Invasion Time

It's on now, the full fledged invasion of Ukraine is now fact. Vlad has no intention whatsoever of backing down. Kerry, you're wasting your breath with Lavrov, or just killing time while NATO gears up for the big stare down.

Something tells me that Vlad's been pining for this day, since he was strutting around in loaded diapers.
Raised on the valiant stories of Soviet success in defeating the Nazi's; he's been handed an opportunity in adulthood, to prove that he too, should be added to the pantheon of great leaders.

Problem is, he's dealing with a whole new reality that he has surely not grasped.
First, the nations he's lining up as foes, are his main trading partners. Not the brightest bulb in the shop Vlad.
In regimes past, the USSR, nor the czarists were as financially intertwined with the rest of the world as Russia is today.

Second, after years of mafiosi cronyism in government, and little real investment in modernizing the armed forces; you're setting yourself up for the big fail Vladdy boy. Your army could no sooner stand up to NATO, than a Boy Scout troop.

Third and not least, is the fact that truly great leadership as demonstrated by the likes of Churchill, Roosevelt, and even Stalin after the Nazi double cross of WWII, was the fact that these men rallied their people against an invasion, and the defeat of evil. They had the balls to join together two disparate antagonistic forms of government, into a formidable military alliance.

You Vlad offer just the opposite, you have no allies to your evil. Even your own oligarchy are now casting wary eyes on this folly as they fall victim to travel restrictions, freezing out of financial markets.
This is your reality Russia; Vladdy boy is leading you down a well worn path to the pits of hell, from which you will have to dig your sorry third world country out of, once again.

Haven't the past 400 years or so taught you people anything?

Vlad's Right About One Thing

While we all sit around waiting to see what Vlad will do next, kinda like ghoulishly watching a car race with the intent of seeing a crash; let's talk about why he's doing it, and why he couldn't give a rats ass about what Barry has to say.

Vlad's following a well worn script, he's smart, but he didn't write this scenario all by himself. He's simply doing what the czars did before him, he's giving Russia strategic breathing room. Difference is, the czars already colonized Crimea, and eastern Ukraine, Vlad's just reasserting those claims in areas heavily populated wth the descendants of those colonists.

Why could he give two shits if Barry and the EU condemn him?
In his mind, he's doing what's in his nations best interest, as the US does all around the globe.
One word justifies all his actions in Russia, even to those who don't agree with him, hypocrisy.

American hypocrisy, to be exact. Barry stands at the bully pulpit of the American Presidency proclaiming Putin a criminal, while the US pulls the trigger on many more illegal incursions in sovereign states. Iraq, just because Bush had a grudge, Afghanistan and Pakistan because we can, our continued occupation of Japan, Germany, England, Italy...we have bases everywhere.
What other nation has military bases in the numbers we do around the globe?
None. Not even remotely close.

Reality is America, we are not the beloved white knights of democracy and freedom around the world that our government has worked so hard to plant into your minds. Our global fight is not against terrorism or hunger, illiteracy, or even despots like Vlad. No we are hegemonists, with the sole intent of keeping our military/industrial mastery of the Earth intact.

9-11 didn't happen because everybody loves us. It happened because our government champions the oppression of other nations at the behest of our corporate elite. America didn't write the script for hegemony, we just perfected it.

So as Vlad stands before the world justifying his atrocious behavior, you have to recognize the fact that he's right, in the sense that Russia is only doing what we do, taking what we want, when we want it, from whomever has it.

That's the American Way.