UPDATE:   As if on cue:  President Obama skips another national security briefing again TODAY…

EARLIER:  When you elect an inexperienced, and profoundly ideological leader like Barack Obama based on a principle ruse of cultural popularity you eventually discover that “Hope and Chage” really means “Hoax and Chains”.   Fundamental chains.

President Obama is no more capable of leading international crisis than Milli Vanilli to sing acapella. The former needing a teleprompter the latter needing to lip-sync. (more…)

https://twitter.com/SalenaZitoTrib/statuses/439526062390001664

UPDATE:  Less than an hour after delivering a mortally flaccid and limp wristed denouncement of Russia invading Ukraine’s Crimea, Dear Leader shows up at DNC fundraiser to announce HAPPY HOUR.

(more…)

RT @NoahCRothman: CNN: U.S. confirms that Russian troops are present in Ukrainian Crimea.

— Jedediah Bila (@JedediahBila) February 28, 2014

Putin: rolling into Ukraine. Obama: running in circles through the White House with Biden.

— John Hayward (@Cobretata) February 28, 2014

YESTERDAY – CNN’s Chief International Correspondent, Christiane Amanpour, informed network anchor Wolf Blitzer on Thursday that there was no indication that Russian forces were planning to intervene militarily in Ukraine. Less than 24-hours later, Russian forces militarily intervened in Ukraine.

“Some are concerned we might be on the eve of another Cold War,” Blitzer fretted. “What, if anything, would stop Vladimir Putin from getting involved?”

“There doesn’t seem to be any notion that he is actually going to do so,” Amanpour insisted.

“The U.S. right now says it only sees Russia’s military exercises ‘within the normal range,’” she continued. “It does not see any of the kind of massive planning that Russia would have to do in terms of planning, and logistics, and securing air, and land, and rail, and road corridors to incur into Ukraine.”

TODAY –  Reports indicate that Russian paramilitary forces under Moscow’s control occupied airports in the autonomous Ukrainian Republic of Crimea overnight on Friday, less than 12 hours after Amanpour made this declaration. This preliminary occupation turned out to be a prelude to Russian forces exploding out of the Russian naval base at Sevastopol and taking control of the regional capital just 80 kilometers to the Northeast. (more…)

(AP) – Ukraine’s fugitive president surfaced on Thursday in Moscow, where he was said to have been seen at an opulent five-star hotel and a Kremlin country retreat once favored by the late Boris Yeltsin.

Viktor Yanukovych reportedly was granted protection in Russia, but he has not received a warm reception. Although Russia still considers him the legitimate president of Ukraine, the Kremlin has treated him cautiously and portrayed him as a coward who betrayed those who stood by him. (more…)

In the annals of historical military research the #1 justification (affirmative/offensive reason) for beginning any war is always the claim of protection needed for a specific citizenry.    Watch Putin use the excuse that Russian ethnics in Ukraine need to be protected…..

RUSSIA – President Vladimir Putin ordered an urgent drill to test the combat readiness of the armed forces across western Russia on Wednesday, news agencies reported, flexing Moscow’s military muscle amid tension with the West over Ukraine.

“In accordance with an order from the president of the Russian Federation, forces of the Western Military District were put on alert at 1400 (0500 ET) today,” Interfax quoted Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu as saying. (more…)

Very clever, Sochi 😉 #CBCOlympics #ClosingCeremony #sochi2014 pic.twitter.com/IhwIvpUkcR

— CBC Olympics (@CBCOlympics) February 23, 2014

Article about Closing Olympic Ceremony Humor – HERE

As with all of the political turmoil present within nations, including our own, there are alignments of self-interest which need to be identified.    For a close to home reference you might think about the differences between the “establishment class” of Republicans and the “grassroots conservatives” who also situate under the same tent.

We who value “freedom” and cherish “liberty” would no more consider Mitch McConnell a champion of our cause than Barack Obama.  Nor would we align with “establishment” principles – yet, from the outside looking in, it would be easy to define us with ideological attachment to Republicans simply by our association. 

It would be easy, yet it would be vastly inaccurate.   Such is the larger dynamic as we look toward Ukraine and what is taking place.

“Freedom” and “Liberty” are tenuous propositions under the best of circumstances because they ultimately are defined by people.   People with a vested interest in controlling the expressions thereof.    

With that in mind a thoughtful contributor, with direct attachment to Ukrainian heritage, has provided us with a larger perspective to consider:

Things are being presented in the Western media a particular way, I don’t quite understand why.

People are not hearing anything about the normal ethnic Ukrainians across the country that are being stopped if their cars are too nice by groups of protesters in the roads with baseball bats.

The people get searched, cars searched, and told “it’s the law of the revolution” when asked what give the protesters the right to do take people’s property.  We’re not hearing how the protesters and low information supporters have burned out police stations and told the police “we no longer need you”.

They have burned all records in some of the police stations so you can’t tell why people are locked up.  The useful idiots are destroying the country’s civilized infrastructure.

It is exactly what occupy wall street wanted/wants to do here. (more…)

If The Feb 21 agreement is not upheld….  Prepare for our war Kharkiv comrades….  the girly man in America will do nothing…

#BREAKING Ukraine's Yanukovych blocked from taking plane to Russia: parliament speaker

— AFP News Agency (@AFP) February 22, 2014

(Via XX Committee)  Things are moving very fast in Ukraine today. President Yanukovych, after the bloodbath this week on the streets of Kyiv, has been thrown out of office by the parliament. The country is in turmoil, and in the east, centered on Kharkiv, the Moscow-backed Ukrainian Front, that I informed you of three weeks ago, is arming the population and preparing for civil war.

And now the Russian Foreign Ministry has made its position clear in a new press release on its website – the new government in Kyiv is illegitimate and it’s the West’s fault.

This is a remarkably rough diplomatic message.

It cannot be construed as anything less than a threat to an independent Ukraine.

The full text follows …  (more…)

Report #1 – Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych on Friday announced early presidential elections and promised to bring opposition members into the government in a bid to defuse a deep crisis in which scores have been killed and hundreds injured. (link)

Report #2 – Ukraine’s president gave in to pressure from European diplomats and offered concessions Friday to defuse a crisis that has divided his country and left scores dead. Shots rang out near Kiev’s protest camp and protesters fought among themselves about what to do next. (more…)

Things have gone from bad to worse….  Some amazing earlier pictures and recap of the events HERE

UKRAINE – A short-lived truce crumbled Thursday as gunfire erupted at Independence Square, the center of anti-government protests and an increasingly violent crisis that threatens catastrophe for this divided nation.

The head of the protesters’ medical service said 100 people died and 500 were injured in clashes on Thursday, just hours after the government declared a truce in fighting that had shocked world leaders with the deaths of 28 people two days before.

The Ukrainian government has not released its own casualty figures, but Interior Minister Vitali Zakharchenko said 25 police officers had been wounded and an unspecified number of them had died. Some others had been taken hostage, he said. (more…)