Ukraine (and Russia)

[Frelga]

This is the best Western analysis of situation this far

http://thedailyshow.cc.com/videos/5h8y0 ... ive-a-s--t

Language, bleeped out.

[River]

Leave it to Stewart...

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Jessica Williams is great.

[Passdagas the Brown]

From VICE:

Dispatch 17
Dispatch 18

What's creeping me out, and has been all along, is that, while Russian troops are present, it's the civilians and local militiamen who are being aggressive. I've no doubt that they are feeling emboldened by the invasion and referendum. However, it's got some weird echoes of the break-up of Yugoslavia. Milosevic worked very hard to keep his hands clean, just as Putin is clearly working to keep his hands clean.

That is worrying. However, not all the "civilians" and "militiamen" in these videos are actually local. Many of them were brought over from Russia to pad out the pro-Russian landscape.

[Frelga]

And not all are actually civilian.

My Russia-born friends are getting concerned for their friends at home. Now that independent sources of information got silenced, government propaganda is as blatant as anything Soviets ever put out. Talking on the phone, they heard of a person fired just for criticizing the annexation of Crimea in a water-cooler chat. Yeah, I know, friend-of-friend, but that's as good a source of information as any one can get from Russia these days.

Makes me realize how much better radio is than the Internet at getting around government blocks. For one thing, they can't tell who is listening.

Ukranian sources, meanwhile, are saying that refugees flee Crimea for the mainland Ukraine. Thousands of Crimean refugees flee to mainland to escape Russia This jives with the interviews NPR did with some of the Crimean Tatars.

Have I posted this link? https://twitter.com/KyivPost, generally a good source of up-to-date information in English.

[Passdagas the Brown]

There's an incredibly wide-scale media crackdown happening in Russia right now. Something of this magnitude hasn't been seen since the Soviet era. Here's a very thorough analysis of the situation:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jill-doug ... 44092.html

Frelga - if any of your friends' friends in Russia are in the journalism or blogging world, I wish them luck!

[River]

Makes me realize how much better radio is than the Internet at getting around government blocks. For one thing, they can't tell who is listening.

Sooner or later, the opposition in Russia will figure that out, if they haven't already.

[Impenitent]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/worl ... e/7816951/

A self-declared temporary government in east Ukraine has distributed leaflets to Jews requiring them to register their families and their properties or risk confiscation and deportation.

[Impenitent]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/worl ... e/7816951/

A self-declared temporary government in east Ukraine has distributed leaflets to Jews requiring them to register their families and their properties or risk confiscation and deportation.

[Passdagas the Brown]

Just astounding.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Yes. (But certainly no more astounding than a former KKK leader shooting three people at two separate Jewish Community Centers in Kansas, and then having the mayor of the Missouri town that he came from come out in support of his anti-Semitic beliefs.)

[Passdagas the Brown]

Not necessarily more astounding than that, no. That's horrid. But the case in Ukraine is certainly more dangerous.

In this case, we have militant pro-Russian forces that are threatening to take over the governance of an entire region of Ukraine, some of whom are forcing Jews to register or lose their citizenship.

Somehow I don't think the state of Kansas is under threat of takeover from militant anti-Semitic secessionists, but I could be wrong!

[Voronwë the Faithful]

It wouldn't shock me. There are extreme right-wing secession movements that have gained traction in other so-called red states (Texas and Wisconsin, to be specific).

[Passdagas the Brown]

It wouldn't shock me. There are extreme right-wing secession movements that have gained traction in other so-called red states (Texas and Wisconsin, to be specific).

Sure, but there's no credible prospect for success in Texas and Wisconsin. As seen with Crimea, extremists inside Ukraine, supported by an aggressive and powerful Russian neighbor, can do serious damage.

Mexico isn't playing that role for our secessionists wannabes, I don't think.

[River]

If they want Texas, they can have it back...

[Voronwë the Faithful]

It wouldn't shock me. There are extreme right-wing secession movements that have gained traction in other so-called red states (Texas and Wisconsin, to be specific).

Sure, but there's no credible prospect for success in Texas and Wisconsin. As seen with Crimea, extremists inside Ukraine, supported by an aggressive and powerful Russian neighbor, can do serious damage.

Mexico isn't playing that role for our secessionists wannabes, I don't think.

Of course. My only point is that extremism -- and in particular anti-Semitism -- is endemic throughout the world, including here in the land of the free and the brave. The case in Ukraine may well be more dangerous to the world, but the case in Kansas -- or something similar to it -- is far more likely to touch me or mine directly, as a Jew in America.

[Passdagas the Brown]

Fair enough!

[River]

Whoops. The truth about the Crimean referendum results slipped out

[SirDennis]

Whoops. The truth about the Crimean referendum results slipped out

Those kind of numbers -- the slipped ones -- have lead to a few majority governments in Canadian elections. No joke.

[Passdagas the Brown]

Whoops. The truth about the Crimean referendum results slipped out

The shock of the century!