Saturday, January 31, 2015

In the heat of their conflict with the Great Russians, are the Ukrainians reverting to their Cossak/Viking roots?


A great analysis over at Chicago Boys, the accuracy of which I can not vouch for, but which most definitely makes one see things from an interesting new perspective.

First, this video, which has gone viral in the Ukraine, called 100 Warriors, and which is replete with Viking and Cossack imagery, for those who know what to look for.



An example being the distinctive haircut of the Kievian warrior Prince Sviatoslav's haircut, circa 972 AD, and adopted by many modern Ukrainian soldiers.



How bad of a bad ass was Sviatoslav?  Consider this:

John Cunningham Says: 
Sviatoslav is my kind of guy. compare–
two different ways of declaring war:
1. the Eloquent,http://www.volokh.com/2013/03/22/how-to-declare-war-anno-domini-1429-2/
Joan of Arc, to the English army before Orleans, 22 March 1429
Jhesus-Maria, King of England, and you, Duke of Bedford, who call yourself regent of the Kingdom of France, you, Guillaume de la Poule, count of Suffort, Jean, sire of Talbot, and you, Thomas, sire of Scales, who call yourselves lieutenants of the Duke of Bedford, acknowledge the summons of the King of Heaven. Render to the Maid here sent by God the King of Heaven, the keys of all the good towns which you have taken and violated in France. She is here come by God’s will to reclaim the blood royal. She is very ready to make peace, if you will acknowledge her to be right, provided that France you render, and pay for having held it. And you, archers, companions of war, men-at-arms and others who are before the town of Orleans, go away into your own country, by God. And if so be not done, expect news of the Maid who will come to see you shortly, to your very great injury. King of England, if you do not so, I am chief-in-war and in whatever place I attain your people in France, I will make them quit it willy-nilly. And if they will not obey, I will have them all slain; I am here sent by God, the King of Heaven, body for body, to drive you out of all France … (Written this Tuesday of Holy Week, March 22, 1429.)
by Sviatoslav I, Prince of Kiev, 10th century-
“Иду на вы.” [Idu na vy] I would loosely translate this as “I’m coming to get you.”


So what?

This is what may be the significance of the cultural awakening:

Ukraine is returning to its cultural roots from the Kievan Rus /Viking period, the Cossack period being an extension of that. Community is everything.
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These people are at heart 
Viking berserkers – and we have seen it over and over again on the battlefield over the last 9 months. Cornered Ukrainian officers, wounded, surrounded by Russian Spetsnaz, pulling the pins on a string of grenades, to take the enemy with them, which they did on multiple occasions. A Sergeant commanding a T-64B taking on three Russian T-72BV tanks, killing one, chasing off one, and capturing the third. A Mech Brigade NCO commanding a BTR-80 ambushing a Russian T-72BV tank, and like in the movie Fury, from close quarters hammering the tank with his 14.5mm KPVT until he jammed its turret ring, and the Russians ran. Or the seven heroic T-64B tank crews at Mariupol who took on thirty Russian T-72BVs approaching from Novoazovsk, and defeated them. In early July, the pilot of a supersonic Su-24M FENCER D bomber, who took a direct hit in the engine with a Russian MANPADS, extinguished the fire, turned his jet around, obliterated the Russian missile site and crew, and then flew 300 kilometers to safely land his crippled bomber. None of this is an accident, the Vikings were feared across Europe and the Byzantine Empire for good reason, and a great many of the Soviets’ best warriors were Ukrainians, including a number of fighter aces in WW2 and Korea, and the most lethal female sniper of all times, Lyudmila Pavlichenko.
.
Strip away the Greek Orthodox religious facade and Slavic language – at heart they are all Varangians, and this oozes out under pressure. The 
Shield maiden obsession, the extreme group cohesion, the Veche popular gatherings, the “dumpster lustrations” of corrupt officials, the love of all things martial, the love of Viking Mohawk haircuts, the “traditional” embroidered ethnic dress, the love of cats, the Scandinavian style food, the Viking Trizub national symbol, the blue and yellow flag, the patronymics, the list goes on and on and on ….
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In many ways the Ukrainians are an anachronistic snapshot of the passionate, wild, and free Viking culture, which was wiped out by deeply conservative Lutheran Christianity in Scandinavia. 800 years of Russian harassment, territorial conquest, and 325 years of Russian colonial rule, simply entrenched and froze the original culture. Putin has released that genie, and nobody can put it back into to the bottle.”

Whatever else happens, Putin will not be able to conquer the entire Ukraine and may not even get the Donbass. Putin has created a Ukrainian nationalist monster that will hate Russians for both the great famine of the 1930’s under Stalin and now the very raw territorial wound of detached Eastern Ukraine and Crimea.
Ukrainians will work for a 100 years to get all that back, minus anyone who is visibly, culturally, Russian.
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The Ukrainians are fighting as a national people.
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The Russians are fighting as a classic Oriental despotism whose chief objective is to keep Putin in power, whatever effect this has on Russia’s long term interests.

Perhaps.  We will certainly see.

1965 | Aston Martin Vantage DB5

What James Bond drove after he married Moneypenny and had kids.


1959 | Lockheed A-12 mock-up | Area 51




Suspended upside down, a titanium Lockheed A-12 mock-up of a spy-plane is prepped for radar testing at Area 51 (part of radar tests to reveal  how visible, or invisible, the design was to radar).



An informative article on the situation in the Middle East and a prediction on the future

All I have to say is that I'm glad that we live on the other side of the world from this cluster.  
Via The American Interest:  What the MSM is failing to tell you.  A taste, but follow the link and read it all:
So what next, you may ask. Before long, Hizballah and ISIS will become each other’s main target, which does not necessarily mean they will lack venom enough left over to again attack Israel and Saudi Arabia. Hizballah will have a powerful state backer, but ISIS will not, suggesting that the former will prevail. But uncertainty and lots of blood yet to be spilled on all sides stand between the present and that outcome. Saudi Arabia will be caught in the middle of this mayhem, opposed to both parties but helpless to stop the fight. Israel will be caught on the periphery, so to speak, the enemy of both antagonists and so desirous of the destruction of both. But Israel has no political entrée or leverage with either side to turn its military power into political achievements. Israel and Saudi Arabia will be in a sense objective allies, bound together by what they do notwant, but both the nature of the Saudi state and plenty of political baggage besides will make active collaboration between the two parties difficult—perhaps a bit easier if Jordan and the UAE quietly mediate whatever arrangements become necessary. But any such arrangements will still be sharply limited; there is little either party can do, separately or together, to stop the coming carnage that, before it’s done, may well sweep more Arab Sunni states into the dustbin of history.
And the United States? It’s too late. Having abdicated responsibility to suppress such a major regional security competition, there is no way now to get back to relative stability. Not that it would have been easy or cheap for the Obama Administration to do its duty effectively, and not that its predecessor did not make the situation worse; but abdication is now yielding bad and much more expensive options, whether of passivity or activity, in all directions. At least for the duration of the Obama Administration, respect for American power and trust in American judgment are all but gone. We have made ourselves, in effect, spectators; we are not likely, however, to enjoy the show.

Green on green violence

The Taliban have captured former Gitmo detainee Abdul Rauf Khadim in Southern Afghanistan, along with 45 associates, and accused him of recruiting for the rival Islamic State.

Things aren't looking too bright for Abdul.  The muslims are not known to be very charitable to those who they think are untrue to the faith, or from a more practical view, the local warlord.

Tribal leader Abdul Ahad Masoomi said:
Mullah Khadim, who claims allegiance to Daesh (Arabic acronym for IS) forcibly assembled local residents on Thursday last in the Kakaji’s Azan area and told the people that Mullah Omar [spiritual leader for the Taliban] no longer exists and they should now support him.
Khadim fell out of favor with the Taliban and switched his support to the Islamic State. He set up recruitment for the terrorist group in south Afghanistan, which is considered “the spiritual heart of the Taliban,” after the United States pulled out of the area. America did not view him as a threat, but in 2011, Newsweek reported he “commanded Mullah Omar’s elite mobile reserve force, fighting regime opponents all over Afghanistan.”
Look for the Taliban to do the work our own government won't and roll Abdul's head right off his shoulders.

I've seen better snow packs. That will melt off in the first week of warm weather.




Meanwhile a relatively stiff 5.7 quake has rocked northern California.  It's always something around here.


Earthquake Index Map

Anyone up for a swim?

Unedited picture of a nuclear reactor core.


Let's give Michelle Obama some credit here.

Not only did she refuse to wear a head covering to please the seventh century head choppers, she didn't even wear black.  The Saudi media was so appalled that they blanked out her face on their TV.

You might be an America hating douche bag, Michelle, but you did the right thing in this situation.  And you know what, for all the heat she takes over her choice of attire, she looks good as the first lady here.  Well done, for once.


She even gave the Saudis the famous stink eye that we Americans know so well.  She hates everybody!  However, the head choppers deserve that look, if anyone does.  


The classic "bitchy resting face."

Give this guy a medal and a raise for telling the truth



“To establish a first-tier, international, liveable and harmonious city, it is very important to establish a system of standards, and Beijing is currently doing this,” he said last Friday, according to the China Youth Daily newspaper.
“At the present time, however, Beijing is not a liveable city.”

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

The California Franchise Tax Board receives a love letter.


Around 10 a.m., the mail room received the leaking package. FTB employees followed protocol by evacuating the 100 employees on that floor and sealing off the room.
Eidam said when HazMat crews arrived at the scene, they tested the substance and monitored the air quality. It was then determined the package was full of dog poop.

The only thing lacking was a firecracker set to spread the "wealth" on opening.