Now, More than ever (or call it the Tumbling Dice )

Now, more than Ever, such a cheesy Nixon Era second term campaign slogan... that was still such an era of rednecks, racists, and ultra hard core conservatives , lined up in opposition to Radicals, Socialists and Revolutionaries on the streets, college campuses across America.. Women's Liberation, Free Speech, it was madness without cell phones, back then, it was the Pay Phone booth where you made your serious conversations .....

I haven't checked the mood on the Kiev metro lately (I am missing it ! ) , I am sure it's crowded as usual, are the folks from the East of Ukraine fitting in better, or are they still feeling glum and moody ? why is being from East Ukraine different from another place ?

Khirovograd ? Chernivitsy ? Regardless of your sentiments, I think it is different because your networks are disrupted, fractured. And it's true that I know guys who are fighting for Ukraine, on the front lines of the struggle for it's Independence from Russian domination. Some of them from Crimea, East Ukraine, they just can't talk with their family, for security reasons , for the safety of their people under occupation forces ... My one guy I know said that 11 out of 26 men in his platoon were from Eastern Ukraine, after some forays against what were essentially Russian Spetznaz, there was almost nothing left of them, either wounded, killed, or absorbed into other units on the front lines

Perhaps the only time in America, the USA of any equivalence, was our Patriotic Wars against the British. Guys can't call or contact their families, it would be like if Buffalo, New York were over run by Canadian Separatists (driven by some abstract notions of better Health care and / Language conflict) and guys from up state New York, simply couldn't contact their families in Buffalo.... How far in the future could this absurd "Hunger Games" scenario exist ? Well, who'd back Canada up against the USA and why ? This is within some context where we'd let loose our Nukes ? A Post apocalyptic scenario ? China backing Canada ? Or a Russian, China coalition ? We'd be in some street by street, bus terminal by train terminal struggle?

Well, it's absurd stuff, but Ukraine gave up it's Nukes ! And now they got a war on their doorstep from their neighbor. Full on Nuclear war with all the super powers, well it sounds impossible, but why ? Is not the Syrian situation something like a precursor , a practice , at large scale combat and civilian depopulation ?  Isn't it the elephant in the room ?

Who are these foot soldiers at the back gate of a potential third world war ? can't we humanize them ?

what kind of shit , every day are they dealing with ? What absurdity ?

and who is the enemy  ?

why, in this era of greatly improved communications is there such a potent foreboding of global war still seething at the edge of Europe ? It's been said it's a lot closer to the conditions that ignited the first World War, than the second, but why ? all of this turmoil over an Economic agreement gone bad ?

maybe we need some master detective to figure out motive for all of this murder and destruction ?

For sure, in the historical perspective it's a serious reflection on the relevance to thinking twice before relinquishing any sort of massive Nuclear deterrent. (as Ukraine chose to follow a peaceful path based upon the guarantees of the Budapest Memorandum ) They could have retrofitted those Soviet ICBM's 

A lot of folks seem complacent, that there is no way that Russian actions in Syria or Ukraine could spike the Tech sector based in California and elsewhere, and Russians are heavily engaged in it, this lucrative Tech investment market,   maybe it could affect the futures market for pork bellies ? As Europe nobly engages in absorbing refugees, aren't they concerned that some  IS radicals will enter into the flux of migrants ? Now it's true that there are Neo- Nazis fighting on the side of Ukraine against Russia, and it's an awkward situation, but they are serious about their job (not that it's any consolation )

Now that I've talked with many of the Ukraine Nationalists, moved through the Maidan in the dark of winter nights as they broadcast movies documenting the history of the Second World war, seen, heard the beautiful sound score of  the Hollywood style rendering of the Ukraine Revolution in the movie "Winter on Fire" recognized the faces and heard the voices of the people I knew in that film who were standing that ground..... At least it didn't go all out tien an men square massacre. But did president Nixon's much heralded opening of China actually wind up preserving the Communist party's hold on power in the long run ? Is the Chinese communist party another insipid bastion of  past reality, just like the Dems and the Republican party today ? Where were our politicians when the shooting really started in Kiev ? where were theirs ? For sure, it was plain to understand that things would stay as they were, through the Christmas and Old New Year Holidays, but there are still a lot of unexplained situations surrounding Ukraine's Revolution, or I have not seen it truthfully delineated in English 

But some interviews were published online (in Ukranian ) surrounding the intrigue of all the Police and security forces at the time, clearly it was about factions and momentum and top level people taking some sort of gamble, trusting what they thought was the best thing to stop the bloodshed quickly.

yet the difference was only scale, maybe if you compare the total population of China, versus Ukraine, it's not really all that different, except for the outcome....

My song of the day Pick for Ukraine, Maria, Maria (by Carlos Santana and Company ) from Supernatural speaking to that disparate and passionate blend of cultures and histories ......

*************************

Oh Maria Maria

She reminds me of a west side story
Growing up in Spanish Harlem
She's living the life just like a movie star

Oh Maria Maria
She fell in love in East L.A.
To the sounds of the guitar, yeah, yeah
Played by Carlos Santana

Stop the looting, stop the shooting
pick-pocking on the corner
See as the rich is getting richer
The poor is getting poorer

Si mira Maria on the corner
Thinking of ways to make it better
In my mailbox there's an eviction letter
Signed by the judge now see you later

Ahora vengo mama chula mama chula
Ahora vengo mama chula
(East coast)

Ahora vengo mama chula mama chula
Ahora vengo mama chula
(West coast)

Oh Maria Maria
She reminds me of a west side story
Growing up in Spanish Harlem
She's living the life just like a movie star

Oh Maria Maria
She fell in love in East L.A.
To the sounds of the guitar, yeah, yeah
Played by Carlos Santana

I sing to la favela y los colores
The streets are getting hotter
There is no water to put out the fire
Mi cantar la esperanza

Se mira Maria on the corner
Thinking of ways to make it better
Then I looked up in the sky
Hoping that there is a paradise

Ahora vengo mama chula mama chula
Ahora vengo mama chula
(North side)

Ahora vengo mama chula mama chula
Ahora vengo mama chula
(South side)

Ahora vengo mama chula mama chula
Ahora vengo mama chula
(world wide)

Ahora vengo mama chula mama chula
Ahora vengo mama chula
(Open up your eyes)

Maria you know you're my lover
When the wind blows I can feel you
Through the weather and even when we are apart
It still feels like we're together

Oh Maria, yeah
She reminds me of a west side story
Growing up in Spanish Harlem
She's living the life just like a movie star

Oh Maria Maria
Oh, she fell in love in East L.A.
To the sounds of the guitar,
Played by Carlos Santana

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/woodward-and-bernstein-40-years-after-watergate-nixon-was-far-worse-than-we-thought/2012/06/08/gJQAlsi0NV_story.html

I always thought that Ukraine today,  is sort of like the USA, back then, except with technology at their fingertips, but it's impolite to draw comparisons, Nixon's resignation wasn't unlike Yanukovych's  

departure( that stupid grin, Flash of the Peace sign, and board the helicopter..... ) We often linked, compared Nixon   to the gangster, crime world. 

Gerald Ford (the replacement ) was a boring entrenched politician, Jimmy Carter is/ was viewed as a nice man with a friendly smile, but ineffective , but the bureaucratic establishment,  the intelligence community worked against President Carter : he wasn't ready for a third Column inside that , to be working against the stuff the White House was trying to manage with the crisis in Iran .

Mister Poroshenko seems far more adept, engaged and empathic than either Carter or Ford (Ford wasn't even elected ) , he's cautious about all elements of his administration, but there are still a lot of moving parts working against rusted mechanisms. I have no doubt he will look good in history, but what after that, what does the Future Feed Forward look like ?  a Wired Magazine cover story ?

But if the Historical vector were to transpose, could Ukraine elect a new leader like Ronald Reagan ? 

What would they do, invade   Antarctica ? Like Reagan's humorous invasion of Grenada ? Is there an Actor in Ukraine who can be Governor first , then be President ?  Could a high level of defense spending in Ukraine Force a second collapse of the Russian Federation ? and who would want that ? It's a dangerous subject to speculate on... I just hope nobody thinks I know anything other than the jokes going around in Spanish at the coffee shop.