’ve also got a danged-good memory. I remember times when hawks within politics badgered presidents into wars that they later regretted (even if they didn’t publically admit it). Let’s talk…
Lyndon Baines Johnson in Vietnam!
Richard Nixon in Cambodia!
Ronald Reagan in Granada!
George W. Bush in Iraq!
The wars listed above (take away the invasion of Granada) just about brought us down economically and spread enormous pain and injury throughout our military.
One is not being unpatriotic to talk about the foolishness of each of these wars. No, rather, one is being in-tune with history and fact.
“Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to relive it!”
I don’t know that anything more important and accurate has ever been said. George Santayana said it and it is often quoted in one form or another. He was a discerning and practical guy. As I think of his brilliant comment above, I also remember that he said…
“Even the most inspired verse, which boasts not without a relative justification to be immortal, becomes in the course of ages a scarcely legible hieroglyphic; the language it was written in dies, a learned education and an imaginative effort are requisite to catch even a vestige of its original force. Nothing is so irrevocable as mind.”
My god, how easily we forget. History will one day record that President Obama was correct in not allowing troops to be placed in harm’s way in Egypt, Libya or Syria, in spite of the constant snarfing of the hawks in Congress. He’s correct now to rally the nations of Europe and NATO to take non-military stands against Putin and Russia. And already the bully bear is feeling the pressure and the heat!
One must note that the pressure on Russia is being felt by them and we need to continue on this course without a public, congressional show of opposition to the nation’s leader.
Putin and Russia have been ousted from the select Group of Eight (this is a select gathering of the world’s greatest industrial powers). The group may next impose a series of sanctions against Putin’s government that could both embarrass him and do harm to his nation’s economy.
Germany and its chancellor, Angela Merkel, have been the most outspoken about Mr. Putin’s activities over the last two weeks. And, in spite of the hawks’ criticism of our President for not taking that role, it is wise for the President not to be a leader in these actions against Russia because of the historic rancor and rivalry between our nations. (Obama, you see, is a bright enough president that he thinks of these things!)
It is so refreshing to have a president who believes in the diplomatic route toward harmony and peace and doesn’t promptly begin to shake the iron fist. The Secretary of State and the President are working diligently and in harmony to bring about the best results they can from this brutish behavior of the Russian president.
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The Frightening Hatred of the Tea Party
A tea party organization put out a flier the other day with some comment about how sorry the world was about the disappearance of the Malaysian passenger jet. Below it was a photograph of Air Force One cruising in the sky. Below this photo was the statement: “Too bad it wasn’t this flight!”
I have a copy of it. I won’t post it here (or anywhere) because it is too sickening. I cannot tell you how shaken I was when I read that piece of trash. And these are people who boast of their extreme patriotism!


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Thursday, March 20, 2014

Had We Not Invaded Iraq


Imagine, just for the heck of it, that we had never gone into Iraq, chasing and searching for fictional Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)! Things would certainly be different now. For starters, there would have been no war in Iraq, but… by Charlie Leck

Try this on for starters…
We probably would have had a string of Republican Presidents. That’s right! Had George W. Bush not made that very unfortunate mistake of invading Iraq, on what appear to be false premises, he probably would have ended his two term presidency with great honor and enormous popularity. However, we spent trillions of dollars on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, under George W. Bush’s administration and watch, and that sent the nation’s economy into a tailspin. Now, the whole collapse of the banking industry may also have happened, but perhaps not. George W. might have had more time to keep watch over the naughty home-lending habits of the vulgar and greedy bankers and we may have caught the smell of their lending habits before it led to disaster.

And, George W. Bush would have handed over the reins to other popular Republicans and any one of them may have been elected. Perhaps it would have been John McCain. That might not have been so good. Under McCain, I’m sure we’d extend the military’s reach in Afghanistan (even if we hadn’t gone to Iraq).

John would have also sized up Iran as a nasty enemy and he would likely have ordered the military to take them on as well. McCain would also have sent some troops (boots on the ground) into Libya also and now we’d have troops (at least as monitors) in Syria as well.

So, the money we would have saved on the war in Iraq we would likely have spent in Afghanistan, Libya and Syria.

And now?
And right now, a President McCain would be lobbying Congress to send troops into the Black Sea and onto to Ukrainian soil to help out an independent country whose democracy was threatened – unless, of course, we had spent too much money in Syria, Libya, Egypt and Afghanistan and the banking industry had taken its terrible tumble under President McCain rather than the second term of President Bush. History is like that you know!

No Groundhog Day principle!
And, thank goodness the world doesn’t let you take a second, third or fourth take on these matters all the time. So, by this time the Tea Party would have completely given up on the McCain presidency and they would have been in absolute revolt and they’d be promising that McCain wouldn’t have a second term.

You have to think about these things! I mean, you have to think about these things. I’ve spent the last several weeks listening to Senator McCain blithering and blathering about Syria, Afghanistan and the Russian-Ukraine affair.

America’s military can not solve every political quirk that happens in the world! Really! Mr. McCain knows that in his heart of hearts. His constant nagging of the President of the United States is baseless and merely empty fodder.

Russia with the upper hand on this one! I’m afraid Russia caught us by surprise this time. We thought they’d become more civilized, less greedy and kinder of spirit. On this one, Mr. McCain would have been correct. We should have been more prepared. We should have smelled the stink of this one coming. This was simply too grand an opportunity for a greedy nation like Russian. International law does not now and never did mean very much to them. They have developed a fine, sharpened sense of Democracy yet. They don’t know just how a Democracy works. Crimea just looked too tempting, out there in such an unhinged and unattached fashion. Russia’s leader, Vladimir Putin knows everything there is to know about election corruption. It would not be difficult for this wolf to steal the sheep while the Shepherd was slumbering and in confusion.

President Obama will not win any street cred for this one. Yet, what can he do? America’s military is not prepared to enter into conflicts right now. Neither is America’s economy. Neither is its mood and temperament. Two weeks ago I warned you in a blog that we would probably get a chance to see the face of the REAL Vladimir Putin as the Ukrainian violence unfolded. And, we have; and it ain’t pretty!

Crime in Crimea! It doesn’t work very frequently, but we must depend on the United Nations and the European Union on this one. America must just continue to push for a negotiated solution. It must allow the voices of the other nations of the world to be heard. Vladimir Putin is a bad person and he must be exposed as he is to the entire world. Only then might he be backed down and new and fair elections allow in the Crimea.

Nations just cannot go around stealing other nations because they have bullied everyone else into fear of them! In a peaceful way, we must make the world see this.

If you want to see what the Ukraine was like before they won independence from the Soviet Union, you could start here and see how bad it was.



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Tuesday, March 18, 2014

If Plato Tweeted


To
tweet or post on Facebook, that is the question! Whether ‘tis nobler of mind or…. Enough already! What kind of Klout have you got?
by Charlie Leck
A friend called a New York Times column to my attention and I thank her exuberantly for the recommendation: What Would Plato Tweet? It’s by Rebecca Newberger Goldstein and makes for wonderful reading. I recommend it to you…
CLICK HERE TO READ IT!
Lunching with a friend in a Manhattan restaurant, Goldstein realizes how far behind the times she has gotten as she looks around and sees other diners taking their cell phone photographs of their food and tweeting messages to all their followers about where they are living it up big, and taking mobile calls from friends who want to know what that is they are eating. She admits that she’s been too busy pouring over the great mysteries of Ancient Greece and she’ll catch up on these techie revolutions once she’s got that (the mysteries) figured out.
Like us, the Greeks wanted to make their lives matter. And like a Twitter user, they did so by courting the attention of other mortals.”
Goldstein cleverly and intelligently mingles a peek into the cultures of the ancient Greeks and the ancient Hebrews, who were down the Mediterranean a ways, into this column about how we might matter as intelligent people. Some of her comments about the dimming of theism in our current time were absolutely intriguing.
The writer is a witty one, that’s for sure. While spilling humor along the way, she gives us plenty to think about in our current, dizzying days.
She’s a good writer – this lady – and this is one column you should read – it’ll only take 5 minutes out of your life (and, if you’re clever, you’ll be able to find it on your iPhone as you sit drinking your second latté of the day.
Then give me some idea about what your Klout Level is, will you! Mine is exceedingly low.


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Wednesday, March 12, 2014

ObamaCare and the South


    "I have never taken any exercise except sleeping and resting."
    [Mark Twain] 
The strongest opposition to the Affordable Health Care Act continues to come from politicians in the South. That’s a shame because many residents of the South need the law so desperately.
by Charlie Leck
The Huffington Post had an interesting description of the woes that the U.S. South is feeling these days (read it here). Here’s a list of the things the article describes and discusses…
Poverty rates are higher in the South.
Minimum wages are much lower in the South.
Economic ladder much harder to climb in the South.
Many in poverty in the South are denied access to affordable health care.
Southern states have a higher rate of obesity.
Southern states have a higher percentage of cigarette smokers.
Southern states have a higher rate of teen births.

If ever there was a place that could use the Affordable Health Care Act it is the South; however, the southern states continued to disfavor the law at a far greater rate than the rest of the nation.
A study by the Southern Education Foundation, a highly respected education philanthropy, says that a majority of students in public school throughout the American south fall into the low-income category. (The study is based on children in public schools pre-school through 12th grade.)
The American South dominates the cases of diabetes according to statistics released in 2011 by the Centers for Disease Control and prevention.
The minimum wage across the south is frighteningly low. That’s mainly because Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and South Carolina have no minimum wage guaranty. Arkansas and Texas, interestingly, are at $7.25. George is $5.15. The minimum wage in Florida is adjusted annually by using a cost of living formula (Florida's rate it is $7.93 in 2014).


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Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Koch Brothers Seek to Control 2014 Election



The environment suffers and the Koch Brothers grow richer if these brothers get their way in this year’s elections!
by Charlie Leck
I can’t imagine that there are too many things more important in America than our environment. Oh, yes, peace, justice, righteousness, freedom of religion, the right to a good education, our personal liberty and, of course, the right to own guns! These latter ideals often come down to debates in the arena of the mind. However, that without which there is nothing (sine qua non) is our environment. Yet, Americans take the all-out attack on, and abuse of, our environment so casually and lightly (oh, hum)!
The mega-wealthy Koch Brothers, however, continue a campaign that attempts to convince us that no harm is being done to the environment by the large polluting industries they own, nor by such industries owned by others. So blatantly they lie about their own mistreatment of the environment and so destructively they lie about those who disagree with them, that they actually get many unsuspecting Americans to agree with them.
As an ordinary citizen of an ordinary town in America, I often wring my hands and heart in agony over the abuse industry is causing in our nation and what serious environmental problems we are going to leave for my grandchildren and their children.
And all the while, the average citizen in the nation buys into the great lie of the Koch Brothers, and their fellow industrialists, that no harm is being done to the world’s environment.
Who can wake us up? How can we be awakened?
There are those who try, but the opponents of environmental truth are willing to spend hundreds of millions of dollars each year to defeat truth and to elect politicians who will kowtow to them and oppose the kind of reforms that give the environment some kind of protection.
For instance, the Koch Brothers and fellows like them are spending massive amounts of money on the coming election this year to defeat any and all significant political leaders who try to defend the environment and fight the industrial abuse of the air we breathe and the water we drink. The anti-environmentalists are spending hundreds of millions of dollars on campaigns this fall in Alaska, Iowa, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, New Hampshire and North Carolina. The advertisements funded by money from the Koch Brothers and others are always misleading and often they are downright lies. To the Koch Brothers, this is not a campaign; it is a crusade to protect their industry and their wealth.
Here’s the concluding paragraph from an editorial in today’s (11 March 2014) New York Times.
“What the Kochs want — and polls show they have a strong chance of getting it — is a Senate led by Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, now the minority leader, who promises in his latest campaign ad to ‘be the leader of the forces that take on the war on coal,’ the most polluting power-plant fuel. Nothing could be better for the owners of Koch Carbon, and they are willing to spend whatever it takes to make it happen. But they are finally encountering some resistance.”
Why do Americans forget that we have the power and ability to stop such selfish abuse of our environment? The vote is a powerful weapon and average Americans must use it to stop such abuse of the environment and such selfish grabs of wealth by such extraordinarily rich and uncaring people. If you give a few bucks to the campaign to stop the Koch Brothers’ power-grab, you can do wonders toward protecting this environment that is so important to us and to future generations. One way of doing this is to give to the campaign that the Democrat Senatorial Election Committee has set up to fight the big money of the Koch Brothers. (You can do that by going to here to read about the abusive power of the Koch Brothers and their election campaigns.)




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Monday, March 10, 2014

Hawk McCain



U.S. Senator John McCain (AZ) has been one of Barack Obama chief critics in recent days. The old military man isn't (wasn’t) happy with the way the President handled Iraq, Afghanistan, Egypt, Libya, Syria or Russia (in the Croatian/Ukraine affair). What if we had done it the McCain way?
by Charlie Leck
It is well known that we spent more than three trillion dollars on our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. That almost broke the bank and did cause our economy to nearly breakdown. These are two military skirmishes we could have done without.
The policies and programs of President Barack Obama pulled our nation back from the brink of financial disaster. We could have had an even faster and fuller recovery had the President had a loyal opposition party that would have been a bit more cooperative. History will show that President Obama handled quite well the 2008 crash that occurred while George W. Bush was president, even without the cooperation of the loyal opposition.
Now, what if the nation had followed Senator McCain’s advice on all these international skirmishes? We would have sunk deeper into debt and we’d be up to our necks in diplomatic and military problems. The President, thank goodness, chose to go a different route and try diplomacy to deal with these problems – and to talk other allied nations into taking some of the weight of responsibility off our backs.
In the 2008 election the nation chose Barack Obama over John McCain. It was a wise choice. In 2012 we chose Barack Obama over Mitt Romney. It is also proving to be a wise choice. Mr. Romney would, I think, have been very quick to follow the advice and bullying of Senator McCain. Thank goodness President Obama has stood up to the old Senator from Arizona.


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Sunday, March 2, 2014

War in the Ukraine?


It is no fun reading the newspaper this morning. We have quite a dangerous situation developing in Ukraine. Our nation and all of Europe is watching closely and beginning to think about what we could possibly do to tame the big Russian bear.
by Charlie Leck
We’re talking here about dangerous possibilities. We’ve never quite built a friendship with Russia and they don’t like taking orders from us. Under no circumstances does the Russian leadership view us as “the greatest nation on earth.” That’s an expression our politicians like to use when they’re running for office. They ought to stop and think about how offensive that is to the ears of people in our nations.
As for the Russians, they don’t want to be seen as taking orders from us. They never got over the way that President Reagan talked to them in 1987 – telling them to “take down that wall!” I remember thinking then that this was not very diplomatic language and that Russia had too big a national ego to allow such bravado to be spewed.
Now, President Obama tries to choose his words wisely. We are walking on dangerous ground here and we mustn’t take this perilous situation lightly nor approach the possibility of war.
Very, very frankly, we took invading Iraq too lightly and we also foolishly believed we could do a better job in Afghanistan than the Russians did.
Now, an editorial in the Washington Post (WP) makes it abundantly clear that…
“The United States now faces a naked act of armed aggression in the center of Europe by a Russian regime that is signaling its intent to steamroller this U.S. president and his allies. Mr. Obama must demonstrate that can’t be done.”
Unfortunately, the hawks in America, including the right wing of the Republican Party is going to think this means military action, which it certainly does not. The WP editorial goes on to say…
“Mr. Obama should make clear that he will no longer shrink from applying sanctions to Russian leaders and businesses complicit in aggression or human rights violations. An expanded list of Russian officials subject to visa denials and asset freezes that was drawn up by the State Department late last year should be immediately approved by the White House. Russian officials in the chain of command of the Ukraine invasion, as well as Russian companies and banks operating in Crimea, should be the next targets of financial sanctions.
“The most powerful non-military tool the United States possesses is exclusion from its banking system. Mr. Obama should make clear that if Russia does not retreat from Ukraine, it will expose itself to this sanction, which could sink its financial system. Russia’s economy, unlike that of the Soviet Union, is heavily dependent on Western trade and investment. It must be made clear to the Kremlin that the Ukraine invasion will put that at risk.”

Believe me, the Russians know that America is too involved in other parts of the world to take on more military actions. They also know that we are aware of the immensity of Russia’s own military capabilities. Russia’s great interest is economic expansion. They want to control the vital resources that exist in the Crimea and the Ukraine. Their actions there in the last 48 hours are exceedingly bold and dangerous. A too powerful Russia is a threat to people everywhere. This is a huge nation that has not yet quite come to grips with the ideals and idea of democracy. It has a ways to go.

What hurts Russia most are attacks on its economy and it is possible to launch such assaults if Russia refuses to negotiate a peaceful withdrawal from the Ukraine. President Obama tried not to play that card two days ago when he sent his warning out to Russia. Now he must make it abundantly clear that Russia’s economy and banking system will suffer it if maintains its present course. And, President Obama must convince our European and NATO allies to follow this course with us.

It is now that he must do these things. T he Washington Post has outlined the wisest and surest course in this crisis and I urge you to read the statement cited above. On pins and needles, all of America will await what comes out of the White House.

Understanding Ukraine
The Ukraine is an eastern European Country and its western border meets up with Poland and its southwestern border touches Slovakia and Hungary. Kiev, the capitol city of the Ukraine, is about 530 miles from Moscow. In the south of the nation, Odesa is a port city on the Black Sea and that body of water runs all along the southwestern border of the Ukraine. The nation has a population of nearly 45 million people. The Eastern Orthodox form of Christianity is by far the dominant religious force in the country. Amazingly, Ukraine is the largest country entirely within Europe (233,062 sq. miles). That means it is larger than France or Germany or Spain. It is said that it was in the Ukraine that the horse was first domesticated. It was, for a time, a part of the Soviet Union and regained its independence in 1991. It is a fertile nation and a major grain producer and has some of the best agricultural land on earth. It also has a large manufacturing sector. Under a long term lease agreement, the Russian Black Sea Fleet has a large port in the seaside city of Sevastopol (which sits on a large peninsula that sticks a long way out from the Ukrainian mainland). As a leftover from its days as part of the Soviet Union, the Ukraine maintains one of the largest military forces in Europe (second only to Russia).

Ukraine’s declaration of independence (or sovereignty) was adopted in 1990. It declares the principle of self-determination and democracy. It established its total independence on August 24, 1991 and held its first presidential election on December 1, 1991.

Victor Yanukovych was elected to the presidency of Ukraine in 2004, but it was seen as a “dirty” election and primarily rigged. This election produced what has been called the primarily peaceful “Orange Revolution” which took Yanukovych from power and established Victor Yushchenko as president. However, Yanukovych returned to power as Prime Minister in 2006 under the Alliance of National Unity banner. He was removed by an election in the following year, but was elected President again in 2010 with 48 percent of the vote.

The recent revolution that removed Yanukovych from power, and saw him flee the country, began under a dispute about applying for membership in the European Union (EU). It appeared that a large majority of the citizenry was favoring a stronger relationship with the EU and broke into strong protests and street demonstrations when Yanukovych refused to sign an association agreement with the EU. On January 15, 2014, the government passed Anti-Protest Laws that caused an escalation in the protests. On the 22nd of February, members of parliament proclaimed that the president was unable to fulfill his duties and used its constitutional powers to set a new election for May 25.

Yesterday (March 1, 2014), the Russian parliament approved a request from President Vladimir Putin to deploy Russian troops into the Ukraine. Such a deployment is not difficult for the Russians since they have a huge naval force already established within Ukraine and huge border along the nation of Ukraine’s entire eastern edge.

It seems it is an advantage to both the EU and the USA to have Ukraine remain a totally independent nation. By our standards it would seem Russia has no right to intervene in this internal national dispute in an independent nation. (However, Russian says the same thing about our current presence in both Iraq and Afghanistan; although it is probably beneficial for Russia that we are there.)

  


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Saturday, March 1, 2014

The Real Russia



We may get an opportunity in the next week or so to see the real “new face of Russia” as developments in the Crimea and, particularly, in Ukraine take place.
by Charlie Leck
President Obama has warned Russia against interfering in political developments in the Ukraine. Russia faces world condemnation, our President warned, if it involves itself there. Well, really! I’m sure that has the Great Bear trembling. Russia’s President, Vladimir Putin is feeling particularly good and powerful after the successful Olympic Games in his nation.
As usual the United States and the rest of the generally civilized, western world will have to sit back as observers and passively take whatever it is that Russia does in this situation. This is a big bad bully with whom no nation particularly wants to deal right now. We’ve got enough on our plates and we are still licking our wounds from our military activities in the Middle East.
The President has warned Russia that there will be “costs” if they do interfere. What costs? I can’t imagine it will go very far beyond restricting trade with Russia and some kind of attempts to influence Russia’s monetary values. What else can we do? Start another war!
There’s no question that Russia is a far different place from the old, communistic Soviet Union, but we’ll need to remember that this is a nation with shaky psychological balance and it is difficult to estimate or predict what it might do.
It seems to me that we are all going to get to know Mr. Putin a lot better in the coming weeks and he may not look quite so rosey as he did in Souchi!
Russia has not been a favored nation in America during my entire life-time; and I think America’s distrust of Russia goes all the way back to 1917 (the Russian Revolution that saw a communist regime take over with such violence).


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