Those that peruse numerous news sources run into reports that cannot be true should not be true but that are nevertheless true. In time a bouquet accumulates to be shared with those that can laugh even if it hurts.
- The EU is ready with sanctions if Ukraine ceasefire violated" announced many recent deaths ago the headline about Chancellor Merkel. The threat by Germanys leader who is indistinguishable from her leftist coalition partner sounds good. Not unlike Putin Duly Noted" is unimpressed. The small print it is always the small print that matters - tells why earthquake watchers register no trembling under the Kremlin.
To keep Moscow off tranquilizers also to prevent the scramble of scared chickens in the coop we insert a qualifier. To unleash retaliation the violation must be serious". Experience suggests that we have to make do with a definition of serious" that is as flexible as is the meaning of is" in Clinton-Speak". The criterion of serious" is only fulfilled if Russias consents that her violations have been serious. Conclude: the Atlantic Alliance is back in its favored slumber mode.
- Eric Snowden has not only talked to all but he is also talked about. A source that called him a patriot" a patriot for whom? - reports that he wants to return home". For the sake of the confused: He meant the USA.
Probably on the strength his hither services to his country he raises conditions. All he wants is what he considers to be a fair trial". The demand is warranted. America puts renegades into death camps where they can choose between frying in boiling oil roasting in a cage and impaled while bring barbequed. Even with the end of the current administration in sight there is no news about the fair trial". All we know is that the death penalty is nixed.
The term fair trial" is notable. What is informally meant is that no severe punishment for a severe violation is to be guaranteed to encourage the happy homecoming. When a court procedure has a pre-programmed result we have a mock trial. Hire Russian or North Korean experts to orchestrate it.
An alternative to the USA is as announced on March 6 asylum is Switzerland. So far the enthusiasm of the locals is rather subdued. It might take time for the Left and the Greens to mobilize to protect one of their own.
- Somehow Jihadi John" comes to mind here. To make bad sound better lawyers claim that he is to be considered well British. About the family there are oddities. When Iraq invaded Kuwait they supported the occupier. Their side lost. Note: Britain disapproved of what the Emwasis supported. Therefore by British standards England gave refuge to a hostile traitor. Once Hussein was driven out the family became less than popular. Claiming persecution it asked for asylum in Britain. Amazingly considering their record defying the principle behind refuge they were accepted. That resulted in a life on welfare uninterrupted by work of any sort. Once they moved back to Kuwait (that tells about persecution) they continued to receive British money.
- The negotiations with Iran are nearing another deadline. Formally the American objective is supported by the other Powers. The US interests however are paramount as - with Israel - she happens to be the primary target of the Mullahs.
Some assert that Tehrans nuke will not change much. The experience with proliferated nuclear weapons point to the Alfred E. Newman approach. No other convenience dictated move could be more dangerous.
A nuclear Iran will be more than a new player on the field. It will be a participant that plays by new rules and with a new goal line in mind. Nuclear powers seek a global balance (USA USSR China) or a local one (India Pakistan) and possibly guaranteed survival against a dominant conventional enemy (Israel). Nuclear-armed suicide bombers that do not seek self-protection but the annihilation of their foe regardless of the cost raise the nuclear threat to a new level.
If it comes to a treaty it will contain controls called rigorous" by one side and limited" according to the other. To pay for that diplomatic success" sanctions will be lifted. This deal is less satisfactory than it seems. Inspectors whose zeal will be limited because their country is not directly endangered will be restrained. It will be easy to overlook violations and then to argue that is inconvenient to restore the sanctions because of a trifle. This guarantees the worst of all imaginable outcomes.
- Hesitantly applied sanctions have a sad record. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe has been active in the Ukraine. In the best case its agents were ignored or kept from making their appointed rounds". If their nagging bothered Russias Little Green Men they were locked up. Have the Mullahs noticed?
Then there is the ongoing case of Greece. Athens got into trouble because EU supervision went off-line. The lights did not blink because the will to enforce fiscal discipline was lacking. Unless Greece leaves the Euro-zone there will be a deal. For more money the leftist illusion chasers who pay with other peoples money will agree to supervision under a vague covenant. Once the violations cannot be ignored continued financial support will be justified by a pious excuse.
- Leftist-run Greece is seeking relief from her dormant bankruptcy by demanding that the settled WWII claims be re-settled by compensation for the torts of the great-grandfathers of the living. Should the money be denied Athens threatens the EU. They could open the gates to Europe by providing papers to entrants and inundate Europe with welfare-claimants and terrorists.
- The EU can be hard-line if the regulated victim cannot bite back or threaten bankruptcy. Since time immemorial Hungarys peasants were free to distill liquor for their own use. Brussels demanded that the home-brew be taxed. Budapest complied but to pacify the alarmed farmers it created a tax deduction. Now the Feds" forbade that. For no advantage to Europe" a harmless tradition has to be sacrificed. Presumably an illicit industry has been created; its suppression will be as effective as were actions against Prohibitions bootleggers before Elliott Ness came on the scene.
- Two lies. Someone has released a lame canard (13/03). It is that new Ukrainian currency will depict Hitler. This is to underline that Putins opponents are Fascists". Hitler had a close relationship to the Ukrainians: he massacred them. The other fib has the distinction of being unmasked by its inventor. Some feared Russia; they shunned their obligations and did not wish to be Fascists". So they have acted as though they would believe that the indigenous and not the Green Men" have conquered the Crimean peninsula. While on TV Putin to demonstrate how clever he is has told the denied truth we all knew. Yes he had decided to occupy and annex the territory.
This admission has ramifications. In the eastern Ukraine the Kremlin claims that its regulars are not involved. It is the natives that fight relying on the latest weapons systems of Russia. The story by which those Westerners with a yellow stripe on their back are provided with an excuse is identical to the earlier lullaby that justified the conquest of the Crimea. Now the original story has been retracted. Why should the same tale be believed when the only difference is the venue?
