Fast Times At Ridgemont High (or who holds the best cards ?)

   Honestly, I have never taken a look at the faces on the metro in Moscow or Saint Pete, but taking a glance  at the folks midweek on the Kiev Metro, they seemed to be decidedly deeply lost in their individual thoughts, I mean there's a difference between "pre-occupied" and lost in internal thoughts.
A few weeks ago, just the sidewalk mood in Dnipro was "pre-occupied"

I don't know what prompted me to choose this title for my blog, this silly movie from 33 years ago, but in a lot of ways these FSU cultures seem to constantly mirror those dated cultural milieu's of 30 years in our past. Not that they lack hip, contemporary, aware, smart people, it is more like the process of social upgrading through their media, meeting the uncontrolled , freedom scripted youth :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKov1lmq_OU
really , I have to try watching it, don't think I ever saw it in the theaters or even on TV, cable.
(I'm not recommending the movie)

But the thought I had this morning,  sitting above Kreschatyk, looking across to a place I last had eye contact with one of the demonstrators who was just days later,  killed by a sniper near 2 years ago now, was that despite the imbalance of Economic and military power,  is it possible that Ukraine holds the Trump Cards that determine Russia's future?
For one, I think it's an absurd idea that Russia would ever Nuke Ukraine, even if they joined Nato, and a full scale ground and air war launched on Ukraine is politically impossible, despite their having been a covert ground war imposed on it's territory over the last year. Russia thought they could get their way in Ukraine, and things didn't go their way, it's tough Love, but the USA and it's appellant business and government interests tried to isolate Ukraine from Russia's pull. Or , at the least, we gave them the nod to make a run for their freedom, once and for all from Moscow's domination.

They say Putin is this scary dude, and yeah man, I sure don't want to be on his list of targets, if they can kill dissidents in London, Ukraine is a whole lot easier to get people into by train and car (as compared to the UK) Now we have our lead Republican Presidential candidate saying "Putin is a nicer man than I am" And Mister Trump's boosters in the American Nazi party openly decrying that he's gonna need to rule by decree, if he wants to lock down America's borders and preserve "white Purity" it's some really sick und unbelievable stuff. If people want, through their own personal relationship choices to stay "racially pure" that's there thing, as far as I am concerned. Tiger Woods was a successful mix of racial, societal and circumstantial factors, he was a great player on the tour, made lots of money.

But "Iron Yury Andropov" ? He was like a pretty scary dude too, during those Cheesey "Fast Days at Ridgemont High" 1982 days.... We worried a fair amount about Nuclear war then too. As we prepared for our massive military victory over the tiny Island of Grenada.
but back to Andropov :

A low-level party functionary with an unexciting early biography, Andropov shot to bureaucratic heights after the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, when as Moscow's envoy, he was the prime lobbyist for the Soviet invasion that drowned the rebellion in blood. This earned him a post at the Communist Party's central office — and in 11 years, the top job at the KGB, where he spearheaded the crusade against dissidents, including writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn and rights champion Andrei Sakharov. He also endorsed the Soviet invasions of Czechoslovakia in 1968 and Afghanistan in 1979. 

Andropov succeeded Leonid Brezhnev upon his demise in 1982 — and delivered the tightening of the screws expected from a man of his track record. His main achievement in popular memory was sweeping daytime raids in stores and cinemas intended to boost labor discipline through cracking down on work-dodging truants. He also ordered a show case against corruption and began a purge, albeit mild, of the party apparat.

All of this was a reaction to the Soviet Union's flagging economy — but the remarkable thing was that he did not stop at repressions. Andropov promoted reform-minded economic experts who later came to prominence during Perestroika, and began experiments to introduce elements of market economics in the country.

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/opinion/article/soviet-leader-yury-andropov-s-legacy-lingers-on-/501961.html