The Wall Street Journal has a cool comparative feature on a photo of Freedom Square in Kiev, Ukraine.   The photograph compares 2009 to 2014

One of the neat features is the photo is interactive.   CLICK HERE to check it out.

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…)

Yeah, I did that…

#Yanukovych is not the President of #Ukraine anymore!Glory to Heroes that died for this -live VR |PR News #Euromaidan pic.twitter.com/GfUDD5RlDj

— Ukraine Front Line (@EuromaidanPR) February 22, 2014

WASHINGTON DC – President Viktor Yanukovych left Kiev after inking a deal Friday with opposition leaders to end the bloodshed, while the Obama administration was left explaining its role as the events quickly unfolded. […] (more…)

Ukraine citizens were never allowed to see the home of their president, until today…..

Families, protestors and the media stream into presidential residence outside Kiev pic.twitter.com/EZ9vXMZgsy

— Emma Wells (@Emmawells1) February 22, 2014

(Via Weaselzippers)  We’ve heard a lot about how protesters were upset with President Yanukovych’s choice to align with Russia rather than the EU. But there also was a lot of upset with regard to the perceived corruption in the Yanukovych administration.

His residence was not even made public until today. Now it has been occupied by the protesters who want to preserve it as a “Monument Of Corruption”.

Here are some of the pictures from the residence and grounds:

With security abandoned, people of #Kyiv finally see estate of President #Yanukovych. pic.twitter.com/RARCrPlQOt via @gruppa_voina

— Jim Roberts (@nycjim) February 22, 2014

(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…)

Yes, it has actually come to pass.   Uno Cero firmly in command.

In the era of President Milli Vanilli, a man wildly proclaimed (by leftists) to be the smartest President ever; a man who won a Nobel Peace Prize just for showing up; a man who would heal the planet and stem the rising tides; a man who would improve United States international influence…..

….. now recognized as a man who can’t even get another country to pick up the phone.

Yes, ye sheeple of Democrat association, this is your guy. Mr. Hope and Change himself – President Milli Vanilli in the White House.    Hoax n Chains.

WASHINGTON DC – Ukraine Defense Minister Pavel Lebedev has refused to take multiple phone calls made personally by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, the Pentagon said Thursday.

“Secretary Hagel has been trying, himself, since early this week,” Pentagon press secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby told reporters. Lebedev refuses “to communicate, to accept a phone call” from Hagel or the Pentagon. (more…)

SOCHI, Russia — A gutsy Ukrainian skier chose her people over Olympic glory  Thursday and pulled out of the Sochi games in protest.

Bodgana Matsotska said she could not compete while her countrymen were being  killed and is heading to Kiev to join the rebels fighting to overthrow President Victor  Yanukovych.

“I don’t want to participate when in my country people die,” Matsotska told  The Associated Press.

Between 70 and 100 protesters in Kiev were reportedly killed in the worst  violence since Ukraine split from the old Soviet Union and hundreds more were  injured in clashes with security forces loyal to President Viktor  Yanukovych.

Yanukovych insisted his men weren’t firing live rounds at the people.

But footage shown on Ukrainian television of Orthodox priests blessing the  bodies of fallen rebels painted their president a liar — and angered the  world.  (link)

The 24-year-old skier was supposed to compete in the slalom on Friday, her  third and best event at the Sochi games. (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…)

The Red Line comment is at 1:25

Photo by @Stcrow of @nytimes of Pres Obama making remarks about Ukraine during photo op with Mexican Pres Pena Nieto. pic.twitter.com/XftQFDDiDQ

— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) February 19, 2014

(more…)