Obamaville March 2, are you kidding me? The Ides of March run amuck!

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Once upon a time, actually in the time of William Shakespeare, his words, "Beware the ides of March," served as a warning, a dramatic foreshadowing, for Julius Caesar who was killed off on that date according to Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar.

Since the event happened in 44 BC, and Shakespeare wrote the play in 1599, we Americans, not into Old English and Shakespeare anymore, changed the meaning to be a forewarning of potential severe weather, as in beware the ides of March, in like a lion, and out like a lamb.

Well the bad weather seems to have come in February this year, perhaps we need to change the meaning of Shakespeare's warning once again.  I do not know about you, but just two days into March and the world seems to be engulfed in a dangerous malaise of bizarre news, events, and chaos.

For example, the Iraq army is attacking ISIS, the same Iraq troops who cut and ran the last time they met.

The charismatic leader of the Russian opposition to President Putin, Boris Nemtsov, was murdered just outside the walls of the Kremlin in Moscow the day before the biggest opposition protests against Putin in recent years.

The Dow Jones, S&P 500, and NASDAQ stock markets all set record highs this week and it is only Monday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in Washington to address congress tomorrow.

Obama and his senior advisors refuse to meet with Netanyahu even though they are in the final stages of a deal with Iran, who is committed to the annihilation of Israel.

Terrorism continues to dominate headlines so congress and the president fail to agree on how to fund our only defense against the terrorists, the Department of Homeland Security.

Speaking of terrorists, the latest act of brutality by ISIS was the release of 19 Christian prisoners, which no one can figure out.

Putin continues to grab land from the Ukraine while the USA plays footsy with a bunch of bad guys around the Middle East.

In yet another act of terrorism, ISIS might have declared war on Twitter who is trying to stop the 90,000 Tweets a day from ISIS alone.

North Korea and their leader with the new haircut threaten to destroy the Stars and Stripes, namely America, probably because he cannot buy the movies he wants.

As America closes in on energy independence, congress approves the Keystone Pipeline but Obama vetoes the dastardly project.

Speaking of Obama, his buddy, the Reverend Al Sharpton, still has unlimited access to the White House even as he has failed to pay millions of dollars in taxes he owes the USA.

Then there is MSNBC, who finally realized their claims that Morning Joe was the top rated news show on cable are not only misleading, they are false.

MSNBC also has the Reverend Al Sharpton show, which has consistently lost ratings, and might just be the lowest rated news show on cable.  In the background, someone is investigating the Reverend to see if major corporate sponsors of his foundation are protected from racial protests because of their payments.

In sports NASCAR made a rules change that has enraged all the top drivers by disqualifying their cars.  This comes after completion of their first season under major new rules changes concerning the NASCAR driving championship.  Every major driver and the most winners on the NASCAR Sprint circuit failed to make the finals.

Disgraced NBC News anchor Brian Williams, thrown off the air because he thought he was a famous entertainer as well as news anchor, has opened the door to charges other news people on television have enhanced, stretched, or just plain lied about their experiences.  Really, we do not have a biased media do we?

To top off the 2nd day of March, the artist who painted an official portrait of President Clinton fessed up today and said he put the shadow of Monica Lewinsky in the portrait to show his disgust for Clinton's affairs.

More bizarre Clinton news, Hillary people say she will make her presidential announcement on April 1 so does that make it an April's fools joke?

The truth is, even though the Ides of March officially take place March 15, we have a great jump on it with the bizarre incidents listed.

Normalcy is non-existent.

Mediocrity is a distant dream.

News reporters are not supposed to be the news.

Our president claims to represent the two thirds of the public who refuse to vote.

No one cares.

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At least something is going right in Putin's Russia

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Sometimes it takes a child to show the way for us adults and perhaps that is the case right now in Russia.  We are all familiar with the chest-thumping Vladimir Putin and how he has stood up to the mighty USA, President Obama, and Secretary of State John Kerry.

I suspect in Putin's mind our leaders might be called the Powder Puff and the Procrastinator no more damage than they seem to do to Putin's empirical plans.  He takes Crimea and we slap him across the wrist with white gloves.  He takes eastern Ukraine and we slap him across the wrist with the other white glove.

Our sanctions, although hurting the people of Russia, have done nothing to stop the Putin express. Yet the rather heavy-handed treatment by Putin has left him less and less popular with the masses outside of Russia.

Along comes an 8 year old kid from Russia and suddenly the world falls in love with her.  She was recently named the most beautiful girl in the world and it has never happened at anyone that young. Now this is effective diplomacy.  The President should take note.

Is 8-Year-Old Kristina Pimenova the Most Beautiful Girl in the World?

Lauren Tuck News Editor December 5, 2014

Underage girls working in the fashion industry isn’t new. But after years of consciously discouraging the sexualization of young girls and promoting fair treatment and healthy lifestyles for minors, it comes as a bit of a shock that Vladimir Putin is being dubbed the “most beautiful girl in the world” at just eight years old.

Born in 2005 in Moscow, Russia, Pimenova started modeling at the age of three, scoring contracts with Armani, Benetton, Fendi, and Roberto Cavalli’s children’s lines. She landed the cover of Vogue Bambini, her Facebook fan page has more than 2 million likes, and her Instagram handle, which is managed by her mother, has 416,000 followers.

From Yahoo Style 

God Bless the People of the Ukraine for Taking Care of Themselves

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Friday, February 28, 2014

Maybe it's time to leave the Ukraine to the Ukrainians

Three months ago I wrote the above story and there has been nothing but chaos in the Ukraine since as Russia, the European Union, NATO and the USA have undertaken a battle of wits, sanctions, threats, land grabs and political posturing that left the people of the Ukraine in dire straights.

Sunday, May 25, the people of the Ukraine finally took control of their own destiny by holding an election under very difficult circumstances and may just have taught all those trying to tell them what to do that the people of the Ukraine can take care of themselves if we just leave them alone.

I salute the people of the Ukraine and the rest of the world should learn more about them and their long battle for independence that included invasions by Hitler and Stalin, millions of deaths, survival within the Soviet Union and from outside terrorists, anarchists or whatever you want to call them.  All the while the Ukraine remains the breadbasket for the world and the conduit for Russia natural gas to fuel Europe.

Here is a report on the election from the CBC (Canadian) News Network and the results, well stock markets throughout Europe are up today.  When the people with money are happy that means things may be good for awhile and when people can speak for themselves that is even better.

CBC News Canada

Exit polls suggested candy tycoon Petro Poroshenko won Ukraine's presidential election in the first round Sunday, a ballot that took place amid weeks of fighting in eastern regions where pro-Russia separatists have seized government buildings and battled government troops.

The rebels had vowed to block the ballot in the east and less than 20 per cent of the polling stations were open there. But nationwide, about 60 per cent of the electorate turned out, the central elections commission said.

Poroshenko, viewing the exit polls as definitive evidence of victory, said his first steps as president would be to visit the eastern industrial region of Donbass — home to Ukraine's coal mines — and "put an end to war, chaos, crime and bring peace to the Ukrainian land."

Long lines of voters snaked around polling stations in Kyiv, the pro-Western capital, but heavily armed pro-Russia rebels in eastern Ukraine intimidated locals by smashing ballot boxes, shutting down polling centres and issuing threats.

Putin vowed to recognize new leader

The exit poll for Sunday's election, conducted by three respected Ukrainian survey agencies, found the 48-year-old candy tycoon Poroshenko getting 55.9 per cent of the vote.

After the polls closed, Poroshenko appeared on a stage beside former boxing champion Vitali Klitschko, who at one point last year was leading in national polls for president. He later decided to support Poroshenko and run for Kyiv mayor instead. Results of that race were not available Sunday, but Poroshenko told journalists that their own private survey showed Klitschko winning the race.

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Putin goes where Obama fears to tread - A real news conference

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How about that?  The bully leader of the bad boys of Russia (according to the White House), President Vladimir Putin, went where Obama has feared to tread most of his presidency.  Putin held a no holds barred press conference with, you won't believe this, USA television network CNBC whose claim to fame is reporting on finances.

There were a couple of huge scoops in newspaper jargon in how this went down because every TV network in the world would love to interview Putin in the middle of the USA Russia tensions.  CNBC is owned by NBC who used to be one of the water carriers for the Obama Administration.

Putin spoke at St. Petersburgh, Russia to an International Economic Forum hosted by Geoff Cutmore from the CNBC London office, a second scoop.  By the way, in contrast Obama got Putin thrown out of the last world economic summit.  Putin's speech was followed by a no holds barred news conference in which Cutmore had no restrictions on questions.

For over an hour the Russian President did what our own president cannot do, respond to any question asked by the media no matter how sensitive.  The few times Obama ever holds a news conference, the same Obama who promised as president to give us transparency but in truth gave us a stone wall, the subject and time have always been restricted and the press was hand picked by the White House for most appearances.

Putin had no problem and no fear facing the demons from America, the liberal press.  In fact he was totally relaxed, frequently used humor to make a point, and laughed at the charges Obama made against him when questioned.

Go to the following link for a full story on the astonishing event.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/101700307

Just yesterday Putin stunned the financial world by concluding a 30 year energy agreement with Chinese President Xi Jinping as Obama style US foreign policy continues to drive the rest of the world away from us and into each other's arms.

Perhaps equally amazing was the announcement also today that NBC news will air a TV prime time special next Wednesday of a multi-hour interview with NSA whistle blower Edward Snowden also filmed in Russia and which had to have the blessing of the Putin administration.

As noted before, NBC was the pied piper for President Obama for years but the recent actions demonstrate that NBC has discovered telling the truth may be a far greater way to win the ratings in America.

What remains to be see is if MSNBC, the center of left journalism in America, will also tire of apologizing for the president's actions or lack of actions and get real.  Mainstream Americans will always be in the middle of the political pendulum or what President Reagan described as conservative with compassion.

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The Year of the Snake - Bad Year for Russia

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While we know the Chinese symbols of the zodiac all have good meanings, some may not bring such good tidings to everyone.  When it comes to the Year of the Snake which ended at the end of January, 2014 it seems like Russia's run of luck for the past century continued.

You see, in addition to all the things that already happened to the Russians or Russia in the 20th century, 2013 brought the Ukrainian revolt, the fall of Crimea to Russia and the massing of Russian troops on the Ukraine border.

Thank goodness the next Year of the Snake doesn't happen until January 29, 2025 to February 16, 2026.
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Will the USA & EU save the Ukraine & Poland this time? 75 years ago we did not!

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As the chest thumping and threats of sanctions fly back and forth between the US and Russia, between Obama and Putin, and between, to a far lesser degree, the EU and Russia to end the threats of a Russian invasion of the Ukraine and then Poland perhaps, let us not lose site of history.

This is the 75th anniversary of one of the darkest hours in Polish history, and the 73rd anniversary of one of the darkest hours in Ukraine history, when pledges of protection from the countries of Europe and the United States were silenced by massive invasions of Nazi Germany and Soviet Russian troops.

In 1939 it was Poland and in 1941 it was the Ukraine that virtually disappeared off the face of the earth under the Nazi and Communists attacks that would leave millions of Polish and Ukrainian innocents dead before the end of the war in 1945, and the end of the Communist occupation in 1991.

Here is a report of the tragic consequence of the invasion in Poland taken from a history book I wrote in which previously classified records from the US, Europe and USSR were discovered that shed new light on the real history of the 20th century.  The following appeared October 11, 2012 in the Coltons Point Times.

 

SAVIORS OF THE 20TH CENTURY
HITLER & STALIN

Poland - Armageddon of WW II

Monday October 11, 2010

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SAVIORS OF THE 20TH CENTURY - HITLER & STALIN
The war of annihilation between the Nazis and Communists

ISBN 0964599317
LCCN 2004095812

Available worldwide through Amazon Kindle books

http://www.amazon.com/Saviors-20th-Century-Hitler-ebook/dp/B0040ZNU76/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1285077808&sr=1-1

Poland - Armageddon of WW II

Poland, the Armageddon of World War II, the proverbial scene of the decisive battle between good and evil. In the history of civilization it is doubtful any country faced the dire conditions and the deadly consequences faced by Poland from 1939-1945.

Sandwiched between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, it was the only nation to be partitioned without a vote between the Nazi and Communist Empires as a result of the 1939 non-aggression pact between Hitler and Stalin. Poland was a geographic buffer between these two menacing monsters, a buffer that vanished off the face of the earth during the month of September 1939.

Both Hitler and Stalin had reasons to hate the Poles. Fact is both felt justified in ravaging the nation for their own purposes. After World War I Poland humiliated the Germans as a result of the severe conditions of the Treaty of Versailles. Over one and one half million Germans were forced to abandon their homes to Poles because of the treaty.

In 1939 Poland was the fastest growing industrial nation in Europe and was much needed to support the German war machine. Both Hitler and Himmler had rejected their Catholic upbringing and there were more Catholics in Poland than any other country, making it a convenient target for religious persecution. It was also the gateway for the inevitable invasion of the Soviet Union and of vital strategic importance.

More ominously, it was the home to nearly three million Jews before the war. Ever since Catherine II established the Pale for Jews they had moved into Poland and had recently represented nearly eight percent of the population, the most of any nation in Europe.

Earlier in the 20th century, before World War I, there were over thirty million Poles, but four million were killed in World War I, thirty-four times the American loss in the war. Almost all the fighting of that World War took place on Polish soil. Yet deaths were not the only suffering by the Poles. Devastation was astounding as over 1.7 million buildings were destroyed, 6,969 churches, and 40% of all railway bridges and stations during the First World War.

The Soviets also had reason to dislike Poland. When the Communists swept to power in Russia and successfully won the Russian Civil War, the Soviet leaders decided to continue rolling right over Europe with their revolution. The mighty Red Army attacked the Poles in August of 1920 driving to the very gates of Warsaw.

A miracle of sorts happened when the embattled Poles fought back valiantly August 15 in the Battle of Warsaw outmaneuvering the stunned and vastly superior Red Army and routing them on August 18, thus saving Europe from Soviet conquest. It was a setback that reverberated throughout the Kremlin and caused the Communists to slow down the worldwide revolution they advocated. In time it came to be known as the day of the Polish Miracle.

 Yet there was more, for though the Soviets were a new nation dominated by Jewish-Bolshevik leaders and committed to stopping anti-Semitic actions, they were also committed to driving the opposition Jewish groups from influence, adversaries such as the Jewish Zionist and Bund nationalist parties.

Because of its proximity Poland had become a haven for Jewish outcasts from the Soviet Union after the revolution and civil war - those on the wrong side of Judaism who became enemies of the Bolshevik State. It also was a safe haven for all those fleeing Communist persecution throughout the Soviet Empire. To the Soviets, Poland was a nation harboring many dangerous fugitives and traitors.

Poland also was a hotbed of another faction of Jewish revolutionaries who were committed to the Communist Marxist revolution and the Soviet Bolshevik leadership. Thus some Polish Jews were enemies of the Soviets and many more were allies. Ironically Jewish participation in the Marxist revolution in Poland earlier caused the Poles and Ukrainians to distrust them as well. Active Jewish involvement in the revolutions that swept Europe after World War I would come back to haunt them.

Beyond the desire of the Soviets to save some Jews from Nazis and punish some for opposing the Bolsheviks, the Soviets were also in desperate need of access to the Baltic Sea north of Poland. A treaty with Hitler gave Stalin freedom to overrun the Baltic States and gain that ocean access.

 By 1921 the Polish population dropped to twenty-seven million, then grew to thirty-two million by 1931, the last official census before World War II. It was a diverse population as Ukrainians and Belorussians were the majority, Poles made up one third of the population, and Jews were about eight percent.

Germany and the Soviets announced to a stunned world the signing of the non-aggression pact at the end of August 1939 and on September 1 the Nazi invasion of Poland from the west was launched. It was to be a coordinated attack with the Red Army attacking from the east.

Over 1,800,000 German soldiers poured across the border with 2,600 tanks and over 2,000 aircraft supporting the invasion. Typical of the new German strategy designed by Hitler personally, it was to be a rapid and deadly strike. The Poles, like the rest of the world, were caught unprepared and less than a third of the Polish military was able to mobilize against the Nazi invasion.

Stalin, to the chagrin of Hitler, did not attack immediately as promised but waited to see what kind of resistance the Germans would encounter. He was also wary of the reaction of England and America to the invasion, as he needed Churchill and Roosevelt to be allies if he were to have any hope of defeating Hitler and Germany.

By waiting until the Germans destroyed the Polish army, he could proclaim the Soviets were invading Poland to protect the Ukrainian and Belorussian populations living in Poland from the Nazis, a tactic that infuriated Hitler when he learned of it.

The Soviet war machine finally did roll across the eastern border of Poland September 17 as Hitler's forces had secured the German half of the country and were rapidly moving into the Soviet territory. For a time it appeared as if the former bitter enemies and now allies might start fighting each other as they laid claim to the Polish nation.

One of the most intriguing comments of the dilemma faced by the Poles came from their decorated General Wladyslaw Anders, Polish Commander, speaking to General George Patton later in the war. Anders said:

"With the Nazis, we lose our lives; with the Soviets, we lose our souls… If I found my army between the Nazis and the Soviets, I would attack in both directions."

By October 5 Poland could hold out no longer against the onslaught from the Nazis and Red Army, and finally surrendered. Poland ceased to exist. Still in just a few weeks of fighting the Poles inflicted heavy losses on the Germans, 50,000 men, 697 planes and 993 tanks and armored cars, while thousands of Polish soldiers and civilians were able to escape to France and Britain.

The defeat in battle was just the beginning of the Polish suffering. In the 20 years following World War I Poland had rebuilt her industry and railroads. She now had over 5,500 railroad locomotives, 11,350 passenger cars, and 164,000 freight cars. Over 1,250 miles of new railroad track had been laid and Polish highways had been expanded by over 30%.

All of these resources were needed by the Nazis in their ambitious plans to reunite the German Empire. A vast network of nearly 200 concentration camps were soon developed throughout Poland and the surrounding area first for the purpose of providing labor, and later as the sites of the Nazi death camps. The need for industrial output was the priority and over two million Poles were among five million prisoners sent into forced labor.

When the occupation was completed Germany controlled about 13 million Poles including 2.1 million Jews, and the Soviets controlled about 13 million Poles including about 1.2 million Jews. Over 600,000 people fled from the German to Soviet sector including over 350,000 Jews during the next year. Of the total population in Soviet occupied areas about one tenth were Jewish, one third were Poles, and the majority were Ukraine and Belorussian.

Germany immediately threw 1.2 million Poles from their ancestral homes for resettlement in ghettos to make room for Germans who lost their homes after World War I. The Soviets and Polish were bitter enemies and the Soviets captured 230,000 Polish soldiers including 25,000 Jewish soldiers. Millions of Poles died in the hands of the Germans and Soviets.

Before the Nazis were driven out of Poland nearly 2.5 million Poles were murdered in camps and another 500,000 were starved to death. Millions more died during forced labor, resettlement and deportation.

As for Poles living in the Soviet lands, 1.6 million Poles were deported to the gulags and prisons of Russia including over 130,000 Jews sent from the Soviet occupied area of Poland to Siberia as "enemies of the state." Ironically this deportation probably saved them from the Nazi holocaust. In addition to the Polish citizens imprisoned or forced into labor camps the Soviets murdered many thousands of Polish military.

Soviet treatment of the Poles changed only when Hitler violated the non-aggression treaty and attacked the Soviet Union using Poland as the launch point in June of 1941. This action caused some positive events to take place in the midst of the carnage.

On August 12, 1941, with the German army advancing on Moscow, the Supreme Soviet granted amnesty to all Polish citizens and released all Polish prisoners from gulags and prisons in order to help in the fight against Nazi Germany. The millions of Poles sent to Soviet prisons were now free, unlike the fate of most Russian citizens sent to the deadly Soviet gulag prison system.

A total of nearly six million Poles died (civilian and military) during the war, ranking Poland third behind the Soviet Union and Germany for the most deaths in the European sector of World War II. This represented nearly 22% of the entire Polish population before the war.

When the dust finally settled on the deadliest conflict in history over fifteen million people had died in Polish concentration camps. Most were Soviet and Communist prisoners captured when the Germans overran the Soviet occupied Poland, the Ukraine and western Soviet territory extending all the way to Moscow. Tens of millions of Soviet military and civilians, Communists and Communist sympathizers were exterminated. Poland once again lay in ruins and it was to remain a Soviet state for the next half century.

As destiny would have it, Poland made history in quite another way. On the very same day as the Polish Miracle, May 18, 1920, when the Poles stopped the mighty Soviet Red Army and captured Kiev, in Poland a baby boy named Karol Jozef Wojtyla was born.

This young boy grew up and helped organize a secret theater group during the Nazi occupation. By 1944 he became a Catholic priest in a secret order in Poland. Soon the equally murderous Communists under Stalin drove out the murderous Nazi regime.

The priest became a Cardinal, and then the Cardinal became the first Polish Pope of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope John Paul II. In time he would use his influence as Pope to help the Solidarity movement in Poland oppose the Communist rule, and would help lead the Polish people out from under the shackles of Communism into a new life of freedom.
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