If Ukraine Attempts to Use Its Law Enforcement Forces to Restore Order in Crimea, Russians Will Invade: They Did the Same Thing in Georgia/South Osettia War

If we’ve learned anything from recent history, it’s that Russia will not tolerate threats to ethnic Russian populations in any neighboring countries.  They invaded Georgia  in 2008 to stop the Georgians from cracking down on South Ossetians who had declared independence from Georgia and were calling for annexation to Russia.   That’s why I think the Russian Army will attack Ukraine.

With Ukraine coming apart, and the ethnic Russians in the eastern part of the country taking paramilitary action, Russia began maneuvers with a 150,000 man army in the region, and sent its military aircraft to threaten Ukraine’s borders.  They’re also protecting Ukraine’s former president.
 
Now that the Olympics are over, there’s nothing to stop Russia from going after Ukraine, in whole or part, should the Ukraine attempt to use force to retake their government buildings in the Crimea and bring the ethnic Russians back into line.  That’s exactly what the Ukrainians must do, and what Russia is waiting for them TO do. 

This is not going to go well for the Ukraine.   How far the Russians would take a military confrontation is unclear, but they’d love to have the entire country under their control again, and not just the eastern Ukraine.   They’d also love to reclaim the rest of the Black Sea fleet, which was divided between Russia and Ukraine.

The Russians have everything to gain and the Ukrainians everything to lose.

Un-backed Virtual Currencies Are Far Too Risky to Invest In: Fly-by-Night Exchanges Like Mt.Gox Come and Go on Slightest Vague Problem

One of the largest bitcoin exchanges got virtually robbed, and $400 million of their virtual money is gone, making the company insolvent.  MtGox is under investigation by American and Japanese agencies over the $400 million theft.

In an age where many companies are unable to secure their own servers due to cost, ignorance, or lack of care, why is everyone surprised that hackers managed to get into an online company to steal online money?   Investigators are saying that those who lost money are going to be out of luck.

What in the world is a bitcoin anyways?  From the first paragraph of the Wikipedia entry for it: “ Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer payment system and digital currency introduced as open source software in 2009 by pseudonymous developer Satoshi Nakamoto. It is a cryptocurrency, so-called because it uses cryptography to control the creation and transfer of money.^[5] Conventionally, the capitalized word "Bitcoin" refers to the technology and network, whereas lowercase "bitcoins" refers to the currency itself.^[6] “

In other words, people pay real money for a certain number of bitcoins.  At today’s exchange rate, one bitcoin is worth $558.00  The currency sharply devalued after the MtGox exchange was robbed of roughly $400 million in bitcoin currency a few days ago.

I don’t trust online-only currency that is not backed by full faith and credit of a sovereign government and in widespread use.    Seems like “buyer beware” is the word of the day when it comes to deciding whether or not to invest in this kind of currency.

Piers Morgan to End CNN Show: Americans Didn’t Like Non-Citizen Preaching to Them About Gun Control

It was announced that Piers Morgan and CNN will end his talk show, which is not a bad thing.

It’s bad enough that American  politicians of both stripes and their supporters are doing their part to shred parts of the Constitution that they don’t like, but when it came to a foreign reporter preaching to the American public about gun control, it was too much for many Americans to take.

No disrespect to the British, but we can handle our own debates in our own country, in the same way that you British folks can handle your own affairs without our input.  Piers Morgan went too far and it backfired on CNN in the form of declining ratings and revenue.  His condescending attitude didn’t help his cause either.

This is a smart move on the part of CNN.

If Karzai Won’t Sign the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), U.S. Should Zero Out All U.S. Forces No Later Than January 1st, 2015

Enough with Afghan President Karzai already.   His continued belligerence toward international forces and his refusal to sign agreements with the international community should lead to an immediate pull-out of all U.S. forces, to be completed no later than January 1st, 2015.

2,169 U.S. troops have died on behalf of the Afghan ingrate and not another soldier should be asked to fight there if Afghanistan doesn’t pull its head out of the sand and start to deal with these issues, and for the Afghan president to get his rotten attitude under control.

I know U.S. forces want to remain there to finish the job, but our own President isn’t committed to victory, and neither is the Afghan president.  Our military needs time to address the needs of its soldiers, to retool and rebuild.  They’ve been at war for a long time, the longest war in U.S. history, and those troops should come home.

Afghanistan should be allowed to revert back to tribal kingdoms as it was before the imperial powers got in there.  It’s a failed state in its current form, and no Western army will change that by force of arms.

Mid-January to Mid-February Notes

Need to do something for in-between times, when I’m working on stuff but am not ready to publish yet.  Thoughts:

--With all the trouble in the Ukraine, how long can it be before Russia invades, under the guise of “restoring order?”  Anyone remember the war that they had with Georgia a while over South Ossetia?   Once the Winter Olympics are over, I think there will be a Russian intervention, with Putin daring the West to try and stop him.

--With the kickoff of the Olympics, Russian TV commentators are behaving quite badly toward American Olympic athletes.  They’re doing a fine job of humiliating themselves.   In addition, anti-FBI and CIA propaganda has started appearing in Sochi businesses.

--Cossacks are helping to secure the Winter Olympics at Sochi.   I didn’t think the Cossacks were Putin supporters.   There’s a possibility of increased tension between the Russians and the Cossacks after the Olympics and possibly clashes too.

--President Obama can’t change laws on his own once they’ve been enacted by Congress as he’s done with his health care law.    Someone needs to take President Obama to court to rein him in; the GOP appears ready to do so.  He can’t do “what he wants” via Executive Orders despite what he thinks.  Limits on Executive Orders need to be permanently defined by the Supreme Court  for this President and all future Presidents.  Until this happens, the checks and balances system will remain under threat from an “over-reaching Executive Branch.”  American Presidents do not rule by fiat like North Korea’s president or Russia’s president do.

--The Bieber brat is facing charges in Los Angeles, in Florida and in Toronto. He may be facing federal charges for smoking pot on a plane bound for the Super Bowl earlier this month as well.   His dad isn’t helping matters.

 

That’s all for now.