Civil War In Ukraine? ...and Venezuela?

So apparently Shits hitting the fan in Ukraine, with police locking down the capital, telling women and children to get lost. All of it over whether Ukraine aligns with the EU or Mother Russia, from what I can gather.

http://abcnews.go.com/International...Z&form=AMAZWB&setmkt=en-US&q=violence+ukraine

Anarchy in the UuuuuKraiiiine
Putin punched me and I'm in paiiiiiin.........

Mila Kunis is Ukranian. If there are more like her, I will gladly accept the flood of refugees (pending screening them personally).

Who is fighting whom in Ukraine – and why


And you think we have problems with a mere two-party system. Let's look at the opposite extreme.

Taking a page from @RickDeckard's ol buddy Chavez the government have shut down independent television stations (about 20 minutes ago it looks like).

Yep, live from KIEV, it's massacre time.

Not a good thing, by the way. But when it happened in Bucharest, the survivors did manage to storm the palace and succeed.

Some party hack decreed that the people
had lost the government's confidence
and could only regain it with redoubled effort.
If that is the case, would it not be be simpler,
If the government simply dissolved the people
And elected another?

- Bertolt Brecht

Be interesting to see how Russia handles this, they regard the eastern regions of Ukraine as Russian, and have been playing games with Ukraine for a while - the whole thing with placing pressure to take the Ruble over the Euro was pure power projection to show Putins intent is to usher in a new era of Russian dominion a la the Soviet days.

Were the "wrong" side to gain traction, I'm fairly sure Russia would take steps. Of course, the US has already dropped a sizeable bollock when Victoria Nuland thought chatting political positions over an unsecured line was a clever thing to do, so Russia already has a "look, the US is meddling!" excuse to trot out.

The EU will do what the EU always does, seek a handy fence to sit on until somebody else does something, then toss plaudits or peanuts accordingly.

Anti-government protestors capture 67 police officers, government snipers kill 33.


Looks like things aren't cooling down.

C'mon EU, this is your backyard, you gonna do anything or just bitch and moan about a State Department official calling you gutless on a tapped phone call?

The EU has repeatedly proven itself ineffectual. Why do you expect this to be any different?

I'm sure the EU has assembled an ad-hoc committee to consider forming a committee to consider the situation.

NATO will end up with this too and then it'll get "fun."

To the first sentence - not without ruminating about organizing a feasiblity study first! Let's not rush into things.

Realistically nothing will be done by the United States until after Jan. 20th, 2017.

Probably not then either but one can hope. Of course by then the Syrian problem will be over too given they'll all be dead probably.

They've imposed sanctions, of course it is in the form of asset freezes (most assets will, doubtlessly, remain entirely unfrozen in Russia) and a visa bans on a whole 20 people.

And on the US side of things, Obama has mentioned lines again, which, going off his Syrian red line, probably holds as much water as a Kalahari dune.

Hmmm. What's next? Russian troops get "invited" in to restore security?

There's a real sense that things are spiraling out of control.

I've always said and I still believe it "economic sanctions" show the weakness of thinking in a western democracy.

To an elected govt. official the worst thing that can happen is that your voters start losing their jobs. So to them sanctions actually mean something.

To tyrants, people losing their jobs are way down on the list of their worries. Their biggest concern is running out of ammunition.

Qaddafi agrees!

So apparently Venezuela has gotten in on the act. Is western media ignoring it?

Ah, you friended George Taikei, too?

Uncle Ted predicted this:

I almost posted the same article from the same source too....

"And if we did start the fire......what difference does it make?"

"If you like your current tyrannical regime, you get to keep your current tyrannical regime!"

Yes.

Because Putin after all wants to rebuild the "USSR" but without the communism part.

It's going to be what I've heard it called: the first Intelligence Dictatorship. Essentially the KGB (which became the FSB) is still alive and kicking and is now running the country. And it's leader is Putin.

And nothing is going to be done.

Europe is a continent of cowards who will never call Russia on its bullshit. America is a laughing stock as no one is afraid of Obama, Kerry or Hagel. (Hagel can't even get his calls returned from the Ukrainian Defense Minister)

Seriously though, if you want any chance of holding Asia you've got to control The Ukraine. IIRC you go from 7 territories you have to hold to 5 (and in reality four, no one has a chance of consolidating Asia without having Australia in their pocket).

It's hard to imagine having only one army on Ukraine. It's a very strategic territory.